Nepal Khaber

Sunday, May 20, 2012

PM Bhattarai inducts three more ministers

Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has expanded his cabinet, again, inducting three new ministers into his team from fringe parties on Sunday.

Kumar Belbase of CPN-ML has been appointed as labor and transport minister, Badri Neupane of Chure Bhawar Ekata Party as minister for women, children and social welfare, and Yadubansa Jha of CPN-ML (Socialist) as forests minister.

PM Bhattarai administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly appointed ministers amid a ceremony at the president´s official residence in Shital Niwas this morning.

Source myrepublica

Banda paralyzes normal life; PM calls upon agitators for talks

KATHMANDU, May 20: Normal life has been crippled all across the country including in the capital on the first day of the three-day banda called by the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) on Sunday.

Academic institutions, market places and shops have remained closed and transport services have come to a complete halt due to the strike. The Broader Madhesi Front has also extended its support to today’s banda.

The general strike has been called demanding scrapping of the 11-state model that does not have names and clear delineation, federalism based on identity and guarantee of rights of indigenous people in the new constitution.

Banda enforcers have not spared vehicles even belonging to hospital, press, diplomatic missions and human rights organizations.

Earlier on, NEFIN Chairman Raj Kumar Lekhi, issuing a press statement, had urged to provide unhindered passage to vehicles belonging to emergency services providers.

Banda enforcers attack press vehicles

A vehicle of the Nagarik daily returning after delivering the newspapers has also been vandalized in Pokhara.

Similarly, the vehicles of the Kantipur Publication have been vandalized in Budhanagar and Jorpati early morning. The strike enforcers have also vandalized a vehicle belonging to Karobar Daily in Kupondole. They have destroyed a van of Kantipur TV (Ba 9 Cha 5537) in Baneshwor.

They have also torched a motorcycle (Ba 20 Pa 3899) of the Himalayan Television cameraman YP Ghimire in Gwarko.

PM calls on agitators for talks

Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has urged the agitating NFIN to come for talks on Sunday.

He also condemned attacks by banda enforcers on media persons and their vehicles. Band enforcers have manhandled some media persons and vandalized several vehicles belonging to them and media houses at various places during today´s banda.

The government has also invited the Joint Tharuwan Struggle Committee to come for talks. The committee has been enforcing banda in 22 western Tarai districts since past several days, demanding a separate state.

Meanwhile, talks between the National Muslim Struggle Committee and the government is underway at the peace and reconstruction ministry in Singha Durbar.

NEFIN chairman Lekhi asks agitators to refrain from attack on press

NEFIN chairman Lekhi has said they have respect for rights of media persons to freely collect and disseminate news. He has also asked agitating NEFIN activists to keep restraint and not get swayed by the ´government´s conspiracy´ to disgrace the agitation, by being involved in attack and vandalism against the press.

Source myrepublica

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg marries sweetheart

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg updated his status to "married" on Saturday.

Zuckerberg and 27-year-old Priscilla Chan tied the knot at a small ceremony at his Palo Alto, Calif., home, capping a busy week for the couple, according to a guest authorized to speak for the couple. The person spoke only on the condition of anonymity.

Zuckerberg took his company public in one of the most anticipated stock offerings in Wall Street history Friday. And Chan graduated from medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, on Monday, the same day Zuckerberg turned 28, the person said.

The couple met at Harvard and have been together for more than nine years, the person said.

Zuckerberg designed the ring featuring "a very simple ruby," according to the person.

The ceremony took place in Zuckerberg´s backyard before fewer than 100 guests, including Facebook´s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.

This photo provided by Facebook shows Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan at their wedding ceremony in Palo Alto, Calif., Saturday, May 19, 2012. Zuckerberg updated his status to "married" on Saturday. (Photo courtesy: AP Photo/Facebook, Allyson Magda Photography)

The guests all thought they were coming to celebrate Chan´s graduation but were told after they arrived that the event was in fact a wedding.

"Everybody was shocked," the guest said.

Rather than his trademark hoodie, Zuckerberg wore a suit for the ceremony, while his bride wore a traditional wedding dress.

Food was served family-style and included dishes from the couple´s favorite Palo Alto sushi restaurant. The two had been planning the marriage for months but were waiting until Chan had graduated to hold the wedding, the guest said.

The timing wasn´t tied to the IPO, since the date the company planned to go public was a "moving target," the guest said.

Even after the IPO, Zuckerberg remains Facebook´s single largest shareholder, with 503.6 million shares. And he controls the company with 56 percent of its voting stock.

The site, which was born in a dorm room eight years ago, has grown into a worldwide network of almost a billion people.

Zuckerberg founded Facebook at Harvard in 2004.

He was selected as Time´s Person of the Year in 2010, at age 26.

Zuckerberg grew up in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.

Source myrepublica

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Maoist CA members attacked

KATHMANDU, May 10: Banda enforcers on Thursday attacked Maoist lawmakers Sudan Rai and Laxmi Gurung in Koteshwor while they were on way to participate in CA meeting.

Rai informed RSS that he sustained minor injuries. Meanwhile, UCPN (Maoist) condemned attack on its lawmakers and termed the attack a move to disrupt communal harmony.

71 arrested in capital
Police arrested around 71 protestors from the capital enforcing banda on Thursday.

Govt invites banda enforcers for talks
The government has invited various agitating groups enforcing bandas in various parts of country for talks. Issuing letter to 12 agitating groups on Thursday, the government asked agitators to form a five-member talk team to hold talks with the government.

The peace ministry has also informed that the government has made necessary arrangements to talk team of Far-west region stranded in Bardiya.

Strikers burn Republica, Nagarik dailies

BUTWAL: Supporters of Brahman Society, who are protesting the ethnic-based federalism have burnt Republica and Nagarik dailies on Thursday morning. They had seized the papers from newspaper delivery vehicles heading for Bhairahawa.

According to Mahesh Sharma of the distribution section of the newspapers, 2,100 copies of Nagarik and 500 copies of Republica were burnt by the protestors. The society activists said they burnt the newspapers because they did not report their strike.

Banda cripples normal life
Normal life has been affected all across the country including in the capital since early Thursday morning due to a banda enforced by the joint struggle committee comprised of various caste groups.

The committee includes the Chhetri Samaj Nepal, the Brahman Samaj Nepal, the Khas Kshetriya Ekata Samaj, the Thakuri Samaj Mahasangh, Nepal Dasnami Samaj, the Bibhed Mukti Pragatisheel Samaj and the Dalit Janajagaran Sewa Sangh.

Public and private transportation have come to a grinding halt, giving commuters a tough time in the capital. Likewise, businesses and marketplaces have remained closed.

Banda enforcers have descended on the road, rallying and chanting slogans at various places in the valley including Satdobato, Kalanki and Gongabu. Security has been stepped in the streets. Reports say more than two dozens banda enforcers have been detained.

The agitators have called today’s banda opposing the idea of carving out federal states based on ethnicity and demanding recognition of their identity in the new constitution. They have maintained that such state restructuring will adversely affect communal harmony and poses a risk of territorial disintegration.

Our Baglung correspondent Dilip Poudel reported that the banda has crippled life in Daulagiri zone. Hundreds of passengers have been stranded as vehicles on all long and short routes from the district headquarters have stayed off the road.

Far-west talks team stranded

A talks team, with 50-odd members, from the far-western region has been stranded in Bardiya due to the strike. The team representing the people of the region, who have been enforcing strike in region for the past two weeks demanding an undivided far-west, were on their way to the capital to hold talks with the government.

KATHMANDU

TANAHU

PALPA

ITAHARI

CHITWAN

POKHARA

DANG

BIRGUNJ

KAILALI

Source Myrepublica

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Seti flood toll reaches 26

The death toll of Saturday´s Seti flood reached 26 with five more bodies recovered Tuesday. Around 600 security persons have been mobilized in search of the missing 43 persons.

District Police Office, Kaski, said 19 of the 26 recovered bodies have been identified and have been handed over to their concerned families for cremation. The seven unidentified bodies have been kept at the Western Region Hospital.

Two hundred fifteen Nepal Army (NA) soldiers, 190 Nepal Police personnel and 208 Armed Police Force (APF) personnel have been deployed in the search operation aided by excavators and bulldozers. Chief District Officer (CDO) Chet Nath Bhattarai said the security personnel along with technicians to operate the equipment have camped in the area for the search operation.

Chief of Kaski Police SP Shailsh Thapa said details about the human and material loss in the flashflood have not yet been ascertained and police are relying on the reports of missing filed by the relatives. “The local market, Tatopani springs and many laborers extracting sand and stones were swept away. We, therefore, don´t know exactly how many persons were there at the time of the flooding,” SP Thapa stated.

“The actual number of persons killed could be much higher,” he added. He said identification of the bodies has become difficult as many bodies are not intact.

Meanwhile, a 20-member team including officials from the District Administration Office and District Development Committee, and security personnel has been deployed to Sadal, Awang and Karuwa of Machhapuchchre Village Development Committee (VDC) to observe the plight of the villagers following complaints that government representatives have not reached to the victim families.

Source myrepublica

Shristi Shrestha Miss Nepal 2012

Shristi Shrestha wins the most coveted beauty pageant title of Miss Nepal 2012 held today at Hotel de l’ Annapurna in Kathmandu. Competing with 15 other beauty with brains, Shristi Shrestha made it to the crown that was previously held by Malina Joshi just seven months ago in 2011. The new Pashupati Paints Luxuria – The Hidden Treasure Miss Nepal 2012 – Shristi Shrestha also garnered Miss Confident to her name. Miss Earth title went to Nagma Shrestha being the first runner up and Subekshya Khadka being the second runner-up is our new Miss Nepal International.

In an event hosted by former Miss Nepal runner up Miss Nepal runner up Sahana Bajracharya and Hits FM RJ Biraz Singh Khadka, the 16 beauties with brain dazzled in a outdoor venue at the Hotel Annapurna. Shristi Shrestha was successful in being the name in everyone’s lip for the night with her impressive answer to the question “What will/can you do to make others remember you for a long time?”

Shristi Shrestha is already a Model by profession and has often participated in several Modelling events as British- Nepali Model. Being crowned with Miss Nepal will definitely take her modelling career to greater and much responsible heights. Here are some of her previous images as in modelling industry.

Shristi Shrestha – a New Hope

Shristi Shrestha is a new hope for Nepal in international beauty pageants, especially when the country has yet to see some notable achievements in crucial pageants like Miss World. Miss Nepal organizers also stepped forward to organize this event five months early than usual to ensure that the winners get sufficient time to be groomed for the international pageants.

Congratulations to Shristi – She deserved it! And best of luck for her bigger responsibilities in future!