Police fired rubber bullets at anti-monarchy protesters as new clashes erupted yesterday in Nepal's capital, while most residents spent the bulk of the daylight hours cooped up at home on the third day of a government curfew.
Police also fired tear gas and beat protesters with batons to break up rallies in Kathmandu's Kalanki, Gangabu and Dhumbarahi districts, while demonstrators staged similar rallies in other districts and outlying suburbs to demand King Gyanendra relinquish control over the government.
No serious injuries were immediately reported.
The Himalayan nation's long-simmering crisis has deepened in recent days, with mobs rampaging in cities throughout the country and a crackdown by security forces leaving three protesters dead and some 800 arrested, mostly without charge.
While most Nepalis are staying indoors, the security forces don't seem to mind Western tourists who have the empty roads of the city to themselves, and are seen walking or cycling in small numbers.
King Gyanendra dismissed an interim government and seized power more than a year ago, and an alliance of Nepal's seven major political parties -- with vocal backing from the country's Maoist rebels -- are demanding he restore full democracy.
Neither side has shown willingness to back down, and the royal government said it may have to use even more force to restore order, alleging that Maoist rebels had infiltrated political protests and fired on security forces over the weekend.
Four suspected rebels were arrested along with other protesters, and spent gun cartridges were discovered at protest sites, Home Minister Kamal Thapa said on Sunday.
The seven-party opposition rejected the allegation.
"This is baseless. He says he found cartridges. Anyone could have thrown them there," senior Nepali Congress party leader Ram Sharan Mahat said yesterday. "This is a peaceful movement. By alleging that Maoists have become part of it, the government is trying to legitimize its oppression."
However, the protesters have not been entirely peaceful.
Thousands of youths have hurled bricks and stones at police, injuring many, prompting Information Minister Srish Shumshere Rana to call them "hooligans."
"Ideally, I would have preferred an entirely peaceful movement," Mahat said. "But these are young people. If you provoke them, they will hit back. We have all done it."
"The crisis has deepened. Even the parties didn't expect such a massive public participation across the country," said Lok Raj Baral, executive chairman of the Nepal Center for Contemporary Studies.
Yesterday, doctors from 17 hospitals said they would protest against the government's actions in lunchtime gatherings, without affecting medical services.
The opposition's four-day general strike ended on Sunday, but the group vowed to continue protests.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
STRAIT OF HORMUZ: In the case of a prolonged blockade by Iran, Taiwan would look to sources of LNG outside the Middle East, including Australia and the US Taiwan would not have to ration power due to a shortage of natural gas, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, after reports that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid the conflict in the Middle East. The government has secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for this month and contingency measures are in place if the conflict extends into next month, Kung told lawmakers. Saying that 25 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies are from Qatar, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) asked about the situation in light of the conflict. There would be “no problems” with
RSS