NSU GENERAL CONVENTION 18 JAN. Kathmandu, 12 Aug,: The national general convention of the Nepal Students' Union (NSU), Nepali Congress's student wing, has been scheduled for the second week of January 2013, putting an end to a longstanding feud within the organization, RSS reports. Organising a news conference in the capital, NC's Student Department Chief Nabindraraj Joshi said the row in the NSU was resolved and a decision made to hold its national general convention from January 18 to 20. He said the venue for holding the national jamboree would be fixed later on. Earlier, two different committees—close to party establishment and next backed by party's Deubua faction, had fixed the general conventions of their own committees on different dates. After the new agreement, the dates for general conventions scheduled by both committees have been scrapped. Party General Secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula, Badri Pandey and Joshi resolved the conflict and fixed the fresh date for general convention. Chairman of NSU Ranjit Karna said both the factions of the NSU would participate in the general convention. nnnn UGANDAN LIFTS FIRST GOLD FOR HIS COUNTRY; USA LEADS MEDAL TALLY Kathamandu, 12 Aug.:Ugandan Stephen Kiprotich won Uganda's first medal of the London Olympics on Sunday after he shot to the front with six kms remaining to defeat the experienced Kenyan pair of Abel Kirui and Wilson Kipsang, Reuters reports from London.. John Akii-Bua, who set a world record in the 1972 Munich Olympics 400 metres hurdles final, is Uganda's only other Olympic champion. A huge crowd packed the streets of central London during a sun-baked morning on the final day of the Games to watch Kiprotich join twice world gold medalist Kirui and London marathon champion Wilson Kipsang at the 30-km mark. Six kilometers later Kiprotich pounced and held on to win in two hours eight minutes one second, 26 seconds ahead of Kirui with Kipsang a further 1:10 behind. Kipsang made an early break, splitting the field and passing through the halfway stage in 63 minutes 15 seconds. He was gradually reeled in and joined by Kiprotich and Kirui in a three-man race for the gold. The race, past some of London's most notable landmarks, started and finished in the Mall near Buckingham Palace. It comprised one short and three longer circuits through AP adds from London: With one day of competition left at the London Games, the United States has locked up the overall medal race and is holding off the Chinese in the chase for the most gold. It will be the fifth straight Summer Games where U.S. athletes took home more prizes than anyone else from an Olympics. Swimming, track and field, basketball, women's soccer, Serena Williams and gymnast Aly Raisman have all been highlights for U.S. Olympic Committee chairman Larry Probst. "I like to hear 'The Star-Spangled Banner' — a lot," Probst said. Good thing, because the U.S. national anthem has blared more than any other in London over these last two weeks, and that won't change before the Olympic flame is extinguished on Sunday night. Through Saturday's medal events, U.S. Olympians in London had claimed 102 medals, 15 more than the Chinese. Americans were also leading the gold-medal chase over China, 44-38. "The Olympic motto is faster, higher, stronger. And I think that every American came here to do that," U.S. judo gold medalist Kayla Harrison said Saturday. "Not necessarily fastest, highest, strongest, but I came here to perform at my very, very best and make America proud as a result." She wasn't alone. American swimmers won 31 medals. Track and field now has 29, one marathon medal on Sunday away from getting to 30 — a goal that seemed farfetched to some in the U.S. Olympic movement not long ago. Gabby Douglas won the women's all-around competition in gymnastics, Raisman left that venue with three medals and Williams won Olympic gold at Wimbledon over Maria Sharapova in what Probst said was "the most dominating performance I have ever seen by a female tennis player, ever." Williams rolled over Sharapova that day, 6-0, 6-1. Most of the other Americans weren't quite that dominant — but weren't exactly slackers, either. "Yeah, we like to come in first. There's nothing wrong with that," Probst said. "This is a competition and I think it's absolutely great that we're leading in the medal count, both on golds and in total. The last time we won both gold and the total was in Athens, so it's been a while. I think it feels good to see our athletes be so successful on the field of play." USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said about 200 American athletes will leave London with a medal, a figure buoyed by success in plenty of team sports. If his estimate of 200 holds, that would mean roughly 38 percent of the U.S. athletes competing at the games would make at least one trip to the award podium. "One of our primary objectives is to get as many American athletes on the podium as we can," Blackmun said. Blackmun said before the Olympics that the U.S. was obviously hopeful of winning the medal chase again, but never revealed if the committee had a specific target number. On Saturday, Blackmun did say that the way the games have panned out was "pretty darn close" to the U.S. expectations. "For me, it's not a competition in medal count against somebody else," said U.S. decathlete Ashton Eaton, a gold medalist in London and the world-record holder in his event. "I think if you just are cheering your country on and you're just trying to beat whoever is in front of you in your competition, the medals take care of themselves, really." Probst gave high praise on Saturday to the way London organizers put the Olympics together, and a number of U.S. athletes also raved about the logistics — from buses running on time to the quality of the Olympic village. Probst, however, took one good-natured shot at London organizing committee head Sebastian Coe, who said earlier this year that he expected China to take away more medals than anyone else. "The only thing that Seb got slightly wrong was he predicted that we would come in behind China in the medal count," Probst said. "And I told him back in April that we were going to work really, really hard to prove him wrong." So this medals win might be a bit sweeter for the Americans than the most recent ones that came at Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and Beijing. "The American public has high expectations for our Olympic team and our Olympic athletes," Probst said. "There was a lot of speculation about where we would finish as a team. And a lot of people predicted that we might finish second and some even suggested third. So we're extremely proud of what our team has accomplished and what our athletes have accomplished." nnnn KATHMANDU: Nepali Congress will propose its Vice President Ram Chandra Paudel as the prime ministerial candidate to lead the national unity government, NC leader Sujata Koirala claimed on Sunday. According to her, party President Sushil Koirala will formally propose Paudel’s name in the party’s Central Working Committee meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday. peaking at the Reporters Club today, she argued that it is logical to pick up Paudel as the prime ministerial candidate as party President Sushil Koirala and senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba should busy themselves in the party work and make it stronger. She stated that she will support Paudel’s candidature on behalf of the party. Speaking at the same programme, UCPN-Maoist Spokesperson Agni Prasad Sapkota said that the Nepali Congress will get to lead the government only if a consensus is built, based on the five-point agreement, on the contentious issues related to new constitution and the Constituent Assembly is revived for a brief period. If fresh elections are to be held, Sapkota said, the government cannot be formed under the leadership of Nepali Congress at any cost. Stressing on the importance of implementation of five-point agreement to conclude the peace and constitution-making processes, Sapkota further said, “Based on the five-point deal if agreement is not made to conclude the peace process and constitution-making, government will be formed in the leadership of a nonpartisan individual, not of Nepali Congress. We won’t let Nepali Congress form the government.” Nnnn