BRIEFS (Spotlight Weekly)

KING BIRENDRA IS TO LEAVE FOR London for annual medical check-up during the third week of June as per the advice of his physicians, a communiqu issued by the royal palace said last week. King Birendra had visited London for treatment last year after suffering from a mild heart attack.

60 PERCENT WORKS OF what would be the largest hydropower project in the country, Kali Gandaki A, has been completed, officials said. Launched in January 1997, the construction of the 144 MW power project was scheduled to be completed by December 2000 but the construction works got delayed due to difficult geological structure at the project site and frequent workers strikes. The project is now expected to be completed by the middle of next year (2001), said Keshav Bahadur Chand, chief of the project.

MAOIST REBELS HAVE STARTED providing loans to farmers in remote mid-western district of Rukum through cooperative banks. According to KANTIPUR daily, one such bank, set up with a capital of Rs 40,000, has been operating for the last two months. The Bank provides loans to local people at an interest rate of 8 percent per annum and also accepts deposits from them. The rebels are planning to set up two more banks in the district.

THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT IS to assist in setting up an Emergency and Trauma Center at Bir hospital, the country's biggest hospital, to cater to medical and surgical emergencies and handling accident cases. According to the Indian embassy in Kathmandu, an understanding to this effect was signed on Saturday between director, Bir hospital and Prof. P. K Dave, director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. The construction of the new unit will start in November 2001 and will be completed in two years. The total cost for the project has been estimated at Rs 650 million.

PRIME MINISTER GIRIJA PRASAD Koirala has said he is going to visit Maoist-hit areas within a few weeks with a "development package" announced in the budget for the fiscal year 2000-01. Talking to reporters in his hometown, Biratnagar, last week, Koirala said he would talk to political workers belonging to all political parties in the Maoist affected districts and seek a consensus to resolve the issue. The dates for the premier's visit are yet to be made public. Responding to a question, Koirala said he was not aware about the proposal for dialogue made by the underground CPN (Maoist). Such a proposal should come in a public way, he added.

THE CONCRETE BUILDING of the Primary Health Center (PHC) at Sirthauli in Sindhuli district has collapsed within a year of its construction. According to KANTIPUR daily, three buildings including PHC, doctors' and staff quarter were constructed at the cost of Rs 12.5 million under the Population and Family Health Project of the Department of Health. The doctors' quarter is also on the verge of collapse, a junior official with the District Health Office of Sindhuli said. Local people have demanded action against the contractor who constructed the building.

NEPALI WOMEN TOP THE LIST of smokers in the entire world, reports said. According to World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 85 percent of male and 71 percent of female population in the country smoke in Nepal. The average population of smokers in the world is 47 percent for men and 12 percent for women. The latest report of WHO says that 6,000 metric tons of tobacco and 6.60 billion sticks of cigarette are produced in Nepal every year. The report published on the occasion of "World No Tobacco Day" on Wednesday said some four million people die of tobacco use worldwide. The corresponding figures for Nepal were not available.

AT LEAST 27 PEOPLE HAVE died of Kala-azar in eastern district of Udaypur over the last one month, reports said. Meanwhile, local people staged sit-in in front of the District Administration Office at Gaighat demanding immediate medical help. District Health Office of Udaypur has said a special team of doctors from Kathmandu has already set up a camp in the affected area and has started medical check-up and treatment.