Nepal's King Gyanendra, bowing to popular pressure, yesterday announced that he was handing back all executive power to the people.
In an address to the nation following over two weeks of anti-king protest demonstrations during which over a dozen people were shot dead, the 59-year old Nepalese monarch said: "We ask the seven agitating political party alliance to recommend the name of the person to become prime minister."
The king seized absolute power in February last year asking for three years to bring the derailed Nepalese multi-party democracy back on track.
PHOTO: AP
More than 100,000 pro-democracy protesters had earlier defied a government curfew and filled the streets on the outskirts of Nepal's capital, as the US ambassador warned that the king's regime could be nearing collapse.
Three separate groups of marchers converged on an area on the western edge of Kathmandu called Kalanki, where police shot three demonstrators dead on Thursday and wounded dozens more.
A reporter estimated the crowd at more than 100,000; independent Kantipur television said there were about 150,000.
They faced off against security forces that had ringed the city issued with shoot-on-sight orders against anyone who tried to enter the curfew zone.
As the tension grew, so did the international pressure on the king.
Meanwhile, two senior opposition leaders involved in negotiations with communist rebels were arrested as they tried to return to Kathmandu, said Amrit Bohara of the Community Part of Nepal.
The two men, Jhala Nath Khanal and Bamdev Gautam, both leaders of the party, have been important conduits in negotiations between Nepal's seven main opposition parties and the Maoist insurgents who control much of the countryside.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
RSS