FRIENDS CLUB PLAYS MACHINDRA IN FOOTBALL LEAGUE Kathmandu 14 Jan. Friends Club and Machindra play Monday in the martyrs memorial A division football league championship at Dashrath Rangashala. Tribhuvan Army of Nepal Army and Sankata play in the second match. nnnn CAN INVITES 35 PLAYERS FOR ELITE CUP Kathmandu, 14 Jan.: Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) Sunday invited 35 players for the ACC Elite Cup. Former captain Binod Das and Saurav Khanal were asked to join the camp. Paras Khadka, Paresh Lohani, Sharad Vesawkar, Subash Khakurel, Sunam Gautam, Prithu Banskota, Gyanendra Malla, Amrit Bhattarai, Basant Regmi and Shakti Gauchan have been called for the closed camp. Sanjam Regmi, Manjeet Shrestha, Puspa Thapa, Kumar Thapa, Amit Shrestha, Avinash Karn, Naresh Raj Giri, Jitendra Mukhiya, Rajesh Pulami, Prakash Bista, Sagar Pun, Krishna Karki, Nischal Chaudhary, Fajlur Rahman Khan, Binod Bhandari, Bhuwan Karki, Naresh Budhayer, Pradeep Airee, Chandra Saud, Mahendra Chand, Yagyaman Kumal, Anil Mandal, Sanjog Karna, Hari Shankar Shah and Rahul BK have also been named in the list for closed camp. ACC T20 Elite Cup -- the qualifying tournament for the World T20 Qualifiers -- is being held in the capital from 24 March to 3 April. Bermuda will host the ICC World Cricket League Division 3 from 28 April to 5 May 5. nnnn AG POSTPONES US VISIT FEARING ARREST Kathmandu, 14 Jan.: Amid the arrest of Nepal Army (NA) Colonel Kumar Lama in the United Kingdom for his alleged involvement in human rights violations during the conflict, Attorney General Mukti Pradhan has postponed his scheduled trip to the US, Gani Ansari writes in Republica.. Sources said Pradhan cancelled his visit at the eleventh hour fearing his possible arrest in the US after his instructions to halt investigations into the murder of journalist Dekendra Thapa, who was killed by Maoist cadres some eight years ago. “He (Pradhan) informed me that we would head for the US on January 22 instead of today (Sunday). He said it was not appropriate to leave the country at a time when there is a political and constitutional crisis,” said a member of the delegation. Pradhan was scheduled to fly for the USA at 11 pm on Sunday along with his personal aide Santosh Giri, Deputy Attorney General Prem Raj Karki and Assistant District Attorney of Kathmandu Padam Bahadur KC. Other members of the delegation have expressed deep dissatisfaction over the postponement of the visit as they had made all preparations for the trip. “All the other delegation members are upset,” said a knowledgeable source at the Office of the Attorney General, adding, “The attorney general could have sent others.” Though Pradhan has scheduled the visit for January 22, it is not clear if the University of New Haven would reorganize the program for us, said the source. Sources said the US university had invited the Nepali delegates, including the attorney general, for a nine-day program on strengthening criminal justice system in Nepal. Despite repeated attempts, Pradhan was not available for comments. The visit was confirmed some three weeks ago, while Pradhan including other members had already received visa from the US embassy. Pradhan is being criticized for his instructions in writing to the Dailekh District Attorney’s Office and District Police Office not to proceed with recording statements of the five accused of Thapa’s murder. NA Colonel Lama was arrested in the UK 11 days ago for his alleged involvement in torturing detainees in Nepal during the Maoist insurgency. Nnnn WAGE HIKE FOR NEPALIS IN QATAR Kathmandu, 14 Jan. : The government is all set to jack up minimum remuneration of Nepalis working in Qatar by 400 Qatari Riyal (QAR) keeping in view the increasing cost of living in the labor destination, Prabhakar Ghimere writes in Republica.. The government´s latest move is also expected to create uniformity in remuneration of Nepalis employed in major labor destinations in the Gulf, such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE. "We are making final preparations to increase the minimum wage of Nepalis working in Qatar so as to make the remuneration at par with that extended in Saudi Arabia and the UAE," Buddi Khadka, spokesperson of the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MoLE), told Republica on Sunday. Once the wage hike is introduced, the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) will allow manpower agencies to send Nepalis to that destination only if employers agree to provide the new minimum salary fixed by the Nepal government. Currently, the MoLE is working on raising the minimum remuneration of Nepali workers in Qatar to 1,000 QAR per month, which include 800 QAR as salary and 200 QAR as food and accommodation allowance. As of now, Nepali workers are receiving 800 QAR in monthly remuneration, which includes 200 QAR in food and accommodation allowance. "We are taking the decision soon in line with the recommendation made by our embassy in Qatar," said Khadka. Qatar, which is home to more than 250,000 Nepali workers, received 26,416 additional Nepalis in the first five months of the current fiscal year. The government has already raised minimum wages of those working in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to 1,000 Saudi Riyal, which includes 200 Riyal as food and accommodation allowance. Recently, the Malaysian government increased the minimum salary of workers, including foreign migrants, to 900 Ringgit from 546 Ringgit in a bid to transform itself into one of the highest paying countries for workers. Qatar, the UAE, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia together provide employment to more than 95 percent of Nepalis who left the country for employment purpose through formal channel. A total of 140,468 workers left for those four major destinations in the first five months of the current fiscal year till mid-December. Meanwhile, RSS reported that the foreign employment agencies have decided not to take service charge from women looking for jobs in the Gulf region. Bal Bahadur Tamang, president of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA), said the NAFEA has already forwarded its decision to the MoLE and the DoFE. The new provision will apply on Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, which are receiving significant number of Nepali women migrants, Tamang said. The move comes at a time when foreign employment agencies are being criticized for acquiring fees from job aspirants even when employers bear entire cost to bring in workers. Currently, Nepali women leaving for the Gulf countries are paying around Rs 80,000 as service charge to manpower agencies. The UN estimates that some 250,000 Nepali women are working in Gulf counties, of which 63,000 are working in Saudi Arabia, 25,000 in Kuwait, 18,000 in Qatar, 10,000 in Oman and seven thousand in the UAE. Nnnn