16-HOUR LOAD-SHEDDING IN WINTER

16-HOUR LEAD-SHEDDING IN WINTER
Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: Load-shedding in winter will peak to 16 hours every day in the peak dry winter season, Nepal Electricity Authority
(NEA) Spokesman Purusottam Acharya said.
Two-hour power cuts is enforced everyday currently.
NEA has proposed a 30 percent hike in power tariff, Acharya said.
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BADRI NEUPANE’S NAME RECOMMENDED AS CA MEMBER FROM CHURE BHAVAR RASHTRIYA EKATA PARTYT
Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: Chure Bhavar Rashtriya Ekata Party Monday recommended General Secretary Badri Nepane be appointed constituent assembly (CA) member to a vacant seat.
A seat is vacant after then party chief Keshav Mainali was
expelled for anti-party activities 9 August.
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GOLD AGAIN GAINS

Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: Gold price soared again Monday as it
traded for Rs.55,200 per tola.
The yellow metal gained after prices soared in the international
market and the dollar gained in the Indian money market and IN was devalued against the greenback.
Silver was traded Monday at Rs. 1,115 per tola as price fell
from Rs. 1,125 per tola.
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RAM PRADHAN HOSPITALIZED
Kathmandu, 15 Nov. Former Founding Editor of The Himalayan Times Ram Padhan has been hospitalized and is in serious condition at ICU in Medicare Hospital, Annapurna Post reports.
Pradhan is a chronic kidney patient and is on dialysis.
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ASIAN TAEKWONDO QUALIFIERS FOR LONDN
OLYMPICS RESCHEDULED

Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: The rescheduled Asian Zone Taekwondo
Qualifiers for the 2012 London Olympics will be held at John Paul Sport Center of Assumption University, Bangkok, 26/27 November.
A four-member Nepali squad is participating in the qualifiers first scheduled from 4 to 6 November.
Bangkok floods forced the rescheduling.
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FIVE-YEAR GOVT. ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING PLAN
Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: The Ministry of Finance has made public a five-year money laundering and financial investment prevention in terrorist activities strategy plan for 2068-2073 BS, Monday, RSS reports.
The plan was made public to guarantee national and international environment for investment and justify the investment friendly environment.
Minister for Finance Barshaman Pun made the plan public, today, prepared with technical support from the International Money Fund (IMF) in the request of Ministry of Finance and Nepal Rastra Bank.
Speaking at the function organised on the occasion, Minister Pun said it is necessary to invite investment saying the plan will be turned out to be a milestone to maintain financial good governance and ensure financial discipline and to encourage the investment.
He said the strategy is expected to discourage the acts of evading transaction and hiding the actual source of property.
Speaking at the programme, Governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank Dr. Yubaraj Khatiwada said it is the compulsion to move ahead financial transactions at par with the world economy emphasizing on positive activities by the revenue administration, judicial administration, private sector and the Rastra Bank itself, have to justify there is no involvement of financial criminals.
Finance Secretary Krishna Hari Banskota said the private sector will face difficulty if they do not maintain transparency.
IMF representative Josef Mayors said financial discipline is a must to invite international investment in Nepal.
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PM ADMITS DOESN’T KNOW NAMES OF MINISTERS HE NOMINATED

Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: Two days after strongly defending his government's actions on forming a bloated Cabinet and seeking pardon for a murder convict, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai on Monday tried to explain the circumstances without appearing overtly defensive, The Kathmandu Post reports.
Appearing live on Kantipur Television's weekly Fireside programme, Bhattarai told Bhusan Dahal, the show's host, that as a leader of a coaltion government, he didn't have the luxury to appoint or remove ministers as he pleased and that he acted on the recommendation of the coaltion partners.
"I don't know many ministers in my own Cabinet, I don't even know their names," the PM said, perhaps trying to show how little control he had over the decision to expand the Cabinet whose strength reached 49 on Saturday, the largest so far.
Bhattarai, who went to Baluwatar promising a break from the past and a decent and austere governance--raising popular expectations by choosing to ride a Nepal-assembled Mustang Jeep instead of luxurious SUVs--has now suddenly become a topic of much criticism and ridicule.
He said he was aware of public aspirations, but that he was compromising on his ideals in the larger interest of the peace process. "Against my own convictions and popular expectations, I have taken a risk for peace and constitution," Bhattarai said, trying to implicitly show a link between the Jumbo Cabinet and progress in the peace process. Describing his actions as political compulsion, he urged the public to judge him only on his accomplishments on peace and constitution.
On the government's decision to grant pardon to lawmaker Bal Krishna Dhungel, a murder convict, he said the case should have never reached the Supreme Court. Insisting that the case was part of the conflict, Bhattarai said that the only way forward was to grant Dhungel a presidential pardon. He said Dhungel had won an appeal in the Appelate Court and that he had won an election after he was cleared of the murder charges. "He has already spent more than eight years in jail and not many people are aware of this fact," Bhattarai said.
"Let's not dig into the past," he said, insisting that his party was looking forward to reconciliation on all conflict-era cases. Arguing that the Maoists were not in favour of revenge politics, he said that if his party wanted it could bring charges against many leaders of the CPN-UML and Nepali Congress.
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DISCLOSE TIME NEEDED FOR CONSTITUTION DRAFTING

Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: Putting his views forward on the 10th amendment to the Interim Constitution that led to the extension of the Constituent Assembly in August, one of the amici curie from Nepal Bar Association Kishore Kumar Adhikari on Monday argued at the Supreme Court that the apex court should ask the political parties to disclose the time required to promulgate the new constitution, The Kathmandu Post reports.
Adhikari opined that the apex court should ask the parties represented in the assembly that how much of work of the statute drafting process has been completed by the CA in the extended period. He also asserted that the apex court should not speak on every matter related to the new statute, warning that it would tantamount to judicial activism and draw controversy. He argued that there was no alternative to the CA in writing the constitution.
Saying that the parties are working albeit at slow pace, he noted that the basis of the Interim Constitution was political consensus.
Earlier Attorney General Mukti Pradhan had said the writ against the CA extension was aimed at derailing the whole process. He maintained that the parties had vowed to bring out the first draft of the constitution by November 23 and that the court should take note of it while making a decision. The hearing would also continue on Tuesday.
The NBA has decided to send advocates Surendra Kumar Mahato, Bipulendra Chakravarti and Kishore Kumar Adhikari as amicus curie to present their views on the 10th amendment to the Interim Constitution. The Supreme Court Bar has decided to send advocates Sabita Bhandari, Meghraj Pokharel, and Madhav Kumar Basnet for the same.
The apex court had asked both NBA and SC bar to send amici curie to assist the court in deciding the amendment matter. Bharat Jungum and advocate Balkrishna Neupane had filed a writ petition on September 21 against the constitution amendment.
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