MADHAV NEPAL SAYS OPPOSITION SHOULD BE ASKED TO JOIN HLPM Kathmandu, 19 April: Senior leader of the CPN-UML, Madhav Kumar Nepal, has said agitating fringe political parties should be brought into the High Level Political Committeem RSS reports (HLPC). "The UML is firm on its stance of bringing the agitating fringe political parties including CPN-Maoist and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum Nepal into the Committee and create an environment for the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections," said former Prime Minister Nepal. He added that the UML's latest politburo meeting had decided to this effect. Speaking at a programme organised to felicitate the newly elected central committee of the Press Chautari Nepal, he said it was not possible to go to election until the demands of the agitating political parties were met. He claimed that holding CA election in June 21 was not possible as the formation of the current government and appointing of the officials at the Election Commission (EC) were delayed due to the Unified CPN-Maoist. Stating the context that some leaders of UML had left the party, the senior leader of UML said, 'it does not affect a tree when some of the old leaves drop from it, for new buds takes their place.' He claimed that there was a new wave of people joining the UML. During the programme, leader Nepal congratulated newly elected team of the Press Chautari Nepal including the Press Advisor of the Ministry of Information and Communications. At the programme, Chairman of the Press Chautari Rajendra Aryal said his team had forwarded programmes for the welfare of the working journalists. Vice President of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Yashoda Timalsina, Chairman of the Television Editors' Guild, Mahendra Bista, and Chairperson of the Sancharika Samuha, Nirmala Sharma, among others, wished for the successful tenure of the newly elected committee. nnnn STUDENTS KILLED IN BHARATPUR Kathmandu, 19 April: Two students of Bharatpur-based Nepal Polytechnic Institute died in separate incidents, RSS reports from Bharatpur.. Kushal Khadka of Parewadanda in Lamjung district, who was injured in a motorcycle accident on Thursday evening, died this morning. Khadka was member of the All Nepal National Free Students Union Campus Unit. The accident took place after the motorcycle (Ga 7 Pa 6049) driven by Khadka met with an accident at Devi Chowk near Rampur of the western Chitwan after he lost control, according to the District Police Office, Chitwan. Khadka was a student of B. Sc Ag. at the Polytechnic Institute. He died while undergoing treatment at Bharatpur-based Medical College. Similarly, another student of the Institute, Ganesh Chaudhary of Kailali, died this morning after consuming poison. Chaudhary had consumed poison two days ago. He died while undergoing treatment at Bharatpur Hospital. He was a veterinary student at the Institute. The cause behind his consuming poison has not been ascertained yet. Nnnn TWO BUFFALO HERDERS DROWN Kathmandu, 19 April: Two bufalo herders fell into a pond of a brick kiln in Banke and died. Mitthu Yadav,13, and Ramsharan Yadav.11, drowned. nnnn. A SUSPECTED BOSTON BOMBER DEAD; ANOTHER ON THE RUN Kathmandu, 19 April: Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis confirmed early Friday that one of the suspected Boston marathon bombers is dead and the hunt for the "armed and dangerous" second bomber is still on, AFP reports from Boston.. "One suspect dead. One at large," Davis said on his official Twitter account. "Armed and dangerous. White hat suspect at large," Davis added. One police officer was shot dead and a second wounded in a dramatic nighttime operation, authorities said. One suspect was caught in Watertown near Boston after a chase in which explosives and gunfire were heard, the Boston Globe reported. Special police forces sealed off much of the town as they hunted the second man, the newspaper and other media said. The authorities made no comment on whether there was a link between the manhunt and Monday's bombing in which three people were killed and about 180 injured. But the operation came only hours after the Federal Bureau of Investigation released photos of the suspects they believe planted the bombs. A robbery at a gas station was followed by the killing of a police officer on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a car chase to Watertown, media reports said. A second police officer was wounded in a gunfight in the town, they added. Nnnn MUSHARRAF UNDER HOSEE ARREST Kathmandu, 19 April: A Pakistani judge placed former president and army chief Pervez Musharraf under house arrest on Friday in the boldest step yet by the country's courts against senior military officers long deemed untouchable by the law, Reuters reports from Islamabad.. Police escorted Musharraf from the courtroom to his residence on the edge of Islamabad where he must remain for two days ahead of a hearing over allegations he unlawfully detained judges during a 2007 showdown with the judiciary. Ramping up pressure on the former paratrooper who seized power in a coup in 1999 and resigned in 2008, the judge ordered the case be heard in an anti-terrorism court on the grounds that detaining judges could be considered an attack on the state. Naveed Malik, a lawyer who was present at the hearing, said the retired general had voluntarily presented himself at the court and had asked to be detained at his home rather than go to jail. "Now the police have to present him before the anti-terrorism court in two day's time," Malik told reporters outside the court. One of Musharraf's lawyers said he would file a petition to overturn the arrest order at the Supreme Court later on Friday. The spectacle of a man who once embodied the army's control over Pakistan being humbled by a court was a potent symbol of the way power dynamics have shifted. General elections to be held in Pakistan next month will be the first transition between elected civilian-led governments. Musharraf returned to Pakistan after almost four years of self-imposed exile last month to stand in the polls but he was disqualified by election officials. While the sight of a former army commander being arrested is sure to rankle some in the military, who see the armed forces as the only reliable guarantor of Pakistan's stability, Musharraf's ill-starred return has also bemused some former comrades. "I don't think the army was in favour of him returning and tried to dissuade him," said General Hamid Khan, a former senior army commander. "But he decided to come, and now he has to face this. The army is staying out of it." However, the order to place Musharraf under house arrest was surprising in a nation that has been ruled by the military for more than half of its 66 years as an independent nation and where the army's writ is almost never questioned even by civilian governments. It was also a turning of the tables by a judiciary whose senior members themselves faced detention while Musharraf was in power. Musharraf is accused of violating the constitution by placing judges under house arrest during the 2007 confrontation with the judiciary, when he sacked the chief justice and lawyers fought running battles with police. He has also been accused of treason for his decision to suspend the constitution and impose emergency rule. He also faces a raft of other legal challenges, including allegations that he failed to provide adequate security to prevent the assassination of former primer minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007. nnnn