STOCK MARKET RECOVERY CONTINUES

NEPSE GAINS 7.72 POINTS

Kathmandu, 10 July: Nepse gained 7.72 points at the end of five-day trading Thursday as a market revival continued.
The market opened at 333.23 points Sunday and closed at 340.95 points Thursday; it rose to 344.46 points Wednesday.
Total trade turnover increased 1996.56 percent to Rs. 374.17 million with trading in 837,037 shares of Laxmi Bank for Rs. 206.18 million.
The market fell to a five-year low below 300 points.
The recovery continued before Friday’s annual budget presentation.
Nnnn

MEDIA GOOGLE

“Our party is not going to be ruined by the recently contracted disease of old parliamentary parties. We will bear up well and come one and united.”

(Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, The Himalayan Times, 10 July)
nnnn


HANUMAN DHOKA TREASURE TROVE MADE PUBLIC
i




Kathmandu, July 8 - The ancient lockers recovered at the Hanumandhoka Durbar Square a week ago were formally opened Friday in the presence of officials from the Department of Archaeology and Nepal Guthi Sansthan, Purusottam Khatni reports in The Rising Nepal reports.

During the formal opening of the four lockers
ables of the 18th century, officials recovered 18th century gold and silver ornaments, mostly meant for idols of gods, goddesses and other monuments.
From the four lockers, the officials also recovered gold and silver utensils mostly used during worships and religious functions in the Hindu culture.
Three lockers yielded eight pure gold masks of god’s idols, pure gold’s in sacred thread like structure, a holy thread which was worn usually in Hindu culture, two tilharies, the gold necklaces, and a number of silver items which were used in daily worships.
Similarly, silver items like Trikhutti, Arghas, Kalash, Panchapatra, Thali, were also found, Bishnu Raj Karki, director general of the Department of Archeology said.
"We have even recovered archery made up of gold," Karki, said.
Currently, these valuable ornaments have been kept under the surveillance of Sarduljung Company’s Company Commander located at the Hanumandhoka Durbar Square.
"We have not weighed these all valuable goods today but we have prepared details of the recovered goods," DG Karki said.
"Today [Friday] after opening the lockers we have shielded all these goods with special marks on all the recovered items," Karki added. After completing necessary verifications and details of the ornaments they would be later handed over to Guthi Sasthan for their protection, Karki further said.
Archeology and Guthi Sasthan officials have said that on analysing the dated ornaments and idols, it was believed that these ornaments belonged to the property of Janaki Temple, of Janakpur.
"Archery which was found inside the locker and other properties have taken us to the conclusion that the goods matched the property of the Janaki Temple," Karki added.
At the formal opening of four lockers, officials -- Rajendra Dahal from Guthi Sansthan, and Mitharam Pudasaini, among others, were present. On June 27, these four lockers were recovered inside the Durbar while doing renovation of the Durbar inside gaddhi baithak of late king Prithivi Narayan Shah’s room.

nnnn



CHEPANGS HUNT FOR MONEKYS WITH RISING FOOD PRICES





Kathmandu, 10 July: Chepangs, tribal people living in jungles of Chitwan’s, Piple Village Development Committee, have started hunting monkeys for meat to cope with rising food crisis, Ram Prasad Dahal reports in The Rising Nepal from Chitwan.
Traditional prey animals such as deer and wild boar have vanished and monkeys, which frequent Chepang settlements to raid their corn crops, are readily available. Chepangs are heavy meat eaters.
Around 2,000 Chepangs live in Dhamili area of Piple VDC, about 80km from Kathmandu.
"Yes, our people have started eating monkey meat," said seventy-year old Phul Maya Chepang of Piple. She, however, said she does not know what monkey meat tastes like. "I am a vegetarian."
"There is a food crisis in our community these days. I think this situation has forced them to hunt monkeys for meat because we don’t have sufficient foods," she explained.
Chairman of Nepal Saemoul Undong, an NGO working in Piple village, Nava Raj Panta said they might have started eating money meat to cope with the rising food shortage in recent years.
Panta said he had observed less number of monkeys and their decreased frequency in recent time.
Teacher Khil Bahadur Sarki who teaches Chepang children at Nepal-Korea Wisdom School also confirmed that Chepang people have been eating monkey meat frequently for the past one year.
When corn crops are abundant, it is the peak season for monkey hunting because the animals visit the area to eat the crops. They surround the troops and chase them until they are tired. Then they kill the animals with spears, said Sarki.
However, Chepang is not the first tribe in Nepal to hunt monkey for meat. Rautes have been doing it for ages.
Dr. Mukesh Chalise, an expert on monkeys, said Chepangs might have switched to monkey hunting for food when other prey animals were no longer available in the jungle. Chalise said he had heard of Rautes hunting and eating monkey meat but not the Chepangs.
"For tribes living in the jungle, using locally available recourses is natural. I don’t think this will pose threat to monkey population," Chalise said.
They have switched to this new diet to meet their need of protein. If other food supplies were easily available, they would not have started this practice, Chalise said.
"I have heard Chepang people hunting monkeys and eating their meat. It might be because they want to save their corn crops from monkeys," said Srikanta Sapkota, secretary of Piple VDC.
Nobody has raised concerns to stop the practice yet, Sapkota
said.

Nnnn


Sunday, Jul 10, 2011
PACKAGE DEAL APPOINTMENTS, BUDGET OVERSHADOW 6-POINT DEALS
-
Kathmandu, 10 July: Negotiations for power sharing, especially appointments to vacant positions in key constitutional bodies and those of vice chancellors of seven universities, and budgetary allocation have taken precedence over implementation of the five-point deal as the current fiscal year comes to an end next week, Anil Giri, Bhadra Sharma write in The Kathmandu Post.

The ruling parties and main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) have been holding hectic negotiations over the last two weeks to find common ground for filling the key constitutional positions and normalising the budgetary process that has been derailed for the last three years.

Though none of the leaders has directly linked the issues in the budget with the appointments, the timing of the discussion on appointments suggests there is an element of trade-off.

The meeting of the Constitutional Council (CC), the body that makes the appointments, is scheduled for July 13, a day before this year’s budget is scheduled to be presented in the House. Already negotiators are reporting some progress on the names, but a breakthrough remains stymied by competing claims on the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority’s (CIAA) leadership. Leaders involved in the discussion are optimistic that a solution can be found over the next few days.

The posts of chiefs and commissioners of four constitutional bodies—CIAA, Public Service Commission, Election Commission and the Office of the Auditor’s General—are lying vacant for several years. The posts of vice chancellors of five running and two proposed universities are also lying vacant for the last several months.

Party sources told the Post that they are close to an agreement on giving the leadership of the Public Service Commission (PSC) to Kayo Devi Yami, the current seniormost commissioner at the PSC—a name recommended by the Maoists

The Maoists are flexible on allowing the UML to recommend the Chief Election Commissioner from its quota. But, UML leaders want a CIAA Chief Commissioner of their own instead.

The ruling parties have also offered the post of VC of Tribhuwan University and those of two commissioners of the CIAA to NC, according to an NC leader. But Congress leaders haven’t given up their claim to the leadership of the CIAA yet. According to UML leader Surendra Pandey, there has been a tentative agreement to recommend the name of Bhanu Acharya, a former Finance Secretary for the post of Auditor General. Acharya is to get recommendation from the NC’s quota.

Sources close to Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal said that he has mandated the UML negotiation team to reach an understanding with other parties “at any cost” and recommend names before the next meeting of the Constitutional Council scheduled to be held on Wednesday.

“Discussions are heading in a positive direction. We are hopeful that the negotiations will yield results within the next few days,” said UML Vice-Chairman Bam Dev Gautam, a negotiator from his party.

Leaders engaged in closed door discussions said that PM Khanal has assigned the job of holding negotiations with NC to UML Vice-Chairman Gautam and Defence Minister Bishnu Poudel.

From NC, Vice President Ram Chandra Poudel and party leader Ram Sharan Mahat are taking the lead. Barsha Man Pun is leading the Maoist side in the negotiations, according to leaders privy to developments.

Seven universities: Tribhuwan, Nepal Sanskrit, Purbanchal, Pokhara, Agriculture, Mid-western and Far-western University are san Vice-chancellors. Several rounds of the CC meeting have ended inclusively as all Big Three are sticking to their demands.
nnnn