aRMED GANG ATTEMS ROBBERY AT KATHMANDu.

In yet another broad daylight robbery in the Capital, three persons including two security guards of Nabil Bank’s Jorpati branch were killed when a group of armed robbers indiscriminately opened fire on them, after they tried to resist.

Police said the two dead security guards have been identified as Tej Bahadur Thapa and Prem Bahadur Tamang while the driver of the microbus carrying the robbers was killed in shootout between the police and the robbers. The identity of the driver is yet to be confirmed.
Police nabbed two robbers along with 2.5 million rupees looted from the bank. One of arrested robber, Ajay Rai, was a former Maoist while the other, Dev Raj Bhattrai, was an Armed Police Force (APF) constable working at the APF barrack in Dakshinkali, according to the police. Bhattrai had been out of duty since two weeks.
Some 15 looters came in a microbus at around 11:00 a.m. A patrolling team from the police beat in Bouddha arrived on the scene when the looters were trying to get away with the looted cash, police said.
Shootout ensued between police and the looters that caused serious clamor around the area. Three pistols, khukuris, mobile phone sets and bullets were recovered from the robbers.
This was the third major robbery case in a row in Kathmandu in less than a week. A group of robbers had looted properties worth Rs 2.5 million from a house in Santinagar, Kathmandu, Tuesday morning and armed robbers had looted Rs.1.1 million cash from the Nepal Bank Limited branch office in Chhetraparti the day before. However, this is only the first time, police have been able to nab any robber.

UN ready to extend help in Nepal peace process.

A senior official of the United Nations, Kul Chandra Gautam, has reiterated that the world body is ready to extend its help in Nepal’s peace process.
Talking to BBC Nepali Service on Tuesday from the UN headquarters, New York, Gautam said the UN would be happy to take up the role of monitoring ceasefire, in managing the arms (of the rebels) and helping conduct the Constituent Assembly elections peacefully, among others.
“It would be easier for the UN (to help the peace process) if both the sides jointly sent their request to us,” he added.
“In our view, there is no need for international mediation (in Nepal),” said Gautam, adding, “Whatever the role will be there for the UN, it will involve some costs.. So, other UN members may have to come forward to meet the costs.”
Gautam said raising funds to finance UN operations in Nepal would not be that difficult if the Nepal government made requests before the international community.
He said the present team of the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Nepal could also help in monitoring the ceasefire.
Gautam said UN could send its civilian experts in helping the Nepali peace process. “In case, if we needed to send peacekeeping troops (for the management of the arms), the case will have to referred to the Security Council and the process may be rather complicated,” said Gautam. “What is important is that there is total consensus within Nepal,” he added.
When asked if India would accept the direct UN role in Nepal’s peace process, the senior UN official said he had heard that Indian position had become flexible compared to the past. “We have heard that India may not have any objection (to the UN involvement) but things are yet to become clear. Nepal, too, can convince India in this regard,” he added.
Gautam’s comments came in response to reports that both the government and Maoist rebels had agreed to invite to monitor the month-old ceasefire. A member of the Maoist negotiating team, Dinanath Sharma, told Nepalnews that the issue would be taken up during the second round of peace negotiations. He said the details were yet to be worked out.
Sources say the second round of peace negotiations is likely to take place next week as the Maoist negotiating team is said to be busy this week in preparation of its first major mass meeting scheduled to be held in Kathmandu on Friday.

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fOUR NEPALESE PEACEKEEPERS TO BE HONOUREd.

Four Nepalese soldiers among 124 peacekeepers, who died last year serving in the cause of peace, will receive ‘The Dag Hammarskjold Medal’ to be provided posthumously.
A press statement issued by the United Nations Information Centre UNIC) in Kathmandu said those receiving the medals are; Warrant Officer Rishi Ram, who died while serving in the UN Mission in Burundi on 2 March 200(?), Corporal Mohan Shingh Ga Ma, who died while serving in the UN Mission in Haiti on 20 March 2005; Sepoy Shyam Bahadur Katuwal, who died while serving in the UN Mission in Haiti on 26 February 2005 and Major Kabindra Jung Thapa, who died while serving in the UN Mission in the DR Congo on 2 June 2005.
“The Dag Hammarskjold Medal will be awarded posthumously to military, police and civilian personnel who lost their lives serving in the UN peacekeeping operations amid a special ceremony in the United Nations headquarters in New York on 31 May,” the statement added.
At this time, Nepal is the fifth largest contributor to the peacekeeping operations with 3,523 peacekeepers serving in 12 missions, according to Douglas Coffman of the Peace and Security section in the UN Department of Public Information.

Meanwhile, in a statement issue on the occasion of UN peacekeepers day on Monday, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged all to pay tribute to the men and women from countries across the world who serves selflessly, tirelessly and fearlessly in UN peacekeeping operations.
“Let us remember the heroes who have laid down their lives in lands far from their own in the service of peace. And let us reaffirm our commitment to building a world free from the scourge of war,” Annan added.
“The days of lightly armed peacekeepers conducting foot patrols along ceasefire lines between sovereign States are long over. UN peacekeeping operations are now increasingly complex and multi-dimensional, going beyond monitoring a ceasefire to actually bringing failed States back to life, often after decades of conflict,” he noted.
More than 72,000 uniformed personnel and 15,000 civilians now serve in 18 peace operations administered by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, making the United Nations the largest multilateral contributor to post-conflict stabilization worldwide.
“One hundred and eight countries now contribute uniformed personnel, including a 71-nation mission in Sudan -- the most diverse coalition ever assembled. The leading contributors, by far, are India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which collectively provide more than 40 per cent of UN peacekeepers -- and as a result have also suffered some of the highest losses,” Annan added.
With peacekeeping having become a core function of the Organization, and with a greater number of staff joining the many already serving in dangerous field locations, it is essential that they receive more professional and responsive institutional support, he said, adding, “We are determined to achieve this through critical management and oversight reforms, and through strict enforcement of the highest standards of conduct and of the zero tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse.

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‘dEAD'’ EVERESTEER RETURNs.

Half-undressed and hatless, an Australian climber given up for dead on Mount Everest greeted an American mountaineer with the words: "I imagine you are surprised to see me here."
This description of the remarkable encounter was given by US mountaineer Dan Mazur in a telephone interview with Everestnews.com after he gave up his own bid for the summit to help rescue the Australian, Lincoln Hall, 50.
Hall had been reported dead by his expedition teammates after reaching the 8,848-meter summit of Everest on Thursday but then succumbing to acute altitude sickness as he began his descent.
Hall, one of Australia's most experienced climbers, became disoriented, lay down in the snow and resisted attempts by accompanying sherpas to help him, according to an account of the incident posted on the Internet by his expedition leader, Alexander Abramov.
The two sherpas with Hall were forced to leave him behind when they ran out of oxygen and Abramov issued a statement Friday that the Australian was dead.
But the team of climbers led by Mazur came upon Hall several hours later and found him alive.

Mazur radioed the news back to camp and in a rescue operation involving about a dozen sherpas and a Russian doctor, Hall was brought to Everest's advanced base camp where he was treated for frostbite and altitude sickness. Abramov said earlier on an Everest news website that Hall was suffering "acute psychosis, a disorientation in space" and had been resisting efforts to help him.
He was diagnosed as suffering from acute oedema of the brain, a frequently fatal swelling of the brain that occurs at extremely high altitudes.
Hall, who lost several toes to frostbite on an earlier climb, was also said again to be suffering from frostbite. Abramov said Hall later told his wife Barbara in an emotional phone call of frostbite in his fingers.

Abducted people found dead in Rautahat

The dead bodies of two people, abducted by the Maoists six days ago, have been found at Inaruwa VDC, Rautahat Saturday morning.
Bodies of Sambhu Sahani and Shyam Sundar Sahani, sons of Congress District Working Committee member Jyogindra Sahani, were found buried near a river.
The Maoists, after bombing the house of Sahani had abducted the slain brothers from Basantapatti village development committee (VDC) of the district accusing them of trying to disrupt a Maoist meeting.
Reports quoted Superintendent of Police Keshav Adhikari as saying that the badly mutilated bodies were found buried at a local river bank.
The Maoists however, have claimed the Sahani brothers of being dacoits and that the villagers themselves had beaten the brothers to death.
Locals have strongly refuted the Maoists' claim of villagers doing the killings, pointing out that it was the rebels who did the brothers in.
Meanwhile, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal has begun an investigation into the incident.
There has been no let up in the atrocities of the rebels despite ceasefire announced by them.