Nepal Migrant Worker's News

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At least 150 die in Pakistan crash
	LAHORE, Pakistan -- Three trains have collided in southern Pakistan Wdnesday morning, killing at least 150 people and injuring 800 more, police and railway officials have said. At least 17 train cars were destroyed in the accident that occurred at 3:40 a.m. local time (22:40 Tuesday GMT) at Ghotki railway station. Police, army and paramilitary forces are assisting in the rescue operation and area hospitals are on emergency notice. The Chairman of Pakistan Railways, Shakil Durani, told CNN there were about 3,000 passengers on the three trains. One train rammed into the back of another after missing a signal, Durani said. This caused several cars to derail, which in turn were struck by another train. The trains involved were the Karachi Express which rammed into the stationary Quetta Express. The derailed carriages were then hit almost simultaneously by a third train, the oncoming Tezgam Express, which was taking passengers from Karachi north to Rawalpindi, near the capital of Islamabad. The Karachi Express is a night-coach passenger train that brings people from the city of Lahore to the southern port city of Karachi. Ghotki is about 600 kilometers (370 miles) northeast of Karachi, in remote Sindh province. Pakistan's railways are antiquated, and dozens of people have been killed in train accidents in recent years. On March 5, five people were killed and 25 injured when a passenger train derailed in eastern Punjab province. On September 20, 2003, a train ploughed into a packed bus in central Pakistan, killing at least 27 people and injuring six others. Accidents are often blamed on faulty equipment or human error.-CNN
Police hunt possible master bomber
	LONDON, England (CNN) -- Police were urgently addressing Wednesday whether four young British Muslims suspected of carrying out suicide attacks in London last week were working with a master bomber who may still be at large. They are now trying to determine the origin of the high explosives used in the devices in the hop that could lead them to the architect of the attacks, the UK's Press Association said. Officers fear it could be a senior al Qaeda operative who arrived in the country several months ago and then fled the day before the atrocity, PA added. Police say it is "very likely" that one of the four died in the blasts on London's transport network, and it is possible that all four blew themselves up deliberately in what would be Europe's first suicide bombings. Britain's interior minister, Home Secretary Charles Clarke, meanwhile warned of further attacks despite police tracing three likely suspects in the bombings to Leeds, northern England. "We have to assume there are others who are ready to do the kinds of things that these people did last Thursday," Clarke told the BBC. Clarke is in Brussels for an emergency anti-terrorist meeting of European Union ministers. U.S. intelligence agencies are checking the names of the London bombers against their databases looking for any U.S. connection, President Bush told chief executives at a private White House meeting Tuesday, The Associated Press reported. The investigation continued in Leeds, 190 miles (300 km) north of London, where police Tuesday seized explosives and arrested a relative of one of the suspects. The relative was brought to London for questioning. The investigation also was continuing in Luton, 30 miles (48 km) north of the capital where police carried out a controlled explosion on a car parked at a train station there. It was believed to be linked to the bombings and the BBC reported that it contained explosives. Both Leeds and Luton have large Muslim populations, and police were trying to find out whether either city was harboring a terrorist cell or a bombmaker, possibly from al Qaeda, who might have planned the bombings that killed at least 52 people and injured 700, Reuters reported. CNN's John Vause in Leeds said it was believed the four bombers were so-called "cleanskins" or "lilywhites" -- with no convictions or known terrorist involvement. This was a major concern for the authorities, he said. It is thought the four lacked the expertise to plan the operation or construct the bombs. Senior sources told PA that they feared the "plotters and planners" were still at large. A senior security source told the news agency: "Where is the person who had the expertise to organize it all? "There is the possibility that it could be al Qaeda -- someone who would have been sent to the country to do the preparation and then would have left the day before the attack." Britain's Times newspaper said Wednesday the mastermind behind the attacks as well as the bombmaker were still thought to be at large. Police found a "bomb factory" during the Leeds raids, the newspaper said. The four men, believed to be aged between 19 and 30 and British nationals of ethnic Pakistani origin., were captured on closed-circuit television at King's Cross Thameslink rail station shortly before the series of deadly bombings rocked London last Thursday. Police have confirmed the identity of one of the four suspects as Shahzad Tanweer from Leeds, a 22-year-old sports science graduate who occasionally helped out in his father's fast food shop. He is the man who died in the Aldgate tube blast, PA reported. A neighbor of Tanweer told the British television network ITN that Tanweer had told him he had traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan, spending a couple of months in Afghanistan and four months in Lahore, Pakistan. CNN's Vause said neighbors described Tanweer as a quiet young man, a devout Muslim who would go to the mosque sometimes five times a day but who also loved cricket and was an avid sports fan. The Muslim Council of Britain said it was stunned that English Muslims appeared to have carried out the attacks. "We have received today's terrible news from the police with anguish, shock and horror," the organization's secretary-general, Iqbal Sacranie, said in a statement. "Nothing in Islam can ever justify the evil actions of the bombers." Police said the four suspects traveled to London on the day of the blasts and were seen on closed-circuit television carrying rucksacks at the King's Cross rail station shortly before 8:30 a.m. The first three bombs exploded virtually simultaneously around 8:50 a.m. A police source told Reuters the four looked relaxed, more like they were going on a hiking holiday than a suicide mission. The government has said the attacks on three subway trains and a bus bear the hallmark of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and the Madrid bombings last year. On Tuesday, police searched six locations in West Yorkshire, where three of the men lived, and made one arrest. The home addresses of three of the men were among the locations searched, police said. Reported missing Many of the people living in the same street as the Tanweer family are from Pakistan and the disputed Kashmir region. However, Muslims make up a relatively small percentage of the overall population in the area. Another man, a 19-year-old, was reported missing by his mother at 10:20 p.m. on Thursday after failing to return home from London, the UK's Press Association reported. He had told his parents that he was going to the capital on the day of the bombings with friends, PA said. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's anti-terror branch, said the family's report led investigators to the four suspects. Authorities say the man reported as missing "was joined on his journey to London by three other men." The police found personal documents bearing the names of three of the four men near the train seats where the bombs exploded, Clarke said. "Very strong forensic and other evidence" led police to believe one of the West Yorkshire men died in the explosion on a train between the Aldgate and Liverpool Street stations, Clarke added. Police are waiting for additional information from the coroner, he said. Authorities made one arrest Tuesday while executing six search warrants in West Yorkshire. The man will be brought to London for questioning, Clarke said, providing no further detail. Five of the entries police made during their searches were consensual, while the sixth occurred at an unoccupied property -- where police, aided by army troops, used a "controlled explosion" to gain entry, Cramphorn said. London police have taken more than 700 witness statements and received more than 2,000 calls to the anti-terror hotline, said Andy Hayman, London police assistant commissioner and head of specialist operations. Officers are also reviewing 2,500 tapes of closed-circuit television footage from across the capital as scores of families await news of loved ones feared killed. Officials have said they expect the number of dead to rise. Scotland Yard said Tuesday 11 victims have so far been positively identified. Forensics experts have said it could take weeks to identify all the bodies recovered, many of which were mangled in Thursday's attacks. Other developments • U.S. officials lifted a ban preventing about 10,000 U.S. military personnel -- based at RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath, both in the eastern English county of Suffolk -- from going into the Greater London area. The instruction to U.S. forces had contradicted the message from politicians, including London's mayor, for people to return to the capital. • Britain's finance minister, Gordon Brown, vowed Tuesday that the European Union would unite to defeat terrorism and clamp down on the financing that feeds it.-CNN
Brad Pitt hospitalized
	LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Actr Brad Pitt has been hospitalized with a flu-like illness. Pitt, 41, checked himself into an undisclosed Los Angeles area hospital Monday night complaining of flu-like symptoms, his publicist Cindy Guagenti said Tuesday. There were no other details and the name of the hospital wasn't disclosed for security reasons. Pitt was in Ethiopia last week with his "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" co-star Angelina Jolie to pick up the actress's newly adopted baby girl, the second child she has adopted. Guagenti said it wasn't known if the actor contracted the illness while in Africa. "I think he has the flu," the spokeswoman said. The "Troy" and "Fight Club" star separated from "Friends" actress Jennifer Aniston in January after 4 1/2 years of marriage and she filed for divorce in March citing irreconcilable differences.-CNN

All 309 on Board Survive Fiery Plane Accident in Toronto
	2005-8-3 10:48:48    CRIENGLISH.com
	More than 300 people escaped with their lives Tuesday after an Air France passenger jet skidded off a runway at Pearson International Airport.
	More than 300 people, some scrambling to flag down motorists on a nearby highway, escaped with their lives Tuesday after an Air France passenger jet skidded off a runway at Pearson International Airport, slid into a wooded ravine and burst into flames during a fierce thunderstorm. Only 43 of the 297 passengers and 12 crew members aboard Air France Flight 358 from Paris sustained what were mostly minor injuries in the dramatic crash, which unfolded shortly after 4 p.m. ET right in front of commuters at the peak of the daily rush hour. "It happened so quickly," said Gwen Dunlop, a Toronto resident who was on the flight on her way home from a summer vacation in France. "It was a little like being in a movie. It was scary, because it did land OK for a few seconds and we actually clapped - we clapped because we were down. We clapped and only seconds later there was a big, big (impact)." Seconds later, the cabin rapidly began to fill with smoke as passengers scrambled to get off the plane, Dunlop said. "At some point the wing was off and it was smoking badly," she said. "The oxygen masks never came down. The plane was filling up with smoke." Many passengers, including one of the co-pilots, escaped the wreckage in the moments after the crash and climbed out of Etobicoke Creek ravine and on to the highway, said Peel police Sgt. Glyn Griffiths. "We located the co-pilot on Highway 401," Griffiths said. Passengers were buffeted with heavy rain and howling winds as they scrambled up the muddy banks of the ravine in an effort to get to safety - and away from the flaming wreckage. "There was the fear of the explosion because we were all trying to go up a hill that was all mud," she said. "We had lost our shoes, we were just scrambling, and there were people with children. The rain was just coming down, and the wind and the lightning. We were just thrown into the weather and thrown into everything. There were people climbing over seats to get out." Everyone on board the Airbus 340 jet, which is capable of carrying 350 passengers, was able to get off the plane before it caught fire. It was the first crash for an Airbus 340 in 13 years of commercial service. Several area hospitals braced for an onslaught of injuries that never came. A one-year-old baby was taken to Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children for smoke inhalation, and would likely be kept overnight for observation. Another 13 people were taken to William Osler Health Centre in Etobicoke, west of Toronto, and two others to the Peel Memorial Emergency Department in Brampton, to the north. No details of their condition were made available. At about 8:30 p.m. passengers wrapped in red blankets were taken to an airport hotel and reunited with their families. Most seemed composed, despite their harrowing ordeal. For many hours, flames and black smoke could be seen shooting from the downed plane's broken fuselage. Moments after the aircraft crashed 200 metres at the end of the runway amid lightning strikes and driving rain at 4:03 p.m., dirty smoke billowed across the landscape, obscuring the view for passing drivers as the acrid smell of burning jet fuel hung heavy in the air, even several kilometres away. The fact no one was killed in the crash was "miraculous," said acting Peel police Sgt. Craig Platt. "It's a relief there are no fatalities." Air France issued a statement saying it was making arrangements to help families stranded in Canada. "Air France is doing everything possible to take care of the passengers of this flight and bring the necessary assistance to their families and loved ones," the airline said. Passenger Roel Bramar said he saw lightning in the sky as the plane was descending. "Just as we landed, the lights turned off and that's unusual," Bramar reported. "The captain wanted to lower the plane as quickly as possible." Glenn Schiller, a passenger in a plane that had already landed on the tarmac, watched the scene unfold. "At the time the rain was coming down sideways," he said. "It was a vicious, vicious thunderstorm." Thunderstorms create the possibility of wind shear - the sudden, dangerous air currents that can push an aircraft into the ground during takeoff and landing. It was not immediately apparent whether the plane had been struck by lightning. As emergency crews sped to the scene, commuters on their way home from work on the multi-lane highway became snared in a massive traffic jam. At one point, another huge plume of smoke emerged from the wreckage, but it was unclear whether it was from an explosion. A row of emergency vehicles lined up behind the wreck, and a fire truck sprayed the flames with water and foam. By 8 p.m., authorities were reporting that the fire had been extinguished. Within minutes of the crash, with scant details about the injuries, the number of passengers and circumstances of the crash available, the spectacle was being broadcast live on television in Canada and the United States, much of it with the help of automated Ministry of Transportation cameras mounted to monitor the flow of highway traffic. Flights scheduled to land at Pearson were diverted to other Canadian airports. The most serious plane crash at Pearson, Canada's busiest airport, was more than 30 years ago. In 1970 an Air Canada DC-8 jet, en route from Montreal to Los Angeles, went down north of the airport, killing all 109 people aboard. The last major jumbo jet crash in North America was on Nov. 12, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587 lost part of its tail and plummeted into a New York City neighbourhood, killing 265 people. Safety investigators concluded the crash was caused by the pilot moving the rudder too aggressively. Pearson had been operating under vigilant security measures in the wake of deadly bombings in London. The federal Transportation Safety Board wasn't offering any clues Tuesday about the cause of the crash, but a team would be taking over the site and recovering the flight's cockpit voice recorder and data recorder to piece together what happened. "It's like a series of crime scene investigations," said spokesman Conrad Bellehumeur. The agency will also interview passengers, crew, witnesses and air traffic controllers, and review both the radar and voice versions of recordings of the air traffic control activity, Bellehumeur said. "We're going to follow every lead and as soon as we see something of importance that might have contributed to the crash, we'll make that known publicly. Normally accidents of this kind are not caused by one single factor." n pictures:?/font>Hiroshima then and now The first atomic bomb used in war was dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August, 1945. The A Bomb Dome, the former Trade Promotion Hall, near the epicentre of the blast, is the only building still standing from that time. Contemporary pictures by Mike Coles. Click below for more images BACK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 NEXT

Passengers survive plane inferno

Plane fire footage An Air France plane has skidded off a runway and burst into flames at Toronto's Pearson airport, but all 309 people aboard survived, officials say. Flight 358 from Paris burned for more than two hours after the crash landing in bad weather at 1603 (2003 GMT). "We were really, really scared the plane would blow up," passenger Olivier Dubois told a Canadian TV station. The accident was the first major crash of an Airbus A340-300 since the model's first flight in October 1991. The accident took place in heavy rain near Highway 401, one of Canada's busiest motorways, and emergency vehicles raced to the scene. Some 24 people aboard the plane were treated for minor injuries, officials said. Click here to see a diagram of the plane Roel Bramar, a passenger on the plane, told Canada's CBC broadcaster that there was mayhem aboard the airliner after the impact. "I was at the very end, and second off the plane. I was just running like crazy. There was quite a bit of fire on the ground." Several witnesses said they thought the plane had been struck by lightning as the power went out just before the plane landed. First accident The plane crashed through barriers and fell into a small ravine, tail in the air. It overshot the runway by some 200m (660ft), Steve Shaw of the Greater Toronto Airport Authority told reporters at a hastily organised news conference. Mr Shaw said it appeared that all the passengers were evacuated before the plane was "heavily damaged by fire". One witness said rescue workers got to the airliner within 50 seconds. Mr Shaw said the airport had been under a "red alert" since midday Tuesday because of danger of lightning. "There was quite a downpour," CBC journalist John Finday said. "The visibility was really bad, with lots of lightning." The A340 has an excellent safety record - with no crashes reported before Tuesday, aircraft expert David Learmount told the BBC. "Modern airliners are like that. They don't have accidents. If this one has had an accident it's the first." Mayhem Mr Dubois told CTV that the plane "was going pretty fast" just before the landing. He said suddenly "it was all black in the plane, there was no more light". "And then we went off the runway, we were in the ravine and the plane was continuing rolling on the ravine and then there were a lot of flames. "The plane stopped. We opened the emergency doors and basically there were lots of flames around. "We were really, really scared that the plane would blow up... We just tried to escape, sliding from the plane and running in the countryside," Mr Dubois said.

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Migrant Workers

A Tale of Chandra Kumari Gurung [Top]

Can anyone assume that a normal, balanced person can be treated as a mad person? How that person will feel if that person kept at psychiatric hospital? It’s not a question of imagination! It’s the real story! It happened with our sister! “Because of the carelessness of the Korean police and the state, a balanced Nepali women spent her seven years of life in psychiatric hospital with misbalanced person.

Innocent, hardly Nepali speaker Chandra Kumari Gurung of nearing 40 went Korea to work in 1992. Her life in Korea was as same as other migrant labour in Korea.

That was Sunday –the Korean holiday, Chandra wanted to have her food near by her resident area. The food was good in restaurant. No body knows that same food could be the start date of her dark days.

It was mystery for the Nepali friends in Korea that suddenly a normal sister disappeared from them. All the efforts were worthless at that time no information about her.

Thanks for the Koran friends who succeed to come out with information and brought her in her own world after six years and four months of her disappeared.

That day a normal, balanced Nepali sister went to the cash counter to pay her food bill. Unfortunately, she lost her wallet. She checked her own body and spoke in her own native language –“Where I lost my money”. Because of the loosing money she was quite upset and even cried. She asked to excuse her. There was only fault of Chandra that she couldn’t speak in Korean language and could not make understand the Korean restaurant owner that she was in real problem. No one was there to understand her. The restaurant owner called the police and she tried to make convince the police. They tried to find some valid documents with her, which say some things about her. She didn’t have that in the same moment. Because of her own native language speaking, the police personnel thought that she is misbalanced and mad.

She was kept in the psychiatric hospital and forced her to have misbalanced medicine. A normal, balanced Nepali woman spent her life as a mad and misbalanced person.

A doctor familiar with Nepal and Nepali people met her and disclosed this miserable story of one Nepali sister. The story was publicized and created uproar in Korea.

After her release from the hospital in April 2000 Koran lawyer Suk-tae Lee helped for demanding compensation for her incarceration, and a formal apology from the South Korean State. Finally the court made verdict to pay $23,500 for the compensation. But the warm love of Korean people is with her. These friends collected some amount of money and handover to Chandra.

- Presented by Buddhi Acharya

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네팔 출신 산업연수생 자살 여부 논란 2일 밤 창원 공장 기숙사 화단서 발견 ... 경찰, 자살에 무게   윤성효(cjnews) 기자

▲ 지난 2일 밤 창원 한 공장 기숙사 옥상에서 떨어져 사망한 네팔 출신 산업연수생 다칼씨의 동생과 친구들이 4일 오후 창원중부경찰서에 모여 향후 대책을 논의하고 있다. ⓒ2005 오마이뉴스 윤성효 한 산업연수생이 밤에 공장 기숙사 앞 화단에서 죽은채 발견되어 자살 여부를 놓고 논란이 일고 있다. 경찰은 자살 가능성에 무게를 두고 있지만, 이주 노동자 인권단체는 실족사 가능성을 제기하고 있다. 창원중부경찰서는 창원 신촌동 기계부품회사인 ㅇ기계 소속 네팔 출신 산업연수생 다칼(31)씨 사망사건을 수사 중이다. 지난 2일 밤 10시30분경 기숙사 앞 화단에서 다칼씨가 피를 흘리며 숨져 있는 것을 동료가 발견해 경찰에 신고했다. 다칼씨는 기숙사 건물에서 6m 가량 떨어진 곳에서 발견되었고, 특별한 외상이 발견되지 않았다. 경찰은 평소 다칼씨가 후두염을 앓아왔다는 점을 들어 신병을 비관해 자살한 것으로 보고 있다. 창원중부경찰서 관계자는 "평소 몸이 아픈 상태에서 치료도 받지 못했고, 우울증을 앓았다는 말도 있다"고 말했다. 그는 "기숙사는 5층인데 옥상 위에 있는 물탱크에 올라가 뛰어내린 것으로 추정된다"면서 "자살에 무게를 두고 있다"고 말했다. 경남외국인노동자상담소 관계자는 "다칼씨의 친구와 동생의 증언에 의하면, 사건이 벌어지기 30분 전에 통화를 했는데 자살의 분위기를 느낄 수 있는 말은 없었다고 한다"면서 "타살 내지 실족사 등 여러 가지 가능성에 대해 조사를 해봐야 한다"고 말했다. 다칼씨는 동생과 함께 국내로 들어와 산업연수생으로 있었으며, 동생은 현재 서울에서 지내고 있다. 다칼씨의 동생은 선교원 통역사와 함께 창원을 찾아 경찰서에서 진술을 하기도 했다. 창원중부경찰서 관계자는 "자살에 의문을 제기한다면 정확한 사인을 알기 위해 부검도 해야할 것 같다"고 말했다. 네팔은 시신을 화장하지 않고 매장하는 문화가 있어 다칼씨의 시신을 네팔까지 옮기는데도 애를 먹고 있다. 네팔에 있는 다칼씨 부모들은 곧바로 이송해 오기를 바라고 있는 것으로 알려졌지만, 수속을 밟는데 적어도 1개월 이상 소요될 것으로 보여 경비 조달 등에 어려움을 겪을 것으로 보인다. 한편 4일 기자와 만난 ㅇ기계 관계자는 "아무 말을 할 수 없다"면서 인터뷰를 꺼렸다.

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Brussels, 1 July 2005 (ICFTU OnLine): More than 250,000 people have taken part in public protests over the past two days against the conservative Australian Federal Government’s plans to remove protection from unfair dismissal for most workers, impose heavy restrictions on union organising and collective bargaining rights, push workers onto individual employment contracts and weaken mechanisms for setting minimum wages.

Around 100,000 people took part in rallies throughout the state of New South Wales today, following yesterday’s 100,000-person demonstration in Melbourne and protests in cities and towns around the country involving tens of thousands more.

“This is about whether or not working people will be treated like commodities and that is the international principle - no worker should be treated like a commodity." said Sharan Burrow in Perth where some 20,000 took part in a rally. Burrow is President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and of the ICFTU.

The ICFTU Executive Board at its meeting last week pledged to generate international support for the Australian trade union campaign, recognising that if the laws proposed by Prime Minister John Howard are implemented, then Australia would find itself at the bottom of the OECD ladder in terms of rights and protections for working people. A case will also be brought to the UN’s International Labour Organisation, which has already criticized existing anti-union measures introduced by the Howard government.

The ACTU is also running an extensive advertising campaign to bring home the full impacts of the government’s plans, and community and church groups from around the country have expressed serious concern over the prospect of lower wages and even less protection, especially for the most vulnerable and lowest-paid workers.

“Respect for fundamental workers’ rights, and the social and economic benefits which stem from this, are the cornerstones on which every country should build its economy. Joining a race to the bottom can only harm Australia’s position in the global economy, and will seriously damage its international reputation”, said ICFTU General Secretary Guy Ryder.

The ICFTU represents 145 million workers in 233 affiliated organizations in 154 countries and territories.

The ICFTU is also a partner in Global Unions: http://www.global-unions.org For more information, please contact the ICFTU Press Department on +32 2 224 0212.

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Pokhara valley is a land of diversity.Every place contains its own value, its own uniqueness , and its own casts and culture. In Pokhara you can find varieties of casts. Every particular place is famous because of their people who lives there who breaths there.Here Here most of the people belongs to Gurung (Tamu) cast.

Here is a small description  about this cast:

This place is the main symbolism of Gurung Cast (Tamu). This place represents the whole Gurungs. This specific gurung organization  called  Tamu Pye Lhu Sangh  was established on 3, 2047 of Kartik(1990-20, Oct) at  Shaktighat. In this particular  place gurungs used to gather and used to  worship  to their ancestors.

From the cultural and traditional cultural point of view, gurungs are called rich. The 3 men shown in the photo  Pachyu, Ghyabri, and Bonpo Lama respectively are 3 Gurus (Khegi) of  Gurung and the written information given on the wall  informs  us how the fire originated.

These are the historical equipments used by the Bonpo Lama (Medic Wizards)

One of the main and amazing features of Gurung’s is that they used to calculate one’s age by Barga (Loh).There are 12 different animals who represents  one’s age and they are arranged in a single circle.
The swinging flag on the top of house is called as Aala and the hanging instruments is called as Tautu

This is also a snap of death ceremony. Gurung people used to give special  priority to someone’s death farewell. All funeral process is called as Arghu in which statue called Plha is builded in front of house as you can see in the picture model.
 

The main motive of this Tamu Pye Lhu Sangh is to bring all the Gurungs together in a single chain. Spreading the message  of Love, peace and brother

♪ marpha village ♪

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C O V E R Best of Asia: Our annual guide to all that's best for your ... Best Place to Pitch Your Tent: Bhutan Best Hot Springs: Tidrum Nunnery, Tibet Discharging Firearms: Darra Adam Khel, Pakistan Best Garden: Ryoanji Temple Garden, Kyoto, Japan Best Spirit Encounter: Mount Popa, Burma Best Animal Encounter: Endangered Primate Rescue Center, Cuc Phuong, Vietnam Best Place to Blow Serious Cash: Dhoni Mighili, The Maldives Best Restored Treasure: Baltit Fort, Hunza Valley, Pakistan Best Sacred Tree: Sri Maha Bodhi, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka Best Place to Dream of Stardom: Film City, Bombay, India Best Urban Refuge: Liu Xian Guan Teahouse, Beijing, China Best Literary Excursion: Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, India Best Mind Warp: Pyongyang, North Korea Theatre of the Silence: Hong Kong, China Extreme Yak Sports: Manali, India Best Airport Time Filler: Kantarat Golf Course, Bangkok, Thailand Best Oddball Museum: Meguro Parasitological Museum, Tokyo, Japan Best Place to See Old China: Lesser Three Gorges, Daning River, China Best Place to See New China: Three on the Bund, Shanghai, China Best Pools: InterContinental Hotel, Hong Kong, China Best Sporting Event: India vs. Pakistan Cricket Matches Best Tattoo Parlor: Horiyoshi III, Yokohama, Japan Best Spring Roll: Emperor, Hanoi, Vietnam Best Waterslide: Waitavala, Fiji Best Tailoring Bargains: Hoi An, Vietnam Best Gym with a View: Park Hyatt, Tokyo, Japan Best Skiing: The Kamchatka Peninsula, Russian Far East Best Bar in the Middle of Nowhere: Le Jovial Jarai, Banlung, Cambodia Best View of a Minefield: Tamil Tiger Territory, Sri Lanka Personal Best: Famous Asians give us their top picks

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Unions Celebrate May Day Collectively

Photo: CKS- TKP

Citing extreme position of violent conflict and aiming long term goal of trade union solidairty, workers of Nepal celebrated May Day 2005 collectively. With Theme; "Democracy for Peace & Development, Trade Union Rights for workers in all Profession" some 10,000 workers in Kathmandu Valley rally in major parts of the city. The May Day Joint Celebration Committee- 2005; which includes recognised National Centres- GEFONT, NTUC, DECONT (with their 59 plus affiliated national federations), a loose network of various professional - PAPAD (Professional Alliance for Peace and Democracy, which includes Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Nepal Bar Association, Nepal University Teachers Association, Teachers Union-Nepal, Nepal Engineers Association and Nepal Medical Association), Network of various employees associations- CoNEP (Confederation of Nepalese Professionals, which includes 2non-affiliated trade union federations; EI affiliated NNTA and government employees) and almost all Nepali Affiliates of GUFs (There are 37 Federation & unions) had led & coordinated the rally.

This year's May Day was widely supported by the international trade Union movement. The General Secretary of ICFTU-APRO N. Suzuki himself was one of the leading figures in the joint rally. The representatives from the Seven GUFs namely ICEM-HQ, (Elizabeth Cotton), TWARO-ITGLWF (Akiko Gono), IFBWW-South Asia (Rajeev Sharma), IMF-South Asia (T. Dyvadheenam), ITF-South Asia (Sangam Tripathi), PSI- South Asia (Kannan) and UNI (Andriana) were others international delegates in the rally.

The country director of ILO Ms. Leyla Tegmo- Reddy and senior workers specialist of ILO-SAAT Mr. Pong Sul Ahn were other participating dignitaries of the workers rally. Besides, two senior leaders from national trade union centres from India Bro. Guman Singh, the Organizing Secretary of INTUC and Dy General Secretary of HMS R A Mittal were also the participants.

May Day was also observed about 2 dozens major places in through out the country.

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GEFONT Protests South Korean Govt.

In a capacity of Former Minister for Labour, HMG-Nepal GEFONT Chairman Mukunda Neupane led a delegation-comprising Secretary General and Treasurer and paid an official visit to the Embassy of Republic of Korea in Kathmandu on November 26, 2003. Com. Neupane handover GEFONT's protest letter addressed to the President Roh Moo Hyun of Republic of Korea, Seoul to the His Excellency Ambassador in Nepal.

"It has come recently to our knowledge that several noticeable events are taking place in Korean Labour market within these periods of time. Sparked by the incident of self-immolation by Bae Dalho, a worker working in Doosan Heavy Industry (related to KCTU-KMWF) on January 9, 2003; similar unfortunate incidents have taken place on August, September and October of this year. We have been informed that precious life of six working people has been claimed already and some injured are still fighting for survival in the hospital beds and further Mr. Lee Haenam is in brink of death." Demanding immediate stop of all repressive actions against workers & their trade unions the letter further states- "it is in our information that recently your government has summoned warrant- order to the trade union leaders & activists involved in the workers rally of November 9 of this year including Mr. Dan Byung-ho, president of Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU)."

The protest letter drew a long question mark on Korean government intention on migrant workers as well. "We have noticed that there is discrimination against the workers termed as "irregular" compared to those who are called as 'regular'. …The monthly average wage of 'irregular' workers is about half compared to that of 'regular'. "

In a capacity of a largest Trade Union Confederation in Nepal GEFONT firmly shows its support and solidarity towards struggling workers and unions, particularly the KCTU through the protest letter.

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paradise pokhara situated in the central nepal in nestled in a region of a natural  beauty.the valley in filled with lush... vegelation swift flowing riversand dotted with shimmering lakes.it is one of the major town of nepal.pokharais blessedwith the backtopof one of the sceneries in the world.a 140 km of panorama made up of towering himlayan an close enough to be touched on a clear day.

FISHTAIL PEACK IN CLOSE LENCH

BARAHI TEMPLE

BACK SIDE FROM FISHTAIL PEACK
NEAR  POKHARA  CITY  HIMALAYAN  RANGENEAR POKHARA  CULTURAL  PROGRAMM

PHEWA LAKE SIDE

PHEWA LAKE AND FISHTAIL VIEW
MOUNT BIKE TRIPE NEAR  SARANGKOT
BAHAHI TEMPLE BACK SIDE VIEW
FISH  TAIL VIEW
POKARA CITY  VIEW
FISH TAIL  AND  LALU PATAE  FLOWER
POKHARA VIEW FROM FAR

Phewa Lake: Death is only some 150 years away (Nepalnews special)

- By Akhil Tripathi in Pokhara

Once an area of high pristine beauty, top on anyone’s list of Nepal’s most idyllic and tranquil spots, Phewa lake today wears a grim look. Once in its unspoiled form, the haunt of poets and lakeside dreamers who saw the best things in man’s relationships with nature mirrored on the lake’s surface, just as the lake’s once ice clear surface eloquently mirrored the snow capped peak of Mt. Machhapuchhre (the metaphor for Fishtailed).

Serene beauty: Phewa lake is a major tourist attraction in the western town of Pokhara. (File photo)

It spurred one of Nepal’s great poets, Bhupi Sherchan, to see the same reflection as the mountain lifting its Dhaka Topi in salute to the lovely lake. Unblemished, flawless, immaculate in its simple evocation of the beauty of nature, it was enough just to stand by its shores to calm the waters of the heart. But it seems like a lifetime ago. Over the years, this lakeside resort in western Nepal has taken a turn for the worse.

With its lovely lakes, cool hidden caves, fine looking flora and fauna, and mighty mountains in the backdrop, Pokhara valley stands as one of the most picturesque sites of Nepal. A place of remarkable natural beauty, the valley offers splendid views of the Annapurna Himalaya range. In fact, the combination of lovely lakes in the valley’s heart- and some of the highest mountains on earth in the backdrop- make the city excel in natural beauty.

Out of the three lakes that enhance the resplendence of the valley, the largest and the most enchanting one- Phewa lake, which is also the second largest lake in the kingdom, is the center of all attractions in the valley. Situated in the heart of picturesque Pokhara valley, the lake with the temple of Tal Barahi (popular amongst tourists as the island temple) in the middle, nicely reserved woods on the adjoining southern slope (Raniban), and serene water reflecting the Annapurna Range has indeed been a source of attraction for the visiting tourists from around the globe. It is, indeed, the Phewa lake that has transformed the lakeside area into a hot tourist hub. A whole slew of hotels and restaurants have opened up around the lakeside area. Thus the lake is, directly or indirectly, the means of subsistence for thousands including hundreds of boatmen, who ferry the tourists.

But sadly, this lovely lake has fallen a victim of unplanned urbanization, pollution, eutrophication, siltation and sedimentation, among others. As a result, not only the once legendary beauty of the lake but also its very existence is being threatened.

For the last few years, pollution in the lake has increased beyond measure. The result is: the beauty of this great lake, which once sang in full melody for its serene and clean water, is deteriorating day by day. The lake has very much helped the lakeside area develop into a tourist hub but the irony is that the city residents, mainly those of the lakeside area churn out the domestic waste and garbage through the sewerage that ends in the lake, slowly killing it. Hotel entrepreneurs, too, allow polluted water from their premises to flow into lake.

In a bid to maintain the healthy environment of the city, an environment promotion project under the Pokhara sub-metropolis had built the sewerage with an assistance of Rs.40 million from the Asian Development Bank. "But people connected the outlets of their domestic liquid waste to the sewerage system which was built to channel the rainwater into the lake," says Ramesh Bahadur Bhattarai, president of Phewa Lake Conservation Project. He adds, “The plan to link the sewerage system to the lake was flawed and we had protested against it. But they said the sewerage was made to control the flood in monsoon. But today you can see it has only polluted the lake”.

“If the sub- metropolis, the responsible body, itself gets engaged in contaminating the lake, what more tragedy is likely to befall the city?” he asks.

The Phirke and Bulaudi streams and the Seti canal, too, end up in the lake. But before ending in the lake, they collect all the city’s garbage, sullage, sewerage, and wastages of all kinds. "Apart from this, some hoteliers and restaurateurs still dispose the overflow of their septic tanks into the lake at night," says Mangal Nepali, president of Pokhara Community Service, a community-based group.

Sedimentation and siltation are other major problems that have threatened the lake's existence. In fact, the lake has already lost a huge chunk of its surface area due to sedimentation, siltation and encroachment. Old-timers in Pokhara recall that the lake was much bigger some half a century ago. Haram Jalari, 75, a fisherman recalls, “50 years back, the lake was up to Pame, but now half of that has changed into fields. My grand children don’t believe when I tell them this fact.”

Agrees Dr Devendra Bahadur Lamichhane, who has carried out a research on the lake. "The lake's surface area was 10 sq. km in 1956 but coming to 1995, it had shrunk to 4.5 sq. km. The topological maps taken in 1957-58 and even the aerial photographs taken by Airmap, an Italian company, in 1971 reveal that the lake was much bigger,” he adds.

The lake is being sedimented in the west from the eroded debris of the Harpan river- the source of the lake- and its tributaries. In fact, the Harpan river becomes the sorrow of the Phewa Lake in every rainy season. Dr Lamichhane says, "More than 1.7 million metric ton of sediment is deposited in the lake by the transportation of Harpan and its tributaries every year. Assuming the current rate of sedimentation and pollution, the death of this great lake is only some 150 years away."

Despite various workshops, seminars and projects designed especially for the preservation of the lake, there seems very little gain and the lake is fast approaching its death. The local residents also seem indifferent to the deteriorating state of the lake and are rather involved in its pollution. They are busy in washing their clothes while their cattle are bathing frequently in the lake. Only a planned government intervention in time can save the lake. Dr Lamichane remarks, “The lake has already crossed the mesotrophic stage and is in the ongoing stage of eutrophication. Unless the people of this area together with the local, regional, and national administrators are aware of the lake’s situation, it will be virtually contracted to reach the dystrophic stage. It will be eventually converted into terra firma”.

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