Income generation

CHITWAN: WSTP, a local NGO in association with Helpful Woman Development Community, Ratnanagar has started an income generation programme for underpriviledged women in Chitwan district. Financed by Stichting Veldwerk, a Dutch INGO and and Melania Asia Foundation, the programme will provide job oriented training for 20 women. — HNS

Goods handover

BIARATNAGAR: Police handed over various smuggled goods worth Rs 2.919 million to Biratnagar Customs Office. The goods were seized during the last fiscal year. Of the total goods, around Rs 2.8 million were caught while smuggling into the country. Likewise, 24 persons involved in the smuggling into and outside the country were arrested and handed over for the necessary legal action. — RSS

Search for oil reserves

BEIJING: China is on a critical mission — to secure sources of energy from around the world to quench the country’s seemingly unending thirst. With millions of Chinese discarding their bicycles and climbing into cars, crude oil consumption, currently at 6.68 million barrels per day (bpd), is estimated to roughly double to 13 million bpd within the next two decades. — DPA

Ex-Soviet bloc’s FTA

KAZAN: Russian president Vladimir Putin met with the leaders of Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan to discuss their nascent trade bloc. Presidents Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine, Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus joined Putin for the

discussions on creating a free-trade zone, Common Economic Space. — HNS