BIG THREE SUMMIT LATER TUESDAY

FURTHER DETAILS OF RESOLUTION OF DIFFERENCES IN CONSTITUTION

Kathmandu, 13 Parties agreed Tuesday 18-year-olds will get right of franchise in elections, according to NC Vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel.
This was agreed at the meeting of a Prachanda-sub-committee to resolve differences on themes for inclusion in a proposed constitution.
A summit of the Big Three is being later Tuesday to discuss other differenes.
Nnnn


CAPITAL RESIDENTS FIGHT OFF COLD





Kathmandu, 13 Dec :As temperature of Kathmandu dipped to 2.6 degrees Celsius Monday, denizens of the capital city commuted between their work and home donning sweaters and jackets and talking about the sudden chill, The Rising Nepal reports.
"It is getting really cold all of a sudden," said Dharani Gautam, Reader of Tribhuvan University, as he greeted guests at a marriage ceremony in Old Baneshwore.
"I have felt the same since Saturday," a guest responded.
The participants of the marriage procession were in a visible hurry to grab a cup of tea to sip away the chill.
Students and teachers attending morning colleges were among those braving the cold weather with heavy warm clothes, mufflers and gloves.
Many wore their warmest garbs from head to toe.
Many others kept themselves couched in quilts at home or enjoyed the roadside fire.
The housewives and their hubbies assigned to prepare meals timidly approached the ‘freezing cold’ water.
"Water was extremely cold this morning, did you also feel so?" a budding novelist asked his neighbour in New Baneshwore. "I fear touching water in the morning."
Some were heard complaining about the pains in their feet due to cold.
Records of the Department of Meteorological and Forecasting Division showed temperatures plummeting not only in Kathmandu but across the country as well.
The division Monday recorded the maximum temperature of Kathmandu at 17.7 degrees Celsius and the minimum was at 2.6 degrees Monday.


The corresponding numbers for Sunday were 18.5 degrees and 3.8 degrees.
On Saturday, the maximum temperature of the valley was at 20.5 degrees while the minimum was at 6.6 degrees, according to the Division.
Outside the valley, Jomsom, Jumla, Dadeldhura, and Jiri experienced a significant drop in the temperature whereas normal life was badly affected in central Terai with a reported death in Rautahat.
In degrees, temperatures were recorded at 19.1 and -1.0 in Jomsom, 14.6 and -5.7 in Jumla, 15.6 and 3.8 in Dadeldhura, 14.0 and -2.0 in Jiri and 24.2 and 8.5 in Biratnagar.
Life was affected by the cold wave in Mahottari, Sarlahi, and Siraha in the east and Kanchanpur in the west.
According to our Siraha correspondent, the number of the patients affected by cold increased in hospitals in the district.
Mostly, the patients suffering from cold, diarrhea and pneumonia visited the hospitals.
Raj Kumar Das of District Public Health Office informed that mostly children below five years of age were affected by pneumonia caused by the cold wave.
According to our Kanchnapur correspondent, the thick fog and the cold wave crippled normal life in the district.
Children and women were affected more by the cold weather for the last few days.
The sudden fall in the temperature forced locals to stay indoors.
Landless people living at the Banhara Bridge of East-West Highway were in a miserable state because of cold. They do not have

enough warm clothes to wear.
They have been staying near the bridge in their small huts.
Jayamati Nepali, who stays near the bridge area, said she, along with other landless people, depended on the firewood to beat the cold.
Kalu Singh Lohar said that most of the children are suffering from fever, sore throat and pain at the joints of their body.
Landless squatters, labourers, and flood victims residing at Jhalari, Pipladi, Krishnapur, Dekhatbhuli and other parts were facing woes after the dip in temperature.
Similarly, students and employees are also facing difficulty in moving from one place to another.
Nnnn

PASHUPATINATH TEMPLE TO BE RENOVATED





Kathmandu, 13 Dec. : The famous Hindu shrine, the Pashupatinath temple which has been facing grave risk to its total structure for a long time, will be renovated soon, The Rising Nepal reports.
The Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) will start the renovation work of the age-old temple in two phases.
The temple situated by the side of Bagmati River has been facing problem to its structure following the invasion of rodents and insects for a long time. Due to the cause of rats and cockroaches, the main temple is on verge of collapse, compelling PADT to start the renovation.
The poor structure and hundred years old wooden works of the temple will get new facelift after the PADT decided to renovate it.
The Culture Ministry spokesman Jhamak Prasad Sharma said the minister directed the Department of Archeology (DoA) to submit its report on the condition of the Pashupatinath Temple.
The DoA allowed PADT to renovate the temple when PADT asked for giving the new facelift to the temple, said Damodar Gautam, Chief of DoA.
PADT had formed a committee led by PADT member secretary Sushil Nahata and comprising other technical experts. "Study is under way and the process of renovation will be initiated after the technical committee submits its report," Umesh Kuikel, a member of PADT.
The committee, Shree Pashupati Adhyayan Byawasthapan Swatantra Adhikar Sampanna Samiti was formed under the Ministry of Culture (MoC) as per a Supreme Court ruling last year. It will oversee the renovation works of the famous temple, which is visited by hundreds of Hindu devotees every day.
PADT will carry out minor renovation works including repairing of the temple doors and traditional windows of the temple. The first phase work will need a budget of around Rs. 3 million.
The entire premises of temple including the surrounding structure will be repaired in the second phase, said PADT.
Due to the lack of proper care and timely renovation, the temple having a golden pinnacle has reached to its dilapidated condition.
The two-storied pagoda style temple was built in 516 by King Mandev and was renovated it by King Bhupalendra Malla, Gautam said.
Nnnn


GOVT. GIVES OHCHR-N TIME TO CLOSE DOWN AND LEAVE
Kathmandu, 13 Dec.:Following the government decision not to give the OHCHR-Nepal another term extension, authorities are mulling over the idea of asking the UN rights body to wrap up its mission within 2-3 months. The term and mandate of the OHCHR-N to work in Nepal came to an end last Thursday, The Kathmand Post reports.
A meeting held at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Friday where Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Chief Secretary Madhav Ghimire and secretaries from PMO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and Ministry of Law had participated, decided to ask the UN rights body to wrap up its mission as soon as possible.
The meeting has also tasked two government’s joint secretaries—Rudra Nepal, UN division chief at MoFA, and Kedar Poudel at PMO—to hold talks with the OHCHR-N officials to convey the government’s “wish” to wrap up and leave Nepal at the earliest. Government officials are likely to convey the government’s “wish” to the UN rights body in a meeting with its representatives on Tuesday. “We assumed that the OHCHR-N can move from here very soon as it is run by the UN, not a private office. So 2-3 month time should be sufficient for them to wrap up,” said a PMO official requesting anonymity. “With the expiry of its tenure, the OHCHR-N has been automatically rendered non-functional and we have not accepted the exit strategy submitted by the OHCHR-N that urges to remain active until December 2012.”
PMO officials, however, said the OHCHR-N should convince the government if they really want to stay for another six moths only to wrap up mission.
nnnn

.