KATHMANDU: The High Court of Malaysia has convicted Bishnu Bahadur Karki of murdering his own friend and sentenced him for 18 years in jail. A single bench of Sahalam-based High Court has issued verdict against Karki on the charge of killing his own Nepali friend Kiran Bahadur Shrestha. Malaysian police had initiated the case against him on the charge of killing Shrestha on June 1 in 2012. Malaysia-based news portal www.nst.com.my states Karki and slain Shrestha had been working in a cargo company. A  preliminary investigation carried out by police shows that Shrestha had been killed with a sharp steel weapon. The body had been dumped nearby a container. Police had filed a case in the court demanding a life-sentence against Karki. Karki had broken down after hearing the court decision. 

Kathmandu : Nepal plans to name two Himalayan peaks after pioneering Mount Everest climbers Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a senior hiking official said, in a move designed to boost tourism in the beautiful but desperately poor country. New Zealander Hillary and his Nepali guide Tenzing made it to the 8,850-metre (29,035-foot) summit of the world's highest mountain on May 29, 1953 as part of a British expedition, which put Nepal on the map as a destination for adventure tourism. A government panel has recommended that two unnamed mountains be called Hillary Peak and Tenzing Peak, said Ang Tshering Sherpa, a former president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association. "This is to honor their contribution to mountaineering in Nepal," Sherpa, who headed the panel, told Reuters. Advertise | AdChoices The two peaks - Hillary's at 7,681 m (25,200 ft) and Tenzing's at 7,916 m (25,971 ft) - have never been climbed and are expected to be opened to foreigners in the spring season that starts in March, he said. 

Officials hope the peaks will attract more climbers and help boost tourism in Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 highest mountains. Tourism now accounts for about 4 percent of the country's economy and employs thousands of people. Hillary died in 2008 at age 88 and Tenzing died in 1986 at age 72. Climbers in their time lacked the specialized equipment taken for granted today and the heavy oxygen tanks the two men carried made mountaineering more challenging than it is now. About 4,000 climbers have made it to the summit of Everest since 1953, among them an 80-year-old Japanese man, an American teenager and a blind person. Two Nepali sherpas have reached the top a record 21 times each. But harsh weather, avalanches and treacherous terrain are constant dangers. More than 240 climbers have died on both sides of Everest, which can also be scaled from China. A small airport Hillary built in the 1960s at Lukla, the gateway to Everest, has already been named after him and Tenzing. 

The remote airstrip clings to a hillside, several days' walk from the base camp, and is described by mountaineers as a thrilling kick-off to an attempt on the mountain's south face. Besides conservation work, Hillary helped build schools, hospitals, water supply schemes and trails in the Everest region that is home to the ethnic sherpas without whose help climbers would find it difficult to make it to the top. Two peaks in west Nepal could be named after famed French climbers Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal, said Sherpa. In 1950, Herzog and Lachenal became the first to reach the summit of an 8,000-m (26,246-ft) peak - Mount Annapurna. About 165 peaks of up to 7,999 m (26,245 ft) are likely to be opened to climbers from next year, Sherpa said. Just 326 of the more than 1,300 peaks in Nepal are now open to foreign climbers. The fees they pay are a major source of income for the cash-strapped government.

KATHMANDU: A powerful earthquake rocked the Kathmandu Valley and neighbouring districts at around 23:34 pm on Friday. The eastern districts, however, did not feel the tremors, according to locals. According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, a 5.0-magnitude earthquake was recorded at 17:49:23 UTC with its epicentre at Western Xizang of China. The epicentre is about 330 km * north of the Nepali capital, and 206 km northeast of Jumla. According to EMSC's website, the depth of the quake was 10 km. The social media sites Facebook and Twitter are flooded with the posts on the midnight earthquake. Some people have written that they felt aftershocks also in Kathmandu. The National Seismological Centre, Nepal is yet to verify the magnitude and the epicentre of the quake.

Kathmandu : A plane crash that killed seven Britons heading to Mount Everest remains a mystery after the engine maker said it was “unlikely” a bird strike was the cause. The twin-engine propeller plane crashed shortly after take-off near Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, last September. Raymond Eagle, 58, from Macclesfield, Cheshire; Timothy Oakes, 57, from Warrington, and his friend Stephen Holding, 60, from Stoke-on-Trent; Vincent Kelly, 50, from Bolton, and his brother Darren, 45, from, Galloway; Christopher Davey, 51, from Moulton in Northamptonshire; and lawyer Benjamin Ogden, 27, from London all died along with 12 other passengers. An investigation found the plane lost power and slowed down at a crucial point during take-off but investigators were unable to find why. It meant the plane was not high enough to recover when it went off course. 

The report also said that while preparing for take-off, the pilot twice noticed a bird and as the plane accelerated, he said ‘watch out for the bird’. The first officer reported being clear of it as he accelerated but the crew later reported a bird strike, but no evidence of it was found in the engine. Investigators said: “It is possible that the bird momentarily disturbed the air flow into the engine before it was struck by the propeller, causing a surge and the suspected flame seen in the CCTV footage, but the engine manufacturer considered this unlikely.” As the plane turned, it lost power hit the ground just 400 yards from the runway. The report says one engine failed and the other suffered a power loss. 

The tragedy had been blamed simply on the plane striking a bird of prey at a height of 50ft as it took off from Tribhuvan Airport in the Nepalese capital heading for Lukla near Everest. But experts doubted whether that alone would have prevented the pilot from bringing the Sita Air Dornier D-228 back around for an emergency landing. Indian government aviation minister Suresh Acharya said that the combined weight of passengers and luggage carried by the plane would play a key part in the inquiry, which British investigators from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch assisted with. Mr Acharya said: “The bird strike may not be the sole reason behind the crash.” And Kuma Sherchan, an experienced pilot with the Nepal Airlines Corporation said: “A bird hitting the plane should not be considered in isolation during the investigation. "Several factors, such as technical maintenance, load, pressure on airline operators and many more, lead to an air crash.” 

काठमांडो : नेपाल की सेना में 70 पूर्व माओवादी विद्रोहियों को अधिकारी के तौर पर शामिल किया गया है। इनमें चार महिलाएं हैं। इन लोगों ने अधिकारी बनने के लिए जरूरी नौ महीने का प्रशिक्षण पूरा किया है। भक्तपुर के खरीपाटी स्थित नेपाली सैन्य अकादमी में आयोजित समारोह में आज इन 70 लोगों को सेना के अधिकारी की पदवी दी गई। इस मौके पर चीफ ऑफ आर्मी स्टॉफ जनरल गौर शमशेर राधा तथा दूसरे वरिष्ठ अधिकारी मौजूद थे। इस मौके पर पासिंग हाउट परेड भी हुई जिसके गवाह नेपाल की अंतरिम सरकार के प्रमुख खिल राज रेगमी बने।

KATHMANDU : The Embassy of Nepal in New Delhi, has sent a fact-finding team to Uttarakhand on August 21. According to a press release issued by the Embassy in New Delhi, the team consists of Yadu Lal Kharel, Counsellor in the Embassy, who was one of the two members who had gone to the area during the June-floods also, and Pushpa Raj Pandey, a Nepali social worker from Haridwar, who actively coordinated rescue of Nepalese nationals during the floods. The team is entrusted with the task of trying to find out about Nepalese detainees, if any, and seek consular access; taking up the issue of compensation with authorities in Uttarakhand getting further information about those under treatment in Uttarakhand  visit shelters where Nepalese nationals are kept, if any; and also trying to find out more about the missing Nepalese nationals in the state.The team reached Dehradun Thursday, and got necessary information from the Secretariat on floods there. According to the preliminary information received from the Secretariat in Dehradun, there are no more Nepalese detainees in Uttarakhand. Those who were detained under criminal charges during and in the aftermath of the floods have been released.

काठमांडो : भारतीय निवेशकों द्वारा नेपाल में किए गए 32.5 लाख डॉलर के निवेश से इस पड़ोसी देश के 30,000 युवाओं के लिये रोजगार के अवसर उपलब्ध हुये। एक शीर्ष भारतीय राजनयिक ने यह बात कही है। यहां भारतीय दूतावास के प्रभारी जयदीप मजूमदार ने कहा, ‘भारतीय निवेशकों ने नेपाल के आर्थिक विकास में महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभाई है। 501 भारतीय संयुक्त उद्यमों ने नेपाल में 32.5 लाख डॉलर (लगभग 3,239 करोड़ रुपए) का निवेश किया है, जिससे 30,000 नेपाली युवाओं के लिये रोजगार के अवसर उत्पन्न हुये हैं। साथ ही इससे नेपाल का निर्यात कारोबार भी बढ़ा है।’

भारतीय दूतावास द्वारा यहां नेपाल इंडिया चैंबर ऑफ कामर्स एंड इंडस्ट्रीज के सहयोग से आयोजित नेपाल-भारत व्यापार सम्मेलन को मुख्य वक्ता के रूप में संबोधित करते हुए मजूमदार ने यह बात कही। सम्मेलन में अन्य वक्ताओं ने नेपाल-भारत व्यापार और कारोबारी रिश्तों का और विस्तार तथा विविधीकरण करने की जरूरत पर जोर दिया। उनका कहना था कि इससे दोनों देशों के आम लोगों को फायदा होगा। इस मौके पर नेपाल के वाणिज्य सचिव जनार्दन नेपाल तथा सीआईआई के प्रतिनिधि अनुज अग्रवाल भी मौजूद थे।

This is a beautiful movie and I enjoyed it very much. I think it is important that this kind of movies are made. Movies that make you think and that give you an idea of other places and cultures on this planet. 

Laia, a young Catalan teacher, moves to Kathmandu in the early 90's, to volunteer in a local school.She will soon discover extreme poverty and a devastatingly bleak educational system that leaves out the most needy. She initially protests and later decides to get married out of convenience, so as to legalize her situation and take on an ambitious educational project in the slums of Kathmandu.

She immediately realizes that she can't do it all by herself. She also discovers a beautiful gift she had never expected: to fall in love with the stranger she marries. She finds herself torn between her love life and her commitment to the children she helps. Laia and Sharmila, another young teacher who becomes her dearest friend, work side by side to launch a new project that will distance Laia from her partner beyond repair. It will, however, always unite her to Sharmila and small Kushila, in a personal journey into the depths of the Nepalese society and also to her most inner self. 

Kathmandu : Nepal has asked India to immediately close its field office opened in 2008 to assist flood victims in Biratnagar town in the eastern Terai region, a media report said Friday. "We have asked the Indian government through diplomatic cables to shut down the field office, as it is no more relevant," Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha was quoted as saying by the Republica daily. According to Xinhua, despite several requests by Nepal, India, reportedly, has not shown interest in closing the office, which facilitated vehicular movement following the aftermath of floods in the Koshi river. 

In January 2011, Nepal's ministry of foreign affairs wrote a letter to the Indian embassy about the necessity to close the office. "In spite of several directives from the Nepali side, it is surprising that the Indian side has been dilly-dallying to shut down the office," a foreign ministry official told the daily. "Initially, the field office was based near the Koshi Barrage on the Nepal-India border, before it was relocated to Biratnagar. While transferring the office, India did not seek the consent of Nepal," the official said. India and Nepal share a border of around 1,750 km, and as neighbours, share a special relationship of friendship and cooperation characterised by an open border and free movement of people.

KATHMANDU: Though late, the central bank has decided to take over the management of Gurkha Development Bank to save the ailing class ‘B’ financial institution from liquidation. “Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) will send a three-member team with a mandate of six months to handle the management of the development bank as a last resort to save it,”  a highly placed source at the NRB said, adding that the board meeting late last evening decided to send a team to take over Gurkha Development Bank. “The central bank team will take over the development bank within this week,” he said. “It will try to find a strategic partner by issuing ‘Terms of Reference’.” However, NRB is yet to decide the members of the team that will replace the current shareholders that ran the bank into the current mess.

The national level development bank ran into trouble after the misappropriation of funds by its directors and executives — an example of bad corporate governance.  Large scale insider lending coupled with dispute among the directors led the development bank to be declared crisis-ridden by the central bank in March, 2011. Three key promoters — D B Bamjam, Nirmal Gurung and Rakesh Adukiya — are blamed for the mess in the bank that was running well. Bamjam — who is serving a jail term for banking fraud — was the chairman when he was found to be involved in fake lending. The central bank designated team will work in finding strategic partners, who will buy shares of the promoters involved in the misappropriation of the bank’s fund. But the current and earlier management team of the bank had also tried to bring in a strategic partner but had failed.

“Merger with other financial institutions is also possible,” the source added. Since March 2011, various attempts to revive its financial health were aborted midway, either due to a dispute between the directors or due to regulatory norms. Two months back, the central bank had sought Gurkha Development Bank’s clarification on its inability to improve its financial health. But neither did it satisfy the central bank nor improve its financial health. The central bank is empowered to take over the management of any financial institution under NRB Act 2063 (Section 54), if it is dissatisfied with the explanation provided. If the takeover of the management also does not work then the development bank will be liquidated.The development bank still has a total of Rs 1.5 billion bad loans and is not allowed to collect deposits.

Earlier, in May 2009, the central bank had taken over the management of Bank of Kathmandu following prolonged dispute between the bank’s directors and management. Likewise in 2006, it had taken over the management of Nepal Bangladesh Bank due to its deteriorating financial health. Both the banks are financially sound at present.

Kathmandu : The twin-engine aircraft, operated by domestic carrier Sita Air, was carrying trekkers to the Everest region when it came down just minutes after take-off near the Manohara River on the southwest edge of the capital Kathmandu this morning. All 19 people on board died. The other Britons killed were named today by local travel company Sherpa Adventures as Raymond Eagle, 58, Christopher Davey, 51, brothers Vincent Kelly, 50, and Darren Kelly, 45, Timothy Oakes, 57, and Stephen Holding, 60, according to the Press Association. 

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said the families of the victims had all been informed. As a number of badly burned bodies lay just metres from the aircraft's shattered fuselage, witnesses described how they heard passengers 'wailing and screaming' as flames engulfed the plane as it crashed at around 6.30am (00.45 GMT) after apparently hitting an eagle.