Train service delayed

JANAKPURDHAM: The only train service of Nepal came to a halt for three hours in Janakpurdham after a rumour that there was a corpse on the rail on Friday. The Jayanagar-bound train left only at 10 am. According to Bhola Nath Sharma, general manager of the railway, the train left late as a technician said there was a body of a woman on the rail at Baidehi area. However, it turned to be hoax, said Sharma. — HNS

US aid to UNHCR

KATHMANDU: The United States government has contributed $1.4 million to a United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) programme in Nepal. A sum of $1.15 million has been contributed to the UN refugee agency’s annual budget programme for 2006, and $250,000 for supporting the new Tibetan arrivals in the Reception Centre in Kathmandu, according to a press statement issued by the UNHCR office in Kathmandu on Friday. — HNS

Bid to find the missing

KATHMANDU: An NHRC team led by its member Sudip Pathak is leaving for Pokhara on Saturday to look into cases of disappearance. The team will discuss the issue with government authorities. It will also visit the Eastern, Mid-Western and Far-Western regions to trace the missing people, said the NHRC statement. Meanwhile, it urged the Maoists to free Dhan Bahadur Rana, an employee of the Agriculture Development Office, Okhaldhunga. Rana was abducted on Tuesday. — HNS

Tourism ministry plan

Kathmandu: Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation is planning to sign an Air Service Agreement (ASA) with Australia while it has already reviewed the ASA to be signed with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Israel and India. “We are working towards signing an ASA with Australia for the first time,” said Yagya Prasad Gautam, joint-secretary at the Tourism Ministry. Nepal has bilateral ASAs with 35 countries. — HNS