BRIEFS (Spotlight Weekly)

KING BIRENDRA RETURNED HOME on Thursday afternoon after undergoing annual medical check-up in London. Queen Aishwarya and Prince Nirajan also returned home with His Majesty. Their Majesties the King and Queen had left for London on July 1. Crown Prince Dipendra, Prime Minister Giraja Prasad Koirala and other senior officials received their Majesties at the airport.

FOREIGN MINISTER CHAKRA P. BASTOLA is to visit People's Republic of China on August 21, reports said. The five-day visit is in response to an invitation from Thang Triya Suwan the Chinese Foreign Minister to mark the 45th anniversary of Nepal China friendly relation ship .The Nepal-China friendly relation was established on August 1, 1955.

THE RECOUNTING OF VOTES in Jhapa-4 constituency that had been scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed until August 6. Ramesh Jha, Judge at the Ilam Appellate Court, who has been designated to look into the election related cases in the eastern region, ordered the postponement of recounting of votes citing various reasons. Earlier, Jha had ordered recounting of votes as per the writ filed by Yukta Bhetwal of CPN-UML, who lost in the last year's elections with the margin of 26 votes. Nepali Congress member and Minister for Foreign Affairs Chakra Prasad Bastola had won the elections.

UPON THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE Administrative Reforms Commission, the government has approved new organization structure and posts of the 21 ministries and departments under them. Earlier, the government had decided to reduce the number of Ministries from 26 to 21 as per the recommendation of the Commission. According to the Ministry of General Administration, under the new structure the Inland Revenue Department will be set up by integrating the Department of Tax and Department of Value Added Tax (VAT). Similarly, the Department of Land Reforms and Management will be set up by integrating the Department of Land Reforms and Department of Land Revenue, and a separate Women's Development Department has been set up under the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare. Other changes have also been made as per the Commission's recommendations, officials said. The civil service has a total strength of 103,000 employees out of which nearly 1,000 will have to be adjusted according to the new organizational structure.

GRANTS MONEY RECEIVED FROM DONOR countries have no official record and it does not fall under the purview of audit conducted by the Auditor General of Nepal resulting into the lack of transparency and accountability, a senior official said. " Although all foreign loans are included in the annual budget of the country, it is not so in case of the grants. As a result we do not know the position of total grants received by the country," said auditor general Bishnu Bahadur K. C. "In some cases we even do not know who is spending the grants money, where it is spent and what achievement have been made," said K. C. addressing the inaugural session of the three day anti — corruption training course on Tuesday. Corruption is a global phenomenon today and combating corruption in a developing country like ours is not a task of law enforcement agencies only, he said. The training being jointly organized by the Ministry of Finance and the USAID will train 90 auditors of Nepal.

THE GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN HAS announced that it would provide US$ 1.3 million to UNHCR's refugee operation in Nepal in response to its global operation for the year 2000. The latest contribution is expected to assist the UN organization to carry out its care, maintenance and assistance programs for the Bhutanese refugees while waiting for their permanent final solution, Japanese embassy in Kathmandu said. The Government of Japan continues its humanitarian assistance to the Bhutanese refugee assisted program in Nepal. Nearly 100,000 Bhutanese refugees are languishing in UNHCR managed refugee camps in eastern Nepal for the last one decade.

FORMER FOREIGN MINISTER AND NEPALI Congress lawmaker Ram Sharan Mahat has demanded that the government set emission standards for the Liquified Petroleum Gas operated three wheelers and the micro-buses that have begun to arrive to replace the diesel operated three-wheeler, popularly known as Vikram Tempos. The Vikrams were banned from operating within the valley since September last year. "There should be safety standards for these vehicles set by the government. The gas tanks are usually exposed which could be dangerous. They need to be concealed and the number of passengers allowed in these vehicles should be set," Mahat told the House of Represantatives.

A RETIRED BRITISH GORKHA SOLDIER, Gyan Raj Rai, has filed a petition at the Supreme Court on Tuesday demanding that the Court ask the Nepal government to take diplomatic or legal initiative to ensure appropriate service regulations to serving and ex-British Gorkha soldiers on humanitarian ground, KANTIPUR daily reported today. Rai has also demanded that the Court order the government to enter into a bilateral agreement (with the United Kingdom) to this effect. A 1947 tripartite treaty between Nepal, India and the U. K. governs recruitment and facilities to Gorkha soldiers recruited in the Indian and British Army. The writ petition has been filed amidst on-going campaign by a section of ex-British Gorkha soldiers who demand that the British government pay equal pension and benefits to them vis a vis the British soldiers. The British government has maintained that there has not been any discrimination against Gorkha soldiers serving in its army.

NEPAL AND THE UNITED STATES OF America have signed an agreement on July 13 to allow Nepali garment export to USA for a further period of four years beginning January 1, 2001. The agreement is a renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two countries in 1996 and 1997 that expires in December, this year. Officials here at the Ministry of Industry, Supplies and Commerce said that agreement would allow Nepali entrepreneurs to utilize the excess quota on various export items. Nepal and Canada have also signed a similar agreement on July 14 to facilitate Nepali garment export to Canada.

POLICE HAVE SEIZED A LARGE cache of weapons during a raid on a house in the far-western district of Kanchanpur last week. According to Chhetra Pradhan, a senior police official, the Police found 26 guns, 12 sacks of empty cartridges and moulds used to make cartridges during a raid in the house of Amar Bahadur Bika. The police have arrested Bika for further investigation. Police said the seized weapons bear no license and the mould of the cartridges had also been found along with it. Police suspect that Maoist rebels might have ordered the arms.