News from Nepal

  Banned from football for 10 years, Ganesh Thapa continues to pull the strings in Nepal, according to a former vice president of the country's FA. Almost a year since one of the region’s most devastating earthquakes, piles of rubble still litter many of the streets of Kathmandu. The fragile buildings in Nepal’s capital were no match for the quake that struck in April 2015, killing more than 8,000 and injuring another 21,000. However, the people are of such strong character in these parts that any visitor would struggle to gauge the difficulty of the rebuilding effort through the smiles on the locals’ faces. The fear returns to the fore, though, whenever an aftershock occurs – such as the one in January which measured 5.8 on the Richter Scale.

Malaysia’s Axiata Group has announced the completion of its acquisition of an 80% stake in Nepalese mobile operator Ncell from TeliaSonera of Sweden. The USD1.365 billion deal was first announced in December and comes as part of TeliaSonera’s previously announced plan to exit its seven Eurasian mobile operations in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Moldova and Nepal. Meanwhile, the remaining 20% interest in Ncell has been acquired by Axiata’s local partner, sunivera   Capital Ventures, which has replaced Niraj Govinda Shrestha as the minority shareholder; under Nepalese law, the country’s telcos must retain at least 20% domestic ownership The new Malaysian owner says it will soon be introducing its ‘Axiata Roam’ group-wide roaming service, offering discounted roaming prices to Ncell customers traveling within the Axiata footprint countries and roaming with its operating companies and partners. It also says it will launch new offers to target the approxima

Khotang, April 12: As many as 24 passengers were killed in a bus accident in the district this morning.  The accident took place when a passenger bus en route to Kathmandu from Diktel met with an accident at Barkhetar of Arkhanle. The bus (Ba 2 Kha 6373) met with the accident at around 8.30 AM this morning. Eye witness said that the bus veered off the road around 500 metres at Barkhetar due to narrowed road and overload. The number of passengers on board the bus was 28 at the beginning. But, the number increased to 70 when some passengers came in on the way.