News from Nepal

Melamchi : Four passengers who were travelling on a bus (Ba 2 Kha 2702) heading to Baramchi, Sindhupalchowk from Kathmandu were electrocuted after they happen to touch live wire above the bus. They were travelling on the roof top of the bus and were killed when they mistakenly touch the electric wire, police said. The other injured in the accident are undergoing treatment at Balephi Hospital, police said. The deceased are yet to be identified, said Police Inspector Raj Kumar Thapa.

Kathmandu : The 19-party Alliance led by the UCPN (Maoist) has formed an 11-member taskforce to announce protest programmes, after discussion with the ruling parties—Nepali Congress and CPN (UML) ended inconclusive. Today's meeting of the Alliance held at the Parliamentary Party Office of the UCPN (Maoist) formed the taskforce comprising Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Hridayesh Tripathi, Jitendra Narayan Dev, Prem Bahadur Singh, Gopal Dahit, Laxman Lal Karna, Dr Bijay Sainju, Rukmini Tharu, Rani Sharma Tiwari, Ram Kumar Rai and Rajendra Shrestha. The taskforce would propose the protest programmes on Monday and the meeting of the Alliance scheduled for Monday afternoon would make the protest programmes public, said Chairman of Samajbadi Janata Party Prem Bahadur Singh.

Kathmandu : The Government has felicitated noted Indian child rights activist and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi at a function organized by the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare and the Central Child Welfare Board here today. Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare Nilam KC felicitated the joint Nobel peace prize winner for 2014 in recognition of his contribution to the field of child rights. Accepting the honour, Satyarthi said the prize he received was the prize won by all the voiceless and identity-less children across the globe. He also emphasized on the need to internalize child rights in our customs, instead of limiting it to the law and speeches. Satyarthi said the credit of him winning the coveted Nobel peace prize also goes to Nepal, while pointing out the commonality in the problems faced by the children of Nepal and India.

LALITPUR - Nobel laureate and noted child rights activist of India Kailash Satyarthi joined the clean Bagmati campaign at Teku this morning. He attended the 84th series of the campaign that took place amidst the cleaning of solid waste along the Bagmati River from Teku bridge to Sanepa bridge. Speaking on the occasion, the joint winner of Nobel Peace Prize 2014 urged all to clean up mother Bagmati with a true heart and not just as a showpiece. "You are in a way serving yourself, first you committed paap or sin by polluting the Bagmati and now you are winning back punya or rewards by cleaning it up", he said. Also speaking on the occasion, Chief Secretary Lilamani Poudel, who is spearheading the Clean Bagmati campaign, said he was left speechless by the commitment expressed by Sartyarthi towards Bagmati.

KATHMANDU - Apple- samsung smartphone rivalry is set to heat up in Nepal, with the official launch of the iPhone on Friday. Generation Next Communica-tions (Genxt) has been named the authorised distributor of iPhone for Nepal, while the country’s leading telecom operator Ncell has offered the smartphone with its service bundling. Although Apple has been selling its products like the iMac, iPod and MacBook through authorised resellers in Nepal, it had not appointed any authorised distributor for the iPhone. So far, Samsung has been the lone player in the premium smartphone segment, with minimum competition from other brands. It always enjoyed that first-mover advantage, with the official Samsung distributor having one of the largest sales network in Nepal.

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