Victory : Gurkhas win right to settle in UK

All Gurkha veterans who retired before 1997 with at least four years' service will be allowed to settle in the UK, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has said.
Ms Smith told MPs she was "proud to offer this country's welcome to all who have served in the brigade of Gurkhas".It comes after a high-profile campaign by Joanna Lumley and other supporters of Gurkha rights - and an embarrassing Commons defeat for the Government. Some 36,000 Gurkhas who left before 1997 had been denied UK residency. Gurkhas, who are recruited from Nepal, have been part of the British Army for almost 200 years.

Sacrifice and Distinction:
Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said the U-turn by the government was a "great victory for a well-run campaign, that has publicly embarrassed ministers".She told the Commons: "I'm delighted that we have now been able to agree - across government, across the House and with the Gurkhas' representatives - new settlement rights that all those who have served us so well, so highly deserve."

Under the measures outlined in the House, Gurkhas will be allowed to settle in the UK with their spouses and dependent children under 18. Ms Smith said she expected to welcome 10,000 to 15,000 applications from Gurkhas over the next two years. Ms Smith added that the Gurkhas had served the UK "with great courage, sacrifice and distinction and they continue to make a vital and valued contribution to our operations around the world". The prime minister suffered a shock Commons defeat on the issue, forcing ministers to reconsider existing rules on how many Gurkhas can settle in the UK.
(Source: BBC News)

Our Perspective:
A moral victory for the legendary Gurkhas. It is difficult to say as a country what it means to Nepal, but surely a better life for the Gurkhas. This will definitely not help the small mountainous country, which not only fast forwards the brain drain but also reduces the foreign currency income through remittance. All the best for the Gurkhas for their new life.
And most noteworthily, this is the time we feel, we need to pay tribute to all those Gurkha soldiers who lost their lives in various wars, including the world wars, for their effort, hardwork and bravery, the result of which, the current generation of Gurkha soldiers and their families are enjoying.

Everest : Appa Sherpa scales Everest for Record 19th time

Legendary climber Appa Sherpa, also know as "Super Sherpa", has scaled the Mount Everest for the record nineteenth time, on thursday, breaking his own previous official record, according to the officials. Apa Sherpa, 49, reached the summit of the world's highest peak early in the morning, Jitendra Giri, of the Nepalese mountaineering department, told AFP.
"He reached on top of Everest this morning and spent around half an hour on the summit," Giri said, adding that he was in good health and already heading back to base camp.
Apa unfurled a banner that read "Stop Climate Change, Let the Himalayas Live!," after reaching the summit.Apa, who bagged his first Everest summit in 1990, climbed the mountain this spring season in an effort to raise global awareness about climate change and its impact on the Himalayas.
More than 100 climbers have already made it to the summit this spring season, in which 29 expedition teams are in action.

(Source : THT Online, Dainikee.com)

Our Perspective:
Its a great thing that legendary climber has scaled the everest once again. Our best wishes to him for scaling many more heights and re-writing the history books.

Crisis in Nepal: Maoists to permit vote for new govt

Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) have agreed to stop blocking parliament proceedings so that lawmakers can choose a new government to ease the country's political crisis, the parliament speaker said Thursday. However, the maoists lawmakers said that although they agreed to lift their protests for Thursday, they would permanently end them only on condition that the chamber take up a motion censuring President Ram Baran Yadav.

The country's Maoist prime minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, sparked the latest political upheavel early this month when he resigned to protest Yadav's refusal to fire the country's army chief in a dispute over integrating former Maoist rebels into the military. The Maoist lawmakers who represent the Himalayan nation's ex-rebels had held up the selection of a new prime minister, but were now agreeing to allow the process to go forward, parliament Speaker Subash Nemwang said Thursday.
(Source:THT Online)

Our Perspective:
We have repeatedly continued to stress against the establishment of multiple power centres in the country. The people elected government should be allowed to rule the country. If we cannot trust an elected government over the disciplinary actions against one of the government employees, it is difficult to understand how we can respond to the process of transformation of our society.
Although we all may not agree, but, Maoists represent the symbol of change in the modern era of Nepalese politics, and not all people can accept and adapt to the change. Unfortunately, our honourable president belongs to that faction of the political spectrum, which has been identified as the symbol of status quo. The president has shown he is not able to act as a true leader of the country, and the resolution motion against the president is only necessary.

Reports : Doubts Over Prabhakaran's Death

The Sri Lankan military has released pictures of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran which it says prove conclusively that he is dead. The state and private stations aired footage of what they said was the body of Prabhakaran, along with what looked like his Tamil Tiger identity card and tag. The army also says his body has been positively identified with DNA testing. But the questions remain about when and how he and other rebel leaders were killed, and over apparently contradictory statements in relation to his reported death.

Denial:
Following the release of the photographs most Indian Tamil newspapers appear to have accepted that Prabhakaran is dead. But so far the most influential pro-rebel website, TamilNet, has not acknowledged the death. Speaking before the release of the photos, a rebel official abroad denied Prabhakaran had been killed and said the Tamil Tiger leader was "alive and safe".
"He will continue to lead the quest for dignity and freedom for the Tamil people," Selvarasa Pathmanathan said in a statement posted on the pro-rebel TamilNet Web site on Tuesday.
But he offered no further details or evidence to support the claim, only drawing attention to what he said was Colombo's "treachery" in the killings of senior unarmed Tamil Tiger political wing leaders in the north-east, who he said had been shot as they carried white flags.
(Source : BBC News)

Our Perspective:
Only time will tell whether one of the most influencial south asian rebel leaders is alive. But as it appears now, until further evidences appear in public, we can not help feeling that this could be the worst to happen to LTTE and its freedom movement. We can only hope that the war claims no more civil life.

Nepal : Maoists expel Ramechhap leader

The Unified CPN (Maoist) on Wednesday expelled Rajan Dahal, deputy in-charge of Ramechhap district, from the party for attacking CPN-UML general secretary Ishwor Pokharel. According to Dinanath Sharma, speaker of the party, a meeting of the party's central secretariat held at PM's official residence decided to expel Dahal from the party.
Meanwhile a meeting of the CPN-UML has decided to stage a nation-wide protest against the Maoists on Friday.

Our Perspective:
Maoists cadres must show respect against other parties and the general public. Their actions can only justify their own downfall. There is still time to grow up before its too late. Nepali people are kind to forgive, but don't try to test their resolve too much. Backfire could destroy everything they have earned till date.

Crisis in Nepal: Maoists move House against Prez

The UCPN-Maoist tabled a resolution motion (संकल्प प्रस्ताव) against the President Dr Ram Baran Yadav in the Legislature-Parliament on Wednesday afternoon. According to Chairman of the Constituent Assembly Subash Chandra Nembang, deputy parliamentary party leader of the UCPN-Maoist Narayan Kaji Shrestha tabled a proposal against the President in the CA secretariat demanding that the head of state is not accountable to the parliament as per the interim constitution. The motion also asked the President to withdraw his decision to reinstate CoAS Rookmangud Katawal.
Nembang said that he would take necessary decision on the Maoists’ move after holding discussion in a meeting of the Task Management Committee of the Legislature-Parliament.

A secretariat meeting of the party held at the PM's residence in Baluwatar Wednesday morning had decided to move the proposal.
Earlier today, during his meeting with Speaker Subas Nemwang, caretaker Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had said his party would allow the parliamentary to function if it takes up the commitment proposal.
(Source : The Himalayan Times, Nepalnews.com)

Our Perspective:
Maoists must be really sure of what they are doing. Unless they are this is a difficult path they have chosen. But we would say this is something required to establish the people's superiority over the president. As we have always stressed, the executive powers should be in the hands of those elected by the people and president should always remain above the debate.

Technology : World's thinnest LCD TV

South Korea's LG Display said on Tuesday it has developed a liquid crystal display (LCD) television panel that is thinner than a pencil, describing it as the world's slimmest.

The panel, which can be 42 or 47 inches wide, uses an edge-lit light emitting diode (LED) backlight system that allows it to achieve a thickness of just 5.9mm, LG Display said in a statement. The world's second biggest LCD maker said the product weighs 6.1 kg and 7.3 kg, about half as much as a conventional panel.

"The displays can reproduce a rich range of natural-looking colours with a colour saturation level of 80 percent," it said, adding the televisions can eliminate motion blur and boast full high-definition resolution.

Executive vice president Chung In-Jae said the new products demonstrate "our leading edge-lit LED backlight technology that enables thinner designs".

LG Display and local rival Samsung Electronics have led the global flat panel screen market and are now competing to produce thinner panels for high-definition televisions.
(Source: AFP)

Crisis in Nepal: PM wants House to debate Prez move

conLawmakers of the Unified CPN-Maoist on Monday continued disrupting the regular business of the parliament, raising voices against the President’s move to revoke the government decision to sack the army chief.

Constituent Assembly chairman Subas Nembang today called a meeting of chief whips of the six major political parties in a bid to find a way out to the House impasse. But the meeting could not make any breakthrough, as the Maoist leaders insisted that the House discuss the President’s move.

Earlier, caretaker Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, after concluding the parliamentary party meeting of the UCPN-M, told mediapersons that they were doing groundwork to resume the House proceedings at the earliest. “But other parties should be ready for discussion, debate and voting against the President’s decision on the army chief issue,” he added. Dahal said the House business might resume if the parties agreed on a procedure on debating and voting on the President’s move.

Following the disruption of the House proceedings, Nepali Congress vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel said the parliament had the right to discuss any issue that is sub-judice.
A UML CA member quoted Nembang as advising the Maoist leaders to raise the issue of President’s decision even after the House business became regular.
Meanwhile, the Maoists didn’t move sankalpa prastab (parliamentary stricture) against the President’s decision, despite discussing it. (Source : The Himalayan times )

Our Perspective:
It would be a good thing to see the parties discussing the presidents actions in The House. This would remind the president he is not above the constitution. But as for the maoists disrupting the parliamentary process, they should stop doing so and pave the way for new government to be formed. But one has to keep in mind that CPN-Maoists are new to the parliamentary process and may require a steep learning curve to settle down in terms of House-Politics. After all in the past few months we have seen those self-proclaimed "saviours of democracy" disturbing the parliament as a symbol of protest.
One thing for sure is that maoists are going to learn the same way of staging protests as conducted by the other mainstream political parties. Now we have seen the road blockades in various parts of the countries by minorities groups as a symbol of protest. Maoists initiated the ethinicity based protest, and now it has been a headache for them anyone else concerned about the social harmony.
The moot point here is for the political parties to realize the verdict they have been given by the people and work according to it.

Crisis in Nepal: Vice-President blames Prez, PM for crisis

Vice President Paramandand Jha has accused the president and prime minister for the current on-going crisis in the country. VP Jha accused prime minister of ignoring the cabinet, in sacking CoAS, who was later reinstated by the president. He said both the president and prime minister committed the mistakes in the Katwal issue. Jha also accused the political parties of being involved in power games rather than concentrating on the constitution drafting process. He stressed on the need for parties to move ahead with consensus for the long-lasting peace rather than conflict. (Source: THT)

Our Perspective:
President should always be a ceremonial, when there is an elected prime minister ruling the country. He should not have interfered with the decision making process. But this will finally sort out the difference of power between the president and the governent. As always we would reiterate there should not be multiple power stations in a country.

But the actual problem lied somewhere else. Inability of defence minister Ram Bahadur Thapa to get full support of army chiefs, led to current problem. It was never going to be easy, but as a minister, it was his first task to get full support of the army chief, which he failed to do.

LTTE Leader Prabhakaran Could Be Dead : Reports

Liberation of Tamil Tigers Eelam (LTTE) chief V Prabhakaran could be dead, with the Srilankan forces telling the CNN-IBN that his body has been recovered and being taken to an army camp in Colombo. The report comes as the Srilankan government announced it had captured the final stronghold of LTTE, and that top LTTE leaders could have committed mass suicide. The Srilankan army claims to have intercepted LTTE messages of mass suicide of rebel leaders.
(AFP)

Our Perspective:
Anyone who knows the history of Srilanka also knows about the government created rifts between the majority Sinhalese and the minor Tamils. Unless the Lankan government changes its attitude and treats both of the factions equally, it is difficult not to predict revolutions of some kind in the near future. You can kill people, but you can't supress their voices.

It is good to learn from past experiences, but the most important thing is not to repeat those mistakes again. Hopefully, peace will prevail in the Lankan Island for the good this beautiful country.