BRIEFS (Spotlight Weekly)

King Birendra accepting credentials from newly appointed Ambassador of Norway Mrs Ingrid Ofstad.

AT LEAST FIVE PEOPLE have died due to the outbreak of diarrheal diseases in the remote northern district of Dolpa last week, officials said. The victims included two men, two women and one girl from Majhaphal and Juphal Village Development Committees (VDCs), District Health Officials at Dolpa said. They said a team of health workers and medicines have already been dispatched to the site from the district headquarters. Local people have, however, complained of inadequate medicine supply.

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA has said it will provide financial assistance of Rs 39.70 million to the Pashupati Area Development Trust for construction of a `Dharmashala' ( a house for pilgrims) within the Pashupati temple complex, RSS news agency reported. The Dharmashala, to be constructed on an area of 9660 square meters of land, will provide boarding facilities to 74 pilgrims visiting the temple of Lord Pashupatinath, said to be incarnation of Lord Shiva. Thousands of Hindu pilgrims visit Kathmandu to pray at Lord Pashupatinath, every year most of them from India, with a belief that they will no more have to be born as an animal after praying to Lord Pashupatinath. Hindu philosophy propounds the theory of 'punarjanma' (re-birth).

THE ROYAL NEPAL AIRLINES is to begin direct twice weekly flights to the Indian City of Bangalore the airlines said. The flights will take place every Sunday and Wednesday. RNAC already flies to New Delhi, Calcutta and Mumbai in India. The Airlines also said it would start its third weekly flight to Osaka from Kathmandu every Thursday from November 2 this year.

A TOTAL OF 17 PERSONS have died of HIV/AIDS in central industrial town of Hetauda and 70 others have contracted AIDS epidemic in this town said, public health officials. The increase in HIV/AIDS in Hetauda municipality can be attributed to rising drug abuse among the local youth, prostitution and general ignorance, officials said. Police said some of the sex workers operating in the town are those who have returned from brothels in India after testing positive for HIV.

AN ESTIMATED 35 PERCENT of† 50,000 cancer patients in Nepal suffer from liver cancer caused by hepatitis B and C, experts said. About 20,000 persons are suffering from hepatitis C in Nepal, health workers said. Cancer was detected in three percent or 5,000 of the 117,000 persons who underwent clinical tests at the B. P. Memorial Cancer Hospital built with the Chinese assistance in Chitwan. More than 50 percent of the 5,000 patients were women from rural areas mostly suffering from lung, breast and uterus cancer.

THE GOVERNMENT HAS DECIDED to launch an emergency food assistance program for the former 'kamaiyas' (bonded laborers) in Kailali and Kanchanpur districts and assign officials to distribute the relief materials in a planned and transparent manner. The kamaiya identification and rehabilitation central coordination and monitoring committee, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel, also recommended to the government to include representatives of Nepal Red Cross Society, INGOs and NGOs in the central and district level committees, immediately start distributing identification cards to the homeless kamaiyas and establish a regional office in Nepalgunj to coordinate the kamaiya skill development and rehabilitation program in a planned manner. The government had issued a decree declaring all the bonded laborers free in mid-July this year.

Gulf Air has flown the national athletic teams of Greece, Morocco, Georgia, Iraq and Cyprus to Sydney, Australia for the 2000 Olympics. Members of teams, officials and spectators from its owning states Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar have also flown Gulf Air to Sydney. Gulf Air has improved through-the-Gulf connections for passengers from Europe and North Africa on 2 July, 2000, when it increased to six the number of weekly flights to Sydney and Melbourne.

The Central Committee of Green Nepal Party held an emergency meeting on 10th Ashwin 2000 to discuss the law and order situation in the country after the Maoist attack on Dolpa head quarter which resulted in the death of more than fourteen policemen and many more injured. The committee decided to issue the following statement : "The Nepali Congress government led by Girija Prasad Koirala has totally failed to govern. The country has been shocked by the Maoist attack on Dolpa. The increasing lawlessness, rampant corruption, disillusionment in the performance and lack of faith in the government has encouraged the Maoists. The Nepali Congress must be made to quit the government. Otherwise there could be civil war. H.N.P. recommends that a round table conference of all parties who have been in the government, other active parties, respectable citizens and the representatives of the Maoist along with other power center must be convened without delay to arrive at a consensus with a view to save the country from being engulfed in a civil war."

L.N. Mittal (center), a London-based industrialist, taking to Nepali business delegation in Rajesthan, India. President of Nepal- Britain Chamber of Commerce, Rajendra Khetan, (not in the picture) has invited him to Nepal.