The
Sunday Times International
- South Asia News
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Nepal
MPs want king stripped of military power That announcement came as legislators demanded the king be stripped of control over the 90,000-strong army, fearing he could use its loyalty to propel himself into power again. ''It is the prime minister who should be the supreme commander of the army and not the king. The existing laws should be amended immediately, and that is what we are going to do,'' said Shivraj Basnet, a lawmaker from Nepali Congress, the country's largest party. The freed soldiers were handed over to representatives of the rights group INSEC-Nepal in the village of Jitpur, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) east of Katmandu, the group said in a statement. The condition and whereabouts of the three remaining soldiers were still unknown. The soldiers had been captured Thursday in the nearby village of Ramdittha as they headed home from vacation, according to Indresh Dahal, a spokesman for the Royal Nepalese Army. The
abductions came just hours after the rebels had declared a three-month
unilateral cease-fire, and it was possible the guerrillas involved,
who have a limited communications network, did not know of the announcement.
The
cease-fire eased some of the pressure on the newly reinstated Parliament,
which was ordered reconvened by the king Monday after weeks of often
violent protests against the royal dictatorship. On Friday, lawmakers
proposed a truce with the Maoists-- who have battled for a decade
to create a communist state -- as they met for the first time in
four years. They also proposed elections for a special assembly
to rewrite the constitution. Koirala was to be sworn in Sunday as his health was improving, said his aide, Rajendra Parajuli. The proposals, which also included initial talks with the Maoist rebels, were to be discussed Sunday in Parliament. The rebels supported the nearly three-week campaign of demonstrations organized by an alliance of seven political parties against the royal government. Major
weather warning for Bangladesh coast as cyclone whips up Bay of
Bengal The cyclone was moving in a north and northeasterly direction, but the Bangladesh Meteorological Department said Saturday that it was unclear if it would reach the coast. Cyclone Mala, which in Bengali language means ''a garland of flowers,'' was centered about 650 kilometers (400 miles) south-southwest of the seaport of Chittagong and 550 kilometer (340 miles) south-southwest of the coastal district of Cox's Bazar, the department said. Hundreds of fishing boats returned to shore Saturday after authorities issued a warning signal, said Mujibur Rahman, a spokesman for the Cox's Bazar Fishing Boat Owners Association. Warning flags have been raised along the coast, and about 34,000 Bangladesh Red Crescent Society volunteers have been put on standby to help move people to safer places if needed, said the society's spokesman in Chittagong, Golam Rabbani. It was not clear if or when Cyclone Mala will hit Bangladesh's coast, but a duty weather official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with official policy, said if it reached the coast it would happen later today. -AP Afghans
hunt for kidnapped Indian worker, driver Violence and lawlessness across much of the Afghan south has crippled development, and the main task of thousands of NATO troops due soon to move into the region will be to ensure sufficient security for reconstruction. “We've started search operations in areas where we've received intelligence reports the engineer might be,” said Gulab Shah Alikhail, spokesman for the governor of the southern province of Zabul. The Indian and his driver were kidnapped after gunmen stopped their car on a main road in Zabul on Friday. A Taliban spokesman said by telephone from an undisclosed location that Taliban fighters had kidnapped the pair and a Taliban council would decide their fate. The Indian had been contracted to work for the Afghan telecommunications company Roshan, a company official said. “We're working with the relevant authorities for his release,” said the official, who declined to identify the Indian. Security is a major worry in Afghanistan. Taliban attacks are mounting as NATO prepares to double its peacekeeping operations while Washington hopes to cut its forces there by several thousand. U.S. and Afghan opposition forces drove the Taliban from power in late 2001 after the Islamists refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, architect of the Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. cities. Taliban and other militants have waged an insurgency against U.S.-led foreign troops and government forces since then. Pakistan's
overtures to Bollywood On
Friday the film Taj Mahal goes on general release in Lahore. The premiere of Mughal-e-Azam was a historic occasion that saw a large turnout of the great and the good. Bollywood
flops Back
in India, Taj Mahal was one of the major Bollywood flops last year.
Indian State Minister for Culture Ambika Soni accompanied the convoy of film stars that included Kabir Bedi, Shatrughan Sinha, Feroz Khan, Manisha Koirala and the lead actors in Taj Mahal, Sonia Jehan and Zulfikar Syed. No such gathering can truly matter without a senior politician present, so federal Minister for Culture Ghazi Gulab Jamal duly obliged. Earlier,
the Lahore High Court had dismissed a petition filed by the veteran
actor and president of the Movie Artists Association of Pakistan
(MAAP), Yusaf Khan. He was trying to maintain a total ban on the
showing of Indian movies. Ever since the 1965 ban, forces on both sides of the border have been trying to persuade the Pakistani government to ease its stance. The campaign gained momentum in the last few years, especially following the decline of Lollywood, the Lahore-based film industry and the rise of home viewing of pirated DVDs. Many film producers in Pakistan have gone out of business. Many cinema owners have shut down their theatres, converting them into plazas, showrooms and service stations. The more recent demands to lift the 40-year old ban on Indian movies came mainly from exhibitors and film distributors. But the artistic fraternity is mostly opposed to the idea. For them, it means driving the last nail in the coffin of the local film industry. The chairman of the Pakistan Film Exhibitors Association, Jahanzaib Baig, contends that the survival of cinema industry lies "only in importing" Bollywood movies. "Our language and culture are quite similar. Besides, people are very fond of Indian movies. Period," Mr Baig argues. He says that Pakistan is not producing enough films to supply local cinema demand. And as the owner of one of Lahore's prestigious few Digital Theatre Sound (DTS) cinemas, he is in a good position to know. The current slump in the Pakistan cinematic industry has meant that he has had to erect a gas station within the cinema premises "in order to keep the ball rolling". Greater
hype There are rumours that the mixed response to Muhal-e-Azam will lead its distributor to withdraw it from viewing and then re-release it on 2 June with greater hype. While Taj Mahal awaits its fate at the Pakistani box office, Mr Baig says that its miserable performance in India will not have any bearing on Pakistani audience reaction. "There
have been instances when a film flopped in its hometown but worked
overseas, or vice versa. So, we are keeping our fingers crossed,"
he says. |
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