KATHMANDU,
Although Ncell and its parent company, Axiata, have sought international arbitration over the capital gains tax determined by the Nepal government citing Bilateral Investment Treaty between Nepal and the United Kingdom, legal experts doubt success of the mobile company’s move, saying that the treaty does not allow international arbitration on the issue of taxation.
On April 26, the Malaysia-based Axiata, the parent company of Ncell, made an announcement in the name of its shareholders that Axiata Investments (UK) Limited  and Ncell Private Limited have filed a Request for Arbitration with the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) pursuant to the Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of Nepal for the Promotion and Protection of Investments.
The Bilateral Investment Treaty between Nepal and the United Kingdom has made the provision of referring the dispute over investment to the ICSID, a body under the World Bank Group founded in 1966 based on a multilateral treaty formulated by the executive directors of the World Bank to further its objective of promoting international investment.
The ICSID Convention came into force for Nepal on February 6, 1969.
But, Gandhi Pandit, a senior advocate who has expertise on corporate and commercial laws, told the Post that Article 7 of the treaty gives exception to the issue of taxation and customs from coming under the jurisdiction of this treaty, letting the domestic laws prevail.
“The treaty allows UK companies to seek international arbitration only when Nepal fails to promote and protect UK investment, does not give national treatment and does not provide equal compensation in the case of damages in the incident of war and armed conflict,” he said. “And if the government seizes the property without proper compensation as per the treaty.”
He questioned the motive of Ncell and Axiata for seeking international arbitration only after the court verdict in Nepal went against them.
“It sought international arbitration only after losing the legal battle in Nepal,” Gandhi told the Post. “If they had the opinion that the issue of taxation should be dealt with as per the Bilateral Investment Agreement, they should have gone to ICSID before the court.”
As per the announcement of Axiata, its subsidiaries Axiata UK and Ncell made the request to ICSID, claiming that Nepal’s conduct with regards to the capital gains tax imposed on Axiata and Ncell contravenes international law obligations under the investment treaty between the two countries.
“The claims relate to Nepal’s conduct in imposing capital gains tax in connection with Axiata UK’s acquisition of 100 percent of the shares of Reynolds Holdings Limited, which owns 80 percent shares of Ncell,” the announcement reads. The company said the Nepal government was also notified about the request.
This is a parallel move made by these companies after they lodged a petition at Nepal’s Supreme Court on April 22, arguing that the Large Taxpayers Office wrongly determined their tax liability at Rs39.06 billion in the name of these companies.
They had, in their petition, also said that their tax liability stood only at Rs14 billion, as they had already paid Rs23.56 billion in 2016 and 2017 the total capital gains tax.
The court has already ordered Nepal’s authorities not to ask Ncell and Axiata to pay the tax for the time being.
After TeliaSonera, which earlier owned Ncell, exited Nepal by selling the telecom company to Axiata on April 11, 2016, as per the acquisition deal—the biggest in Nepal’s corporate sector—signed in December 2015, the capital gains was determined at Rs143.6 billion. And the capital gains tax was to be determined accordingly.
Ncell officials did not respond to the Post’s repeated phone calls and text messages.
But a senior government official, who said he had read the notification sent by Ncell regarding the arbitration, told the Post the two companies have claimed they were not treated fairly in Nepal as Axiata was asked to pay capital gains tax despite it being the buyer in the Ncell buyout deal.
“Terming it against the spirit of the Bilateral Investment Treaty, the ICSID has been urged to arbitrate on the issue,” the official said.
The Supreme Court on February 6 ordered Ncell and its parent company—Axita to pay the capital gains tax, ending a long-drawn debate over whether the buyer should pay the tax when the seller does not clear its tax liability.
In its full verdict on April 9, the top court ordered the tax authority to determine the capital gains tax to be paid by Ncell and Axiata within three months and bar them from repatriating dividend and selling the shares of Ncell.
Semanta Dahal, a corporate lawyer, also doubted if the issue of taxation on Ncell and Axita would come under the jurisdiction of ICSID.
“As Axita is basically a Malaysian company and the investment came directly from Raynold Holdings registered in Saint Kitts and Nevis, a tax haven in the Caribbean with which Nepal has not signed bilateral investment treaties, Nepal can raise a question about the jurisdiction of ICSID regarding this case,” Dahal, who holds an expertise in foreign investment laws, told the Post.
“GON [government of Nepal] can raise preliminary objection under Art. 41 of ICSID immediately,” Dahal wrote on Twitter.
Article 41 of the convention states that any objection by a party to the dispute that dispute is not within the jurisdiction of the Centre, or for other reasons is not within the competence of the Tribunal,
shall be considered by the Tribunal which shall determine whether to deal with it as a preliminary question or to join it to the merits of the dispute. Officials said that it is the first case Nepal faced in the ICSID.
Tax authorities told the Post that Ncell and Axiata’s notification had not reached them.
“We have not received any formal notice,” said Dhaniram Sharma, chief of the Large Taxpayers’ Office. “I am not sure whether Nepal-UK bilateral investment treaty is attracted on tax issues.”

KATHMANDU,
Employers have shown little interest in joining the Contribution Based Social Security Scheme, which was hailed as a landmark scheme for the welfare of private sector workers when it was launched in November last year.
The launching of the scheme had seen massive promotion from the government, which claimed the scheme as the beginning of a new era in the country.
Rallies led by workers and their unions were taken out in various parts of the country and promotional banners and posters were plastered all across the Capital.
All three parties—workers, government agencies and employers—had celebrated the scheme from one stage.
However, the extravagant celebration has failed to reflect in its implementation on the ground, as employers, who had once praised the scheme as a landmark move in protecting the labour’s rights and safety.
Nearly 2,500 private sector have applied for registration in the last five months under the scheme that was introduced amid much fanfare on November 27 last year.
According to Shyam Raj Adhikari, executive director of the Social Security Fund, the main government authority under the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security for implementing the scheme, the interest shown by the employers has been disappointing.
“The number of employers coming forward to enrol under the scheme is not low-it’s negligible,” Adhikari told the Post. “It seems there is a perception among employers that it will add additional financial burden on them.”
According to a preliminary report of the National Economic Census 2018, nearly 900,000 private firms, factories, business establishments and service providers are operating in Nepal.
As per the contribution based scheme, every month, private sector workers and their employers will be contributing to a common fund—Social Security Fund—which will provide financial support to workers.
An amount equivalent to 31 percent of workers’ basic monthly salary—11 percent deducted from workers’ monthly salary and 20 percent from employers’ chest—will be going to the social security fund.
“Big firms, it seems, are concerned that the scheme would mean extra burden for them, whereas small level companies feel whether they will be able to contribute to the scheme when they have been struggling to abide by the minimum wage,” added Adhikari.
Of the 31 percent, 1 percent will be used for medical treatment, health protection and maternity scheme; 1.40 percent for accidents and disability plan; 0.27 percent for dependent family plan; and 28.33 percent for pension or old-age security scheme.

Labour right organisations have also said employers have been reluctant to register under the scheme.
“We have been working to effectively implement the minimum wage and the social security scheme which is ‘win-win’ for all the three parties-government, workers and employers,” said Binod Shrestha, president of the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions.
“However, employers have shown little interest in implementing the scheme at their workplace. We will launch a whole campaign for its implementation,” he said.
The May Day slogan of labour rights organisations has also prioritised the enforcement of the scheme.  
According to Adhikari, big companies and multinational companies have already registered under the scheme and response has been lukewarm from financial institutions, schools and colleges and tea estate companies, among others.
Private schools have already said the scheme was not feasible for small and mid level schools. A total of 4,000 workers from those firms, having completed registration procedures, have already enrolled under the scheme.   
After making their regular contributions, workers will be entitled to old-age pension, medical treatment, health protection, maternity coverage, accidents, and disability compensation.
Employers, however, attribute the ‘state of confusion’ for the slow registration.  
According to Bharat Raj Acharya, vice chairman of the Employer’s Council of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), workers and employers have been seeking some clarity before becoming part of the scheme.
“Workers are rather concerned-and hesitant-as the scheme is a long-term investment,” Acharya told the Post. “These workers are concerned how they will sustain when they need money in the meantime. The current model needs a revision so that it either pays interest on their deposits or they can withdraw money when required like the Provident Fund.”
Acharya said an FNCCI task force has already submitted its recommendations so that the scheme can be successfully implemented. They have also expressed their reservations about provisions that make it mandatory for the employers to register their workers, including foreigners, under the scheme.
“Employers hire foreign workers for a short period of time whereas enrolling with the scheme is long-term investment, adding extra burden on them,” added Acharya.   
As per the Social Security Scheme’s operational directives, retirement pension will be provided to workers over 60 years of age who have contributed to the fund for 15 years.
“The Labour Act says an employee will be entitled to pension after 58 years whereas this scheme says over 60. Both should be uniform,” said Acharya.
The nationwide deadline for registration under the scheme expired on April 28, but the government has extended it till July 16-the end of this fiscal year.

KATHMANDU,
The Indian Army has finally found footprints of the mythical Yeti, according to a tweet by the Additional Directorate General of Public Information for the Indian Army.
In the tweet, accompanied by a photo of the expedition team and three photos of what appear to be footprints in the snow, the Indian Army on Monday night said it had “sited [sic] Mysterious Footprints of mythical beast ‘Yeti’ measuring 32X15 inches close to Makalu Base Camp on 09 April 2019”.
The “elusive snowman had only been sighted at Makalu-Barun National Park in the past”, the tweet continued, sending social media into a frenzy of skeptical hilarity.
“This is a late April Fool’s Day joke, right?” tweeted one Shantanu Chikara while another made references to the Night King, a mysterious snow-dwelling being from the HBO show, Game of Thrones. Yet others drew attention to the fact that the photos appeared to only show footprints from one leg: “Mystery solved...Yeti is using a pogo stick,” said one tweet.
Much of the ridicule was directed towards the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, with India in the midst of its mammoth election exercise.
“BJP must be working out how to fit this into the rest of the campaign,” tweeted former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah.
India’s Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav too took a jibe at the BJP, tweeting: “It seems that “Acche Din” are more elusive than the #Yeti”.
Three more photos—in which expedition members are seen measuring the distance between the footprints using a trekking pole, and using a map to show where the military expedition team discovered the mysterious footprints in the snow—have also surfaced since #Yeti began to trend on Twitter on Tuesday morning.
Mount Makalu, at 8,485m, is the fifth highest mountain in the world and is located on the Nepal-China border, 19km southeast of Mount Everest. The Indian Army claims that the footprints were discovered at Langmale Kharka en route to Makalu. Langmale Kharka lies somewhere between Yangle Kharka (3,600m) and Makalu Base Camp (5,000m).

“The footprints were spotted by porters and our guide while we were trekking towards lower base camp [4,600m],” a military source closely following the expedition told the Post. “What look like footprints have been spotted here in the past, according to locals, but there is no credibility to the new claim.”
Sightings and footprints believed to be of the mythical Yeti have been reported for centuries in Nepal. And this is not the first time expeditions have claimed to find Yeti footprints, even famous mountaineers like Sir Edmund Hillary and natural historian Sir David Attenborough had once set their sights on finding the Yeti.
The elusive ape-like creature had also captured the imagination of Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi alias Herge who created ‘The Adventures of Tintin’. The twentieth volume in the series, ‘Tintin in Tibet’, shows a trail of large footprints on its cover, while the plot follows a Chinese boy who gets lost in the Himalayas and is rescued by the Yeti. The young reporter Tintin, accompanied by his friend Captain Haddock and his dog Snowy, go looking for their lost friend.
The scientific community regards the Yeti as a myth, since no credible evidence has been discovered to prove its existence. Samples purporting to be the Yeti’s remains—including one scalp that is on display at a monastery in Khumjung in the Everest region—have been concluded to be parts from Asian black bears, Himalayan brown bears or Tibetan brown bears, and even a dog by a DNA study.
The Yeti has long been part of Nepali folklore, with legends from a number of Himalayan communities claiming the existence of a wild man in the mountains, or a hybrid man-bear creature. The ‘abominable snowman’ is believed to live at high altitudes in the Himalayas and stories have long been passed down from generation to generation.
The creature, however, has remained elusive, appearing only as enlarged footprints or dubious remains. In the tongue of the Sherpa community, it even has a name—S(c)hokpa.

BIRTAMOD (JHAPA),
District Police Office (DPO) in Jhapa has issued arrest
warrants against nine persons, including two elected people’s representatives, for their alleged involvement in recommending an Indian national to acquire Nepali citizenship by descent. Police had arrested the Indian national and a Nepali man who posed as his father.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Mahendra Kumar Shrestha said that the warrants were issued
against Ward Chairman of Kachankabal Rural Municipality-2 Mekha Bahadur Bhattarai,  Secretary Hari Prasad Gautam, ward member Dhan Bahadur Gurung, another employee Khagendra Khatiwada and five others for abetting the Indian national to acquire Nepali citizenship.
Police detained Bhupal Gurung, 36, of Indian state of Assam and Bam Bahadur Gurung, 55, of Kachankabal-2 from the District Administration Office (DAO) on April 23. The DPO claimed that Bhupal attempted to acquire Nepali citizenship, with Bam Bahadur posing as his father and the people’s representatives and employees recommending to the local administration for Bhupal’s citizenship.
Bhupal was found to have exercised his franchise as an Indian national during the recently held Lok Sabha election in Assam. He came to Nepal to acquire citizenship after casting his vote in Assam. Upon noticing an ink mark on his finger, the DAO employees grilled him and he confessed to being an Indian national during interrogation.
The security personnel also recovered his Indian voter identity card while frisking his body. Chandra Bahadur Gurung is mentioned as Bhupal’s father in the seized voter identity card. “A detailed investigation is under way into the case,” DSP Shrestha said.  
The Jhapa District Court permitted police to issue arrest warrants against the elected representatives
for providing necessary documents to acquire the citizenship certificate. The arrest warrants were also issued against Kabita Gurung, Ganga Prasad Bhattarai, Prem Prasad Timilsina, Shiva Kumar Dahal and Tulsiram Gurung who testified that Bhupal was the son of Bam Bahadur.
Ward Secretary Gautam had signed the document that states Bhupal as Bam Bahadur’s son, while Ward Chairman Bhattarai signed on Bhupal’s birth registration form and recommendation
letter for obtaining the citizenship.
The Indian national almost obtained Nepali citizenship due to sheer negligence of people’s representatives, Chief District Officer Janak Raj Dahal said.
“Legal action will be taken as per the Citizenship Act against the people’s representatives, employees and the local people for forging documents to obtain citizenship.”

KATHMANDU,
The Ministry of Health and Population has demanded Rs600 million to continue the Safe Motherhood Programme for the ongoing fiscal year.
The ministry’s move comes after health facilities throughout the country stopped providing cash incentives to new mothers for receiving antenatal check-up and institutional delivery services some months ago.
“We have allocated additional Rs180 million to health facilities and demanded an additional Rs600 million from the Finance Ministry,” Dr Punya Poudel, a focal person for the Safe Motherhood Programme at the Family Welfare Program under the Department of Health services, told the Post. “Thousands of women and their newborn babies will be at risk if we fail to continue the programme,” he added.
The government’s Safe Motherhood Programme—under which mothers and babies are provided with free medical treatments, transportation allowance and cash incentives for antenatal checkups—has been instrumental in bringing women to health centres and hospitals.
But the lack of funds is putting the lives of thousands of women and their newborns at risk. According to Poudel, her office has to send money to all government and private health facilities and medical colleges which runs the programme.
“Apart from providing incentives to new mothers, we also have pay health facilities to ensure they are able to provide the services free of cost,” said Poudel.
The government had announced doubling cash incentives to women seeking institutional delivery services in the budget speech but did not release the money accordingly.
Health facilities, however, provided cash incentives as per the budget speech and ran out of cash within a few months.
The division said that for every 100,000 live births in Nepal, 229 women die during or after childbirth. There has been no reduction in maternal mortality rate despite the availability of free services and allowances.
The division’s data also show that only 57 percent of pregnant women in the country seek institutional delivery, and officials fear that the lack of funds, if not resolved at the earliest, could jeopardise all the positive strides the country has made in terms of international commitments to reduce and limit the maternal mortality rate.

KATHMANDU,
Two weeks ago, the World Health Organisation published an alarming report—that measles cases across the world rose 300 percent in the first three months of 2019 compared to the same period last year.
“While this data is provisional and not yet complete, it indicates a clear trend,” said the United Nations health agency. Nepal has made significant strides in vaccination but measles outbreaks in some districts have become a cause for concern.
Measles is a contagious diseases which can be entirely prevented with a two-dose vaccine. Multiple officials the Post spoke to said measles outbreaks were reported in Morang, Dang and Kapilvastu districts in April alone.
Sunita Kunwar, an immunisation supervisor in Dang, told the Post over the phone that measles virus has been seen in several children of Ward 4 of Rajpur Rural Municipality in the district.
“We started an immunisation campaign on Monday. It will continue until all the children in the area and nearby villages in wards 3 and 5 are vaccinated,” said Kunwar.
Gyan Bahadur BC, chief of the Provincial Health Office in Morang, said the disease was seen in Barangha village of Ward 7 of Sunbasti Municipality. He said 11 measles cases were confirmed in laboratory tests within a month, which was sufficient to declare an outbreak.
Health workers declare an outbreak of disease if the number of infections exceeds five in an area.
Phanindra Nath Tiwari, an immunisation supervisor in Kapilvastu, also confirmed measles outbreak in wards 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9 of Krishnanagar Municipality of the district. According to him, 18 measles cases were confirmed.
Measles was endemic in Nepal and an average 90,000 cases were recorded every year from 1994 to 2004. Routine measles vaccination began in the country in 1979 with three districts. The campaign was expanded nationwide after 10 years. The government provides two doses of measles vaccines to children—at nine months and 15 months—free of cost from health facilities across the country.
Nepal had committed to eliminating measles infection within 2019, but going by the frequent occurrence of cases, officials say the country may miss the deadline.
To declare measles eliminated, the number of its cases should be less than five in every 1,000,000 population or no cases throughout the year.
Measles is transmitted through droplets from nose, mouth or throat of infected persons. Early symptoms, which usually appear 10-12 days after infection, include high fever, a runny nose, bloodshot eyes and white tiny spots inside the mouth.
Several days later, a rash develops in the face, upper neck and other parts of the body. Asked about the outbreak in some districts, Dr Jhalak Sharma, chief of the Child Health and Immunisation Section of the Family Welfare Division under the Department of Health Services, said, “All children aged nine months to 15 years of the disease-hit areas will be immunised with an extra shot of measles vaccine.” “Over 13,000 children in the disease-hit areas will get an additional dose of vaccine during the special campaign,” said Sharma.

KATHMANDU,
A meeting of the parliamentary Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights on Tuesday saw a heated exchange of words between opposition lawmakers and Minister for Law and Justice Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal over the bill to amend the National Human Rights Commission Act-2012.
While the opposition lawmakers, along with officials from the commission, demanded revision of the bill, arguing that it curtailed the authority of the national human rights watchdog, Dhakal refused to budge.
The amendment bill, which is being discussed in the House committee, has proposed making it mandatory for the commission to recommend the cases it has investigated to the attorney general with an authority for him/her whether or not to proceed the case. It also authorises the attorney general to request the commission for further investigation if s/he finds the case incomplete. The Act authorises the commission to write directly to the respective person or agency to execute its recommendations based on an investigation.
Commenting on the bill, Nepali Congress Chief Whip Bal Krishna Khand said no attempts to undermine the authority of the constitutional commission are acceptable. “We will make every effort possible to ensure the independence of the commission,” he said, adding that allowing the attorney general to decide on the recommendation of the constitutional body is against the spirit of the statute. Other opposition leaders said the government must withdraw the bill and revise it incorporating provisions to empower it, rather than undermining its authority.
Anup Raj Sharma, chairperson of the commission, asked the government to respect the Paris Principle, which envisions that human rights institutions should have autonomy. He also said it was unfortunate that the government has come up with the bill aimed at curtailing the authority of the commission while Nepal holds an elected membership of the Human Rights Council. “We urge the government to reconsider it,” he said.
Dhakal however, said the bill was formulated keeping in mind the spirit of the statute. Therefore, there was no point withdrawing it from the House. The bill was registered at the federal parliament two weeks ago after approval from the Cabinet.
“The government won’t revise the bill,” he said. Hinting at the reservation over the bill from different quarters, he further said that the laws are not made from Maitighar. “Let Parliament discuss and finalise it,” he added. The ruling alliance holds a two-thirds majority in the federal parliament. This means any of its bills can easily get through if the government remains adamant. Dhakal said that the government needs to be appreciated for initiating the process to amend the Act as per the
constitution, a task that should have been done three years ago.
Min Bishwokarma, a Congress lawmaker, said he was saddened to see the way Dhakal defended the bill. “We must not forget that the human rights commission has an important place in democracy and it needs to be fully autonomous,” he said. Bishwokarma said that the government was taking one step after another to weaken the institutions of the country. The bill was a continuation of it. This is not the first time the KP Sharma Oli-led government has attempted to attack the autonomy of the commission. During his first stint as the prime minister, Oli had summoned the commission’s team to his office and censured them for their statement during the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva in March 2016, in which the commission had raised the issues of citizenship, fundamental rights and the use of excessive force by the state.
Different international human rights organisations had expressed serious reservations over the government’s act. Recently, on April 21, a Nepal Police team tried to forcibly enter the regional office of the commission in Nepalgunj. The police were trying to nab a cadre of the Netra Bikram Chand-led Nepal Communist Party, Dan Bahadur Fadera, who was released by the Banke District Court. The commission’s regional office had given refuge to Fadera after he was released by the court on a general date, following suspicion that the police wanted to arrest him yet again.
Officials at the constitutional watchdog say they were told by senior members of the House committee that they would work to revise the bill before it is tabled in the full House for endorsement. “Even ruling party lawmakers have assured us of a revision. “We are left with no option but to wait and see,” said a member of the commission, seeking anonymity because he feared being dragged into a controversy.

KATHMANDU,
Pushpa Kamal Dahal, co-chairman of the ruling Nepal Communist Party, on Tuesday threatened to topple the Province 2 government, saying that corruption was rampant in the province and that the provincial government had failed to work in the interest of the people of Madhes.
“There is increasing corruption and dishonesty. I am surprised to hear that personal phone numbers are listed in red book,” said Dahal at a function organised to welcome leaders from the Madhes Tarai Forum in his party at his residence. “If this continues, situation might come for the Nepal Communist Party to take the lead of the government some time.”
Such remarks from Dahal, a two-time prime minister, have angered the Province 2 leaders and government officials.
Dipendra Jha, chief attorney of Province 2, objected to Dahal’s statement, saying it does not go with the spirit of federalism.
“It’s unbecoming of Dahal, as someone who fought for federalism, to make such remarks,” Jha said. “As far corruption is concerned, there is a constitutional body in place to deal with the issue. There is no need for a political figure to call out any provincial government. Dahal is not the authority to accuse the provincial government of corruption.”
The new constitution promulgated in 2015 ensured federalism and elections were held accordingly in 2017. The Nepal Communist Party has formed governments in all provinces except in Province 2. The governments in provinces are formed by the respective provincial assemblies.
Dahal’s remarks come at a time when most of the provincial governments are at odds with the federal government over a host of issues, including devolution of power and lack of umbrella laws.
On top of that, many say Dahal does not hold any official position and that he is currently the co-chairman of a party that is at the helm of the federal government.
While Dahal has time and again said he “always worked for Madhes”, his remarks in recent times targeting Province 2 are not reflective of that.
Earlier on October 23 last year, Dahal had warned Province 2 government “not to overtake the federal government”, saying it could derail federalism. Dahal was referring to Province 2 government’s move to bring Provincial Police Act prior to Federal Police Law. He had also warned the provincial executives not to ignore the federal government, saying it enjoyed a two-thirds majority. Province 2 Chief Minister Lalbabu Raut was also present at that function.
“Such remarks from a political leader of such a stature can create instability,” said Bipin Adhikari, a constitutional expert. “Leaders who are never tired of boasting about political stability should promote stability in provinces as well,” he said.
Dahal for long has been known for making strange statements that generate debate-and sometimes have caused ramifications. But majority of such comments from him have been political in nature.
Dahal as a top leader of the ruling party, some say, should not have gone to the extent of threatening to a provincial government, as its formation has its own procedures which are not related to federal Parliament of which Dahal is a member.
“There is a provincial assembly to discuss if there has to be a change of guard,” said Jha. “And the constitutional provision does not allow any political party to bring no-confidence motion before two years of the formation of government.”
Article 188(4) of the constitution states that one-fourth of the total number of then members of the State Assembly may table in writing a motion of no-confidence against the chief minister but “provided that a motion of no-confidence may not be tabled until the first two years after the appointment of the chief minister and until another one year after the date of failure of the motion of no-confidence once tabled.”
Then why did Dahal make the remarks?
“Dahal is daydreaming,” said Lalbabu Raut, Chief Minister of Province 2. “Since long, Dahal has been dreaming about forming government led by his party. His dream won’t materialise.”
Raut’s party Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal currently have a coalition government in Province 2.
Asked if Dahal had made the claim of toppling the government in Province 2 and forming one under the Nepal Communist Party, a Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal leader said his party was not aware of any such developments.
“The coalition government in Province 2 has people’s mandate. It’s a movement in itself, it’s more than a power-sharing deal,” said Rajendra Mahato of Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal. “I don’t think Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal would halt the ongoing struggle by siding with the Nepal Communist Party.”
Adhikari, the constitutional expert, said federal government is yet to equip provincial governments to ensure their smooth functioning.
“With no necessary legal framework, provincial governments are struggling to function properly,” Adhikari said. “And when it comes to corruption, there is a constitutional body to deal with it. Political leaders talking about corruption of provinces would only disrupt the process of federalisation.”

SURKHET,
The influenza-like illness that claimed nine lives in Tajakot Rural Municipality of Humla has gradually come under control, according to the authorities concerned.
Dr KN Poudel of the Karnali Provincial Hospital, who reached the affected remote village leading a medical team, told the Post on Tuesday that the number of patients significantly decreased.
“Twelve of the total 64 people who visited Maila Health Post on Tuesday were found afflicted with the flu-like symptoms. We also went door-to-door and provided treatment in the affected settlements. The number of patients has significantly decreased now,” said Poudel.
Four doctors, including Poudel, and several health workers have been providing treatment in the Tajakot area for the past three days. According to Poudel, three doctors are preparing to return while one will stay back in the affected area for a few more days. The medical team had provided treatment to around 200 patients as of Tuesday.  
 The flu-like disease that was spreading in various wards of Tajakot Rural Municipality for the past three weeks is yet to be identified. The medical team collected throat swab samples of five patients for laboratory test on Monday.
“We have kept the samples in a refrigerator. The samples have to be transported to Kathmandu by air. Hopefully they will send a helicopter soon from the city. Although the disease is under control for now, it will be unfortunate if we fail to identify the disease,” said Poudel.
The situation of health and sanitation, according to the medical team, is quite miserable in Tajakot that has total population of around 8,000. A huge number of children are suffering from malnutrition while respiratory ailments are common among elderly people.  
Tajakot is a remote local unit in Humla. It is about three-day walk away from Simikot, the district headquarters. The people’s representatives suggested the government to establish a primary health centre in the area with at least one resident doctor. “The local people of Tajakot will get timely treatment if there is a primary health centre with a doctor. We have requested the concerned authorities for the same,” said Shyam Acharya, officer at the Provincial Health Directorate.
Social Development Minister of Karnali Province Dal Rawal, who hails from Humla, said that the government will soon make a policy level decision to set up a primary health centre in the remote local bodies in Humla and other districts.

BUTWAL, 
The number of murders has increased in Province-5, as per the data of the Provincial Police Office, Tulsipur, Dang.
According to the Provincial Police Office, in a period of nine months—from mid-July last year to mid-April this fiscal year—the province has witnessed 68 murders. In relation to the murders, police have arrested 114 suspects, while 25 others are still on the run.
The Tarai districts in the province, especially the districts that border India, have reported more murders than hilly districts. In bordering Banke district alone, 13 people lost their lives in the last 9 months. Most of the murders have been over petty issues, such as dispute between persons, families, friends and neighbours and easy availability of small weapons.
Many murders have also taken place over disputes in economic transactions. The murder of one Triveni Yadav, 70, of Kapilvastu on March 20 this year highlights the case of petty disputes leading to violence. Yadav, a resident of Shivaraj Municipality-6, was sleeping at his home when he was murdered by being hit on the head with a brick. In the murder scene, police recovered a paper on which some economic transaction had been conducted in Abadhi language. Police have not been able to dig into the case deeper or arrest anyone for the crime. There have been nine such similar murders in Kapilvastu in this fiscal so far.
Murders driven by love affairs and infidelity are also on the rise. Police arrested Saina Khatun of Mainabagar in Butwal for murdering her husband Firoz Khan, 45, on March 26. Police investigation showed Saina had an illicit relationship with her brother-in-law, a widower, and planned and executed the murder with his help. Rupandehi police Chief SP Hridaya Thapa said, “A moral deviation from social and family values has led to conflicts among acquaintances. This is seen in eight of the 10 murders in Rupandehi.”
Other districts in the province have also seen a rise in the number of murders. Nawalparasi (West) witnessed eight while there were five murders each in Pyuthan and Rolpa. Dang, Gulmi and Palpa had four each, Bardiya had three and Rukum (East) had one murder in the current fiscal year.
DIG Pitambar Adhikari, chief of Province 5 Police, said despite police clamping down on organised crime, murder cases are still on the rise due to family and personal reasons. “Mistrust, extravagant lifestyle and social conditioning have led to disputes which unfortunately lead to major crimes like murder,” Adhikari said. He suggested that social leaders and influencers rather than the police administration should take the initiative to lessen the number of cases in the community.
Psychologist Radhika Thapa suggests that morality should be a topic that should be focused on in the education system and should be provided to people from all age groups and gender in schools, youth clubs, and the community as a whole. “Only then we can decrease the number of murders caused by personal vendetta,” said Thapa.
However, in a two-day provincial level security assembly, organised by the Home Ministry on March 10, in which Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa and chiefs of all three security bodies participated, district police chiefs claimed that the number of murder and violence had gone down in the province and there were no major threats, except that from the banned Netra Bikram Chand-led Nepal Communist Party.

RAJBIRAJ,
Police rescued a 12-year-old boy, who was abducted from Saptari district on April 26, from Indian territory on Monday night.
Laxman Kumar Yadav of Rajgadh Rural Municipality-3 was rescued from Shivahar in Sitamarhi district of India, said police. In a press meet on Tuesday, the Saptari police handed over the rescued boy to his family.
 Laxman was kidnapped by an unidentified group while attending his maternal uncle’s wedding. A police complaint was lodged by Bholendra Yadav, Laxman’s maternal uncle, to find the missing boy. A preliminary investigation showed that Laxman was kidnapped, after which security personnel operated a search operation along the Nepal-India border.
A security team of 23 plain-clothed police personnel, led by Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajendra Bista, was deployed in the Indian territory in coordination with the Indian authorities. While the police search was underway, an unidentified person telephoned Laxman’s uncle Birendra Yadav and demanded Rs 5 million as ransom to release the abducted boy. The abductors had also called Laxman’s father Jageshwor Yadav, who is currently in Mumbai for employment, and demanded ransom amount.
The police team intensified the search from Darbhanga to Sitamarhi area of India by tracking the phone calls of the abductors.
“We coordinated with the Indian police and continued the search. The abductors finally left the boy
in a hotel and fled after learning that police had intensified the search and the victim’s family was unable to cough up the ransom,” said SP Bista.
Laxman was found in an unconscious state under the influence of sedatives. He was taken to Rajbiraj on Tuesday morning for a health examination. The boy’s health is gradually improving, said police. During the press meet, Laxman said that he was abducted by two persons and taken to India on a motorcycle with his mouth and hands taped.
“We have safely rescued the victim. We are now looking for the suspects involved in the crime,” said SP Bista.

RAMECHHAP,
Pasang Lama, a ward secretary of Khandadevi Rural Municipality in Ramechhap district, has been solely handling the administrative works of all nine wards for a long time now due to a shortage of staff.
The ward offices are without secretaries, as they have been sent for adjustment as per the Employees Adjustment Ordinance. Because of a lack of staff, service seekers are facing problems acquiring attestation of their documents and receiving recommendation letters.
Auxiliary Health Worker Padam Shrestha of Bhirpani Health Facility has been compelled to provide recommendations for citizenship certificates and other necessary documents for the service seekers whereas the assistant technicians have been working in place of ward secretary in Makadum.
Prem Bahadur Tamang, chairman of the rural municipality, said that he has requested the concerned authority to provide staff for the municipal office, but to no avail.
“Technicians have been asked to look after the administrative works when they have no knowledge of administration. Because of that even the technical works have been hampered,” said Tamang.
This problem is not limited to Khandadevi Rural Municipality only. There is only one ward secretary for six wards of Gokulganga Rural Municipality, whereas two ward secretaries are handling seven wards of Likhu Tamakoshi Rural Municipality.
People of other local units have also said that they have been facing difficulties to register life events and to get recommendation letters for passports and citizenships due to a lack of staff in the municipal office.
People’s representatives said that they are facing difficulties in running daily affairs and implementing the budget due to a lack of staff.

TIKAPUR,
Ten people were injured when a clash broke out at Lamki Bazaar in Kailali district following the death of a 19-year-old cyclist after being hit by a truck on Tuesday.
Sunita Rawal of Lamkichuha Municipality-1, Kailali, was killed when she was hit by a truck while returning home from college in the morning.
Shortly after her death, the students of Lamki Multiple Campus took to the street of Lamki Bazaar in protest.
They closed the East-West Highway and vandalised the truck (Na 7 Kha 9233) that had struck Rawal.
Superintendent of Police Abhusan Timsina said the clash erupted after the protesters started hurling stones at the security personnel who were mobilised to maintain peace and order.   
Five Nepal Police officers and four Armed Police Force personnel were among those injured in the clash, he added.
They were taken to Lal Ratna Hospital for treatment. SP Timsina said police fired nine warning shots
and as many tear gas shells to disperse the violent mob.  
Traffic along the East-West Highway resumed only after 4 pm following a talks between the local administration and Rawal’s relatives.  
The local administration has assured to provide compensation to Rawal’s family and initiate legal action against the truck driver.

JYAMIREMANE (SINDHUPALCHOK),
Debamaya Tamang of Jyamiremane in Indrawati Rural Municipality-8, Sindhupalchok, has to spend almost an entire day to fetch a vessel of water. She wakes up at 4am to collect water from a water source that is around one-and-a-half hour walk from her house.
“There’s always a long queue of people waiting for their turns to collect water. Frustrations run high and people end up in disputes over whose turn it is to get water,” said Tamang.
There are only two taps for the villagers in Indrawati-8—one at Jyamiremane Chok and another at the bazaar settlement. Various water sources of Indrawati-8 and 9 dried up after the devastating earthquake of April 25, 2015. People have been suffering from an acute shortage of water since then. Kedarnath Acharya, a local of Jyamiredanda, said that a lot of people depend on just one tap for their daily water needs. “We demand the authorities to permanently solve the problem of drinking water in our village,” said Acharya.
Various non-governmental organisations have been working in the area to manage the supply of water, but the locals still reel under water shortage. Banshalal Tamang, chairperson of Indrawati Rural Municipality, said, “I have taken initiatives to supply water to people’s households. We are soon going to launch a large-scale drinking water programme from the local level.”
Experts said that water sources in Indrawati are drying up due to climate change, population growth and encroachment.

BAJURA: Ten cadres of the Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist party of Nepal were arrested from Amkot in Budhiganga Municipality, Bajura, on Tuesday morning. According to the District Police Office, a team led by DSP Uddhav Singh Bhat arrested 10 cadres including Bhupendra BK, district-in charge of the party. Police said they were arrested with various explosives and documents. They were taken into the custody on the charge of possessing explosives, said police. (PR)

DARCHULA: Yarsha-gumba picking season has started in Darchula district. Api Nampa Conservation Area (ANCA) has started providing permits to enter the area from the third week of April until June. Yarshagumba is the world’s most expensive medicinal fungus. The herb can fetch as much as $100 per gram in the Chinese market, making it more expensive than gold, according to reports. (PR)

ROLPA: An improvised explosive device (IED) went off at Madichaur in Rolpa Municipality on Tuesday morning. According to the police, the IED was targeting Chief Minister Shankar Pokharel who was in Rolpa to attend a party programme. Chief District Officer Ganja Bahadur MC said that Pokharel and his team are unharmed by the explosion. “The IED might have been planted in order to threaten the CM’s team,” said MC, adding that they have remained alert after the incident. No one has taken responsibility for the explosion so far. (PR)

DHADING: The District Police Office in Dhading arrested three people in connection to a murder of Dev Bahadur BK of Tipling in 2006. Hem Dalla BK, Bam Bahadur BK and Sarki BK, who were convicted of the murder in 2006, were arrested recently from Rasuwa and Kathmandu. The court sentenced Hem and Bam Bahadur to 20 years in prison, while Sarki was slapped
with a 10 year-term last year. (PR)

TOKYO,
Japanese Emperor Akihito, in his final remarks as his three-decade reign drew to a close on Tuesday, thanked the people for their support and expressed hope for a peaceful future.
Akihito, 85, the first monarch to abdicate in two centuries, had sought to ease the painful memories of World War Two and bring the monarchy closer to the people, including those marginalised in society.
The popular Akihito was the first monarch to take the Chrysanthemum Throne under a post-war constitution that defines the emperor as a symbol of the people without political power.
His father, Hirohito, in whose name Japanese troops fought World War Two, was considered a living deity until after Japan’s defeat in 1945, when he renounced his divinity. “To the people who accepted and supported me as a symbol, I express my heartfelt thanks,” Akihito, wearing a Western-style morning coat, said at a brief abdication ceremony in the Imperial Palace’s Matsu no ma, or Hall of Pine.
“Together with the empress, I hope from my heart that the new Reiwa era that begins tomorrow will be peaceful and fruitful, and pray for the peace and happiness of our country and the people of the world,” said a solemn Akihito, referring to the new imperial era.
Standing on a white dais flanked by Empress Michiko, who wore a long white and grey dress, Akihito bowed after he spoke.
About 300 people attended the ceremony broadcast live on television. They included Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, as well as the heads of both houses of parliament and Supreme Court justices.
Akihito, together with Michiko, his wife of 60 years and the first commoner to marry an imperial heir, carved out an active role as a symbol of reconciliation, peace and democracy.
Akihito, who has had treatment for prostate cancer and heart surgery, said in a televised address in 2016 that he feared his age would make it hard for him to carry out his duties fully.
At the start of the ceremony, chamberlains carried the state and privy seals into the hall along with two of Japan’s “Three Sacred Treasures” - a sword and a jewel - which together with a mirror are symbols of the throne. They are said to originate in ancient mythology.
“While keeping in our hearts the path that the emperor has walked, we will make utmost efforts to create a bright future for a proud Japan that is full of peace and hope,” Abe said ahead of the emperor’s remarks.
At the end of the ceremony, Akihito descended from the dais and took Michiko’s hand as she stepped down. Before exiting the room, he paused, turned toward the audience and bowed again.
Earlier, Akihito performed a ritual announcement of his abdication in three palace sanctuaries, including one honouring the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami, from whom mythology says the imperial line is descended, and two others for departed emperors and Shinto gods.
NHK television showed Akihito, wearing a dark orange traditional robe and black headdress, walking slowly into the first sanctuary with a white-robed courtier holding the train and another carrying a sword. Naruhito conducted a similar ceremony.
Crowds gathered outside the Palace, a 115-hectare compound in the heart of Tokyo protected by moats and walls, that is home to the emperor and empress. Security was tight with several thousand police officers on duty in Tokyo, media reports said.
“I think the emperor is loved by the people. His image is one of encouraging the people, such as after disasters, and being close to the people,” said Morio Miyamoto, 48.
“I hope the next emperor will, like the Heisei emperor, be close to the people in the same way,” he said.
The Heisei imperial era, which began on Jan. 8, 1989 after Akihito inherited the throne, saw economic stagnation, natural disasters and rapid technological change.
Not everyone was excited by the imperial changeover.
“It’s a normal day. That kind of political stuff is irrelevant to us ordinary people,” said Masato Saito, a 40-year-old construction worker.
“As long as they make our lives easy to live, that’s all I care.”
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania offered their “heartfelt appreciation” to the royal pair in a statement.
Naruhito, 59, will inherit the throne in ceremonies on Wednesday. He studied at Oxford and together with his Harvard-educated wife, Masako, will give the monarchy a cosmopolitan flavour.
Akihito officially remains emperor until midnight, when the new Reiwa era, meaning “beautiful harmony”, begins. Informal countdown events for the start of the new era were scheduled for Tuesday evening.

NEW DELHI,
An alleged follower of Sri Lankan bombing mastermind Zahran Hashim was set to appear before an Indian court on Tuesday after admitting he wanted to carry out an attack in India, investigators said.
India has been concerned about Islamist extremists on its soil for some time and the April 21 Sri Lanka bombings that killed 253 people has left authorities alarmed that India might be at risk of a jihadist attack.
The Indian national, identified as Riyas A, alias Riyas Aboobacker, 29, was arrested on Monday by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA), which handles counter-terrorism cases.
During interrogation, he “disclosed that he has been following speeches/videos of Zahran Hashim of Sri Lanka for more than a year”, an NIA statement said.
“He admitted that he wanted to carry out a suicide attack in Kerala,” a southern Indian state, it added.
Hashim was a Sri Lankan Muslim preacher who led the coordinated Easter Sunday suicide attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, in one of the world’s deadliest terrorist attacks.
Military sources have said Hashim was not known to have visited Syria or Iraq, but travelled to India’s Tamil Nadu state, which borders Kerala, and had been in contact with Islamists there.
Hashim also appeared in a video released by the Islamic State group, showing him leading others in pledging allegiance to IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
IS has claimed responsibility for the Sri Lanka attacks.
India had warned Sri Lanka that suicide attacks were possible weeks before.
The NIA said that it arrested Riyas “for conspiring to commit a terrorist act” in connection with a 2016 case against an Indian man wanted, along with others, for leaving India to join IS abroad.
Riyas had allegedly been in online contact with that suspect, Abdul Rashid Abdulla, alias Abu Isa, and followed his online audio posts including one “instigating others to carry out terror attacks in India”, NIA said.
Aboobacker’s arrest comes at a time when New Delhi is already anxious about the footprint of IS in the Hindu-majority country.
Indian authorities have already arrested several people allegedly inspired by radical Islamist ideology in recent months.
In 2016 the NIA launched an investigation into the disappearance of 15 young Indians thought to have left to join IS in Afghanistan and Syria.
Pockets of southern India have since been on the radar of Indian investigators concerned over growing radicalism. Kabir Taneja, associate fellow with New Delhi-based Observer Research Founda-tion, said that the danger of attacks may have increased since the collapse of IS’s “caliphate” across swathes of Iraq and Syria.
“I think some level of nervousness is expected, and it’s good,” Taneja told AFP.

SEOUL,
North Korea’s vice foreign minister said on Tuesday the United States will face “undesired consequences” if it fails to present a new position in denuclearisation talks by the end of the year, state media reported.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has set a year-end deadline for the United States to show more flexibility after his second summit with US President Donald Trump failed to produce a deal to end Pyongyang’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.
But Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have brushed aside the deadline, calling for Kim to take action on his pledge to denuclearise after years of pursuing nuclear and rocket programmes in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.]
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui singled out Pompeo’s interview last week with CBS in which he said the United States may have to “change paths” if the negotiations break down.
“Changing paths is not a privilege that only the United States has, but it could be our own choice if we make up our mind,” Choe said, according to the official KCNA news agency. “If the United States fails to reestablish its position within the timeline we gave, it will see truly undesired consequences.”
She also said North Korea’s determination to denuclearise remained unchanged. It would happen “when the come comes”, but only if the United States changed its current calculations. “We know the path we will take, but we’re just hesitating to choose as we have set the deadline for the United States,” Choe said.
The North had been seeking a deal to ease sanctions in exchange for dismantling some of its nuclear facilities, but Trump called for a “big deal” in which sanctions would be lifted if Pyongyang handed over all its nuclear weapons to the United States.
Choe’s remarks continue the North’s attack on Trump’s point person on the nuclear negotiations, after another foreign ministry official rejected Pompeo as a counterpart, demanding a switch to someone “more careful and mature”.

WASHINGTON: Facebook announced on Monday its first research grants to academics studying the impact of social media on elections, part of an effort to prevent manipulation of social platforms. The leading social network said some 60 researchers from 30 academic institutions across 11 countries were selected under a review process by the Social Science Research Council and the independent group Social Science One. Facebook began the research initiative last year after revelations of foreign influence campaigns on the 2016 US election and the Brexit vote in Britain. It began soliciting proposals last year, and on Monday unveiled its first research grants. “To assure the independence of the research and the researchers, Facebook did not play any role in the selection of the individuals or their projects and will have no role in directing the findings or conclusions of the research,” said a blog post by Facebook executives Elliot Schrage and Chaya Nayak.

NEW DELHI: India’s government on Tuesday asked opposition leader Rahul Gandhi to respond to claims that he is a British citizen as the country’s fiercely contested election battle took a bizarre twist. The home ministry wrote to the Congress party leader and scion of the famed Nehru-Gandhi dynasty after a deputy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party accused Gandhi of lying about his nationality. Gandhi was told to provide a “factual” reply on his citizenship. India does not allow dual nationality and only Indian citizens can contest elections. The complaint by Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Subramanian Swamy repeats long-standing claims that Gandhi recorded himself as British twice in annual returns filed by a now-defunct British company in which he was a director. The company, Backops Limited, was registered in 2003 and filed for dissolution in 2009. Swamy has been demanding since 2015 that Gandhi be stripped of Indian citizenship as well as his parliamentary seat. Tuesday’s notice is the first time the Indian government has taken up the complaint. A Congress spokesman dismissed the allegation against Gandhi as “malicious”.

BUTEMBO (DR Congo): Twenty-six people died of Ebola in a single day in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province, the highest daily toll since its outbreak nearly nine months ago, the health ministry said on Tuesday. The current outbreak is the second deadliest on record, after the epidemic that struck West Africa in 2014-2016 and killed more than 11,300 people. The health ministry it had counted 957 deaths in the country, of which 891 were confirmed cases and 66 suspected ones. “There were 26 deaths from confirmed cases” on Sunday, April 28, in the northeastern North Kivu province, the ministry said in a statement. It said of the total deaths of 957, 33 were health workers who had succumbed to the disease. The DR Congo declared a tenth outbreak of Ebola in 40 years last August in North Kivu before the virus spread into the neighbouring Ituri region. The epicentre was first located in the rural area of Mangina, but then switched to the town of Beni. Local organisations say the number of Ebola deaths is rising. Adding to the logistical hitches are a string of assaults on teams fighting the disease.

WASHINGTON: The former US diplomat who secured
the release from North Korea of American Otto Warmbier said on Monday Washington should honor
its pledge to pay Pyongyang $2 million for the student’s hospital care. Joseph Yun, the former US special envoy for North Korea, confirmed to Reuters he had signed
an agreement with the North Koreans for the payment
of the money before Warmbier was flown out of Pyongyang in a coma on June 13, 2017. He died days
after returning home. White House national security adviser John Bolton said in a television interview on Sunday that while the agreement had been signed, no payment had been made to the North Koreans. Yun, who retired from the State Department last year and is now a global affairs analyst for CNN, said on the network he believed the United States should honor its commitment. “My view is, yes. If you’ve signed, if you promised another government from the U.S. government that you would make the payment, my view certainly is that we should go ahead and meet our end of the commitment,” he said.

Today is the 130th International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day. Nepal has been celebrating May day since 1963, and it was declared a public holiday in 2007. There has been a marked improvement in relations between management and labour compared to the past. Industrial unrest has declined significantly. Nepali industry has not seen major strikes or lockouts in recent years, although such activities were the trademark of domestic industries some years ago. Both companies and trade unions acknowledge that labour relations have improved owing to trade union maturity. But the government has made efforts on its part, too. Therefore it has been a two-way street.
The Labour Act 2017 for example, which requires employers to ensure a safe working environment for workers’ health and safety has been quite instrumental in securing workers’ rights. The guarantee of Occupational Safety and Health of workers at workplace in the latest labour legislation is the first ever instance of workers’ health and safety being secured by the country’s law. Under the Act, employers must be responsible for keeping workers safe from health hazards that might come from the use, storage and operation of any chemical, physical materials and equipment at workplace.
Similarly, in November 2018, the government also launched an ambitious social security scheme to protect and secure employees working in the formal private sector. The mechanism governing the scheme relies on employers contributing 11 percent, employees contributing 20 percent—and, with the result of these contributions—the employee providing social security in the form of healthcare, pensions and other prescribed benefits. The current scheme aims to cover about 3.4 million people—about 12 percent of the population—working in the formal sector. What’s more, various legislations and pacts have been signed to ensure Nepali labour migrants are not exploited in various Gulf countries when they go for foreign employment.
All these developments do indicate that the government has been quite serious about improving the labour conditions. However, a large number of people still flee the country in search of better work opportunities. Our economy is still dependent on remittance and while entrepreneurship is flourishing, the government’s efforts in creating industries, and as a corollary, increasing employment opportunities at home is yet to receive the kind of attention it deserves. A lot has been done on the legislative front to secure the rights of the workers. This is commendable but the focus now has to shift to creating more job opportunities at home. Also, it is high time the government recognised the
contribution of women and the informal sector to the economy despite the fact that their numbers are so large and their contributions so wide-ranging.

Come Friday, the release of a new Nepali feature film is a normal affair. For that matter, the simultaneous release of two new Nepali movies is a frequent feature. Every now and then, a string of three releases hit the big screen. The cast, craft, narrative and treatment entail many challenges to underscore the content’s status as king. Star power in the commercial hour does not necessarily sustain an industry.
By virtue of annually recording more than 80 movies for quite some years—and now having achieved the three-digit mark—Nepal figures in list of the world’s 15 most prolific film producing nations. Even if the quantitative progress achieved since the second half of the 1990s has been notable, the quality and gate collections tell a sorry story.
Stripped of boast and laboured pretensions, the so-called star power in the Nepali film box office is virtually non-existent. On the balance sheet, barely 10 percent of the annual churn-out avoids the red. The other week, a daily newspaper in Kathmandu carried a headline ‘Heartthrob of a superstar’ to describe Anmol KC. But viewers were not quite star struck by the lead cast to take the box office by storm when his latest movie hit the big screen. Trying to reach all the audiences would go for the lowest denominator in terms of tastes and storylines. Viewers in the interior and rural areas should be reached for cultural elevation through various shades of society in theme and treatment.

What went wrong
Producers have the daunting task of walking viewers to the theatres, with multiple entertainment channels and choices all around. Some prove to be better artistes off screen than on screen. Others shed copious tears to attract attention, yet others purr with confected pleasure while a few feign purring with pleasure and swooning after ‘oohs and aahs’ over what they claim to be overwhelming viewer response to their screen presence. All along, producers find their pockets burnt. Some learn their lessons but most don’t, and keep on repeating the same doomed track for other (mis)adventures.
Used and abused genres far too often fail to attract cinephiles to the big screen when there are vastly more entertainment avenues than a generation ago. Producers and directors should learn to avoid the predictable and gear to adapt and adopt ideas, but with the required rigour and vigour. Formula-laden fare is the antithesis of creativity that precludes anything of the classic variety. Lifting sequences from Hindi movies that are often poor imitations of Hollywood and other Western presentations cannot carry a fare far. The outcome becomes pathetically poor presentations, giving short shrift to originality and creativity.
A copy of a copy exhausts story lines while formula fare fatigue kills cine-fans’ enthusiasm to flock to the theatres. A cinema with appeal across generations can be categorised as a classic, perhaps also chronicling contemporary climes. Nepal’s first movie hit the silver screen in the mid-1960s. In the next 25 years, less than 15 Nepali feature films were released. In contrast, the last three decades recorded about 1,500 films.

Glut and gold
The glut of Nepali movies has not prevented disastrous gate collections. Of the 100 Nepali films released in the past 12 months, barely 10 are believed to have recovered their investments. Which would mean that the entire industry’s collections would be less than what a single moderate Hindi hit film fetches. The Man from Kathmandu, in Nepali and English, directed by Pema Dhondup, was quoted, “We want to create interest for Nepali movies abroad.” Nakim Uddin’s production house Tree-City, in collaboration with Los Angeles production companies, produced the film that did not create much stir in Nepal. Its overseas collections, too, were said to be modest.
China allows an annual quota of 34 movies to enter the world’s most populous country. This means intense lobbying for the prized berths in the officially approved list. The prospect profusely wets the lips of the movie world’s big and mighty in the often over-rated Hollywood business and indeed in India, especially after Dangal’s 2017 runaway hit with $191 million (IRs9.9 billion) gate collections, outstripping the revenues of all previous Hindi movies on Chinese screens. This year, another Hindi movie, Andha Dhun, collected $150 million, nearly double of what it made in India.
Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners collected a strong $88.2 million as against its collection of $64 million in North America, the world’s No 1 movie market. Sony’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter did even better at $160 million in China against the $26.8 million it registered in North America. Big banners in Hollywood and Mumbai allocate up to 40 percent of the total budget for publicity on particularly small screens and other channels of mass media.

Commerce and creativity
The Unanico Group, an award-winning independent production company in London and a Shanghai-based company signed a $51.01-million agreement for the production and distribution of animated feature films. Cloth Cat Animation, another British company, and Chinese company Magic Mall announced collaboration on a 52-episode animation series to be distributed worldwide. Given China’s investments in Africa surpassing those of the rest of the world combined, the prospects of cooperation between China and the African continent are high. The US has 38,000 screens and India only 9,000. China is geared to have more than 80,000 screens by 2021. By comparison, Nepal has about 180 digitalised and 30 high vision screening halls.
The governments of Nepal and China could reach an understanding to nudge their film industries toward undertaking joint ventures. The cast of characters of the two neighbours sharing screen space would be a unique cultural undertaking showcasing what Asian cultural cooperation can produce for world moviedom to watch and study. Producing nearly 1,000 films a year, China—like India, Nigeria and the US—figures in the world’s top four most prolific film producing nations. Cinema making is a serious, risk-ridden creative undertaking. Matching quantity with quality is an ambition many dream merchants crave for.
The money a movie might fetch at the box office is uppermost in the minds of movie moguls. Yet, even if the cash registers indicate deep disappointment, the lure and power of the glamour and glitter of the cine world remains too overpowering for many movie makers to tread with caution. A mass audience does not mean indifferent people. Content-driven films are what contribute to both class and commerce. Two large film producing and consuming countries are Nepal’s immediate neighbours—India and China. Nepali cinema goers have been addicted to Hindi movies for too long. The movie making mantra stands: Be competitive.

Kharel is a former editor of The Rising Nepal.

Well you’ve cracked the sky, scrapers fill the air
But will you keep on building higher‘Til there’s no more room up there?
Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry?
Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die?
I know we’ve come a long way. We’re changing day to day
But tell me, where do the children play?’

Cat Stevens wrote the song in the 1970s, the highpoint of American sub/urbanisation through a rapid structural and architectural transformation in the aftermath of World War II. The rise of private corporations and a consumerist individuated life instigated a ‘creative destruction’ of public spaces. Stevens wryly laments the absence of the children’s right to the city in urban planning sensibilities, leading to the enclosure of public spaces and playgrounds to make way for skyscrapers and big box shopping centres. The song could be set in present-day Kathmandu—it would not look out of place.
As we speak, gated communities, high-rise buildings and shopping complexes are being rapidly designed to put together a particular brand of urban life, one that takes concrete shape on top of public open spaces and playgrounds that are quietly encroached upon and captured through what some might call ‘elite informality’—a nexus of politicians, private corporations and wealthy businessmen combining to bid for a sanitised version of ‘the good life’, albeit illegally, like the Lalita Niwas case. In this version of ‘urban society’ thus refashioned, ‘urban gigantism’ holds sway over other matters of everyday life that are important and necessary, such as the children’s right to play without them being reduced to paying customers of everything from the shopping mall to ‘futsal’. The streets are what they are—unsafe.  

Our urban societies  
‘Informal settlements’, or sukumbasi settlements, may be considered an urban society in their own right. They are also referred to as ‘slums’ that some find derogatory. They informally claim something—the land—that is not legally theirs, as their own. One may argue that this practice of informality is not limited to the slums anymore, given the ongoing investigative reports exposing land-grabs in Kathmandu by the elite. To be fair, over the years, the sukumbasis have been documenting the elite capture of land, essentially to make this case: “We are singled out for illegally occupying land when the so-called civil elites of society have been doing it all the time. We are also protecting public land from being further captured by the elite.” There is something else that the slum protects—the children’s right to play.
I was recently accompanied by a boy aged a little over five as I was loitering about Bamshighat, an informal settlement by the Bagmati River, a little northwest of the Bagmati bridge. After the walk, we stood still by a shop to chat. I asked him if there was a playground in Bamshighat for kids like him. He replied with an emphatic “Yes!” Excitedly, I quizzed, “Where?!” He took out his index finger to point at the ground, and exclaimed, “Here!”
There are other forms of urban societies in Kathmandu that exude a different kind of urban life, such as ‘Newar Urbanism’. In this mode of urbanism, they say the town itself becomes a stage on which the rituals and dramas of Newar everyday life unfolds and reproduces itself—alleyways meander their ways around rest houses, ponds and courtyards to allow for the rituals and practices of daily life, enhancing the quality of the lived experience. It also enables one to deal with the post-earthquake precarity with a sense of community and camaraderie. While this mode of urbanism may ultimately disappear, in many Newar towns on the outskirts of Patan, one experiences a sense of place in which, among other social activities, children continue to convert open and vacant spaces into playgrounds as and when they so desire. Out in the open, they play with abandon.

Politics of empathy
There is much to copy from Kanhaiya Kumar, Indian firebrand activist-politician currently contesting the Lok Sabha elections in the state of Bihar—his oratory skills, the ability to speak the truth to the powerful, and the affable demeanor with which he presents himself without resorting to ad hominem attacks and toxic vocabularies. There is also something refreshing about the way he addresses his audience: “Bhaiyyon beheno… bacchon.” Rarely does one come across someone acknowledging the children present in the audience as equal in the way Kumar does. Such an address comes from a place of empathy; empathy for the infantilised voices—those of the minorities, including children.
If it is true that in making the city, we remake ourselves and our social relations, as some argue, then it is also true that in becoming who we are, we are also creating conditions that will shape the kind of people our children will become. It is only when politics is filled with empathy that it may be possible to reimagine the city that exudes a collective sense of place filled with amenities for women, children and the elderly alike. We do not necessarily have to remake Kathmandu into Singapore to find those amenities. They are here all the time—they are in the Newar towns and in the sukumbasi settlements. The ‘elsewhere’ has always been here.    

Limbu is a researcher based in Kathmandu.

Is Gordon Ramsay allowed to cook Chinese food ? Is it OK to dress up as Disney’s Moana? Can Jamie Oliver cook jollof rice despite plainly not knowing what it is? Exactly what is cultural appropriation? To take a glance at Good Morning Britain, the ITV show that never takes its finger off the pulse of Middle England’s clogged arteries, you’d think it’s a question of white people seeking permission to have fun. And in return, new media outlets have guaranteed traffic from anxious millennials by listing things that fall into the category of problematic when white people adopt them (blaccents, bindis and box braids).
Why has cultural appropriation, an imperfect term mobilised in imperfect contexts, become such live ammunition for the socially conscious? And what does it mean especially for people of colour when we turn our fire on each other? It is striking that a phrase intended to sharpen a political analysis of life under postcolonial capitalism seems to have drawn the most blood between people who share overlapping experiences of racism and displacement.
The debate over cultural appropriation has been around for decades. Black writers and artists from the Harlem Renaissance voiced their concerns about the distortion of African cultures in some modernist artworks, and wrote at length about the demeaning caricatures of black identity in minstrel shows. Elvis Presley was said to have exploited “negro” music.
The artist Kenneth Coutts-Smith wrote one of the first essays on the subject in 1976, entitled Some General Observations on the Concept of Cultural Colonialism. He never actually used the term cultural appropriation, but he was the first to bring together the Marxist idea of “class appropriation” (in which notions of “high culture” are appropriated and defined by the dominant social and economic class) and “cultural colonialism”, which describes the way western cultures take ownership of art forms that originate from racially oppressed or colonised peoplesThis is important to bear in mind. Our modern
understanding of cultural appropriation is highly individualised. It’s all about what Halloween costume you wear, or who’s cooking biryani. But the way in which the idea was first used was to describe a relationship of dominance and exploitation between a global ruling class and a globally subjugated one. The idea that cultural appropriation is primarily a form of erasure—a kind of emotional violence in which people are rendered invisible—came along later. And this is the sticky point. Is it right to level the same criticism at an act of cultural borrowing that doesn’t have a clear angle of economic or political exploitation as for one that does?
This month, news broke that Inuit singers were boycotting Canada’s Indigenous Music Awards over the nomination of a Cree singer who, it is claimed, utilises specifically Inuit throat-singing techniques without coming from that culture herself. The Guardian’s own coverage of the story—headlined “Canada: one Indigenous group accuses other of cultural appropriation in award row”—treats the two different cultures as interchangeable. The point of commonality—both Inuit and Cree being Canadian indigenous people—positions a shared history of dispossession by a white settler colony as erasing cultural and artistic distinctions. The implicit question seems to be: “Why are you lot even fighting? You’re all the same anyway.”
Daniel Heath Justice, a Cherokee professor of indigenous studies at the University of British Columbia, points out that the row isn’t the result of oversensitivity or prickliness. The throat-singing technique in question was banned by Christian missionaries, and discouraged by colonial governments. In his words: “We’re talking about continuity in spite of traumatic, sustained and systemic multi-generational assaults on every aspect of our beings—including our artistic practice.”
Yet I find it strange that a recognition of the pain caused by colonialism is being projected on to fellow indigenous artists. It’s possible to argue against a colonial viewpoint that homogenises those whom it dominates, without using language that holds responsible people who have also been affected by centuries of dispossession.
It’s worth pointing out that conflicts between racially oppressed people often result from the fact that colonialism worked on divide and rule. Certain ethnic, religious, racial or indigenous groups were deliberately privileged over others in order to create a sense of investment in upholding the power structure.
Today, arguments rage about non-African Americans participating in (and making money from) hip-hop culture, or whether black people should wear south Asian head ornaments. I get that it’s tempting to see such pop-cultural phenomena as a replication of centuries-old colonial dynamics. But maybe our own frustration at the erasure of difference risks erasing certain crucial differences in itself.
Not all cultural borrowing is a form of social violence: some of it is just cringe. I thought London MC Wiley got it right when he talked about Canadian rapper Drake being a “culture vulture” profiting off the UK music scene. The godfather of grime didn’t need to raid the library of Soas University of London to come up with his critique. A straightforward “Listen, bumbahole” did the trick just fine.
But young, socially conscious people of colour do need to be a bit more honest with themselves about what’s driving our political interventions when it comes to cultural appropriation on this issue. I’ve felt that anger myself: such as when someone very earnestly told me how henna actually looks better on
pale skin; or when I see Indian food staples marketed by English gentrifiers. There’s a very particular feeling when you know that the identity I wear on my skin is an outfit for someone else—that culture is valued more than the humanity that produced it. But there’s another uncomfortable feeling lurking at the bottom of it.
When you’re a second- or third-generation migrant, your ties to your heritage can feel a little precarious. You’re a foreigner here, you’re a tourist back in your ancestral land, and home is the magpie nest you construct of the bits of culture you’re able to hold close. The appropriation debate peddles a comforting lie that there’s such thing as a stable and authentic connection to culture that can remain iI’m not suggesting we stop using the term cultural appropriation altogether: it’s clearly meaningful when talking about systems of exploitation and dominance.
But we do need to become a lot more discerning about how we use the idea in discussing interpersonal dynamics. There’s a difference between understanding how these frustrations have a politicised background, and treating these issues as sites of political contestation in themselves. Not everyone who participates in a misguided attempt at cultural borrowing is a coloniser in disguise. Some people are just sad try-hards.ntact after the seismic interruptions of colonialism and migration.

Last week, a curious scene played out in the small Norwegian fishing village of Inga. Here, a mysterious white beluga whale appeared from out of the water and proceeded to behave very strangely. Upon the body of this whale there was a strap. Upon the fabric of this strap was written a long chain of human hieroglyphs—“Equipment of St Petersburg”, the writing said. And then—almost as if it were all a dream—the whale disappeared. Although it sounds like something Douglas Adams could have written, I want to welcome you to the dizzying age of weaponised whales. Because as well as poisoning oceans, we humans are also capable of poisoning the minds of the animals that live there.
First, some background. If the idea of the Russians using such a beautiful and intelligent organism to further their military aims disgusts you, I should tell you that many countries, particularly the US, have programmes that train dolphins and other species, including sea lions, for military exercises. These marine mammals can be trained to detect mines or assist in object recoveries. They can be trained to do search-and-rescue missions, too. In fact, as of 2007, the US navy was spending $14m a year on its marine programme, involving 75 mine-sweeping dolphins.
People who justify the existence of such programmes argue that the military sea lions and dolphins are well-trained and cared for and perform the same role as other service animals such as police dogs or horses. This argument is a good one, but it would hold more weight if in real life police officers trained
wild-caught wolves or rode around on plains zebras. They do not do this. Still, the good news is that the US navy denies ever having used marine mammals to harm or injure or kill humans, which definitely makes the whole endeavour legit. Russia, on the other hand, is a little more secretive about its military marine mammals, hence the worldwide interest in the strange, indoctrinated beluga whale.
As you can probably tell by now, I find there is something deeply unnerving about the whole spectacle of military dolphins and whales. I’d almost say I’m disgusted by it. In fact, yes, it’s disgusting. But there’s something else … I just can’t stop thinking about that Russian strap the beluga whale was wearing. I can’t get it out of my head. And here’s why. You have to possess a dramatically impoverished sense of pathos to look at a dolphin or a whale and completely fail to notice its singular beauty, its powerful mind, complex communication and feats of cultural brilliance. It takes a certain sort of odious human sensibility to fail to see these attributes and instead wonder at how and where some artificial straps might fit best. “Should they be Velcro?” wonder these faceless military entities in their laboratories. “Maybe a leather kind of harness would work,” they posit, staring at an animal in a tank with one of the biggest brains in nature and, hell, possibly the universe.
I used to think that the most far-fetched theme of the Alien movie franchise was that a grotesquely unscrupulous weapons company would really fly across galaxies to try to collect acid-spitting xenomorphs in order to monetise them as weapons. I was clearly wrong. The films are a fair observation of the human species. If we are happy to capture and indoctrinate whales for military aims, there’s no bar we won’t scrape beneath.
And what were the beluga’s straps for exactly? Commentators have speculated they may have been used to hold a camera. Others have speculated that it could be used to house a weapon. Even if it’s the former, what a sad indictment of humanity that we are using a whale to spy on our enemies. And what a demeaning thing it must be for a whale to be paid in fish by one set of people for taking photos of other people somewhere else.
And so we humans find ourselves in an unsettling situation akin to that famous Mitchell and Webb sketch. “Wait, are we the baddies?” says Military Veterinarian #1 to Military Veterinarian #2 while testing the strapping on an indoctrinated whale in a glass tank. Veterinarian #2 catches his reflection in the tank and ponders for a moment whether somewhere along the line he really did lose his way.
Let me say this. We all have. We really have lost our way. We really are the baddies. So swim, my indoctrinated beluga. Swim for your life, you beautiful white whale. Escape the horrors of human wars before our blood is on your fins. Or, worse, your blood is on our straps.

Last year the number of rape charges in Britain fell by 23 percent, plummeting to the lowest rate in a decade. The director of public prosecutions, Max Hill, claimed when the figures were announced that this was as a result of weaker cases being screened out. As we know, many victims of rape are reluctant to come forward to the police anyway. They already know that evidence can be incredibly difficult to gather. After undergoing the ordeal of reliving and recounting such an experience, the possibility that the allegation may not meet an opaque quality threshold acts as a further disincentive to seeking justice.
So it’s depressing to learn this week that victims of alleged rapes will be told to give up their mobile phone and all attendant data to the police. Not to do so, it is made clear in new digital consent forms, could mean that “it may not be possible for the investigation or prosecution to continue”. The police are also reserving the right to use any data gathered digitally in other criminal prosecutions or investigations. So any messages or data that implicate you or those you have communicated with in separate offences could be pursued and investigated.
This could have disastrous effects for women in vulnerable groups, especially those who have engaged in sex work or who have current or previous addictions, who are much more likely to be the victims of rape and assault.
The data will also be shared with the legal team of the accused if it can help the defence case.
The rationale of all this is to prevent a repeat of the recent high-profile collapse of rape cases, in which evidence withheld from the defence undermined the prosecution. The case of Liam Allan, whose trial for rape was abandoned after police were ordered to hand over phone records relevant to the case, was a very public embarrassment for the Metropolitan police.
But this move uses the wrong tools to tackle the wrong problems. In the case of Allan and others, the police and Crown Prosecution Service already had the relevant phone data, but were criticised for failing to hand over the evidence. The cases fell apart because pertinent material was wrongly withheld.
This is quite different from making the handing over of one’s digital history a virtual condition of reporting assaults. This makes an intrusive process still more intrusive and will mean fewer people coming forward in an area in which lack of reporting is already a major problem.
The process of reporting rape and assault is notoriously difficult. There is some understanding of this in the interview process for victims; specialist suites are recommended for initial investigations and statements. But those who have experienced attacks still struggle with the implication that many women lie about rape and assault, or bear some of the blame for what has happened to them. The incredibly low conviction rate does nothing to convince women that rape and violence against them are taken seriously.
In that context, if victims know they are also likely to have the entire contents of their phone downloaded, that they may be deprived of their device for months, and that the alleged perpetrator and their lawyers may be given access to messages, photographs and social media accounts, many may decide this further invasion is too much to bear.
The formalisation of the process of accessing digital records—blunt, far-reaching and onerous—will only increase the fear of vulnerability and violation for people reporting these offences.
The average mobile phone is capable of holding enough data to fill 5 million A4 pages. Demanding the right to access all this (along with the threat not to proceed if access is denied) is wildly disproportionate. The police and prosecution service need to acknowledge the fact that rape conviction rates are so low because of the lingering assumptions of a misogynist culture. The move to formalise access to mobile phones will make a bad situation worse.
There is a reason we have passcodes on our phones: not just to secure personal banking, but because they function as an extension of the self, with thoughts and communications we wouldn’t ordinarily make public. This move will only see fewer victims come forward, and even fewer reported rape cases make it to court. Putting the victim under investigation is perverse, and designed only to protect the reputation of the justice system, rather than deliver justice itself.

Studying is an integral part of our life. But a large number of us prefer not to study.  Although millions of children around the globe don’t have access to education and do not get the opportunity to go to school, many of us who do have the opportunity don’t study well. Our parents spend thousands of rupees for our education yet we are still careless about it.
It’s very unfortunate that many children don’t understand the value of time and money their parents spend on them to ensure that their children have everything required to get a good education.
Studying isn’t that difficult, troublesome or exhausting as some may feel. When you are self-spurred and motivated, nothing feels exhausting or difficult. Instead, it feels engaging and appealing. It’s just that we are all studying in the wrong way. By studying, I don’t mean just going through textbooks. We can study in a lot of different ways. For instance, you can go through science and mathematics websites online and gain useful information. By doing this, you don’t end up wasting all your time online on just trolls and memes. If you don’t understand the notes or lectures given by your class teachers, you can simply surf the web and gain clear your confusion. After going through notes and watching videos, you can even play quizzes online. There are many educational websites based on Nepali curriculum. You can be a part of them.
Studying is the most important thing in our life. In school, we must take our studies as our primary focus and then look forward to other extracurricular activities. In the future, regardless of whoever you become, be it an actor or a businessperson, if you don’t complete your studies, you will regret and you might even be looked down upon by people. Some of the major film artists say that they regret not pursuing further studies.
I have seen so many people who can memorise a lengthy song lyrics within a few minutes but can’t memorise science theories or math formulas. Nobody in this world likes to do the jobs that are boring or unpleasant. If you don’t like studying, you have to be innovative and think of different ways that will enhance your educational experience. You have to be self-aware.
I enjoy studying, and I guess it’s all because I am self-motivated. Even if you are interested in dancing or are a talented singer, you have to focus more on studying during school days. It doesn’t mean that you should leave practicing or participating in those activities, but you also have to dedicate time and energy on your studies. Some of my friends have already started choosing their career options that won’t require them to study hard. I feel sad for these friends of mine because I don’t think what they are doing is good. They shouldn’t be limiting their future just because they don’t like to study now.
Studying is for the soul;
it increases our inner beauty;
it helps us distinguish people;
it helps us choose between the good and the evil; it enables us to be aware of the world and about the wrongs and the rights.
We study to broaden our horizon and deepen our understanding of the world. Studying helps
us grow mentally, intellectually and financially. Maturity comes through this. So, let’s study for our soul and for ourselves rather than for the sake of our marks.

Karki is a tenth grader at Grammar Public Secondary School

Mom, you gave me life
To enjoy this wonderful world
Your love is everything
More than silver and gold

Mom, you taught me things
And the knowledge gave me wings
You are the reason for my happiness
You are the source of my confidence

When I see a smile on your face
I feel as if I can win every race
I want to be a part of you
And reside in your heart

Mom, sorry for my mistakes
Sometimes I misbehave with you
How can I express in words
How much I love you!

Sah is an eighth grader at Swastik Pathshala, Siraha

Realisation of truth
Hits you harder
Enduring the facts
Makes you wonder
Whether you have seen
Is just layers of masks
Real faces of namesake friends
Lying beneath the dark.

Presence will be felt
For who forgets the captor
Love will be always etched
In the closed chapters
But respect has been lost
And cannot be regained
The one sided friendship
Has been tainted.

Escaping from the vicious cycle
Biding goodbye to the obstacle
I have finally moved on
I have finally moved on
Or have I moved on?

Shrestha is a medical student at BPKIHS, Dharan

My parents sowed the seed
Fed me, watered me
I am now mustard
Too early to be eaten
But if you let me grow,
The extraction is not so far
I will be the oil

And once you refine me
You will for sure use me
Or pack me in those bottles
With everyone else
With the tag of some brands

As that of my degree tags
If given a nice brand name,
I will most probably be the first to be sold
The first to see the kitchen
The first to be served on those plates
No matter how painful it will be,
The first to be cooked
The first to be fried.

Poudel is an undergraduate student at University of Mississippi

Mountains are closely related to music—it is spontaneous, tinged with rural simplicity and delight. The mountain folks are naturally fond of dancing and singing. They have learnt music from melodious murmuring of cataracts and rivulets as well as carolling of sweet birds. They sing songs from their heart for the sake of self pleasure, not to propagate the art of music and gain popularity or money.
Their songs aren’t polished like the commercial ones. They emphasise simple sentiments and inner beauty. They feel delighted when their cattle return home from meadows in the twilight. The rolling pieces of stones also produce a kind of music when obstructed on a heavy rock. The trembling leaves and moving branches also have their own melody.
Mountains enrich our emotional experience. We can get relieved of worldly anxiety and sorrows. It gives us fresh air to breathe. Even a momentary stay can help us release our toxicity and lets us think and feel the futility of the rat race.  The lofty height of the mountains symbolise high aspiration of human life. The snow-clad ranges remind us of the celestial world of gods and goddesses illuminated with divine lustre.
The mountain folks lead a simple life, living in small thatched cottages. The calm atmosphere has sanctified their hearts where evil thoughts cannot enter easily. They look upon their fellow mates with the eyes of sympathy and not with those of cruel brutes, which is born in our modern selfish community.
Words fail to describe the romantic beauty of nature. It has been an object of attraction to the people, ancient or modern, rural or urban. The observation of charming scenery of mountains gives poetic enlightenment to a sensitive heart and adds beauty to the imagination.
The green trees and plants bearing wild fruits and flowers, cuckoos cooing sweetly on the high branches of trees and drawing attention of wayfarers, fawns jumping hither and thither out of joy—all these present a lovely glimpse of mountain charm.

Upadhyay is a tenth grader at Don Bosco School

Every May 1, Nepal’s various communist parties indulge in rallies and parades. The worker as an archetype is feted and paid homage to. But it is all a farce, Ram Rana, a road repairman, says. The only people who celebrate International Workers’ Day are those who don’t need to work, he says. Workers continue to work, keeping the city functioning. This May Day, the Post profiles five men and women who tirelessly work Kathmandu’s streets every day, keeping this city from falling apart.   


He repairs roads
ANUP OJHA

On a sweltering April Monday, Ram Rana was cracking the tarmac in Balkhu, near the Tribhuvan University. He was drenched in sweat, digging up the road to lay drainage pipes. Rana has been repairing damaged roads and installing drainage pipes for the past year.
“We work where our contractor assigns us,” says Rana, who works for the Surmise Company as a labourer. He works nine hours a day, from 8am to 5pm, breaking, digging and laying. Neither the scorching heat, nor pelting rain or unbearable dust and smoke prevents him from working by the roadside, where thousands of vehicles ply every day.
Rana, 26, is the youngest of five brothers. While two of them have left the country to work abroad, Rana came to Kathmandu. Born to a poor family in Hetauda, he came to the capital with four of his friends and quickly found work in roadside construction.  
Rana makes Rs 950 per day and up to 25,000 per month, he says. He sends Rs 10,000 to his father and mother back in village every month.
“We don’t have our own lands back in the village. Unlike in Kathmandu, the work we get in Hetauda is not regular. Even if we get work, we are not paid,” says Rana. “I came here so I wouldn’t be idle.”
Rana wants to get married once he earns enough to throw a lavish feast to feed his relatives and neighbours.
“I am thinking of getting married, but I don’t have enough money yet,” he says.  Rana is well aware that May 1 is International Workers’ Day, but he also knows that little will change for working-class people like him.
“It’s not us workers who celebrate this day,” he says. “We need to earn our daily bread. Those who are rich celebrate the day in our name.”
Every day, Rana copes with the stink from the open drains, and his palms have numerous wounds and blisters. He is not happy with the work, he says, because society looks down on his profession.
“The work that people like me do keeps the city safe,” says Rana. “The only thing I know is that if we don’t repair the roads, this filthy city will only become worse.”


She directs traffic
ABANI MALLA

During peak office hours, Saraswati Karki can be spotted atop a traffic island at one of Kathmandu’s busiest intersections—Thapathali Chowk. In the crisp blue uniform of the traffic police, Karki directs vehicles from the island, gesturing to them to stop or go. The sunglasses she wears are not so much a fashion statement as protective gear.
Although responsible for managing traffic from 9 to 11:30 in the morning and 4 to 7 in the evening, Karki’s day starts at 5:00 am. After scouting Thapathali and Tripureshwor chowk in the wee hours of the morning, she submits a daily traffic status report to the Traffic Metro Head Office at Baggikhana by 5:30am.
Karki’s day ends late, as she stays up till 11 pm checking for drunk drivers. On alternate nights, she is a night duty officer, for which she stays back at the barrack and is responsible for any incidents that can take place until the next morning.
Due to her long shift hours directing traffic in polluted Thapathali, the 26-year-old has had numerous health-related complications. Once, her eyes had swollen due to excessive exposure to the pollution and heat; her mouth is usually dry; and her ears hurt due to constantly whistling at traffic. The dust and scorching heat tires her out within a few hours and she can’t breathe well without a mask.
Despite all her complications, Karki actively looks out for the safety of both drivers and pedestrians during her duty hours. Whenever she catches people breaking the rules, Karki fines drivers and sends them to remedial traffic classes. If the situation gets out of her hands, she is authorised to arrest violators and take them to Singha Durbar for processing.
“Most of the time, people don’t understand that we’re only doing it for their own good,” says Karki, for whom punishing lawbreakers is a way of saving them from the negative consequences of their own actions.
When she first applied to become a part of traffic police, she was mentally prepared to take up the responsibilities and challenges that would come her way, she says. And due to the nature of her job, she cannot complain about her health or personal problems when duty calls.
Even when she has severe period cramps, she still needs to report to the field. Whenever she asks for sick leave during menstruation, she feels that her male colleagues do not understand her predicament.
“Although the work is tough, I feel happy to be able to turn both my father’s and my dream into reality,” says Karki, who grew up dreaming of becoming a police woman in Sankhuwasabha. “My father lets us make major life decisions, unlike other people in the village. He was the proudest when I got this job.”


She sweeps streets
SACHITRA GURUNG

Santaki Deula’s job begins before most of Kathmandu wakes up. By 4am, Deula and her husband Kancha have already left their home in Kirtipur, where they live with their son. It takes them 25-30 minutes to reach Om Bahal, where their work starts.
Santaki and Kancha are both street sweepers, employed by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
“Even though the government has bought broomer machines to clean the roads, they can’t reach the narrow alleys of Kathmandu,” says the 39-year-old Deula. “We are incharge of keeping the gallis clean.”
Initially, Deula worked two shifts—from 5:00 am to 8:30 am and from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm—but due to the increase in both pollution and traffic, she only works one shift now, from 4:30 am to 10 am.
“The ward chairman is nice to us and he is the one who asked us to work only one shift,” says Deula.
Every morning, she readies her broom and cart, and starts sweeping the roads and collecting garbage, alongside five others. Sweepers like Deula work 365 days a year.
“We don’t get holidays like others, even if it’s Dashain. But the state compensates us with bonuses for working during the holidays.” says Deula.
However, each employee gets an allocated number of sick days. She works part time during the day after her shift if the pay is good; otherwise, she babysits her 3-year-old grandson while her daughter and son-in-law are at work. As Deula herself hasn’t received any formal education—she can only write her name—she wants her son to pursue higher education, which is what most of her salary goes towards.
Deula wants to work till retirement but there have been rumors of the city’s cleaning services being privatised. If this happens, sweepers like Deula might be out of a job, but nothing has happened as of yet, she says. Deula’s been working as a sweeper for 24 years now.
“The state reimburses our medical expenses and there’s a pension plan after retirement,” says Deula. “It isn’t the most desirable job but at least it’s secure and you get paid on time.


He builds houses
TIMOTHY ARYAL

From a five-storey residential building under construction about a hundred metres southeast of Thapathali chowk, Anoj Kumar Rajbanshi watches the dust and pollution of the city with quiet resignation. Rajbanshi, in a faded pink shirt, blue jeans and slippers, wears his long hair in a man bun and shuffles sand with his hands.
Rajbanshi is filtering fine grains of sand at the construction site. He sieves the sand on a net that rests on top a drum, using the sole of an old slipper. And as he works the sand, he talks.
This is not something that he particularly enjoys, says Rajbanshi. As a shuttering carpenter, Rajbanshi is tasked with creating temporary formworks in the concrete pouring process. But with work on the pillar yet to begin, he’s filtering the sand to keep himself occupied.
“It wouldn’t matter if I took a break for a while,” Rajbanshi says. “But since everyone is working, I felt it would be untoward to laze around.”
This job pays Rajbanshi around Rs 1,000 a day, for working a 12-hour day, from 6am to 6pm.
“If only higher-up people treated us nicely and there were provisions for a good shelter with facilities, I’d never go abroad again,” Rajbanshi says.
It’s been three years since the 25-year-old returned from Qatar, where he worked at a hotel as a laundryman. Rajbanshi has fond memories of the Gulf.
“The job wasn’t all that hard. My part was to take clothes from one floor to another and serve the customers,” says Rajbanshi. “I was treated nicely. Even when miles away from Nepal, I felt at home there. Even rich people would talk to me. But it’s not the same here. Here, they do not recognise us.”
Rajbanshi left Qatar on a whim. Even after working for two whole years, the employer refused to raise his salary, which was 1000 riyals, roughly Rs 29,000 a month. He’d spent most of his earnings partying with friends from the Philippines who liked feasting, he says.
A year ago, after his return from the Gulf, Rajbanshi left his hometown of Gaurigunj in Jhapa and came to Kathmandu. He didn’t plan to work as a construction worker—he wanted to fly to Turkey for work. But he was unable to get a working visa and was forced to take up a job to pay the bills.
Living in Kathmandu is a constant challenge, says Rajbanshi, as even renting a room is difficult. He’s been asked to come back with a family at least a couple of times, he says. But Rajbanshi is not ready for marriage yet and so, he’s been living in a small room in the building where he works.
“Any job can be great if you view it through a positive lens,” Rajbanshi says, “You have to enjoy what you do. I’m enjoying this job, but what I’m really looking forward to is Turkey.”


He collects garbage
ROSE SINGH

Suraj’s day begins at five in the morning, as he goes door-to-door to every house on the Harisiddhi-Hattiban stretch in Lalitpur, collecting garbage. He does this all day, every day, working without any holidays. His day ends only when the sun goes down.
“I decided to move to Kathmandu in 2015 when I saw no prospects in my village,” says Suraj. “When I came here, I quickly realised that garbage collecting was a profitable job.” He now works for the Satdobato Ward Office.
The 21-year-old doesn’t remember his parents or his hometown very well. He says he doesn’t even know his last name. When he was 10-years-old, he lost both his parents and villagers from Nijgadh, Bara forcibly took away his home, he says.  
With no means to support himself, he began working as a labourer in construction. He didn’t even think about going to school. But eventually, he decided to pursue better prospects in Kathmandu.
Here, Suraj is happy with his job and how much he earns. “The income is way more than what I made as a labourer,” he says. Suraj makes roughly Rs 40,000 a month.
But even with a decent income, his job is not considered a respectable profession, he says. As he handles all the trash that comes out of residences, he is constantly looked down upon by society, says Suraj.
“I don’t want people to respect me everyday, but a kind gesture once in a while would mean a lot,” he says. As he’s afraid of being ostracised by his friends, he still hasn’t told them about his day job.  
Collecting garbage is not as easy as it sounds. People do not segregate their garbage at home and many times, Suraj has to handle hazardous pieces of garbage without proper preparation.
“When I first started this job, I would cut myself with a broken piece of glass every other day. But now I’m more careful when I handle any garbage,” he says.
Suraj has ambitions—he aspires to work himself up the ladder in the trash business. One day, he wants to have a garbage truck of his very own.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)
****
You’ve got a new goal, and you need to start working on it soon if you ever want to attain it. To get the help you need, find a few like-minded people who share your hopes and dreams. They’ll provide the moral support you need in order to go the distance.


TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
*****
Get more involved in the activities of the people around you. These folks are looking to you for new ideas. If you need assistance getting something off the ground, just ask the crowd around you. They want to be in your life.


GEMINI (May 21-June 21)
***
Your convictions are slipping a bit today, but that might not be a bad thing. Right now your mind is open to new ways of thinking- you let an old way of thinking go by the wayside. Changing beliefs is possible.


CANCER (June 22-July 22)
*****
Your sunny, welcoming attitude will be the perfect antidote to the behaviour of someone who’s acting way too aloof. It will help them loosen people up. Even an awkward discussion will evolve into a giggle fest when you’re involved.


LEO (July 23-August 22)
****
Be patient if a certain social invitation isn’t being greeted with the enthusiasm you hoped. Working around the needs of other people isn’t inconvenient for you, and it will be a lovely gesture of how important they are to you.


VIRGO (August 23-September 22)
***
A close friend’s unfulfilled promise is still leaving a bad taste in your mouth, so a social engagement with them could be a little stressful. People are made of good and bad, and this balance is what makes everyone special.


LIBRA (September 23-October 22)
*****
You’ll meet someone fun. To create an intellectual connection that blossoms into a chemical reaction, you need to get rid of any self-doubt. You are an amazing catch, and this person might be smart enough to realize that!


SCORPIO (October 23-November 21)
****
There’s nothing wrong with treating yourself to a splurge every once in a while but watch your expenses. Watch your spending, and challenge yourself to tighten your budget. Reduce your material desires, and you will reduce your headaches.


SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21)
****
Surprising connections will be popping up all around you today. Try socializing a bit. The pace of your life may be slowing down quite dramatically soon. It looks as though some of your future plans may need to be readjusted.


CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19)
****
When it comes to your finances, you cannot let your reputation come before your bank account. Being thriftier will help you increase your cash flow so create a tighter budget and ignore what people say about your spending habits.


AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18)
****
Speak up when you see brilliance in action. You need to give credit where credit is due. Show them that you are so secure in yourself that you don’t need to deny anyone the respect they deserve.


PISCES (February 19-March 20)
***
Be open to changing your mind. In fact, it’s a sign of your intelligence that when new information comes your way, you factor it in and adjust your viewpoint accordingly. Don’t deny reality.  Put yourself in the crowd.

A MERO HAJUR 3
QFX CIVIL MALL: 12:00/15:15
QFX JAI NEPAL: 11:45

AVENGERS: ENDGAME
QFX LABIM MALL: 15:15/19:00
QFX CHHAYA CENTER: 11:45/19:00
QFX JAI NEPAL:  15:15/19:15
QFX KUMARI: 11:30/15:30/19:30

3D AVENGERS: ENDGAME
QFX CIVIL MALL: 08:00/8:30/11:15/12:30/15:30/ 16:30/18:45/19:30/ 20:30
QFX LABIM MALL: 07:45/08:15/11:45/ 12:15/15:45/16:15/19:45/20:15
QFX CHHAYA CENTER: 09:15/12:00/13:00/15:45/16:45/19:30/20:30
QFX KUMARI: 08:00/12:00/16:00/20:00

KALANK
QFX CHHAYA CENTER: 15:30
QFX LABIM MALL: 11:30

HYDERABAD,
Australia batsman David Warner on Tuesday predicted a high-scoring World Cup in the uncertain English conditions.
Warner headed off to the Australian camp after ending his Indian Premier League with a 56-ball 81 to help Sunrisers Hyderabad thrash Kings XI Punjab by 45 runs on Monday. His knock, laced with seven fours and two sixes, capped off a successful return to top-level competitive cricket from a ball-tampering scandal.
The 32-year-old left IPL on top of the batting rankings with 692 runs from 12 innings, including eight fifties and a century. Warner predicted the World Cup, where Australia are defending champions, will be more IPL style high-octane cricket. “This World Cup, you’ll see some high scores,” Warner said. “For the batter, hopefully the ball isn’t swinging too much. We are playing in England, they are a fantastic team. We are the reigning champions and for us it is going out there backing our abilities and being at our best.”
Warner and former Australian captain Steve Smith served 12-month bans for cheating in a Cape Town Test in March last year along with teammate Cameron Bancroft, who missed nine months. Warner and Smith both performed well in the IPL to boost their confidence ahead of joining Australia’s World Cup training camp in Brisbane on Thursday.
Smith was made Rajasthan Royals captain midway into the league despite not being eligible to lead the national side. Warner said the break away from cricket had given him time to reflect on his game. “I have had time off to work harder at my game. I put the bat down for 16-18 weeks and tried to be the best man I can be, the best husband I can be and that’s worked for me.”
Warner is keen to build on his IPL success when Australia start the World Cup against Afghanistan on June 1 in Bristol. He said his job as opening batsman was to “put runs on the board.” “I am looking forward to that and this (IPL) is a great stepping stone,” he added. Warner’s Hyderabad team meanwhile, led by New Zealander Kane Williamson, is still fighting to make the playoffs as the T20 tournament reaches its climax.

MELBOURNE,
Australian cricketer James Faulkner caused confusion about his sexuality on social media on Tuesday after posting a picture of himself having dinner with “the boyfriend” before later clarifying he was “not gay”.
Allrounder Faulkner, who turned 29 on Monday, shared a picture of himself at a restaurant with his mother and a male friend with his 339,000 followers on Instagram and wrote: “Birthday dinner with the boyfriend”. He added the hashtag “#togetherfor5years”. The post drew over 20,000 “likes” and supportive comments from fellow international cricketers.
Australia allrounder Glenn Maxwell wrote: “Happy birthday mate! Great courage.” Former Australia fast bowler Shaun Tait echoed the sentiment, posting: “Great courage mate, bet you feel better happy birthday.” Global media, including Britain’s Daily Mail and The Guardian, reported that Faulkner had become the first Australian cricketer to “come out”.
Cricket Australia (CA) poured cold water on the reports, however, with a spokesperson saying Faulkner had made a “joke” that was “taken out of context”. Both CA and Faulkner later issued statements clarifying that the “boyfriend” was actually a long-time house mate and good friend of the cricketer.
“There seems to be a misunderstanding about my post from last night, I am not gay, however it has been fantastic to see the support from and for the LBGT community,” Faulkner wrote in a follow-up post on Instagram. “Let’s never forget love is love, however @robjubbsta is just a great friend. Last night marked five years of being house mates! Good on everyone for being so supportive.”
CA apologised on Faulkner’s behalf for any “unintended offence” while taking a shot at the media that reported he had come out. “His comment was made as a genuine reflection of his relationship with his business partner, best friend and house mate of five years,” CA spokeswoman Karina Keisler said. “He was not contacted for clarification before some outlets reported his Instagram post as an announcement of a homosexual relationship. James and CA are supportive of the LGBQTI community and recognises coming out can be an incredibly emotional time.  The post was not in any way meant to make light of this and, though the support from the community was overwhelming and positive.”
Faulkner was named man-of-the-match at the World Cup final in Melbourne four years ago but has not played an international since a one-day game away to India in October 2017.

RIO DE JANEIRO,
Neymar was branded a “coward” and “adolescent” by Brazilian media on Monday after the superstar struck a fan who had insulted Paris Saint-Germain players following their French Cup final defeat.
PSG lost 6-5 on penalties after a dramatic game finished 2-2 at the end of extra time on Saturday at the Stade de France.  Numerous cell phones caught the moment that Neymar, the world’s most expensive footballer, hit a fan in the face after he had taunted some of the players as they went to receive their medals.
The incident came days after Neymar was suspended for three Champions League matches by UEFA for a foul-mouthed tirade at match officials following PSG’s shock exit from this season’s tournament to Manchester United. Neymar later admitted he had made a mistake hitting the fan, writing on Instagram: “Did I act badly? Yes. But no one can stay indifferent.”
Brazilian sports commentators disagreed. “As if his endless failures, his lack of education, antipathy and superficiality were not enough, Neymar has now shown himself to be a coward,” Juca Kfouri wrote in the influential daily Folha of Sao Paulo.
“For all his talent, Neymar will never be equal to Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. If he is happy that way, let him enjoy it.”
Another columnist for the same newspaper, Mathias Alencastro, said Neymar had turned into a “rebellious adolescent.” Neymar “appears incapable of dealing with criticism, of dealing with frustrations,” wrote Marcelo Tieppo for the news site Terra.
“It might be comfortable for the Brazilian to continue in this fantasy world, but it would be better if the striker started to live in reality.”
The victim of the blow, named only as Edouard, a 28-year-old delivery driver from Nantes, denied he had insulted Neymar. “I told him that they had been useless,” Edouard told French sports daily L’Equipe. “When the players passed, Verratti, Buffon, I mocked them: ‘You are worthless. Allez Rennes!’”

Kathmandu,
Defending champions Golden Gate International Club bounced back from their opening day defeat at the hands of Tribhuvan Army Club to open their account in the Nepal Basketball League on Tuesday.
Playing away to Budhanilkantha Municipality Basketball Club, a solid offensive game in the last four minutes of the third quarter lifted Golden Gate to an 85-70 victory. Golden Gate are almost unchanged this season with a strong squad including former and current national players but were shocked in their title defence losing 104-69 to the last year’s runners-up on Saturday.
At one stage in their second match in Golfutaar, Golden Gate looked like heading toward another upset, this time even bigger, but they converted almost all their shots in the last four minutes in the third quarter to gain an upper hand in the game. Golden Gate with a 24-17 lead in the first quarter and built an eight-point lead with 18-17 cushion in the second period.
Budhanilkantha continued to impress at their home court and reduced the deficit to six points giving themselves a chance at 57-43 with four minutes remaining in the third quarter. National team member Rajiv Shrestha and former Nepal international Karma Gurung sunk a three each with Binod Shrestha converting two twos handing Golden Gate a 67-51 lead with 28 seconds left.
Sugat Deep Singh’s two-pointer made 67-53 at the end of the third quarter but Budhanilkantha hardly managed to fight their way back into the game. Budhanilkantha led the final quarter 19-18. Gurung scored 20 points, had eight rebounds and made four assists to walk away with the most valuable player award. Shrestha also contributed 15 points and took nine rebounds.  
Earlier in the morning match, Royal Basketball Club registered their second consecutive victory defeating Kirtipur Basketball Team 72-61 in their away game. On their way to winning second away game in a row, Kunkhen Jit Theeng scored 13 for Royal to remain the third unbeaten team in the league after leaders Times International Club and Tribhuvan Army Club.
A strong performance in the first two quarters laid the victory foundation for Royal who began with 20-15 lead. The lead stretched to 13 points after Royal added another 18 in the second quarter with Kirtipur managing just 10. The hosts managed to reduced the deficit to eight points taking the third quarter 20-15 but Royal sealed the victory leading the final 10 minutes 19-16. Theeng was adjudged the most valuable player.
On Wednesday Army will host Kirtipur in Bhadrakali and another title contenders Times will be up against Golden Gate for an away game in Battisputali.

LALITPUR, 
All Nepal Football Association on Tuesday roped in Chaudhary Group as its sponsor for annual nationwide inter-school football tournament to begin next month in Satdobato, Lalitpur.
The tournament will be played across 52 districts including 48 districts affiliated with the football governing body in the initial stage. The second stage of the tournament will see provincial-level competition before the tournament enters final round in Kathmandu. Altogether 16 teams will be picked up for the finals. The event will have participation of at least 1,500 schools, informed ANFA.
ANFA President Karma Tsering Sherpa and CG Group Vice President GP Sah signed the memorandum of understanding. The agreement will be valid for five years with CG providing ANFA Rs 5.5 million annually. The amount will increase by Rs 500,000 each year reaching Rs 8 million at the end of the fifth year. The tournament will be branded as Kwiks Cup Inter School National Football Tournament. The tournament will be a replacement for the Coca-Cola Cup Inter School tournament.
CG Group Managing Director Nirvana Chaudhary thanked ANFA for providing the opportunity for tying up with football. Recalling that the Group was involved in promotion and development of cricket in the country for more than a decade, Chaudhary said: “Like cricket, we want to help football regain its lost glory. Our number one priority for next five years period will be football,” he said.
Terming the agreement as historic, ANFA President Sherpa said that the agreement had turned football governing body’s dream of youth football into reality. “It is essential to end malpractices in the tournament, most notably deceiving the real age and changing the identity to play the game,” said Sherpa adding that ANFA would start online registration system of the players in an attempt to discourage such ill practices. Only players upto 16 years of age will be eligible to compete in the tournament.
According to the ANFA President, the detail modality of the tournament will be finalised once the process of drafting tournament regulation will be finalised. The expected cost of the tournament is Rs 15 million. ANFA will get Rs 3 million for the government of Nepal while the football governing body bear rest of the costs from the development funds provided by FIFA and Asian Football Confederation.
The eventual champions will receive Rs 500,000 and the runners-up will get Rs 300,000. The third place finishers will walk away with Rs 200,000.

Kathmandu,
Tribhuvan Army Club joined Karnali XI in the semi-finals of the Karnali Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament with a 107-run drubbing of Midwestern Cricket Club at the Kalinchowk Cricket Grounds in Surkhet on Tuesday.
Army rode on half centuries from Hari Bahadur Chauhan and Rajesh Pulami Magar to compile 178-7 in 20 overs before dismissing  Midwestern Club for 71 runs in 16.4 overs in the Group ‘A’ match. Army lost opener Raju Rijal for a golden duck but Chauhan and Magar played whirlwind knocks to help their team post a daunting total.
Magar slammed 57 and Chauhan scored 53. Man-of-the-match Magar hit five boundaries and three sixes in his 35-ball knock while Chauhan clobbered seven boundaries and a six in his 37-ball innings. Binod Bhandari also chipped in 22 off 20 balls and Rohit Kumar Poudel 19 off 15 balls. Amit Tamang and Ajay Sahani claimed two wickets each for Midwestern Club.
Midwestern meekly surrendered chasing the big total as Pranit Thapa Magar top scored for them with 19 off 18 deliveries. Kushal Malla snared four wickets, while Sahab Alam and Susan Bhari claimed two wicket apiece for the Army team.
In the day’s first match, a scintillating knock from Nishcal Chaudhary steered New Horizon to a five-wicket win over Himalayan Cricket Academy. Batting first, Himalayan Academy were bowled out for 92 runs in 18.2 overs and  New Horizon chased down the total in 14 overs losing five wickets in the  process. The result meant New Horizon and APF are tied on four points from three matches in Group ‘B’. Mahendranagar Cricket Academy have two points. Wednesday’s match between Mahendranagar and APF will decide the semi-finalists from the pool.
Himalayan Academy lost openers Shakti Bhandari (5) and Padam KC (0) cheaply  before batting contributions from Dipendra Airee, Sharad Khadka and Birat  Bhandari helped them pose a reasonable score on the board. Airee top-scored with 24-ball 25 with three hits to the fence, while Khadka  chipped in 15 and Bhandari 13. Arjun Rayamajhi took three while Shakti Gauchan  and Govinda Khatri claimed two wickets each for New Horizon.
New Horizon were in a dire straits at 32-5 before a whirlwind knock  from Chaudhary rescued the team. Chaudhary hit four sixes and three fours  in 29 balls. Pawan Karki claimed three and Hemanta  Dhami took two wickets for Himalayan Academy.

KAKARVITTA, 
A late goal from defender Ananta Tamang guided Three Star Club to a hard fought 1-0 victory over Mai Valley Club of Ilam as they entered the semi-finals of the fourth Mechinagar Gold Cup football tournament in Kakarvitta on Tuesday.
Nepali international centre-back Tamang scored the all-important goal four minutes from time to send Three Star into semi-finals. The Lalitpur-based team will meet Tribhuvan Army Club in the semi-finals on Thursday after Nepal Police Club take on Sankata Club in the other semi-final match on Wednesday.  
Mai Valley dominated the early exchange and kept Three Star under intense pressure until the interval. In the 17th minute Rajiv Lopchan ended up firing inches above bar for Mai Valley. Three Star’s foreign recruit Ellon Maxwell ended up firing off target in Sunil Bal’s cross. Lopchan wasted scoring chances in the 30th and 34th as he failed to find target in the first attempt and later could not connect a Sushil Yadav cross.
Three Star bounced back in the second half and created scoring chance in the 46th minute only to see Maxwell go off target. In the 53rd minute, Manasa Webhagui smashed above the bar before Sushil Rai’s header in Rupesh KC cross sailed above bar in the 74th minute. Three Star’s Tamang finally broke the deadlock in the 86th minute as he capitalised on a Rai cross to stun goalie Sojit Gurung. The ball entered the net after taking a slight deflection off the woodwork. Rai was declared man-of-the-match and won Rs 11,000.
Mai Valley coach Pasang Sherpa said his team lost the match due to lack of proper understanding between Nepali and foreign players. “We wasted a lot of scoring opportunities and the luck also did not favour us,” he said. Three Star coach Meghraj KC said his side played well below its potential. “The team failed to play as per the expectations,” he said.

BARCELONA,
It was ten years ago Alex Ferguson dubbed them the best team he had ever faced but those left from Barcelona’s iconic generation still have work to do.
Three remain and when Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique line up against Liverpool on Wednesday, they may wonder if this could be their best chance of another, and perhaps final, Champions League triumph. Pep Guardiola’s mesmeric side had just danced around and dizzied Manchester United in 2009, their 2-0 victory completing an historic treble, when Ferguson conceded: “Nobody has given us a hiding like that.”
But not long after the final whistle at Wembley, Ferguson expressed doubts too, about the longevity of that Barca group and then, whether they could ever be replaced. “Great teams go in cycles and the cycle they’re in at the moment is the best in Europe,” he said. “How long it lasts and whether they can replace that team...they have the philosophy but it’s difficult to say if you can find players like Xavi, (Andres) Iniesta and Messi all the time. Probably not.”
Xavi and Iniesta have gone, succeeded by the all-encompassing Ivan Rakitic and, more recently, Arthur Melo, who could mature into the kind of player his predecessors would admire. Messi, who turns 32 in June, Busquets, who will be 31 in July, and Pique, already 32, have hung on, driving the club through fresh cycles of success.
But in some ways perhaps, Ferguson was right. They could never sustain the Guardiola method in full, in part because pressing began to neutralise possession but mainly because that group of players was unique. In the Champions League, glory came again quickly in 2011, United again the victims, but from 2012 to 2018, it followed only once more, after beating Juventus in 2015.
When Barcelona outplayed United in 2009, they had already won La Liga, the first of eight league titles in 11 years, the last of those confirmed by victory over Levante on Saturday, when Messi scored the winner. “Our objective now is the treble,” said president Josep Bartomeu. He knows domestic dominance has been tarnished by underachievement in Europe and, regardless of whether they win another double this term, this team’s season will be defined by them beating Liverpool, and then either Tottenham or Ajax on June 1.
Messi, Busquets and Pique have played in 34 Champions League semi-finals matches between them and while the likelihood is there will be more to come, nothing is guaranteed. If the next takes as long to arrive as this one, Messi will be almost 36. When Ernesto Valverde took charge at the start of last season, Barcelona were wounded by consecutive Super Cup defeats to Real Madrid. “For the first time I feel inferior to them,” said Pique.
Now they sit 18 points ahead of them in the league, having finished 17 clear of them last season. But inferiority in Europe still rankles. It is Real’s name on the cup next to four of the last five years. And for the remnants of one of Barcelona’s most symbolic eras, time is running out to put it right.
There are green shoots emerging, a new cycle—Arthur, Ousmane Dembele, Clement Lenglet and Carles Alena—coming through. “I hope I can be part of the new wave,” Lenglet told AFP Sport in February. “There is a regeneration of the squad that is preparing for the future and I hope to be a part of that.”
Frenkie de Jong could face Barcelona in the final in Madrid, in what would be his last Ajax appearance before joining the Catalans in July. He may not replace Busquets but the 21-year-old will, at the very least, challenge him. Pique has been one of his team’s standout players in central defence but there are plans there too. The 19-year-old Jean-Clair Todibo arrived from Toulouse in January and Matthijs de Ligt could follow De Jong from Ajax in the summer.
As for Messi, there may never be a successor but four Champions League titles, one fewer than Cristiano Ronaldo, means there is a sense hanging over the club of a record unfinished. In that way, Liverpool could encounter the same problem Manchester United did a decade ago. “We never got control of Messi,” Ferguson said. “But a lot of people will end up saying that.”

KATHMANDU: Nepal Armed Police Force Club clinched the fifth KNP National Women’s Volleyball Championship title with a 25-14, 25-9, 25-15 win over Tribhuvan Army Club on Tuesday. New Diamond Academy won the third-place playoff with a 25-22, 25-18, 25-22 victory over Nepal Police Club in the tournament organised by the Sher Bahadur Khadka Memorial Academy. The champions received Rs 200,000 and the runners-up got Rs 100,000. The third-placed New Diamond got Rs 50,000. Prativa Mali of New Diamond won the beset spiker award while Hira KC of APF claimed the best blocker honour. Manisha Tamang of APF was named the best defender and Sofia Pun of Army the best server. (SB)

KATHMANDU: NCL Sports Pvt Ltd on Tuesday announced new dates for the Women’s Twenty20 League pushing the tournament after it coincided with the PM Cup One-Day National Cricket. The women’s city-based franchise tournament was scheduled for May 20-27 but will be held now on June 7-14, informed the organisers. Prime Minister Cup is an annual programme of the National Sports Council which is also overtaking the responsibilities of handing over the TU Stadium to tournament organisers in absence of Cricket Association of Nepal. The Women’s T20 League is participated in by Bhairahawa Queens, Dhangadhi Wonder Women, Kathmandu Super Champions and Biratnagar Roaring Lioness. (SB)

KATHMANDU: Labels Store Private Limited, the sole authorised distributors of Adidas in Nepal, handed Rs 250,000 to Karnali Sports Club run by veteran athlete Hari Bahadur Rokaya in Kathmandu on Tuesday. According to Labels, Rs 100,000 will be used in running the club while the rest will be utilised to conduct Ultra Race which the club has been holding annually. The club in Jumla has been instrumental in producing some of the best athletes in the country including Bishwo Rupa Budha, Rajpura Pachai and Durga Budha. (SB)

KATHMANDU: Saraswoti Youth Club defeated hosts Deepshikha Yuva Samuha 2-0 to enter the semi-finals of Chandragiri Gold Cup football tournament in Naikap, Kathmandu, on Tuesday. Sujit Budathoki and Sanjiv Lama were on targets for the Koteshwor-based team. Budathoki opened scoring in the 36th minute before Lama doubled their advantage in the 77th. Budathoki was declared man-of-the-match and won Rs 5,000. Chyasal Youth Club will take on Birgunj Club on Wednesday. (SB)

KATHMANDU: Turkish Airlines is organising the qualifying event for Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup at the Gokarna Golf Club on May 11. Around 100 golfers including will participate in the amateur tournament to be played over 18 holes. The winner will qualify for the finals to be held on November 1 in Antalya, Turkey. Abdullah Tuncer Kecici, the general manager of the Airlines in Kathmandu, said the Airlines has been organising such tournaments in more than 100 destinations. (SB)

KATHMANDU: Former coach of Ranipokhari Corner Team Baijunath Kapali passed away at Grande Hospital Kathmandu on Tuesday. Kapali, 68, was admitted to the hospital on April 22 after suffering from a brain haemorrhage. He had been RCT coach for about four decades. He led the team to ‘B’ Division title last season. But the team did not earn promotion as there was no such provision. Kapali is survived by a son, two daughters and wife. His final rites were performed on Tuesday. (SB) 

KATHMANDU,
The Insurance Board unveiled an array of incentives to encourage mergers among insurance companies after several failed attempts to get them to increase their paid-up capital. On Sunday, the board issued an amended directive on merger and acquisition which it said was designed to promote qualitative growth in the insurance business.
The board issued licences to 13 new insurance firms—10 life insurance and three non-life insurance companies—two years ago with the expectation that more insurance companies would increase competition and prompt them to spread out. The board changed gears and moved towards market consolidation after the plan did not result in more business.
In March 2017, the Insurance Board had asked life insurance companies to raise their paid-up capital to at least Rs2 billion and non-life insurers to raise it to Rs1 billion by mid-July 2018. The board extended the deadline three times after the insurers repeatedly failed to fulfil the requirement. The last deadline expired on January 15, and the board set a new time limit of mid-July.
So far, only two out of the 18 life insurance companies and four out of the 20 non-life insurance companies have fulfilled the capital requirement. National Life Insurance and Nepal Life Insurance have increased their paid-up capital as instructed. Among the non-life insurance companies, Shikhar Insurance, Himalayan General Insurance, Prabhu Insurance and Neco Insurance have fulfilled the requirement.
Chiranjibi Chapagain, chairman of the board, said the new directive had been issued with an eye on insurance companies that are struggling to raise their paid-up capital. “The new law allows the regulator to force merge them if they fail to come up with a concrete plan to boost their capital,” he said.
According to the board, most of the insurers submitted plans to increase their paid-up capital by issuing bonus or rights shares. The regulator said life insurers were doing well but non-life companies were struggling to meet their targets. Chapagain said the board had given non-life insurance companies a target to sell policies worth Rs26 billion in 2018-19. The turnover of life insurance companies is expected to reach Rs80 billion by the end of this fiscal year.
Chapagain said insurance companies wishing to merge would be provided tax incentives as stated in the Finance Act. In addition, the new directive has announced a number of other benefits to those going for unification. To attract insurers to amalgamate, the new directive said the time limit for fulfilling the capital requirement would be extended if the merged entity still fell short.
Moreover, the directive says the cooling-off rule will not apply to the chief of the merged entity. Current regulations require the CEO of an insurance company to wait for six months before joining another insurance company as its head. A merged entity has also been given greater leeway with regard to office operating costs.
Yub Raj Pandey, assistant manager of Nepal Life Insurance, said the directive could help bring down the number of insurance companies and prevent them from engaging in unhealthy practices that might hamper the qualitative growth of the entire sector. Ramesh Kumar Bhattarai, acting CEO of United Insurance Company Nepal, said the policy could benefit insurance companies that are unable to increase their capital within the prescribed deadline. “It will also be effective in preventing cross holding in the insurance business,” Bhattarai said.

KATHMANDU,
Technicians successfully conducted structural and performance tests on the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Project. According to officials, the 60 MW scheme located 95 km north of Kathmandu in Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts is all set to start producing 30 MW within two weeks.
“Officials ran wet and no-load tests on the equipment in the powerhouse on Monday,” said Kulman Ghising, managing director of the Nepal Electricity Authority. While carrying out the tests, water is conveyed from the tunnel to the turbines in the powerhouse through the penstock pipes to test whether or not the
generators and control panels are functioning as per the design without evacuating electricity.
The state-owned power utility had planned to begin commercial operation of the hydel plant on May 1 by switching on the first unit. “Testing the headworks, equipment and other structures was time consuming, delaying our plans to start generating power,” said Ghising. “We have fully revived a project that had been stymied by multiple obstructions and are now ready to commission it.”
The project plans to drain the tunnel to check for spillage and refill it within a week, and perform the remaining tasks simultaneously. “The project will evacuate power from the first unit by May 15,” said Ghising.
The construction of a 220 kV Trishuli-Kathmandu double-circuit line to carry electricity from the plant to Matatirtha sub-station in Kathmandu has also been completed. The 45-km transmission line will start evacuating 30 MW in May and another 30 MW in June.
Apart from evacuating the power produced by the Upper Trishuli 3A project, the Nepal Electricity Authority plans to use the facility at Matatirtha to transmit electricity produced by other hydropower schemes in the Trishuli corridor.
The Nepal Electricity Authority built the Upper Trishuli 3A project with a concessional loan of $114.7 million from the Export-Import Bank of China. The foundation stone was laid in November 2011 with the completion deadline set for May 2014.
The project sank into uncertainty after the contractor, China Gezhouba Group Company, halted work citing heavy damage to the access road and dam during the 2015 earthquake. Work resumed after a two-year hiatus, and the project was expected to come into operation by mid-January. After Upper Trishuli 3A—the largest among the projects launching this year—roars into life, 71 MW will be added to the national grid.
The electricity authority has commissioned six small and medium hydropower projects, including the 22 MW Bagmati Khola Small Hydropower Project and one solar plant built by independent power producers, in the last nine months.
Officials plan to launch another nine small and medium projects this fiscal year ending mid-July and add 160 MW to the grid, bringing the number of independent power producer-owned projects in operation to 82 from 75 last year, accounting for a combined installed capacity of 554 MW.
In the next fiscal, the electricity authority plans to issue commercial operation dates to 43 hydropower projects including Upper Tamakoshi (456 MW), Rasuwagadhi (111 MW) and Lower Solu (82 MW).

PARIS, 
When Boeing launched its 737 MAX jetliner in response to Airbus’s record-selling A320neo, a wave of poker-faced satisfaction spread through Airbus headquarters in France.
Its reasons for cheering Boeing’s decision to make a similar jet, based on a similar strategy of engine efficiencies, partly explain why Airbus is wary of exploiting Boeing’s misery over the global grounding of the MAX today, industry sources say.
Airbus has joined major airlines in expressing confidence that Boeing will emerge soon from a crisis caused by two fatal crashes. In the first place, that is because both giants share a stake in preserving public trust and rarely compete on safety.
“This is not good for aviation,” new Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said of the MAX crisis earlier this month.
But the history of the MAX and its competitor, the Airbus A320neo, also illustrates why the two companies are unlikely to come to blows over the future of the MAX beyond their fierce day-to-day competition, strategists and industry officials say. Airbus and Boeing operate a roughly equal duopoly in the market for single-aisle jets that Airbus values at $3.5 trillion over 20 years.
Neither can afford to fall too far behind without suffering a big disadvantage on costs, which depend heavily on volumes.
If one of them did, it would likely take drastic action—anything from launching a price war to developing a new jet—that could destabilise both, and so market forces tend to keep the two companies’ strategies in line, industry insiders say.
In 2011, Airbus was testing that alignment with record sales of its recently launched A320neo, offering more efficient engines. It had launched the upgraded A320 after beginning to lose ground to a new competitor, Canada’s Bombardier CSeries.
By adopting similar engines, Airbus was able to block the CSeries and stimulate massive orders from its existing customer base, while sending a message to an even bigger potential rival, China, that the core of the jetliner market would be defended.
But Airbus was also worried that its strategy would have to be torn up as Boeing considered leapfrogging it with an all-new jet that would take longer to build but give more efficiencies.
Airbus knew it would have to respond to this with a costlier Plan B aircraft, code-named A30X, but was facing multiple calls on its cash, including problems with its A400M military plane.
Airbus decided it needed to force Boeing off the fence and struck in its backyard with a deal to sell 460 jets to American Airlines, several people familiar with the negotiations said.
Calculating it would lose too many such deals before its all-new jet was ready, Boeing did a U-turn and announced a re-engined 737 in time to win back almost half the American order.
Engine maker General Electric was also influential in nudging Boeing to a new strategy, and had a draft engine deal in place even before Boeing officially changed position, two people familiar with the talks said. GE had no immediate comment.
Eight years later, both planemakers have sold thousands of their respective re-engined jets and have seen share prices jump five-fold, lifting the entire commercial aerospace sector.
Not only could the duopoly be destabilised if the MAX had to be replaced, but now would not be an ideal time for a technology arms race in this crucial part of the market, experts say.
Led by Boeing, planemakers widened the use of lightweight carbon-composite materials earlier this decade. Then it was the turn of engine makers to produce a quantum leap in performance.
Future game-changers may lie in artificial intelligence and automation in the cockpit, but these are not yet mature.
“The technology for major new steps in materials, engines and piloting are not there right now. It is not the best time for either side to destabilise the market and launch a new single-aisle plane,” a senior industry strategist told Reuters.
Furthermore, Airbus is not as ready as it would like for a parallel race in factory technology needed for a new plane.
Add to this investments already made by suppliers, banks and manufacturers, and their reliance on preserving resale values of planes already flying, and few are in a hurry to start afresh.
“Industrially and competitively it is logical in a duopoly that you need a reasonably strong competition,” said Rob Morris, head consultant at UK-based aerospace advisers Flight Ascend.
In the short term, Airbus has little capacity to push output higher, even though some Boeing customers are already courting it in public—a move partly seen as an effort to negotiate better terms with Boeing.
But the possibility of radically upsetting the duopoly may have receded under new Airbus sales chief Christian Scherer, a market-share pragmatist who helped launch the A320neo, and Faury, a cautious engineer focusing on industrial improvements.
Faury on Tuesday played down the prospect that the MAX crisis would open up new business for Airbus and said the grounding “does not change the mid-term to long-term picture”.
Airbus has already won a larger share of the single-aisle market than expected, leaving the usual 50/50 split with Boeing skewed towards Airbus, now on 60 percent.

CHICAGO,
The CEO of Boeing defended the company’s safety record and declined to take any more than partial blame for two deadly crashes of its best-selling plane even while saying Monday that the company has nearly finished an update that “will make the airplane even safer.”
Chairman and CEO Dennis Muilenburg took reporters’ questions for the first time since accidents involving the Boeing 737 Max in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people and plunged Boeing into its deepest crisis in years.
Muilenburg said that Boeing followed the same design and certification process it has always used to build safe planes, and he denied that the Max was rushed to market.
“As in most accidents, there are a chain of events that occurred,” he said, referring to the Lion Air crash on Oct. 29 and the March 10 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Max. “It’s not correct to attribute that to any single item.”
The CEO said Boeing provided steps that should be taken in response to problems like those encountered by pilots of the planes that crashed. “In some cases those procedures were not completely followed,” he said.
The news conference, held after Boeing’s annual meeting in Chicago, came as new questions have arisen around the Max, which has been grounded worldwide since mid-March.
Southwest Airlines said over the weekend that Boeing did not disclose that a feature on the 737—an indicator to warn pilots about the kind of sensor failures that occurred in both accidents—was turned off on the Max. Southwest said it found out only after the first crash of the Lion Air Max. Boeing said the feature only worked if airlines bought a related one that’s optional, and in any case the plane could fly safely without it.
Separately, published reports said that federal regulators and congressional investigators are examining safety allegations relating to the Max that were raised by about a dozen purported whistleblowers.
The Boeing event occurred on the same day that the Federal Aviation Administration convened a week-long meeting in Seattle of aviation regulators from around the world to review the FAA’s certification of MCAS, a key flight-control system on the Max.
A spokesman said the FAA will share its technical knowledge with other regulators, but their approval is not needed before the plane resumes flying in the US
Boeing has conceded that in both accidents, MCAS was triggered by faulty readings from a single sensor and pushed the planes’ noses down. Pilots were unable to control the planes although the Ethiopian Airlines crew followed some of the steps that Boeing recommended to recover.
Muilenburg told shareholders that Boeing is close to completing an upgrade to flight software on the Max “that will ensure accidents like these never happen again.”
In the brief news conference that followed, Muilenburg took six questions from reporters, including whether he will resign—he has no intention of doing that—and left as reporters persisted, including one who pointed to the deaths of 346 people and urged the CEO to take more questions.
Besides the software update, Boeing will present the FAA with a plan for training pilots on changes to MCAS. The company is pushing for training that can be done on tablet computers and, if airlines want to offer it, additional time in flight simulators when pilots are due for periodic retraining.
A requirement for training in simulators would further delay the return of the Max because of relatively small number of flight simulators.
The union for American Airlines pilots wants mandatory additional training including, at a minimum, video demonstrations showing pilots how to respond to failures of systems on the plane. Dennis Tajer, a 737 pilot and union spokesman, said Boeing and the FAA must require more training rather than leaving the option to airlines.
“Not every pilot that goes out there and flies is a Boeing test pilot,” Tajer said. “If something happens
anywhere in the world, it affects all of us.”
During the one-hour annual meeting, shareholders elected all 13 company-backed board nominees, including newcomer Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who lobbied for a Boeing plant there, and former US ambassador to the United Nations.
Several shareholder resolutions were defeated, including one to name an independent chairman whenever possible instead of letting the CEO hold both jobs. It got 34% support.
A chairman-CEO “is not always a bad thing, but at times of crisis it’s hardly ever a good idea,” said Matt Brubaker, CEO of business-strategy consultant FMG Leading, who was not involved in the debate. “The place they are in now, they need the scrutiny of an inwardly focused CEO to drive change.”
Muilenburg opened Monday’s meeting with a moment of silence for victims of the two crashes. Later that day, lawyers for two Canadian families who lost relatives in the Ethiopian Airlines crash filed the latest in a growing number of lawsuits against Boeing, claiming the plane maker was negligent about safety.
Hiral Vaidya, whose in-laws and four other family members died in the crash, said there were no remains left to cremate.
“We have no closure, we have no peace, we have no answer,” she said, fighting back tears.

MEXICO CITY,
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Monday symbolically launched work on a new airport for Mexico City to replace the nearly half-built $13 billion project he cancelled upon taking office.
López Obrador promised the new Felipe Ángeles airport northeast of the capital won’t exceed its budget and will save the government money even with the cancellation of the partially built airport. “It’s going to resolve the problem of saturation at the current Mexico City airport , but also be an example of how you can carry out a rational, austere policy based on honesty that needs to establish itself as the way to live and the way to govern in our country,” López Obrador said.
The new airport—named for a general allied with revolutionary icon Pancho Villa—is at the Santa Lucia military air base and the army is in charge of getting it built for $4.1 billion.
It is supposed to begin operating in mid-2021, though construction has not yet begun.
Two new runways would be added to its existing one and the commercial airport would share the space with the military. Critics have argued that the new airport will have difficulty operating simultaneously with the existing airport, but in a report by the military, consultant Navblue said they could operate simultaneously in terms of air space.
One of the early hitches pointed out in the military’s environmental impact statement is a small mountain named “Paula” that sits beside one of the runways. It would be too close for commercial airliners to use that runway, so the report says it would be dedicated exclusively to military use.
But the biggest concern raised in the report has to do with water. The airport would consume an estimated 6 million litters (1.6 million gallons) per day from an already severely overtaxed aquifer that the capital depends on, and that’s not including consumption from hotels and other businesses that will spring up around it, the report said.
Three existing wells on the air base should provide enough water, but that is expected to lower the water table in the aquifer, so some wells could go dry.
The report says that could be mitigated by creating recharge zones in the area to put water back into the aquifer. Another possibility would be bringing water from another, less-stressed aquifer.
On Monday, the Zeferino Ladrillero Human Rights Centre called on the government to consult with the more than 20 communities around the airport. The group warned that the water consumption would directly impact livestock and agriculture, and with it the livelihoods of thousands of families.
López Obrador, though, said consultations had already taken place.
“I can tell you now that the consultation with the communities around Santa Lucia happened and what do you think? The people approved the project,” he said. There was no description of when or how those consultations were performed.
When the time the airport it begins to operate in mid-2021, it could handle nearly 20 million passengers.
One of the looming questions is how flights will be divided between the capital’s main airport, Benito Juárez International, and the new one at Santa Lucia. The environmental impact statement for the project mentions that initially two airlines will be operating there, but it does not say which.
The new airport would connect to the existing one via a 28-mile (46 kilometre) route with dedicated bus lanes to speed passengers to their connecting flights. About 5 miles of that route would actually be along a perimeter road built for the now-cancelled airport at Texcoco.
In October, before López Obrador had taken office, he held an unofficial referendum on cancelling the $13 billion Texcoco project, which was already nearly half completed. He proposed converting the Santa Lucia air base and making improvements at Benito Juarez, which had been targeted for closure. The plan received 70% approval, though critics complained that fewer than 2 percent of Mexico’s registered voters took part.
López Obrador complained the Texcoco project backed by the previous administration was drenched in corruption and faced environmental problems because it was being built on a former lakebed. Auditors said in February that they had found some $167 million in questionable costs.
The government says it will build a third terminal at Benito Juarez. That airport, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and with no possibility of adding an additional runway, is beyond capacity. More and more flights are parked on the tarmac with passengers shuttled to the overcrowded terminals on buses.

BUENOS AIRES,
Argentina adopted a new measure on Monday aimed at stabilising its exchange rate, six months out from presidential elections in which economic worries are having an impact on opinion polls. The central bank now has the power to sell up to $250 million a day to satisfy market demands.
The move comes on the back of a freeze in the prices of basic goods and public services announced by President Mauricio Macri two weeks ago.
The central bank would only intervene—by buying or selling dollars—if the peso dropped below 51.54 or rose above 39.75 to the dollar.
Coming at the end of a week in which the peso lost 8.16 percent against the dollar, the markets reacted well to the news, with the peso opening at 46.50—compared to its closing price on Friday of 46.80—and had reached 45.81 by lunchtime.
“We support these measures, which are sufficiently calibrated to the challenges facing Argentina,” said the IMF, which last year agreed to lend Argentina $56 billion to help the South American country battle its currency crisis and inflation issues.

SINGAPORE, 
Some 20 million barrels of Iranian oil sitting on China’s shores in the northeast port of Dalian for the past six months now appears stranded as the United States hardens its stance on importing crude from Tehran.
Iran sent the oil to China, its biggest customer, ahead of the reintroduction of US sanctions last November, as it looked for alternative storage for a backlog of crude at home.
The oil is being held in so-called bonded storage tanks at the port, which means it has yet to clear Chinese customs. Despite a six-month waiver to the start of May that allowed China to continue some Iranian imports, shipping data shows little of this oil has been moved.
Traders and refinery sources pointed to uncertainty over the terms of the waiver and said independent refiners had been unable to secure payment or insurance channels, while state refiners struggled to find vessels.
The future of the crude, worth well over $1 billion at current prices, has become even more unclear after Washington last week increased its pressure on Iran, saying it would end all sanction exemptions at the start of May.
“No responsible Chinese company with any international exposure will have anything to do with Iran oil unless they are specifically told by the Chinese government to do so,” said Tilak Doshi of oil and gas consultancy Muse, Stancil & Co in Singapore.
Iran previously stored oil in 2014 at Dalian during the last round of sanctions that was later sold to buyers in South Korea and India.
China last week formally complained to the United States over the unilateral Iran sanctions, but US officials have said Washington is not considering a further short-term waiver or a wind-down period.
The 20 million barrels is equal to about a month’s worth of China’s imports from Iran over the past six months, or about two days of the country’s total imports.
Iran says it will continue to export oil in defiance of US sanctions.
A senior official with the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters: “We will continue to sell our oil.”
“Iran is now desperate and will deal with anyone with steep discounts as long as they get paid somehow,” said Doshi.
Some Iranian oil sent to Dalian has moved, according to a ship tracking analyst at Refinitiv.
Dan, a supertanker owned by NITC moved 2 million barrels of oil from Dalian more than 1,000 km (620 miles) to the south to the Ningbo Shi Hua crude oil terminal in March, according to Refinitiv data.
Ningbo is home to Sinopec’s Zhenhai refinery, one of the country’s largest oil plants with a capacity of 500,000 barrels a day and a top processor of Iranian oil.
Sinopec declined to comment.
According to Refinitiv analyst Emma Li. The NITC official confirmed the oil was taken by Zhuhai Zhenrong.
Zhenrong was started in the 1990s and brokered the first oil supply deals between Iran and China. At that time, Iran was supplying oil to China to pay for arms supplied by Beijing during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Zhuhai Zhenrong still specialises mainly in buying Iranian oil.
An official at the general manager’s office with Zhuhai Zhenrong’s office in Beijing said he could not immediately comment. The company did not reply to a fax seeking comment.
For now, more Iranian oil is heading to China, with the supertankers Stream and Dream II due to arrive in eastern China from Iran on May 5 and May 7, respectively, Refinitiv data showed.
Some of this crude may be from Chinese investments into Iranian oilfields, a sanctions grey area.
Whether China will keep buying oil from Iran remains unclear, but analysts at Fitch Solutions said in a note “there may be scope for imports via barter or non-compliance from ... China.”
Muse, Stancil & Co’s Doshi said the only way to get the Iranian oil out of Dalian now was by cheating.
“Only rogue parties might try to cheat the system and try to pass the Iranian oil at Dalian as something else via fraudulent docs. But I doubt this is easy or can amount to much in terms of volume.”

OSLO: Global aluminium producer Norsk Hydro on Tuesday put the cost of a cyber attack targeting the Norwegian company in March at around $50 million. In the night between March 18 and 19, the company became the target of a “massive” cyber attack involving
ransom ware, forcing it to disconnect from various sites and factories and switch to manual operations in others. The attack also forced it to postpone the publication of its quarterly earnings, originally scheduled for Tuesday, to June 5. “The cyber attack that hit us on March 19 has affected our entire global organisation,” said CEO Svein Richard Brandtzaeg in a statement. (AFP)

HONG KONG: China’s ZTE Corp reported on Monday a first-quarter profit of 862.6 million yuan ($128.2 million), as expected, up from 276 million yuan in the preceding three months, as it recovered from last year’s US sanctions. The world’s fourth-largest telecommunications equipment maker by market share also forecast a net profit of 1.2-1.8 billion yuan for the first half of 2019. The quarterly profit was toward the lower end of the company’s forecast range of 800 million to 1.2 billion yuan. It reported a net loss of 5.4 billion yuan for the corresponding quarter a year earlier, which booked the impact of a crippling US supplier ban that has now been lifted. Revenue dropped 19.34 percent to 22.2 billion yuan in January-March, from 28.88 billion yuan a year earlier. (REUTERS)

MADRID: Spanish banking giant Banco Santander posted a 10 percent drop in first quarter net profit to 1.84 billion euros ($2.1 billion) on Tuesday due largely to a “difficult operating environment” in Europe. The eurozone’s largest bank by market capitalisation said a loss from the sale of residential properties in Spain and restructuring costs in Britain and Poland contributed to the fall, which was in line with analyst expectations. Broadly speaking, the bank blamed its business in Europe, where it makes 48 percent of its profit. In a statement, executive chairwoman Ana Botin said there was “a difficult operating environment, particularly in the UK and Europe.” Profit dropped 11 percent in Spain and 36 percent in the United Kingdom, its second and fourth markets respectively. (AFP)

BEIJING,
Top American negotiators arrived in Beijing on Tuesday hoping for progress in a new round of talks with Chinese counterparts as they home in on a deal to end a months-long trade war.
The US side indicated before their trip that China’s massive industrial subsidies would be a top issue as the world’s two leading economies seek to resolve a dispute that has included bruising tit-for-tat tariffs on $360 billion worth of goods.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer are leading the US side for this week’s 10th round of high-level negotiations, with Vice Premier Liu He representing Beijing.
Liu is then expected to travel to Washington on May 8 to continue the negotiations.
“We hope to make substantial progress in these two meetings,” Mnuchin told reporters at his hotel in Beijing ahead of the talks.
Mnuchin declined to say what would be discussed but he told the New York Times that the talks would continue to focus on China’s practise of subsidising industries.
Last week President Xi Jinping vowed to abolish unreasonable subsidies to Chinese firms, addressing the key US demand head on.
“We will overhaul and abolish unjustified regulations, subsidies and practises that impede fair competition and distort the market,” Xi told world leaders at a summit in Beijing on his signature Belt and Road global infrastructure project.
Xi’s decision to raise the contentious issue in front of an international audience was significant, according to observers. “It being mentioned in that forum at that level may foreshadow reforms resulting from US-China trade talks, allowing Beijing to frame such outcomes as steps forward for the Chinese economy rather than concessions to Washington,” said Jacob Parker, vice president of the US-China Business Council.
Beijing’s state subsidies are part and parcel of its industrial policy and experts say policymakers are unlikely to give up their goals of developing commercial aircraft and semi-conductor industries, or other strategic areas seen as key to China’s future.
China’s State Council, its cabinet, has in recent months returned repeatedly to the idea of competitive neutrality, meaning equal treatment for private and state-owned businesses, and domestic and multinational firms.
“Some subsidies have been stopped, and I believe the principle of competitive neutrality will be implemented in all aspects in the future,” said economist Cui Fan of the University of International Business and Economics.
A new foreign investment law guaranteed foreign-invested firms equal access to state aid programmes, he noted.
The United States and the European Union have long complained that China has created an uneven playing field by heavily subsidising Chinese firms, while erecting hurdles for foreign companies seeking to tap the Asian power’s vast market.
China’s subsidies are highly opaque, with the local and central governments and a variety of different agencies all doling out grants to support firms in favoured industries.
The US’s main goal “would be to list out all subsidies that are received domestically within China today,” Parker said. “Transparency, equal access for foreign companies, and enforcement of that transparency is probably the key,” he said.

CAMBRIDGE (Canada),
Japanese automaker Toyota will assemble two models of its Lexus in Canada starting in 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday.
It will be the first time that the Lexus NX and NX hybrid sport utility vehicles are produced outside of Japan,
Trudeau said.
He told a news conference the Cambridge, Ontario assembly plant 50 miles (80 kilometres) west of Toronto would supply the Canadian and US markets. Toyota announced last year it would invest Can$1.4 billion ($1 billion) in its two Ontario facilities, in Cambridge and in nearby Woodstock, which assembles its RAV4 vehicles.
It plans to concentrate its North American production of hybrid vehicles in the province. Ottawa also pitched in Can$110 million.
The two assembly lines can build over 500,000 vehicles annually, making Toyota the largest automotive manufacturer in Canada.

LONDON,
The recent slowdown in the eurozone economy, which had stoked fears that another recession was around the corner, appears to have come to an end.
Official figures released on Tuesday show that the 19-country single currency bloc saw economic growth double in the first quarter of the year and that has helped unemployment fall to its lowest level since the global financial crisis.
Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, said the eurozone economy expanded by 0.4% in the first quarter from the previous three-month period.
That’s double the rate experienced in the last quarter of 2018 and suggests that a period of rapid slowdown may be over.
Eurostat did not provide details though some eurozone countries have released national figures.
Spain did particularly well in the first quarter of 2019 with quarterly growth of 0.7% and Italy nudged out of recession with 0.2% expansion. But France underwhelmed with a rate of only 0.3%.
The prevailing view is that the European Central Bank’s cheap monetary policy—under which it has kept interest rates at super-low levels—is continuing to help economic activity, particularly consumer spending.
“Given the continuing weakness in manufacturing, this is a very respectable result,” said Christoph Weil, an economist at Commerzbank. “It shows that domestic demand, fueled by the ECB’s ultra-expansive monetary policy, continues to support the economy.”
Despite the quarterly increase, the eurozone is far short of the sort of growth it was posting before the slowdown began in the middle of last year. On an annual basis, growth remains tepid at 1.2%.
The eurozone, like many other parts of the global economy, faltered last year as trade tensions between the United States and China became more acute, oil prices rose and uncertainty over Britain’s departure from the EU weighed on business confidence.

LONDON: British energy giant BP said on Tuesday that first-quarter net profits jumped by almost a fifth, as rising production and lower costs eclipsed the impact of weaker oil and gas prices. Profit after tax rallied 19 percent to $2.9 billion (2.6 billion euros) in the three months to the end of March, BP said in a results statement. That compared with $2.5 billion during the same period last year. Energy production rose about 2.4 percent to 3.8 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. Output was lifted by last year’s vast purchase of US shale oil and gas operations from mining titan BHP, as well as new projects in Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago and the Gulf of Mexico. However, underlying replacement cost profit slid eight percent to $2.4 billion, although slightly above analysts’ forecasts. (AFP)

CALIFORNIA: Spotify Technology SA, the world’s leading streaming platform, said on Monday it had hit 100 million paid subscribers as it reported a better-than-expected rise in first-quarter revenue. The global leader in the sector, with double the number of subscribers of nearest rival Apple Music, Spotify has launched in places like India, the Middle East and North Africa in recent months, seeking to fuel the next stage of its development as it continues to price aggressively in the developed world. (REUTERS)

KATHMANDU,
The demand for automobile accessories has surged with the country importing parts and accessories of motor vehicle worth Rs3.18 billion in first seven months which had stood at Rs2.55 billion during the review period last year.
Many vehicle owners opt for accessories to give their ride a new look, from car covers, roof racks, seat covers, chrome fittings and more while others opt to improve the safety of their vehicles, said traders.
Other popular accessories include reverse parking camera, first aid kits, child seats, vacuum cleaner and LED auxiliary lamps.
The statistics of Trade and Export Promotion Centre show that the import of car accessories has increased by 24.38 percent during mid-July to mid-February in the current fiscal year compared to the same time period of last year. The country imports automobile accessories mainly from India and China.
“The demand for automobile accessories has been increasing with the rising number of vehicles users,” said, Raju Pradhan, proprietor of Beatles Decor at Kuleshwor.
Kuleshwor, a 2km stretched road is expanding as major hub for car accessories in the Valley, has been offering various ranges of automobile accessories.
As a large number of automobiles dealers have opened showrooms in Thapathali-Kuleshwor area, numerous car accessory shops have been sprouting in this location to attract potential buyers, according to traders.
Samir Raj Gautam, owner of New Pioneer Decoration House at Kuleshwor, said the vehicle owners flock to the location as the shops there offer wide varieties of accessories.
According to the traders, a vehicle parts and accessories store in the area makes transaction of Rs3 million to Rs4 million per month on average.
“A single store is earning an average of Rs500,000-Rs1 million per month just from the service charge for installing the accessories,” informed one of the leading shop owners at Kuleshwor, on condition of anonymity.
In addition to safety and luxury, accessories used in decoration of cars are among the best sellers. The traders offer such accessories in the price range between Rs20,000 and Rs250,000 to customise the look of vehicles.

SEOUL,
Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest smartphone and memory chip maker, reported a slump in first-quarter net profits on Tuesday, in the face of a weakening chip market and rising competition.
The result is the latest bad news for the tech titan, which last week was forced to delay the release of its much-hyped $2,000 foldable smartphone owing to problems with the screen.
Net profits in the January-March period were 5.04 trillion won ($4.3 billion) -- the lowest since the third quarter of 2016 and down 56.9 percent year-on-year.
Operating profit also plunged 60.2 percent to 6.2 trillion won, while sales fell 13.5 percent to 52.4 trillion won.
The firm is the flagship subsidiary of the giant Samsung Group, by far the biggest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate business in the world’s 11th largest economy, and it is crucial to South Korea’s economic health.
It has enjoyed record profits in recent years despite a series of setbacks, including a humiliating product recall and the jailing of its de facto chief.
But now the picture is changing, with chip prices falling as global supply increases while demand weakens.
It also has to contend with increasingly tough competition in the smartphone market from Chinese rivals like Huawei -- which in 2017 surpassed Apple to take second place -- offering quality devices at lower prices.
Samsung had warned investors of a 60 percent-plus fall in first-quarter operating profits, citing weak display and chip sales.
“Mobile displays suffered slower demand and intensifying competition with LTPS LCDs,” the company said. “Large displays also took a hit from a continued decline in LCD panel prices amid weak seasonality.”
Samsung shares ended down 0.65 percent in Seoul.
“Growing competition in the mature TV and smartphone markets is expected to pose a challenge in the second half (of this year),” Samsung said in a statement. Samsung launched its top-end S10 5G smartphone earlier this month, after South Korea won the global race to commercially launch the world’s first nationwide 5G network.
But it last week made a high-profile decision to push back the release of its new Galaxy Fold phones after reviewers provided with early devices reported screen problems within days of use.
While Samsung’s device was not the first folding handset, the smartphone giant was expected to help spark demand and potentially revive a sector that has been struggling for new innovations.
The South Korean firm had spent nearly eight years developing the Galaxy Fold as part of its strategy to propel growth with groundbreaking gadgets.
The move comes after Samsung was forced to announce a worldwide recall of its Galaxy Note 7 devices in 2016 over exploding batteries in 2016, dealing a blow to its reputation and costing it billions of dollars.
The quarterly figures come after South Korea’s SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker, said operating profits plunged more than two-thirds in the first quarter.
Greg Roh of HMC Securities & Investment projected Samsung’s operating profits to continue falling in the second quarter of this year.