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kathmandupost
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Friday,July 8, 2016 (24-o3-2073)
N E PA L’ S L A R G E S T S E L L I N G E N G L I S H D A I LY
Vol XXIV No 141 | 12+4 Pages
page 9
page 5
page 12
money
GoT’s season
seven delayed
8,400 US troops to remain in
Afghanistan till 2017: Obama
Serena storms into ninth
Wimbledon final
Hopeful fuel importers
apply for permission
Life & style
world
sports
Swollen Bhotekoshi forces 100 families to flee
POST REPORT
SINDHUPALCHOK, JULY 7
As many as 100 families of
the Tatopani area, a major
transit point between Nepal
and China, have fled their
settlements in search of
safer locations after the
Bhotekoshi river swollen by
incessant rainfall caused
massive land erosion.
According to police, people living near the banks of
Bhotekoshi and Sunkoshi
rivers are at high risk.
The
Jure-Tatopani
stretch of the Araniko
Highway has been obstructed after road sections at
various parts were swept
away by the flood in the
Bhotekoshi river.
Locals said the flooded
Bhotekoshi river has been
massively eroding land in
the Khorsanibari area
along the Araniko Highway.
Bishnu Prasad Shrestha,
a local of Tatopani, said
local authorities should
take immediate measures
to save lives and properties.
Armed Police Force
(APF) DSP Manoj Thapa
said land erosion in
Tatopani and Liping due to
the swollen river continued
on Thursday as well.
At least 25 houses were
swept away by flash flood in
the Bhotekoshi river due to
rains since Tuesday night.
Koirala
taken off
ventilator
‘Showing signs of improvement’
POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, JULY 7
n
The Miteri bridge, which links Nepal with China, in Tatopani of Sindhupalchok district is on the verge of collapse after massive land erosion on Thursday. post photo
Doctors on Thursday afternoon took Nepali Congress
General Secretary Shashank
Koirala off the ventilator
after he showed signs of
improvement.
Dr Harish Joshi, medical
director of Om Hospital, said
ventilator support on which
Koirala was put since Tuesday
night has been taken off. Even
though his condition is critical, he is gradually showing
signs of improvement, said Dr
Joshi. “His organs are functioning much better than yesterday and this is a good sign,”
added Dr Joshi.
A statement issued by the
hospital at 6pm stated that his
vital signs were also improving and he was responding to
verbal commands since
Wednesday night.
Koirala was rushed to Om
Hospital on Tuesday night
after he complained of abdominal discomfort and shortness
n
Shashank Koirala
of breath. Doctors attending
to him had said on Wednesday
that Koirala suffered “multiple organ dysfunction”, primarily due to aspiration pneumonia, a condition caused
when food and other substances are inhaled.
The doctors on Thursday
said they had gradually
decreased the amount of
drugs that were being administered to Koirala.
“Despite signs of improvement, he is still not out of
danger and is under the close
supervision of a group of consultants,” the press release
issued by the hospital added.
Oli proposes fresh deal on power
sharing, urges NC to join govt
POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, JULY 7
While calling on the Nepali
Congress (NC) to join the government, Prime Minister KP
Sharma Oli has also proposed
a fresh power-sharing agreement in a bid to forge national
consensus among the major
parties. The proposal was
made during his meeting with
the NC President Sher
Bahadur Deuba and CPN
(Maoist Centre) Chairman
Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
During the meeting, PM Oli
stressed that there was no
alternative to national consensus to implement the constitution, expedite post-earthquake reconstruction and
lead the country towards economic prosperity.
“There is no alternative
to strengthening the incumbent government. The NC
should either join the
government or play a constructive role as the main
opposition,” Bishnu Rimal,
chief political adviser to PM
Oli, quoted the prime minister
as saying during the meeting.
[
There is no alternative to strengthening the
incumbent government. The NC should either
join the government or play a constructive
role as the main opposition
PM Oli to Deuba and Dahal
Thursday’s meeting, however, ended without arriving
at any conclusion after Deuba
said he would discuss PM
Oli’s proposal with his partly
leaders. Dahal, who has long
been making a pitch for
national unity government,
appeared convinced about a
fresh deal on power sharing.
Earlier this week, the governing CPN-UML had floated
an informal proposal of government leadership on rotational basis by three major
parties until three elections—
local, provincial and federal
parliament—are held in the
next 18 months.
Oli has proposed to remain
in power till the local elections which have been
announced for December.
Thursday’s
meeting
[
between Oli, Deuba and Dahal
followed
CPN
(Maoist
Centre)’s decision to “make
maximum efforts” for national consensus.
Maoist Centre’s politburo
meeting, which concluded in
the Capital on Thursday, has
decided to “make maximum
efforts” to forge national consensus.
“Our party will continue to
make efforts to forge consensus among the major parties
for national unity government,” said Mani Thapa, a
member of the nine-member
headquarters of the Maoist
Centre. “If that fails to materialise, we will make a new
alignment with the party that
we find closer to our agenda.”
Last week, the Maoist
Centre had decided to remain
open to the possibility of a
majority government.
But the Maoist leadership
seems to have taken a step
back following veiled threats
from PM Oli that he would
support the NC if he was
forced to step down without
proving the significance of
another majority government. During his meeting
with Maoist Centre Chairman
Pushpa Kamal Dahal on
Saturday, Oli had hinted at
supporting the NC if the
Maoist Centre broke the left
coalition.
Sources at the Prime
Minister’s Office said Oli had
asked Dahal “on what moral
grounds the third largest
party was trying to break the
alliance to replace the incumbent government with a
“If
majority government”.
you are prepared to break this
coalition, I suggest you not to
delay the decision. It doesn’t
sound good when you say one
thing to me and tell something
else while speaking with others,” a PMO source quoted Oli
as telling Dahal during
Saturday’s meeting.
‘Korala border to open within a year’
BINOD TRIPATHI
MUSTANG, JULY 7
The government has taken
initiatives to open the muchhyped Korala border point in
Mustang
district.
The
authorities started preparations to upgrade the PokharaKorala road and set up a
Nepal Army (NA) barracks
as well as a border out post
in Korala area.
The government will soon
hold talks with China and
open the border point within
a year, a high-level government team, which included
three deputy prime ministers (DPM), said on Thursday
after an inspection visit of
Korala. DPMs trio Bijaya
Gachhadar, Bhim Rawal and
Top Bahadur Rayamajhi,
State Minister for Finance
Damodar Bhandari, former
n DPMs Bijaya Gachhadar, Bhim Rawal and Top Bahadur Rayamajhi
with other officials at Korala in Mustang. Post Photo: binod tripathi
prime minister and senior
CPN-UML leader Madhav
Nepal, among others, were
on the inspection tour.
The Korala border point
will be opened permanently
like Kerung and Tatopani
points, the DPMs told a press
meet in Jomsom. “A government team will visit Beijing
soon for talks with the
Chinese authorities.”
“A survey has been done to
set up an Army barracks in
around 1,000 ropanis of
land,” said DPM Rawal, who
also holds the portfolio of
the Defence Ministry. “The
Defence Ministry will propose the necessary budget to
the Finance Ministry for
establishing the barracks.,”
Rawal said, adding, “We will
assure China that it will be a
peaceful border point.” The
government has prioritised
the construction of roads
connecting northern border
points. The roads on the priority list include MustangBiratnagarKorala;
Kimathanka; the Karnali
corridor connecting Hilsa;,
Galchhi-SyaphrubeshiRasuwa g adhi
and
Kathmandu-Tatopani.
Underlining Korala as the
third most important border
point, DPM Gachhadar said,
“The government has allocated Rs4 billion to upgrade
and construct road from
Pokhara
to
Korala.”
Gachhadar, who is also the
minister for physical planning, enquired about the
Kaligandaki corridor with
Madhav Kumar Karki, director
general
of
the
Department of Roads.
C M Y K
03
thekathmandu post
news
Friday, July 8, 2016
House hearing begins today
Chief election commissioner nominee to be quizzed today, Acting CJ Karki on Sunday
NC’s Khadka reminds
Deuba ‘of his pledges’
Sarin Ghimire
POST REPORT
Kathmandu, July 7
Kathmandu, July 7
The Parliamentary Hearing
Special Committee (PHSC) is
set to begin on Friday hearing
on
complaints
against
nominees for constitutional
bodies, diplomatic missions
and justices.
On Friday, Chief Election
Commissioner
nominee
Ayodhee Prasad Yadav will
respond to parliamentarians’
queries and clarify on complaints filed against him.
Justice
nominee
Chief
Sushila Karki will attend the
hearing on Sunday. As many
as 34 nominees are set to
undergo
parliamentary
hearing before they are formally appointed to their
respective posts.
A new 15-member hearing
committee was formed on
June 19 as per the provision of
the new constitution.
The ruling parties and the
main opposition were at the
loggerheads for about nine
months following the constitution promulgation over the
number of members in the
newly formed committee. The
last PHSC had 75 members.
“Since we have a small com-
Nepali Congress President
Sher Bahadur Deuba is facing
the music for failing to adhere
to his pledges made while garnering support during the
party’s general convention in
March earlier this year.
NC leader Khum Bahadur
Khadka called on Deuba at the
latter’s
residence
in
Budhanilkantha on Tuesday
evening, where the duo discussed current political
affairs, party matters and the
remaining
nominations
to the central committee and
office bearers, among others,
confirmed lawmaker Shankar
Bhandari, a leader from
Tanahu considered close to
Khadka.
During
the
meeting,
Khadka urged Deuba to work
towards improving the organisational structure of the
party, and demanded that the
party president give Khadka
his “due respect and nominate
n
Members of the Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee meet in Singha Durbar on Thursday.
mittee, our discussion with
the nominees will now be
more specific and serious. We
will also have more time to
ask the nominees our queries
and about the complaints
filed,” said NC leader Bal
Krishna Khand, a member of
the committee.
Two complaints have been
filed against Yadav—one from
Siraha about a writ filed
against him at the Supreme
Court so he should not be
nominated, and the other
filed by a person from
Ramechhap claiming that
since Yadav has long been
involved in the EC, he might
be able to influence other
office bearers and the overall
election process.
Forty plaints were registered with the committee
Photo: RSS
against the nominees within a
10-day deadline. The hearing
committee on June 24 called
for complaints from the general public against the nominees for the chief election
commissioner, the chief justice, 11 justices and 21 ambassadors.
The low number of complaints was largely due to the
mandatory provision for the
MPs’ team to visit India to
learn about disaster response
Kathmandu: A Nepal Airlines
aircraft made an emergency
landing at the TIA on
Thursday morning after being
hit by a bird immediately
after take-off. Security sources at the airport confirmed
the incident and said that the
aircraft safely made it back to
the airport’s runway without
any further incident. The
plane was flying to Hong
Kong. There were over 100
passengers and crew members on board the Airbus
A320. The NAC arranged for
another plane to fly the passengers to the destination. (PR)
NEW DELHI, JULY 7
A 13-member delegation of
the Development Committee
of Parliament is embarking
on a weeklong visit to India
beginning Friday.
As the rebuilding process
has been delayed, team
to study the preparations
made by India to tackle all
kinds of natural disasters
n
Ten members of the parliamentary Development Committee are leaving for India on Friday. tives of the National Disaster
Management Authority on a
wide range of issues related to
disaster preparedness and
management. The team will
also interact with Indian parliamentarians. After complet-
ing its meeting in Delhi, the
team will head to Gujarat to
observe the reconstruction
and recovery works undertaken after the massive earthquake of 2001.
“As we are going through a
him as the party’s vice-president for his support to Deuba”
during the party conclave in
which the three-time prime
minister came victorious with
a wide margin.
According to Bhandari,
Deuba in response assured
Khadka that he was committed to the past agreements
made between the two. “Our
president explained that due
to parliamentary works, the
heavy aspirations of several
leaders and his duty to carry
along the defeated faction, it
has taken some time to consider everyone while making
nominations for office bearers,” said Bhandari.
Khadka, one of the influential leaders in the party, is
leading a campaign to restore
Nepal as a Hindu state. He
was elected to the central committee with the second highest number of votes during
the general convention.
But a leader close to Deuba
claimed that the party president was wary of the consequences of nominating a person with a tarnished image.
“We advised him to refrain
from taking such controversial calls since Khadka has
already served a jail term,”
the leader said on condition
of anonymity.
In 2012, Khadka lived
behind the bars for one-a-half
years after being convicted
of
corruption
by
the
Supreme Court. Bhandari,
however, clarified that the
“agreement” between Deuba
and Khadka was still effective
and there was “no bitterness
between them”.
As per the party statute, all
nominations were supposed to
be made within two months of
the general convention that
concluded on March 7.
Emergency NAC
plane landing
after bird-hit
POST REPORT
The delegation constitutes
10 lawmakers and three officials of the Parliament
Secretariat. The delegation
will hold discussions with
various agencies of India on
preparations necessary to
tackle natural disasters and
on works related to post-earthquake reconstruction and
recovery.
The committee will hold
meeting with the representa-
complainants to reveal their
identity, unlike in the past
when an anonymous person
could file a complaint, the
committee member said.
Although the government
had made the recommendations over a month ago, their
appointments were halted in
the absence of parliamentary
hearing—a
constitutional
requirement.
Khum Bahadur seeks ‘due
respect and nomination for
Congress vice-president in
return for help to Deuba’
RSS
phase of reconstruction, the
parliamentary team will
study
the
preparations
made by India to tackle all
kinds of natural disasters,”
said committee Chairman
Rabindra Adhikari.
Preps to give
final shape to
Pancheshwar
DPR by Oct
Rastriya Samachar Samiti
Kathmandu, July 7
Preparations are being made
to give final shape to the
detailed project report of the
Pancheshwar Multipurpose
Project by October.
It was agreed during the
fourth joint meeting of the
Energy Secretaries of Nepal
and India that concluded on
Wednesday to give the DPR its
final shape and finalise all
other remaining issues, said
Mahendra Bahadur Gurung,
chief executive officer of the
Pancheshwar Development
Authority.
According to him, an agreement was also reached to hold
the secretary-level meeting
every three months.
The joint meeting prepared
the basis for sharing the benefits and costs between Nepal
and India on the project and
for deciding the use of technology, inundation, rehabilitation and additional matters to
be addressed.
The Pancheshwar project
that had been stalled for the
last 23 years moved forward
after Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s visit to
Nepal. Four joint meetings on
the project DPR have been
held so far.
“The decision of the fourth
meeting will be formalised
within two weeks,” Gurung
said. The Authority has projected to generate a total of
5,040 megawatts electricity
from the project.
Of this projected power,
4,800MW would be generated
from the Pancheshwar project
and
240MW
from
the
Rupaligad project. The project
will produce 11,885 gigawatts/
hour annually.
C M Y K
news
thekathmandu post 04
post-quake reconstruction
Banks to disburse aid
to cluster settlements
POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, July 7
The National Reconstruction
Authority (NRA) has assigned
one bank each for a group of
several villages and municipalities to ensure swift and
easy distribution of housing
reconstruction aid. The NRA
has also formed clusters, comprising banks and financial
institutions operating in each
of the 11 earthquake affected
districts for the purpose.
“The Authority has clustered the banks and financial
institutions operating in each
affected district and divided
the work responsibilities.
Each bank or financial institution will look after specific
number of villages and
municipalities,” said Ram
Prasad Thapaliya, spokesperson for the NRA.
Each banking and financial
institution in each district
will look after a certain num-
n The NRA has assigned one bank each for a group of several villages
and municipalities to ensure hassle-free housing aid distribution.
ber of wards/villages/municipalities to ensure that all the
areas are covered and no one
is left out, he added.
The NRA has also made
arrangements for opening
bank accounts of the beneficiaries of the rebuilding aid
in bulk at the local level without the presence of the respective beneficiary. “This will be
possible through the personal
information collected by the
NRA during the assessment.
They will be forwarded to the
respective banks and financial institutions to carry out
further works to open bank
accounts,” Thapaliya said.
In order to expedite the distribution of reconstruction
aid to the affected households,
the NRA has already decided
to extend assistance through
opening branchless services,
including cash counters and
rotational camps, in places
where there are no facility of
banks or financial institution.
“We have already started
the work and are in talks with
banks and financial institutions on ways to reach out to
the remote areas through
branchless services to distribute rebuilding aid to the
households,”
affected
Thapaliya said.
As of Thursday evening, a
total of 24,428 households in
seven of the 14 worst hit districts from last year’s earthquakes have received the first
instalment amounting to
Rs50,000. The NRA has signed
the tripartite agreement
under which 223,830 out of the
total 533,454 households from
11 quake affected districts to
provide the first instalment of
the aid.
Janakpur appellate court orders
probe into Tarai protest death
POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, JULY 7
The appellate court in
Janakpur has directed the
District Police Office and the
District
Administration
Office in Mahottari to investigate into the killing of
Rambibek Yadav, who was
allegedly shot dead by securi-
Rambibek Yadav was allegedly gunned down by security
personnel during a protest in Jaleshwor, Mahottari
ty personnel during the Tarai
protest in Jaleshwor on
September 9, 2015.
Police and local administration in Mahottari had refused
to register the first incident
report
(FIR)
following
Rambibek’s death. On March
27,Rambibek’s family filed a
writ of mandamus at the
appellate court, seeking order
for an impartial and time-
bound investigation into the
incident by filing an FIR.
A joint bench of Judge
Sheshraj Shivakoti and Judge
Purosottam Bhandari on
Tuesday directed the police
and the local administration
in Mahottari to launch a probe
into Rambibek’s death.
Rambibek’s family has
claimed that security personnel had gunned him down
while he was watching the
protest from afar.
Bikru Yadav, the lawyer
representing Rambibek’s family, said it was the first
instance of a court ordering
the government authorities to
investigate the death that
occurred during the Tarai
protest.
“It could serve as a precedent in other cases of deaths
and injuries perpetrated by
law enforcement agencies in
the name of quelling the Tarai
protest,” Yadav said.
77 HIV-infected
MUMs give
birth to 72
healthy babies
POST REPORT
CHITWAN, JULY 7
As many as 72 healthy babies
have been born from HIVinfected women in Chitwan
district in the past 18 months.
According to Bharatpur
Hospital, of the 77 HIVinfected women who were
pregnant during that period,
76 have given birth to healthy
babies.
Krishna Hari Sapkota, coordinator of the AIDS Health
Care Foundation of Anti
Retro Viral Therapy Centre at
the hospital, said only two
babies were found to be infected with HIV. One woman had
miscarriage while three
babies died after birth.
A majority of the women
who gave birth to the babies
were between 22 and 25 years
of age.
According to Sapkota, 64
women were taking anti-retro
viral medicine since the initial days of their pregnancy.
The 72 babies were administered Nevirapine, a medicine to treat HIV infection,
after their birth. All of them
are aged between six months
and 18 months. Hospital
sources said HIV infected
women
from
Chitwan,
Makawanpur, Bara, Tanahun,
Lamjung,
Dhading
and
Nawalparasi districts have
been visiting the hospital to
receive parturition service.
weather watch
Forecast: Partly cloudy throughout
the country but becoming generally
cloudy towards afternoon.
Max MIN Rainfall
Places
Temp (0C)Temp (0C)(mm)
Dadeldhura25.1 18.2 0.1
Dipayal 34.525.20.2
Dhangadi 36.026.10.9
Birendranagar32.5 23.3 14.9
Nepalgunj 36.626.50.0
Jumla 23.016.51.4
Dang 31.423.04.8
Pokhara 32.923.90.2
Bhairahawa35.4 28.5 0.0
Simara 34.526.80.0
Kathmandu30.5 21.0 6.2
Okhaldhunga25.3 18.5 0.2
Taplejung 25.519.33.3
Dhankuta 27.821.01.3
Biratnagar32.526.51.7
Dharan 31.0 25.54.2*
Lumle 25.5 19.017.5*
Source: Meteorological forecasting Division, Department of
Hydrology and Meteorology, Kathmandu
news digest
Tremor felt
in Lamjung,
nearby districts
LAMJUNG: A magnitude
4.3 earthquake rocked
Lamjung and its neighbouring districts, including Gorkha, Tanahun
and Kaski at 2:44 pm on
Thursday, the National
Seismological Centre
said. The tremor was
centred somewhere near
Ghanpokhara, Bhulbhule
and Siurung of Lamjung.
No casualties were
reported. The centre said
the quake was an aftershock of the April 2015
Gorkha Earthquake. (PR)
Ex-king marks
his 70th birthday
with supporters
KATHMANDU: Supporters
and well-wishers of former king Gyanendra
Shah thronged Nirmal
Niwas, his Maharjagunj
residence, on Thursday
to wish him his 70th
birthday. Deputy Prime
Minister and Foreign
Minister Kamal Thapa,
Land Reform Minister
Ram Kumar Subba and
former foreign minister
Ramesh Nath Pandey
also visited the former
king to extend
their wishes. (PR)
260 domestic
violence cases
in six months
BIRATNAGAR: Police said
260 domestic violence
cases were reported in
16 districts of Eastern
Development Region in
the past six months.
According to the data,
incidents of violence
against women are
increasing in Saptari and
Morang districts. Police
said 139 incidents of
domestic violence
against women were
registered in
Saptari and 59 in
Morang. (PR)
C M Y K
world
kathmandu post
the
PG 05 | Friday,July8,2016
US sanctions Kim over human rights
The United States has sanctioned North Korean leader
Kim Jong Un for the first time, citing “notorious abuses
of human rights,” in a move diplomats say will infuriate the nuclear-armed country. The sanctions,
the first to target any North Koreans for rights
abuses, affect property and other assets within the
US jurisdiction.
news digest
Nine dead in Eid
party stampede
in Ghana
ACCRA: Nine people were
killed in a stampede at a
party in central Ghana to
mark the end of the
Muslim holy month of
Ramadan, a public official told reporters on
Thursday. “We so far
have nine people who are
dead, six females and
three males,” said
Nurudeen Hamidan, the
head of the Asokore
Mampong municipal
assembly, in the city of
Kumasi. There was no
immediate comment
from the police in the
city, which is 255km
northwest of the capital,
Accra. But Hamidan said
three bodies have been
identified so far and six
people were injured, one
of them critically, and
were receiving treatment
in hospital.
‘$610m shortfall
for south Africa
drought relief’
OHANNESBURG: The
United Nations’ food
agency said on Thursday
it needed $730 million
over the next 12 months
for relief in seven southern African countries hit
hard by a blistering
drought and faced a $610
million shortfall. The
World Food Programme
(WFP) said in a statement the seven countries
were Malawi, Zimbabwe,
Mozambique, Lesotho,
Madagascar, Swaziland
and Zambia. In Malawi,
WFP said it needed $288
million but had only
sourced $43million, while
in Zimbabwe—where
drought has exacerbated
an economic meltdown—$228million was
required but only a tenth
of that has been raised.
Germany toughesn sex laws
Merkel offers hand to Russia
The German parliament has unanimously
approved tougher laws making any form of
non-consensual sexual contact a crime, seeking
to reassure a public shaken by mass attacks on
women that were largely blamed on migrants.
Under the new rules, all forms of non-consensual sexual contact will be punishable.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered Moscow
her “outstretched hand for dialogue” on Thursday,
a day before Nato leaders meet in Warsaw to
cement a new deterrent against what they see as
an emboldened Russia. Germany wants a constructive relationship between Russia and Nato,
Merkel said.
8,400 US troops to remain in
Afghanistan till 2017: Obama
Reuters
Washington, July 7
President Barack Obama on
Wednesday shelved plans to
cut the US force in
Afghanistan nearly in half
by year’s end, opting to keep
8,400 troops there through
the close of his presidency
in January and let his
successor determine the path
forward.
Acknowledging that security in Afghanistan remained
precarious and Taliban forces had in some places gained
ground, Obama put aside earlier plans to cut the US troop
presence from its current
level of about 9,800 to 5,500 by
the end of 2016. But his plan
still calls for a 1,400-troop
reduction, and congressional
Republicans criticized him
for that.
Obama took office in 2009
pledging to wind down the
US wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Instead, he has
been forced to return US
troops to Iraq and keep thousands in place in Afghanistan
after more than 14-1/2 years
of war, altering his presidential legacy.
“The narrow missions
n A file photo shows a US soldier of 2-12 Infantry 4BCT-4ID Task Force Mountain Warrior taking a break
during a night mission near Honaker Miracle camp at the Pesh valley of Kunar Province. assigned to our forces will
not change. They remain
focussed on supporting
Afghan forces and going after
terrorists,” Obama said during an appearance at the
White House, flanked by
Defense Secretary Ash
Carter and the top US military officer, General Joe
Dunford.
Obama, whose presidency
ends on Jan 20, said his move
“best positions my successor
to make future decisions
about our presence in
Afghanistan” and “ensures
that my successor has a solid
foundation for continued
progress in Afghanistan as
well as the flexibility to
address the threat of terrorism as it evolves.”
Obama noted he ended the
REUTERS
US combat mission in
Afghanistan in 2014. But he
has repeatedly delayed pulling out the remaining
US force.
Twice last year, in March
and October, he slowed the
pace of the withdrawal, in
the end effectively handing
the task to his successor, who
US voters will elect on Nov. 8.
Republican Donald Trump
Several flights
cancelled as
super typhoon
bears down
Cambodia rejects
report on PM’s
family business
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia
dismissed on Thursday
accusations by an
anti-corruption pressure
group that Prime
Minister Hun Sen and
his family have amassed
$200 million in business
interests including some
with links to land grabs
and environmental
destruction. The accusations, in a report by the
group Global Witness,
comes during a period of
rising political tension
between the veteran
prime minister and the
opposition hoping to
challenge his grip on
power in local elections
in 2017 and a general
election in 2018. (Agencies)
and
Democrat
Hillary
Clinton are their parties’ presumptive nominees.
Taliban forces now hold
more
territory
in
Afghanistan than at any time
since the 2001 US-led invasion, according to recent U.N.
estimates. The Islamic State
group has also established a
small
presence
in
Afghanistan.
Afghan President Ashraf
Ghani welcomed Obama’s
decision, saying on Twitter it
“shows continued partnership between our nations to
pursue our common interests.” In addition to US forces, there are about 3,000 other
international troops in
Afghanistan.
US troops have been in
Afghanistan since the 2001
invasion
launched
by
Obama’s predecessor, George
W Bush, that toppled the
Taliban leaders who harboured the al Qaeda organisation responsible for the
Sept 11 attacks on the United
States that killed about 3,000
people. It is America’s longest war.
Obama noted that the
United States once had
100,000 troops in Afghanistan.
n Fishermen reinforce their fishing boats to withstand strong winds as Typhoon Nepartak is forecast to hit in the coming days, at a port in
Lianyungang, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province on Thursday. Residents in China’s eastern coastal areas were told to brace for gales and
downpours as the first typhoon of the season headed toward Taiwan on Wednesday, state media reported. AFP/rss
TAIPEI: Taiwan cancelled more
than 100 flights and shut
schools and offices on
Thursday as the island braced
for a direct hit from Super
Typhoon Nepartak, the first
major tropical storm of the
season.
The typhoon was packing
gusts of up to 245 km an hour
as it rumbled towards the
eastern counties of Hualien
and Taitung, where it is
expected to make landfall
early Friday, according to
Taiwan’s Central Weather
Bureau.
At 1000 GMT, the typhoon
was 210km east-southeast of
Taitung. “As the typhoon has
been slowing its pace,
we now forecast it could make
landfall sometime between
5:00am and 6:00 am Friday,”
an official at the bureau
told AFP. The storm is expected to dump torrential rain on
the whole island with mountainous areas forecast to be
deluged with up to 900 millimetres. (AFP)
3 killed in new
Bangladesh
terror attack
at start of Eid
Agence france-presse
DHAKA, July 7
Suspected Islamists carrying
bombs and machetes launched
another deadly attack in
Bangladesh Thursday, killing
at least three people at a huge
prayer rally marking the start
of Eid.
Days after a mass murder
of hostages in Dhaka, authorities said two policemen and a
civilian were killed in explosions and gunfire near a
prayer ground in the northern
Kishoreganj district.
One of the attackers was
also shot dead and four of his
suspected accomplices were
arrested after hand bombs
were hurled at police manning a checkpoint just outside
the main prayer ground.
“Two policemen, an attacker and a woman who was shot
during the (subsequent) gunfight were killed,” national
police spokesman A.K.M.
Shahidur Rahman told AFP.
“Nine policemen were also
injured. They are in a critical
condition and have been
shifted to a military hospital
in Dhaka.”
Weapons recovered from
the scene of the attack,
close to where a quarter million people had been taking
part in a post-Ramadan gathering, included a pistol and
machete.
The prayer gathering in
Kishoreganj is by far the biggest such congregation in
Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim
country that is home to
around 160 million people.
While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the
attack came less than a week
after Islamists killed 20 hostages and two policemen
in an overnight siege at a
Western-style cafe in the capital Dhaka. Many of the victims, which included 18 foreigners, were hacked to death
with machetes.
Bangladesh has been on a
heightened state of alert in
the wake of the killings in
Dhaka last Friday night
and many Eid services
included pleas from religious
leaders for an end to the
violence.
The cleric who led the
Kishoreganj prayer, Maolana
Farid Uddin Masuod, has
been an outspoken critic of a
recent wave of attacks by
Islamist extremists and he
again strongly condemned
Thursday’s killings.
The biggest service in the
capital was at the National
Eidgah Maidan where more
Italian victims
tortured, show
autopsies
Dhaka: Islamist militants tortured a group of
Italians before killing
them during an attack on
a restaurant in the
Bangladeshi capital of
Dhaka last week, a legal
source
said
on
Wednesday.
The bodies of the nine
Italians, most of whom
worked in the clothing
industry, were flown back
to Rome on Tuesday.
Autopsies showed that
many of them had been
slashed with knives and
had suffered slow deaths.
Some had been mutilated, the source said.
In all, 20 people died in
the Dhaka assault, which
started late on Friday
night. The victims, mostly foreigners, included
Japanese, Indians and
Americans as well as the
Italians.
The Holey Artisan restaurant in Dhaka where
the attack took place is
popular with foreigners,
and investigators in
Rome are looking into
whether Italians were
specifically targeted, a
judicial source said.
than 50,000 people, including
Bangladesh’s President Abdul
Hamid, took part in prayers
under a giant canopy.
Police brought in scanners
and sniffer dogs to check for
bombs as crowds were forced
to wait for up to an hour
before being cleared to enter
the grounds where the service
was held. No one was allowed
to bring in bags.
Bangladesh
has
been
reeling from dozens of
attacks since the turn of
the year, mainly targeting secular activists or religious
minorities.
Many of them have been
claimed by the self-styled
Islamic State group or an offshoot of the Al-Qaeda network.
However Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina’s government
has consistently denied
international jihadist networks
have
gained
a
foothold and has said the
weekend attack in Dhaka
was carried out by a local
Islamist group.
research findings
Viral hepatitis ‘kills as many as Aids or TB’
BBC
LONDON, July 7
Viral hepatitis is one of the leading
killers across the globe, with a
death toll that matches Aids or
tuberculosis, research in the
Lancet suggests.
The report estimates that hepatitis infections and their complications led to 1.45m deaths in 2013 despite the existence of vaccines
and treatments.
World Health Organization data
shows there were 1.2m Aids-related
deaths in 2014, while TB led to 1.5m
deaths.
The WHO has put forward a
global strategy to tackle hepatitis.
Researchers say these plans
must be put into action urgently to
tackle the crisis.
Viral hepatitis refers to five different forms of virus (known as A,
B, C, D, E) - some can be spread
through contact with infected bodily fluids and others (A and E)
through contaminated food or
water.
Most deaths worldwide are
World Health Organization data
shows there were 1.2 million
Aids-related deaths in 2014,
while TB led to 1.5 million deaths
due to B and C, which can cause
serious liver damage and predispose people to liver cancer. But
because people don’t always
feel the symptoms of the initial
infection, they can be unaware of
the long-term damage until it is
too late.
Scientists from Imperial College
London and the University of
Washington examined data from
183 countries, collected between
1990 and 2013.
They found the the number of
deaths linked to viral hepatitis
rose by more than 60% over two
decades - partly due to a growing
population.
Deaths from diseases such as TB
and malaria have dropped.
Dr Graham Cooke of Imperial
College London described the
n Some viral hepatitis infections can increase the chance of liver cancer.
findings as startling.
He said: “Although there are
effective treatments and vaccines
for viral hepatitis, there is very
little money invested in getting
these to patients - especially
compared to malaria, HIV/AIDS
and TB.
“We have tools at our disposal to
treat this disease - we have vaccines to treat hepatitis A and B and
we have new treatments for C.
“However the price of new medicines is beyond the reach of any
country - rich or poor.”
The study suggests the problem
is biggest in East Asia.
But unlike many other diseases,
deaths from viral hepatitis were
higher in high and middle income
countries than in lower income
nations.
The WHO hepatitis strategy,
which was put forward in May
2016, includes targets to reduce new
cases of hepatitis B and C by 30%
by 2020, alongside a 10% reduction
in mortality.
The WHO says countries and
organisations will need to expand
vaccination programmes, focus on
preventing mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B and increase
access to treatment for hepatitis B
and C, to help ensure these targets
are met.
C M Y K
editorial
Decade of development
Since 1993
ED I T OR I A L
Can line ministries coordinate with each other to harness 10,000 MW in the next 10 years?
A social scourge
Nepal must make a collective pledge and a
concerted effort to eradicate child marriage
I
n a function held in Kathmandu on Monday, Care
Nepal, a humanitarian organisation, launched a
research report entitled ‘The Cultural Context of
Child Marriage in Nepal and Bangladesh: Findings
from CARE’s Tipping Point Project, Community
Participatory Analysis’. During the event, a minister
urged various stakeholders to support the country’s
agenda of eliminating child marriage by 2030.
Although early marriage has an adverse impact on
both sexes, it affects girls disproportionately. Girls who
marry early are more likely to quit school, undergo
unplanned pregnancies and suffer from reproductive
health problems. Those who bear children when they
are themselves children are deprived of a healthy childhood. As a result, their physical, psychological and
social development is stunted.
Girls who are victims of child marriage are more
likely to come from poorer backgrounds. And early
marriage makes them more likely to be denied educational and vocational opportunities. As such, it is harder for them to escape the poverty trap. This entrenches
the gendered nature of poverty.
Care’s report mentions that worldwide around 15
million girls below 18 are married with little or no say
in the matter. In Nepal, 41 percent of women aged 20 to
24 were married before they became 18, and 29 percent
of girls aged 15 to 19 were married, although the legal
age of marriage is 20. The report states that child marriage is most common in the Tarai and mid- and
far-western regions, where there is little awareness
about the legal age of marriage and where the practice
of child marriage is generally accepted as part of social
norms and values. Further, child marriage is more
prevalent among socially marginalised groups, for
whom it is relatively harder to discontinue the practice.
Among the various perceived benefits of child marriage is lower financial burden; in certain groups, the
amount of dowry increases with a girl’s age.
Nepal has recently drafted a national strategy to
counter child marriage, whose six key components are
empowering girls (including economic empowerment);
providing quality education; engaging men and boys;
mobilising families and communities; providing and
strengthening services; and implementing laws and
policies.
While these are all worthwhile goals, they are unlikely to reduce the number of child marriages significantly without effective and sustained implementation. A
multi-pronged approach is required to make a dent in
the problem. Implementing the law is no doubt necessary, but so is tackling deeper problems like poverty,
lack of educational opportunities, and age-old prejudices against women.
In recent years, Nepal has made considerable progress in improving the situation of girls. Those who
come from urban areas, particularly from well-off families, are virtually on a par with their male counterparts. For them, having to marry early is an unimaginable prospect. Sadly, it is not so for many of their rural
counterparts, who continue to be victims of child marriage. The nation must make a collective pledge and a
concerted effort to eradicate this social evil.
SAROJ DHAKAL
E
arlier this year in February, Nepal’s
Ministry of Energy moved forward with
an action plan on National Energy Crisis
Prevention and Electricity Development
Decade, 2016 (NECPEDD 2016). This
92-step strategy passed by the Cabinet
provides comprehensive steps to increase
our electricity production to 10,000MW in
the next decade. This document could be
vital for the much awaited and needed
reform in the energy market of Nepal to take
the country into an era of prosperity and
low carbon development. Likewise, the
Energy Development Council (EDC), the
umbrella association for Nepal’s energy sector, in partnership with a company from
Shanghai, Neo Ventures, provided a new
platform at the ‘Nepal Power Investment
Summit 2016’ conducted from May 31 to
June 3 in Kathmandu to spark a boom in the
energy market.
Positive signs
The NECPEDD is envisioned to replace the
Electricity Act, 1992 and the bill relating to
National Electricity Regulatory Commission
by more progressive acts. This will not only
simplify the process of obtaining planning
permits for electricity generation and clearing obstructions during the construction of
power plants, but will also provide financial
incentives to boost the confidence of investors and project developers. The plan has
provisions for VAT refund and income tax
exemption. There are policies in the pipeline to channel more investment from local
banking and financing institutions into
power projects.
This action plan comes at a time when
Nepal and India have already inked the historic Power Trade Agreement (PTA), allowing exchange of electricity and opening up
new vistas of cooperation in the hydropower
sector. During the visit of Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi to Nepal in August
2014, the two sides had agreed to sign an
agreement allowing the exchange of electricity generated from hydel projects in
Nepal. Meanwhile, during the recent visit
of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to China,
the two countries agreed to establish a
Dialogue Mechanism on Energy Cooperation
to facilitate long-term planning and cooperation in the energy sector, including trans-border power grids, hydro power and solar
power, among others.
These are good signs for the energy mar-
ket in the country. But now the Nepal government needs to pursue an active diplomacy and make investments in feasibility studies to determine the country’s capacity to
produce energy if it is to position Nepal as
the gateway of electricity trade between
India and China in the long run.
The loopholes
If the NECPEDD 2016 is to be successful, it
will require coordination among Ministry of
Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs,
Ministry of Energy—within which coordination among Department of Electricity
Development, Water and Energy Commission
and Nepal Electricity Authority is key—
Investment Board of Nepal, Ministry of
Land Reform and Management, Ministry of
Home Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Nepal
Rastra
Bank,
National
Planning
Commission, Ministry of Forest and Soil
Conservation and Ministry of Population
and Environment. This is where the problem
lies.
Although Nepal is always ahead when it
comes to designing policies and inking international agreements, implementation has
largely been the problem. This is due to
unstable internal politics, and lack of
inter-ministerial coordination in coalition
governments and cooperation from a politicised bureaucracy. Thus, whether coordination can be achieved to harness 10,000 MW in
the next 10 years, which also requires an
estimated 20 billion dollars, is perhaps the
most important question for the Cabinet
which endorsed the NECPEDD 2016.
Shifting the burden
If the government seeks efficient coordination between the line ministries, the 99-point
action plan needs to highlight the role of the
private sector to support the plan’s implementation. Given that coordination between
ministries has always been poor in the country, a clearly defined role of the private sector to assist the government in achieving
inter-ministerial coordination could help
ensure smooth and efficient progress in
terms of achieving the goals outlined in the
NECPEDD 2016. Implementation would be
easier if the institutional knowledge of various ministries and bureaucracy of Nepal,
the main stakeholders of the NECPEDD
2016, could be utilised by engaging retired
government officials and politicians.
A well-designed lobbying mechanism
could provide the much needed push to move
the files within the relevant ministries.
Umbrella associations of the private sector
such as the Confederation of Industries of
Nepal [CNI], Federation of Nepali Chambers
of Commerce and Industries [FNCCI],
Independent Power Producers of Nepal
[IPPAN], Brokers Association of Nepal and
EDC need to cooperate to form a working
committee to work for the implementation
of the NECPEDD 2016.
With climate change as an emerging danger to humankind, there is a need for green
Nepali politics has left ideology behind creating space for the development agenda
Terror in the kingdom
Nepali Congress experimented with in the
1990s by striving for equitable economic
growth within a liberal political structure,
Naya Shakti appears to be more promising
than its peers in solving the country’s
pressing ills.
The Saudis must act now to reverse course
P
Green
forests
D
Dhakal is the CEO of 8848Inc
The post-ideology era
w orld v ie w
erhaps there could be no greater sign of the
dilemma confronting the Muslim world than
the terrorist attack on one of the holiest sanctuaries of Islam. The militants’ message was
clear as Saudi Arabia was rocked by three separate, but apparently coordinated, acts of terrorism on Monday, the most shocking being the
suicide blast outside the Prophet’s (PBUH)
mosque in Madina, in which four security personnel were killed. Earlier in the day, a suicide
bomber had struck outside the US consulate in
Jeddah. News reports suggest the suspect was a
Pakistani expatriate.
The three bombings show that the militants
can strike with relative ease across the kingdom. No claims have been made, but the militant Islamic State group is suspected of involvement. Of course, there is a precedent for such
violence in Saudi Arabia’s recent history: in
1979, hundreds of Salafi militants occupied the
Masjid al-Haram in Makkah.
Monday’s terrorist attacks point to a significant militancy problem in Saudi Arabia. The
kingdom had battled a violent Al Qaeda insurgency over a decade ago. Whether it is IS today
or Al Qaeda 12 years ago, or the grand mosque
assailants even before that, the fact is that militant movements find willing recruits from within Saudi society. This is, of course, because for
decades, the House of Saud has looked the other
way as hard-line clerics have preached a narrow
sectarian and confrontational ideology. For
example, clerics in the kingdom have urged
young Saudis to go abroad—to Syria, to Iraq—to
fight other people’s wars, while the state has
allegedly backed militant fighters battling
Damascus. Now these radical elements are turning their guns on internal targets.
Pakistan knows the folly of turning a blind
eye to radicalism. The Saudis must act now to
reverse course, or else considering the deep
roots of puritanical elements within the kingdom, more chaos may well be in the pipeline.
and sustainable development in Nepal. It is
imperative for us to harness the immense
water, wind, solar, biogas and bio-fuel potential of this country. Thus, another option the
government bodies should consider to execute the NECPEDD 2016 smoothly is authorise the beginning of a ‘Green Stock
Exchange’ regulated by Securities Board of
Nepal. Renewable energy companies, which
would be interested to list themselves on the
basis of free floating share, could join the
stock exchange. Other energy intensive companies featuring core industrial sector of
Nepal, which shift to clean energy or compensate for their emission, could be listed as
well. The framework for energy projects and
index can be designed as per the status of
the project so that financing is possible at
any point during the project. The stock
exchange would facilitate small and large
investments, stocks packaging, risk analysis, currency hedging, financial product
sales and if possible trade of financial products within international markets, while
providing an easy exit strategy for the investors. Such market mechanisms to address
climate change could draw in huge financial
support from other countries. The NECPEDD
2016 should be aimed to create a vibrant
green market within Nepal by utilising the
financial ingenuity of market-makers and
opening connectivity of the Nepali financial
market with international markets.
ATUL K THAKUR
@atul_mdb
I
deology is now a weaker force in Nepali
politics, and this makes the splinters of
the original Maoist party better guarded
to cope with existential crises. Noticeably,
the temptation to reinvent themselves is
high among the erstwhile obstinate comrades who were earlier involved in waging
insurgency and killing thousands of people.
However, alienation from the core group is
not hindering the old ranks from pursuing
divisive and contradictory programmes.
Very recently, a radical left-wing faction led
by old Maoist Netra Bikram Chand reverted
to the basic and mindlessly factored in
destroying base stations of Ncell mobile
phone service. It came as a refusal to
acknowledge any mistakes in the old
Maoist ideology and strategy and a relentless commitment to continue the armed
struggle.
Survival game
In contrast, there is the other example of
one of the leading Maoist leaders Baburam
Bhattarai trying to engage in a rare kind of
experiment. The foundation of his new
party Naya Shakti marks his departure
from the official Maoist line where mainstreaming is still taboo. Bhattarai should be
called a visionary who saw the imminent
decline of the core Maoists in Nepal following their disastrous show in the wake of the
earthquake and the constitutional crisis.
For now, Bhattarai’s new political outfit
finds a workable virtue in departing from
the power-grabbing exercises of the
Kathmandu elite who do not refrain from
DIWAKAR SAPKOTA
egrading forests in the Tarai,
increased demand for forest products
and inappropriate management practices characterise the present situation in the forestry sector. Scientific forest management (SFM) is a framework
that can lead to sustainable forest management. Community forests in Nepal
are proclaimed to be more conservation
oriented and lack tree management.
There is poor management of the 4Ds,
namely decaying, diseased, deformed
and dying trees and proper harvesting at
the appropriate rotation age. The 4Ds
crossing ideological barriers and maintain
a single plan to run the government in the
strangest way.
Ideology holds secondary importance for
Prachanda in his quest to avoid prosecution
for past actions. He has found his rescue
route by supporting the strong political oligarchy of Kathmandu. The surprising rise
of KP Oli and his survival instinct did not
mature without the support of lapsed
leaderships of the Nepali Congress, Maoists
and his own party. The trend is very clear
and one can read it on the wall: Nepal’s
political elite are indulging in a survival
game rather living up to the spirit of electoral politics.
A good candidate
In late September 2015, when the country
was on the verge of alienating half its population over controversial provisions in the
new constitution, Bhattarai visited
Janakpur but without getting a rousing welcome. Instead he met people’s ire as he was
among those behind the discriminatory
constitution, and his late opposition to it
and hollow trees have minimum albedo
values causing more carbon negative
impacts.
Managing forests scientifically not
only helps to balance demand for forest
products and earn benefits for the country in the short term, but also ensures
their healthy preservation for the future.
It’s only propaganda that SFM is about
felling green trees. It also incorporates
conservation practices (like retaining
protection forests where steep slopes
occur, maintaining green belts along
roads, protecting the existing forest biodiversity, ensuring soil quality management techniques and incorporating cli-
was seen as an existential ploy to secure
new political constituencies. Looking back,
Bhattarai’s brush with power merits to be
remembered for some mature deeds. He certainly was a popular leader who tried to
bring welcome changes. He proved a better
prime minister than Prachanda, however,
he could not stop the misuse of power. He
missed the pulse of expectations and weakened his prominence.
Bhattarai’s new political wing is interested in advertising its programmes through
the mass and other commercial media
which is seriously different from the communist way of popularising their messages
or propaganda. This distraction doesn’t
help Bhattarai’s renewed attempt to drastically change Nepal’s political culture where
ideally creativity should not be given priority. If Naya Shakti is giving far too many
reasons to Bhattarai to leave the original
impulses that initially drove the Maoist
party, he should show a certain degree of
political maturity by sticking to the developmental agenda. Even though this is not
going to be much different from what the
mate change adaptation and resilience
technique) and sustainable management
and use of forest resources. SFM provides comparative advantages in price
and production which is abundant and
continuous since it follows the principle
of sustainable and
progressive management. It is projected
that about 60-90 million cubic feet of forests can be produced
yearly through proper management in
the Tarai and mid-hills. This will create
full-time green jobs for around 1.2 to 1.5
million people. Nepal’s requirement
amounts to 40 million cubic feet and the
rest can be exported. The advantage of
this management practice over the previous one is that each tree is marked
with a GPS coordinate so that any illicit
cutting can be easily checked.
Kailali, Kapilvastu, Nawalparasi,
Rupandehi
and
Morang districts have
been practicing SFM
extensively. Many districts in the hilly, Inner Tarai and Tarai
regions are practicing SFM as a pilot
programme. Due to limited government
support and high costs of preparations,
many community forests are being
merged. But topographical difficulties
postplatform
Development discourse
Bhattarai is someone capable of understanding the structural weaknesses of
Nepal where industrialisation was never
given its due which alarmingly affected its
interest. If it’s called a client nation, it
should not infuriate home-grown policymakers who have forced the economy into
that vicious trajectory. Course correction is
the need of the hour, and if a political party
aims to take up the mantle and support it
with deeds, it deserves a chance. Poverty,
hunger, inequality, unemployment, migration, exploitation and poor HDIs, these are
are the challenges before anyone who
thinks well for Nepal. Bhattarai should
come to terms with them. Stepping into the
ethnicity cobweb or forging an unholy nexus
with political opportunists in the hills or the
Tarai will not provide the requisite mileage
to make him a tall leader once again.
As Nepali politics is making headway in
the post-ideology era, developmental discourses have to surface more frequently in
political circles. Political overplay is a
detested thing, and it should worry all political players who have been messing up the
country beyond imagination. Kathmandu
needs to offer much more to the whole country as the masses don’t live in a fool’s paradise. The new political culture can solve the
manmade crisis, and of course, the alienation of Madhesis. Baburam Bhattarai has
an opportunity here, and he has sensed it in
time. He should show the large-heartedness
of a great leader before scoring further
with the precious tag of greatness.
Thakur is a New Delhi-based
journalist and writer
in some mid-hill regions and dispersed
forests make this difficult.
The government has also urged
expanding the existing SFM programme
to 11 districts for the fiscal year 2016-17
while the rest of the districts are at the
final stages of being confirmed. Working
on the existing challenges like proper
wildfire control methods, discouraging
open grazing, controlling trespassing on
forest lands, implementing pest management techniques and ensuring effective
accountability of income, sufficient government support and effective policies
will help to make forests one of the
greatest economic resources of Nepal.
C M Y K
07 thekathmandu post
op-ed
Horror in Dhaka
Let’s team up
Though de jure territorially separated, Nepal and Bangladesh
de facto are conjoined by virtue of common Himalayan rivers
MADHUKAR SJB RANA
W
hat do we mean by a strategic
partnership? It means a quest
for a sustained, long-term (10-15
years) goal-driven relationship
for mutual benefit that is multi-functional and multi-level
(involving states, civil societies and
private sectors). Obviously, no two
countries engage in a strategic partnership for its own sake. There must,
after all, be an alignment of national
interests. In the case of Bangladesh
and
Nepal
there
are
many.
First and foremost, both Nepal and
Bangladesh share a common fear perception from Indian asymmetry given
India’s territorial, economic and demographic size, as well as its military
might fortified by its democratic polity
and rapid strides in modernisation.
Both the countries also draw their heritage from a civilisational thread common to all the peoples of the Indian
subcontinent while finding themselves
enveloped in a crisis of cultural identities where, for both, strenuous efforts
have to be made to carve out their peculiar national niches as distinct from
Indian identity. Most Nepalis’ first
choice for higher education used to be
Kolkata during the British Raj, and
thus were intimate with the Bengali
language and literature.
Bangladesh and Nepal share the
same environment and watershed, and
so there is a commonality of interests
for preserving environmental, food,
water and energy security. Floods and
silting in Bangladesh can be prevented
with cooperative actions in reforestation and water storage in Nepal.
The presence of arsenic in tube wells
in the plains can be substituted,
through cooperation, by harnessing
sweet Himalayan waters for the common good. Bangladesh, being a coastal
state, can alleviate the geographic constraint of Nepal as a landlocked state
by providing access to the high seas
and thereby helping it enjoy its rights
to the resources of the ocean. Besides.
Bangladesh can also allow its territory
to be used for transit trade to overseas
countries.
Nations of hybrids
Being least developed countries, the
two nations share a common interest in
championing the cause of such countries at the United Nations and its specialised agencies, including the IMF,
World Bank and WTO. Both share common perspectives on the role of the UN
in providing collective security to
small states. Similarly, both the countries are heavily over populated and
both are deeply cognisant of the need
to have additional avenues for employment for their citizens in labour markets beyond their territories.
Moreover, both countries are conscious of the fact that scientific management of the Himalayan watershed
will lead to an ecologically friendly and
far more efficient division of labour in
the broad field of agriculture, forestry
and farming systems. There is a natural highland-lowland linkage that
deserves to be garnered through the
application of S&T and collaboration
in R&D for mutual benefit. Likewise,
both being heavily aid-dependent
states, they need to exchange experiences over the pursuance of similar
policies based on the Washington
Consensus for their contextual validity
and ownership besides cooperating to
promote the best development lessons
from each other.
Last, but not least, both countries
have huge minority populations, and
they need to learn how to govern with
full inclusion of all races, castes, tribes,
creeds, languages and religions while
maintaining the integrity of the nation
state. Both countries are conscious
of themselves as being nations of
hybrids with centuries-old reverence
for Mother Nature and all its glories
and wonders.
As early as 1977, I had advised the
then His Majesty’s Government about
the immense goodwill in Bangladesh
for Nepal amid the political, administrative and military leadership. I had
also stated in a report that there was a
tendency for Bangladeshis to overestimate the potential of Nepal while we
tended to underestimate Bangladesh’s
potential, which was not conducive to
the growth of mutually beneficial bilateralism. Correspondingly, there was an
overwhelming tendency to see each
other as competitors rather than complementary nations and give priority to
short-term over long-term interests.
India when Bangladesh was described
as a ‘basket case’ by no less a person
than Henry Kissinger, perhaps more
out of geo-political annoyance for its
initial closeness to India and the USSR.
But the description had a profound
negative impact on the world’s perception of Bangladesh. The other constraining factor was Nepal’s excessive
dependence on India in the 1960s and
1970s for trade, supplies of essential
goods and aid coupled with the fact
that India did not provide transit to
Bangladesh. Little did it dawn on us
then that though de jure territorially
separated, we are de facto territorially
conjoined by virtue of common
Himalayan rivers. Rivers inevitably
bind us together as one ‘territory’ with
a common interest for sustainable
development of each other as upper
and lower riparian states.
Not to be underestimated as a binding constraint against the growth of
bilateral economic cooperation is the
in-built vested interests that have been
institutionalised among transporters,
forwarders, clearing agents, wholesale
merchants and border customs officials engaged in transit trade through
India. To shift to another transit paradigm will undoubtedly destabilise their
illicit rental incomes. As the two countries are not contiguous neighbours, it
is often wondered whether the envisaged strategic partnership between
Nepal and Bangladesh will not be subject to developments in bilateral relations between India and Nepal on the
one hand and between India and
Bangladesh on the other. This is a legitimate concern for any relation, and all
the more reason why it needs to be
nurtured as a strategic partnership.
On the whole, for historical and geographical reasons, as well as from conventional short-term thinking on foreign policy, Bangladesh has appeared
on the Nepali political radar primarily
when bilateral friction arises with
India. A strategic partnership requires
that each country looks upon bilateral
relations based on its own merits and
not through third-country factors as
has been done in the past, or, indeed, by
placing excessive faith in regional
cooperation hoping that it will make up
for the loss from a bilateral strategic
partnership.
Third-country factor
In the 1970s, Bangladesh was going
through much political turmoil compared to the peace and tranquillity in
Nepal. Nepal was exporting food to
Rana is a former Finance
Minister
A terrorist attack on a
café has struck a blow
against Bangladesh’s
very idea of itself
Tahmima Anam
W
hen I was last in Dhaka, I used to
take my son out in the car every
afternoon. “Let’s go to Holey!” He
would cry out from the back seat.
The Holey Artisan Bakery, just
two years old, had become our firm
favorite. The cakes were delicious, and
it was the only place near home that
had an open lawn. We took his minisized soccer ball with us, staying until
dusk when the mosquitoes from the
nearby lake drove us inside.
When the bakery first opened, it was
just a counter with pastries and cakes.
My husband and I sometimes joked
we’d have to take out a mortgage to pay
for the croissants—they were expensive—but the sunshine, the field, and
the view of Gulshan Lake always lured
us back.
As Holey became a popular family
hangout, the owners built a pizza oven
in the front, hired someone to make
gelato and started serving tapas in the
evenings.
On Friday, it was perhaps the tapas,
or the pizza, or the open sky above the
lawn that drew the dinner crowd, a
mixture of Bangladeshis and foreigners. At about 8:45 in the evening, a
group of heavily-armed men stormed
and seized more than a score of diners
as hostages.
The police arrived quickly, but when
they attempted to enter the restaurant,
they were met with heavy gunfire and
grenades. Two officers were killed and
many others were injured.
Over the course of the night, as the
families of those inside held vigil on
the street outside the restaurant, occasional gunshots could be heard. The
militants singled out the foreigners for
execution.
After nearly 12 hours of standoff, as
dawn broke over the city, the army
special forces finally succeeded in
breaking the siege. Inside, they found
the bodies of 20 victims and rescued at
least 13 hostages. Among the dead,
according to the police, were nine
Italians, seven Japanese, an American,
an Indian and two Bangladeshis.
Reports are still emerging about
what exactly transpired. By some
accounts, the gunmen assured the
Bangladeshi hostages that they would
be spared. Hostages were told to recite
verses from the Quran in order to save
themselves. According to an Indian
newspaper, an Italian businessman
who had stepped into the garden to
make a phone call managed to hide in
bushes and then escape—not knowing
until later that his wife, trapped inside,
had been murdered.
Policemen outside the Dhaka’s central jail in Bangladesh on June 12. The
police arrested more than 11,000 people
last month, supposedly in a crackdown
on terrorism. Credit Associated Press
One victim’s story that stands out
because of his courage was that of
Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain, a 20-year-old
Bangladeshi who had gone out to dinner with two friends, Tarishi Jain and
Abinta Kabir. Mr. Hossain and
Ms. Kabir, an American citizen, were
both students at Emory University, in
Atlanta, on vacation; Ms. Jain,
who was from India, was studying
at Berkeley.
According to witnesses, when the
militants heard that Mr. Hossain was
Bangladeshi, they offered to release
him, but he refused to leave his
two friends behind. When the army
broke through the terrorists’ barricade, they found the bodies of all three,
with Mr. Hossain’s bearing marks of
an intense struggle.
On Saturday morning, after
the siege had ended and after many
frantic calls and text messages
exchanged with my family, we began to
take stock of the carnage that had
come to our capital. For those who lost
loved ones, the loss is unimaginable
and irreparable.
For the rest of us, the accounting
means adjusting to a new and broken
world. We know that our country and
our city will never be the same again.
We know that the assurances of the
authorities mean little. Given what
just happened, last month’s police
drive, which saw the arrests of more
than 11,000 people supposedly in a
crackdown on terrorism, merely
exposes the government’s impotence
in the face of these murderous militants. We may hope that the government will make peace with the opposition in order to tackle this darker
threat, but we fear that this outrage in
Dhaka will lead to more surveillance
and exacerbate authoritarianism.
Further reports suggest that the
assailants were not, as many expected
to hear, from disenfranchised backgrounds. They were privately educated
and from wealthy families —young
men who easily might have been
friends with some of the victims.
Where does that leave us, knowing that
these killers had every privilege in life
and yet chose the path of nihilism?
It leaves us with this conclusion: We
must accept that the story we have
long told ourselves about our country
may no longer be true. For months, I
and many of my fellow Bangladeshis
have wanted to believe that the targeted assassinations of writers, bloggers,
publishers, gay rights activists, Hindu
priests and foreign workers did
not mean that Bangladesh was necessarily on a road to destabilization by
violent extremists.
We felt sure that things must eventually go back to normal—normal being
a Muslim-majority country with a secular Constitution and a robust tradition of social justice, diversity and
pluralism. We did not believe
Bangladesh could become one of those
places where the wealthy barricade
themselves behind high gates and private security, where embassies issue
travel warnings and evacuate their
staff, and where—God forbid—
America sends its drones to target the
militants. Right now, all I care about is
my city, about the innocent people who
died in the café where my son learned
to play soccer, about the three kids
from my high school who met violent
deaths beside the lake that was an
oasis of calm in this bustling city.
Tomorrow, I may recover my sense
of those truths about my country that
I know to be fundamental. Today, I can
only mourn what we have lost.
—©2016 The new york times
Official resigns over ‘rape victim selfie’
A
Suniti Singh
n Indian official has resigned after
she and another women’s rights
advocate were pictured taking a
smiling selfie with a rape victim.
First emerging on the phone messaging service WhatsApp, the pictures
were taken when members of the
Rajasthan Commission for Women met
the victim at a police station on
Wednesday.
The woman had reported that she
had been raped by her husband and
two other relatives who also allegedly
tattooed profanities on her forehead
and hand for failing to produce a
dowry of Rs 51,000, about $755.
Somya Gurjar, who has since quit
her position with the National Council
For Women, was seen smiling as she
snapped the selfie.
In the images, Gurjar is seen hold-
Voice Of The People
guise for those who can afford to pay
for their urgent needs.
Manohar Shrestha, via email
Kantipur Publications Pvt. Ltd., Kantipur Complex, Subidhanagar P. B. No. 8559, Kathmandu; Nepal
Phone: 5135000, Fax: 977-1-5135057, e-mail: kpost@kmg.com.np
IS IT NECESSARY?
PLASTIC DRIVE
Proper regulations will help to continue the ban on the use of plastic bags
effectively in the Kathmandu Valley
(‘Govt to resume plastic ban drive’,
July 4, Page 2). Plastic bags certainly
cause havoc and imposing a ban is a
highly laudable act. But until and
unless the penalty on those who try to
break the law is not imposed strictly,
the ban will not have the desired
result. Plastic bags were quite convenient to carry groceries, fruits and
other items while walking home.
Since the ban, some stores have
stopped providing plastic bags at all
whereas some stores offer purchasable
bags for the customers, which are not
very attractive substitutes because
they are expensive. People have
already witnessed Kathmandu banning plastics and then withdrawing
ing a tablet, with commission chairperson Suman Sharma holding the
victim’s hand - as if trying to showcase
her tattooed arm in the picture.
Gurjar said the victim was “curious” about the camera and that the
selfie was an attempt to “relax and
normalize” her. “She said take my
photo also. I only took her photo to
put her at ease and because she asked
for it. I was trying to be humane
with her”.
But the images of the selfie taking
triggered a wave of
outrage
on social media, especially as it is illegal in India to publish information
that leads to the identification of
rape victims.
Official figures show the incidence
of sexual violence is increasing in
India, where the gang rape and murder
of a student in Delhi in 2012 led to protests and new anti-rape laws. The hash-
the ban due to pressure from plastic
manufacturing companies and the
failure of proper implementation and
monitoring by the government. Thus,
to successfully implement the law, the
government has to think of better
alternatives to plastic bags.
Neha Sharma, Kalanki
Procure or purchase
For those in urgent need it is certainly
a boon to have a passport in a day or
within two or three days for Rs15,000,
Rs12,000 or Rs10,000 respectively(‘DOP
launches single day PP’, July 4,
Page 2). Those who can wait for five
to 15 days can pocket their passports
for a paltry sum of Rs5,000. Unless one
is dying and has to leave the country
for urgent modern medical wonder
abroad or has to join a high-paying job
in a foreign country instantly or
attend an unscheduled meeting, it
does not make sense to pay five figures
for a passport especially when it can
be obtained within five to 15 days for
four figures. All we need to do is to
plan our outings properly and apply
for passports accordingly. It sounds
more like purchasing passports rather
than procuring them. That being said,
it is a certainly a blessing in green dis-
The necessity and formation of a consensus government may be the need
of the hour considering the implementation of the new constitution successfully (‘Maoist Centre not to rush
govt formation’, July 6, Page 3).
Senior leaders of the CPN (Maoist
Center) have been publicly talking
about this for some time although
their party is one of the major coalition partners in the Oli-led government. Is it necessary or even possible
for the big three to forge consensus on
this issue? If they agreed, it would be
the most desirable form of the government at this juncture when the implementation of the new constitution has
been a vital concern. It has definitely
been necessary for the government
and all the political parties to hold
three tiers of elections within the next
one and half years based on the provi-
tag #SelfieWithRapeSurvivor was used
by some to express the opinion that the
selfie was symptomatic of a wider
problem.
The incident was also used by supporters of Bollywood superstar
Salman Khan to criticise the National
Commission For Women (NCW) which
had previously summoned the actor to
a hearing on 8 July over a controversial rape remark he made last month.
Some
commentators
blamed
Narendra Modi, often dubbed India’s
first social media prime minister, for
promoting what they saw as an
unhealthy national obsession with
selfie taking.
As the backlash grew, Ms Gurjar
resigned from the NCW but continued
to defend her actions, saying: “”It was
just an attempt to make the victim feel
at ease”.
BBC Trending
sion made in the new constitution. Is
it possible to do so under the current
circumstances? Unless the Local Body
Restructuring Commission (LBRC)
submits its report by August, it does
not seem possible to hold the local
level election in December, considering 120 days time needed by the
Election Commission to do its job.
On the other hand, the big three
hurriedly promulgated the constitution without taking the Madhesi,
Janajati and disadvantaged groups
into confidence. As a result, they have
been staging protests for the last nine
months. It is not possible to sort this
out given the incumbent government’s
style. How can it be possible to hold
local polls without resolving these
issues? Was the government not aware
of it? If so, what was its intention
behind making public the new constitution’s implementation plan a few
days ago? Political and constitutional
problems will continue to dog the
nation if the government failed to
implement the new constitution within the next one and half years.
Biren Bangdel (Rai), Maharajgunj.
C M Y K
classroom
kathmandupost
the
PG 08 | FRIDAY,JULY8,2016
Cheesy facts
There is no exact information regarding the
origin of cheese, archaeological studies have
shown the origin of cheese dates as far back
as 6000 BC. There are more than 2000
varieties of cheese available worldwide,
mozzarella is the favorite around the
globe, and the most consumed.
S
Know Archie better
How long is a day on equator?
The Archie character was introduced in Pep
Comic #22, which was published in 1941. Archie is
loosely inspired by the life of Bob Montana, one of
the creators of the characters. Archie is based on
a 1938 movie named Love Finds Andy Hardy. From
1943 to 1953, Archie was on radio, on a show
called The Adventures of Archie Andrews.
The equator is equal distance from the North
Pole and the South Pole and is one of the
most notable lines of latitude….but still—
imaginary. And on the Equator, the duration of
daylight is not exactly 12 hours all the year
round, but rather exceeds 12 hours by about
seven minutes each day.
School: A second home indeed!
hreya, Suhishan, Brajesh and
Ekta—you guys are selected for
the handwriting competition,”
declared my ex-English teacher,
who is now the ECA in-charge.
We are the ninth graders. In grade
eight, we faced a lot of uneasiness
because of our English teacher’s
unprepared and mismanaged class.
Often, my friends used to poke fun of
her, as they believed she was just a
kurta shopkeeper recruited as a
teacher without any training. I was
notorious for pointing out her mistakes; for which I would get a scornful look. In fact, it was because of me
that she would have a hard time
teaching the ninth graders. So now it
looked like, she, exerting her power,
was venting ire at me. Might be a sort
of vengeance on her part. The irony
is: these friends of mine were her
dear students (because they used to
flatter her, let me tell you) and hence,
it was no wonder they were selected
for the competition apparently without any basis. Manika and I
exchanged looks, both enraged at the
preceding injustice and with a queasy sense of dissatisfaction at what
had just happened.
“Who was the fool who complained
to the school supervisor about my
mistake?” demanded our EPH teacher, who could hardly explain anything except for dictating in
the classroom. All of those
three teachers were
newly appointed to
teach in our class. We
were the most notorious of students who
knew almost everything
there was to know about
the subject matter
even before our teacher entered the
classroom; we cherished our notorious status.
However, our OPT teacher, who
was arguably the brightest,
inspired me and said, “Come
on, don’t give up, go ahead.
Also, our compulsory
maths and science
teachers
hardly
left
any
stone
unturned. They clarified and explained
everything to us.”
lll
“I will slap you,” yelled my computer teacher. Everyone was busy
giggling at her unclear explanation.
She had been sticking to the same old
page for a week. After a unanimous
decision, we went to the authority to
make a complaint against her. After
listening to us, the supervisor,
rather than solving our problems, delivered a long, lackluster speech which blamed us for
all her mistakes.
lll
“Naani ho! Can you suggest a solution to this problem?” the math teacher asked in a really soft and gentle
manner. I was awestruck for a
moment. I thought, “My goodness!
Why is this teacher speaking in such
a gentle voice? I feel like a crow in a
crowd of pigeons.”
“Everyone line up and go to the
science lab,” came an instruction
from my new principal. That day, I
saw a science lab for the first time; we
were told to open the new boxes as
well. To my utter surprise, all the
materials we unpacked were up to
date. Also, I did the experiments
myself. I even fitted microscopes and
telescopes. It was simply an amazing
experience. And the most incredible
thing was the way the teachers guided us—and the language they used.
My Nepali teacher, one of the most
inspiring of people, talked and
shared ideas with me. I used to wonder why on earth teachers are regarded as second parents and school as a
second home. Now I understand why.
Bibhuti Shah
Class 9
Shree Padma Kanya Vidhyashram
Higher Secondary School
lll
NOTICE
I was frustrated amid this conundrum. One day, I was hospitalised due
to anxiety and hyper-tension. The
doctor told me I suffered due to a
whole year of fighting for rights.
These terms turned out to be new for
my parents. Eventually, I begged my
parents switch school for me; they
agreed; and now here I am in the
Shree Padma Kanya Vidhyashram
Higher Secondary School, an oasis
for the neglected lot.
n
Art by Pranav Neupane, Class 3, Chanakya Higher Secondary School, Bhaktapur.
A boy and
his toy
The day is coming
When the skies are grey
When you have no one to miss
You will miss me
You will realise I was someone to you
I hope that day will come soon
He is a boy
And he plays with a toy
He has a dad
Who is very glad
One day you will not be
Fine without me
Though there will be a lot of faces
You will see
One day you might win the world
But not me
He has two ears
Which are very clear
It is very hot
He drinks water from a pot
That day you will find
I was the one
To hold your hand
And when you fell
I was the one to help you stand
Sujal Maharjan
Class 5
Prerana Secondary Vidya Ashram
That day, oh that day
One day will be the day
When you will hear me say
The words I have been saying for years
But that day
Instead of my tears
You will find your own tears
Send your poems, essays,
travelogues, memories,
articles and artworks along with
your photo to the following address.
All the students are requested to
add their class and school name.
Riddhi Gautam
Class 7
Pathshala Nepal Foundation
schoolpost@kmg.com.np
Happiness
n
Happiness is an asset,
That quells fear,
Washes away the tears,
And brings people near.
It can illuminate the dark,
Flourish smile,
Throws away sorrows,
And makes life full of glee.
Strengthens our bonds,
Spreads brotherhood in the world,
At times also brings tears,
But not fear.
Samikshya Rijal
Class 9
Trungram International
Academy
Art by Lasata Prajapati, Class 5, LRI School.
C M Y K
life&style
kathmandu post
the
PG 09 | Friday,July8,2016
Bose: Btown writing poor
BORN TODAY
Actor-director Rahul Bose, known to be part of
unconventional films, says Bollywood lacks
good writing. He said, “There are films where half
of it is written well and half of it is written terribly.
You’ve got to write well. Good writing is not
happening in Bollywood. The good ones are
happening based on books.”
American actor Jaden Smith is 18
about town
Panama Paper movie soon
Irish footballer Robbie Keane is 36
American actor Kevin Bacon is 58
Austrian chef Wolfgang Puck is 67
American musician Beck is 46
Filmmaker Steve Soderbergh is producing and
may direct an untitled movie about the Panama
Papers, the biggest leak of data in corporate and
government history. The project is based on the
upcoming book The Secrecy World, by Jake
Bernstein, a reporter on the team that broke
the Panama Papers story.
Iron Man now
15-year-old black girl
managing art
On Mic
Ai-La Lounge
Friday, July 8
On Mic: Artha
Time: 6:30 pm onwards
Location: Kumaripati
Contact: 01-5008681
BBC
Los Angeles, July 7
C
nn
Octave
Friday, July 8
On Mic: DJ Rabbit
Time: 8 pm onwards
Location: Durbar Marg
nn
25 Hours
Friday, July 8
On Mic: Bass Bombs
Time: 8 pm onwards
Location: Tangal
Contact: 01-4437486
nn
Wicked Spoon
Friday, July 8
On Mic: Majipa
Time: 7 pm onwards
Location: Jhamsikhel
Contact: 01-5522968
nn
Rato Mato Organics BBQ and Bistro
Friday, July 8
On Mic: Harmonix
Time: 7 pm onwards
Location: Lazimpat
Contact: 01-4428576
nn
Purple Haze Rock Bar
Saturday, July 9
On Mic: Brahmastra
Time: 1 pm onwards
Location: Thamel
Contact: 9803719781
n Attendees listen in to Philippe Van Cauteren, artistic director at Belguim-based SMAK Museum of Contemporary Art, at the workshop titled Masterclass from
Municipal Museum of Contemporaty Art. Organised by the Siddhartha Arts Foundation, the two-day workshop revolved around developing curatorial frameworks and
visions and managing production of art for large-scale events.
GoT’s season seven delayed
BBC
Los Angeles, June 7
I
t is the news which fans of Game of
Thrones will not want to hear.
Seasons of the show are normally
released on HBO in March or April.
But its creators have now
revealed fans will have to wait
longer until they can watch season
seven. They said the arrival of winter
in the show means they had to push
filming back so the weather would
reflect that. “Sunny weather doesn’t
really serve our purposes anymore,”
they explained.
At the end of series of six, the
Stark prophecy that “winter is coming” came true for the characters.
David Benioff and Dan Weiss
warned fans that this time around
there will be a delay. Benioff said:
“We don’t have an air date, but we are
starting a bit later because at the end
of this season winter is here.”
And the bad news for fans does not
end there.
Last week we told you it looked like
there would only be two more series
of Game of Thrones.
They will also not be as long as the
previous ones, which normally contain ten episodes.
Benioff said “We don’t have a definite episode count, but each season
will be a little bit shorter just because
each year it takes longer and longer
to shoot.”
omic book maker Marvel has
revealed a 15-year-old black girl
will be donning the famous
armour of Iron Man in an
upcoming episode of the series.
Civil War II sees Tony Stark
hang up his
boots to be
replaced
by
Riri Williams,
the company
said.
The character
is
a
Chicago-bor n
science genius
studying
at
MIT and made
her debut earlier this year.
news
The
has prompted a
huge reaction
online, with
many welcoming it as a step forward
for diversity.
Iron Man writer Brian Michael
Bendis told Time he came up with
Williams’ character after being
struck by the “chaos and violence” of
Chicago while working in the city.
The Iron Man character first
appeared in 1963. The series
focuses on billionaire weapons
inventor Tony Stark.
Tributes pour in for artist Puran Khadka
Post Report
Khadka’s last solo exhibition, The
Wholeness, at the Taragaon Museum
in Bouddha, last December, had been
celebrated for its virtuoso in the
abstract art form. The paintings
up on display at the exhibit had
explored the visible and the invisible
in the physical world.
Nepali art fraternity bereaved
Artists and art enthusiasts have
been left bereaved by the news of
Khadka’s demise.
“This is an irreparable loss to
Nepali art,” said artist Navendra
Limbu, who had collaborated with
Khadka for the past two decades. “He
was an indefatigable crusader for
Nepali art. Imbued with a feel of
spirituality, his artwork would
inspire the viewers to generate ideas
of their own.”
“He always encouraged us to get
into arts. He was also extremely wellversed in the new discourses in the
world of art,” said artist Ravindra
Shrestha.
Keshav Raj Khanal, the president
of Society of Fine Arts Journalists
Nepal (Sofaj), hailed Khadka as a
giant of the Nepali abstract art fraternity. “Throughout his life, he
inspired countless other artists. And
he will continue to live on as an inspiration to all of us,” he said.
Kathmandu, July 7
A
rt enthusiasts and well wishers
poured into the premises of
Nepal Academy of Fine Arts on
Thursday to pay their last
tribute to the veteran artist
Puran Khadka, who passed
away on Tuesday.
Khadka, who in his long-spanning
career of more than four decades
made a distinct name for himself in
the Nepali art firmament, breathed
his last at Medicare Hospital in the
Capital on Tuesday. Khadka
died from complications related to
pneumonia, reported a family source.
He was 60.
Born in 1956 in a rural village in
Achham district, Khadka graduated
from the Mumbai-based JJ School of
Arts in 1980. Since then, he had been
a prolific painter and put out eight
solo exhibitions, both in Nepal and
overseas. Khadka received numerous
awards for his artwork including the
Regional Talent Awards conferred
jointly by Ministry of Culture and
Nepal Academy of Fine Arts.
Known as a studious artist among
his circle, Khadka was celebrated in
the fraternity for his experimentation with new techniques in art.
Icelandic book trade gets a kick from Euro 2016
Iceland’s giant-killing football success in France has produced a surge of interest in the country’s literary output
the guardian
I
celand’s heroic performance in the
Euro 2016 football tournament has
had a surprising side-effect—a
boost for the tiny Nordic country’s
publishing industry.
The head of the country’s largest
publishing house, Forlagið, said
that, since the Iceland team stormed
through to the quarter finals of the
tournament, interest had soared,
both from readers interested in
Icelandic literature and foreign publishers wanting translation rights.
Egill Örn Jóhannsson told the
Guardian: “With the success and
attention Iceland got at the Euros we
have felt a significant increase in
interest in our authors and works,
which is very enjoyable.” The surge
in inquiries, he said, has extended
beyond Europe and the US to publishers in South Korea and Taiwan.
Adding that Forlagid sells a lot of
translation rights every year, he said:
“Of course publishers and readers
want to know more about the country
after the success of the football team,
and one of the best ways to get to
know a country and its people is
through its literature, so in a way this
is very understandable, as the football team and its supporters made
headlines in world news for a couple
of weeks.” Forlagid publishes 150 to
200 titles each year, in a wide range of
genres. The undoubted star of the
show for the company is crime writer
Arnaldur Indriðason, author of the
Detective Erlendur series.
Jóhannsson said: “There are also
dozens of other authors doing well,
locally and internationally, but
Arnaldur is the one that stands out.
He, I would say, is one of Scandinavia’s
best crime authors and has been a
huge hit … he has sold over 12m copies worldwide at this point. ”
Also of international interest,
Johannson said, is Andri Snær
Magnason: “He has been getting a lot
of interest, partly because he was
running for president of Iceland …
His book, The Story of The Blue
Planet, has been translated into 30
languages. Then I must mention Lilja
Sigurðardóttir. Her crime novel who
was a bestseller in Iceland last year is
getting a lot of attention from international publishers.”
Although Forlagið puts out a wide
range of books, it majors in fiction—
and that’s what the foreign publishers are looking for, said Jóhannsson.
“Especially titles that are very
‘Icelandic’, so the reader can in a way
feel how Iceland and Icelanders are.”
While BBC football presenter Gary
Lineker observed that there were
more volcanoes in Iceland than professional footballers, that’s not true
of would-be writers. The population,
of just under 330,000, is full of wannabe writers.
“There is a saying in Iceland that
every Icelander has either written a
book or wants to write a book,” said
Jóhannsson. “So yes, the literary
scene in Iceland is extremely lively.
We get a new Icelandic manuscript
on average every day, and that’s just
us—there are over 100 publishers
active in the Icelandic market every
year. “Our heritage mainly comes
from writing, in the Sagas, and we
have had a lot of quality writers over
the years, including one Nobel
prize-winner”. (Halldór Laxness won
the Nobel prize in literature in
1955 for a huge body of work
including novels, short stories, journalism and poetry).
The appetite for literature in the
country is huge, said Jóhannsson,
with a healthy homegrown writing
industry as well as translated fiction.
“The marketplace itself is of course
limited because of the size of the
population, but I would have to say
that every year the number and quality of titles being published is amazing. Many titles, I must say, are at a
par with what is best happening in
the world. We also do a lot of translated work, both in fiction and nonfiction from all over the world.”
But although sales—and interest
in Icelandic books—are increasing,
Jóhannsson said: “The industry is in
fact very small … I would think that
the yearly turnover in the book trade
is around £34m, so we are quite small
in terms of the economy.”
C M Y K
variety
thekathmandu post
10
TODAY’SHOROSCOPE
ARIES (March 21-April 19)
****
Feel like you want some time on your own? Well, that’s good,
because today is a wonderful day to take it. Do whatever it takes
to get some alone time, whether you want to take a vacation day,
work from home, or schedule yourself a getaway solo weekend.
u
d
TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
***
Are you spending too much energy on getting involved in the lives
of others? If so, you are depriving yourself of the attention that
you need to be happier and content. Going out with friends is
perfectly fine, but you should not be doing it every single night.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21)
***
If you are truly happy for a friend who has started a new
relationship, be sure to show it—they might be under the false
assumption that you are jealous or unhappy about the fact that
they’ll be spending less time with you in the future.
CANCER (June 22-July 22)
**
Today, use any downtime you might have to double check the
work that you’ve done so far. It’s not that you have been sloppy;
it’s just that your recent good news may be causing you to lose
your concentration.
LEO (July 23-August 22)
***
Getting clutter out of the way in your day-to-day life will help you
clear the clutter out of your brain too, so put some energy into
cleaning up around your house and getting things organised
today. It’s a task you can turn your mind off.
VIRGO (August 23-September 22)
*****
Don’t be surprised if you are asked to help out with planning a
big group event today. Your organisation skills are bigger and
brighter than ever, and people have been noticing. It’s in your best
interests to get involved in this event.
Yesterday’s Solution
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WORD GAME
GRAFFITI
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LIBRA (September 23-October 22)
**
From the quality of your cup of coffee, you already know you
shouldn’t expect a lot out of today. But don’t get upset if things
progress even less than you think they will. One day’s failure does
not mean that you will continue to under-perform.
SCORPIO (October 23-November 21)
**
Having a healthy ambition is fine, but just because you have a lot
of drive for success doesn’t mean that you know which direction
to go in. When an opportunity comes your way today, make sure
that you don’t just dive right in.
SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21)
*****
The more attention you pay to beauty today, the more you are
going to inspire yourself to come up with new ideas of solving old
problems. You will attract new people to your life. So go on, soak
in the scenery and try to find a beautiful spot to enjoy the sunset.
CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19)
**
If you want to make a change in your life right now, make it slowly.
Hurrying to meet a certain goal or rushing towards what you
think you want isn’t wise right now. You need to think things
through. Take time, when you reach a crossroads.
DILBERT
RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT
AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18)
***
Stop thinking so much about tomorrow and start living in the
moment today! There are a lot of amazing opportunities all
around you, but if you are too busy thinking all about what you
want to do next, you are going to completely miss out on them!
PISCES (February 19-March 20)
****
Just because you haven’t seen a friend for a long while does not
mean that you two have drifted away. They still care about you,
and they would love to hear from you. Today, call them up and ask
them for some advice on an issue you are struggling with.
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A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The driver says: “Ugh, that’s
the ugliest baby I’ve ever seen.” The woman walks to the rear of the
bus and sits down, fuming. She says to the man next to her: “The
driver just insulted me.” The man says: “You go up there and tell him
off. Go on, I’ll hold your monkey for you.”
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Q:How many Keynesian economists does it takes to change a light
bulb?
A:All. Because then you will generate employment, more consumption, shifting the aggregate demand to the right.
5:00 Bhaktisur/ AmritBani
6:00JeevanBigyan/
Jyotish Manthan
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Bhumika
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Malla
12:30
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Kilo Tango Mike
Headline News
Quiz Mania Season 4
Kantipur Samachar
Rise N Shine
Headline News
Sajha Sawal
Kantipur Samachar
New Entry
Headline News
Call Kantipur
Reloaded
Kantipur News
Score Board
Kantipur Samachar
Market Updates
Kantipur Samachar
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What is the definition of “accountant”? Someone who solves a problem you didn’t know you had in a way you don’t understand.
9:00 Samkon 2
10:00MNS
10:30 Kantipur News
11:30 Market Updates
12:00 Call Kantipur
Repeated
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Repeated
1:30MNS
Repeat 1
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3:30 Samkon 2
4:30MNS
P
S
GARFIELD
SULTAN
16:05 Cine Quiz
17:05 Fanatic Friday
18:00 Happy Life
18:55Khoj
19:00Playtronix
20:05 Wheel No Tension
21:30 Club Mix
23:00 Aaja Dheki Arko
Aaja Saamas
Savour the cardamom and saffron spice,
slow-cooked kebabs and kormas at Indian
restaurant serving Awadhi cuisine.
contact: 427399, at Soaltee Crowne Plaza
V
S PEARLS BEFORE SWINE
F
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QFX Civil Mall: 07:45/08:00/08:30/11:45/
12:00/14:00/15:30/18:30/19:15/20:15
QFX LABIM Mall: 08:00/08:30/09:00/11:45/
12:15/15:30/16:00/19:15/19:45
QFX Kumari: 08:15/08:45/12:30/14:30/16:15/20:00
QFX Jai Nepal: 07:30/11:15/15:00
THE LEGEND OF TARZAN 3D
M
QFX LABIM Mall: 12:45/18:00
QFX Civil Mall: 15:45/17:45
QFX Kumari: 12:00
S
INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE
3D
QFX Civil Mall: 11:15
FINDING DORY 3D
QFX LABIM Mall: 15:15
Dip yourself at probably the best pool in the
town at Park Village Resort. Rate: Rs. 1500
for adults & 1300 for children and includes
french fries, free Wi-Fi & 20% discount on
Food & Beverage. Contact: 9801033114
Weekends brunch @ Hyatt Regency—treat
yourself with a lavish buffet lunch, splash by
the swimming pool or laze around outdoor,
Jacuzzi, all for just Rs 2300 plus taxes per
person. Contact: 4491234
Sandwich and Crepes: Taste the sandwiches and crepes at The Lounge from 11 am to 6
pm everyday. For further details call Hyatt
Regency at 4491234.
Enjoy live DJ nights, on every Sunday chill out/
ambient, Wednesday tech/ funk house & Friday
psy/ proggy/ full on from 6:00 pm to 10 pm at
garden and 7:00 pm onwards at club at Funky
Buddha Resturant & Bar, contact: 4700091
Krishnarpan—a specialty Nepali Restaurant
at Dwarika’s, 6 courses to 22 courses Nepali
meal served. Opening Time: 6 pm-11 pm. Prior
reservations required, contact: 4479448
China Garden offers delectable dishes from
across Asia, including Japanese, Korean,
Vietnamese and Chinese. Timings: Lunch:
1230-1445 hrs, Dinner: 1900-2245 hrs,
contact: 427399 at Soaltee Crowne Plaza
Relax and Unwind this summer at
Waterfront Resort, Sedi Height, Pokhara @
Rs. 6000 Nett per night on Bed & Breakfast
basis. Contact: 9801133378 / 9849143552
We serve nothing but the finest Arabica
coffees at great value prices at Barista
Lavazza Coffee Restaurant, Lazimpat,
Contact: 4005123/4005124
Rosemary Kitchen and Coffee shop,
Thamel, opening hours: 7:00 am to 10:00
pm offers an International cuisine in reasonable prices. Contact 01-4267554
Enjoy snacks and drinks from 4:00 pm to
11:00 pm every day and nightly live music
from “The Corner Band” except Tuesday and
Saturday from 7 pm to 11:00 pm at Corner
Bar, Radisson Hotel. Contact: 4411818
Set within the historic Garden of Dreams, the
Kaiser Cafe Restaurant and Bar, Thamel, offers
a continental menu and serves as an atmospheric
venue for anything from a quiet coffee or intimate
meal. Contact: 442534
Jasmine Fitness Club and Spa, Fully
equipped gym and spa; Zumba, aerobics and
cardio classes; therapeutic massage; beauty
parlour and men’s salon. Tripureshwor;
Contact: 4117120
The Italian restaurant serves authentic
Italian cuisines in an elegant ambience for
both lunch and dinner. Timings: Lunch:
1230-1445 hrs, Dinner: 1900-2245 hrs,
Contact: 427399, at Soaltee Crowne Plaza
Garden Terrace offers an authentic world
cuisine, providing diners with the unique
experience of observing their selected dishes being prepared by chefs. Contact:
427399 at Soaltee Crowne Plaza
Mako’s offers traditional Japanese food
served. Don’t miss out on Mako’s special
Tempuras, and green tea ice cream, Time: 11:
30-14:30 & 19:00-22:00, contact: 4479448
Bourbon Room, Lal Durbar Marg is open for
lunch from 12 noon. Enjoy affordable and delicious meals starting from Rs 99! We are currently offering Indian & chinese combos along
with momos. Call: 4441703
Out-of-Africa Lunch amid rural splendor:
Sat & Sun from 1130 to 1630 hours at The
Watering Hole, Indrawati River Valley.
For prior reservation contact: indrawatiresort@gmail.com
Every Friday BBQ from 7:00 pm at Fusion
Bar & Pool side at Dwarika’s Hotel with live
band “Dinesh Rai and Sound of Mind”. Price Rs
1600/ includes BBQ dinner and a can of beer
or a soft drink. Contact: 4479448
Trisara offers food and drinks along
with good music and great times. Sunday- Live
Music by Barbeque Night, Monday, Wednesdayby Positive vibes, Tuesday, Saturday-By Jyovan
Bhuju, Friday-Live Music by Dexterous
Ayurveda Health Home has been providing
ayurvedic treatments/ massages,
sirodhara & counseling for stress, detox &
rehabilitation. Dhapasi, Kathmandu:
01-4358761, Lakeside Pokhara 061-463205
Every Friday evening enjoy Starry Night
BBQ from 7 pm onwards at Shambala
Garden Café at Hotel Shangri La with live
musical performance by Ciney Gurung.
Contact: 4412999
Kaiser Cafe Restaurant & Bar at The
Garden of Dreams, opening time: 9 am till 9
pm, offers an international cafe menu serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, specialty tea’s,
coffees and pastries, contact: 4425341
Manny’s Eatery and bar introduces a special lunch package that is affordable, tasty,
nutritious and quick enough to fit your lunch
break, Jawalakhel, Shaligram complex,
5536919
Enjoy a Barbecue Buffet at the Radisson
Hotel, wide selection of mixed fresh grills and
vegetables together with a choice of salads and
a delicious dessert buffet at a rate of Rs. 1,350
plus taxes per person. Contact: 4411818
Make your weekend more exciting with
family and friends with sumptuous Satey,
Dimsums, Mangolian Barbecue and Pasta at
The Cafe from 12:30 noon to 4:00 pm. Call:
Hyatt Regency, at 4491234
Hotel Narayani Complex, Pulchowk, Lalitpur
presents Shabnam & Cannabiz Band every
Wednesday and Rashmi & Kitcha Band every
Friday, 7:30 PM onwards @ Absolute bar P Ltd;
Contact: 5521408
Enjoy Bubbly Brunch every Saturday from 11
am to 3 pm at Shambala Gardena and Club
Sundhara. Contact: 4412999
Embers Bar, Pulchowk, in all its sophistication and glory is happy to announce
Happy Hours every 6-7pm. It will be
hosting a Barbeque night every Friday from
6:30-9:30pm
The Toran, an ideal location for all day lounging and informal dining offers multi-cuisines.
Contact: Dwarika’s Hotel, 4479488
Latin—Gypsy Jazz at The Corner Bar,
Radisson Hotel, Kathmandu with Hari
Maharjan feat Monsif Mzibiri, 7 pm onwards,
Wednesdays & Fridays. Contact: 4411818
The most delightfully awesome chicken
momos & yummy rich chocolate cake on this
part of the planet @ Just Baked Bakery &
Cafe, Battisputali, offering much more specialties at affordable price.
Starry Night BBQ—every Friday Evening from
7:00 pm at Shambala Garden Café, Hotel,
Shangri~La only @ Rs 1799 net per person
and live performance by Ciney Gurung.
Contact: 4412999
Revolution Cafe, AmritMarg, Thamel, away
from busy crowed street, offers great
music, fast wi-fi and wide menu with reasonable prices. Operation hours: 7 am to 10
pm, contact: 4433630
Learn cardio, gym, aerobics, zumba, spa,
boxing, kick-boxing, b-boying, bollywood
dance at Oyster Spa and Fitness Club,
Sinamangal. Time: Sunday to Friday from 5
am to 8 pm. Contact: 4110554
Experience The Last Resort, the perfect
place for family fun adventure and relaxation.
Special packages for residents. Contact:
4700525/ 4701247 or mail us at
info@thelastresort.com.np
Asia World Travel Pvt Ltd presents fascinating luxury escapades to amazing destinations:
Prague, Ladakh, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala
Lumpur, Mount Kailash and Panchpokhari in
North East Nepal. Contact: 6222604
Jungle Safari Lodge, Sauraha Chitwan
offers 2 Nights 3 Days package only for Rs
6500 per person. Suman 9851008399
Much needed getaway—1 night/2 day package
@ Hyatt Regency. Enjoy luxury stay of a five
star hotel for a couple with breakfast and
access to spa facilities for just Rs 9999 plus
taxes per person only. Contact: 4491234
Experience the Gyakok @ Shambala
Garden, Hotel Shangri~la only @ Nrs.1700
Nett per person and Nrs.3000 Nett for couple. For more details and reservation:
4412999
Enjoy Gourmet Saturday Brunch with
your family and friends at the Sunrise
Restaurant , Hotel Yak & Yeti from 12-7 pm
every Saturday. Contact: 4248999
Escape, relax and get in shape @ Hyatt
Regency. Embark on a personal well-being at
Club Oasis. Remember us for Tennis, sauna,
Jacuzzi, swimming, fitness centre and Beauty
Salon. Contact: 4491234
Yoga detox and Ayurveda treatments and
retreats every day at Himalayan Peace &
Wellness Centre, Park Village Hotel. Get 10%
discount on all Ayurvedic treatments.
Contact: 980106661
C M Y K
11 the kathmandu post
Portugal end Wales’ fairytale journey
Agence France-Presse
Lyon, July 7
Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after defeating Wales during their Euro 2016 semi-final at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais Stadium on Wednesday.
AFP/RSS
Cristiano Ronaldo became the
“Dragon-slayer”
as
his
record-equalling
ninth
European Championship goal
helped power Portugal past Real
Madrid teammate Gareth Bales’
Wales and into the Euro 2016
final.
Ronaldo brilliantly rose above
the Wales’ defence to score his
country’s first goal in the 2-0 win
in front of 50,000 fans in the
Stade de Lyon on Wednesday.
Nani deflected the Portugal
hero’s shot for the decisive second goal that saw their country into Sunday’s final.
Ronaldo and Bale had not
spoken in the tournament
before Wednesday’s match.
With
victory
sealed,
Ronaldo embraced his club
teammate at the end.
“The team did a marvellous job to reach the final. I
hope on Sunday you’ll see me
crying with joy,” said Ronaldo,
who as a 19-year-old wept on the
pitch after Portugal lost 1-0 to
Greece as hosts of the Euro 2004
final. Bale paid tribute to the
three-time world player of the
year with whom he has not
always had an easy relationship
in Madrid.
“He’s a natural goal-scorer
and he scored yet again,” said
Bale. “We’re obviously massively disappointed. We’ve got to be
proud of ourselves first and
foremost. We gave everything,
we have no regrets,” he added,
RICARDO QUARESMA
PEPE
With only one start in the first four
matches, Ricardo Quaresma has provided some much needed spark off
the bench. The forward went on
against Hungary and made an excellent cross for Ronaldo to score his
second goal and seal the draw in
match where Portugal needed a point.
Quaresma then had his moment to
shine when he scored the injury-time
goal to send Portugal past Croatia and
into the final eight.
Portugal doesn’t have the tightest of
defenses, but the player who most often
rescues his teammates at the last second is Pepe. The centerback is the heart
of Portugal’s defense and a steady hand
in comparison to Ricardo Carvalho,
who was dropped for the last match
against Croatia. Along with Ronaldo
and goalkeeper Rui Patricio, Pepe is the
only other Portugal player to have
played every minute of the competition
for coach Fernando Santos.
(Portugal)
predicting Wales would be a
force in qualifying for the 2018
World Cup in Russia.
“We’ve given everything, on
the pitch, off the pitch,” Bale
said of Wales stunning campaign in their first major tournament since 1958 when it took a
Pele goal to beat them in the
World Cup quarter final. British
media called the 31-year-old
Ronaldo the “Dragon-slayer” as
they recounted how the sharpshooter had stunned Welsh fans
brandishing flags and t-shirts
with the national red dragon
symbol.
Bale had the better of the first
half showing off his pace and
power to threaten the Portuguese
goal. But five minutes into the
second
period,
Raphael
Guerreiro curled a cross to the
back post and Ronaldo leapt
above James Chester to head
past Wales goalkeeper Wayne
Hennessey. Three minutes later,
Nani, who has just completed a
move from Turkey’s Fenerbahce
to Valencia in Spain, instinctively pushed out his leg to deflect a
Ronaldo shot past Hennessy.
Tens of thousands of fans celebrated in Lisbon’s Praca do
Comercio. Heads dropped in the
Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
Ronaldo said he had congratulated Bale on Wales’ “amazing
run”. “They were the revelation
team. I wished him good luck
and as for the rest (of the conversation) I’d rather not say.”
Ronaldo is desperate to win
on Sunday at the Stade de
France in what could be his
last big chance of winning
a Euro or world title.
Portugal did not win a
match in regulation 90 minutes before the semi-final.
“Maybe it didn’t start as we
wanted, but this is not a 100
metre dash, it is a marathon,”
said the captain.
Portugal coach Fernando
Santos, 61, said the final will be
the highlight of his long and
much-travelled career. Santos
said he would be closely analysing Thursday’s game between
France and Germany for potential weaknesses. “It is my country, my flag, my fatherland, so
from a personal point of view it
is very important for me. Two
very strong teams face off
tomorrow. I will watch the game
very attentively to analyse our
opponent.”
(Portugal)
Whole of Wales enjoyed Euro, says Bale
Lyon, July 7
Gareth Bale believes Wales
made a nation proud in their
unprecedented run to the
Euro 2016 semi-finals and
backed Chris Coleman’s men
to reach the World Cup in
Russia in two years’ time.
Bale’s Real Madrid teammate Cristiano Ronaldo ended
Welsh dreams of reaching
Sunday’s final as he powered
home the opener before teeing
up Nani for a quickfire second
as Portugal emerged 2-0 vic-
tors in Lyon. However, Bale
reflected upon an incredible
rise for Wales from 117 in
the world rankings less than
five years ago to their first
ever semi-final in a major
tournament. “It obviously
hurts now, because it’s fresh,
but we’ve been on an amazing
journey, which I think the
whole nation has enjoyed,”
said Bale.
“I hope they have enjoyed it
as much as us. We want to
thank them all for their support, it’s been incredible, our
fans and staff have all been
incredible.
These
are
moments none of us will ever
forget.” Coleman called on his
players to maintain the desire
that took them so far in
France for a World Cup quali-
fying group featuring Austria,
Serbia and the Republic of
Ireland which starts in
September.
“The hunger is there more
than ever,” insisted Bale.
“It obviously hurts to lose,
we have enjoyed the experience together, but there is a lot
more to come and a lot more to
improve on. Come the World
Cup qualifiers, which are not
too far away, we’ll be raring to
go. We wanted to test ourselves against the best countries in the world, we have
done ourselves and our country proud and we can hold our
heads high and give it a go
again,” he added.
One of Wales’ few regrets
was that they went down with-
out one of their star performers during the tournament as
Arsenal midfielder Aaron
Ramsey was missing through
suspension. And he called on
Coleman to stay on as boss to
build press on with the
momentum built up over the
past four years.
“It’s brilliant. You can see
the amount of fun we have on
the pitch, we enjoy playing
together. We’re working
hard for each other and
playing with freedom, so all
the players enjoy playing
under him.”
Portugal revel in
new epic with win
Lisbon, July 7
n Germany fans gather in Marseille prior to their Euro 2016 semi-final match against hosts France on Thursday.
REUTERS
Tens of thousands of fans
packed into one of Lisbon’s
main squares exploded with
joy as Cristiano Ronaldo’s
Portugal completed their
landmark win over Wales to
reach the Euro 2016 final.
Horns blared out and flags
were hurled in the air as the
final whistle ended the match
with a 2-0 win in which
Ronaldo scored the opening
goal. “We are in the final, we
are in the final,” became the
mass chant in the Praca do
Comercio, which was overlooked by a giant screen to
show the match. The wall of
noise soon spread into neighbouring streets as fans celebrated another step in their
campaign to get over the trauma of losing the Euro final on
home territory in 2004.
Portugal has not forgotten
images of a 19-year-old
Ronaldo in tears after the 1-0
defeat by Greece 12 years ago.
Huge cheers went up every
time Ronaldo appeared on the
giant screen.
Ronaldo hopes for tears of joy
Lyon, July 7
Portugal captain Cristiano
Ronaldo said he hoped he
would cry tears of joy at
Sunday’s Euro 2016 final after
his goal inspired his team to a
2-0 semi-final win over Wales.
The Real Madrid superstar
scored a brilliant 50th-minute
header in Lyon on Wednesday
and then teed Nani up for a
quick-fire second goal as
Portugal qualified for the
final against Germany or
France. “The team did a marvellous job to reach the final. I
hope on Sunday you’ll see me
crying with joy,” said Ronaldo,
who as a 19-year-old wept on
the pitch after Portugal lost
1-0 to Greece as hosts in the
final of Euro 2004.
“I always said I wanted to
win something with Portugal.
I’ve been at the highest level
for 13 years. The statistics
never lie.” Ronaldo’s goal, his
third at the tournament, saw
him tie France great Michel
Platini’s record of nine goals
at European Championship.
C M Y K
sports
kathmandu post
the
PG 12
sports digest
Dharma Shree
set for Sept 29
KATHMANDU: The highest
cash prize Dharma Shree
Bodybuilding
Championship is set to
be held here on
September 29 and 30. The
overall winner of the
tournament will grab a
cash purse of Rs 500,000,
informed organisers
Nepal Byayam Mandir
on Thursday. A total of
400 players are expected
to participate in the twoday event that has 55, 60,
65, 70, 75, 80 and above
80kg weight categories.
Two players from each
category will enter the
Finals. The second and
third place finishers will
receive Rs 200,000 and Rs
100,000 respectively. Cash
prizes are also set aside
for builders rounding up
inside the top seven. (PR)
Tamang makes it
to last 16
KATHMANDU: Nepal No 1
shuttler Ratnajit Tamang
entered the pre-quarterfinals of the Yonex US
Open Grand Prix
Badminton Championships on Wednesday.
Tamang defeated a player from Guatemala 18-21,
21-15, 21-8. The victory
earned Tamang a cash
purse of $750, informed
Nepal Badminton
Association Ramji
Bahadur Shrestha. In the
men’s doubles, Tamang
and Bikash Shrestha lost
to Canada. (PR)
Friday,July8,2016
(C.R.P.D.)—3/052/053
Uefa to decide on Sakho soon
ECB penalises Bopara, Best
Liverpool and France defender Mamadou Sakho goes
before a Uefa disciplinary panel and will learn his fate for
a doping infringement within a few days. Sakho tested
positive after a Europa League tie with Manchester
United in March 17 for taking a product to reduce
body fat. The 26-year-old is said not to have known
the composition of the weight-loss supplement.
Essex all-rounder and England international Ravi Bopara
and Hampshire bowler Tino Best were each slapped with
three penalty points for breaching the England and
Wales Cricket Board’s discipline code. Both players
were reported after incidents in June 24’s T20 Blast
match between their two teams, which Essex won by
five wickets.
Lampard on target as City march on
Frank Lampard scored the only goal as New York City
FC beat the New England Revolution 1-0 to record their
fourth consecutive victory and take a four-point lead
at the top of Major League Soccer’s Eastern
Conference on Wednesday. Lampard struck in the
58th minute, fortuitously diverting a firm cross
from Tommy McNamara into the net.
Serena storms into final Shrestha claims
npga tour championship
Germany’s Angelique Kerber denies an all-Williams summit clash defeating Venus 6-4, 6-4
London, July 7
Angelique Kerber booked a
Wimbledon final showdown with defending
champion Serena
Williams as the
German ended
Venus Williams’
bid for a fairytale
title with a 6-4,
6-4 victory on
Thursday.
Serena’s demolition of Elena Vesnina in
the day’s first semi-final had
set up the prospect of a first
all-Williams Wimbledon final
since 2009. But Kerber had no
intention of being a footnote
in Wimbledon history and she
saw off five-time champion
Venus in 71 minutes on Centre
Court to reach her first All
England Club title match.
“Venus won so many times
here and was playing really
well. That’s why I’m so happy
to reach my first Wimbledon
final,” Kerber said. “It’s a really good feeling. I’m really
enjoying my tennis life.”
Kerber stunned Serena to win
her maiden Grand Slam
crown in the Australian Open
final in January and the
28-year-old again stands in the
way of the world number
one’s bid to win a record-equalling 22nd major.
beaten
one
Having
Williams, the fourth seeded
Kerber can set her sights on
becoming the first player to
defeat both of the American
n Serena Williams of the US returns to Elena Vesnina of Russia during their Wimbledon semi-final match in
London on Thursday.
siblings in the same Grand
Slam since Kim Clijsters at
the 2009 US Open. “It’s a completely new tournament and
surface. I will just try to go out
with a lot of confidence and
play my best tennis,” Kerber
added.
If she can cause another
upset against six-time champion Serena, Kerber would
AP
become the first German
woman to win Wimbledon
since Steffi Graf in 1996.
Kerber couldn’t be in better
form heading into Saturday’s
final. She had raced through
her six matches at Wimbledon
without dropping a set, now
has WTA tour-best 34 match
wins in 2016 and is guaranteed
to rise to a career-high second
in the world rankings next
week.
Venus had become a sentimental favourite at the All
England Club over the last
fortnight as she returned to
the last four of a Grand Slam
for the first time in six years
after a long battle with
Sjogren’s syndrome, an illness
that causes fatigue and joint
pain. The 36-year-old had won
all eight of her previous
Wimbledon semi-finals dating
back 16 years to her maiden
appearance in the last four
when she defeated Serena.
But in her first All England
Club semi-final for seven
years, Venus—the oldest
woman to make the last four
since Martina Navratilova in
1994 — was unable to roll back
the years one more time.
Kerber landed the first blow
with a break in the opening
game, but Venus hit straight
back with a break of her own.
It was six games before Kerber
managed the first successful
service hold of the match.
That proved a crucial
moment as she pressed home
her advantage with a fourth
successive break. Venus finished the first set with more
aces and as many winners as
Kerber, yet an unusually high
total of 12 unforced errors had
proved decisive.
Kerber held a 3-2 edge in
her previous meetings with
Venus and the German was
well on course to maintain her
mastery of the seven-time
Grand Slam champion when
she broke in the first game of
the second set. Despite looking emotionally and physically drained by her longest run
at Wimbledon for seven years,
Venus didn’t throw in the
towel. But her dreams of a
first major title since 2008
were finally put to rest when
Kerber unleashed one last
crunching cross court winner.
title in playoff
POST REPORT
Kathmandu, July 7
Defending champion Shiva
Ram Shrestha defeated Rabi
Khadka in the first extra hole
of playoff to claim back-toback title of the Surya Nepal
NPGA Tour Championship at
the Gokarna Golf Club on
Thursday.
The final event of the Surya
Nepal Golf Tour 2015-16 season was pushed to playoff
after Shrestha and Khadka
were tied on two-under 286
after 72 holes. Both carded
two-under 70 on the final
round. Overnight leader
Bhuwan Nagarkoti finished
third after the home club pro
faltered to three-over 75.
In the playoff, both the players hit the green on the par-3
10th hole and Rabi was about
35 feet from the hole and
missed his birdie. Shrestha
made the birdie putt from 30
feet, he had forced playoff
carding a birdie on the 72nd
hole. Shrestha earned himself
a purse of Rs 100,000 and Rabi
got Rs 63,000. Nagarkoti got
Rs 45,000.
Shrestha and Khadka were
four-strokes behind overnight
leader Nagarkoti. However,
Khadka matched Nagarkoti
after the front nine as the former carded one-under 35,
while the overnight leader
shot one-over 37. Shrestha was
even-par 36, two-strokes
behind Khadka and Nagarkoti.
Playing in the forward group,
Khadka shot one-under 35 on
the back nine to wait on his
fate. As the last group
approached, Shrestha was one
and Bhuwan was two shot
behind with both sinking
birdies, thus making way for
the ultimate champion for a
playoff battle.
On regular play, Shrestha
made birdies on third, eighth,
12th and 18th holes and made
bogeys on first and fourth
holes. Khadka carded birdies
on second, seventh, 11th and
15th holes and suffered bogeys
on eighth and 14th holes.
Nagarkoti made bogeys on
fifth, 11th, 13th and 14th holes
before making lone birdie of
the round at the last hole.
Sanjay Lama finished
fourth at two-over 290, while
Ramesh Adhikari (73) was
fifth at three-over 291.
Jayaram Shrestha (73) was
sixth at five-over 293. Deepak
Thapa Magar (71) was seventh
at eight-over 296, Rame Magar
(70) was eighth at 10-over 298.
In amateur section, Tanka
Bahadur Karki won the title
with the total score of threeover 291. He played three-under 69. Overnight leader Tashi
Tshiring played five-over 77
for a total of seven-over 295.
Sukra Bahadur Rai (75) was
distant third at 312. A total of
46 players including 15 amateurs took part in the event.
Published and Printed by Kantipur Publications Pvt. Ltd., Central Business Park, Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal, P. B. No. 8559, Phone: 5135000, Fax: 977-1-5135057, e-mail: kpost@kmg.com.np, Regd. No. 32/048/049, Chairman & Managing Director : Kailash Sirohiya, Director : Swastika Sirohiya, Editor-in-Chief : Akhilesh Upadhyay
news
1
Eid becomes an occasion
for interfaith exchanges
ANUP OJHA
KATHMANDU, JULY 7
Thousands of Nepali Muslims
were joined by people of different faiths to celebrate Eidal-Fitr at over 2,500 mosques
across the country on
Thursday.
Eid, one of the biggest festivals of the Muslim community, is observed to mark the end
of the holy month of Ramadan
during
which
Muslims
observe dawn-to-dusk fasting.
2
The
government
had
declared a public holiday on
Thursday on the occasion of
the festival.
Samim Ansari, adviser at
the Jame Masjid, the biggest
mosque in the country, said
over 10,000 Muslims offered
prayers at the Jame Masjid on
Thursday.
Gani Ansari, a journalist
with BBC Nepali Service, who
hails from Bisrampur of
Parsa district, says that over
90 percent of the Eid greetings
4
he received on Thursday
through social media and
phone were from his Hindu
friends.
“Although the Nepali society appears divided on ethnic
and regional lines, the cultural unity remains intact, and
we should not allow any politics in it,” said Ansari.
Avas Shakya, 29, from
Lalitpur,
who
follows
Buddhism, on Thursday visited Kashmiri Masjid in
Durbarmarg, and offered
prayers.
He says he is inspired by
the discipline and humanistic
approach taught by Quran.
Singer
Almoda
Rana
Upreti, released a cover version of Kun Faya Kun, a Hindi
song, to dedicate it to the people of the Muslim community
to mark Eid, on Youtube this
week. “We compose Dashain
and Tihar songs to celebrate
the festivals, why not celebrate Eid with Sufi music,”
says Rana.
3
5
6
8
7
n (1) Muslims offer prayers at a mosque in Nepalgunj (2) A man from Muslim community gets ‘surma’ (kajal) before prayers at the Kashmiri Masjid in Kathmandu (3) A man holds his child at a mosque (4) Muslim women offer prayers at Badki Masjid in Taulihawa of Kapilvastu (5) Muslims
and Buddhists exchange greetings in Besishahar of Lamjung (6) Two Muslim men hug each other as they exchange greetings at BP Chowk in Nepalgunj (7) Muslims wash themselves before offering prayers at a mosque in Kathmandu and (8) A Muslim youth reads prayers in Kathmandu,
as Muslims across the country observe Eid-al-Fitra on Thursday. post photos: Angad Dhakal/Sanjog Manandhar/MANOJ POUDEL, REUTERS
CIAA arrests
DAO official
KAKADBHITTA: A team from
the eastern region office of
the
Commission
for
Investigation of Abuse of
Authority
(CIAA)
on
Thursday arrested a Jhapa
District
Administration
Office official red-handed
while receiving Rs 100,000 as
bribe from a service seeker.
DSP Ramesh Basnet said
Nirmalraj Khanal, a section
officer at the DAO, had taken
the amount from the service
seeker promising to “complete his task”. DSP Basnet
said Khanal had reached
Damak to collect the bribe. (PR)
Nepalis in New Delhi falling prey to ‘digital crime’ On-the-run
poacher held
KAMAL DEV BHATTARAI
NEW DELHI, JULY 7
A few months ago, Rupa Bista
(name changed) approached
the Embassy of Nepal in New
Delhi seeking help. She told
the embassy officials that her
friend, who she identified as
Orenando
Banado
from
London, had sent her $15,000
and other valuable goods
which were confiscated by
Indian customs officials. She
told the embassy officials that
she wanted help to release the
confiscated items.
SSP Yadav Raj Khanal, a
police attaché at the embassy,
and other embassy officials
approached Delhi Police and
other concerned agencies “to
release the items”. Later, it
was found that no such items
had ever arrived. As a matter
of fact, she had been duped,
according officials.
It later turned out that
Rupa had already spent
around Rs 500,000 to get the
items, which never existed,
released. Police and embassy
officials said many Nepalis
were falling prey to such kind
of “digital crime”.
In Rupa’s case, the story
Embassy officials say they have received as many as four
complaints in the last six months in which people have
said they were duped into paying money
goes like this: Rupa meets
“the man from London”
through Facebook. They
become friends. Rupa finds
the man “loving and caring”.
One day he tells Rupa that he
has sent $15,000 and other
gifts. An elated Rupa waits for
the consignment to arrive. A
few days later, a person, identifying himself as an official
from the Delhi Customs
Office, calls Rupa and tells her
that the customs officials had
found cash in the package,
which is in violation of the
rules. He tells her that if she
does not deposit $1,000 in a
certain bank account, the
cash and valuables will be
confiscated for good. She
informs about this to her
friend in the UK, who insists
that she follow the “customs’
official’s” instructions. After
a few days, she is again asked
to deposit more money. Even
after spending $5,000, she fails
to receive the package. And
suddenly her “friend” disappears. A frantic Rupa rushes
to the embassy for help.
According to the embassy
officials, Rupa is not the only
victim
of
such
scam.
According to SSP Khanal, the
embassy has received as many
as four such complaints in the
last six months. Embassy officials are facing a hard time
convincing these victims not
to get trapped into such scams.
“Officials from the Crime
Branch Delhi have informed
us that such fake cases are
increasing in Delhi. They said
they have made a few arrests
as well,” said SSP Khanal.
According to him, such
fraudsters lure people into
depositing money in their
bank accounts in return of
huge amount of money and
other valuables. Once they
receive the money, they disappear and their bank accounts
are closed. Embassy officials
have urged all to be careful
while making friends through
social media.
post report
kathmandu, JULY 7
Lakshi Thapa, who was convicted of rhino poaching
years ago, has been arrested
from Kathmandu. Thapa, a
permanent
resident
of
Patabhar-8 in Bardiya district,
was found guilty of poaching
a rhino in Bardiya National
Park five years ago. He was
sentenced to six years in jail
and slapped with a fine of Rs
100,000. He was, however, on
the run. He has been sent to
Bardiya District Prison,
according to officials.
C M Y K
money
kathmandupost
the
INR67.367574.639 0.6682 87.403 68.9
GBP0.7708 0.854 0.0076
JPY100.93 111.83
EUR0.9024
USD
Ncell seeks additional
40.6Mhz bandwidth
Telecommunications service provider
Ncell has asked for an additional
40.6Mhz bandwidth of frequency in
four different bands from Nepal
Telecommunication Authority (NTA).
“The company has been demanding
additional bandwidth of frequency
under different bands of frequency
since 2010,” said an NTA official.
“Recently, we have got another letter
from them requesting us to award
additional bandwidth frequency it has
been asking for a long time.” It has
asked the authority for 1.6Mzh bandwidth under the most popular 900Mzh
band so that its bandwidth would be
equivalent to that of state-owned
Nepal Telecom (NT). Currently, Ncell
has 8Mhz bandwidth of frequency,
while NT has 9.6Mhz under the
900Mzh band. Pg: II
Bajaj V set to roll out on
Kathmandu roads
HH Bajaj, the authorised dealer for
Bajaj motorcycles in Nepal, is set to
launch the Bajaj V on Sunday in a bid
to consolidate its market share. The
bike is priced at IRs62,000 in New
Delhi, India. The company is yet to set
the market price for Nepal. “The Baja
V will help us to consolidate our market presence while creating a separate
new segment different from the
Pulsar and Discover bikes,” said
Punam Singh, marketing manager at
HH Bajaj. “It will be a city-centered
motorbike which will enhance the riding experience on urban streets.” The
150 cc Bajaj V is powered by a single-cylinder, 4-stroke, air-cooled DTS-I
engine. It can produce a maximum
torque of 13 nm at 5,500 rpm. The bike
features telescopic front suspension
and hydraulic rear suspension. It has
a disc brake on the front wheel
and a drum brake on the rear wheel.
Both tyres are tubeless. Pg: IV
52.1006 50.687
0.6244
0.7882 0.5951 0.5793 0.0114 0.0071
157.2500 103.27 78
75.8900 1.4966 0.0934
0.0080 1.2646 0.9227 0.6972 0.6785 75.61700.0083
1.1374 0.0091 1.4385 1.0234 0.7731
US Dollar
108.14
Euro119.84
0.7523 0.0134 0.0092
How to read the table
The chart shows the rates of nine world currencies. Move across the table to find rates of exchange between any two
currencies. One unit of the currency mentioned vertically is worth that amount in the currency mentioned horizontally.
FRIDAY,JULY 8, 2016 (24-03-2073) kathmandupost.ekantipur.com
Inside
USDEUR JPY GBP CHF CAD AUD INR NR
NR 108.1400119.8400 10.7100 140.3500 110.7100 83.5800 81.3400 1.6015
finance&economy
Oil prices rise on US stock draw
F ORE X
cross currency
Pound Sterling
140.35
Japanese Yen
10.71
Chinese Yuan
16.18
Qatari Riyal
29.70
Australian Dollar
81.34
Malaysian Ringit
26.87
Saudi Arab Riyal
28.82
Exchange rates fixed by Nepal Rastra Bank
Page II Oil prices rose for a second straight day on Thursday, drawing support from declines in US crude oil inventories and a weaker US dollar,
but a glut of refined products and economic growth concerns continued to loom over market.
Hopeful fuel importers Supply Dept
seals three
apply for permission drug outlets
POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, JULY 7
Fourteen private firms have
applied for permission to import
gasoline and cooking gas following
the
government’s
call
for
applications in a move aimed at
breaking the monopoly of stateowned Nepal Oil Corporation
(NOC) and expanding the public’s
buying choices.
The government has received 13
applications to import oil and three
applications to import liquefied
petroleum gas (LPG) from the prospective importers which include
controversial Birat Petroleum.
Gokul Prasad Dhital, director
general of the Department of
Supply Management, said they
were studying the documents submitted by the hopeful firms.
“If they fulfill the government’s
requirement, they will be granted
licences to import fuel,” said
Dhital, who is also the member-secretary of a committee formed
under the chairmanship of the secretary of the Supplies Ministry to
look after the issues of petroleum
importers and fix the price of fuel
imported by them.
Malika Petroleum, Petrolimex,
Birat Petroleum, Blue Lotus, One
Capital Holdings, Himalayan
Enterprises, National Petroleum,
Downtown Investment Company,
Aryan
Petroleum,
Karmam
Bhagyam
Company,
Otex
International, Trans Himalayan
Corporation and Sonapur Mineral
and Oil have applied for licenses to
import fuel.
Malika Petroleum’s application
has been approved and it is in the
process of fulfilling the necessary
requirements. Malika, Petrolimex
and Avinash Energy have applied
to import cooking gas.
In October 2015, amid a severe
fuel crisis triggered by India’s trade
embargo, the government had temporarily allowed 39 private companies to import and distribute petroleum products by enforcing the
Petroleum and Gas Transaction
(Regulatory) Orders 2013.
The government cancelled its
decision to allow private firms to
import oil last March following a
public outcry against overcharging
by Birat Petroleum.
As per the criteria set by the government, hopeful oil importers are
required to have a paid-up capital
of Rs250 million while LPG importers need to have a paid-up capital of
Rs200 million.
Oil importers have to raise their
capital to Rs5 billion within five
years of receiving a licence.
Likewise, LPG importers have to
jack up their capital to Rs3 billion.
In addition, importers are
required to build their own storage
plants and outlets within two years
after getting their import licences.
Companies failing to fulfill the
requirements will lose their permits, Dhital said.
UNSTABLE POLICY
In September 2012, the government
had decided to smash NOC’s fourdecade-old fuel import monopoly
by permitting Chandi Lumbini Gas
to procure LPG from Malaysian
petroleum giant Petronas. But the
firm failed to import any gas.
In March 2013, the government
published regulatory orders in the
Nepal Gazette opening the way for
the private sector to engage in oil
refining and trading.
But the regulatory orders, envisaged to open the petroleum business to private investment, were
criticised by gasoline dealers and
experts who said that they couldn’t
be effectively implemented in the
absence of relevant laws.
Experts have expressed doubts
that the regulatory orders will
attract private investment and
address potential risks. The orders
are too weak to govern the petroleum business which has a high
investment risk and is volatile in
nature, they said.
In 2009-10, the Commerce
Ministry had tabled a Petroleum
Act at Parliament, but it was sent
back. Experts questioned the provision of allowing private firms to
import fuel without the necessary
laws in place. “The government can
revoke a company’s licence at any
time if its performance is found to
be unsatisfactory,” said an expert.
A high-ranking NOC official said
that it was positive about inducting
private firms into the petroleum
business, but cautioned that permitting a large number of importers could invite problems too.
“There is a question of sustainability of such a large number
of fuel importers,” he said.
“The business requires a large
capital outlay.” Besides, private
firms may only want to distribute
fuel on which there is a high
profit margin, he said. “In such a
case, it could give rise to market
anomalies.”
POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, JULY 7
A number of outlets selling
drugs and healthcare-related
products in the Kathmandu
Valley have been found operating without licences.
These shops have been
found charging exorbitant
prices and selling contrabands to the people, said the
Department
of
Supply
Management, which carried
an inspection on Thursday.
The department has sealed
three
outlets—Balaju
Swasthya Clinic of Balaju,
Aradhana Healthcare Centre
of Dhapasi and Suvajit
Pharmacy of
GreenlineTokha road.
Balaju Swasthya Clinic was
found operating for the last
one decade without acquiring
a licence during the check.
“The clinic once received a
one-year temporary permit in
2006. Since then, it has been
running its business without
getting registered with the
Department of Health,” said
Shree Prasad Adhikari, a
monitoring officer at the
Department
of
Supply
Management.
The clinic also charged
high prices to its customers.
Adhikari said the clinic
charged Rs25 for a syringe,
against the maximum retail
price of Rs17.
These shops have been
found charging exorbitant
prices and selling
contrabands
Aradhana
Healthcare
Centre has not renewed its
operating licence for the last
three years, while Suvajit
Pharmacy has been issuing
“fake” bills. Adhikari said
Suvajit was found using
invoice of another firm
named Run Pharmacy.
He said Suvajit also did not
have a trained drugs seller. As
per the government rule,
drugs stores should sell
medicinal products under the
purview
of
proficient
drugs sellers. Suvajit was
also found selling narcotic
drugs to its customers
without prescription.
Adhikari said they would
write to the Department of
Health for necessary action
against the three outlets.
Madhav Prasad Timilsina,
president of Consumers’
Right Investigation Forum,
said poor government monitoring led to such anomalies
in the health sector.
“The government should
scrap licences of such outlets
that are cheating customers
and putting their health at a
risk,” he said.
Tourism board to promote
Nepal on CNN, BBC World
flying car
POST REPORT
n AeroMobil, a
flying car prototype, is pictured during a ceremony marking the taking over of the rotating presidency of the European
Council by Slovakia, in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday.
REUTERS
KATHMANDU, JULY 7
Special tour packages for Indian visitors
The Nepal Tourism Board
(NTB) has said it will be conducting consumer publicity
programmes through popular
global media outlets like CNN
International and BBC World
to attract a larger number of
tourists to Nepal.
The promos on BBC and
CNN television channels will
aim to lure sightseers to visit
Nepal during the autumn,
which is the peak tourist season in the country with stunningly clear scenery and
pleasant weather.
The tourism promotion
body said it had proposed allocating funding of around
Rs100 million to carry out a
publicity campaign through
these popular media outlets.
“We are currently in the process of negotiating a deal with
the television channels,” said
Deepak Raj Joshi, CEO of
NTB. Meanwhile, the NTB
said that its annual budget for
the next fiscal year would
amount to around Rs900 mil-
KATHMANDU: The Nepal
Tourism Board (NTB) is
planning to unveil special
travel packages targeting
Indian tourists. According
to the NTB, it will be joining hands with Nepal
Airlines to create tour packages
like
Pashupati
and
others
Darshan
designed specifically for
visitors from the southern
neighbour. India has traditionally been Nepal’s largest source market, however,
due to lack of promotional
activities, arrivals have
lion. “The budget is expected
to be finalized within threefour days.” The NTB had earmarked Rs840 million for this
fiscal year.
However, due to multiple
problems like the earthquakes
and Tarai protests plaguing
the country’s tourism industry, it has not been able to
spend all of the budget.
been on a declining trend
for the last few years. “We
have been inactive in promoting Nepal in such a key
market,” said Deepak Raj
Joshi, CEO of
NTB.
“However, we have planned
to promote Nepal in India
in an aggressive manner
from
now
onwards.”
Inbound from India dived
44.49 percent to a 13-year
low of 75,124 individuals in
2015. Despite the sharp fall,
India remains the largest
tourist sending country to
Nepal. (PR)
Tourist arrivals to Nepal
fell to a six-year low of 538,970
in 2015 as the April 25 earthquake
and
subsequent
anti-constitution agitation in
the Tarai kept visitors away.
Nepal received 251,148 less
tourists last year, representing a sharp drop of 31.78 percent compared to the 2014 figure. The impact of the killer
quake was bigger for Nepal’s
tourism industry with arrivals plunging 55.59 percent to
97,510 during the four-month
period (May-August) following the disaster.
Just as the tourism industry was picking itself up, it
received another knockout
blow from a fuel shortage
resulting from India’s trade
embargo against Nepal.
“The earthquakes have
been a big setback for the
industry. Hence, we have
planned to be more focused on
digital marketing and consumer publicity through
international mass media,”
said Joshi. “Investing in these
promotional campaigns is
aimed at recovering the country’s tourism by 2017 and preparing for the national Visit
Nepal Year campaign in 2018.”
The
government
has
announced plans to mark 2018
as Visit Nepal Year. The
publicity campaign next
fiscal year will be directed
at
new
markets
like
East Europe and Southeast
Asia, the board said.
M u s h r o o m i n g I n n o vat i o n c e n t r e s
China’s innovation economy a real estate bubble in disguise?
REUTERS
SHACHENG, JULY 7
The Chinese government’s call to
the nation to build an innovation-driven economy from the top
down has sparked a rush by local
governments to construct new
buildings in the name of supporting creativity.
Innovation centres have been
popping up around the country
and are set to more than double
to nearly 5,000 in the next five
years, according to internet
research firm iiMedia. The only
problem for local governments;
entrepreneurs are not moving in.
Many centres are in small
Chinese cities or towns, not ideal
locations for attracting startups.
There is no local market for their
product, no local ecosystem of
suppliers and fellow entrepre-
neurs and centres generally provide only basic amenities, such
as a desk and a telephone. They
lack the financial, technical or
marketing expertise that many
startups need. Most incubators
have occupancy rates of no more
than 40 percent, iiMedia says.
The result: Like steel mills,
theme parks and housing before
them, the country now faces a
glut of innovation centres as
another top-down policy backfires to leave white-elephant
projects and a further
buildup of debt.
“The risk of a bubble is
extremely large,” said Shi
Jiqiang, a partner at Leilai
Management, which runs day-today operations at a startup base
in the city of Tianjin, near
Beijing. “This is both a test for
government and for the manag-
Like steel mills, theme parks and housing, the country now faces
a glut of innovation centres as another top-down policy backfires
to leave white-elephant projects and a further buildup of debt
ers of startup spaces ... there
aren’t enough entrepreneurs.”
China’s Ministry of Industry
and IT declined to comment and
the state planning agency, the
National Development and
Reform Commission, did not
respond to a request for comment. Beijing argues its development model that worked so well
for infrastructure and real estate,
powering the country through
the global financial crisis,
can build successful,
high-tech startups.
With slogans such as “mass
entrepreneurship” and “internet
plus”, Beijing has called for inno-
vation centres to be built all over
the country, hoping to lay the
groundwork for the next Jack Ma
- who founded e-commerce giant
Alibaba - to emerge.
It has encouraged college students and even migrant workers
to try their hand at starting their
own businesses to transform
China into a high-tech economy
less reliant on basic manufacturing. Almost 80 percent of the capital for the innovation centres
springing up around the country
is coming from the government
or universities, which are statebacked in China, or a combination of sources, iiMedia said. “In
any sort of market, you want the
experts making the decisions, not
some technocrat or bureaucrat,”
said William Bao Bean, investment partner at venture capital
fund SOSV, which invests in
startups. “You don’t tend to see
too many successful companies
come out of a government-based
decision-making process.”
The small town of Shacheng in
Huailai county in northern Hebei
province answered Beijing’s call
for innovation by building two
25-storey adjoining towers - one
for office space and the other as
an innovation centre. However,
the innovation centre, offering
desks and a period of free rent
and utilities to potential startups,
is empty. The floors are littered
with rubbish and dust.
Like other towns in China’s
industrial heartland, Shacheng is
feeling the brunt of Beijing’s
push to reduce massive industrial
overcapacity. Glass and cement
factories, and coal mines and
steel mills have been shut down.
The town offers few signs of
the central government’s innovation campaign. Chinese characters hanging on a fence in
Shacheng’s economic zone spell
out “mass entrepreneurship” but
otherwise local people said they
had not seen any promotion of
the innovation centre and they
felt it was not targeted at them
anyhow.
Instead, they assumed it was
designed to attract students and
entrepreneurs from Beijing, some
four-hours away by train. “I
wouldn’t consider becoming an
entrepreneur. You need money to
do that. No, for someone like me,
I don’t really have many options,”
said Liu Haiyang, 30, who runs a
shop next to the innovation centre, selling bathroom fittings.
Shacheng’s local authority and
the county economic planner
declined to comment. Residents
said they hoped their economic
fortunes would improve when a
high-speed rail link with Beijing,
which will cut travel time to the
capital down to half an hour, is
completed in 2019. “The incubator is losing money,” said a businessman with strong ties to the
local government, who spoke on
condition of anonymity. “But
we’re playing the long game, hoping this push will create companies that pay taxes and add jobs
to the local economy.”
Elsewhere, some local
governments have rebranded
empty office space as innovation
centres.
C M Y K
money
economy
Friday, July 8, 2016 | thekathmandupost
II
Ncell seeks additional
40.6Mhz bandwidth
surging arrivals
BIBEK SUBEDI
KATHMANDU, JULY 7
Telecommunications service
provider Ncell has asked for
an additional 40.6Mhz bandwidth of frequency in four
different bands from Nepal
Telecommunication
Authority (NTA).
“The company has been
demanding additional bandwidth of frequency under different bands of frequency
since 2010,” said an NTA official. “Recently, we have got
another letter from them
requesting us to award additional bandwidth frequency it
has been asking for a long
time.”
It has asked the authority
for 1.6Mzh bandwidth under
the most popular 900Mzh band
so that its bandwidth would be
equivalent to that of state-
owned Nepal Telecom (NT).
Currently, Ncell has 8Mhz
bandwidth of frequency, while
NT has 9.6Mhz under the
900Mzh band.
Both the operators are
offering second generation
(2G) and global system for
mobile (GSM) service from
this band, which is considered
most valuable as its coverage
is very high. “In this band,
lower number of base transceiver stations (BTS) can give
higher coverage,” said senior
NTA engineer.
Ncell has also asked for
4Mzh bandwidth under the
1,800Mzh band. At present, it
has 11Mhz bandwidth under
the band, and if its demand is
fulfilled, it will have 15Mhz
bandwidth which is equivalent to that of what NT has.
Telecom operators are using
this band to provide third generation (3G) services.
Under the 2,100Mhz band,
Ncell has demanded 5Mhz
bandwidth. Both Ncell and NT
have 10Mhz bandwidth each
under this band and they are
offering 3G services from this
band.
Ncell has also asked the
authority to award 30Mhz
bandwidth under the 2,300Mhz
band. NT has 30Mhz bandwidth under this band of frequency which it uses to provide Wimax internet service.
NTA sources said they will
award the additional bandwidth of frequency to Ncell
only after the Radio Frequency
Policy is amended.
Currently, the draft of the
amended policy is at the
Ministry of Information and
Communication for review
and approval. “Once the policy is finalised, we will not take
much time in awarding the
additional bandwidth to
Ncell,” said the NTA source.
“We will award the additional
bandwidth according to the
policy.”
Himalaya to Oil prices rise on
operate daily US stock draw
flights to Doha
REUTERS
LONDON, JULY 7
POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, JULY 7
n A tourist
takes a photograph next to a statue of Buddha at the Viharamahadevi Park in Colombo on Thursday. The number of foreign
tourists visiting Sri Lanka has swelled since the island ended a 37-year separatist conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009. AFP/RSS
news digest
Germany raids
Ryanair offices
FRANKFURT: German
investigators have
searched Ryanair offices
at six airports across the
country, including Berlin
and Cologne, as part of
an investigation into possible tax evasion, prosecutors said on
Wednesday. State prosecutors and customs officials also searched several pilots’ homes as part
of the raids on Tuesday,
Hans Peter Gandner, senior prosecutor in the
state of Rhineland-Palatinate, said. The searches
were part of aprobe into
two British temp agencies that supply selfemployed pilots to Ryanair
and not directed against
the airline itself,
Gandner said. The agencies stand accu-sed of tax
evasion and withholding
salaries. (AFP)
Himalaya
Airlines
has
announced conducting daily
direct flights to Doha, Qatar,
starting from Monday, to cater
to the increasing demand of
passengers to the destination.
The airline will depart from
Kathmandu at 2300 hours
(local time), and land at 0130
hours (local time) in Doha.
Similarly, the return flight
will depart at 0230 hours from
Doha and land in Kathmandu
at 1015 hours the next day.
The airline’s new Airbus
320 has been flying to Doha
thrice a week—Tuesdays,
Thursdays, and Saturdays—
since May 31. The aircraft’s
passenger cabin is configured
with 150 economy and 8 business class seats.
Vijay Shrestha, vice president - administration of
Himalaya Airlines said:
“Offering a daily direct ser-
vice to Doha is an indication
that we would like to prioritise our service in this route.
The daily service will allow
Himalaya Airlines to offer its
services to a larger base of
our passengers’ society, mainly the Nepalis living and
working in Qatar.”
Himalaya
Airlines,
a
full-service premium carrier,
has planned services to more
destinations, including Delhi,
China, Colombo, Bangkok,
Hong Kong and Dammam in
the near future.
Over the coming five years,
the airline aims at acquiring
15 Airbus aircraft and will
operate from Kathmandu to
various cities in Asia and
beyond.
The company said it would
introduce long-haul wide body
aircraft of A330 family in due
course of time for the operation of direct flights to Japan,
Korea, Europe, Australia, and
America.
Oil prices rose for a second
straight day on Thursday,
drawing
support
from
declines in US crude oil inventories and a weaker US dollar,
but a glut of refined products
and economic growth concerns continued to loom over
market.
Brent crude oil futures
were trading at $49.30 per barrel at 1208 GMT on Thursday,
50 cents above their last settlement but lower than the day’s
high of $49.53. US West Texas
Intermediate (WTI) crude was
trading at $47.93 per barrel, up
50 cents from its last close but
down from $48.14 earlier in
the session.
Traders said that a reported
drop in US crude oil stockpiles was the main price driver, while a slight weakening in
the US dollar, which makes oil
more affordable for holders of
other currencies, also helped.
The American Petroleum
Institute (API) said its data
showed US crude stockpiles
fell by 6.7 million barrels last
Brent crude oil futures
were trading at $49.30
per barrel at 1208 GMT
on Thursday
week, declining for a seventh
week in a row. The data also
was bullish for oil products,
showing draws in both diesel
and gasoline. “Oil demand
growth remains robust,” UBS
said in a note, adding that “an
historically high level of
physical inventories ... is no
bar to a rising price if the
direction of travel in market
adjustment is supportive.”
However, traders warned
that an economic slowdown
and a glut in supplies of
refined products were weighing on oil markets. Asian
crude demand is slowing and
by some measures falling,
which market participants
said could be due to an economic slowdown and perhaps
even more permanent structural changes. “Growth is slipping again ... and things don’t
seem quite so rosy.”
Global stock Electricity-starved Gazans turn to sun
mkts rebound
GAZA CITY, July 7
LONDON, July 7
Signals from the Federal
Reserve that US rates will stay
on hold boosted stocks and
offered the British pound
some much-needed respite
Thursday following several
days of Brexit-related losses.
Fed policymakers were
split on interest rate policy at
their June meeting, minutes
released Wednesday, leading
analysts to conclude that no
rate hike is looming. This
caused the dollar to soften,
offering the British pound
some relief after the battering
it received following Britain’s
shock vote to leave the EU.
“Equity markets have been
given a reprieve from this
week’s selling this morning,
buoyed by the dovish nature
of last month’s Federal
Reserve meeting minutes,”
said Cantor Fitzgerald ana-
lysts in a note.
Fed members concluded “it
was prudent to wait to raise
interest rates”, they said.
Many analysts, still stunned
by the uncertainties created
by Brexit, believe that the
world economy needs easier,
not tighter, credit conditions
until the British referendum’s
implications are sorted out.
Minutes released Thursday
from the European Central
Bank’s monetary policy
meeting in early June
showed it was concerned
about the health of eurozone
banks
and
about
the
economic
fallout
from
Britain’s vote to quit the EU.
Data showing industrial
production in Germany contracted more than expected in
May, suggesting that growth
in Europe’s biggest economy
is slowing, provided more
ammunition for the ECB to
keep its stimulus taps open.
Nahed Abu Assi’s farm has
been bombed in each of the
three Gaza wars since 2008
and like in the rest of the
Palestinian
enclave,
he
receives only a paltry amount
of electricity each day.
With his chickens dying
and the cost of using generators high, Assi now hopes to
do as others have done in
Gaza—if he can find a loan to
pay for it: install solar panels.
“The electricity is cut
for hours every day,” the
balding 52-year-old said.
“You have to connect to
generators that cost a lot to
fuel and that need regular
repairs to keep the lamps and
the livestock fans running
around the clock.”
A growing number of
Gazans fed up with their
erratic electricity supply
are turning to solar power
in an area where the
sun shines for the vast majority of the year. Grey and black
n A file
photo shows panels at a solar plant in Gaza City. solar panels are increasingly
visible on rooftops.
Stores and adverts promoting such technology have also
expanded, and authorities in
the enclave running by the
Islamist movement Hamas are
also turning to solar power.
“Schools, hospitals and
public institutions have been
equipped with solar panels
and other projects have been
launched to at least try to partially resolve the electricity
AFP/RSS
crisis,” said Raid Abu al-Hajj,
head of the solar energy unit
in the strip’s energy authority.
Some 10,000 homes could
soon be equipped with photovoltaic panels. The option is
not cheap. Assi expects to fork
out between 4,500 and 5,400
euros ($5,000 to $6,000) for panels, but he says the investment
will pay off over time.
Gaza and its population of
1.9 million people has only
one electricity plant and it has
been damaged by wars with
Israel, the most devastating of
which was fought in the summer of 2014. It imports electricity from Israel and Egypt,
but those supplies are not
nearly enough. Electricity
demand is estimated at 450
megawatts, but only 250 are
available: 27 percent from
Israel, 22 percent provided by
Gaza’s own plant and six percent by Egypt.
Israel has maintained a
blockade on the Gaza Strip for
around a decade, saying its
aim is to keep out materials
that Hamas could use for military purposes. But Gazans—
half of whom live below the
poverty line—are now being
allowed to import solar panels
and prices have gradually
come down, Hajj said.
Those taking advantage
include Daoud Tarazi, who
decided to equip his home and
his petrol station with solar
panels. He said it was “no
longer possible to work with
18 hours of electricity cuts per
day” at his station, he said.
At home, where he receives
12 hours of electricity per day,
“food spoils in the refrigerator
and electronic equipment
always breaks down”. With
the panels, his bills have fallen since he no longer has to
operate generators.
Beyond that, solar power
does not pollute and he no
longer has to deal with days
without electricity. “There are
only five or six days per year
without sun in Gaza,” he said.
F rag i l e r ecov e ry
Fog of Brexit clouds outlook for central banks seeking clarity
REUTERS
WASHINGTON, JULY 7
For much of this year, the dollar,
oil prices, and economic conditions largely behaved as the US
Federal Reserve had expected,
allowing policymakers to plot further interest rate increases.
Not anymore. Since Britain’s
June 23 vote to leave the
European Union, every piece of
economic, such as Friday’s jobs
report, data comes with a question mark—how much does it
reflect domestic economic developments and how much the short
and long-term implications of an
economic reordering that may
take years to play out.
For Fed policymakers it means
balancing the mainly positive
flow of US indicators against the
risk that major trading partners
fall into recession, the dollar
surges again, or the terms of
Britain’s divorce stress the global
financial system.
With past overseas events of
similar importance, such as the
euro zone debt crisis, it has taken
the Fed months to get clarity.
Brexit may prove just as difficult
to decipher, already helping lift
the dollar and drive US Treasury
yields to historic lows—both
trends making it harder for the
Fed to move. “You don’t know
how long that is going to last and
indeed we don’t know the magnitude,” Federal Reserve Governor
Daniel Tarullo said on
Wednesday. “I doubt there will be
a moment where people say, okay,
Brexit is done.”
Britain’s decision comes at
time when the Fed has grown
more sensitive to international
events, postponing what seemed
to be imminent rate increases
twice since last summer because
of events far from US borders. In
minutes of the June meeting,
released on Wednesday, policymakers explicitly tied consideration of further rate increases to
“additional data on the consequences of the UK vote”.
No one expects the United
States to slip into a recession
because of Brexit. However,
recent research by the Fed, the
Bank for International
Settlements, the International
Monetary Fund and some private
economists has raised the possibility that the Fed may be fundamentally constrained by outside
events, like the UK vote, that have
made recovery slow and the Fed’s
inflation goal elusive.
The dollar appears to have
Britain’s decision comes
at time when the Fed has
grown more sensitive
to international events
become more sensitive to global
economic conditions, and its
rapid rise since 2014 has curbed
US exports and upended the Fed’s
inflation outlook. Long-term US
bond yields, which remained
near record lows on Wednesday,
have grown more sensitive to
global capital flows and less to
Fed policy. Even the Fed’s key
estimate of a neutral rate of
interest may be anchored by such
rates in Europe and other, slower-growing, developed economies.
If the past is any indication,
uncertainty surrounding Brexit
could fog the lens for months to
come. In mid-2011, when Italian
bond yields spiked amid renewed
concerns about the euro zone’s
future, the Fed added to its statement that “strains in global
financial markets” had created
“significant downside risks to the
economic outlook.”
The Fed kept the language for
16 months, until well after the
European Central Bank had
intervened with a forceful pledge
to keep the currency union
intact. “I would suspect they are
really struggling how to decipher
short versus long term, and also
what is happening in the US
domestic economy,” said Beth
Ann Bovino, chief US economist
for S&P Global Ratings. “I would
say the Fed’s crystal ball is very,
very cloudy.”
If the US economy keeps grow-
ing and creating jobs as expected,
the Fed’s job will become easier,
said San Francisco Fed senior
vice president Mary Daly. But
any misses will raise questions
whether the causes are domestic
or can be traced back to events
such as Brexit, and if so, whether
they will act as a temporary drag
or could mark a fundamental
shift in the global economy.
The IMF, which is expected to
cut its global growth forecast in a
mid-July update, is already factoring the Brexit vote into its
analysis. In a report on Germany
released this week, the IMF noted
that the strong trade and financial linkages between Europe’s
largest economy and the UK had
the potential to “derail the
growth momentum” in a country
whose success is central to lifting
eurozone growth, and, in turn,
helping the world economy grow
faster. The San Francisco Fed’s
Daly said any surprises would
prompt policymakers to go back
to the Fed’s models and search for
domestic or international causes.
“We are watching this carefully,”
Daly said in an interview. “If the
data don’t evolve as we think and
we don’t get consistent job
growth as we think, then of
course we would say, it looks like
another step down.”
Investors, who earlier this year
had taken the Fed’s cue that a
rate increase could come in June,
have now pushed expectations for
a policy move deep into next year.
Ken Matheny, senior economist
at Macroeconomic Advisers, said
he expected Brexit to nick US
growth, but that was all investors
and policymakers will be able to
say for a while.
C M Y K
III
money
news digest
world
the kathmandu post | Friday, July 8, 2016
tourism product
Canada’s trade
deficit steady
OTTAWA: Canada’s trade
deficit held steady in
May, despite an increase
in exports to the United
States, its largest trading
partner, official figures
showed on Wednesday.
The trade deficit was
Can$3.3 billion, virtually
unchanged from April,
government agency
Statistics Canada said.
Economists had anticipated a small decline.
Overall, exports from
Canada fell by one percent, to Can$41.1 billion.
Imports were down 0.9
percent to Can$44.4 billion. Exports to the
United States grew a
solid 3.6 percent to
Can$32.1 billion, while
US imports fell by 1.1
percent to Can$29.3 billion. Excluding the US,
Canada’s trade gap with
other countries widened
to a record Can$6.0 billion in May, from Can$4.6
billion in April. Canada,
the world’s fifth largest
producer of crude oil,
posted a 7.1 percent rise
in exports of energy
products to Can$5.3 billion in May. (AFP)
US services
sector heats up
WASHINGTON: The massive US services sector
picked up pace in June to
the strongest growth in
seven months, according
to a private monthly survey published
Wednesday. The Institute
for Supply Management
said its purchasing managers index for the
non-manufacturing sector rose to 56.5 in June
from the May reading of
52.9. A reading above 50
indicates growth.
“Respondents’ comments
are mostly positive about
business conditions and
the economy,” said
Anthony Nieves, chair of
the ISM survey committee for the sector.
“Overall, the report
reflects a strong rebound
from the ‘cooling-off ’ of
the previous month.”
The June PMI level was
the highest since
November 2015, and
slightly above the average for the past 12
months. (AFP)
US recalls
500,000
hoverboards
n Tourist
cable cars are seen on Tianzi Mountain surrounded by fogs in Wulingyuan scenic area, a Unesco world Heritage site in Zhangjiajie in central China’s Hunan province, on Thursday. Modi seeks to drum up
business in African tour
ILO: SE Asian
jobs may be lost
to automation
REUTERS
MAPUTO, July 7
WASHINGTON: The United
States announced
Wednesday the recall of
more than a half-million
hoverboards after scores
of incidents in which the
two-wheeled personal
transporters erupted in
flames. The Consumer
Product Safety
Commission said the
lithium-ion battery packs
in hoverboards, which
rocketed in popularity
last year, can overheat,
risking them catching
fire or even exploding.
The CPSC said there
have been at least 99 incidents of the problem,
with some involving
injuries and property
damage. “Consumers
should immediately stop
using these recalled
products and contact the
recalling company to
return their hoverboard
for a full refund, a free
repair or a free replacement depending on the
model,” the agency said
in a statement. The recall
covers hoverboards from
10 producers, importers
and retailers. (AFP)
Xinhua
Indian
Prime
Minister
Narendra Modi on Thursday
kicked off a four-nation tour
of Africa, vowing to be “a
trusted
friend”
of
Mozambique after talks with
President Filipe Nyusi in
Maputo.
Modi set the tone for his
continental visit by announcing a raft of cooperation
agreements as India scrambles to catch up with its Asian
rival China, which has a
strong presence across Africa.
He will also take in South
Africa, Tanzania and Kenya
over his five-day trip.
“Mozambique’s strengths
are also the areas of India’s
need. And what Mozambique
requires is available in India,”
Modi said. “In Mozambique’s
march towards economic
prosperity, India will walk
every step of the way. We will
be a trusted friend in your
development and a reliable
partner in ensuring a bright
safe and secure future for our
people.”
Modi, the first Indian leader to visit Mozambique in 34
years, said the two countries
would work together on agriculture, defence, security and
healthcare. India has been
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) attends a press briefing with Mozambique’s President Filipe
Jacinto Nyusi in Maputo, Mozambique, on Thursday.
AP/RSS
n
working to build ties with
African nations as it vies for a
greater share of the continent’s natural resources. Last
year, it hosted a summit of
Africa’s heads of state in New
Delhi.
Its economic footprint in
Africa is dwarfed by that of
China, whose trade with the
continent topped $200 billion
last year. India is gaining
ground, however, led by private entrepreneurs with a
keen interest in the continent’s burgeoning energy sector.
But relations between India
and the continent have been
strained in the past by incidents of alleged racism, with
African ambassadors as
recently as May claiming after
the brutal murder of a
Congolese
teacher
that
African nationals in the
Indian capital live in a “pervading climate of fear and
insecurity”.
Modi’s Africa tour will
focus on hydrocarbons, maritime security, trade and
investment, agriculture and
food, according to Indian officials. Later Thursday, Modi
will head to South Africa for a
two-day state visit, holding
talks with President Jacob
Zuma on Friday in Pretoria
and meeting business leaders.
India is now South Africa’s
sixth largest trade partner,
with two-way trade reaching
$5.3 billion in 2015-16. South
Africa has been vocal on the
need to reform the UN
Security Council, making it a
natural ally in India’s
long-running campaign to be
made a permanent member.
India and Africa are together home to a third of the
world’s population, but neither India nor any African
country has a permanent seat
on the council, which is made
up of China, France, Russia,
the United Kingdom and
United States.
With 1.3 million people of
Indian origin, South Africa
also has the largest diaspora
population in Africa, a major
element of Modi’s diplomatic
push across the world since
taking office two years ago.
On Friday evening, he will
address a thousands-strong
audience at a stadium in
Johannesburg, having hosted
similar rallies for the diaspora in cities from New York to
London.
While in South Africa,
Modi is also expected to honour Mahatma Gandhi’s time
in the country. India’s independence hero lived in South
Africa for 20 years, working as
a lawyer and activist campaigning for the rights of
Indian people.
GENEVA, JULY 7
More than half of workers in
five Southeast Asian countries are at high risk of losing
their jobs to automation in the
next two decades, an International Labour Organization
study found, with those in the
garments industry particularly vulnerable.
About 137 million workers
or 56 percent of the salaried
workforce from Cambodia,
Indonesia, the Philippines,
Thailand and Vietnam, fall
under the high-risk category,
the study showed. “Countries
that compete on low-wage
labor need to reposition themselves. Price advantage is no
longer enough,” said Deborah
France-Massin, director for
the ILO’s bureau for employers’ activities. The report said
workers have to be trained to
work effectively alongside digitalized machines.
Southeast Asia is home to
more than 630 million people
and is a hub for several manufacturing sectors, including
textiles, vehicles and hard
disk drives. Of the 9 million
people working in the region’s
textiles, clothing and footwear
industry, 64 percent of
Indonesian workers are at
high risk of losing their jobs
to automation, 86 percent in
Vietnam, and 88 percent in
Cambodia.
Garment manufacturers in
Cambodia, who take orders
from retailers such as Adidas,
Marks and Spencer and WalMart Stores Inc, employ about
600,000 people. Neighboring
Vietnam is seeing record
investment in its footwear and
textiles industries, due to new
free-trade pacts with major
markets, including the US-led
Trans-Pacific Partnership. It
is the second-largest garment
supplier to the US.
The UN agency said technologies including 3D printing, wearable technology,
nanotechnology and robotic
automation could disrupt the
sector. “Robots are becoming
better at assembly, cheaper
and increasingly able to collaborate with people,” it said.
The textiles, clothing and
footwear sector is at the highest risk of automation out of
five industries analyzed in the
study, including automotive
and auto parts, electrical and
electronics, business process
outsourcing and retail.
In the auto and parts industry, more than 60 percent of
salaried workers in Indonesia,
and over 70 percent of those in
Thailand face the risk of their
jobs being displaced.
fa l l i n g c o n s u m p t i o n
Oil industry is losing the burn of Asian demand
REUTERS
SINGAPORE/SEOUL/TOKYO, JULY 7
After half a year of strong oil
price rises, Asian crude demand
is slowing and by some measures falling, and many market
participants suspect it is not
just a cyclical phenomenon, but
also a product of more permanent structural changes.
With years of annual economic growth of 7-10 percent in
China and similar recent figures
from India, Asia-Pacific has
overtaken the Americas to
become the world’s biggest oil
consuming region, accounting
for almost 40 percent of global
demand. But an industry that
has come to rely on Asia’s booming thirst for oil could soon be
scratching around for growth.
Thomson Reuters Eikon data
shows that Asian crude oil tanker imports have fallen, albeit
from record levels, for four
straight months and by 12 percent since March to around 82
million tonnes, slightly below
last year’s levels.
Much of the surprise decline
is explained by conditions in
China, the region’s biggest consumer, accounting for 27 percent
of Asia-Pacific demand and 13
percent of global demand. With
its long-term growth outlook
now camped perhaps permanently below 7 percent, most
analysts expect vehicle sales in
China will slow accordingly.
They have already slipped to
2.1 million at the end of May,
down from a peak of almost 2.8
million in December 2015.
Refiners across Asia said that
was starting to hit their busi-
ness. “Asian oil demand growth
is slowing down. China, Asia’s
largest market, is experiencing
sluggish demand,” said a South
Korean refiner. As domestic
refiners sell off surplus fuel,
China’s exports of diesel and
gasoline, the main refined fuels
for industrial and passenger
vehicles, have both soared.
Ship brokers say traders have
started chartering supertankers
to store supplies that consumers
can’t absorb. One key pillar of
recent demand is never coming
back. Analysts think China has
nearly finished building its strategic petroleum reserves (SPR).
Oil analysts at JPMorgan estimated in a note to clients last
week that the SPR was now at
400 million barrels, which they
believed was close to capacity.
“Our model suggests a 15 per-
cent month-on-month decline in
China’s crude oil net imports in
September, or a loss of 1.2 million barrels versus August and
0.8 million barrels less from the
12-month average,” they said.
Structural changes in demand
are not limited to China. For
Asia’s most developed oil markets, Japan and South Korea,
analysts say long-term demand
will steadily fall. Japan’s oil consumption, once 6 million barrels
per day (bpd) and 10 percent of
global demand, has fallen to not
much more than 3.5 million bpd,
or under 5 percent of world consumption. It will fall further as
government consolidates its
refiners. “There are various factors. Nuclear power generation
has restarted, pushing down
energy demand. When nuclear
plants shut down (after the 2011
Fukushima disaster), Japan
imported lots of crude,” said
Kaname Gokon, strategist at
brokerage Okato Shoji.
The situation is similar in
South Korea. “Korea’s oil
demand is at a standstill, and
demand is expected to decrease
because of greenhouse gas emissions policy and alternative
fuel,” said Moon Young-seok,
senior researcher at Korea
Energy Economics Institute.
Even in India, the industry’s
big hope to compensate for slower demand in China, demand for
new cars is tepid. While Indian
motorbike sales remain strong,
the number of new cars sold has
fallen below 215,000 per month,
down from almost 260,000 in
October and well below the monthly record of just over 300,000
more than four years ago.
C M Y K
bizline
Qatar celebrates capacity increases
KATHMANDU: Qatar Airways celebrated capacity increases across its global network this weekend as three of the
airline’s destinations received upgraded aircraft on July
1, the same day the airline also inaugurated its new route
offering to Marrakesh with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Guangzhou (China), Geneva (Switzerland) and Warsaw
(Poland), all received new aircraft types on their respective daily flights from Doha’s Hamad International
Airport, in recognition of continued demand for Qatar
Airways service, operated by the world’s newest aircraft
types and expanding fleet. Qatar Airways group chief
executive, Akbar Al Baker, said “Qatar Airways is
delighted to enhance the aircraft that serve the important destinations of Guangzhou, Geneva and Warsaw,
almost doubling the daily capacity across all of these
routes from Doha’s Hamad International Airport.” (PR)
Militants hit oil facilities in Nigeria
WARRI: The Niger Delta Avengers militant group on
Thursday said it attacked more oil infrastructure in
southern Nigeria, ignoring a call for unity from
President Muhammadu Buhari. The group said in an
email that it hit manifolds RMP 22, 23 and 24 operated by
Chevron Nigeria Limited in Delta state at about 1:20 am
(0020 GMT). RMP 23 and 24 had previously been attacked
on June 1. RMPs or remote manifold platforms are where
smaller oil and gas pipelines converge before being sent
to larger lines. It is understood the facilities had been
repaired since the last strike. A military officer said the
attack happened in the Warri North area of Delta state,
adding: “A controlled explosive device was used to carry
the attack. (AFP)
HNA declares success in Swiss offer
SHANGHAI: Chinese conglomerate HNA on Thursday
declared Thursday its $1.5 billion offer for a Swiss airline
catering company had been successful, after it lowered
the minimum acceptance level for the deal to go through.
HNA Group—best known as the parent of Hainan
Airlines—bid 53 Swiss francs per share for Zurich-based
gategroup in April, a more than 20 percent premium to
its share price before the offer. It set a minimum threshold of 67 percent of the shares, but only 63.6 percent
accepted by the July 1 deadline. In a joint statement with
gategroup on its website, HNA said it was waiving the 67
percent threshold because it was “pleased” with the
results and “it remains confident that more shareholders
of gategroup will recognise the benefits of accepting the
offer”. (AFP)
Italian authorities investigate P&G
NEW YORK: talian authorities are investigating whether
Procter & Gamble Co routed revenue through its Swiss
and other units to avoid paying taxes in the country,
Bloomberg reported. The investigation is looking into
whether P&G used units such as Geneva-based Procter &
Gamble International Operations SA for the purpose,
Bloomberg reported, citing two people familiar with the
probe. Italy’s finance police in April started searching
P&G’s offices in Rome, the report said, citing the people.
“We are cooperating fully with the authorities in this
particular case and do not have further information to
share at this time,” P&G spokeswoman Jennifer Corso
said in an email to Reuters. (REUTERS)
India monsoon 35pc above average
NEW DELHI: Monsoon rains in India were 35 percent above
average in the week ended July 6, the weather office said
on Thursday. The pickup in monsoon rains in the first
week of July compensated for lower rainfall in June. The
June-September monsoon has so far delivered 1 percent
higher rainfall than average. The monsoon rains have
covered almost the entire country, and expected to quicken the planting of summer crops such as rice, soybeans,
cotton and pulses. Though the monsoon arrived in India
on June 8, a week later than usual, the weather office
expects it to deliver surplus rainfall. (REUTERS)
BSE Sensex ends little changed
MUMBAI: Indian shares closed little changed on Thursday
as markets took a breather after recent gains, but worries over global economic growth continued to weigh on
investor sentiment. The Sensex closed 0.13 percent higher at 27,201.49 while the Nifty ended up 0.02 percent at
8,337.90. The market was closed for a public holiday on
Wednesday. (REUTERS)
Huawei files suit against Samsung
BEIJING: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has submitted a filing with a second court in China as part of a patent lawsuit against smartphone rival Samsung Electronics Co
Ltd. Quanzhou Intermediate People’s Court spokesman
Wang Zhiwei told Reuters the court accepted the case
recently but did not provide further details on what
infringements Huawei is claiming in the lawsuit and
when the suit was filed. In May, Huawei sued Samsung in
the United States and China, seeking compensation for
what the Chinese firm said was unlicensed use of
fourth-generation cellular communications technology,
operating systems and user interface software in
Samsung phones. (REUTERS)
US private sector adds 172,000 jobs
WASHINGTON: US private employers hired 172,000 workers
in June, higher than economists’ expectations, a report
by a payrolls processor showed on Thursday. Economists
surveyed by Reuters had forecast the ADP National
Employment Report would show a gain of 159,000 jobs,
with estimates ranging from 100,000 to 209,000. Private
payroll gains in the month earlier were revised to
168,000 from an originally reported 173,000 increase.
The report is jointly developed with Moody’s Analytics.
The ADP figures come ahead of the US Labour
Department’s more comprehensive non-farm payrolls
report on Friday, which includes both public and private-sector employment. (REUTERS)
money IV
bazaar
Friday, July 8, 2016 | thekathmandupost
Bajaj V set to roll out
on Kathmandu roads
POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, JULY 7
HH Bajaj, the authorised dealer
for Bajaj motorcycles in Nepal, is
set to launch the Bajaj V on
Sunday in a bid to consolidate its
market share. The bike is priced at
IRs62,000 in New Delhi, India. The
company is yet to set the market
price for Nepal.
“The Baja V will help us to consolidate our market presence
while creating a separate new segment different from the Pulsar
and Discover bikes,” said Punam
Singh, marketing manager at HH
Bajaj. “It will be a city-centered
motorbike which will enhance the
riding experience on urban
streets.”
The 150 cc Bajaj V is powered by
a single-cylinder, 4-stroke, aircooled DTS-I engine. It can produce a maximum torque of 13 nm
at 5,500 rpm.
The bike features telescopic
front suspension and hydraulic
rear suspension. It has a disc
brake on the front wheel
and a drum brake on the rear
Pacific Rim
relaxes
bottleneck
in wine trade
The 150 cc Bajaj V is powered by a single-cylinder,
4-stroke, air-cooled DTS-I engine. It can produce
a maximum torque of 13 Nm at 5,500 rpm
wheel. Both tyres are tubeless.
The motorcycle has a fuel
tank with a capacity of 13 litres
including 1.7 litres of usable
reserve. Customers can choose
from two colour options—pearl
white and ebony black.
According to Singh, Bajaj
motorbikes have a strong presence in the Nepali market, and
this new addition will further help
expand the portfolio. Urban riders
have been identified as the target
segment.
“The bike retains a much
demanded classic look and a
strong body,” said Singh. “We will
add more variants of the bike in
the upcoming days as it will have
its own segment and new models.”
Additional features of the Bajaj
V are an ergonomic handlebar
and double cradle construction
adding up to the riding experience
and safety of the rider.
Moreover, the motorcycle can
also be transformed into single-seat vehicle with an optional
rear cowl, the first of its kind in
the Bajaj line-up. The seat of the
new V15 is a straight one and
comes with a panel for converting
the motorcycle into a single seater.
The Bajaj V will be available
across the country through 81 outlets. Moreover, customers can
obtain spare parts and other services through more than 180
authorised
service
centres
and spare part dealers. Easy
financing schemes will also be
offered to interested buyers, the
company said.
mirror-less camera
SINGAPORE, July 7
Wine lovers and exporters
around the Pacific Rim will
have reason to pop the cork
Thursday after officials
slashed red tape on shipments
in the region that will ease an
expensive bottleneck.
The Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) group
said in a statement that the 21
member economies had
agreed on a standard, simplified certificate, replacing the
multi-layered system that had
led to losses of about $1.0 billion a year in the industry.
And while exporters such
as Australia, Chile, New
Zealand and the United States
are expected to benefit from
the simplified regime, wine
drinkers will also have a reason to celebrate as it is should
lead to a wider array of choices at cheaper prices. “Easier,
more inclusive wine trade can
improve product availability
and prices for consumers and
improve job creation and
growth,” said Tom LaFaille,
international trade counsel
for the Wine Institute, the private sector overseer of APEC
Wine Regulatory Forum.
Jamie Ferman of the US
Department of Commerce
described the model certificate as “a win-win for the
industry”. Rocio Barrios
Alvarado, chair of the APEC
sub-committee on standards
and conformance, said the
single certificate “will reduce
administrative burdens for
producers endeavouring to
take advantage of the increasing taste for wine in the
region”.
APEC said the bloc’s wine
trade had more than tripled to
over $23 billion since 2000, but
“unnecessary non-tariff barriers” and overlapping certificates had mean companies
were facing huge costs. It said
focus now is on having the
certificate
implemented.
APEC agreements are implemented on a voluntary basis
and results are achieved
through dialogue, cooperation
and peer pressure.
SEOUL, July 7
Samsung Electronics on
Thursday flagged its biggest
operating profit in more than
two years, boosted by cost-cutting efforts and solid sales of
its latest flagship smartphone.
The South Korean electronics giant—also the world’s top
handset maker—predicted an
operating profit of 8.1 trillion
won ($7 billion) in April-June,
up 17 percent from a year ago.
It is the company’s biggest
operating profit since the first
quarter of 2014 and beat the
average estimate of 7.4 trillion
won from analysts surveyed
by Bloomberg News.
Analysts attributed the figures to the firm’s aggressive
cost-cutting efforts and brisk
sales of the Galaxy S7, the latest version of its high-end,
smartphone.
flagship
“Samsung’s mobile unit is
believed to have performed
well thanks to robust sales
of Galaxy S7s as well as an
overhaul of its low- and midend handset line-up,” said
Peter Lee, analyst at NH
Investment & Securities.
He estimated that the firm
had sold about 26 million units
of the S7 since it hit stores in
March ahead of new launches
by competitors, including
Apple.
Samsung has bolstered its
mid- to low-end smartphone
line-ups in a bid to expand in
fast-growing emerging markets. The mobile business
accounts for the lion’s share of
the firm’s overall profit, which
has
been
increasingly
squeezed by competition both
from Apple’s iPhone and by
lower-end
devices
from
Chinese rivals such as Huawei.
Past editions of its flagship
smartphones—Galaxy S5 and
S6 launched in 2014 and 2015,
respectively—had largely met
with tepid response, prompting concerns over the firm’s
overgrown mobile business.
Samsung shares jumped
Thursday 2.04 percent to close
at 1.45 million won in Seoul.
The firm’s aggressive
RETAIL PRICE
VegetablesUnit Price (Rs)
Red Potato
Kg
Rs55
White Potato
Kg
Rs45
Onion (Indian)
Kg
Rs40
Tomato Small
Kg
Rs75
Carrot
Kg Rs125
Tomato Big
Kg
Rs95
SquashKg Rs55
CabbageKg Rs55
Brinjal Long
kg Rs35
Fruits Unit
Price (Rs)
Apple Kg
Rs135
PomegranateKg
Rs215
Mangokg Rs75
Pineapple1Pc Rs105
CucumberKg
Rs65
PapayaKg Rs85
BananaDoz Rs95
Lime
100 Pcs
Rs475
daily commodities
Commodities Unit
Price (Rs)
Pokhreli Rice
Kg
Rs70
Jeera Masino Rice
Kg
Rs70
Indian Basmati Rice Kg
Rs100
Mansuli Rice
Kg
Rs55
Sona Rice
Kg
Rs50
Beaten Rice (Taichin) Kg
Rs120
Beaten Rice
Kg
Rs55
Big Mas
Kg
Rs290
Small Mas
Kg
Rs260
Big Mung
Kg
Rs200
Musuro (No 1)
Kg
Rs170
Musuro (No 2)
Kg
Rs160
Rahar KgRs250
Chana (Big)
Kg
Rs160
Chana (Small)
Kg
Rs150
Chilli Powder
Kg
Rs350
gasoline watch
bullion
Price Per tola
Hallmark Gold
An employee of Japanese camera maker Fujifilm displays the company’s new X-T2 mirror-less digital camera,
equipped with advanced autofocus functions and 4K high definition video, during a press preview in Tokyo, Japan, on
Thursday. Fujifilm will release the camera in September.
AFP/rss
n
Rs 59,000
Tejabi Gold
Rs 58,750
Silver
Rs 905
Source: FENEGOSIDA
Samsung flags big profit jump Gold price steadies
market watch
cost-cutting in marketing
played a key role in the strong
profit forecast, Greg Roh of
HMC Investment said, but he
warned of more competition
from Apple later this year.
“With Apple releasing new
products in the latter half of
the year... I think (Samsung’s)
earnings may drop in the second-half,” he said.
But the firm’s semiconductor business, which produces
memory chips for Samsung
gadgets as well as clients
including Apple, is likely to
help offset a slump in the
mobile business, Lee said.
The semiconductor unit has
helped buttress Samsung’s
profit margins, with its operating profit largely outpacing
the mobile business since
late 2014. It racked up
operating profit of 12.8 trillion
won last year, beating the
10.1 trillion won earned by
the mobile unit.
as US dollar firms
REUTERS
LONDON, JULY 7
Gold steadied on Thursday after rallying to its highest since March 2014 a
day earlier on the back of concerns
about Britain’s vote to leave the
European Union, as strength in stocks
and the dollar limited gains.
Financial markets have been
extremely volatile since Britain voted
on June 23 to leave the EU bloc, knocking equities and pushing some bond
yields to record lows. The moves have
boosted the appeal of so-called safe-havens such as gold and silver.
Spot gold was at $1,363.01 an ounce
at 1130 GMT, little changed from
$1,363.51 late on Wednesday. US gold
futures for August delivery were down
$2.60 an ounce at $1,364.70. Spot prices
reached their highest since March
2014 on Wednesday at $1,374.91 an
ounce but have struggled to maintain
those levels as stocks and the US dol-
lar rose. “In the last few weeks we’ve
seen a two-step move. First, we had
the Brexit vote, which led to a rise in
safe-haven demand, and then we saw
markets starting to reprice monetary
policy among central banks,” Danske
Bank analyst Jens Pedersen said. “We
had these two factors working in the
same direction for gold.”
Gold is highly sensitive to rising US
interest rates as they lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding
assets such as bullion, while also typically boosting the dollar in which the
precious metal is priced. “We have
found a level where gold has stabilised,” Pedersen said. “In the short
term, I do see a risk that the dollar
will rise further, so that will again cap
the upside for gold.”
Traders are awaiting further clues
on the outlook for Federal Reserve
policy from Friday’s US non-farm payrolls (NFP) data, seen as a barometer
of the economy’s health.
Int’l market
EnergyPrice (US$)%Change
Brent Crude Futr (Bbl)
Gas Oil Fut (Ice) (Mt)
Gasoline Rbob Fut (Gal)
Natural Gas Futr (Mmbtu)
47.98
431
148.55
2.81
1.16
-10.50
-3.17
0.97
AgriculturePrice (US$)%Change
Cocoa Future (Mt)
Coffee ‘C’ Future (Lb)
Corn Future (Bu)
Cotton No. 2 Futr (Lb)
Rough Rice (Cbot) (Cwt)
Soybean Future (Bu)
Soybean Meal Futr (T)
Soybean Oil Futr (Lb)
Sugar #11 (World) (Lb)
Wheat Future (Cbt) (Bu)
Industrial Metals
Copper Future (Lb)
2,995.00
146.4
360
64.99
10.45
1137.5
398
31.64
20.78
430.25
1.08
0.51
-1.50
1.28
-1.83
-1.37
-0.75
-1.34
2.21
-3.42
Price (US$)%Change
214.95
-0.19
Precious Metals
Price (US$)%Change
Gold 100 Oz Futr (T Oz)
Silver Future (T Oz)
1,365.70
20.11
-0.10
-0.46
C M Y K

- Epaper

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