BRIEFS (Spotlight Weekly)

THE GROUP OF NINE LEFT parties has urged the government to create the "minimum environment" required to hold talks with the Maoist rebels and has warned that the government's move to mobilize the army to counter insurgency could lead to civil war. The left parties, in a meeting on Saturday, said the Maoist problem is getting more complex each day and said they reiterated the importance of talks to find a peaceful resolution to the problem that has claimed lives of more than 1400 people over the last four and half years.

THE NEPAL STOCK EXCHANGE Limited has allotted 1.437 million shares of the Oriental Hotel Limited (Radisson Kathmandu) to 32,012 applicants from among more than 92,000 applicants, the hotel said. Each share is worth Rs.100. The Hotel had initially floated shares equivalent to Rs. 125 million and later floated another Rs.25 million worth of shares after they were over subscribed. Earlier, public shares issues by Taragaon Regency Hotels Ltd. were also oversubscribed due to overwhelming response by the investors.

THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF NEPAL (ML) is going to organize its national convention in Kathmandu later this year, the party said. According to the party, the conference will be held from December 8 till 12. The party's central committee that met early this month also took various decisions for the preparation of the convention.

POLICE IN NORTHERN DISTRICT of Dolakha have taken into custody 79 Tibetans (including six women) for entering into Nepal illegally. According to KANTIPUR daily, a police patrol team located and later arrested the group of Tibetans at Dhunge bazar in the district, 189-km north-east of Kathmandu. Police has sent the Tibetan refugees to Department of Immigration in the capital for further investigation. Most of them are allowed to go to Dharmashala in India to see their religious leader, the Dalai Lama, through mediation of the UNHCR.

SHEY PHOKSUNDO NATIONAL Park, situated in far-western Nepal, is being considered to be included in the World Heritage list, officials said. Senior advisor at the World Heritage Committee, James Thorsell, who is currently in the capital to evaluate the status of Nepali heritage enlisted the World Heritage Sites, said his group was working on to complete all necessary works before the site is enlisted. The 24th session of the WHC in Australia later this year will decide the issue. Sprawled over 3,555 sq. km., Shey Phoksundo houses over 200 monasteries and Phoksundo lake at an altitude of 12,500 ft.

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA has withdrawn its 4 percent special additional duty imposed on all foreign imports in case of Nepali products with effect from September 29. According to Indian ambassador in Kathmandu, Dev Mukharjee, the Indian government has already notified the embassy about the said decision. India had agreed to waive the duty, introduced since this year's budget, during Prime Minister G. P. Koirala's visit to India in August this year. Nepal had been protesting the duty saying that it goes against the Nepal-India trade treaty of 1996. The treaty allows duty free access to Nepali manufactured products, except those in negative list, into India.

THE MAIN OPPOSITION COMMUNIST Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) held a tea party on the occasion of the end of the Dashain holidays that was attended by politicians, officials, diplomats, party workers and common citizens. The party was held at the UML's central offices at Balkhu in Kathmandu and was similar to the tea party held earlier this week by the ruling Nepali Congress party. At the UML tea party, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and other ministers, senior politicians from various political parties, as well as hundreds of common citizens and diplomats attended. The UML has been hosting the tea party for a few years. It is held one day after the end of the Dashain holidays.