. STRIKES CONTINUE OUTSIDE VALLEY Kathmandu, 24 May: Strikes by different groups pushing demands for inclusion in a constitution continued Thursday. The Sahghiya Limbuwan Parishad for the second ay closed down nine districts east of Arun rivern demanding their inclusion in a Limbuwan province, A Broad Madesh Front of MJFN Chairman Upendra Yadav ckosed down terai districts demanding a terai province for the 11th day Thursday. Protestors vandalized vehicles of Kantipur and Annaourna Post in Siaha during the bandh. Government has been attempting to break the bandhs by talking with groups whose demands have been met in writing for inclusion in a constitution. nnnn. PRESIDENT CALLS FOR CONSTITUTION PROMULGATION BY 27 MAY Kathmandu, 24 May : President Dr Ram Baran Yadav Thursday has asked the concerned to promulgate by a 27 May deadline even as government decided to extend the constituent assembly (CA) tenure after 27 May. He asked political workers to work according to the wishes of the people.. :”Nepal and Nepali people want a democratic constitution. If all parties come to a common point, it is possible to promulgate a constitution.’ Dr. Yadav said Wednesday while inaugurating an army medical college in the capital The President called for a constitution by 27 May Thursday as NC and UML said its promulgation is the remaining three days was stillpossible and while inaugurating an Australian aided Election Education and Information Centre constructed at the [remises of the Election Commission. For the second consecutive day, the head of state called for a democratic constitution. nnnn WOMAN BEHEADS NEPHEW IN RAUTAHAT Kathmandu, 24 May: Police on Wednesday arrested a 25-year-old woman in Samanpur VDC-8 in the district on the charge of “sacrificing” a child, Shiva Puri writes isn The Kathmandu Post from Rautahat. Mahadevi Yadav allegedly beheaded her three-year-old nephew, Nitesh Kumar Yadav, at midnight Saturday. Police said Yadav has confessed to the crime. Yadav told the Post that she sacrificed the boy following instructions from her guru with whom she had been learning witchcraft. “I had been learning witchcraft from Chhabilal Yadav of Haraiya VDC for the past one month. He told me that my witchcraft skills will be complete only after the sacrifice of the nephew. Accordingly I took him at Bramhsthan and beheaded him on Saturday after a pooja,” she said. Yadav then threw the boy’s head into the Bagmati river while she buried the torso in her ‘pooja’ room. Police have exhumed the body and taken it to Gaur for postmortem. According to Yadav, Chhabilal further demanded that she sacrifice her eldest son as well. The victim, a resident of Manpur-3 in the district, had been staying in his maternal uncle’s house for the past one month. Police got wind of Yadav’s “suspicious activities” after she informed them that she found the boy’s body. Earlier, she had registered a complaint with the police saying that the boy had gone missing. SP Thule Rai told a press meet on Wednesday that Chhabilal and Yadav’s family members are at large. Villagers said Mahadevi was a normal woman and that she did not have a history of mental illness that they knew of. The incident has left the local people and rights activists shell-shocked. “We are shocked to hear the news at a time when incidents of torture against women for allegedly practicing witchcraft are on the rise in the region,” said rights activists Bipin Gautam. Nnnn CHINA, USA WANT TO MATCH INDIA WITH CONSULATES IN BIRGUNJ Kathmandu, 24 May: As India is seen as using its influence in Nepali affairs from its Consulate office in Birgunj, China has also shown its interest to open its Consulate General office there, The Reporter writes. A foreign ministry official told The Reporter that China has approached us ‘seeking clearance to let them open their consulate office.” “Not to be left out, U.S. has also hinted its interest to have its office opened in the strategically important location along the border with India.” the official said. nnnn CHINA ASKS NEPAL TO SETTLE TRADE ISSUES Kathmandu, 24 May: China has asked the government of Nepal to hold a bilateral meeting in order to sort out trade problems between the two countries, The Kathmandu Post reports.. The northern neighbour said in a letter last week that the objective of the meeting was primarily to simplify the tariff and transit problems that traders have been facing for a long time at the border quarantine and customs. “The Chinese team has asked us to fix the date for the third meeting of the Nepal-China’s Tibet Trade Facilitation Committee (NTTFC),” said Naindra Prasad Upadhyay, joint secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Suppli-es (MoCS). But the two sides have not yet finalized the date for bilateral talks which will be held in Chi-na this time. The last meeting was held in Kathmandu in May 2011. The second meeting of the NTTFC held on May 9 last year had agreed to remove procedural complexities in enforcement of zero customs tariff and to further activate local-level working groups to wipe out non-customs barriers. The two-day meeting had also stressed development of infrastructure at major trade points between Nepal and China, promotion of Chinese investment in Nepal, payment facilitation and activating local-level working groups. Upadhyay said that though the ministry had initially planned to hold the meeting in May, it dropped the idea due to the approaching deadline for writing the constitution and a series of bandas. “We are discussing the next date,” he said. “The meeting will most likely be held by June.” MoCS officials said the agenda for the meeting was yet to be finalized. “We are working to set agenda and we will soon reply to our Chinese counterpart fixing the date and proposing the agenda,” said a source. Upadhyay said that the ministry had held discussions with traders with regard to the problems they were facing at transit and quarantine. The grievances of the traders about the customs will have priority in the agenda to be discussed during the meeting. Officials added that the ministry would try to seek 0 percent tariff facility for Nepali products exported to China. According to the Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC), Nepal’s trade deficit with China swelled to Rs 38.2 billion during the fiscal year 2009-10 from Rs 11 billion in 2005-06. nnnn