Kathmandu, July 9, 2005

It had elements of a Bollywood-style masala movie, all right. Only it was for real, and it happened here this morning. Twenty-three-year old ‘Romeo’ Dikesh Maharjan and 21-year-old ‘Juliet’ Anita Maharjan jumped off from the Jay Binayak suspension bridge at Chovar. Though they had not left any suicide note, it is said they committed suicide because their parents had not agreed to them getting married. People walking on the bridge heard screams from down below and informed the police at around 5 a.m. When police reached the spot, they found the duo had been swept around 30 metres down from the bridge site and both had suffered serious injuries to their heads and were bleeding. “Anita was unconscious when we brought the two to the Bir Hospital,” said police inspector Ramesh Gautam at the Kirtipur Ward Police Office. She was declared dead at 7 a.m. and Dikesh died at around 8 a.m. Police said they could not manage to get the duo’s statement regarding their “suicide attempt” as their condition was critical. However, Anita’s father Jogi Maharjan said they had been in love with each other for months. “I refused to say yes to their marriage when Anita first talked to me about Dikesh,” said Maharjan, who is a farmer. According to him, Anita had run away from home and they had been looking for her for three days. “I would have reconsidered if I had known they would go to such an extent to be together,” said a shocked Maharjan. Dikesh, only son of Dil Bahadur Maharjan, a carpenter, was a resident of Panga, while Anita, a school drop-out, was a Chovar resident.

China agrees to speedy implementation of projects here

Kathmandu, July 9, 2005

Foreign secretary Madhu Raman Acharya returned today after holding consultative meetings with Chinese officials in Beijing. “China has agreed on speedy implementation of ongoing joint development projects in Nepal, and has also assured of starting work on more new projects,” Acharya told The Himalayan Times. He added that the Chinese government had also agreed to talk to India about making Nepal a transit point for Sino-India trade. “It was a bilateral consultation and a whole range of issues, including simplifying the visa issuance procedures for Nepalis travelling to Lhasa were discussed,” Acharya said. Acharya said already follow-up meetings between Nepalese and Chinese officials at Lhasa have taken place and both sides have also agreed to facilitate Nepalis travelling to the autonomous region by implementing “upon-arrival visa fees.” China provides about 8 million Yuan as development assistance to Nepal annually.