RAM CHANDRA PAUDEL SHIFTED TO GENERAL WARD Kathmandu, 27 June: NC Vice-president and parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Paudel was moved Wednesday to.the general ward. from ICU of TUTH where he was admitted 24 June with pneumonia and high blood pressure. Paudel’s health is improving. nnnn. TRANSPORT ON POKHARA, BAGLUNG HIGHWAY DISRUPTED Kathmandu, 27 June : Seti-Gandaki Flood Victims Concerned Committee, Hemja, has closed transport service on Pokhara-Baglung route on Wednesday, RSS reports from Pokhara. The committee halted the transport services on the route, calling for control of increasing land eroding by the Seti River at Yamdi of Hemja. The river has changed its course at Yamda, displacing nine families there, it is learnt. No vehicles except ambulance, vehicles belonging to press, riding human rights activists water tanks and dairy containers were allowed to ply on the route today. The committee has demanded the immediate construction of spurs in the areas witnessing land erosion, implementation of the long-term plan for controlling the river and rehabilitation of those displaced by the river, among others. nnnn ________________________________________ . FLOODS KILL 30, DISPLACE 150,000 IN BANGLADESH Kathmandu, 27 June: Days of heavy rain in Bangladesh has set off flash floods and landslides which have killed more than 30 people and stranded about 150,000, police and officials said on Wednesday, Reuters reports from Dhaka.. Low-lying and densely populated Bangladesh is battered by torrential downpours during the wet season which began in the past few weeks, but one official said the rain this month was the heaviest for years. Fifteen people were killed in and around the southeastern port city of Chittagong while others were killed inland in an area known as the Chittagong Hill Tracts. "Several more people are feared trapped in hillside homes buried under heaps of mud. Rescue operations are continuing," a government official in the area said. The rain over the past five days had flooded large areas in Chittagong and cut roads to the Hill Tracts, bordering India and Myanmar, police said. Disaster control officials said about 150,000 people had been marooned by the floods and hundreds of homes washed away, mostly in Chittagong, Bandarban in the Hill Tracts and the Cox's Bazar area on the coast near the Myanmar border. "We are having the worst rainfall in many years," said Jainul Bari, district commissioner for Cox's Bazar. Most rail links between Chittagong and the rest of the country were suspended late on Tuesday while Chittagong airport was closed after water inundated part of the runway. Authorities have moved about 300 families from their shanty homes on slopes and have told others to leave quickly. Weather officials said more heavy rain was expected in the next few days and the flooding might get worse. Flash floods also hit parts of the country's north and northeast, a police officer in northern Gaibandha district said. nnnn