MATRIKA PAUDEL PRESS ADVISOR OF COMMUNICATION MINISTRY Kathmandu, 8 April:: Journalist Matrika Paudel has been appointed the press advisor to the Ministry of Information and Communications, RSS reports.. A meeting of the Council of Ministers on Thursday decided to appoint journalist Poudel to the post to be provided with perks and facilities of the special class. Paudel is also the central member of the Federation of Nepali Journalists and Vice Chairman of Society of Parliamentary Reporters. Paudel who originally hails from Duragaun of Ramechhap district is involved in the journalism field for the past one and a half decades. He is presently a news coordinator for the News 24 Television. Nnnn LEOPARD KILLED IN TANAHU Kathmandu, 8 April:: Police sharpshooters killed a female leopard that attacked and injured people at Bhanu and Tilar in Tanahu district on Sunday, RSS reports. evening. The leopard attacked one Ram Bahadur Ranabhat and mauled him last evening before making its way into a human settlement. A police team was called up for help and the team killed the marauding leopard. Terror reigned the entire village after the leopard clutching a goat kid entered the empty house belonging to one Binod Poudel and went up on the second floor of the house. Police said they were left with no option but to kill the leopard as it refused to climb down and as there was no possibility of catching it and releasing it in the jungle. Nnnn RAJIV GANDHI LINKED TO ARMS DEAL Kathmandu, 8 April: Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, whose family still dominates India´s ruling party, may have been a middleman for an arms deal in the 1970s, according to diplomatic cables published Monday, AFP reports from New Delhi.. The Hindu newspaper, accessing new information compiled by WikiLeaks, cites confidential US embassy cables stating that Gandhi was employed by Swedish group Saab-Scania to help sell its Viggen fighter jet. Gandhi, who was then outside politics and working as a commercial pilot, was the "main negotiator" for Saab-Scania and was paid because of his access to his mother Indira Gandhi who was prime minister at the time, the cables say. They cite information given by Swedish embassy officials but also state that US officials were unable to confirm or deny the information. "We would have thought a transport pilot is not the best expert to rely upon in evaluating a fighter plane, but then we are speaking of a transport pilot who has another and perhaps more relevant qualification," a US diplomat was quoted as noting wryly in one of the cables. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991. His Italian-born widow Sonia is now head of the ruling Congress party and their son Rahul is positioned as a prime ministerial candidate before elections scheduled for next year. After entering politics reluctantly, Rajiv was later tarnished by a scandal involving Swedish gun manufacturer Bofors, which was accused of paying bribes to middlemen including an Italian businessman close to the Gandhis. The Congress party lost elections in 1989, a defeat partly attributed to the Bofors scandal. Saab-Scania ultimately lost in its bid to sell its Viggen jets to India. British-made Jaguar planes were selected for the tender. Nnnn