KATHMANDU: General Secretary of Nepal Communist Party Netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplav’ has started preparations to announce parallel governments at the local level following the government’s ban on the activities of the party.
“The NCP is preparing to form parallel governments at local level in response to the cabinet decision yesterday,” an NCP leader told Khabarhub.
The leader said the party would strongly protest the prohibition clamped on the activities of the party by the government.
The party is making preparations to make its views public in a few days and that the parallel governments would be announced at the same time, the leader added.
MELBOURNE: Cardinal George Pell, former Vatican treasurer, was sentenced to six years in jail on Wednesday by an Australian court for sexually abusing two choir boys in Melbourne in the 1990s, and will be registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
With the court’s decision, Pell, 77, could spend the rest of his life in prison, County Court of Victoria Chief Judge Peter Kidd said.
Pell, a former top adviser to Pope Francis, is the most senior Catholic to be convicted of child sex offences.
“In my view, your conduct was permeated by staggering arrogance,” said Kidd in handing down the sentence after Pell was convicted of five charges of sexually abusing two children.
“Viewed overall, I consider your moral culpability across both episodes to be high,” he told the packed court room.
His downfall brings to the heart of the papal administration a scandal over clerical abuse that has ravaged the Church’s credibility in the United States, Chile, Australia and elsewhere over the last three decades.
The offences against two 13-year-old boys took place after Sunday mass in late 1996 and early 1997 in a room and a corridor at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne, where Pell was archbishop.
During the trial the victim described how Pell had exposed himself to them, fondled their genitals and masturbated and forced one boy to perform an oral sex act on him.
(Agencies)
CHITWAN: A powerful cylinder bomb went off at the office of Bharatpur Metropolis-5, Torikhet in the wee hours of Wednesday.
The detonation was carried out at around 12.30 am this morning.
According to SP Sushil Singh Rathor, the chief of District Police Office, Chitwan, the explosion smashed window screens of the ward office and destroyed official documents.
A large number of security personnel fanned out in the incident site of the district. Police have detained six suspects in connection with the explosion. Investigation into the incident is underway, said police.
He further said that the fire was taken under control using the fire engine from the metropolis.
Police suspected Netra Bikram Chand Biplav-led Nepal Communist Party’s involvement in the blast.
KATHMANDU: Naya Shakti Party Coordinator Dr Baburam Bhattarai has expressed reservations whether the history would repeat again by posting photos of Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal and General Secretary of the Nepal Communist Party Netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplav’ on his Facebook.
Reacting to the cabinet decision yesterday, Bhattarai wrote, “NCP has banned all the activities of Biplav-led NCP, labeling it as a ‘criminal group’ and has decided to use security force against it. The NCP’s preparation to quell the other communist party of similar nature reminds me of the world history.”
Dr Bhattarai further wrote, “The history repeats – the first will meet with tragedy, the second will end up in farce, Marx had said quoting Hegel.”
Bhattarai has also compared the 100-year-old German movement with that of Nepal. “One hundred years ago in Germany, the then government led by Social Democratic Party of Germany had suppressed the revolutionary Communist Party of Germany and assassinated its leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Similarly, the government led by ‘reformist’ CPM in West Bengal, India had suppressed the revolutionary party CPI-ML and killed its leaders including Charu Majumdar in 1967-072.
Citing the world history of downfall of communist parties after they were divided, Bhattarai asked, “Will the same world history repeat in Nepal?”
The following is the status written by Dr Bhattarai:
KATHMANDU: President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Tuesday said that the world could see a big change by making legal and constitutional changes and accepting women’s existence. President Bhandari is on an official visit to take part in the 63rd Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York, USA.
She said gender disparity is socially constructed and it could be changed, while speaking at the High Level Event on the theme of ‘How Women Leaders Change the World’ hosted by the President of the UN General Assembly Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces. “Gender quality is coexistence between life and universe. The act of looking down upon women and superstition will only drag the society,” she said.
Stating that lack of clarity in constitution and legal provisions makes women lag behind, the President said Nepal has witnessed a big change in a short span of time by making some general changes in the law. She referred to around 40,000 women people’s representatives elected in the erstwhile elections that makes up 35 to 41 percent women’s participation in all three levels— central, provincial and local.
Recalling her past ordeals at her birthplace of a remote and disadvantaged village of Nepal that lacked basic facilities like health and education, President Bhandari emphasized that all should have access to basic facilities.
KATHMANDU: Private schools need not fear a phase out as rumored.
Future of private schools is not endangered as the constitution has accepted the three-pillar economic policy envisioning a socialism-oriented nation, according to Krishna Bahadur Mahara, speaker of the House of Representatives.
However, he insisted that all sides should cooperate in the process of regulating private schools and in raising the quality of community schools. Mahara was speaking at the 14th national convention of the Private and Boarding Schools’ Organization of Nepal (PABSON) here today.
“Education and health should be the state’s responsibility but it is not possible to phase out the private schools in the near future. At present, the state should move towards prosperity by encouraging the private sector as well,” he said.
The speaker informed that he has urged the government to bring the Federal Education Act only upon consultation with stakeholders.
KATHMANDU: View of Mt. Annapurna from Kothe Khola Rural Municipality -3, Dhamja, Baglung. Mt. Annapurna is the tenth highest mountain in the world at 8,091 meters (26,545 ft) above sea level.
Annapurna is a massif in the Himalayas in north-central Nepal that includes one peak over 8,000 meters, 13 peaks over 7,000 meters and 16 more over 6,000 meters.
The massif is 55 long, and is bounded by the Kali Gandaki Gorge in the west, the Marshyangdi River in the north and east, and by Pokhara Valley in the south. At the western end, the massif encloses a high basin called the Annapurna Sanctuary.
LONDON: Air pollution kills nearly as many people as smoking in Britain each year, new figures have shown. Although it was previously thought that emissions were responsible for around 40,000 deaths in the UK, new figures suggest it is closer to 64,000, just 18 percent less than the 78,000 deaths caused by tobacco.
A further 29,000 deaths in Britain were also linked to air pollution which exacerbated other conditions such as cancer, diabetes and chronic lung disease. Globally, dirty air from vehicle exhausts, factories and power plants causes more deaths than smoking, accounting for 8.8 million deaths a year, compared to the 7.3 million people that die from inhaling smoke.
Co-author Professor Thomas Munzel, from the University Medical Centre Mainz in Germany, said, “Smoking is avoidable but air pollution is not.” In a new study published in European Heart Journal, scientists used an updated modelling technique to calculate how the atmosphere and weather interacts with industry, traffic and agriculture, and mapped it against population data from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
In Europe alone the death toll was found to be 790,000 twice the previous estimate. The average lost life expectancy of someone dying in Britain because of air pollution was found to be 1.5 years, while across Europe it was 2.4 years.
In Britain, 98 deaths in every 100,000 can now be attributed to inhaled pollutant chemicals, according to the research, while in Europe the figure was Europe 133 per 100,000 deaths, more than one in 1,000.
(Agencies)
KATHMANDU: Nepal defeated Butan 3-0 in the inaugural game of the SAFF Women Championship 2019. Nepal’s Manjali Kumari Yonjan scored the very first goal in just 13th minutes. Nepal stepped up pressure on Bhutan when Sabitra Bhandari doubled the lead in 16th minute.
In the 54 minutes, Niru Thapa scored the goal to safeguard Nepal in becoming the winner. Bhutan tried several attempts but could not succeed.
Top two teams of each group will advance to semifinals. Nepal will play against Bangladesh on March 16, 2019. India will play against Maldives on Wednesday at 3:15 PM. ANFA is organizing the event with the support from SAFF.
KATHMANDU: Discussion on the amendment proposal on ‘Public Private Partnership and Investment Bill-2075’ is underway at the House of Representatives. The government floated the bill with the objective of expediting infrastructure development.
The proposal is registered to widen sphere of the Investment Board Nepal (IBN). This new bill has been brought after the Investment Board Act-2068 BS proved ineffective in practice.
The new bill sets the target to enhance economic growth by mobilizing capital of above Rs 6 billion through public-private partnership concept. It is necessary to mobilize Rs 150 billion to achieve economic growth rate up to nine per cent, according to a source at the Ministry of Finance. Private sector has the capacity to mobilize Rs 100 billion in recent period.
In the meeting, Finance Minister, Dr Yuba Raj Khatiwada said that the new bill has been brought to further broaden the parameter and scope of the Investment Board for achieving economic prosperity through the development of infrastructure. He added that the bill will pave the way for making investment for the development of infrastructure by means of private capital.
Stating that it was necessary to invest in mega projects for achieving high economic growth rate, the Finance Minister believed that the private sector would not be affected because of the foreign investment.
Lawmaker Janardan Sharma said that the government needs to identify large projects and invest in them through the Investment Board, stressing the works to be carried out by the Board should be done through inter-ministry coordination.
Lawmakers Divya Mani Rajbhandari and Gagan Kumar Thapa demanded that leaders of the main opposition parties should be included in the Board. Similarly, lawmakers Bhara Kumar Shaha, Rekha Sharma, Santa Kumar Tharu, Chudamani Khadka, Khem Lohani, Bina Kumari Shrestha and Prem Suwal called for broadening the scope of the Investment Board.