Bhandari goes abroad

KATHMANDU: A high level delegation led by Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) Sharat Singh Bhandari today left for Asthana, the Republic of Kazakhstan, to attend the 18th session of the General Assembly of UNWorld Tourism Organisation to be held on October 5-8. The assembly will be attended by tourism ministers of the member countries, heads of national tourism organisations and leaders of the tourism fraternity. Bhandari will address the assembly on October 5. Nepal is the founder-member of UNWTO which is the umbrella organisation of global national tourism organisations. The minister is accompanied by MoTCA joint secretary Murari Bahadur Karki and Nepal Tourism Board CEO Prachanda Man Shrestha. — HNS

Bangladesh’s demand

DHAKA: Bangladesh is demanding funds equivalent to 1.5 per cent of developed countries’ average GDP for the Least Developed Countries’ (LDCs) adaptation to climate change. The adaptation finance should be taken into cognizance from the point of view of implementation with maximum emphasis on activities relating to migration and displacement due to climate- related events. Negotiators of Bangladesh placed the demand at the UNFCCC-sponsored climate change negotiation meeting now being held in Bangkok, reported Earth Negotiation Bulletin on Thursday. Different contact groups continued to address how to streamline the consolidated negotiating text on adaptation in the developing countries. Parties held a series of meetings to consider adaptation, technology, mitigation and finance as well as developed countries’ emission reductions and others issues. — Agencies

263,000 jobs lost

NEW YORK: The American economy lost 263,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent, dimming prospects of any meaningful job growth by the end of the year. The Labour Department’s monthly snapshot of unemployment dashed hopes that the pace of job losses would continue to slow as the economy clawed its way back from a deep recession. Economists had been expecting 175,000 monthly job losses. In one bright spot, fewer jobs were lost in August than had been originally reported — 201,000 positions having gone instead of 216,000. — Agencies