Nepal Highlights

President Of Nepal Students Union (NSU), the student wing of Nepali Congress (NC) has resigned from his position at a time when a proposal to dissolve the central committee led by him is pending at NC central executive committee. Paudel announced his resignation by organising a press meet at NC headquarters today. Announcing his resignation, Paudel said, he wants to quit as the party has attacked him personally.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the legislature parliament on Friday directed the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to start an investigation into the misuse of diplomatic passports by Constituent Assembly (CA) members. The parliamentary committee gave this instruction to CIAA secretaries Bhagawati Prasad Kafle and Ram Kumar Acharya in a meeting held at Singha Durbar today morning. PAC said that since the issue concerns country's lawmakers, CIAA should carry out the investigation by giving it top priority. Kafle and Acharya were directed to immediately start investigation on the case and report back on the progress. During the meeting, Kafle informed that CIAA has received around 15 complaints about the misuse of diplomatic passports by CA members. He said investigation on diplomatic passport misuse by two - CA members Gyatri Shah of Nepali Janata Dal and B.P Yadav of Madhesi Janadhikar Forum - has reached its final stage. Members of PAC also ...

The Standing Committee of the UCPN (Maoist) which was supposed to finalise the names of its remaining ministers in Jhala Nath Khanal cabinet on Friday could not do so. The Maoist SC did discuss about the expansion of the cabinet but could not arrive at any decision, a source said. However, party spokesperson Dina Nath Sharma claimed that the meeting dwelled on issues concerning the party's sister organisations, not on the list of ministerial candidates. "We discussed issues concerning various wing of the party including students, youth and intellectuals," he said. The party has not been able to name its ministers with sheer number of leaders from three camps- each loyal to party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and vice chairmen Mohan Baidya and Baburam Bhattarai- vying for ministerial berths. In the meantime, the Moist leadership is scrambling to settle the dispute within its labour wing and address growing discontent within the Young Communist League (YCL) leadership af...

Five persons were killed in Chhekampar, a remote village in north Gorkha, when they were buried under a landslide, Monday.  The landslide occured when they were constructing road to connect ward no. 6 and 7 of Chhekampar VDC. The identity of the deceased is yet to be confirmed.

A rafting festival organised by a UML sub-ordinate committee to promote Nepal Tourism Year 2011 has kicked off Saturday morning. Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal, also the chairman of Nepal Tourism Council, saw off a team of UML leaders participating in the festival from the premises of Nepal Scouts in Lainchaur this morning.

A fire has started in Bhutanese Refugee Camps located in Goldhaap, Jhapa Tuesday morning. The fire that started at about 7.45 am this morning has destroyed over 500 huts at time of filing this news. Fire-fighters and security personnel have not reached the site to douse the fire. For more information see: http://www.bhutannewsservice.com/

State Affairs Committee (SAC) of the Legislature Parliament has directed the government to prepare a strategic action-plan to improve the security situation of the country within 15 days, Monday. A meeting of the committee at Singha Durbar this afternoon also directed the government to work out strategy to convert the prisons into rehabilitation centres.