CHAIRMAN PRACHANDA BEGINS DIALOGUE WITH OPPOSITION Kathmandu, 16 June: Maoist Chairman Prachanda began a dialogue with opposition leaders Saturday to end the current stalemate and come to an understanding and begin serious dialogue. Maoist chief held separate discussions with NC President Sushil Koirala and UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal. Earlier, 27 opposition parties Saturday finalized a three-week announced anti-Maoist and anti-government protest plans The parties will attempt to stop Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai from flying to Brazil next week on his first foreign tour after unilaterally announcing uncertain constituent assembly elections 22 November. Black flags will be shown against the premier and other members of the cabinet and awareness campaign for dissolution of local bodies will also Be conducted. MORE GOVINDA PRASAD MAINALI ARRIVES Kathmandu, 16 June: Govinda Prasad Mainali, 45, arrived home Saturday from Tokyo Saturday morning after a Tokyo court reviewed a guilty conviction verdict of a Japanese woman and freed him this week. He spent 15years in jail for murder. The review is the first in Japan after World War II. Mother Chandra Kala, 89,and other members of the family welcomed Govinda at the TIA after landing in home soil after 18 years. Wife Radha and two daughters accompanied Mainali home from the Japanese capital where he was put onboard a flight for Kathmandu airport at Narita Airport by immigration officials Friday. A retinue of journalists followed Mainali who is scheduled to hold a news conference at his residence Saturday. nnnn MAHINDRA SINGH DHONI ARRIVES UPDATE Kathmandu, 16 June: Indian cricket test captain Mahindra Singh Dhoni arrived for an overnight visit Saturday morning. He was greeted on arrival y officials of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) and Indian embassy. MORE UN OFFICIAL SAYS TIBETAN RFUGEE ARRIVAL DECLINES Kathmandu, 16 June: - The number of Tibetan refugees crossing over to Nepal and seeking asylum declined sharply in 2011 as compared to previous years, according to a senior official of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, The Kathmandu Post reports. Visiting Deputy High Commissioner of the UN agency, Alexander Aleinikoff, on Friday said 800 Tibetans sought refugee status with the agency in Nepal in 2011. Though he did not say why there was a significant fall in the number, he said the UN agency will continue to protect and assist the Tibetans in visiting a third country. During his four-day visit, Aleinikoff also toured two Bhutanese refugee camps in Jhapa and the Tibetan Reception Centre in Kathmandu. He said there are no plans for a third country resettlement for the Tibetan refugees. UNHCR facilitates the safe transit of Tibetans to India and ensures their material needs in Nepal. According to the UN refugee agency, there are two types of Tibetan refugees in Nepal--those who came before 1990 and those who arrived here after that. Approximately 15,000 Tibetan refugees arrived in Nepal before 1990. They are allowed to remain in the country. As most of them remained undocumented, their rights in Nepal are limited, the agency said. The UNHCR has also been advocating for a comprehensive registration process and issuance of identity documents. Nnnn INDIAN FIRM KEEN FOR TIA MANAGEMENT TAKEOVER Kathmandu, 6 June: An Indian company has shown interest in upgrading and managing the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the country’s only international airport. The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) is currently looking after the TIA Management, Sangam Prasain writes in The Kathmandu Post.. Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS), one of India’s leading infrastructure development and finance companies, has reached out to the Investment Board (IB) for the same. Sources at the IB confirmed that the IL&FS has approached them. According to the IB, the process is in a preliminary stage. “We have asked the IL&FS to come up with a proposal,” an IB source said. According to the IB, the IL&FS is not the sole company to express such willingness. Sources at the Tourism Ministry say the IL&FS has proposed taking over the TIA management that also includes airport expansion. The TIA expansion is currently being carried out through the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funding of $80 million. The idea of handing over the TIA management to a private firm is not new. The Tourism Ministry had earlier planned to separate the TIA from CAAN, hand over the airport’s management to private companies and make CAAN a policy-making and regulating body. CAAN Deputy Director General Dinesh Shrestha said proposals from developers to upgrade/develop and manage TIA under the ‘Build, Operate, Own, Transfer’ (BOOT) system is not bad after all. “The sustainability and feasibility of the airport will depend on the financial condition, so it is crucial that it should be in Nepal’s favour,” Shrestha, however, said. Travel and tour entrepreneurs have time and again complained that the weak management of the TIA has hampered the growth of air traffic in the country. Lack of modern facilities has forced the TIA to face huge challenges in managing the rise in air traffic. The TIA, which was designed to handle 1,350 passengers per hour, has to at times process over 2,000 passengers in an hour. The TIA handled 4.28 million passengers in 2011, up by 7.33 percent every year. Nnnn PRANAB MUKHERJEE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE OF RULING COALITION IN NEW DELHI Kathmandu, 16 June: India’s ruling Congress party named Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as its nominee for president today, capping a week of political turmoil that exposed the fragility of a coalition government that has lurched between crises as the economy sputters,Reuters reports from New Delhi.. Mukherjee is expected to step down by June 24, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could take charge of his portfolio for the next several months, a source close to the finance minister told Reuters on condition of anonymity. There is no obvious successor to Mukherjee, but analysts said filling the vacancy was less important than the government overcoming internal divisions that have led to policy flip-flops on major economic reforms and scared off investors. The government first though must work to gain the support of political parties for Mukherjee’s candidacy for the largely ceremonial post. “The UPA appeals to all political parties ... to support Pranab Mukherjee for the office of president,” Singh’s office said in a statement after a meeting of the Congress party and its allies. Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi officially nominated Mukherjee at the meeting, though one key ally, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who rejected Mukherjee’s candidacy, did not attend the meeting. Banerjee, who has proven an unpredictable ally, this week proposed that Singh's name be considered, an effective vote of no-confidence in the prime minister that raised the spectre of the fragile coalition government breaking apart at a critical time for the economy. But Congress appeared confident today that it had the votes for the July 19 election as several other major regional parties said they, too, would back Mukherjee. nnnn