THREE STAR DEFEATS HIMALAYAN SHERPA CLUB Kathmandu, 12 Dec. Three Star Club defeated Himalayan Sherpa Club 3-0 in the continuing Martyrs Memorial A Division Football League Championship Tuesday. The matches of the league are being heeld at Dashrath Rangashala. Nnnn UCPN MAOISTS FORM TALKS TEAM Kathmandu, 12 Dec.: : A day before expiry of the president´s deadline to the parties to pick a consensus prime ministerial candidate, the ruling UCPN (Maoist) on Tuesday authorized party office bearers with holding talks with opposition parties to forge consensus on the prime ministerial candidate, Republica reports.. The meeting of the dissolved standing committee held at Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal´s residence in Lazimpat also decided that the party would be flexible during the talks. The party has taken this decision at a time when the Madhes based political parties have taken strong exception to Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai´s plan to expand his cabinet. The Tuesday´s meeting has entrusted Dahal, Vice-chairmen Baburam Bhattarai and Narayankaji Shrestha and Secretary Post Bahadur Bogati with holding talks with the opposition parties. "The party has given full authority to four office bearers to hold talks with the opposition parties. A meeting of the office bearers would decide how flexible they would be during their talks with the opposition parties," Maoist leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara told Republica. The meeting also decided not to accept the new prime minister picked from outside the political parties. “A conspiracy is being hatched to pick the prime minister from outside the political parties. This would not be acceptable in a multi party system," Maoist leader Giriraj Mani Pokharel told Republica, adding that the president does not have the authority to pick a prime minister from outside the political parties. He also claimed that reactionary forces have been trying to reinstate the 1990 constitution. Pokharel said the party would take a decision as per necessity. UCPN (Maoist) has proposed Baburam Bhatarai as their first choice for the new prime ministerial candidate. Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala and CPN- Maoist General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa are also in the prime ministerial race. Earlier, UCPN (Maoist) had set several conditions to allow Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala to run for the prime minister´s post. It had sought agreements on the content of the new constitution prior to accepting Koirala for the PM´s post. Besides, the party had sought guarantee of federalism, secularism and republic state in the new constitution. In addition, the e party had also sought appointments to the vacant posts in the constitutional bodies. Several top positions in the Public Service Commission, the Supreme Court and the Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority remain vacant currently. Similarly, the party had sought a fixed date for holding fresh Constituent Assembly election. The government has already announced to hold fresh CA election by mid-May. The Nepali Congress has decided not to compromise constitutional issues for the prime ministerial post. Nnnn SELF-CRITICISM IN UML Kathmandu, 12 Dec.: CPN-UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal and General Secretary Ishwar Pokharel have ´self-criticized´ over the ´procedural mistakes´ while making work divisions to leaders in the party, Republica reports. Khanal and Pokharel made the self-criticism during the ongoing central committee meeting on Tuesday as majority of central members of the party expressed dissatisfaction over the allocation of work responsibility. “Chairman and general secretary have admitted that they failed take into account procedural issues while making work divisions,” said UML Spokesperson Pradeep Gyawali. • Khanal, Oli rivalry returns In the meeting, Chairman Khanal had self-criticized saying it was a mistake to reshuffle responsibility without holding consultation with the concerned leaders. “It was a serious mistake to relieve leaders from the responsibility even when they were on duty in the field,” a central member quoted Khanal as saying. General Secretary Ishwar Pokharel also self-criticized for the weakness on the part of the party secretariat to hold consultation with concerned leaders. “We should have informed beforehand. There was weakness on our part,” he said. “The interest of the concerned leaders will be taken into account while making work division hence forth.” The work division proposal was endorsed by the CC meeting after Khanal and Pokharel made self-criticism over the decisions. The CC meeting is likely to extend till Friday as the meeting devoted two days to settle the row over work division in the party. Even on Tuesday, central members had devoted most of their time speaking in favor and against the decision of the party leadership to remove Arun Nepal as chief of the party´s Europe department and Rajendra Pandey as chief of the state affairs department. A meeting of the Standing Committee some months back had made changes in the work divisions. KP Sharma Oli faction had managed a majority against Khanal in the party´s elite body with the support from other key leaders such as Madhav Kumar Nepal and General Secretary Ishwar Pokharel. Nnnn ________________________________________ ________________________________________ FOG GROUNDS FLIGHTS Kathmandu, 12 Dec.: Flights to and from airports in the Tarai have been grounded by thick fog which has blanketed the region since yesterday and thousands of passengers have been stranded, Shekhar .Regmi writes in the Himalayan Times from Biratnagar More than 2,200 passengers have been left in the lurch in Biratnagar alone for the last two days. Hundreds of passengers, who had reached the airport early morning today, were forced to return in the evening. Air Traffic Controller Janak Basnet at Biratnagar Airport said all the flights were cancelled due to low visibility. Prem Kunwar, Station Manager, Yeti Airlines, said more than a dozen flights, including Buddha Air’s six and Yeti Airline’s four, are being cancelled every day since yesterday. Most of the passengers who are stranded in Biratnagar are from Ilam, Panchthar, Dhankuta and Jhapa. While some are staying in hotels, others have crashed with their relatives in Biratnagar. Buddha Air’s Subash Dhungana said no aircraft belonging to his company made flights from Kathmandu to Biratnagar, Bhadrapur, Janakpur, Simara and Tumlingar today due to poor visibility. Govinda Paudel, Senior Operation Manager, Yeti Airlines, said his company too cancelled at least 16 flights today. At least 1,600-metre visibility is a must for flights to operate, but airports in Tarai have recorded only 800-metre visibility till evening. Nepal Airlines Corporation’s regular flights to the eastern hill districts have also been cancelled. Some of the passengers have started taking buses to their homes. Airlines operators said they incur a loss of around Rs 4 million when flights are cancelled for a day. Weatherman explains why so early In Tarai, flights are usually grounded in the end of December, but this year, thick fog and haze have blanketed the region in early December, forcing the airlines operators to cancel the flights. According to Rajendra Prasad Shrestha, Senior Meteorologist at Meteorological Forecasting Division, with no rainfall and no storm after monsoon, the Tarai region is experiencing early chill and thick blanket of haze. Monsoon this year ended on September 22, but there has been no rainfall. Shrestha said the haze, which has not been blown away, have blanketed the region, creating poor visibility for the flights. — Nnnn FOUR MAJOR TEMPLES BEING RENOVATED Kathmandu, 12 Dec.:: Four Hindu shrines are getting major facelifts after several years of renovation setbacks, The Himalayan Times reports. Manakamana Temple in Gorkha, Ram Mandir in Janakpur, Muktinath Temple in Mustang and Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu will be renovated in the next two years, said the Department of Archaeology (DoA) today. These four temples, which hold special significance for Hindus, had been neglected for years due to government apathy. “We have recently renovated of Muktinath Temple,” said DoA Director General Bhesh Narayan Dahal. Meanwhile, maintenance work at Manakamana Temple and Ram Mandir is under way. Dahal said, timber and necessary materials have been purchased for Manakamana Temple and Ram Mandir. “Although the government had allocated Rs 10 million to each of these temples last fiscal, they didn’t receive any budget this year,” he added. The pagoda style Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu is believed to be more than 2,500 years old. It earns about Rs 10 million every month in donations from devotees, but has not been renovated since the late 17th century. Renovation of the UNESCO Heritage enlisted temple is yet to begin owing to cold relations between Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) and DoA. Dahal said DoA was ready to cooperate with PADT. However, PADT is yet to ask DoA to carry out the necessary study. Sources at PADT accused the government authority of being indifferent. Nnnn