IN BRIEF

SC decision

KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to issue a stay order to the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management, the Department of Labour and Transport Management and Moondrops and Lumbini Overseas Pvt Ltd on sending trainee workers to South Korea. A division bench of Justices Sharada Prasad Pundit and Rajendra Prasad Koirala cited the manpower agencies’ decision to drop all plans to send trainee workers to South Korea as the resaon for the stay order refusal. A group of 13 selected workers, including Shyam Prasad Shrestha, had moved the court seeking its order to the authorities to send the workers in the waiting list to South Korea. According to them, 268 workers out of the 480 selected in 2004, were not able to go abroad.—HNS

Cleaning campaign

LALITPUR: Fifty-four stone spouts and wells of Lalitpur municipal area were cleaned on Friday to mark Sithi Nakha, a festival during which sources of water are cleaned up and worshipped. The cleaning campaign which was jointly organised by the Lalitpur sub-Metropolitan City (LMC), the Urban Environment Management Society and Historical Water Source Conservation Association started from Puchoo Hiti – a stone spout next to the LMC building at 10 am. Forty-five Women’s Group associated with Community Development Section, LMC and Tole Sudhar Samitis were deployed in the campaign. — HNS

Protest organised

KATHMANDU: A mass meet was organised at Basantapur to observe Thursday as a Black Day to protest the Supreme Court’s decision of Jestha 18th, 2056 to forbid the use of national language as a language of official use in the local bodies. Earlier on Thursday, Jyapu communities arriving from various parts of the valley assembled at the Sahid Manch to take part in a procession which went around various parts of the city chanting slogans-make the peace talks a success, equal rights on matters of language, conduct election for the constituent assembly immediately and land ownership land of the indigenous people. — RSS

WWF award

KATHMANDU: The World Wildlife Fund Nepal Programme has decided to confer its ‘’Abraham Conservation Award -2006’’ on Lieutenant Colonel Ajit Thapa of Old Gorakh Battalion of the Nepal Army situated at Kasara in the Royal Chitwan National Park for the remarkable contributions he made in the field of conservation of rare wildlife and controlling the illegal hunting of birds and animals in the Park. The award, which is given away every year to an individual making special contribution in the protection of wildlife, will be given to Thapa in the last week of this month amid a function. — RSS

Workshop organised

KATHMANDU: Participant speakers of an international workshop on the theme ‘’Keeping Schools Safe from Earthquakes’’ jointly organised by the United Nations Centre for Regional Development and National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal here on Thursday emphasized that both the government and community should make efforts toward making the school buildings safe from natural disasters. — RSS

Bid to ban landmines

KATHMANDU: The Ban Landmines Campaign Nepal has appealed to the warring sides to work for removing the landmines and other explosive devices planted at the roads and public places. A team of the Campaign led by Coordinator Purna Shova Chitrakar met Speaker Subhash Nem-wang on Thursday, and drew attention of the Government of Nepal. — RSS