5-POINT MAOIST PROPOSAL DOCUMENT TO WOO FOREIGNERS SAYS SUSHIL KOIRALA

MAOIST FIVE-POINT PROPOSAL A DOCUMENT TO WOO FOREIGNERS; SUSHIL KOIRALA
Kathmandu, 26 Aug.: NC President Sushil Koirala Friday dismissed Thursday’s Maoist five-point proposal for government, constitution and peace a document to woo foreigners/
He said there were no new proposals in the Maoist document while talking to reporters at his residence Friday morning.
Koirala said Maoists were also attempting to woo Madeshbadi parties.
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PETROL PUMPS CLOSE DOWN IN BHAKTAPUR

Kathmandu, 26 Aug.: Nepal Petroleum Dealers’ Association Friday closed down all petrol pumps in Bhaktapur.
They said all approaches to pumps had been blocked with the expansion of the Kathmandu-Bhaktapur road to six-lane.
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SCHOOL GIRL RAPED IN KALALI

Kathmandu, 26 Aug.: Bruised body of school girl Lila Kumari Rana,15, was found at a hotel st Masuriya in Kailali Thiursday.
She was a student at Janata Higher Secondary School in Rana tole.
She checked into the hotel one night earlier with a boy; they posed as husband.wife.
Hotel owner Arjun Luitel and teacher Ram Binod Rana have been arrested for investigation, widely published reports said.
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SPORTS

NEPAL, INDIA SOCCER VETERANS’ FRIEDLY SOCCER MATCH

Kathmandu, 26 Aug.: A veteran’s friendly football match with Nepali and Indian players is being held Saturday at Nepal APF Headquarters.
The Nepali side is led by former IGP Achyut Krishna Kharel and Indian side by Shyam Thapa.
ANFA and Saathi, a NGO, have teamed up to fight injustice and violence against women and children.
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HAITI CHOLERA LINKED TO NEPAL12:22 AM
Kathmandu, 26 Aug.: A whole-genome sequencing study of Haiti’s cholera outbreak strain has produced strong evidence that United Nations peacekeepers from Nepal brought the disease into the country, according to a study published on Tuesday, agencies report from Minneapolis, USA.
Researchers, who used advanced sequencing to explore cholera strains from the last 40 years, have mapped the spread of the pathogen during the world’s seventh pandemic of the disease, which includes Haiti’s outbreak.
They found that waves of cholera drove its intercontinental spread and that acquiring antibiotic resistance influenced spread of the disease. The first study was headed by a group at Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), based in Flagstaff, Ariz, that also included collaborators from Denmark and Nepal.
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NATIONAL DRESS ROW
HOUSE ASKS GOVT.TO HONOUR ALL IDENTITIES
Kathmandu, 26 Aug.: The Parliament on Thursday issued a ruling directing the government to honour the multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural identity of the people and pay equal respects to the attires of all indigenous groups, The Kathmandu Post reports.
Speaker Subas Nembang delivered the ruling to draw the attention of the government after lawmakers from the Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha (SLMM) tried to obstruct the House session expressing reservations over the government"s decision to recognise Daura-Suruwal as the national dress. The Home Ministry had taken the decision during the tenure of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.
'The dresses belonging to all ethnic, linguist, and religious and cultural groups living from the Madhes to the mountains are the country"s national dresses,' Speaker Nembang told the House session. 'I seriously would like to draw the attention of the government towards the sensitiveness of the issue related to national dress raised by lawmakers in today"s session.'
The Speaker called for a revision of the former government"s decision citing Article 3 and 5 of the Interim Constitution. Article 3 defines 'nation' as a collective body representing Nepali people with multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural characteristics, among others. Article 5 states that all the languages spoken as mother tongue in Nepal are the national languages of the country.
Even if Madhes based parties welcomed the Speaker"s ruling, they obstructed the House session demanding clarification from Deputy Prime Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha over media reports regarding a circular issued by his Home Ministry to the law enforcement apparatus. Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (Loktantrik) Chairman Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar, Tarai Madhes Loktantrik Party Chairman Mahanta Thakur, MJF (Ganatantrik) Chairman JP Gupta, TMLP (Nepal) Chairman Mahendra Yadav and Sadbhawana Party Chairman Rajendra Mahato referred to media reports on the ministry"s alleged instruction to police to prevent Madhesi activists from burning Daura-Suruwal and demanded Shrestha"s clarification.
They also argued that the recent ruling of the Supreme Court on the dress code had violated the spirit of the Interim Constitution and had dishonoured the Madhesi, Tharu, Janajati and other excluded and minority groups in the country. House session resumed after three hours following Home Minister Shrestha"s response. Shrestha informed the House that the Home Ministry had no idea about any event related to burning of Daura-Suruwal and had not issued any such circular.
After House resumption, MJF lawmaker Renu Yadav accused SLMM leaders of turning a blind eye when the proposal regarding the national dress code was endorsed by Cabinet during the tenure of the Nepal-led government. She stressed that the Madhesi parties should uphold their regional agenda not only when they are in Opposition.
Meanwhile, three activists of BSP Gajendrabadi group were arrested in Inaruwa, Sunsari, Thursday protesting combination of daruwa, suruwal and topi as national dress.
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COMMERCIAL BANK PROFIT DECLINING
Kathmanddu, 26 Aug.: Commercial banks’ profit growth took a beating last fiscal year amid protracted liquidity crunch, increasing cost of fund and squeeze in the spread rate. Bibek Subedi writes in The Kathmandu Post.
The un-audited last quarter results of 31 commercial banks show that unless economic situation improves, they won’t enjoy the same kind of growth in profit that they had two years ago.
The commercial banks raked in Rs 14.67 billion in net profits in the last fiscal year, a slight rise from the Rs 14.31 billion in 2009-10.
The profit growth rate remained sluggish with a meager rise of 2.48 percent in 2010-11.
Bankers say the growth rate could have been negative had the central bank not allowed them to include the recovery of loans during the extended one month period in their financial reports. They say the reason behind the low profitability is the sluggish business growth. “Business is not growing at the same rate that was witnessed in the previous years,” said NIC Bank CEO Sashin Joshi. “It is thoroughly reflected in the diminishing growth rate of deposit and lending.”
The growth rates of deposits and lending were 8.91 and 12.59 percent respectively in the last fiscal year compared to 13.71 and 20.27 percent in the previous year. With banks fighting throughout the year to manage liquidity, they could not make investment. Even those having a relatively better liquidity position remained cautious in lending.
The default in realty loan, delayed budget and more resources for provisioning also hit the banks’ profit. In Nepal Bankers’ Association President Ashoke SJB Rana’s view, the increased cost of fund resulted in the low profit margin. With liquidity situation remaining tight, banks were forced to accept deposits at higher interest rate. Such was the situation that banks at one time agreed to impose a cap on maximum interest rate at 12 percent. The rise in cost of fund, according to the bankers, was also due to the central bank’s policy of keeping the interest rates of different savings accounts within the 2 percent gap.
Banks’ financial reports show their average cost of fund rose to 8.34 percent in the fiscal year 2010-11 from 6.25 percent in the previous fiscal year. Its effect was seen in their net interest income the growth of which slowed down to 12.74 percent from 30.39 percent in 2009-10.
In 2010-11, seven commercial banks—Rastriya Banijya Bank, Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Nepal Credit and Commerce Bank, Kumari Bank, Sunrise Bank and Machhpuchhre Bank—saw their net profit plunging. Machhapurchhre that had posted a profit of Rs 128.04 million in 2009-10 saw its profit limited to only Rs 8.2 million.
Even though the banks’ overall profit growth declined, five commercial banks’ net profit crossed the Rs 1 billion mark last fiscal year. Like in the past two years, Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) was the highest earner with a profit of Rs 1.75 billion even though its net profit declined by 14.85 percent. The bank had earned Rs 2.01 billion in 2009-10. The Agricultural Development Bank Limited (ADBL) followed with a net profit of Rs 1.60 billion. Among private commercial banks, NABIL Bank earned the highest net profit of Rs 1.29 billion followed by Nepal Investment Bank and Standard Chartered Bank that earned profits of Rs 1.26 billion and Rs 1.11 billion respectively.
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TWO HONG KONG-BOUND SWALLOWERS ARRESTED
Kathmandu, 26 Aug.: In a major blow to organised drug racketeering, the Narcotic Drug Control Law Enforcement Unit (NDCLEU) arrested two persons with more than two kg hashish at Tribhuvan International Airport. The Himalayan Times reporters..

The drug traffickers are Karma Gyalzen Lama (35) of Gili- 9 and Rinjin Sherpa (52) of Garga- 7, Solukhumbu. They were trying to board a Dragon Air flight for Hong Kong when an Anti-Narcotic Aviation Squad detained them on the suspicion that they were carrying drugs in the abdomen, before taking them to Police Hospital for medical check up yesterday.

“X-ray scanning detected hashish inside capsules in their stomachs,” informed SSP Devendra Subedi. “They were administered laxative to expel the drug.”

According to SSP Subedi, 150 and 109 pieces of hashish-laden capsules were purged from Karma and Rinjin, respectively.

Investigators said they had managed to smuggle hashish to Hong Kong by carrying it in the stomach over the past four years.

“Karma (passport no-2942189) and Rinjin (passport no-3520177) were found to have travelled to Hong Kong time and again during the period and their motive behind shuttling between Hong Kong and Kathmandu was none other than drug trafficking,” noted SSP Subedi. Hashish fetches more than $ 20,000 per kg in Hong Kong.

Demand of Nepali hashish is high in the international market, said investigators. Likewise, NDCLEU busted a separate racket involved in smuggling hashish abroad by concealing them inside handicraft, in Kathmandu. The arrestees are Shriman Lama (51) of Deurali- 4, Nuwakot and Amrit Khatiwada (25) of Biruwaguthi- 1, Parsa.

Police recovered 9.2 kg hashish ready to be smuggled to London via express courier service. Earlier, on Friday, NDCLEU police arrested Saidur Rahman (40) of West Bengal, Suraj Rai (31) of Jhapa, Manoj Sah (20) of Bihar and Pasang Dorje Sherpa (37) of Taplejung with 1.63 kg brown sugar with a street value of Rs 6.7 million.

NDCLEU says has seized 1,922 kg hashish and 4.83 kg brown sugar from racketeers so far this year.
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PANEL TO HELP END DEADLOCK IN EDUCATION SECTOR

Kathmandu, 26 Aug.: A meeting of agitating professors and Ministry of Education facilitated by University Grants Commission (UGC) today decided to form a taskforce to make recommendations to the government for ending the deadlock in higher education, The Himalayan Times reports.

Prof Ganesh Man Gurung, chairperson, UGC, said,“Professors and the education minister had reached understanding on forming a six-member taskforce comprising the president and general secretary of three professors’ organisations aligned to Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN-Maoist.”

Professors aligned to NC, Democratic Professors Association, and UCPN-M-aligned Nepal National Professors Organisation had padlocked the central offices of universities seventeen days ago against appointment of vice chancellors in seven universities, including Tribhuvan University. There is hope UGC mediation will help resolve issues, a source said.
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