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LOAD-SHEDDING REDUCED FROM TUESDAY

Kathmandu, 16 July: Load shedding was reduced to 27 hours a week

from Tuesday.

Increased power generation helped reduce power cuts from 35 to

27 hours a week.

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RARE SPOTTED TIGER SPOTTED IN KANCHANPUR

Kathmandu, 16 July:: A spotted tiger, listed as one of the endangered species of tiger, has been seen for the first time in Gwasi Samaiji Community Forest in Krishnapur, Kanchanpur, RSS reports from Kanchanpur..

The tiger with black and white spots over a golden background was seen near the human settlement two days ago.

Chairman of the community forest Khemraj Pandey said public life has been terrorised as the tiger starts roaring before the dusk.

The locals have stopped driving their cattle to the nearby forest for grazing.

Locals suspect that the tiger could have come from the Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve or nearby India's Dudhuwa National Park.

Officials estimate that the Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve is home to around a dozen spotted tigers.

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VOTERS DECLINE IN KAVRE SIRAHA

Kathmandu, 16 July:: The number of voters in Kavrepalanchowk district has been found to have decreased by a significant number compared to the first Constituent Assembly (CA) election., RSS reports from Banepa.

According to the District Election Office Kavre, the number of people registering their names in the voters' list for the upcoming CA election decreased compared to the first CA election due to lack of people's access to transport facility and interests in the voters' name list.

Many people of Gokule Village Development, the village across the Mahabharat Danda failed to register themselves in the voters' name list due to lack of transportation facility, Office Chief Harish Ghimire said.

As per the latest census, the total population of Kavre is more than 381,000. However, the total number of people registering in the biometric voters list is 206,793.

As many as 321,705 people had taken part in the first 2008 CA election from the district.

Similarly, only around 290,000 people eligible for voting have registered their names in the biometric voters' list in Siraha which is 33 per cent lesser than of the first CA election.

This number was 434,353 in the 2008 CA election, Chief of District Election Office Siraha, Krishnahari Neupane said.

The deadline for registering name in the voters' name list expired on Monday.

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5.700 FEARED KILLED IN INDIA FLOODS LANDSLIDES

UCKNOW: A top Indian official says more than 5,700 people missing since last month's devastating floods that ravaged northern India are now presumed dead, AP reports from Lucknow..

Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said Tuesday that the Uttarakhand state government would give financial compensation to the families of people who may have perished in the floods and landslides that hit the Himalayan region in June.

The government had earlier put the death toll at 600 but repeatedly stressed that it would be significantly higher.

Bahuguna said recovery operations to locate the missing would continue.

Hundreds of thousands of Hindus visit Uttarakhand's temple towns during the summer. Usually the visitors return before July, when monsoon rains make the mountainous area much more treacherous.

This year, unprecedented heavy rains fell around mid-June and caught many unaware.

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NO POLITICAL INTENTION IN CURBING SUBSIDIES TO BHUTAN SAYS NEW DELHI

Kathmandu, 16 July: India said Monday it looks forward to "intensive consultations" as soon as a new government is in place in Bhutan and denied there was

 any political or other intention in the subsidy cut of kerosene and cooking gas to the

Himalayan nationm IANS reports from New Delhi..

External affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said: "We expect intensive consultations as soon as a new government is in place in Bhutan ."

To a query on subsidy cut, he clarified that "the issue of subsidy relates to the delivery mechanisms of India 's development partnership with Bhutan , it has no political or other intentions."

"We will certainly engage with Bhutan on this," he said.

He also clarified that it was not "the intension of India to in any way adversely impact on the poor in Bhutan or on people in Bhutan in any manner".

India "looks forward to engaging on this matter with Bhutan as soon as possible", he said.

India had cut off the kerosene and cooking gas subsidy to Bhutan last month as the 10th Plan, under which India was providing such assistance, expired June 30.

The spokesperson described the election process in Bhutan , in which the opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) emerged victorious, as the "consolidation of democracy" in the Himalayan country.

The PDP won the elections, capturing 32 seats, while the incumbent Druk Phuensum Tshogpa of former prime minister Jigmi Y. Thinley could manage just 15 seats in the 47-member National Assembly. The elections were Bhutan 's second parliamentary elections since the country became a democracy in 2008.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had on Sunday written to PDP leader Tshering Tobgay, congratulating him on his party's victory and promised India 's "steadfast and unflinching support".

He also assured that New Delhi will remain "sensitive to Bhutan and its interests" and said he has instructed his officials to "prepare for the discussions on our plan assistance to Bhutan ".

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