Nepal Highlights

The daily wages of trekking guides and porters will be increased by Rs 200 per day on all routes from next year. From the beginning of 2013, Trekking Guides will get Rs 1200 per day on Everest trek and Rs 1100 on Annapurna and Langtang Trek. Porters will get Rs 1000 per day on Everest Trek and Rs 900 on Langtang and Annapurna Trek. The umbrella organisation of the Trekking Agents and a consortium of three trade unions in tourism sector signed a pact to this effect recently. We decided to implement the new rates only from next year as the tourism season has already started this year, said Mahendra Singh Thapa, president of Trekking Agents Association of Nepal (TAAN). Earlier, porters used to get Rs 700 per day for Langtang and Annapurna trek and Rs 800 per day for Everest. Guides used to get Rs 800 per day for Annapurna and Langtang and Rs 1000 per day for Everest. TAAN is also working on increasing the accidental death and medical insurance of guides and portars.

A team of Nepali women footballers that stood second in SAFF Women's Championship 2012 in  Colombo, Sri Lanka returned Nepal on Tuesday. Officials of All Nepal Football Association welcomed the footballers at Tribhuvan International Airport.  Talking to the journalists at the airport, Kishor KC, coach for Nepali team expressed sadness over the defeat in the final match. "Nepali team could not clinch the title though they did their best to win the match," he said. Nepal had lost 3-1 to India in the final match of the second SAFF Women's Championship 2012 played at CR&FC Grounds, Colombo on Sunday.

Nepal's Unified CPN (Maoist) has undergone a vertical split. Mohan Baidya Kiran is the head of the new party named CPN, (Maoist). Kiran was the first vice chairman in the mother party UCPN (Maoist). 

Deputy Inspector General of Armed Police Force (APF) Ranjan Koirala has been arrested Sunday afternoon on charges of killing his own wife, Geeta Dhakal. APF DIG Koirala was arrested from Thankot as he was returning from Kathmandu. A Nepal Police squad deployed from the crime investigation division, Hanumandhoka arrested DIG Koirala based on an FIR filed by Geeta's family at Metropolitan Police Circle, Maharajgunj. They have charged DIG Koirala of killing Geeta. Geeta has been missing since the past 10 days. In a previous interrogation with the police DIG Koirala had reportedly told the police that Geeta had lose character. Geeta’s family has charged DIG Koirala of having affairs with other women. They have also urged Nepal Police to stop Koirala’s impending visit to China speculating Koirala might flee from there. Koirala’s neighbours and friends said, they had problem in relations since many years.

Student bodies affiliated to various political parties including the one affiliated to the ruling UCPN (Maoist) have protested against the price hike in petroleum products announced by the government yesterday. Nepal Students’ Union, the student wing of Nepali Congress, All Nepal National Free Students’ Union, the student wing of UML, and All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union – Revolutionary, among others have announced condemned the price hike and urged the government to revoke it immediately for public welfare. Various 13-student unions are meeting Thursday to announce joint protest programmes against the price hike. Cadres affiliated to various unions have spontaneously started protest in front of their colleges Thursday morning. The student unions have blocked roads in front of some colleges in various places this morning in protest of the price hike. The government had hiked the price of cooking gas by Rs 175 per cylinder, petrol by Rs 10 per litre, and diesel and

The main opposition, Nepali Congress, is gradually giving up the position of a Westminsterial system inching closer to the Maoist position of a directly elected executive to ensure political stability in the country. Nepali Congress central executive committee is meeting at the party headquarters in Sanepa since Wednesday to determine the party’s position on the form of governance in the new constitution. Among the 17 central committee members who expressed their views on Wednesday, most of them spoke for an improved parliamentary system with a directly elected Prime Minister. Earlier, the party had been taking the position of a parliamentary Prime Ministerial system with prime ministerial elected and accountable to the parliament. Young generation leaders like Narahari Acharya and Gagan Thapa have been lobbying for reformed parliamentary system. The outcome of the ongoing central committee meeting of Nepali Congress is critical to determine the form of governance in the new constitu