A senior government official the United States has said there is “no change” in the status of Nepal’s Maoists, who are listed in the US terror watch list.

“I don’t think there’s any change. There’s no change in their status,” PTI news agency quoted State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack as saying. He was commenting on the issue in the backdrop of a meeting last week between US ambassador to Nepal Nancy J Powell and Maoist chairman Prachanda.

McCormack added, “There’s a particular listing. And I don’t have in front of me what exactly what it is, but at this point there’s no change.”

The State Department spokesperson’s clarification comes amid expectations that the Maoists might soon be removed from the terror list with the latter emerging as the largest party after the recent constituent assembly polls.

Besides, the Prachanda-Powell meeting on May 01 marked the starting of formal contacts between the Maoist party and the US government.

The US had listed the CPN (Maoist) as a terrorist organisation in 2004 nepalnews.com mk May 07 08

Police detained some 60 Tibetan exiles on Tuesday for protesting in front of the Chinese Embassy in the capital.

Police said the Tibetan exiles were arrested after they tried to stage an anti-Chinese demonstration.

All the arrested Tibetans were released later in the evening. They have been organizing almost daily protests in front of Chinese embassy and the UN House in Kathmandu since March.

Meanwhile, Chinese officials and envoys from the Tibetan government-in-exile engaged in talks in the Southern Chinese city of Senzhen to find a possible way-out of the protracted Tibet crisis.

While the Dalai Lama’s representatives in the talks said the talks were a “good first step”, China said Tuesday that the Dalai Lama must show sincerity if talks over Tibet were to continue.

“All very candid. We had very candid discussion,” said Lodi Gyari, one of the Tibetan spiritual leader’s envoys who met Chinese officials told the Associated Press at Hong Kong International Airport before flying back to India.

“It was a good first step,” he said, when asked to describe the talks which followed deadly violence in the region in March.

In the Chinese government’s first direct comments following the talks, foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said, “I want to stress that this current contact is only a beginning.”

“The central government’s contact with the Dalai Lama is sincere. So long as the Dalai Lama’s side exerts sincerity, especially in its action, then the contact will continue.” nepalnews.com ag May 07 08

The Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League (YCL) has announced a month-long campaign to mobilise and motivate youths for development and corruption control.

The decision to launch the nationwide campaign was taken by the two-day meeting of the YCL central committee which concluded on Monday, YCL chairman Ganesh Man Pun informed.

Speaking at a press conference in the capital Tuesday, Pun said tens of thousands of cadres would be mobilised for traffic management, development activities and ‘corruption control’ during the campaign.

The announcement comes at a time when the Maoist leadership is facing pressure from other parties to control YCL ‘highhandedness’ — with some parties even demanding that the Maoist party dissolve its youth wing.

Meanwhile, the YCL has also demanded that a separate ministry be set up to address the problems facing the youth.

YCL chairman Pun said that the issues of the youth like education and employment would be better managed through a separate ministry. According to him, the Maoist leadership has been requested to prepare for this. nepalnews.com mk May 06 08

Senior Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai made it clear today that the Maoists were opposed to privatizing the Gorkhapatra Corporation against the recommendation of High Level Media Recommendation Commission (HLMRC).

The HLMRC had recommended that the GC be privatised whereas the broadcasting media including Radio Nepal and Nepal Television should be run under a trust.

Inaugurating the 108th anniversary of the publication of Gorkhapatra and 46th anniversary of the Corporation, Bhattarai asked whether the Gorkhapatra should be run at the interest of people or capitalists.

He said that the people would be benefited even if the media were under the state control in case the progressive forces are in the power. He asked the media to learn from the mistakes them made while assessing the results of the Constituent Assembly elections and go ahead with their job.

Writer and columnist Khagendra Sangrula stressed the need keep state run media out of any intervention of the ruling party in addition to any monarchical institutions. The corporation’s employees also stressed to keep the corporation publication from any political intervention. nepalnews.com ps May 06 08

Coordinator of Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF), Upendra Yadav, has said that parties must forge broad consensus prior to the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly, which is expected to take major decisions including implementation of republic.

Speaking at an interaction in the capital Tuesday, Yadav said the people’s mandate was clearly for political consensus and that major parties should gear up for consensus on the proposed amendment in the interim constitution, formation of new government as well as on the agendas raised by Madhesi parties.

Yadav made it clear that the MJF would support “any party” that is able to take all major political parties into confidence, and that it would consider joining the government if that happened.

“We are ready to support any party – be it CPN-Maoist, Nepali Congress or UML – that can forge national consensus,” said he.

Yadav’s party, which has emerged as the fourth largest party after the CA election, has been demanding amendment in the interim government to introduce the provision of simple majority of the CA to unseat the Prime Minister. The existing constitutional provision requires two-thirds majority to remove the Prime Minister. nepalnews.com mk May 06 08

With shortage of the food supply in Rolpa, families displaced during the conflict have been facing starvation, reports say.

32 tons of rice and five tons of pulses supplied by World Food Programme, Save the Children and USAID are yet to reach the district. The 243 families were given ration card last month to regularise the food distribution.

As per the schedule of the local authority, the distribution of ration was to begin from the fourth week of April, but the Nepal Red Cross Society local committee is still unaware when the foodstuffs would arrive.

According to the plan, a person will get 21 kgs of rice and 4 kgs of pulses meant for two months.

People who gathered at the district headquarters have begun returning home empty-handed.

Failing to plant corps on season due to late arrival of the displaced people to their villages led to shortage of foodstuffs in the district. nepalnews.com May 06 08

Visiting Deputy Minister for International Development Håkon A. Gulbrandsen has held a series of high-profile parleys on the day of his arrival in Kathmandu Monday.

Gulbrandsen called on Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala at the latter’s residence in Baluwatar in the afternoon and discussed the post-election political scenario in Nepal and various aspects Norwegian government’s development assistance to Nepal.

According to Prime Minister’s foreign affairs advisor Aditya Baral, the PM told the Norwegian minister that efforts were being made to forge consensus among the parties to form a new coalition government before the first meeting of the constituent assembly.

During the meeting, Gulbrandsen said Norway was willing to assist Nepal in hydropower, health and education sectors.

Gulbrandsen also met Chief Election Commissioner Bhoj Raj Pokharel and praised the Election Commission for successfully conducting the polls. CEC Pokharel on his part thanked the Norwegian government for its cooperation in the election process.

The Norwegian minister who arrived in Kathmandu earlier today also held separate meetings with Maoist chairman Prachanda and CPN-UML leader Jhal Nath Khanal at Dwarika Hotel in the evening and shared ideas on Nepal’s current political situation and development issues.

According to the Norwegian Embassy, the main focus of Gulbrandsen’s visit is to continue the political dialogue with the political leaders of Nepal. “The Norwegian support to a democratic and inclusive development in Nepal will be central in this dialogue,” a statement issued by the embassy said.

During his stay, Gulbrandsen will also hold meetings with other important actors from political and development cooperation and will also follow up on projects and activities supported by Norway.

The visit is to follow up the visits of the Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg in February 2008 and the Minister of the Environment and International Development Erik Solheim in March 2007, the embassy said. nepalnews.com mk May 05 08

Accusing the political parties of failing to come up with an ‘inclusive’ PR list, Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NFIN) on Sunday submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission (EC).

NFIN’s chairperson Pasang Sherpa said that the memorandum was submitted to EC seeking its attention to the ‘under-representation’ of indigenous groups or Janjatis under the PR system

Despite the seven party government agreeing to induct at least one member each from all 59 indigenous groups into the Constituent Assembly in the agreement reached with NFIN, some 20 marginalized groups are still left out in both Proportional Representation (PR) and first-past-the-post (FPTP) lists. Sherpa has already threatened that NEFIN will take to the streets from the very first day of the CA meeting if the major political parties go back on their words.

Receiving the memorandum, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Bhojraj Pokharel said that the election body was committed to make the assembly inclusive as far as possible by remaining within the legal parameters.

Legal provisions allow EC to urge political parties to make their PR list inclusive, or if need be help them in making one.

Sherpa had earlier withdrawn his nomination for the membership of the constituent assembly complaining that CPN-UML, the party that nominated him, failed to come up with an ‘inclusive’ PR list. nepalnews.com ag May 04 08

The meeting of the cabinet held for the first time after the Constituent Assembly (CA) election has decided to introduce an ordinance to swear in the members of CA since there is no legal provision as such, at present.

Concluding that the election had been held successfully, the cabinet also decided to form committees to probe violent incidents in Dang and Surkhet districts during election.

In Surkhet, a UML candidate had been murdered while in Dang, seven cadres of Maoists were killed when police opened fire.

The cabinet has also decided to hold seven party meeting. Since the cabinet had met after a long time, it took up over 40 agenda including providing financial relief to victims of Terai agitation.

The UML ministers, who have already resigned from their positions, did not attend Sunday’s cabinet meeting held in Singhdurbar. nepalnews.com sd May 04 08

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index soared 7.45 points to end at 736.46 points on Thursday, the last day of stock trading.

The stock market had started business by opening at 729.01 points last Sunday.

Trade analysts said the bullish trend in the stock market was because of rise in share prices of commercial banks.

A total of 438,800 units of shares changed hands to record a turnover of Rs 342.5 million over the week.

According to data provided by NEPSE, commercial banks’ group was the major gainers this week posting a rise of 11.81 points to reach 732.07 points. Similarly, development banks grew by 5.87 points to reach 938.15 points while the indices of the manufacturing and finance groups rose marginally.

However, the insurance group and the hydropower sector were the largest losers, shelling 7.40 points and 8.17 points respectively. nepalnews.com ag May 04 08