UPDATE ON POLICE RAID IN CAPITAL Kathmandu, 23 June: Police have nabbed 64 people including some dons and people involved in hooliganism, in the context that suspicious activities in the capital were increasing in recent days. Nepal Police arrested 64 dons in such a campaign at 4:00 am this morning, said Metropolitan Police Spokesman DSP Dhiraj Pratap Singh. Those arrested are Deepak Manange, Baghe Lama, Kumar Ghaite, Shashi Adhikari, Panche Lama, Dinesh Adhikari alias Chari, Dawa Lama, and Tejendra Gurung, among others. Police also seized brown heroin from them. According to spokesman Singh, the number of arrestees could increase in the day as the campaign is underway. This was a surprise campaign and can last one week, it is learnt. All the arrested dons are involved in hooliganism and looting in various places of the country, said Singh. This is the first time that such a large number of dons are arrested simultaneously. Nnnn DETAILS OF MAOIST CHIEF, FINANCE MINISTER PUN MEET Kathmandu, 23 June: Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun met UCPN-Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal this morning in connection with meeting top leaders of parties for forging consensus on the budget of the next fiscal year, RSS reports. Pun requested Dahal to help bring a budget on political consensus in the Lajimpat meeting, said Finance Secretary Krishna Hari Banskota. On the occasion, Dahal said he was positive on bringing budget on consensus as NC and CPN-UML have also been pressing for it. The National Planning Commission (NPC) has directed to bring a budget of Rs. 429 billion and works on budget are under in the same line, said Banskota. nnnn DETAILS OF BHANDARI, PRESIDENT MEET Kathmandu, 23 June: Leader of Madhesh-centric political party, Sharat Singh Bhandari, called on President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, today [Saturday], RSS reports. During the meeting held at the Office of the President, Shital Niwas, President Dr. Yadav and leader Bhandari held talks on contemporary political situation. Emerging from the meeting, leader Bhandari informed the media persons that the President stressed settling the current political crisis through political consensus. Bhandari stated that during their conversation that lasted for around half an hour, he suggested to President Dr. Yadav to take the necessary step while remaining under the constitutional limitation. "I appealed to the President to take necessary legal step to find a way out for the nation from present political transition and he assured to move ahead through political consensus,” said Bhandari. nnnn AUSTRALIAN PM PLGDGES MORE AID Kathmandu, 23 June: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has pledged to increase development assistance to Nepal in the coming days, RSS reports from Rio e Janeiro. After a bilateral meeting held with the Australian Prime Minister on Friday on the sideline of the ongoing United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development at Rio de Janeiro, Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai said the Australian government was positive to enhance the level of cooperation for economic prosperity of Nepal. "Australia was eager to extend support to Nepal’s endeavour for the hydropower development, tourism promotion and attaining economic prosperity through modernization of agriculture," Prime Minister Dr. Bhattarai quoted the Australian Prime Minister as saying. The two leaders touched upon the issues of promoting bilateral interests and mutual cooperation to further enhance the existing friendly relations between the two countries, said Secretary at the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Leelamani Poudel, who was also present in the meeting. During the meeting, Prime Minister Dr. Bhattarai briefed his Australian counterpart about the efforts being made to end the country’s transition to peace and constitution-making and expressed the hope that the country would see an outlet to the problems soon through consensus among the key stakeholders. The meeting lasted for half an hour. nnnn