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December 21st, kathmandu    -   The Taliban government has suspended university education for all female students in Afghanistan, the latest step in its brutal clampdown on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women. A spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education confirmed the suspension to CNN on Tuesday. A letter published by the education ministry said the decision was made in a cabinet meeting and the order will go into effect immediately. Girls were barred from returning to secondary schools in March, after the Taliban ordered schools for girls to shut just hours after they were due to reopen following months long closures imposed after the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Human Rights Watch criticized the ban on Tuesday, calling it a “shameful decision that violates the right to education for women and girls in...

July 4, Biratnagr Police in the Morang district of eastern Nepal have spotted a woman dead in mysterious circumstances. They recovered the body of an unidentified woman from a pit at Doriya, Ratuwamai municipality-2 of the district. Locals had informed the police of the case after they spotted the dead woman appearing to be in her mid-20s. DSP Deepak Shrestha of the District Police Office says efforts are underway to identify the deceased. The body has been sent to the Rangeli Hospital for postmortem. Police are looking into the case. ...

  June 6, 2022 Bollywood celebrities including Priyanka Chopra, Richa Chadha and Farhan Khan are among those to have lambasted the commercial for Layer'r Shot, a brand of male fragrance, calling it "shameful," "disgusting" and "incredibly tasteless." Its controversial advert shows four men appearing to stalk a frightened-looking woman in a store before cutting to one of the men saying, "We're four, there's one, who takes the shot?" Only when the woman turns round does it become clear they are talking about the body spray -- which one of the men then takes from a store shelf and uses. The commercial caused a storm on social media, where critics including various celebrities blasted its innuendo as making light of rape. Many said the timing of the advert made it particularly insensitive, as it was...

6th August, Kathmandu The exhibition where the Wild Things Are showcases the work of master ceramic artist Gopal Das Shrestha has been commanced in Siddhartha Art Gallery since August 4th and will be continued by 3rd septemner. In this show, his wife Yamuna Shrestha who is known for her origami creations is showing her recent ceramic creations. Their son Shushank Shrestha, a BFA graduate in Fine Art from the Kathmandu University Centre for Art and Design is also exhibiting alongside his parents with a series of beguiling and playful art works. Birds, beasts, flora and fauna and an assortment of alien characters dominate the show – hence the title.          All three artists work from the Kalapremi Studio in Baluwatar which was founded in 2006. The studio is the locus for contemporary expressions in clay and is activated...

►Saraswati Katuwal    October 5, 2017 The successful completion of local, provincial, and federal elections in 2017 is an historic milestone for the country. Local elections were held after almost two decades. They became a key vessel for acting upon the Constitutional obligation towards gender and social inclusion in the government and ending the political impasse that beset the country for many years. Record number of women representatives were elected to office, and this has presented the representatives with both opportunities and challenges. The number of women especially from marginalized communities coming into power currently augurs well for gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) but, the road to women’s substantive participation in leadership and decision-making roles is littered with manifold challenges. Against this backdrop, The Asia Foundation...

Sept 14, kathmandu. A total of 102 journalists have been infected with Coronavirus across the country so far. Among them, State No 2 records the highest infection among the journalists, standing at 28. According to the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), there were 17 journalists infected with COVID-19 in State No 1 while Bagmati State recorded 26 infection among the journalists. Similarly, 15 journalists have tested positive to the flu-like infection in Gandaki State, 12 in State No 5 and 4 in Karnali State. FNJ’s secretary Prakash Thapa shared that there were no journalists infected with the deadly infection in Sudurpaschim State yet. Among the COVID-19 infected journalists across the country, some have been recovered fully and already returned to their homes while some were receiving treatment at various isolation facilities. The media persons working in the forefront...

August 14, Kathmandu. The Ministry of Health and Population has directed all concerned to enforce the new fee of maximum Rs. 2,000 prescribed for PCR test for Corona Virus. A ministerial decision was taken today by Health Minister Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal to bring the new fee into practice. Chief of the Health Emergency Operation Centre and Assistant Spokesperson of the Ministry Dr Samir Kumar Adhikari said a circular has been sent to all the labs providing COVID-19 tests and the social development ministries of all seven provinces to implement the new fee for PCR test. The new fee was determined based on the decreased price of reagent and other goods used in the PCR test. Prior to this, the official rate was Rs. 4,400 per test. It had begun with Rs. 5,500. ...

Kathmandu, July 26. One more Nepali died of coronavirus this week abroad. According to Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) Health Committee, the death is from the United Kingdom. Similarly, till Saturday evening, the number of Nepalis losing battle to the COVID-19 has reached 161. As Committee coordinator Dr Sanjib Sapkota said, 29,243 Nepalis out of 31,150 infected ones got recovery. Those infected ones were from 36 countries. It means over 93 percent infected (Nepali) have overcome the virus. The NRNA further shared that the infection rate among the Nepalis in African countries has increased this week compared to the previous week. Similarly, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arab, report the growing infections on Nepali. The Committee has prepared a special guideline suggesting health safety measures to be taken while being in public places and using vehicles. It has...

Bhatapur, July 23. Police arrested a man for raping a 17-year-old girl. The incident came to light only following the victim girl reached the hospital after a labour pain, said the police. Suresh Bhandari originally from Khandadevi rural municipality-9, who is now living in Bhaktapur, raped the girl in the pretext of assisting her to subscribe a newspaper, said Deputy Superintendent of Police Dipak Giri. The incident took place on June 10, 2019. Bhandari, who runs a meat shop in Madyapurthimi municipality-4, had threatened the rape survivor with death if she did tell anyone about the incident. He took the girl to his rented apartment and raped her, according to the preliminary police investigation. Now the rape survivor is under the care and protection of a social organisation. The rapist was arrested on July 21 after the organisation lodged a complaint on June 28, said DSP Giri. ...

►Omi Gurung  Kathmandu, July 20. Even the kings in our country don't get justice, normal people do not have any expectations. Nepal is a highly patriarchal society and on almost every measure, women are worse off than men. Women have restricted access to education and employment and experience startlingly high rates of domestic violence Gender equality is essential for the achievement of human rights for all. Yet discriminatory laws against women persist in every corner of the globe and new discriminatory laws are enacted. Statistics showed that women faced different types of injuries compared to men, especially on workplace violence. For example, women faced more fatality from workplace violence, and murders by personal acquaintances than men. Women in Nepal face many challenges due to issues of inequality and injustice in the society. Gender discrimination...

Baniyani, July 16. A youth originally from Kankai Municipality of Jhapa and currently working in Israel has contributed to his municipality with 750 PCR kits. He took initiative to collect Rs 240 thousand from fellow workers and send the test kits to his municipality. Information to this was shared by another youth Bipin Mainali from Kankai-3. "We collected the donation and bought testing kits for the municipality," Mainali, who brought the donation together, said. Moreover, the amount left over after purchasing kits will be provided to the people living with disabilities. Municipality Mayor Rajendra Kumar Pokhrel received the testing kits and thanked the youths for such generous help at such need. RSS ...

Doti, July 14. Police here have arrested two persons on the charge of cheating one million rupees from a woman in the name of getting a loan of Rs 35 million approved from a bank for her. According to District Police Office Doti's chief, SP Dilip Singh Deuba, a 35-year old Sanja Kumari Kathayat of Adarsha Rural Municipality-3 in the district and 32-year old Padam Raj Bhatt of Lekam Rural Municipality-1 of Darchula district were arrested on the charge. SP Deuba added that they had cheated the amount from a 44-year old woman of Tikapur Municipality of Kailali stating they were the officials of Nepal Bank Limited and would approve the loan of Rs 35 million if they were provided one million rupees. They were arrested from Pipala of Deepayal Silgadhi Municipality-4 in the district. Police have confiscated fake documents, identity cards and bank vouchers from them. The fraudsters were...

Rukum West, July 10. A mother and a son lost lives to a landslide at Rejhekhola of Aathbiskot municipality- 3 in Rukum West this morning. Twenty-eight-year-old Sita Damai and her six-year-old son have been confirmed to have died in the landslide occurred at around 6 am today, District Police Office Chief, Deputy Superintendent of Police Thag Bahadur KC, said. Sita's eight-year-old daughter has been injured in the incident. It is said the landslide buried the one-storey house and Sita's spouse Tul Bahadur Damai escaped the tragedy as he had been out of the home due to personal works. A police squad from the temporary police post Syalakhadi reached the site to undertake rescue efforts. The injured girl is being treated at the local medical facility. A team from the Area Police Office, Aathbiskot has already left for the site for further rescue efforts. Further details...

Rupandehi, July 6 State-5 government's Minister for Internal Affairs and Law, Kul Prasad KC, has urged the media to disseminate information and materials that raise optimism among the people amidst the pessimism created by the coronavirus pandemic. The state minister said this while speaking in an interaction programme marking the second founding day of Reporters' Club, State-5 chapter here in Butwal today. He also expressed the commitment on behalf the state government to support the journalists as the media industry was also economically hit hard due to the coronavirus pandemic. "We will not let journalists die of hunger," the minister assured. Nepali Congress parliamentary party whip in the State Assembly, Nirmala Chhetri, said journalists have a significant role to play in establishing good governance in society. State Assembly member Santosh Pandey said any...

More than 4,00,000 people have died globally due to coronavirus and 69,16,233 people have been infected with the virus till now. As per the latest Johns Hopkins University's tally, 4,00,135 people have succumbed to the disease so far. Till now, the US has reported the maximum number of coronavirus cases and deaths. As many as 1,920,061 COVID-19 cases and 1,09,802 deaths have been reported in the US. Brazil has confirmed that 6,72,846 people have tested positive and 35,930 people have died due to COVID-19. Similarly, Russia and the UK have reported 4,67,073 and 2,86,295 cases till now. With 40,548, the United Kingdon has reported the second-highest deaths due to coronavirus. Meanwhile, India has surpassed the COVID tally of Spain and Italy. With 2,47,678 cases, India has become the fifth country in the list of coronavirus affected countries. ...