PM CANCELS SCHEDULED NEW YORK VISIT TO ADDRESS UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY Kathmandu, 7 Sept.: Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai on Thursday cancelled plans to attend the 67th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Officials cited ‘diplomatic and political’ reasons, ANilGiri writes in The Kathmandu Post.. Bhattarai was scheduled to fly to New York with a small delegation and expected to address the assembly on Sept 30. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha will now lead the Nepali delegation to the UNGA. Sources said the PM decided to cancel the trip after several round of political and diplomatic consultations. DPM Shrestha gave three reasons for the Bhattarai trip cancellation. According to him, the PM already attended the UNGA last year, and that there is no tradition that a PM should attend and address the assembly once again. He added that the PM has also already used the international platform recently in Iran and Brazil, where he held important talks with several world leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “Thirdly, we do not see much important engagements of the PM at the UNGA this time around. As such, the PM decided to skip the meeting,” said Shrestha. Sources said the Indian PM Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao are also not attending this year’s UNGA. “This is one important reason for the PM to cancel the trip. Nepali leaders meeting Indian and Chinese leaders holds significant meaning. If they are not around, meetings with leaders of other countries does not hold much diplomatic and political meaning for Nepal,” sources said. As political parties are engaged in intense talks to end the current political impasse, leaders of various parties and his own party also advised the PM to not attend the assembly. “The PM felt that his presence here was more important than the UNGA,” a foreign ministry official said. The recent ‘fiasco’ in Iran, where Bhattarai met the Indian PM alone, while his deputy, Shrestha, objected to the one-on-one, also created a ‘psychological’ pressure on the PM, sources said. Yet another reason, officials said, is that Nepal’s mission in New York is without its chief. The post is lying vacant since September 3, while Charge d’ affaires Sewa Adhikari is heading themission there. “Diplomatically, a full-fledged permanent resident and ambassador is needed when the PM goes to such an important convention,” an official said. nnnn ARMED GANG ROBS NUNNERY IN GODAVARI Kathmandu, 7 Sept.: - Six masked men robbed Catholic nuns of the St Joseph's Convent in Khahare Gaun, Godavari-5, early on Thursday morning,Ankit Adhikari writes in The Kathmandu Post.. The robbers, "who looked to be in their early 20s," took away Rs 700,000 in cash, mobile phones and cameras, according to nuns belonging to the Nepal Cluny Society. The incident took place at around 2:15 am when the men armed with khukuris barged into the convent through the window of the first floor, woke up all the four nuns and a maid and locked them up in the guest room. According to Sister Imelda Gurung, 75, the robbers threatened to kill the nuns if they shouted for help. The Cluny Sisters run the Shanti Rani School in Godavari near the convent. The nuns run similar schools in Hetauda, Gorkha, Pokhara and Damak. Executive board member of the Nepal Cluny Society, Chirendra Satyal, told the Post that the nuns were supposed to pay for the ongoing renovation work at the convent with the money, while a part of it was supposed to be used to pay the schoolteachers. According to him, the three-storey convent building was built some three years ago in the area, around 15 km southeast of Kathmandu. The house is surrounded by farmland and is isolated from the rest of the community in the area, Satyal said. The security guard at the convent, Dhurba Budhathoki, a local of Godavari, said the robbers were drunk and that they gagged him and threatened to slit his throat if he retaliated. Though the robbers took away the cash, mobile phones, cameras and religious rings worn by the nuns--which are not expensive--they did not take away the laptops. SP Basanta Panta of the Lalitpur Metropolitan Police Range (MPR) said police have found no lead in connection with the robbery so far. “We were informed of the incident at around 9 am,” he said. “Investigations are underway.” However, according to Satyal, police reached the site only at around 10 am although the nuns had informed them at around 4:30 in the morning. nnnn