King Gyanendra grants audience to Chamba Phuntsok, chief of people's government of Tibet Autonomous REgion of China.

KING GYANENDRA HAS RESHUFFLED THE council of ministers sacking eight ministers and inducting nineteen new faces. The Council, chaired by the King himself, is now 35-member strong – up from 24. The vice chairman duo are still in place. Dr. Tulsi Giri also has the portfolio of water resources whereas Kirti Nidhi Bista does not have extra portfolios. Finance Minister Madhukar SJB Rana: Home Minister Dan Bahadur Shahi; Women, Children and Social Welfare Minister Durga Shrestha; General Administration Minister Krishna Lal Thakali; Local Development Minister Khadga Bahadur GC; Labor Minister Ram Narayan Singh; Assistant Ministers Jagat Gauchan and Senate Shrestha have been relieved off their positions. The new inductions include Kamal Thapa (Home Minister); Keshar Bahadur Bista (Agriculture and Cooperatives); Buddhiman Tamang (Industry, Commerce and Supplies); and Narayan Singh Pun (Land Reforms and Management) among others. This is the third reshuffle in the last nine months since the King took over executive powers in February 1. The King reshuffled the cabinet less than a week after he returned home from three-week-long tour of some Asian and African countries. Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey has retained his position while Information Minister Tanka Dhakal has been shifted to head the Ministry of Local Development. Shrish SJB Rana has been named as the Minister of State for Information and Communications. Roshan Karki and Bhuwan Pathak – both leaders of Rastriya Prajatantra Party – have been appointed as Assistant Ministers (Local Development and Education and Sports Ministry respectively). The latest reshuffle comes in the wake of the recent understanding between the parties and the Maoists and announcement by the former to intensify their agitation protesting the royal takeover of power.

THE SUPREME COURT (SC) has issued an interim order allowing Radio Sagarmatha FM to continue broadcasting BBC Nepali Service through its up-linking service. The division bench of judges Khil Raj Regmi and Damodar Prasad Sharma issued the order saying that the government was not able to clarify why it did not want the FM to broadcast the BBC Nepali Service. Meanwhile, Chief Justice Dilip Kumar Poudel has expressed dissatisfaction over protests and sit-ins against the SC decisions. He called those protests, which came before the final decision of the court, as ‘threatening postures.’ He said that everyone should abide by the decisions of the SC as per the spirit of judicial discipline. He was talking to journalists upon his return from Philippines.

A DELEGATION OF THE TIBET Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China visited Kathmandu. The team held talks with a Nepali delegation at the Foreign Ministry on issues of mutual interests. The Tibetan team was led by Chamba Thuntsok, chief of the government of the TAR of China.

THE MICRO CREDIT HAS HELPED improve the situation of poor, especially women, a report has stated. According to the State of Micro Credit Campaign Report, released worldwide on Wednesday, the small loans have provided ray of hope to the poorest of the poor. The report stated that there are 66.6 million poor people in the world are enjoying the micro credit services to improve their situation. A micro credit conference held in Washington in 1997 had vowed to reach the access of micro credit to 100 million poor people worldwide by 2005. According to Rural Microfinance Development Center of Nepal, there are 600,000 families in the country who are enjoying micro credit access.

INDIAN POLICE HAVE STOPPED A BATCH of Bhutanese refugees who wanted to return to their home. The Indian police stopped them from crossing the Mechi bridge. The refugees, then, held a sit-in at the bridge. Later, Nepal police forcefully took them away and brought them to the refugee camps. The refugees had tried to return home on the occasion of World Human Rights Day on December 10. Indian police has been frequently obstructing the return of Bhutanese refugees who want to cross over to Bhutan. The refuges had entered into Nepalese territory via India in 1990 as Nepal and Bhutan do not have contiguous border. There are over 100,000 refugees languishing in different camps in eastern Nepal.

THE SAVE INDEPENDENT RADIO CAMPAIGN of Nepal has, along with ten other organizations around the world, bagged the second prize this year for its concerted efforts towards press freedom and freedom of expression. The international prize is granted by Reporters Sans Frontieres of Paris. After February 1, the campaign had tirelessly worked to promote the rights of FM stations to air news and news-based programs despite government crackdown. From organizing street protests to knocking the doors of the court, the campaign had left no stone unturned in its effort towards restoring the radio rights.

THE GOVERNMENT IS SETTING aside around Rs 3 billion for the Education for All (EFA) project in the budget of the coming year. The government-donor meeting had adopted this proposal on Wednesday after three days of discussions. During the meeting, the government had presented data regarding the number of girls, Dalits and indigenous students among the primary, lower secondary and secondary schools students in the country. The Flash Report 2005 states that there are 28,026 schools in the country where 50,37,000 students study. Of the total, 23,26,000 are girls; 686,000 Dalits; and 20,85,000 indigenous students. Seven major donors including the World Bank, Japan, Danida and other INGOs are helping the government in the EFA project.