Countdown of the top stories.

1. Newly elected Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal cannot find any minister for the cabinet because of the wrangling position for ministries.
2.Attorney general of Nepal resigns as the power shifts from Moaist to UML.
3.Record Climber of the Mount Everest(Sagarmatha) Apa Sherpa raise concern about the climate change and how it has affected the Himalayas.
4.Flood in the far-western development region.
5.Prayers held for the deceased and injured during the bombing in a church in Dhobighat, laitpur.

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Gurkhas win battle to settle in UK

Gurkha champion Joanna Lumley has proclaimed "the Gurkhas are coming home" after the Government finally relented on settlement rights.

The actress praised the decision by Prime Minister Gordon Brown after he opened the door to thousands of retired soldiers.

And Mr Brown later hailed the Gurkhas as "the bravest of all" as he welcomed them to a Downing Street garden party.

Campaigners reacted with jubilation after the announcement by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith that all Gurkha veterans with four years' service would be allowed to move to the UK.

Surrounded by the heroic Nepalese warriors, Ms Lumley, whose later father was an officer in the Gurkha regiment, led the cheer of "Ayo Gurkhali" - "the Gurkhas are coming".

Choking back tears, she said: "A great injustice has been righted. The Gurkhas are coming home. I would like to pay tribute to Gordon Brown the Prime Minister, a brave man who has made today a brave decision on behalf of the bravest of the brave. This is a fantastic day for my brothers and sisters."

She was informed of the decision at a breakfast meeting with the PM. It follows a two-year legal and political battle for equal rights for those who retired before 1997, when their base moved from Hong Kong to Kent.

Last month campaigners reacted with fury at Home Office rules which they said would allow only 100 more Gurkhas, mostly officers and medal-winners, to live here, but would exclude ordinary infantrymen. The tide turned firmly in their favour last month when the Government lost a key House of Commons vote to Labour backbenchers, the Tories and Liberal Democrats. Despite the result not being binding, ministers were forced to launch a review.

Ms Lumley then cornered Immigration Minister Phil Woolas in a television studio to quiz him about letters sent to Gurkha soldiers appearing to suggest their appeals had been rejected.

The announcement was widely applauded. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, whose party led the Commons campaign said: "I am absolutely thrilled that the Gurkhas have finally been given justice."

sourcehttp://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_3331267.html

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Attorney General Vaidya resigns

Kantipur Report
KATHMANDU, May 25 - With the turn of events in political scenario after Madhav Kumar Nepal was elected the Prime Minister, Attorney General Raghab Lal Vaidya Monday tendered his resignation.
He submitted the resignation letter to President Dr Ram Baran Yadav.
The letter mentions that he resigned to ease the situation for the new Prime Minister accepting the change in events as per the constitution.
President Yadav had appointed Vaidya the Attorney General last year on the recommendation of outgoing Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

source:ekantipur.com

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Nepal's new PM sworn in, faces wrangling over cabinet

Mon May 25, 2009 6:22am
KATHMANDU, May 25 (Reuters) - Nepal's new prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal was sworn in on Monday but only two positions in his cabinet were filled because of wrangling over ministerial positions within the coalition, officials and analysts said.

Backed by a loose alliance of 22 political parties, Nepal replaced Maoist leader Prachanda who resigned this month after the president Ram Baran Yadav reversed his decision to sack the country's army chief.

Yadav administered the oath of office to Nepal, leader of the moderate Communist UML party, who served as a deputy prime minister in the country's first elected communist minority government in 1994-95.

Nepal named Vidya Bhandari as defence minister and Surendra Pandey to the finance portfolio. Rest of the cabinet would be named after talks with allies, UML officials said.

"There lie his difficulties," said Lok Raj Baral, chief of the Nepal Centre for Strategic Studies, a private think-tank. "All 22 parties are haggling for cabinet positions and satisfying each of them is proving hard."

The Maoists, who signed a peace deal with the government in 2006 to end a decade-long armed struggle, have burned Nepal's effigies and say his government would not last long.

Nepal said his government aimed to prepare a constitution by May next year as envisaged in the peace deal with the Maoists.

"Drafting the constitution on time and taking the peace process to a logical conclusion are two major priorities," he told top bureaucrats after assuming office.

The new leader also faces a difficult year with crippling power cuts, poor public security, high inflation, unemployment, food shortage and rising popular expectations.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
(For the latest Reuters news on Nepal see: in.reuters.com, for blogs see blogs.reuters.com/in/)
source:www.reuters.com

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Climate change making Everest ascent harder-sherpa

Climate change making Everest ascent harder-sherpa
Mon May 25, 2009

By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU, May 25 (Reuters) - A Nepali sherpa who holds the world record for climbing Mount Everest said on Monday rising temperatures were melting snow and turning the slopes barren, making it even harder to scale the world's tallest peak.

Apa Sherpa, back from his 19th successful ascent of Everest last week, said a snow trail along the route to the peak was now just a stretch of bare rocks, as climate change pushed up snowlines and shrank glaciers.

"This makes climbing the mountain difficult because walking on naked rocks wearing crampons is hard," Sherpa, 49, told Reuters after his expedition during which he carried a banner that read: "Stop Climate Change; Let the Himalayas Live!"

Apa Sherpa climbed the 8,850 metres (29,035 feet) peak on Thursday to highlight the consequences of climate change on the Himalayas.

Environmental activists say rising temperatures are rapidly shrinking the Himalayan glaciers from which several Asian rivers originate, threatening the lives of millions of people who depend on them for water.

Besides the impact of climate change, Everest's environment was also threatened due to the trash left behind by climbers, campaigners say.

Sherpa, who first climbed Everest in 1990, said his team had also picked more than five tonnes of garbage on the mountain.

The litter included old tents, ropes, plastic and gas canisters, parts of an Italian helicopter that crashed in 1973 and human waste.

Sherpa, who now lives in the United States, was born in Solukhumbhu district in northeast Nepal, home to Mount Everest.

More than 3,000 people have climbed Mount Everest, considered holy by the sherpa community of Solukhumbhu, since Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa first scaled it in 1953.

Sherpa carried a special metal vase containing 400 sacred Buddhist offerings and placed it on the summit, hoping the move would restore the sanctity of the Himalayas and raise awareness about climate change, organisers said.

"There is only one Sagarmatha which is the heritage of the entire world," Sherpa said referring to the Nepali name of the mountain. "We must maintain it and keep it clean."
(Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Alex Richardson)
(For the latest Reuters news on Nepal see: in.reuters.com, for blogs see blogs.reuters.com/in)
source:reuters.com

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