Student missing

KATHMANDU: Security personnel are reported to have arrested Bimarshraj Karki, a student of Saraswoti Campus, from Gothatar on September 19 but his whereabouts remain unknown. He had been in Kathmandu for ten days before he was detained, said Hari Bahadur Karki, his father. He had since visited many army barracks and police offices, but had not been able to locate his son, he further said. — HNS

Press in sorry state

KATHMANDU: About 2,881 newspapers and journals were registered in the country during the fiscal year 061-062. Out of them, only 557 newspapers are published. And only 322 of them are said to be regular, it is stated in the 30th annual report of the Nepal Press Council. Among the newspapers, 11 dailies fall in ‘A’ category, 17 in B category, 13 in C category. — RSS

Family planning study

KATHMANDU: The need for increasing the availability and quality of contraceptives has been realised, as the number of women who want to use contraceptives is larger than the actual users. Some 28 per cent of the married women aged between 15 and 45 have the knowledge about temporary means of contraception, but the contraceptives are not available to them, and 21 per cent of them cannot use them for fear of their side effects. According to the Nepal Population and Health Survey -2001, some 99 per cent of men and women of reproduction aged surveyed said they have heard about methods of family planning.— RSS

Animation studio

Kathmandu: Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC) in collaboration with Inferno Academy of Advanced Technology is establishing the first international MAAC centre in Kathmandu. With the convergence of the fields of Information technology, Communication and Industry, the use of multimedia was increasing steadly, said Naveen Gupta, Chief Operating Officer of MAAC. Speaking at a press meet in the capital on Friday, Gupta said the animation market today stood at $30 billion. —HNS