Category Archives: Nepal

Nepal: voting closes in election pitting old guard against powerful youth movement

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Early results may be released from Friday after first election since gen z protests forced Nepal’s then-PM to quit

Nearly six months after a wave of unprecedented gen Z-led protests forced Nepal’s then prime minister to quit, people have voted in a general election that is shaping up to be a high-stakes showdown between the entrenched old guard and a powerful youth movement.

“The voting process has been concluded peacefully and enthusiastically,” said the chief election commissioner, Ram Prasad Bhandari. It appeared the turnout was only about 60%, according to initial estimates, the lowest in more than two decades.

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British Asian families urged to share stories of ‘greatest generation’ who fought for Britain

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Half of UK public unaware of contribution made by 2.5m British Asian members of armed forces who served in second world war

British Asian families are being urged to record the experiences of relatives who fought for Britain for “future generations” as data reveals half the British public don’t know that Indian members of the armed forces served in the second world war.

The My Family Legacy project, backed by the Royal British Legion, is building an online archive of Asian veterans’ experiences to raise awareness of the shared histories and sacrifices of Britain’s diverse communities.

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Britain one of least ‘nature-connected’ nations in world – with Nepal the most

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Others languishing near bottom of 61-country study include Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan and Spain

Britain is one of the least “nature connected” nations in the world, according to the first ever global study of how people relate to the natural world.

Britain ranks 55th out of 61 countries in the study of 57,000 people, which looks at how attitudes towards nature are shaped by social, economic, geographical and cultural factors.

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Last surviving member of first team to conquer Everest dies aged 92

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Kanchha Sherpa was part of expedition that put Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary atop world’s highest peak in 1953

Kanchha Sherpa, the last surviving member of the mountaineering expedition team that first conquered Mount Everest, has died at the age of 92, according to the Nepal Mountaineering Association.

Kanchha died early on Thursday at his home in Kapan, Kathmandu district, said Phur Gelje Sherpa, the association’s president.

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Unease at slow pace of change in Nepal one month on from gen Z protests

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Promised crackdown on corruption is not happening fast enough for many who saw government toppled within a day of protests

Prakash Bohora was one of the first of Nepal’s gen Z protesters to feel the sting of a police bullet. Like thousands of other young people, he had taken to the streets of the capital last month to protest against corruption and a draconian ban on social media.

He had no idea that day in Kathmandu would escalate into what is now described as Nepal’s gen Z revolution, which saw the toppling of the government within a day, the dissolution of parliament and appointment of a new interim prime minister, the anti-corruption hardliner Sushila Karki, by the end of the week.

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Mount Everest hikers describe ‘extreme’ conditions as huge rescue effort continues

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At least 200 people still stranded after unseasonally heavy snowfall during China’s Golden Week holiday

Trekkers have described facing “extreme” conditions after an unseasonable snowstorm during one of China’s busiest holiday weekends stranded hundreds of people on Mount Everest, prompting a massive rescue effort.

Chinese authorities said about 350 people had made their way down but at least 200 remained stranded at the Everest Scenic Area, to the east of the mountain, on the Tibetan side of the border.

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Mount Everest rescue under way after snowstorm traps nearly 1,000 people

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Hundreds of trekkers stranded by blizzard on eastern face of mountain in Tibet already guided to safety by rescuers

Rescue efforts are under way on Mount Everest after a snowstorm trapped nearly 1,000 people in campsites on the eastern side of the mountain, according to Chinese state media.

Hundreds of trekkers stranded by a blizzard near the eastern face of the mountain in Tibet were guided to safety by rescuers on Sunday, as unusually heavy precipitation including rain pummelled the Himalayas.

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At least 19 killed in ‘gen Z’ protests against Nepal’s social media ban

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Many demonstrators say they are also on the streets over corruption and nepotism they allege is rampant

At least 19 people have been killed during protests in Nepal over a government ban on dozens of online platforms including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and X.

The government has faced mounting criticism after imposing a ban on 26 prominent social media platforms and messaging apps last week because they had missed a deadline to register under new regulations.

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US court allows Trump officials to end protected status for 60,000 migrants

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Administration officials given legal right to move towards deportation of people from Nepal, Honduras and Nicaragua

A federal appeals court on Wednesday sided with the Trump administration and halted for now a lower court’s order that had kept in place temporary protections for 60,000 migrants from Central America and Nepal.

This means that the Republican administration can move toward removing an estimated 7,000 people from Nepal whose temporary protected status designations expired on 5 August. The TPS designations and legal status of 51,000 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans are set to expire 8 September, at which point they will become eligible for removal.

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Pressure grows on Fifa as reports warn of serious risk to workers amid Saudi World Cup building boom

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Two reports published today catalogue ‘gruesome yet avoidable accidents’ on construction sites despite the Gulf kingdom’s claims that work-related deaths have fallen

Thousands of migrant workers are likely to die in Saudi Arabia as a result of a building boom fuelled by the 2034 Men’s World Cup and other major construction projects, human rights groups have warned.

The Gulf kingdom has seen a surge in demand for cheap migrant labour, with a significant increase in foreign workers since 2021, as it starts preparations for hosting the World Cup and drives forward projects including the futurist megacity Neom.

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Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees in limbo after deportation from US

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Human rights experts voice alarm as refugees expelled by the US, not welcomed by Bhutan and rejected by Nepal

When Narayan Kumar Subedi received a call from his daughter in the United States three weeks ago, he expected to hear news of his two children’s life abroad, perhaps even plans for a long-awaited reunion. Instead, he was told his 36-year-old son Ashish, a Bhutanese refugee resettled in the US, was being deported.

Ashish had been caught in a domestic dispute that led to police involvement. After several days in detention without proper legal support, he was caught up in Donald Trump’s migration crackdown and deported to Bhutan.

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Nepal increases permit fee for Mount Everest climbers by 36%

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Cost of scaling world’s tallest peak rises for first time in nearly a decade to $15,000

Nepal will increase the permit fees for climbing Mount Everest by 36%, making the world’s tallest peak more expensive for mountaineers for the first time in nearly a decade, officials have said.

Income from permit fees and other spending by foreign climbers is a key source of revenue and employment for the poor country, which is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains.

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Kung fu nuns show off martial art skills at monastery reopening in Nepal

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Nuns mark opening of Druk Amitabha nunnery with performance, five years after Covid closure

About a dozen nuns performed hand chops and high kicks, some of them wielding swords, as they showed off their martial art skills to hundreds of cheering wellwishers at the reopening of their nunnery in Nepal.

The nuns of the hilltop Druk Amitabha monastery put on the show of strength to mark the institution’s reopening five years after Covid forced it to close its doors to the public.

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Mount Everest is having a growth spurt, say researchers

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River erosion has pushed the mountain upwards and added an extra 15 to 50 metres over the past 89,000 years

Climbing Mount Everest has always been a feat, but it seems the task might be getting harder: researchers say Everest is having something of a growth spurt.

The Himalayas formed about 50m years ago, when the Indian subcontinent smashed into the Eurasian tectonic plate – although recent research has suggested the edges of these plates were already very high before the collision.

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More than 200 dead in Nepal floods, as parts of Kathmandu left under water

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At least 30 stranded or missing and hundreds injured after heaviest monsoon rains in two decades

More than 200 people were killed in Nepal over the weekend in what experts described as some of the worst flash flooding to have hit the capital, Kathmandu, and the surrounding valleys.

Swathes of Kathmandu were left underwater after the heaviest monsoon rains in two decades fell on Friday and Saturday, washing away entire neighbourhoods, bridges and roads. The heavy rains caused the Bagmati River, which runs through the city, to swell more than 2 metres higher than deemed safe.

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More than 100 killed and 64 missing as flooding and landslides hit Nepal

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Officials expect death toll to rise as flood waters inundate Kathmandu after highest rainfall since 1970

Flooding and landslides caused by continuous rainfall have killed at least 101 people in Nepal while 64 people are missing, officials have said.

Rain began pouring down on Friday night and continued into Saturday, with low-lying neighbourhoods in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, inundated by surging floodwaters.

“The death toll has reached 101, and 64 people are missing,” police spokesperson Dan Bahadur Karki told AFP early on Sunday.

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Global health charities warn of ‘huge and terrible’ threat to abortion rights if Trump returns

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‘Global gag rule’ and funding cuts will be ‘on different scale’ if Republicans win again, family-planning providers say

Providers of women’s healthcare around the world are preparing for potentially disastrous consequences should Donald Trump win the US presidential election in November.

Policies pursued during Trump’s last presidency caused “devastating” harm in a number of countries, said Beth Schlachter, a senior director at MSI Reproductive Choices in the US. It meant “clinics shuttered, health teams closed, women dying … but a second Trump term will be on a different scale”.

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British climber and Nepali guide feared dead after reaching Everest summit

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Dan Paterson and Pastenji Sherpa went missing during descent after landslide of snow and ice on mountain

A British man and his Nepali guide are believed to be dead after reaching the summit of Mount Everest on Tuesday, a guiding company said.

Dan Paterson, 40, and Pastenji Sherpa, 23, reached the peak just before 5am on Tuesday but have not been heard from since, according to Paterson’s partner, Becks Woodhead.

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Everest climbers prepare to pick up their own poo as season gets under way

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Authorities are now mandating that climbers remove their waste from the mountain using biodegradable bags

It’s one of the more unedifying challenges involved in scaling to the highest point on Earth – how best to relieve oneself in the freezing, inhospitable environment of Mount Everest.

That question is about to become slightly more complicated as climbers prepare for a change in protocol when the season gets under way next month, with a new rule about removing their own faeces as they trek up and down the mountain.

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Nepal bans citizens from working in Russia or Ukraine after deaths in military

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Work permits to leave Nepal for those countries halted as 10 men killed and dozens more reported missing

The government of Nepal has banned its citizens from travelling to Russia or Ukraine for employment after 10 young men were killed and dozens more reported missing while fighting, predominately in the Russian military.

More than 200 Nepali soldiers are believed to have enlisted in the Russian army since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Nepal’s foreign ministry had said, and more than 100 of them have gone missing. A smaller number are believed to be fighting in the Ukrainian army.

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