MANISHA KOIRALA OPERATED FOR CANCER IN NEW YORK HOSPITAL Kathmandu, 11 Dec.:Actress Manisha Koirala Monday evening[Nepal Time] underwent operation for cancer at Sloan-Memorial Kettering Cancer Center, New Yorl. She is suffering third degree ovarian cancer. Her parents and brother were at her bedside. Nnnn UPDATE PADAM KUMWAR FREED Kathmandu, 11 Dec.:Former Maoist fighter from Baglung Padam Kunwar ewas freed Tuesday. He slapped Maoist Chairman Prachanda 16 November and was jailed Monday afterhe couldn’t furnish a Rs.28,000 bail. Kunwar’s brother-in-law Bhim Bharati went to settle the bail at the district administration which refused to accept the money. Money poured in from home and abroad to free KUnwar after he was jailed. But the Maoist boss Monday furnished the bail. nnnn MUSLIM GIRL WITH FIRST DEGREE BURNS FLOWN TO CAPITAL FOR TREATMENT Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: Siba Hasmi, 16, was airlifted Monday to the capital for treatment of first degree burns. Hasmi was set alight in Gulariya in Bardiya after she refused to marry an Indian suitor Babu Khan nnnn TWIN BROTHERS GET DEGREES IN ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: Twin brothers Raju Ram Lama and Laxman Lama pf Madan Kudari graduated as environmental engineers from Kathmandu University Monday. They were among 1,135 graduates who got their degrees at a covication. Nnnn RS.1.46 MILLION IN RASUWA CHEESE FACTORY Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: The Rasuwa District Police Office has initiated special investigation to proceed with legal process against the guilty by finding the amount robbed, RSS reports from Rasuwa. According to District Police Chief Sudip Giri, the police put in place special investigation after a complaint was lodged stating Rs 1.46 million was stolen on December 8 from a room of Cheese Production Centre operated under Diary Development Committee in Gatlang. The amount was robbed by breaking the iron-made safe after blindfolding two of its employees, Govinda Gurung and Prem Jirel. The centre, which has set its goal of producing 9,000 kgs of cheese and 2,500 kgs of curd items every year, has faced a setback when the amount meant to provide to yak-keeping farmers in advance was robbed from the centre, Panthi further said nnnn ROAD WIDENING DRIVE MAKING CITY DWELLERS SICK Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: Government’s road-widening drive may have come as a great relief, as it is expected to help commuters breathe easy with less traffic congestion. But on the flip side, more and more people are complaining of breathing problems of late due to dust and irritants from debris scattered along the roads, Laxmi Maharjan writes in The Himalayan Times Cardiologist Dr Prakash Regmi says the dust particles could result in exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases and bronchial asthma attack. “The unmanaged road-construction drive has increased the number of respiratory patients three times of late,” says Regmi. Bir Hospital records show at least 20 patients visit the hospital every day complaining of respiratory problems. Before the road-widening campaign began, the number of patients visiting the hospital with respiratory problems was five-10. “Dust and other irritants can easily aggravate COPD symptoms. It is better for people to use masks while walking and not to stay for a longer period in dusty areas,” says Dr Regmi, adding that asthma patients better carry the inhaler to avoid emergency attack. The government began the road-widening drive in November last year. So far, 72 kilometres of road sections have been widened by demolishing illegally built structures but only four kilometres have been reconstructed. The government is planning to demolish more structures to widen another 43 kilometres of road this year. According to Dr Dirgha Singh Bam, a chest physician, the government should have paid serious attention to the fallout of road-widening move. Kathmandu denizens are becoming more vulnerable to respiratory and skin diseases due to dust and other irritants coming from the rubble,” says Bam. “The road-widening drive is praiseworthy, but it should have been done in a little more planned way.” A study conducted between July 2011 and June 2012 and published in the first week of December by the Nepal Health Research Council showed that about 30 per cent of schoolchildren were suffering from some sort of respiratory diseases such as sneezing and running nose, even when they were not having cold or flu. The research was conducted among 801 schoolchildren from six schools. While Kathmandu city is quite often described as one of the polluted cities, the dust and irritants from demolished structures have added insult to the injury. Interestingly, none of the air quality monitoring stations in Kathmandu is working at present. When contacted, Dandu Raj Ghimire, Deputy Spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, said he did not even know how many such monitoring stations are located across the city. Nnnn KING BIRENDRA, FAMILY DIDN’T HAVE HIDDEN ASSETS IN SWITZERLAND, ACCORDING TO SWISS EMBASSY Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: :Contrary to public perception, a letter from the Swiss Embassy to Office of the Nepal Trust says there is neither money nor property deposited in the banks in Switzerland in the names of late king Birendra and his family, The Himalayan Times reports. It was widely believed that the late king and his family had siphoned off huge amount of money. The Swiss Embassy in Kathmandu about three weeks ago responded to a request of the Trust, saying no property or cash was deposited in the banks in Switzerland in the names of late king Birendra or his family, queen Aishwarya, crown prince Dipendra and prince Nirajan, said Sharad Raj Bista, Spokesperson for ONT. The Trust though had approached other countries as well to find out whether the late royal family had money deposited in foreign banks, Switzerland is the first to respond, said Bista. ONT was set up to search whether the late royal family had property or cash in their names in the country and abroad. Then king Birendra and his family members had died in the 2001 royal massacre. The Trust though has been able to bring 176.6 million cash, thousands of ropanis of land, several business complexes and other fixed assets that were in the name of the late royal family under the government purview, it has yet to find evidences that they were having money or property outside the country. Bista said the Swiss Embassy in its letter has also informed the Trust that the Swiss government was unaware if the late royal family had deposited money or assets in the banks under aliases. “It has asked whether the Trust has any knowledge of such aliases under whom they could have accumulated cash or property,” said Bista. He said the only movable property found in the names of the late royal family is 44,016.15 pound sterling in different Nepali banks. Nnnn BASNET TO SELL VEGAS CITY TO SETTLE DEBTS Kathmandu, 11 Dec.:Beleaguered realty trader Sudhir Basnet has planned to sell his ambitious Vegas City housing project at Imadol, Lalitpur as creditors are beginning to close in on him, The Kathmandu Post reports. Speaking at a meeting of people who paid deposits to book homes and apartments at Vegas City on Sunday, Basnet said that he was in talks with interested buyers, and that a deal would be finalised within a week. Basnet’s company Kohinoor Hill Housing launched the Vegas City project in 2009. Kohinoor had promised to hand over the property in two to three years, but there was hardly any progress on the construction front. As per the plan, six blocks of apartments should have been erected, but not even two blocks have been completed so far. This led to nervous depositors demanding their money back. The depositors had reached Basnet’s home on Sunday to discuss how he would return their money. They had also been to his house on Saturday, but only his parents were at home. A total of 268 people have booked apartments and another two dozen have booked individual homes at Vegas City. They have paid a total of Rs 830 million. “Basnet told us that he would sell Vegas City within a week to another party that can develop the project,” said Mohan Bhattarai, one of the depositors. “If he fails to sell the property, he has promised to register it in our names.” Bhattarai, who is the vice president of the Vegas Users Management Committee formed to protect the rights of the people who have booked apartments and homes, said that they were ready to take over the project if Basnet fails to sell the property and return their money. “Even through the price of the property may be less than what we have invested in it, we have to take it instead of the continued stalemate,” he added. Although Basnet has not stopped making assurances that he will develop the project, the depositors are not convinced as he has been blacklisted by the Credit Information Bureau (CIB) for defaulting loans and has been disqualified to receive further credit. Last week, Basnet had told the depositors of Oriental Cooperative that he was preparing to sell Vegas City and Imperial Apartments at Naxal, Kathmandu. As Oriental Cooperative which he has promoted is also struggling to pay back its depositors, he has been promising them that he would return their money by selling the apartment projects. His Oriental Savings and Credit Cooperative owes Rs 3.89 billion to over 7,000 depositors. According to realty traders, Basnet’s woes began with a slowdown in the realty business that started three years ago after Nepal Rastra Bank capped realty lending. He had launched a series of projects when the sector was booming. nnnn