NEPAL PLAYS AFGHANISTAN IN SAFF CHAMPIONSHIP IN NEW DELHI FRIDAY

NEPAL PLAYS AFGHANISTAN IN SAFF CHAMPIONSHIP

Kathmandu, 9 Dec.: Nepal plays Afghanistan in the semifinal of the SAFF Championship later Friday in New Delhi.
Nepal qualified for slot for the first time in 12 years.
The Himalayan state ranks second in the eight-nation South Asian region in FIFA ranking after Bangladesh.
Nepal beat Bangladesh in the league mach.
Nnnn

SAARC COMPLETES LANDMARK ANNIVERSARY
Kathmandu, 9 Dec.: SAARC Secretary General Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed of Maldives says the nine-nation SAARC, a South Asian regional organization, summits have revitalized the body.
Nepal is hosting the next summit after this years 17th summit in Maldives.
She said the body has made significant progress in achieving its objectives.
Originally founded by seven states, Afghanistan joined later.
The body is headquartered in Nepal.


“The association has institutionalised cooperation at all levels and set up a number of mechanisms and institutions to facilitate and guide the agenda of cooperation. SAARC has sought to promote a distinct South Asian identity and a culture of peace, cooperation and partnership,”
“As we mark SAARC Charter Day this year, it is an occasion to reaffirm our pledge to SAARC Charter. We must pay tribute to founding fathers of SAARC for their vision and foresight in establishing the association as a means for realising the hopes of the South Asians,” Saeed said in the statement coinciding with the 26th anniversary of the founding of SAARC.

Summits have served to revitalise the SAARC process and made regional cooperation more meaningful, she added.
Nnnn


GOVT RESISTS PRESSURES AT HOME AND ABROAD, ENDS OHCHR-N TERM AFTER 6-YEAR EXTENDED STAY

Kathmandu, 9 Dec.: Ignoring national and international calls to renew the mandate of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nepal (OHCHR-N), the Maoist-led government has terminated the term of the UN rights body that came to Nepal in 2005 at the request of the then royal government to monitor and promote human rights, Kiran Chaoagain reports in Republic.

Nepal´s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, Dr Dinesh Bhattarai, handed over a letter to this effect to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday.

"The government has asked OHCHR to execute the June 1 decision of the government," Bhattarai said about the letter.

The decision taken six months ago said that OHCHR-N was to prepare an exit strategy within six months. The timeframe expired on Thursday.

The government terminated the mandate for OHCHR-N despite mounting pressure from the main opposition parties -- Nepali Congress and CPN-UML-- and the international community, including the UN Secretary-General, to renew the term.

"This is an issue to be decided through consensus. But the government terminated the term unilaterally. It is not acceptable," said Nepali Congress leader Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, reacting to the development.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had called Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai Thursday evening to request a term extension for OHCHR-N. But the prime minister told Ban that the government would not extend the term, saying it wanted to strengthen the National Human Rights Commission, according to Biswadeep Pandey, the prime minister´s personal aide.

Mahat, however, said OHCHR-N can be reinstated once a government of consensus is formed. "Once we join the government, the decision can be revised," he said when asked whether OHCHR-N can be reinstated even though it will be commencing a wind-up period from Friday onward.

The government´s letter to OHCHR is silent on how much time it will give the UN human rights body to close down its office. The letter is also not clear whether it should be taken as a termination notification as required by the agreement between the government and OHCHR. The agreement requires the government to give a notification of mandate termination six months in advance.

But Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Naryankaji Shrestha told Republica that the June 1 letter should be taken as notification of termination, adding that the government will give sufficient time for OHCHR-N to wind up its operations.

"In general, six months´ time is given for winding up purposes. But as the government has already given six months to prepare the exit strategy, we will determine the timeframe required to wind up OHCHR-N after holding consultations with OHCHR-N officials," he told Republica when asked how much time the government will give the UN rights body to wrap up.
Nnnn
(Note: The three-month Maoist-led government headed by Baburam Bhattarai ended the UN rights body resisted pressures from home and abroad to end the tenure as Chinese Prime MinisterWen Jiabao arrives in
the last week of December for a rare three-day visit.
The government ,with six Madeshbadi parties close to India, is attempting to involve China in the peace process by asking for a special one-time grant to finance integration of 19,000 former Mast PLA fighters in state security agencies and society.
The government headed by UML on 15 Janaury forced the return to UN headquarters to get out of Nepal amid pressures from home and abroad, after entering, like OHCHR_N, to
Monitor the peace process, constitution drafting ad the rights situation.
Maoists, in January wanted UNMN, the political arm of UN in Nepal, to stay unlike now.)
Nnnn





________________________________________


________________________________________


NRB MULLS CAP ON MULTIPLE LENDING TO MICROFINANCE SECTOR
Kathmandu, 9 Dec : Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is soon issuing a directive that will require microfinance institutions (MFIs) operating within sepcified areas to share credit information of their borrowers among themselves so that they know about their clients and check possible loans defaults.

Such an arrangement is being worked out mainly to cap multiple lending in the microfinance sector, Bhaskar Mani Gyawali, spokesperson for the NRB, told Republica, without divulging when the directive would come into force.

Microfinance is a sector in which collateral-free loans of up to Rs 80,000 are issued at one time to a single borrower. As per the principles, these borrowers have to stick to a single institution, and in case they want to change the board, they have to clear debt in one institution before moving to the other.

But lately, the central bank has come to know that borrowers in the eastern terai region - mainly Jhapa - have started getting credit from multiple institutions, piling up the amount of debt.

A high-ranking official of one of the largest wholesale microfinance banks had earlier told Republica that his institution in the east had found one person getting credit from as many as 10 institutions. Another person had piled up debt of as much as Rs 1.2 million by taking loans from various institutions, he said.

"Since these people are unlikely to pay the loans, the microfinance institutions will be required to foot all the bill as individual loans issued by microfinance institutions are collateral-less," the official said.

This practice has raised the eyebrows of regulators, who fear this trend may gradually push up the level of bad loans in a sector which has a reputation of securing almost 100 percent debt recovery rate.

Microfinance institutions say the cases of loan duplication have emerged as they do not have credit information of borrowers. And they believe the central bank´s decision to order institutions working in an area to share credit information will nip the problem of "one borrower, multiple loans" in the bud.

But others are skeptic.

"You think the institutions are being honest when they are say they do not have knowledge of the background of borrowers?" a high-ranking official of a microfinance institution questioned, while putting equal blame on microfinance institutions for "fuelling the culture of greed among borrowers".

His statement stems from the trend in the market, where microfinance institutions are crowding the same area to poach each others clients, instead of moving to areas where microfinance services are not available.

"These institutions then give loans to people despite being well aware that they have not left the other institution," the official said.

A central bank official said, once the directive is issued, microfinance institutions will be held accountable if they issue loans without screening the credit history of the borrower.
Nnnn



________________________________________


SUNTALI DHAMI RAPISTS CONVICTED
Kathmandu, 9 Dec.: Achham district court today convicted three policemen of raping their colleague Suntali Dhami in the district police office of Achham some two years ago and sentenced them to prison up to six years, Shibaraj.Khatri reports in The Himalayan Times from Accham

A single bench of district justice Prakash Kharel issued its verdict against the rapists — head constables Birendra Bam and Karabil Thalal and constable Jagadish Pandeya. Bam has been slapped with six-year jail sentence, while Thalal and Pandeya were sentenced to three-year jail term. In addition to six-year jail term, Bam will have to pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation to the victim, given her poor economic condition and the physical, mental and psychological trauma she underwent.

Constable Dhami had filed a case accusing her colleagues of raping her while she was on duty on the night of 27 September 2009. The accused cops were suspended from their jobs, arrested on October 7 and sent to detention on 2 November 2009. ASI Dansingh Bhandari, Head Constable

Biradatta Badu and

Constable Naribhan Mahatara, who were also detained with the three accused, were, however, released on 1 November 2009, citing their non-involvement in the case.

Kin of one of the convicts, Head Constable Thalal, said they would move appellate court against the decision.
nnnn

AGAINST THE TREND, SRC COORDINATOR SUGGESTS NORTH-SOUTH FEDERATION
Kathmandu, 9 Dec.: Coordinator the State Restructuring Commission Madan Pariyar today said it would be appropriate to form federal units including mountains, hills and the Tarai regions from north to south, The Himalayan Times reports.

Pariyar said the SRC would, however, recommend the model that would be the most appropriate for a country like Nepal after thorough discussions.

At an interaction organised today, Pariyar claimed that the commission would work out to ensure that all the regions and the communities lagging behind the mainstream could be developed rapidly. “Otherwise, the gap between the federal states would only widen,” said Pariyar.

He claimed that the commission would not be influenced by partisan interests because most of the members were independent experts and that the commission’s recommendations would be based on their independent experience.

He also demanded that the government and the parties create conducive environment so that they can work independently.

Pariyar, who was appointed head of the SRC by the government on Tuesday, added that the the State Restructuring Commission would seek an extension of term.

The parties, however, while forming the SRC had said its tenure would not be extended beyond two months.
nnnn