PANIPOKHARI HOUSES FORCIBLY KNOCKED DOWN Kathmandu, 15 Dec.: Buildings were forcibly knocked down and road expanded at Panipoknari adjacent to the Japanese embassy. Houses were bulldozed Saturday—a weekly holiday as the expansion drive was delayed for nearly six months while implementing government’s shoddy plans/ Sx foreign embassies, including USA and Germany, have refused either to cooerateor are seeking huge compensation for land loss. Government effort was launched six months even without a budget, according to government admission. nnnn KFC CHICKEN MEAT SEIZED IN DHADING Kathmandu, 15 Dec.: Chicken farmers in neighbouring Dhading seized tone container transporting imported chicken from India to the capital Saturday morning. Another container was seized Friday. Meat weighing around 5,000 kg was seized protesting imports by by international fast food chains Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) The meat was seized at Dharke section of Prithvi Highway. amid threats seizures will continue. ]Local frmers said demand was be met locally. When KFC opened its outlet in Nepal, reports aid chicken wasimported from Brazil to land-locked Nepal via India. KFC which entered Nepal three years ago. shut down briefly over labour dispute involving Maoists. Nnnn EGYPT BEGINS VOTING ON CONSTITUTION Kathmandu, 15 Dec.: Egyptians voted on Saturday on a constitution promoted by its Islamist backers as the way out of a prolonged political crisis and rejected by opponents as a recipe for further divisions in the Arab world's biggest nation. AP reports from Cairo/Alexandria. Queues formed outside polling stations in Cairo and other cities and soldiers joined police to secure the referendum process after deadly protests during the build up. Street brawls again erupted on Friday in Alexandria, Egypt's second city. Mursi provoked angry demonstrations when he issued a decree last month expanding his powers and then fast-tracked the draft constitution through an assembly dominated by his Muslim Brotherhood group and its allies. At least eight people were killed in clashes last week outside the president's palace. The liberal, secular and Christian opposition says the constitution is too Islamist and tramples on minority rights. Mursi's supporters say the charter is needed if progress is to be made towards democracy nearly two years after the fall of military-backed strongman Hosni Mubarak. "The sheikhs told us to say 'yes' and I have read the constitution and I liked it," said Adel Imam, a 53-year-old queuing to vote in a Cairo suburb. "The president's authorities are less than before. He can't be a dictator." Official results will not be announced until after a second round of voting next Saturday. But partial results and unofficial tallies are likely to emerge soon after the first round, giving an idea of the overall trend. In Alexandria on Friday, tensions boiled over into a street brawl between rival factions armed with clubs, knives and swords. Several cars were set on fire and a Muslim preacher who had urged people to vote "yes" to the constitution was trapped inside his mosque by angry opposition supporters. Christians, making up about 10 percent of Egypt's 83 million people and who have long grumbled of discrimination, were among those queuing at a polling station in the port city to oppose the basic law. They fear Islamists, long repressed by Mubarak, will restrict social and other freedoms. "I voted 'no' to the constitution out of patriotic duty. The constitution does not represent all Egyptians," said Michael Nour, a 45-year-old Christian school teacher in Alexandria. Islamists are counting on their disciplined ranks of supporters and the many Egyptians who may fall into line in a desperate bid to end turmoil that has hammered the economy and sent Egypt's pound to eight-year lows against the dollar. "I voted 'yes' for stability," said shopkeeper Ahmed Abou Rabu, 39. "I cannot say all the articles of the constitution are perfect but I am voting for a way forward. I don't want Egyptians to go in circles, for ever lost in this transition." Mursi was among the early voters after polls opened at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT). He was shown on television casting his ballot shielded by a screen and then dipping his finger in ink - a measure to prevent people voting twice. Polling stations close at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT), but the deadline could be extended depending on turnout. After weeks of turbulence, there has been limited public campaigning. Disparate opposition politicians and parties, beaten in two elections since Mubarak's overthrow, only announced on Wednesday they backed a "no" vote over a boycott. Flag-waving Islamists gathered peacefully at one of the main mosques on Friday, some shouting "Islam, Islam" and "We've come here to say 'yes' to the constitution". PALACE SIT-IN Opposition supporters assembled outside the presidential palace, where there has been a sit-in for days. The walls of the palace, ringed by tanks, are scrawled with anti-Mursi graffiti. The referendum will be held on two days covering different regions, with the second round on December 22, because there are not enough judges willing to monitor all polling stations after some in the judiciary said they would boycott the vote. Egyptians are being asked to accept or reject a constitution that must be in place before a parliamentary election can be held next year to replace an Islamist-led parliament dissolved this year. Many hope this will lead Egypt towards stability. If the constitution is voted down, a new assembly will have to be formed to draft a revised version, a process that could take up to nine months. Just over half of Egypt's electorate of 51 million will vote in the first round in Cairo and other cities. To provide security for the vote, the army has deployed about 120,000 troops and 6,000 tanks and armored vehicles to protect polling stations and other government buildings While the military backed Mubarak and his predecessors, it has not intervened on either side in the present crisis. The charter has been criticized by some overseas bodies. The International Council of Jurists, a Geneva-based human rights group, said it falls short of international standards on the accountability of the armed forces, the independence of the judiciary, and recognition of human rights. United Nations human rights experts said the draft should be reviewed to ensure Egypt meets its obligations under international law on equality and women's rights. Nnnn SEARCH FOR MOTIVES FOR MASS MURDER OF CHILDREN IN USA BEGINS Kathmandu, 15 Dec.: Residents of the small Connecticut community of Newtown were reeling on Saturday from one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, as police sought answers about what drove a 20-year-old gunman to slaughter 20 children at an elementary school, Reuters reports from Newton.. The attacker, identified by law enforcement sources as Adam Lanza, who once attended Newtown High School, opened fire on Friday morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which serves children aged 5 to 10. He ultimately killed at least 27 people, including himself. Police said another adult was found dead at a related crime scene in the town, which many media accounts indicated may have been the shooter's mother, Nancy Lanza. State police said they hoped to have more information by Saturday morning, including confirmation of the victims' identities. More than 12 hours after the shootings, police began removing the bodies from the school and bringing in parents to make identifications, NBC News reported. Symbolizing the national grief over the massacre of the schoolchildren, President Barack Obama choked up and wiped away tears in a live national address in which he said, "Our hearts are broken." He called for "meaningful action" to curb gun violence. The holiday season tragedy was the second shooting rampage in the United States this week and the latest in a series of mass killings this year, and is certain to revive a debate about U.S. gun laws. 'JUST BRUTAL' Newtown, an affluent town about 80 miles northeast of New York City, was mourning its dead in community vigils. "We're just praying - just need to pray to God that this does not happen again, no matter where," Amelia Adams, 76, said on her way into St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church with her husband Kenneth, 81. The church, just a couple of miles from the site of the shooting, was packed inside and out on Friday night with a crowd estimated at more than 1,000 people. "It was just, it was brutal. I can't think of a better word. It was just brutal, to have to witness the pain today," Monsignor Robert Weiss said after the service. Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy told reporters late on Friday that he never thought something would happen that would equal the grief he and others felt after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. "Evil visited this community today," Malloy said. Brian Re, a 36-year-old engineer, has lived near Sandy Hook Elementary for seven years and has a 4 1/2-year-old girl he is planning to send to the school next year. "It's a good town, but the massacre happened here," Re said. The chaos at Sandy Hook struck as children gathered in their classrooms for morning events. A state police spokesman said the shootings took place in two rooms. Witnesses reported hearing dozens of shots; some said as many as 100 rounds. Former classmates of the shooter remembered him as someone who dressed more formally than other students, often wearing khaki pants, button-down shirts and at times, a pocket protector. "(His mother) pushed him really hard to be smarter and work harder in school," said Tim Arnone, 20, who first met Lanza at Sandy Hook. The death toll exceeded that of one of the most notorious U.S. school shootings, the 1999 rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, where two teenagers killed 13 students and staff before killing themselves. The New York Times reported that Adam Lanza used a Sig Sauer and a Glock, both handguns, and said police also found at the scene a Bushmaster .223 M4 carbine, a rifle, that they believe belonged to him. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, founder of the advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, said it was "almost impossible to believe that a mass shooting in a kindergarten class could happen. "We need immediate action. We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership - not from the White House and not from Congress," Bloomberg said. "That must end today." nnnn