V O K

The British government is likely to partially lift the ban on student visas in Nepal, Bangladesh and North India, much to the respite of thousands of Nepali students who were feeling ripped off due to UK’s decision to suspend the visa application under the ‘Tier 4 Point Based System’.

Nepali students wishing to study in higher education courses in UK will possibly be able to apply for a student visa from March 1, 2010.

The British Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills Pat McFadden recently announced that the suspension will be lifted for all students wanting to study higher education courses, whether foundation degrees, undergraduate or postgraduate with effect from March 1.

He said that the temporary suspension [of Tier 4 visa application from Feb.1 for students from Nepal, Bangladesh and North India] was taken “in response to a huge surge in applications over a very short period of time.”

However, he said the ban will continue for the time being for student applicants who wish to enter the UK to study at a level lower than undergraduate level.

The British Embassy based in Kathmandu has also confirmed that the UK Agency is going to review the temporary suspension early March. Read more »

Home Minister Bhim Rawal appeared before the State Affairs Committee of the legislature parliament to answer the queries over the murder of media magnate Jamim Shah and the concerns over poor security situation in the country.

The committee members criticized the government, the Home Minister in particular, over the failure of police authorities to avert the murder of a prominent figure like Shah in broad daylight in one of the high security areas of the capital.

On a question as to why the authorities were unable to track down the murderers of Shah, Home Minister Rawal said the government would leave no stone unturned to probe the murder and bring the killers to justice. Read more »

The Special Committee on supervision, integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants has entrusted Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal with the responsibility to forge understanding with the parties on the number of combatants to be integrated in security agencies.

A meeting of the Special Committee held at the Prime Minister’s Office Wednesday arrived at the conclusion to reach out to the parties for a consensus.

The decision was reached as the Maoist representatives proposed to delegate key issues of army integration including determining the number of combatants to be integrated in the security forces and devising criteria for the selection of combatants wanting to be integrated to the High Level Political Mechanism. Read more »

Britain has temporarily suspended student visa applications from northern India, Nepal and Bangladesh after a surge in numbers.

The UK Border Agency has stopped accepting applications for at least a month while it investigates.

The BBC says there were 13,500 applications from northern India alone in the last three months of last year – up from 1800 in the last three months of 2008.

Unscrupulous businessmen are reportedly helping thousands of Indians and Pakistanis to obtain a place at bogus colleges in Britain. Read more »

Chemonics International announces that it is cancelling funding for production of the reality television show Khoj: Yuwa Netritwa ko. The decision to end the show comes after determining that contestants’ scores were manipulated by Student Parliament: Redrawing Nepal, the organization that developed and managed the program under a grant received from Chemonics.

Upon learning that contestants’ scores may have been altered, Chemonics immediately launched an inquiry. After a two-week investigation, it was determined that the contestants scores had been manipulated and it is impossible to recover all the original documentation related to the scoring. As a result, there is no way to verify the correct winners of the elimination rounds. Scores for the contestants should have been determined equally by judges’ remarks and SMS votes. Read more »

Sci-fi spectacular Avatar has surpassed Titanic to become the highest grossing movie of all time, figures from distributor 20th Century Fox show.
Avatar’s worldwide takings in just six weeks stand at $1.859bn (£1.15bn), versus Titanic’s $1.843bn (£1.14bn).
The figures are not adjusted for inflation or the higher cost of Avatar’s 3D film tickets.
Director James Cameron holds the remarkable distinction of directing both the world’s top grossing movies.
Titanic, which starred Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, set a new box office record during its release in 1997-1998.
It also won Cameron an Oscar for best director.
Avatar – Cameron’s latest epic – won two Golden Globes last week, and is expected to garner an Oscar nomination next month. Read more »

Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal met Nepali Congress president and coordinator of the high-level political mechanism (HLPM) on Tuesday “discussing on how the mandate of the mechanism could be effectively fulfilled”.

During the meeting held at the Koirala’s residence in Majarajgunj, Dahal is also known to have stressed that the Maoist demands regarding ‘civilian supremacy’ and ‘national independence’ should be discussed at the HLPM and arrive at a conclusion on them at the earliest.

He also complained that the mechanism has not been able to take up the issues raised by his party. In response, Koirala assured the Maoist chief that he would discuss this demand with the UML leadership and move ahead positively, it is learnt.

Dahal-Koirala meeting comes at a time when the three-party mechanism is yet to settle the row over the representation of leaders in it. Read more »

The United States on Wednesday urged Nepal’s rival political leaders to push forward a peace process that ended a bloody communist insurgency but has hit roadblocks that sparked protests and unrest.
A visiting senior U.S. diplomat, who met Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and former Maoist rebel leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also called for Nepal to investigate human rights violations. Some 13,000 people died during the 10-year insurgency and hundreds remain unaccounted for.

The peace process that began in 2006 led the Maoists to abandon their decade-long armed revolt and join mainstream politics, but tensions have grown in the past year, principally over the fate of thousands of former Maoist fighters still confined in U.N.-monitored camps.

Little progress has been made in rewriting the constitution, which was scheduled to be completed by May 2010. Read more »

India and Nepal on Sunday pledged to work closely in the fight against terrorism and extremism, as external affairs minister S M Krishna endedhis three-day visit to the Himalayan country.

“The two ministers discussed security concerns of their respective countries and agreed that terrorism and extremism were a threat to both countries. They agreed to cooperate closely to end this menace,” said a joint statement issued here at the end of the visit.

Both the minister discussed ways to “enhance bilateral security cooperation to control cross-border crimes such as smuggling of fake Indian currency, human trafficking and arms smuggling”. Read more »

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has recommended that the UN’s special mission in Nepal be extended, warning of escalating post-war tension in the Himalayan country.

In a report to the UN Security Council, Ban expressed serious concern at Nepal’s political stalemate and said the next few months would be crucial for the peace process, which began when a civil war ended in 2006.

“Positions have hardened at the opposing ends of the political spectrum, which has seriously eroded the common middle ground that had, from the outset, defined the peace process and remained its driving strength,” he said.

“There is a growing and worrying risk of the political discourse being dominated by extreme voices and the focus shifting away from the peaceful and democratic path.” Read more »