PM reaches London
Deuba, Patten discuss Nepal-EC relations

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KATHMANDU, Aug. 29: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba reached London from Brussels today.
He was received at the airport by Royal Nepalese Ambassador to the United Kingdom Dr. Singha Bahadur Basnyat, the representative of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and staff members of the Royal Nepalese Embassy.

Earlier, Prime Minister Deuba was seen off at the Zaventern International Airport by Royal Nepalese Ambassador Narayan S. Thapa and the officials of the Royal Nepalese Embassy in Brussels.
Earlier, on Wednesday, Sher Bahadur Deuba, Prime Minister of Nepal, had a meeting with Chris Patten, the External Relations Commissioner of the European Commission, in Brussels.
During the meeting, all matters relating to Nepal-EC cooperation were discussed, according to the Royal Nepalese Embassy in Brussels.

The Prime Minister thanked the EC Commissioner for the establishment of the European Commission office in Kathmandu and requested the EC to enhance the level of assistance to Nepal to meet the development needs of the country.

He also thanked the EC Commissioner for the moral and political support extended to His Majesty's Government in combating terrorism in the country. The Commissioner assured EC's continued cooperation to Nepal in her development efforts and in preserving constitutional order and ensuring human rights and fundamental freedoms to all.

The Commissioner expressed the EC's willingness to send European Union (EU) observers for the November election. The Prime Minister welcomed the offer of the European Commission.

Prime Minister Deuba met with the trade commissioner in the European Commission Wednesday and had detailed discussions on Nepal-EC trade and economic cooperation.

The Prime Minister thanked the commissioner for the cooperation extended to Nepal, including derogation facilities from the rules of origin and everything but arms (EBA).

The trade commissioner also assured EC's full support for Nepal's accession to WTO.

Royal Nepalese Ambassador Narayan S. Thapa and Mrs. Pratima Thapa hosted a reception in honour of the Prime Minister in Brussels Wednesday.

Prominent members of the European Parliament, EC officials, the foreign secretary and other senior officials of the government of Belgium, the representatives of Nepalese student in Belgium attended the reception.

Armyman dies as bomb explodes in Lalitpur

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Aug. 29: An armyman died of injuries he received while trying to defuse a bomb at Otubahal in Lalitpur, about a kilometre from the busy shopping area of Mangalbazaar of the sub-metropolis, Thursday morning.

A squad, from the Engineer Brigade of the Royal Nepalese Army, was preparing to defuse the small bomb placed at the base of an electrictiy pole at a road junction, but the bomb went off. Anil Shakya, an eye-witness, said the blast ripped apart the right arm of warrant officer Prem Bahadur Khadka, who approached the bomb. Khadka succumbed to injuries at the hospital. The blast was powerful, he said, and it smashed the windows of the nearby houses. It also damaged the cement pole. Fragments of the bomb were found scatttered up to 25 metres away.

Major Madhab Thapa of the Royal Nepalese Army said further casualties were averted because the area was cordoned off and the shops were closed. The place where the bomb was planted is surrounded by shops.

According to Major Thapa the terrorist might have been set off the bomb by a remote control device. Otherwise, the bomb could have been defused, he said, adding that Khadka was an expert in defusing bombs.

No one has claimed the responsibility but the police suspect Maoist terrorists to be behind plot.
Local people had spotted the bomb wrapped in a piece of red cloth and tied to the pole at about 6 A.M, and informed the police. The police reached the place at 7.15 and informed the RNA bomb disposal team, which had arrived at about 8:30.

"This is the first time this happened in the area", said Anil Shakya, pointing out at the broken windown of his house. He said the blast had created terrror among the locals.

This is the second bomb explosion in the Valley in two consecutive days. One day earlier, a bomb was planted at the Bishal Bazaar Super Market in Kathmandu.

The Defence Ministry has praised Khadka for his bravery and prayed for his peace.

In a statement issued Thursday, the Ministry said three Maoists were gunned down during the on-going operation at Samshergunj in Banke.

Sher Bahadur Tharu alias Bijaya, the so-called area commander of Banke and Bardia, Nabin Tharu alias Akhanda, a member of the area committee, and Rajendra Dahal alias Abhinesh were killed in encounters.

Weapons, pistols, different kinds of bullets, socket bombs and materials used in making electric ambush were recovered from them as well as from other places during the search operation.

The army recovered three bodies of Maoists in Mafal area of Dolakha Wednesday. The forces suspect they were injured in encounters a week ago.

An active member of the terrorist organisation surrendered before the security forces in Kavre. Medical teams of the army provided their services to 300 people in Sidhuwa of Dhankuta and 39 locals of Mungma of Rukum. The medicines were distributed free of cost.

Belgium confirms weapons sale

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Aug. 29: The Belgian government, on Thursday, confirmed its decision on the sale of weapons to Nepal. Nepal is purchasing 5,500 automatic rifles from this European country.

An Associated Press report from Brussels said this decision overrides the objections of a key coalition party in the Belgian government over the issue.

A cabinet meeting agreed that the license for the arms sales to Nepal was the right decision. However, the coalition parties promised to be more careful in the future when approving arms sales.
The government stands by its decision, said Rik Daems, Belgian Minister for Telecommunications. "But in future, a number of things will be taken into consideration. That is only normal. "The minister told the VRT radio network, AP reports.

The Belgian environmentalist party Agalev said ahead of the cabinet meeting that it would oppose the weapon sales unless additional humanitarian guarantees were adopted, signaling a possible crisis to the coalition government.

Daems, however, said that the concerns of the Agalev party had been assuaged during the cabinet meeting. "It was a good and correct discussion," the Minister added.

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt was due to address a special parliamentary debate on this issue late Thurdsay, according to AP.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Tuesday said in Brussels that the weapons were needed in the fight against terrorism. Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said that the sale was ethically the right decision.

SAARCPOL mooted to curb crimes

By Narayan Upadhyay

KATHMANDU, Aug. 29: Nepal's proposal for establishing SAARCPOL, a regional law enforcement body, has been agreed in principle by the police chiefs of the SAARC member nations.

The police chiefs, who gathered here for the 3rd SAARC Conference on Cooperation in Police Matter after a gap of five years, decided to take up the recommendation for the regional police body to the SAARC Standing Committee and later to the 12th Summit for its ratification "keeping in view SAARCPOL's practicability." They agreed to give suitable nomenclature to it.

"We held extensive discussion and came out with good result. This will help build a conducive atmosphere for mutual cooperation," Inspector General of Police Pradeep Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana told journalists after the two-day conference came to an end this afternoon.

IGP Rana, who assumed the chair of the conference, said he had held informal talks about Maoist terrorists with the Indian representatives on the sideline. "They have committed to assist Nepal in solving the problem."

"Though the meet was held after an interval of five years after, we hope that such kind of meeting among police chiefs of South Asia will continue every year," Rana, said. The police chiefs had earlier met two meetings- first in Colombo in 1996 and second in Male in 1997.

The next conference of the region's police chiefs will be held in Pakistan. The Pakistan government has given their consent for the meeting. The SAARC secretariat will decide the date of the meeting.
Giving details for a need of the SAARCPOL, Additional Inspector General of Police Govind Thapa said that working with the 179-member INTERPOL in controlling crimes in South Asia is expensive and time consuming, a regional police body of South Asia was felt necessary.

"Becasue we share same experience in our region and have the same kind of resources and strategy which can come handy in controlling menace of terrorism, trafficking of women and children for protestation, pedaling of drugs as well as organised crimes," Thapa said after the conference attended by 22 heads of police and their deputies from seven SAARC nations.

The logic behind SAARCPOL is that it will help implement SAARC's recent conventions on tackling the menace of women trafficking and convention on the children's welfare. It will support in building capacity of the police professionals through "various experience sharing programmes, such seminars, workshops and researches."

The shared experience among policemen of the region will assist the police organisations in curbing organised and cyber crimes. It will also emphasise in establishing an organisation- South Asian Professionals Against Trafficking of Human Being (SAPATH), he added.

For the enhancing of capability of South Asian police, the proposed body also expects enhanced cooperation and understanding among the concerned ministries of the member states.

Apart from discussion on SAARCPOL, the two-day meeting also decided to implement the directive given to it by 23rd session of the SAARC Council of Ministers for establishing a network of the arrangement among the police authorities of the region.

The meeting agreed to establish a new SAARC Organised Crime Monitoring Desk and to further strengthen the existing SAARC Terrorist Offences Monitoring Desk and SAARC Drug Offences Monitoring Desk.

Greater cooperation among the law enforcement authorities on the exchange of information and expertise, greater interaction in the area of training of police officials among the member states, sharing of experiences of each other in areas relating or law enforcement were measure decisions taken in the meeting.

The conference took the decision to embrace a regional approach in combating offences affecting women and children while they are being employed as domestic help in the countries of the region and the nations outside South Asia. These offences include: forceful employment of children, low wages and physical exploitation by the employers.

During the meeting all the participating police chiefs presented country reports where they had outlined crime situation of their respective countries and ways and measures to tackle them.
- Snowline shift portends dangers -

snow line has shifted. It is clearly visible in our snow-capped Himalayas," senior hydrology and glaciology expert at the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology Dr. Arun Bhakta Shrestha told The Rising Nepal.

We now do not find snow in the places where we used to find some 8 years ago, he said.
According to Shrestha, the permanent snow line in the Nepalese Himalayas stands at about 4,500 meter above the sea level.

Hydrologists and meteorologists say the change in the snow line may haveshifted upward by at least one meter a year.

Prof. Bidur Upadhyay, head of Central Department of Hydrology and Meteorology at the Tribhuvan University, says that the change in snow line was due to global warming. "The average temperature rise has been recorded at 0.12 degree Celsius in the Himalayas while it is 0.03 to 0.06 degree Celsius in the Terai," Upadhyay said.

Since the higher rate of temperature rise in the Himalayan region is witnessed, it is likely to add trouble to the lives of not only the people and animals but also to the ecology. Some of the changes could be the rise or fall of the water level in the rivers, increase in glacial activities such as receding or bursting of glacial lakes. It could cause biological and survival problems to yaks and other high-altitude animals in the long run. "Because human life is not possible in very high altitude, yaks cannot survive there, and there is possibility of them becoming endangered," Shrestha said.
"The equilibrium snow line is subject to change in accordance with the place. Snow line in the eastern Himalayas is at a lower place than in the western ones," he said. Shrestha says the study on snow line is very expensive and that is not possible in Nepal without assistance from outside.
However, with India showing interest for the study of snow line along with other hydrological and meteorological aspects, the Department hopes to have a concrete idea about the change in the snow level.

Keeping in mind the seriousness of impact due to change in snow line, a secretary-level meeting of Nepal and India started today in Kathmandu to discuss about the possibilities ofcooperation in areas including the change in the snow line. The teams are headed by the secretaries of the respective departments, Mahesh Man Shrestha and Prof. B. S. Ramamurthy.

"During the two-day meeting, both the countries will discuss in areas of cooperation in 10 different agenda that include geo-sensing, hydrology and meteorology," said a press release issued today by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The two sides are expected to sign some agreements after the finalisation of the talks tomorrow.
Tomorrow's final round meeting will decide whether India will be interested in studying the snow line change so as to find out ways to stop the unwanted change seen in the Himalayas.

The secretary level meeting is being held as a run up to the agreement held between Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his Indian counterpart regarding bilateral cooperation in the area of science and technology during his official visit to India some five months back.

The meeting will focus on other areas - rural and intermediate technology; biotechnology; monsoon, agro and satellite meteorology, numerical weather prediction, information technology; renewable and non-conventional energy; medicinal plants; space science and technology applications; research manpower development training; bio-diversity; and snow and glacial studies.

Start negotiations, Govt, Maoists urged

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Aug. 29: Political leaders and experts today called on both the government and the Maoists to immediately start negotiation and restore peace to safeguard franchise of the people in the violence-hit areas and increase their participation in the forthcoming mid-term polls.

"Peace is prerequisite for holding the November polls in a fair and free manner," they voiced unison at a programme 'Forthcoming Parliamentary Elections, Conflict Hit-zone and Peace proposal' organised by the Karnali IntegratedRural Development and Research Centre (KIRDRC) here Thursday.
They demanded that the Maoist should immediately announce cease-fire and responsively take part in the democratic exercise.

They said that the Nepalese society was now engulfed in conflicts after the successive governments failed to manage them properly.

The speakers said that the Maoists cashed in on the feelings of injustice among the downtrodden and the ethnic communities. They stressed on the allocation of budget in a proportionate manner. At the function, political leaders also pledged that their election manifestoes would give due priority to the Karnali zone, which lags behind in the social and economic fronts.

Jhalanath Khanal, standing committee member of the CPN-UML, said there must be a normal law and order situation for holding the elections in a democratic manner.

"The parties have no other alternative but to work for holding the polls in a fair manner so that there would not be constitutional crisis in the country," Khanal added. "For this, they should forge consensus to create a congenial political atmosphere." He called upon the government not to impose the state of emergency again.

Narahari Acharya, central committee member of Nepali Congress led by former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, said that his party had emphasised on constitutional reforms to bring about the desired economic and social changes in the society. Acharya pointed out a common political agenda among the parties to resolve the Maoist problem.

He said that his party has brought up the concept of regional government in its election manifesto to address the problems of the people of areas such as Karnali.

Kamal Thapa, spokesman of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, said that the Maoists should extend cooperation to make the elections successful for their own sake because only a democratically elected government could resolve their problem.

Former lawmaker Prem Bahadur Singh said rampant social discrimination had invited conflicts in the western Nepal.

Another ex-MP Hari Acharya said that the Maoists, coming under an ultra-Left passion, had been carrying out deranged activities.

Acharya informed that the Maoist terrorists have begun a campaign to attack the candidates in the forthcoming elections.

Binod Bahadur Shrestha, acting president of the FNCCI and economist Mohan Man Sainju, said the civil society should put pressure on both the government and the Maoists to declare a cease-fire and resolve the problem through dialogue.

KIRDRC president Min Bahadur Shahi said that government and the Maoists must be serious towards protecting the voting rights of the people.

Sri Krishna Janmasthami today

RSS

KATHMANDU, Aug 30: The Sri Krishna Janmasthami, the birthday of Lord Krishna is being celebrated by the Hindus throughout the nation today.

Lord Krishna is considered as the incarnation of Lord Bishnu. The protector of human being from evils, injustice and devilish forces.

Sri Krishna Janmasthami is celebrated in a grand manner to cherish the good deeds of Lord Krishna for a happy and prosperous life. Lord Krishna, born of Basudev and Devaki held prisoner by Kansha in Mathura, India guided humanity on the path of knowledge, truth and immortality, the legend says.
Lord Krishna is also known as "Gopal" for his dedicated service to the cows. As a herder he is also known as "Manmohan" for the melodies be used to play on his flute charming everyone.

Devotees throng the temples of Lord Krishna from early morning.

They visit the famous Sri Krishna temple at Mangal Bazaar, Lalitpur and offer worship at the temple.
The renowned and artistic Sri Krishna temple made of stones was built by the then King of Patan Siddhi Narshing Malla in 1936 B.S.

Various religious organisations and institutions celebrate the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna by organising colourful processions with the idols of Lord Krishna flanked by decorative portraits.
Devotees, especially, women spend the night chanting prayers and devotional songs, dancing and lighting oil lamps.

Chaudhary inspects offices

RSS

BHADRAPUR, Aug. 29: Minister of State for Information and Communications Harinarayan Chaudhary inspected the Mechi zonal office of Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS) and acquired information about works being carried out by the office.

On the occasion chief of the RSS Mechi zonal office Pramod Pradhan informed the Minister of State about the news exchange service, and the physical condition and manpower of the office.

Minister of State Chaudhary alsoinspected Nepal Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) at Bhadrapur and Jhapa district post office today.

After inspecting the various rooms of the NTC office, Chaudhary said that as NTC was a service-oriented institution, the NTC employees should carry out the works of the people in a speedily.
He also stressed the need for the NTC employees to carry out their duties sincerely.

On the occasion, chief executive engineer of NTC Bhadrapur office Kedar Prasad Pokherel had provided information concerning the office to the Minister of State.

During the inspection of the Jhapa district post office, Minister of State Chaudhary was apprised of the various activities of the chief of the district post office Achyut Prasad Dahal.

Dahal said that the district post office had collected revenues totalling Rs. 4,282,512 in the fiscal year 2058/59 an increase by 12.60 percent in comparison to the previous fiscal year.

He added that a total of 186 employees were engaged at the district post office, 17 ilaka post offices and 37 additional post offices in Jhapa district.