LOAD-SHEDDING REDUCED ONE MORE HOUR

LOAD-SHEDDING REDUCED ONE MORE HOUR FROM MONDAY
Kathmandu, 27 Feb.: Load-shedding was reduced by one more hour Monday to 11 hours a day with the advent of spring giving people some relief.
The level of water in rivers has increased with
the increase in temperature
In the afternoon temperature hovers around 27 degrees Celsius and minimum temperature falls to around 5.5 degrees Celsius.
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SMALL ARMS A MAJOR HEADACHE
Kathmandu, 27 Feb.: As many as 184 people were killed across the country in the use of illegal small arms in 2011, according to the Informal Sector Service Centre (Insec), The Kathmandu Post reports.
According to its report publicised on Sunday, more than 800 people were direct victims of 605 incidents of small weapon--firearms and sharp weapons, for example--use last year. Of the 621 people injured, 575 were male and 46 female.
Neither the police nor the Ministry of Home and Affairs (MoHA) has the exact data on illegal small arms brought into the country everyday. The main motive of murder, kidnapping, extortion and torture is the ambition of a person to become rich overnight by adopting unfair means, the report states.
A large number of--370--victims were targeted by their friends and acquaintances. In other words, 46 percent people were targeted by persons well known to them. "The motive of most of the abductions was ransom," said Armed Police Force SSP Uttam Khadka.
Around 20 percent cases of assault with illegal arms were unknown to police and 15 percent cases had resulted from family disputes. Armed groups using small weapons accounted for 12 percent of all users.
The highest, 270 cases were registered in the eastern part of the country followed by 209 in the Mid-western region. Some 182 cases belonged to the Central region.
MoHA section officer Shambhu Regmi said the political parties' tendency to politicise facts through the use of professional criminal networks had increased the trade and use of small arms in the country.
The reports, for January 2010 to July 2011, show that small arms and light weapons were used in 685 cases while 250 individuals were killed in incidents involving a gun in the period across the country.
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