PM Oli off to Uttarakhand

Apr 8, 2018-Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who is on a three-day state visit to India, has left for a visit to Pantnagar-based Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Uttarakhand.

He will visit Breeder Seed Production Centre and an integrated farming project in Pantnagar. He will also be conferred with a Honorary Doctorate Degree of Science at the university. Oli boarded a special flight to Uttarakhand at Indira Gandhi Airport, New Delhi at around 10:45. He will return to the airport later today before wrapping up his visit.

PM Oli will return from Uttarakhand at 4 pm and will take a flight to Kathmandu from Indira Gandhi International Airport. PM will hold a press conference after landing at Tribhuvan International Airport this evening.


Published: 08-04-2018 13:01



source:www.kathmandupost.ekantipur.com

Province 5 unveils policies, programmes

Apr 8, 2018-Province 5 has presented its policies and programmes for the current fiscal year with an aim to achieve prosperity through agricultural, tourism and industrial development.

The policies and programmes was presented before the provincial assembly by province chief Umakanta Jha. It aims to prioritise protection and promotion of tourist spots including Gautam Buddha’s birthplace Lumbini and areas such as Tilaurakot, Ramgram, Devdaha, Niklihawa, Kakrahawa and Kudan associated with Lumbini. The policies and programmes also gives importance to developing irrigation system to provide irrigation facilities throughout the year and protect agricultural land.

Industrial corridors will be developed at Neapalgunj, Bhairahawa, Krishnanagar and Koilabas to develop industrial infrastructures in the province.

Following Jha’s presentation of the policies and programmes, Chief Minister Shankar Pokharel proposed it before the assembly for discussion. The discussion on the policies and programmes will continue from Monday.

Nepali Congress chief whip Surendra Hamal said the policies and programmes was brought without prior consultations and could not include all the regions and districts. Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum Nepal’s chief whip Santosh Kumar Panday also criticized the policies and programmes saying it was brought in an unilateral manner.



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Long NHS waits: My child flew to Turkey for op

Megan's family had to pay privately for surgery
"I was really sore. It was really painful. And I felt really drowsy and sick, and just wanted to go back to bed," says Megan, watching a video of her first steps after major spinal surgery.

Wearing pyjamas and fluffy slippers, she treads carefully, held up on either side by a Turkish nurse.

Megan flew to Istanbul for private surgery late last year, having been told she faced long delays for an operation to fix the deformation of her spine, which was causing her problems breathing.

When the healthcare trust in Belfast told her parents it would be at least a year before she could have the procedure, they felt they had no choice but to fundraise for treatment.

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Through the generosity of strangers, the money was raised - but surgery to insert four metal rods into her spine was painful and expensive, costing about £30,000.

Just a few days after treatment, 14-year-old Megan had to board a plane home to Northern Ireland.

"But I was so happy, because I just wanted it over and done with, and to get back on the road to recovery," she says.

source:www.bbc.com

George Ezra: 'I struggled to accept fame'

"Every gig I ever play, I promise myself I'm going to be the cool pop star," says George Ezra.

"But I'm just not that person. After two songs, I'm grinning from ear to ear."

That grin is infectious. When Ezra played in London earlier this week, the whole room lit up with smiles as the audience gleefully sang back every word of his bouncy, ebullient pop songs.

But the 24-year-old's easygoing style doesn't win him any favours with critics.

The Guardian dismissed his new album, Staying At Tamara's, as "unchallenging" and "unflinchingly polite" - an assessment built on the myth that music's only worthwhile if it's edgy or miserable.

"It's very easy to get big ideas about, 'I'm going to have this haircut, I'm going to start doing this and that,'" agrees Ezra. "But unless you look comfortable and natural, none of it will make sense.

"So instead of trying to appeal to a group of people that aren't interested anyway, why not just do what you do well and be comfortable with it?"

source:www.bbc.com

Lula: Former Brazilian president surrenders to police

Lula has left the steelworkers 'union in Sao Bernardo do Campo to give himself up to police
Brazil's former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has surrendered to police to begin serving a 12-year sentence for corruption.

It follows a two-day stand-off that saw him take refuge in a steelworkers' union building after missing a court deadline to hand himself in.

The 72-year-old walked out of the office in his hometown, near Sao Paolo, and was taken away by police cars.

Scores of supporters had earlier blocked his car from leaving the scene.

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Lula had said he would comply with the arrest warrant against him, but insists he is innocent.

Footage on Brazil's GloboNews showed Lula and his bodyguards pushing through the crowd outside the union building, in the town of Sao Bernardo do Campo.

He will now be taken by police to a cell in the southern city of Curitiba.


Media captionSupporters earlier blocked Lula's car
Lula was the frontrunner for October's presidential election but his jailing leaves the race wide open.

The former metalworker and trade union activist is an iconic figure for the left in Latin America. He was the first left-wing leader to make it to the Brazilian presidency in nearly half a century.

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Earlier on Saturday, flanked by his impeached successor as president, Dilma Rousseff, the 72-year-old delivered an impassioned 55-minute speech.

"I will comply with the order and all of you will become Lula," he told the crowd in Sao Bernardo do Campo. "I'm not above the law. If I didn't believe in the law, I wouldn't have started a political party. I would have started a revolution."

source:www.bbc.com

Trump Tower fire: Blaze breaks out at New York property

Fire trucks arrive outside Trump Tower on New York's Fifth Avenue
Firefighters are at the scene of a blaze at Trump Tower in New York, where black smoke and flames has been seen billowing from the building.

The New York Fire Department (NYFD) said one civilian was reportedly seriously injured.

Three firefighters have also suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the service said on Twitter.

US President Donald Trump has a home and an office in the building, but is currently in Washington.

The fire was reported to be on the 50th floor of the high-rise, which contains apartments and office space.

source:www.bbc.com

Syria war: Scores dead in Syria gas attack, rescuers and medics say

Douma is the last opposition holdout in Syria's Eastern Ghouta, and is being heavily bombarded by government forces
Rescuers and medics say at least 70 people have died in Syria after toxic gas was dropped on Douma, the last rebel-held town in Eastern Ghouta.

Volunteer rescue force the White Helmets tweeted graphic images showing scores of bodies in a basement. It said the death toll is likely to rise.

There has been no independent verification of the reports.

Syria's government has called the allegations of a chemical attack a "fabrication".

A tweet - later deleted - by the White Helmets put the number of dead at 150.

The US state department said it is monitoring the "very disturbing" reports, and that Russia - which is fighting alongside the Syrian government - should be held responsible if deadly chemicals had been used.

"The regime's history of using chemical weapons against its own people in not in dispute," said the state department.

"Russia ultimately bears responsibility for the brutal targeting of countless Syrians with chemical weapons."

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The pro-opposition Ghouta Media Center tweeted that more than a thousand people had suffered the effects of the alleged gas attack.

It blamed a barrel bomb allegedly dropped by a helicopter which it said contained sarin, a toxic nerve agent.

Douma is the last rebel-held town in Syria's Eastern Ghouta region, and is under siege from government forces.

source:www.bbc.cov