MAOIST STANDING DISCUSSES PM’S BRAZIL VISIT AND TWO ORDINANCES AGAINST PARTY RECOMMENDATION Kathmandu, 18 June: A meeting of the Standing Committee (SC) of the UCPN-Maoist urged party’s dissident faction, Baidya group, for unity. The meeting held at the residence of Party Chairman, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, at Lazimpat this [Monday] morning, urged the Baidya faction to come for party unity and to approve a proposal for party unity from the national gathering. Talking to media persons after the meeting, Party Spokesperson, Dinanath Sharma urged the Vice-President Baidya's faction to come for party unity. Similarly, during the meeting, they also discussed on Prime Minister’s Brazil visit beginning today and two ordinances approved by the meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Sunday, and presented by the government to the President for issuance. Likewise, the meeting also decided for involvement of different levels of the party to make the seventh extended meeting called by the party on June 29 to July 1, a success. Nnnn DETAILS OF UML BOYCOTT OF PARTY NATIONAL MEET Kathmandu, 18 June: The dissident faction of the CPN (UML) led by Vice-chairman Ashok Rai today made public different reasons and stances on why the faction is boycotting the party’s national cadres’ meeting beginning today. UML leaders belonging to Janajati and Madhesi communities are pushing for identity-based federalism for long. Issuing a press statement today, Vice-chairman Rai said that the party failed to draw a conclusion by holding bilateral discussions on the nine-point demand tabled by them as ‘Our Opinion Regarding Present Context’ after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly (CA). Rai has demanded that the nine-point issues put forth by the leaders of the Janajati and Madhesi background formally be tabled in the party’s national gathering. Similarly, Rai has asked the party leadership to withdraw the party standing committee’s decision to expel Ang Kaji Sherpa, deputy-secretary of the party’s Solukhumbu district committee, from the party’s membership. “If our concerns are not addressed, we will boycott party’s national gathering and other future programmes and meetings,” the statement further Nnnn NC STUDENTS PROTEST CRACKDOWN Kathmandu, 18 June: Nepal Students' Union, the sister organization of the Nepali Congress, organized a hour-long transport halt in and around various campuses throughout the country today [Monday], RSS reports. The NSU held the transport halt to protest against what it called police suppression on its leaders. NSU cadres stopped vehicular traffic in front of the Ratna Rajyalaxmi Campus, Shankardev Campus, Balmeeki Campus in the Capital and other campuses across the country from 9 to 10 this morning. Seventy student union leaders were injured in scuffle with police personnel on Sunday evening in course of organizing torch rally and demonstration, calling for constitution of a national unity government. NSU among other student unions have been holding protest programmes against the incumbent government. They were also protesting the visit today of Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai to Brazil, citing that a caretaker prime minister should not go on foreign visit. Prime Minister Bhattarai is leaving for Brazil this afternoon in connection with attending the International Convention on Environment and Sustainable Development going to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 20-22 June 2012. nnnn