HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has instructed tainted Nepali ambassador to Saudi Arabia Hamid Ansari not to perform any ambassadorial duties. Ansari, who flew back to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia where the Nepali Embassy is located, had tried to enter office. According to a MoFA source, Ansari could have returned to Riyadh to destroy evidence that could be used to indict him in a graft case currently being probed by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority. Ansari faces the charge of having transferred the insurance amount due to the family of a deceased migrant worker to his own bank account. Upon learning that Ansari, who had been recalled two weeks ago to record his statement with CIAA had returned to the Nepali embassy in Riyadh, MoFA wrote to Ansari yesterday informing he had been barred from working as the government had recalled him. Being a Musl...

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE BIRATNAGAR: The three big parties UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML have drawn fire for pressing for appointment of their supporters as teachers under relief quota meant for Dalit candidates. At stake are the 25 seats that the Morang District Education Office has made available for the government schools in Morang. Though CPN-ML, Sadbhavana Party and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum are also represented in the Samyukta Dalit Struggle Committee, which has a role in the appointment of Dalit teachers, the Maoist party, NC and the UML have staked claim on eight, seven and six seats, respectively, a panel member said. He said this unfair practice has evoked widespread criticism. Condemning the big parties for trying to reserve most of the vacant seats for their near and dear ones, Dalit Mukti Samaj (Morang) said their scheme is unacceptable. Jitan Narayan Sah, chairman of the UML-aligned Mukti Sama...

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE KATHMANDU:Lawmakers and lawyers today demanded that the proposed constitutional provision, which is meant to bar naturalised citizens from holding constitutional posts, including President, Prime Minister and Chief Justice, should not figure in the new constitution. Not a single discriminatory provision will be accepted, said Brinda Pandey, chair of the Fundamental Rights Committee, at a programme organised by various womens rights groups. She claimed that discriminating people on any grounds is against the spirit of the CA elections as the political parties had, while pleading for votes, pledged to do away with all discriminatory legal provisions. The proposal, if included in the constitution, will ultimately render the children of naturalised citizens stateless, according to advocate Meera Dhungana. On her part, Maoist CA member Dharmashila Chapagain demanded a serious dialogue to do away with ...

MIN KUMAR DAHAL Min Kumar Dahal Sindhulimadhi, February 4 Hearing-impaired children across Sindhuli and neighbouring districts are likely to be deprived of education as the Nawajyoti Primary School in Kamalamai municipality-6 has stopped taking in more students. The school administration maintains it is in no position to admit more children in the regions only residential school meant for the hearing impaired at least for now as it has been operating way beyond its capacity. Though supposed to provide for 40 students, it has been accommodating 26 students, all for free, according to the school authorities. Understandably, the guardians like Purna Bahadur Majhi of Bhimeswor VDC, who failed to have his son enrolled despite repeated requests, wont buy the schools argument, nor would they listen to the school principal Narayan Barals reasoning that the institution lacks enough teachers to cater to the students. They accuse...

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI; Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram and other high-ranking officials called on the visiting Nepali President in the Indian capital today. Minister Chidambaram, who called on President Dr Ram Baran Yadav at the ITC Maurya hotel, informed about the President of Indias desire to sign an extradition treaty agreed at the bureaucratic level in 2005 along with a mutual legal assistance treaty with Nepal, according to Nepali Foreign Secretary Dr Madan Kumar Bhattarai. The minister spoke of the need of the treaty, but there was no pressure from him, Dr Bhattarai said. He said the Indian government wanted Nepal to sign the treaty only when there was enough comfort level on the issue. Retired army general Ashok Mehta, who follows Indo-Nepal issues closely, told this daily the extradition treaty with Nepal has become crucial for India as Nepal has the potential of becoming a sanctuary for anti-In...

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE ITAHARI: The employees of Itahari municipality have threatened to launch a decisive agitation if the 13 political parties, including the UCPN-Maoist and the Nepali Congress, try to violate the rule of law in the name of investigating irregularities in the municipality. The employees affiliated to the Nepal Municipality Employees Association (NMEA) issued such a warning after the 13 parties formed a committee to probe the alleged irregularities and issued a February 6 deadline to the employees to provide necessary information to the committee. Speaking at a press meet today, NMEA unit committee chairman Mahesh Subedi argued that the committee does not have the legal authority to conduct a probe. He said, Only constitutional bodies are authorised to probe the activities of government agencies. He also requested the parties not to harass the employees, who have been working on behalf of local-level ...

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE KATHMANDU: World Wetlands Day was marked in the capital today with emphasis on conservation, although the wetlands remain deprived of both donor funds and government attention. Marking the fortieth World Wetlands Day, Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation (MoFSC) said biodiversity rich semi-water bodies were in peril. We know that wetlands are not getting the importance they deserve and increased human pressure and issues of climate change are pushing them towards further risk, said Krishna Prasad Acharya, Director General, Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. The World Wetlands Day is celebrated on February 2 every year in memory of Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilisation of wetlands signed in Ramsar, Iran in 1971. Nepal signed the Convention in 1987 and Koshi Tappu was designated a...