BRIEFS (Spotlight Weekly)

AT LEAST THREE PEOPLE have died and 17 others are missing in the aftermath of a landslide that swept through Prapcha and Shrichau village development committees in the eastern hilly district of Okhaldhunga on Thursday, reports said. According to police, a rescue team was able to pull out three people alive from the debris on Friday morning. The chances of finding other missing persons alive were very slim, officials said. More than 100 people have lost their lives to flood and landslides after the advent of monsoon this year.

A TWENTY-TWO KILOMETER SECTION of the 62-km Hilsa-Simikot road linking the remote northern districts of Nepal with the Tibet Autonomous Region of China is being built under the Food for Work program being launched with the assistance of the World Food Program (WFP), Kantipur daily reported. President of the District Development Committee of Humla, Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, said at the present rate of disbursement of food grains, it could take up to three years to complete the road - the first road joining north and south of the district.

HUNDREDS OF MAOIST rebels destroyed the Ilaka Police Post at Devghat in Tanahu district Saturday evening after taking into custody three unarmed policemen, Gorkhapatra daily reported Monday. According to the report, the rebels vandalized furniture and stationery before destroying the post during the nearly four-hour long "action". A team from the nearby Ilaka Police Post at Aabu Khaireni visited the site next morning. The rebels are organizing open mass meetings and targeting police posts despite the call for a truce by their leader, Comrade Prachanda, reports said.

THE SUPREME COURT HAS issued a writ of mandamus last week to 150 governmental organizations, stating that children acquitted in criminal cases should neither be handcuffed nor kept together with older prisoners. A division bench comprising Justices Kedar Acharya and Ram Nagina Singh delivered the verdict. The ruling came in response to a writ petition filed by the Center to Assist and Protect Child Rights of Nepal, an advocacy group.

THE UNITED STATES AGENCY for International Development (USAID) has agreed to provide an additional $60 million to the strategic objective grant agreement for reduced fertility and protected health of Nepalese families. With this sum, the total estimated USAID contribution for the health program grant agreement has risen to $110 million. The agreement, which was signed in 1996, has been extended by five years to 2006. According to the US embassy in Kathmandu, over the next five years, USAID will continue to support the Ministry of Health's efforts to reduce fertility and rapid population growth, reduce child mortality, prevent further transmission of HIV and improve the control of infectious diseases. An agreement to this effect was signed recently by joint secretary at the Finance Ministry, Madhav Ghimire, and USAID director Joanne T. Hale on behalf of their respective governments.

THE EXPORT OF HANDICRAFT items, including pashmina, declined marginally to Rs 6.82 billion in fiscal year 2000-01 compared to exports worth Rs 7.16 billion the previous year, Kantipur daily reported. According to the Handicrafts Association of Nepal (HAN), apart from the decline in the exports of pashmina, fall in the export of woolen products also contributed to the decline in the handicraft exports last year. Export of woolen products fell by over 50 percent (to Rs 243.9 million) as compared to the exports the previous year. Europe, the United States and Japan are the main markets for Nepalese handicrafts.

THE ASSOCIATION FOR Ophthalmic Cooperation to Asia (AOCA), Japan, has agreed to provide an assistance of US$55,000 annually for three years to implement programs relating to the prevention of blindness, rehabilitation of blind people and strengthening eye care services in Nepal. Chairperson of AOCA Dr. Itaur Kurozumi and member secretary at the Social Welfare Council Dr. Tika Pokhrel signed an agreement to this effect on behalf of their respective organizations, an announcement said.

THE SUPREME COURT ON Tuesday repealed a writ petition filed by President of the Nepal Telecommunication Corporation employees union Tanka Lal Shrestha demanding an interim order that no other institution or company, in keeping with the Nepal Telecommunication Corporation Act, be allowed to acquire a license until the NTC completes five years of mobile phone services. A joint bench of justices Kedar Nath Upadhyay and Rajendra Nakhwa delivered the verdict, RSS news agency reported. The writ petition was filed against the government's decision to award license to Khetan Group, a Nepalese business house, to run cellular mobile services in Nepal in association with an Indian company. Meanwhile, the Insurance Board has granted operational license to Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) Nepal Ltd., an Indo-Nepal joint venture, for carrying out life insurance business in Nepal. LIC Nepal is the fifth company to get such permission.