TWO IRANIANS KILLED BY TRUCK DRIVEN BY NEPALIS IN SAUDI ARABIA Kathmandu, 5 April:: A service truck crashed into a passenger lounge of Jeddah international airport in Saudi Arabia, killing two Iranian pilgrims and injuring four others, reports said on Friday, AFP reports from Jeddah. The truck, driven by a Nepalese man, careened through the glass panes of the King Abdulaziz International Airport terminal on Thursday, the reports said, citing the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority. The Iranians had been waiting to board a flight to Tehran after pilgrimages to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Iran´s Arabic-language Al-Alam television said the two passengers who died were in their sixties and that two of the four injured were treated on the spot and able to travel, while the other two were hospitalised. The Nepalese truck driver was arrested and an investigation launched into the accident, the Saudi media reports said. Nnnn AMBULANCE SERVICE SHUT DOWN IN SIRAHA Kathmandu, 5 April: The Sagarmatha Zonal Ambulance Drivers' Association has shutdown ambulance services in Siraha district on Friday to protest the manhandling of ambulance driver, demanding action against the guilty, RSS reports from Siraha.. Around two dozen ambulance s have been stopped at the main gate of the Ward Police Office, Lahan, at the call of the Association. Chairman of the Association, Shrawan Mandal, said that the ambulance s would be parked in front of the Office unless action against the guilty is taken. Devnath Saha of Lahan-6 thrashed Ram Dayal Chaudhary, driver of the ambulance Sa 1 Cha 656 of Sukhipur sub-branch of Nepal Red Cross Society at Lahan-based Saptarishi Hospital Thursday night. Chaudhary received injuries on his left hand in the incident.Chaudhary said that Saha thrashed him soon after reaching the hospital after bringing Nilam Saha of Tulsipur-1 to the hospital at 11:30 pm. Ambulance drivers also halted traffic along the East-West Highway for around one hour from 6:00 am this morning demanding action against the guilty and compensation. Ambulance drivers have stopped ambulance s in front of the Ward Police Office after police assured them to make public Saha in Lahan by 10:00 am this morning as they have already arrested him. Patients have been hit hard due to the disruption of ambulance services, said Chief of the Saptarishi Hospital, Dr. Pashupati Chaudhary. nnnn INDIAN BORDER ENCROACHMENT AT 71 PLACES SAYS EXPERT Kathmandu, 5 April: India has encroached upon the border at 71 places in Nepal, prominent scholars have said, RSS reports.. Speaking in a programme to discuss about national sovereignty and defence of the national border s with the local communities, the scholars alleged that India still continues to trespass the border with Nepal further putting the border at risk. Buddhi Narayan Shrestha, a renowned surveyor and expert on border , said that India has encroached upon 37 thousand hectares of Nepali territory in the Kalapani area, the largest area encroached upon. The smallest area on the border encroached upon by India was in Ilam which is half a ropani plot at Pashupatinagar, he added. Shrestha also shared that 14 hectares of Nepali territory has been encroached upon by India at the border in Susta in Nawalparasi district. He said the border was encroached at 53 places 10 years back and it has reached 71 places till date. "This shows that India has not stopped transgressing the border with Nepal," he commented. Shrestha said his conclusions are based on a study research he carried out which are published in a book. Scholar Shrestha came down heavily on the successive governments in Nepal for doing nothing to check this transgression of its border by its southern neighbour. He also shared that the total border area encroached by India was 60 thousand 600 hectares. Similarly, another scholar Phanindra Nepal alleged government´s negligence in securing its border . He called upon the citizens to be aware of this rampant encroachment on the national frontier and to jointly take action for securing it. Nepal also exhorted people to join in his campaign of building a greater Nepal. He stressed the need of revising the unequal treaties signed in the past with the then British East India Company, the colonial rulers. Another scholar, Dr. Gopal Shivakoti Chintan said that even the UCPN (Maoist) that waged a People´s War in the past did nothing as regards protecting the country´s border s. nnnn