SHERPAS CELEBRATE GYALPO LHOSAR

SHERPAS CELEBRATE GYALPO LHOSAR

Kathmandu, 22 Feb.: Nepal’s Sherpa community is celebrating Gyalpo Lhosar Wednesday after Gurungs and Tamangs observed Tamu and Soman Loshar
marking the advent of spring and new year.
Tibetans also celebrate Gyalpo Lhosar.
Government declared Wednesday a public holiday.
:May the festival help promote harmony and unity among people,” President Dr Ram Baran Yadav said in a congratulatory message.
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SADUS GIVEN WARM SENFOFF

Kathmandu, 22 Feb.: Nearly 3,500 sadhus and fakirs, including
Nagas or naked sadus, were given a warm sendoff by Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) Wednesday with a financial package.
They came to attend this year’s Maha Shivaratri Monady.
Latest estimated said an estimated one million devotees offered prayers and worship at Nepal’s holiest shrine this year.
Former King Gyanendra offered prayers amid open support for him personally and for institution of ousted monarchy at the temple complex.
The former king offered prayers after President Dr.Ram Baran Yadav and Vice-president Paramanda Jha.
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WEATHER WARNING UP

Kathmandu, 22 Feb.: The weather is warming up with progress of spring.
Wednesday’s minimum temperature in the capital was 7.6 degrees Celsius with the mercury expected to rise to 25 degrees Celsius in the afternoon.
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EAST HIMALAYAN LANDSCAPE HIT BY CLIMATE CHANGE

Kathmandu, 22 Feb :
The eastern Himalayan landscape extending from Nepal to Bhutan have been hit hard by the effects of climate change, says a report of WWF, The Himalayan Times reports.
"Of all the threats to the region’s nature and culture, perhaps the most pervasive and difficult to tackle is that of climate change," said the report entitled The High Ground: Sacred natural sites, bio-cultural diversity and climate change in the Eastern Himalayas.
The WWF report presented Bhutan’s Punakha Dzong palace located 77 kilometres away from Thimpu and its surrounding landscape as an example of a landscape hit hard by climate change.
Built in 1638, the historical palace and its surrounding areas have been hit by three disastrous glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) in the past 60 years, according to the report.
These deadly flash floods are occurring with increasing frequency as temperatures rise across the eastern Himalayas due to global warming, according to WWF press release.
Referring to the eastern Himalayas, WWF’s International Director General Jim Leape said, "Its biodiversity and its cultural richness are to be celebrated and cherished."
Nature and culture are intimately linked in the Himalayas, particularly through the deep reverence that the region’s faiths hold for the natural world, said Leape.
We believe that the leaders of communities, many of whom are already engaged in combating climate change at a local level, could do much to advance action at global scale ,"Leape said.
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NC CAN’T TEAM UP WITH MAOISTS SAYS SUSHIL KOIRALA

Kathmandu, 22 Feb :
Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala Tuesday said that his party would not team up with the UCPN-Maoist to form the new government in the existing political situation, Chandra Praakash Sharma writes sin The Rising Nepal from Baglung.
Speaking at an interaction organized by Baglung Chapter of Nepal Press Union, Koirala said that NC was not close to the Maoists to form the new government.
"Without implementing the earlier peace agreements, the NC will not collaborate with the Maoists in the new government." Koirala said.
He floated these remarks a few days after UCPN-Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ publicly announced that NC might lead the new government.
Koirala said that the Maoists should honestly change their behaviours if they wanted to collaborate with the NC.
"The Maoist chairman is trying to hide his failures by distributing the ‘lollypop’ of the prime ministerial post," he said.
In another context, he said that his party had accepted the proposal of the six federal states recommended by the State Restructuring Commission and stressed that his party would not accept the ethnicity-based federal system.
He said, "The parties should honestly think about the nation while restructuring the country. Our party and CPN-UML want identity and capacity based federal units."
Koirala said that the governance system in which the directly elected president exercises the executive power would breed the dictatorship in the country and his party would not accept any governance system other than parliamentary system.
Urging the Maoists to follow the path of democracy, Koirala further said that NC was always against dictatorship.
He said that if the Maoists honestly implemented the peace deal, the constitution drafting process would be concluded within a week.
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NC, UML OPPOSE MASS INTEGRATION OF FORMER MAOISTS
Kathmandu, 22 Feb :
The main opposition party Nepali Congress (NC) and the CPN-UML Tuesday said that the group integration of the ex-Maoist combatants in the Nepal Army (NA) would not be acceptable, The Rising Nepal reports.
A meeting of the two parties held at Singha Durbar concluded that the integration should be done on individual basis and as per the standards of the Nepal Army.
The meeting also demanded the prime minister to call the meeting of the Army Integration Special Committee soon to clarify about the disputed issues of army integration.
After the meeting, NC Parliamentary Party leader Ram Chandra Poudel said that the Prime Minister should clarify about the issues regarding the army integration process.
He said, "The meeting decided to urge Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai to call the meeting of the special committee to discuss the latest development relating to the integration process."
Poudel said that the Maoists’ proposal of group integration of the combatants in NA was not acceptable for NC at any cost.
He said, "Army integration against the seven-point agreement is not acceptable at any cost. Integration should be done in such a manner so that it should not affect the army’s image."
CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal said that the PLA combatants meeting the required standards would be integrated on individual basis.
He said that the government should cut the 14 cantonments from the existing 28 to implement the earlier peace agreement and demanded that the Prime Minister should call the special committee meeting soon to clarify integration process.
He said that the army integration should be carried out on the basis of the seven-point deal.
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