YOUTH FORCE ACTIVISTS VANDALIZE VEHICLES

VEHICLES VANDALIZED BY UMLYOUTH ACTIVISTS UPDATE

Kathmandu, 16 June: Activists of Youth Force, affiliated to UML leading the government, vandalized two vehicles in east terai Thursday demonstrating their solidarity with colleagues accused for last week’s murderous attack on a journalist in Biratnagar.
Supporters of the body smashed and torched a government in front of Tri-Chandra Campus in the capital.
Central Chairman of the organization Mahesh Basnet was brought to Biratnagar from neighbouring Sunsari district where he was arrested from a hotel Thursday.
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THREE CHILDREN OF A FAMILY DEAD AFTER EATING WILD CORN

Kathmandu, 16 June: Three children aged nine to three years died after eating wild corn overnight at a village in Palpa
Their mother fell sick and is undergoing treatment at a district hospital.
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Kathmandu, 16June: Abduction charges were filed Wednesday against former Maoist fighters Govinda Bahadur Batala, Kali Bahadir Kham, Keshab Adhikari, Ganga Bahadur Thapa and Arjun Karki at Kathmandu district court by Kathmandu district office.
Batala was in judicial custody before charges were filed
They were charged for abduction from the capital of trader Ramhari Shrestha whose body was found several days later at Shaktikhor camp in Chitwan
Ramila Shrestha accused them for abducting her husband 27 April 2008.
Government lawyer demanded a 12-yea jail sentence and compensation for the victim’s family.
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BRAZIL OPENING RESIDENTIAL EMBASSY IN NEPAL

Kathmandu, 16 June: Brazil is reciprocating by opening a residential embassy in Kathmandu soon nearly two years after Nepal opened an embassy in Brazil.
Outgoing Ambassador Marco Antonio Diniz Brandao conveyed this to Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal Wednesday during a farewell call, a source at Baluwatar said.
Brazil’s ambassador to India is concurrently accredited to Nepal.
The two countries are signing a technical cooperation agreement this year.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“Until Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal resigns peace and constitution won’t be completed. When the constituent assembly tenure was extended, the purpose of the five-point agreement was resignation to create an atmosphere for national understanding; the resignation should precede national understanding.”

(Nilambar Acharya, chairman of main constitution drafting committee, Annapurna Post, 16 June.)
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PM’S CITIZENSHIP CERTIFICATE MISSING

Kathmandu, 16 June: The fixed programme to issue digital voter card to Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal Wednesday was cancelled after the government chief misplaced his citizenship certificate, Gorkhapatra reports.
The election commission fixed a programme to issue digitalized voter cards to lawmakers Wednesday and Thursday.
Khanal’s programme has been rescheduled for Thursday.
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BANGLADESH POLICE ARREST THREE NEPALI STUDENTS
Kathmandu, 16 June: Bangladeshi Police have arrested three Nepali students involved in attacking fellow Nepali students at the University of Science and Technology in Chittagong (USTC), Bangladesh Friday night.

“We have been told that Rajendra Dhungana, Ratna Shahi and Shambhu Sen Tumbafo have been arrested but we don´t know where they are kept,” said Pushpa Bhusal, who has 14 stitches on the back of his head after the attack.
Military Attache at the Nepali Embassy in Bangladesh Colonel Prabhu Ram Sharma, who was sent to Chittagong by the embassy for field investigation, also confirmed the arrest of three students but could only identify Dhungana.

Fifteen students staying at the USTC hostel were injured -- three of them critically -- after Dhungana, Tumbafo, Shahi, Dinesh Raj Dahit, Raju Sherchan, Susabin Rai, Durga Gurung and Ghanashyam Rai, who stay outside, suddenly attacked the hostel Friday night.

“We found negligence of the college administration in the whole affair. The students are scared and fear another attack,” Colonel Sharma said. “The administration says they call police at regular intervals and also have tightened the security at the university. But it doesn´t look enough. There are just civil security guards and they don´t look vigilant and competent enough to ward off another attack,” he added.

Victim Bhusal said all the Nepali students at the USTC-- there are around 300 of them --are living in terror and none have attended the classes since the attack. “They say three of the assailants have been arrested but others are still free. The college says police have been searching for them but a few of them have been seen roaming in the vicinity of the university,” Bhusal claimed.

Sharma was also damning in his assessment of the college administration. “The administration doesn´t want the matter to come out in public to save its reputation,” Bhusal concurred.

The guardians of injured students and others studying at the USTC had met Foreign Secretary Madan Bhattarai on Monday and asked the foreign ministry to recall the guilty students saying their children would not be safe as long as the assailants were in Bangladesh even if the college were to rusticate them.

Secretary Bhattarai, who had promised to act according to the embassy report, has meanwhile sent Joint Secretary Hari Kumar Shrestha, who heads the SAARC Division at the foreign ministry, to Bangladesh to handle the matter. “Considering the gravity of the case, we have sent Shrestha to Bangladesh today (Wednesday). He will reach Chittagong Thursday,” secretary Bhattarai said.

Incident started over seeing a slide under microscope

Colonel Sharma said, and Bhusal confirmed, that the gory incident had its genesis in a dispute over seeing a slide under microscope in the laboratory. “Raju Sherchan had jumped line to see the slide and had altercation with Om Prakash Pandit during the practical of the fourth year on June 8,” Bhusal said adding Sherchan also had altercation with a Bangla lab boy at the lab a few days ago.

Sherchan then came to the hostel and thrashed Pandit that day. Bhusal said around 60 Nepali students of the fourth year then tried to broker peace between the duo but Sherchan turned up with junior Nepali students, armed with rods and knives and misbehaved with the batch mates.

“We then called Nepali Students´ Association President Kamal Adhikari and other senior students to mediate the talks on June 9 but Sherchan then came with seniors like Dhungana and Tumbafo and juniors like Susabin Rai and again misbehaved. They also had Adhikari thrown out of the meeting,” Bhusal added.
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Thursday, Jun 16, 2011
SEPARATE UNIT TO MONITOR ANTI-LAUNDERINGACTIVITIES

Kathmandu, 16 June: The government on Wednesday decided to set up a separate department to look after money laundering under the finance ministry, The Kathmandu Post reports.

The government’s move is aimed at preventing any possible action by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global anti-money laundering body.

FATF’s annual meeting to be held from June 23 to 25 in Mexico is crucial as it could blacklist Nepal for not being able to honour its international commitments on AML. Nepal is under international scrutiny for its ‘failure’ to live up to its AML commitments.

The latest government move is surprising as the ministry had earlier planned to convert the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) into Revenue Investigation and Money Laundering Control Department. However, the ministry on Tuesday initiated a process for a separate department.

“This is perhaps the first instance of formation of a new department within two days,” said a senior MoF official.

The finance ministry had sent the proposal of forming a separate department on AML to the Ministry of General Administration (MoGA) on Wednesday morning. And, MoGA endorsed the proposal without any delay. With this, there will be four departments under the finance ministry—Customs Department, Inland Revenue Department, Department of Revenue Investigation and Department of Anti-Money Laundering.

According to finance ministry sources, the decision to form a separate department on AML was taken as the country is currently not in a position to endorse bills and UN conventions on AML. “With the formation of a separate department, the finance secretary and the central bank governor can defend Nepal at the FATF meeting,” said a ministry official. The Parliament had endorsed the Anti-Money Laundering Act (First Amendment) on May 25.

According to the finance ministry, of the 200 staffers at DRI, 37 will be assigned at the new department.

The department will be headed by a joint-secretary with four under secretaries and six section officers.
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