NC ANNOUNCES NATION-WIDE PROTESTS UPDATE PAUDEL DEATH

NC SISTER ORGANIZATIONS ANNOUNCE PROTESTS UPDATE ON PAUDEL DEATH

Kathmandu, 17 Dec.: NC sister organizations have announced nation-wid protests to protest death of Chitwan district Shiba Prasad Paudel.
Demands have been made to declare him martyr and asked government to withdraw what has been called false murder charge against him.
NC youth leader Bal Krishna Khand said Paudel’s body won’t be
collected from hospital until charges against him are withdrawn.
A NC emergency central committee meet has begun at the residence of President Sushil Koirala.
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POET AND PROF DAIDAGYA RAJ NEUPANE DEAD
Kathmandu, 17 Dec.: Poet, critic and professor Daibagya Raj Neupane died Saturday.
He was 66.
Neupane was suffering paralysis, pneumonia, diabetes and blood pressure.
He had a dozen works to his credit.
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CHINA SEEKS NEW DATE FOR WEN VISIT
KATHMANDU, 17 Dec.: China has asked Nepal for a convenient date for the visit of its Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, postponement of whose scheduled trip early this week had left Nepal red-faced. The Himalayan Times reports.

According to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha, both Nepal and China are busy doing groundwork to ensure an early visit of the Chinese leader. Talking to a select group of journalists today, Shrestha also sought broad and positive cooperation from all the sectors, including the media, to this effect. “Preparations are under way. China has asked for a new date,” said Shrestha. “We will decide soon.”

Kathmandu early this week suffered a major diplomatic setback after Wen’s scheduled December 20-23 visit was cancelled. Referring to China’s pressing budgetary and economic issues, Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yang Houlan on Tuesday had conveyed to DPM Shrestha that Wen’s Nepal visit had to be ‘postponed for the time being’. But the visit cancellation had sparked off a feeding frenzy in the media that ran speculations and several theories, some of which attributed the postponement to Nepal’s diplomatic failure, possible Free Tibet activities during Wen’s visit and uncertainty about government’s future.

Shrestha today admitted that there were some weaknesses on the part of his ministry for briefing the media about the visit in advance and promised to correct ways, but he tried to save the government’s blushes saying the postponement was in no way a diplomatic debacle. “It was not cancelled. I would prefer not to term it even postponed. The Chinese side had just requested us to reschedule the visit,” he added.

Maoist Secretary CP Gajurel on Friday termed the cancellation of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s Nepal visit a diplomatic failure. Gajurel rapped the government for failing to materialise Wen’s visit and said PM Baburam Bhattarai’s ‘early disclosure’ of date was against diplomatic norms.

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FORMER THAI PM THAKSIN TO PERFORM PUJA AT
LUMBINI SATURDAY AND FLYING OFF TO NEW DELHI
Kathmandu, 17 Dec.:Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra landed in Kathmandu incognito today, but police and immigration officials refused to acknowledge any such visit by Thailand’s billionaire ex-leader,
Lekhnath Pandey reports in.The Hiimalayan Times

It is learnt that Shinawatra landed in Kathmandu ‘all of a sudden’ from Myanmar, along with at least four persons, whose identities could not be ascertained. Thaksin flew to Kathmandu in a chartered flight as ‘a guest of Thai Ambassador to Nepal Maria Sangiampongsa’ and landed at Tribhuvan International Airport at 4:30pm.

Thaksin was received at TIA by the Thai ambassador and embassy officials.

Knowledgeable sources said the former Thai prime minister then headed for Lumbini in an Yeti Air flight along with the Thai envoy.

DIG Narayan Bastakoti merely confirmed that Thai embassy officials were at the airport to ‘receive a VIP guest’. The security chief at the airport denied having any knowledge about the visiting personality. “Was it the ex-prime minister of Thailand himself?” he asked, feigning that he had no idea about his arrival.

THT correspondent reported from Bhairahawa that Thaksin landed at Gautam Buddha Airport around 6:15 pm. Police Inspector Dharmaraj Bhandari of Area Police Office, Lumbini, said he came to know about Thaksin’s visit through television channels and subsequently deployed police for his security.

Foreign Secretary Durga Prasad Bhattarai in Kathmandu said his ministry was not ‘formally aware’ about his sojourn, while Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha told this daily that he would ask the Thai envoy about the visit. A knowledgeable source, however, claimed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was informed about the visit weeks ago, but it was kept a top secret due to Thaksin’s fugitive status.

Security has been beefed up in Lumbini, where Thaksin is scheduled to spend night at Kasai Hotel. He will perform prayers at the Thai Monastery as per Buddhist tradition tomorrow morning.

Thaksin will return to Kathmandu in a Yeti Air flight tomorrow and will fly to Dubai without entering the city. A staff at the Thai embassy, however, claimed that members

of Thaksin’s delegation would visit the Royal Thai Embassy at Maharajgunj tomorrow morning.

Thaksin’s Kathmandu sojourn coincides with media reports in Bangkok today that said Thailand gave the fugitive former prime minister his passport back.

Thaksin was stripped of his passport by the previous Thai government

but received citizenship from Montenegro last year, allowing him to travel internationally.

Thaksin’s sister Yingluck, now Thai prime minister, won a resounding election victory in July of this year, in the wake of mass opposition protests in 2010 by his ‘Red Shirt’ supporters which ended with a bloody army crackdown.

In a long-awaited decision, Thailand’s Supreme Court in February 2010 ruled that the fugitive former prime minister had abused his power for personal gains and should be stripped of $1.4 billion of his frozen $2.3-billion fortune.

Thaksin remains a hugely divisive figure in his country and was deposed by the army in 2006. He lives in Dubai to avoid a two-year prison term on a conviction for corruption that he contends is politically motivated. In Bangkok, Yingluck government faces tensions stoked by Thaksin’s enemies, already irked by recent reports of plans to seek a royal pardon for

the ex-premier, allowing Thaksin to return without serving time.
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