Kolkata Knight Riders Win Match 10 Wkts

IPL 2017: Gambhir, Lynn star as KKR crush Gujarat by 10 wickets

NEW DELHI: Kolkata Knight Riders began their Indian Premier League 2017 campaign in a blazing fashion, hunting down a target of 184 runs in 14.5 overs to record a 10-wicket win against Gujarat Lions in Rajkot on Friday

Put in to bat by KKR captain Gautam Gambhir, Gujarat posted a competitive 183/4 thanks to an unbeaten half-century from captain Suresh Raina and a handy 47 from Dinesh Karthik. But what happened next wasn't something Suresh Raina and his team would have expected. Chris Lynn (93*) and Gambhir (76*) made a mockery of Gujarat's bowler and barring Parveen Kumar, none escaped their wrath. Together they broke the record for the highest successful chase in T20s without losing a wicket.

Sample this: Dhawal Kulkarni gave 42 in 2.5 overs, Shadab Jakati went for 30 in his three, Shivil Kaushik, the only Gujarat bowler to bowl four overs, leaked 40 runs, Manpreet Gony conceded 32 in his two overs and Dwayne Smith only bowled six deliveries but was looted for 23 runs. Praveen was the only bowler to return respectable figures - 0/13 from two overs. This is enough to give an idea of the imperious touch the KKR batsmen found themselves in their IPL opener.

Here we look at the major talking point from the match:

Gujarat begin solidly but lose debutant Roy

A new opening pair in McCullum and Jason Roy began the proceedings for Gujarat Lions. Facing Boult in the first over, Roy struck two fours - the first one a straight drive and the next a cut past point region. Piyush Chawla shared the new ball and was immediately hit for a four by Roy, via a reverse sweep. Gambhir then slotted Sunil Narine from the other end as well replacing Boult after just one over. But it was Chawla who drew the first blood, a half-tracker that Roy failed to put away, managing a leading edge to be caught at square leg for 14. McCullum then smacked Chawla for a six in the same over and then collected two fours off Narine in the next to take Gujarat to 40/1 in five overs.

Raina, Karthik build a steady stand

After the fall of their third wicket (Brendon McCullum), Raina and Karthik proceeded steadily without taking any risk. They kept the run-rate at over eight per over. Although boundaries dried up since the departure of Aaron Finch, the good thing for the home team was that they had wickets. Gambhir brought back Boult for another one-over spell and Raina managed to pull him for a four behind the square region. He later went on to pull off an incredible, acrobatic save near the rope, saving a certain boundary. The 15th over proved to be a fruitful one for Gujarat - Karthik struck his second four in it with Sunil Narine giving away five singles as well. Before Karthik fell in the final over, he had stitched an 87-run stand with Raina for the fourth wicket.

That Raina finished unbeaten was thanks largely to the KKR fielders who failed to hold on to three chances that the Gujarat skipper offered them. The first one came in the sixth over when Raina pulled Waokes towards mid-on and Kuldeep ran backwards and got hold of the ball only to spill it, a difficult chance though but chance nevertheless. Raina was on 12 then. The second chance came in the 16th over and again the culprit was Kuldeep who had a brain-freeze moment when he did not take off the bails with Karthik yet to reach the crease at the bowler's end. To make matters worse, Raina was halfway down the track simultaneously and Kuldeep, to the surprise of everyone and especially to Robin Uthappa who let out a loud scream, didn't make the throw that could have easily ended Raina's innings. There was more frustration in store for Gambhir with Yusuf dropping a regulation catch at deep midwicket in the following over.

Gujarat Lions set KKR a competitive target

Barring the 16th over, bowled by Kuldeep that went for just five runs, the final five saw KKR bowlers being milked for easy fours. Karthik began the assault with a six off Chawla after Yusuf Pathan dropped a regulation catch near the boundary of Raina. Boult returned for his third over, and Raina and Karthik struck a four each. Woakes was then given the task to bowl the penultimate over and it turned out to be another cash cow for the Gujarat pair - Karthik hitting a six over long-on and following it with a four over backward point. Raina then finished off with a four through square - 16 from the over. In the final over, Boult wasn't spared either, with Karthik scoring successive fours and then holing out to long-on to depart for 47. In a similar fashion to the penultimate over, Raina rounded off with a four, through square to take his team to a competitive total and remain unbeaten on 68.

Lynn, Gambhir silence RajkotLynn and Gambhir left Gujarat Lions dazed in a stunning assault. Between them, they collected 18 fours and eight sixes. Such was their form that Raina employed five different bowlers within the first seven overs. The KKR openers took just one over before unleashing themselves on a hapless attack. Nobody escaped their wrath barring Parveen. Rest was left battered and bruised. In their previous two meetings, Gujarat had recorded two comfortable wins. On Friday, KKR recorded their first against Gujarat in a thoroughly entertaining one-sided victory. Gambhir and Lynn struck half-centuries apiece with the latter equalling the record for the second-fastest to 50 runs for KKR.

Lynn and Gambhir began dishing out punishment inside the Powerplay. Be it pacers or the spinners, they all leaked runs. Praveen started well but Lynn struck him for a four off the sixth delivery in the first over. That, as it turned out, was just the beginning. Lynn then smacked Kulkarni over midwicket for a massive six and his captain followed his cue to strike a four through mid-on. Gony then leaked 17 runs in the next including two fours and a six. Raina brought Shivil Kaushik, the spinner. He too didn't make any difference, bowling poorly, conceding two fours. Kulkarni returned and with a four, Gambhir took KKR past the 50-run mark. Kaushik was persisted with but then Gambhir took over the proceedings, clattering him for four fours as KKR finished the Powerplay at a massive 73/0.

Kathmandu Durbar Square

Kathmandu Durbar Square:

Apr 5, 2017- The ruling CPN (Maoist Centre) has involved its organisation in the Kathmandu valley in preparation for the May 14 local level elections.

In Kathmandu district, the ruling party has already completed its ward and municipal conferences. The conferences of committees at the metropolis and districts would be held after the local polls.

According to Lekhnath Neupane, in charge of the Kathmandu district committee of the party, selection of candidates for 138 wards of 10 municipalities and one metropolis in Kathmandu district is in final stage.

The ward committees would select one candidate in consensus but provide three names to the district committee along with the minutes of the decision in case consensus remains elusive. The district committee would select all the candidates within April 7, to be endorsed in the involvement of the Provincial Committee by April 9.

The district committee has also directed all the ward committees to establish their respective offices at central locations for resource mobilisation for the polls.

Neupane said the popularity of candidates and their loyalty to the party would be prioritised while deciding on the candidates but independent leftists could also be considered. The party committees are also busy drafting their “commitment papers” separately for every municipality and metropolis.

The party, however, would organise mass meetings only after finalising the candidates. In Bhaktapur, district in-charge DP Dhakal said the Maoists have formed a 1,500-member election mobilisation committee under the leadership of politburo member Devendra Shrestha. The party has already held the party conferences in 30 wards out of the 38 in four municipalities of the district. Selection of candidates would be finalised by April 10, after which the party would begin a door-to-door campaign.

Dhakal said the party would also deploy hundreds of campaigners for the local level polls. Currently, the Maoist district committee is busy drafting separate manifestos for four municipalities. The papers would be finalised after seeking suggestions from the locals.

In Lalitpur, ward conferences were completed in 24 out of the 29 units of the Lalitpur Metropolitan City. In-charge of Lalitpur Metro Committee Dipesh Maharjan said candidate selection would begin on Wednesday after completing the conferences in the remaining four wards.

As I wandered through the shady local streets, I heard snatches of what sounded like several different languages. I wasn’t really in the mood to shop, so I just kept going straight ahead. When the streets got too narrow for my liking, I turned down the next alley. In this way, I passed the afternoon.

Eventually, I emerged from the narrow, crowded alleys into a more open space. I felt the sun beat down upon my skin, and I warmed ten degrees. Those shaded alleys had been chilly. Here, there were souvenir stands and sunglasses vendors. It felt more like Thamel than the local streets I’d been wandering all afternoon.

Idly, I wondered if I had walked in a giant circle. Maybe this was Thamel.

[This is a chapter from my travel book. There are lots more chapters posted on the blog, but if you’d prefer to read them all at once, sign up for my e-mail newsletter and I’ll be sure to let you know when they’re available in a condensed form!]

I risked a quick glance at my phone. Google Maps showed Thamel, where I had last been using it. My blue dot was well outside the borders of the familiar neighborhood. Luckily, it looked like all I had to do to return to Thamel was just follow one major street all the way back. I made a mental note of what that street looked like (Brown and dusty, what a surprise). With some sense of direction restored, I took in this new neighborhood I found myself in.

This was Kathmandu Durbar Square

The place was clearly a tourist attraction of some sort, as evidenced by the hordes of Nepali hawking postcards, sunglasses, and singing bowls. You didn’t see that in the shadier streets of Kathmandu.

There were hordes of Chinese tourists, taking selfies and menacing bystanders with their ubiquitous selfie sticks. A healthy mix of foreign and Nepali faces swirled in and out of a central square, which seemed to be walled in. Souvenir stands lined the outside of the wall, hugging the wall tightly in order to take advantage of the meager shade provided by the high angle of the sun.

A small tollbooth was set up at a gap in the wall. The attendant appeared to be selectively charging admission, mostly, it looked like, based on skin color. Many Nepali flowed past the booth without casting it a second thought, while wandering tourists were flagged down and asked for a contribution. I simply joined in with the flow of the crowd and confidently walked through the entrance. No one bothered me.

I didn’t feel bad about my little bypass, especially once I saw the state of the square.

Kathmandu Durbar Square lies in ruins.

Nowhere is the impact of the 2015 earthquake more visible than in Durbar Square. Where ancient palaces and towering monuments must have once stood, today there is little more than rubble and roped-off construction zones.

Piles of bricks lay haphazardly around the square, and many of the facades are held up by external supports which I’m pretty sure didn’t used to be there.

Scaffolding, cracks, and “Danger!” signs drew my eye more than any sort of ancient beauty that remained.

But, as I wandered around the damaged square, something else drew my eye even more than the tragedy of the damage.

The Nepali People

The Nepali have a saying, “Come for the mountains, come back for the people.”

I would come to know this saying later in my travels. As I wandered through Kathmandu Durbar Square, taking in the earthquake damage, I did not know of it. And yet, I was starting to feel the truth of it.

Being back in a tourist area meant I was once again subject to the offerings of the touts — most of whom offered to guide me around the square and explain the history. I politely turned them all down, and as such, my understanding of the significance of Kathmandu Durbar Square is rudimentary, at best.

It’s a palace complex, I think?

But I don’t feel I missed out on this. My attention was on the present, not the past. And the present story of Durbar Square – although it might be tempting to tell it as such – was not a sad story of ancient monuments and priceless cultural legacy destroyed by senseless disaster.

What struck me about Durbar Square can be illustrated with one single image: these two young men, lounging atop a raised dias. I suspect the dias had once supported an impressive building. Today though, it was a raised set of steps leading to nothing more than a flat mesa. As I walked around the base of this dias, I couldn’t keep my attention from swiveling towards this pair.

They crouched, close together, at the top of the steps. They sat, touching, in the comfortably intimate manner of young Nepali men. One showed the other something on his phone, and they both laughed, big genuine laughs. They chattered excitedly, then fell into a more casual rhythm.

But here’s why the moment stuck out to me: these people have had nothing but bad luck for a year. These two young men – boys, probably – were out of school and unemployed, just like many Nepalis. Their home had been devastated, their history literally reduced to rubble.

And yet, here they were. Life went on. They had found something to smile about.

That thought filled me with a lightness I had not felt for a long time.

Kathmandu Durbar Square is an atrocious & shameful mess 

      Kathmandu Durbar Square (Basantapur) is never again Nepal's crown gem fascination 

The principle point of convergence of Kathmandu's legacy and vacation destinations is its old notable regal square known as Basantapur or all the more prominently by tourism as Kathmandu Durbar Square. It's where two little exchanging towns joined to shape Kasamandap, Kathmandu's first building. It goes back to the Licchavi period in the third century. 

It was and still is an open exchanging square for create, work and business. 

It's the place Kathmandu's living goddess dwells. It's the place the tantric mixing of Newari, Hindu and Buddhist convictions all consolidate. 

It turned into the antiquated illustrious capital of Nepal amid the Malla period when the lords of the Kathmandu Valley combat to have the most excellent city on the planet and for regal power. 

A place where the Shah's assumed control over the sovereignty of Nepal before majority rules system became exposed and the square turned into a living exhibition hall of the at various times. 

Kathmandu Durbar Square was and is the notable focal point of Nepal both as far as social legacy, sway, financial matters, religion and pride. 

In 2015 the tremor shook Kathmandu Durbar Square to its knees and tore down the majority of the southern segment of sanctuaries and sent physical breaks of annihilation all through the rest of the structures. 

One would think this old square would have turned into the focal concentration for reconstructing the country both physically and profoundly additionally as a rising image of the countries pride in its past and its present. 

Nothing could be further from reality. Kathmandu Durbar Square is an unquestionable wreckage both physically and bureaucratically. 

Rather than being the focal point of pride for Kathmandu, Basantapur may well have turned into an image of national disrespect 

What happened to make Kathmandu Durbar Square so awful? 

At the beginning you may surmise that the 2015 seismic tremor was to be faulted for the continuous annihilation of Durbar Square. This is not the situation. It has been harmed and reconstructed after past tremors. The 2015 seismic tremor has just highlighted the genuine offenders of the present day time. 

We should backpedal to the begin of Kathmandu Durbar Square's issues. 

After Nepal turned into a vote based system new specialists were set up to care for the world legacy territories of Nepal. This is ground zero. 

While the Department of Archeology used to have close on full control it abruptly needed to work with Kathmandu city regions and divisions like the then Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department. To be completely forthright – this was and still is the principle issue. 

Kathmandu Durbar Square tragically ended up in a bureaucratic pull of-war and turned into a substance that no one truly needed to keep up however everybody needed to have. 

While the Department of Archeology set up an office in Hanuman Dhoka Durbar Square so to did the then Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department and the nearby Municipality. 

It's sufficiently hard to get one office working effectively in Nepal not to mention have three cooperating. Thus Kathmandu Durbar Square essentially stagnated for the following nine long years. 

Disgraceful profiteering of an open square 

In 2007/8 there was a 200 rupee (USD $2) charge for any "nonnative" who needed to enter Durbar Square. Remember that Durbar Square is an "open square". So charging individuals to enter it is much the same as charging an expense to enter New York Times Square, or Trafalgar Square in London or Plaza Mayor in Madrid. 

While the specialists asserted the charge was to help keep up the square others said it was on the grounds that the square was a vacation destination and individuals ought to pay. Both reasons didn't hold up to worldwide examination. Support of the square gets through the district and Department of Archeology who get subsidizing through government coffers. 

Approve, so it's a vacation destination Well, so are the other universal squares recorded above also pretty much wherever else in Nepal or somewhere else on the planet. 

It maddens everybody to pay to enter an open building not to mention an open square. On the off chance that you need to utilize this focal territory to get starting with one a player in the city then onto the next you have to offer installment to traverse in the event that you are not Nepalese. 

Being Nepal, this 200 rupee charge was pushed as a "token" signal to help keep this old square kept up and in great condition. Being Nepal, the vast majority of all of us gestured and grinned back before giving over this generally little measure of progress. 

At that point, after two years, the expense went up to 350 rupees quickly (a couple of months) before being additionally climbed up to 500 rupees (USD $5). Gossipy tidbits about quarreling and question between the region and Department of Archeology over the running expenses of the square were widespread. 

At this point Durbar Square had turned into a well known decision for neighborhood taxicabs to stop in among the sanctuaries that never at any point hoped to get a lick of paint. 

Bring on 2011, the time of tourism, and the cost was stuck up to a frightful 750 rupees with considerably more cabs, motorbikes, touts and disintegrating housetops display. I trust Kumari Chowk's outside windows had some dark paint that year, the Narayan Temple (now gone) made them platform set up around it and Maju Dega was white washed (guard year!). 

Preceding post-seismic tremor redesign work starting I saw two structures get their windows painted just before the Indra Jatra Festival. 

Toward the finish of 2015 the cost was then climbed up to an extraordinary 1,000 rupees (USD $10) for a visit. The thinking? The tremor had brought about diminished quantities of visitors so they expected to expand the cost to keep the place running. 

Various authorities in Kathmandu Durbar square likewise concur that since the value climb to 1,000 rupees the grievances from voyagers have been various. 

"1,000 rupees is recently a lot for what you get." 

Affirm, so the square had significant harm and one needs the money to remake … well isn't that what this years American Ambassadors Fund of $320,000 goes towards. Ok hold up, they've been doing that since 2001 with over $2.2 million officially spent so it's not new. Only one of many assets like UNESCOs that help "keep up" Nepal's Heritage destinations. 

Without a doubt there are no sharp grapes when "western' financing like this is utilized as a part of conjunction with a 1,000 rupee extra charge while SARC nations just pay 200 rupees to enter and might I venture to specify the Chinese now get free visas to enter Nepal as well. 

I won't say the 4.2 billion dollars of global guide that wasn't spent for a year as it doesn't straightforwardly identify with legacy development. All things considered, possibly some of it does however nobody appears to know … 

It's not simply vacationers who are enduring either. In 2016 nearby Durbar Square keepsake merchants say vacationer numbers are down as are their business as a result of the passage cost increment. 

Kathmandu Durbar Square 2016 is a wreck both as far as repairs, support, traveler cordiality, evaluating and infrasturure. 

Watching Kathmandu Durbar Square disintegrate for a long time 

It's mind-boggling to watch the rot of Kathmandu Durbar Square proceed over almost ten years. It wouldn't be so awful if Bhaktapur Durbar Square and Patan Durbar Square had comparable stories. Be that as it may, they don't. The two other fundamental squares in the Kathmandu Valley are exceptionally well kept, without activity and they about dependably have some type of support unmistakable. 

Both Patan and Bhaktapur charge $5 (going up soon) and $15 separately. The last includes a significantly bigger zone than Kathmandu Durbar Square. 

On the other hand we should take a gander at Panauti. A flawlessly well-kept town of regarded legacy that doesn't charge anybody to enter it! 

Coincidentally, here's a rundown of sanctuaries annihilated in the Kathmandu Valley after the seismic tremor. 

Throughout the years I've watched Kathmandu Durbar square's sanctuaries disintegrate away. I'm sad however painting a sanctuary is not full support. 

Kathmandu Durbar Square has had an expanding number of cabs stop amidst this memorable and "ensured" zone while other legacy zones decline to give them access because of the harm they cause. In the interim "experts" pursue off nearby merchants from setting up shop on sanctuary stages yet they flee amid significant celebrations when the stages are hazardously stuffed with individuals. 

The boundless fortune revealed in Kathmandu Durbar Square appears to have … well not been specified since it was found a couple of years back. 

In the mean time it's continually intriguing to watch the forceful ticket counter security monitors pursue voyagers however dependably a bit of stressing as sightseers instruct them to leave as they regularly consider them touts. 

Not shocking considering the touts in Durbar Square wear a greater number of identifications than the real staff! 

The absence of an open latrine is apparent by the rank scent around King Malla's section (now given way yet open as an informal toilet it appears). 

The quantity of vagrants living around the sanctuaries is very stunning. Some portion of this is because of their privilege for sanctuary at a sanctuary. Be that as it may one can't resist the urge to ask why all the worldwide guide cash to help these individuals is not obvious here … Or at any rate some portion of the 1,000 rupee charge could be put aside to bail individuals out. Of course, there's an absence ofvagrants in Bhaktapur Durbar Square and Patan

   

Durbar Square … why? 

  Post quake, things have turned out to be more terrible and hint at no constantly progressing 

The Taleju sanctuary, that tall sanctuary bolted up behind high dividers that nobody is permitted to enter or get close, has had some redesign work done to it by the Department of Archeology. Not that anybody can tell as you aren't permitted close it. In spite of the fact that you can scan Facebook for some moderately maverick photographs ;) 

Gaddi Baihak (the white section building) has been noted as excessively harmed, making it impossible to repair and will be thumped down and revamped. Still, that doesn't stop pieces of mortar tumbling down at whatever point it downpours. One miracles if this is a cost slicing ploy to h

TODAY NEWS

Tourists avoiding Chitwan due to bad road conditions

Apr 6, 2017-Tourism business visionaries on Thursday cautioned that enterprise searchers may give the pass by to the mainstream wilderness safari goal of Chitwan because of uplifted street security issues and the torment of going over the Narayanghat-Muglin thruway. 

The supposed brilliant triangle visit comprising of Chitwan, Pokhara and Lumbini is a mainstream circuit among tourists in Nepal, and travel merchants are concerned that one of the parts could be hurled out of visit bundles because of the terrible state of the expressway connecting the goal. 

Potential vacationers are not reacting to Chitwan bundles at any universal travel store, and it has raised worries that the safari goal may lose its intensity. 

Last Monday, two individuals were killed by a rockslide on the Narayanghat-Muglin street where work has been going ahead since June 2015 to enlarge it to two paths. 

"Inn appointments are being drop at a disturbing rate," said Suman Ghimire, leader of Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) Chitwan Chapter. 

"Amid the pinnacle summer visitor season, inhabitance at inns and extravagance resorts has plunged to 40 percent and it is as yet going down. The circumstance is disturbing. We don't perceive any indication of the street upgradation work being finished even following two years, passing by the pace of advance." 

Prakash Shrestha, overseeing chief of Machan Wildlife Resort, said sightseers were for the most part worried by the street condition as it takes no less than 12 hours to achieve Chitwan from Kathmandu when it used to take 5 hours beforehand. "Presently the key issue is security." 

Guests who fly there may need to spend up to $200 per individual including the airplane terminal exchange charge, he said. The typical airfare for an outside guest is $109 one way. Nepalis are charged Rs3,500. "On the off chance that guests fly, it is profoundly costly. On the off chance that they go overland, it is hazardous and debilitating," he said. "Visitors have admirably begun dodging Chitwan." 

Business people are stressed in light of the fact that once a goal is expelled from visit bundles, it might set aside quite a while for it to be reestablished. 

Elective PLAN 

Hoteliers, visit and travel offices and aircraft administrators from Chitwan and Kathmandu met up on Thursday to discover an answer for the danger of Chitwan being dropped from vacationer schedules. 

Ghimire said that lodgings and resorts had consented to slice room rates by 25 percent and dispatch alluring visit bundles to charm back guests. They encouraged aircrafts to rethink airfares at any rate for nonnatives. Moreover, carriers need to expand their recurrence to take into account air travel request. 

Hoteliers said that working flights amongst Chitwan and Pokhara could be an alternative to give another get to course. Customarily, trekkers coming back from the Annapurna Circuit proceed to Chitwan to appreciate a wilderness safari. 

Rupesh Joshi, chief of offers and advertising of Buddha Air, said more than 12 flights now associate Bharatpur airplane terminal, the entryway to Chitwan. Prior to the street upgradation, there were not really three flights a day. More than 500 seats to the goal are created day by day. 

"Buddha can work 10 flights day by day to Bharatpur if request develops." Joshi said that carriers could work Bharatpur-Pokhara flights if voyagers are ensured, yet encourage dialogs would be expected to cut airfares. 

Carriers said that the 1,158-meter runway at Bharatpur airplane terminal couldn't suit 72-seater air ship like the ATR 72. 

Joshi said that air movement at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu would turn into a noteworthy issue if recurrence was expanded. "Effectively, local aircrafts need to confront long postponements because of extraordinary blockage," he said. "On the off chance that Bharatpur air terminal can be furnished with night landing offices, the blockage can be diminished to some degree."

Maoist Centre’s preparations in full swing

Apr 5, 2017-The decision CPN (Maoist Center) has included its association in the Kathmandu valley in arrangement for the May 14 nearby level races.

In Kathmandu region, the decision party has officially finished its ward and city gatherings. The gatherings of councils at the city and regions would be held after the neighborhood surveys.

As per Lekhnath Neupane, responsible for the Kathmandu locale board of trustees of the gathering, determination of possibility for 138 wards of 10 regions and one city in Kathmandu region is in conclusive stage.

The ward councils would choose one applicant in agreement however give three names to the locale panel alongside the minutes of the choice in the event that accord stays slippery. The region panel would choose every one of the applicants inside April 7, to be supported in the inclusion of the Provincial Committee by April 9.

The area board has additionally guided all the ward advisory groups to set up their particular workplaces at focal areas for asset activation for the surveys.

Neupane said the prominence of hopefuls and their steadfastness to the gathering would be organized while settling on the competitors however free radicals could likewise be considered. The gathering panels are likewise bustling drafting their "dedication papers" independently for each region and city.

The gathering, in any case, would sort out mass gatherings simply subsequent to settling the competitors. In Bhaktapur, locale in-control DP Dhakal said the Maoists have shaped a 1,500-part decision assembly advisory group under the authority of politburo part Devendra Shrestha. The gathering has effectively held the gathering meetings in 30 wards out of the 38 in four regions of the locale. Determination of applicants would be finished by April 10, after which the gathering would start a way to-entryway crusade.

Dhakal said the gathering would likewise convey many campaigners for the nearby level surveys. At present, the Maoist area advisory group is caught up with drafting separate pronouncements for four districts. The papers would be concluded in the wake of looking for recommendations from local people.


In Lalitpur, ward gatherings were finished in 24 out of the 29 units of the Lalitpur Metropolitan City. Responsible for Lalitpur Metro Committee Dipesh Maharjan said hopeful choice would start on Wednesday in the wake of finishing the meetings in the staying four wards.

                                                                                                                                                                                 

news

Around 270,000 Syrians have right to bring families to Germany - report

Apr 5, 2017- Around 270,000 Syrians in Germany have the right to bring in their family members, a newspaper said on Wednesday - a statistic that could fuel the debate about migration less than six months before a national election.

Mass-selling tabloid Bild cited a government paper as showing a total of 431,376 Syrians applied for asylum in Germany in 2015 and 2016 and said that of those 267,500 would be entitled to family reunifications in Germany.

Neither the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) nor the Interior Ministry immediately responded to requests for comment on the report.

In 2016, the government decided to suspend family reunifications for two years for migrants who get "subsidiary protection" - granted to people who are not considered as being persecuted individually but in whose home county there is or war, torture or other inhumane treatment.

Syrians are the biggest group of asylum applicants in Germany. They are increasingly being granted subsidiary protection rather than refugee status and that means they are only granted the right of residence for a year, although this can be extended.

But Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), their Bavarian sister party - the Christian Social Union (CSU) - and the Social Democrats (SPD), their junior coalition partner, decided last week to make exceptions for people with subsidiary protection status in hardship cases.

More than a million migrants flocked to Germany in 2015 and 2016 but arrivals have dropped significantly.

The impact of immigration has been of one of Alternative for Germany's (AfD) key rallying points but its support has suffered as the issue has slipped out of the headlines ahead of the Sept. 24 vote.

The AfD is currently on between 7 and 11 percent in opinion polls, above the 5 percent threshold to enter parliament.

CSU leader Horst Seehofer told German magazine Stern tackling the AfD was a main aim. 

"If we govern the country sensibly and don't attack each other personally in the election campaign, we can push the AfD under 5 percent," Seehofer said.

However, while his party is behind Merkel in the election campaign he said it was sticking to its demand for a cap on the number of migrants coming here - a proposal which the chancellor has rejected.

In 2016, some 280,000 migrants arrived in Germany, a sharp drop compared with 890,000 the previous year. Bild said while there were no numbers for 2017 yet, the federal police had already caught more than 20,000 illegal migrants on the borders in the first three months of this year.

Separately, the German cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft law that would prevent child marriages conducted abroad from being recognised in Germany. It says marriages should automatically be void if at least one of the partners was younger than 16 at the time they wed.

Russia denies Assad to blame for chemical attack, on course for collision with Trump

Apr 5, 2017- Russia suggested on Wednesday it would publicly stand by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad despite outrage over a chemical weapons attack, setting Donald Trump's new U.S. administration on course for a head-on diplomatic collision with Moscow.

Western countries including the United States blamed Assad's armed forces for the chemical attack, which choked scores of people to death in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in a rebel-held area of northern Syria hit by government air strikes.

Washington said it believed the deaths were caused by sarin nerve gas dropped by Syrian aircraft. But Moscow offered an alternative explanation that could shield Assad: it said it believed poison gas had leaked from a rebel chemical weapons depot struck by Syrian bombs.

Hasan Haj Ali, commander of the Free Idlib Army rebel group, called the Russian statement a "lie".

"Everyone saw the plane while it was bombing with gas," he told Reuters from northwestern Syria.

"Likewise, all the civilians in the area know that there are no military positions there, or places for the manufacture (of weapons). The various factions of the opposition are not capable of producing these substances."

The incident is the first time Washington has accused Assad of using sarin since 2013, when hundreds of people died in an attack on a Damascus suburb. At that time, Washington said Assad had crossed a "red line" set by then-President Barack Obama.

Obama threatened an air campaign to topple Assad but called it off at the last minute after the Syrian leader agreed to give up his chemical arsenal under a deal brokered by Moscow, a decision which Trump has long said proved Obama's weakness.

The new incident means Trump is faced with same dilemma that faced his predecessor: whether to openly challenge Moscow and risk deep involvement in a Middle East war by seeking to punish Assad for using banned weapons, or compromise and accept the Syrian leader remaining in power at the risk of looking weak.

Trump described Tuesday's incident as "heinous actions by the Bashar al-Assad regime", but also faulted Obama for having failed to enforce the red line four years ago. Obama's spokesman declined to comment.

Washington, Paris and London have drawn up a draft U.N. Security Council statement condemning the attack and demanding an investigation. Russia has the power to veto it, as it has done to block all previous resolutions that would harm Assad.

"BARBARIC REGIME"

Trump's response to a diplomatic confrontation with Moscow will be closely watched at home because of accusations by his political opponents that he is too supportive of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He has previously said the United States and Russia should work more closely in Syria to fight against Islamic State.

U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia intervened in the U.S. presidential election last year through computer hacking to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. The FBI and two congressional committees are investigating whether figures from the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow, which the White House denies.

The chemical attack in Idlib province, one of the last major strongholds of rebels that have fought since 2011 to topple Assad, will complicate diplomatic efforts to end a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven half of Syrians from their homes.

Jihadist groups have a strong presence in Idlib alongside other rebel groups, some of which have received backing from powers including Turkey and the United States.

Over the past several months Western countries, including the United States, had been quietly dropping their demands that Assad leave power in any deal to end the war, accepting that the rebels no longer had the capability to topple him by force.

The use of banned chemical weapons would make it harder for the international community to sign off on any peace deal that does not remove him.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who two months ago shifted his country's policy by saying Assad should be allowed to run for re-election, said on Wednesday that he must go.

"This is a barbaric regime that has made it impossible for us to imagine them continuing to be an authority over the people of Syria after this conflict is over."

Russia says proposed U.N. Syria chemical attack resolution "unacceptable" - Ifax

Apr 5, 2017- A proposed United Nations resolution on a chemical weapons attack in Syria is "unacceptable" for Moscow, Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying on Wednesday.

"We do not believe it is expedient to pass a resolution on the chemical weapons attack in its present form," she added.

Washington, Paris and London have drawn up a draft U.N. Security Council statement condemning the attack and demanding an investigation. Russia has the power to veto it, as it has done to block all previous resolutions that would harm Assad.

Russia has already suggested it would publicly stand by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and says the chemical incident which killed scores of people was likely caused by a leak from a depot controlled by Syrian rebels,

Nine military officers sacked over Kabul hospital attack

Apr 5, 2017- Nine military officers have been sacked over last month's attack by militants on the military hospital in Kabul, the Afghan defence ministry says.

Those dismissed include a general and a colonel. All face prosecution for negligence, the ministry said.

The attack was one of the worst in the conflict-hit nation in recent months.

About 50 people are said to have died as militants armed with guns, grenades and knives targeted patients and staff at the hospital.

The brutal assault caused shock and anger among the public. Many people are still demanding to know why a building that was meant to be secure was so vulnerable to attack.

The hospital is heavily guarded and the government says the attackers got inside after exploding a car bomb at the gate.

But other reports suggest some attackers were already inside the hospital when the violence began, meaning militants had infiltrated the high-security site.

There is also a lack of clarity over how many people died. Some hospital workers quoted in local media said the toll was much higher than the figure of about 50 reported by the government.

The so-called Islamic State group said it carried out the attack, but some eyewitnesses later told media the assailants shouted slogans in support of the Taliban.

The deputy interior minister was sacked in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

UN calls talks over Syria 'gas attack'

Apr 5, 2017- The UN Security Council is to hold emergency talks after a suspected chemical attack in Syria left dozens of civilians dead and wounded.

The attack on a rebel-held town brought furious international reaction, with the US and other powers blaming the Syrian government for the deaths.

Officials in Damascus deny using any such weapons.

The attack will overshadow a conference in Brussels at which 70 donor nations will discuss aid efforts in Syria.

Delegates want to step up humanitarian access for thousands of civilians trapped by fighting.

Syria's civil war has raged for more than six years with still no political solution in sight.

Nearly five million Syrians have fled the country and more than six million are internally displaced, the UN says. More than 250,000 people have been killed.

Wednesday's emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was called by France and the UK as international outrage mounted over the suspected gas attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province on Tuesday.

The Russian defence ministry gave its version of events on Wednesday, saying a Syrian air strike had hit a rebel ammunition store that included "a workshop for the production of land mines filled with poisonous substances".

It seemed to support accounts by Syrian military sources a day earlier who reported an explosion at what they called a rebel chemical weapons factory in Khan Sheikhoun.

Earlier, Britain's ambassador to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, said the incident was "very bad news for peace in Syria".

"This is clearly a war crime and I call on the Security Council members who have previously used their vetoes to defend the indefensible to change their course," he told reporters in New York.

Footage from the scene showed civilians, many of them children, choking and foaming at the mouth.

Witnesses said clinics treating the injured were then targeted by air strikes.

UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 58, including 11 children.

It was unable to say what chemical was involved but pro-opposition groups said it was believed to be the nerve agent Sarin.

In a statement, US President Donald Trump condemned what he called "these heinous actions" by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson accused the Syrian government of "brutal, unabashed barbarism".

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said it was a "horrific" attack and that there should be a "clear identification of responsibilities and accountability" for it.

Syria has denied its forces caused the deaths and Russia, which is supporting the government, said it had not carried out any air strikes in the vicinity.

The BBC's Lyse Doucet in Brussels says the attack could prove a stumbling block at Wednesday's international conference.

The EU hopes to use the prospect of funds for reconstruction as a bargaining chip in the faltering peace talks, our correspondent says, but the latest developments will deepen the opposition of those who say now is not the time to discuss financial support for areas controlled by the Syrian government.