Police armed with tear gas, bamboo batons and orders to use force if necessary were depoyed across Nepal's capital yesterday to block plans by the political opposition to protest King Gyanendra's power grab last month.
The constitutional monarch dismissed the government on Feb. 1, imposing emergency rule and suspending civil liberties.
Dozens of opposition politicians and other critics of the monarch have been arrested, including several journalists. Police on Monday night arrested prominent reporter Kanakmani Dixit, publisher of Himal magazine, but released him several hours later, according to an editor at the magazine. Authorities gave no reason for his detention.
Since the takeover, many politicians have gone underground and police have thwarted efforts by Nepal's five major political parties to hold big rallies.
A few demonstrators have taken to the streets, only to be quickly detained by police.
But Nepal's political parties said yesterday's anti-king rally in Katmandu would be much bigger than previous ones and vowed that demonstrators would not be deterred by the heavy security presence.
``We have urged all our supporters to fight a decisive movement to restore democracy in Nepal,'' said Meena Pandey, a leader of the Nepali Congress, the largest party.
Keshav Badal, a senior member of the Communist Party of Nepal, said party leaders would take part in the rally.
"We expect a much bigger response," he said.
But a government minister said the protest would not be permitted.
"Under emergency rule such protests are banned. We will do what needs to be done," Education Minister Radha Krishna Mainali said.
Senior police officers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they had orders to break up any protest, even by using force if necessary. They said protesters would be arrested if they defy orders.
Meanwhile the king, who is also the supreme commander of the Royal Nepalese Army, made an appearance at the military parade grounds in the heart of Katmandu for an annual Hindu celebration.
A coalition of civil rights groups on Tuesday asked a New York State judge to order one of its largest suburban counties to stop its deployment of nearly 600 license plate readers, calling it a warrantless and “indiscriminate surveillance system” that violates the state constitution. The class action lawsuit also alleged that Westchester County never got proper authorization to launch the program, which has amassed a database of 1.6 billion plate scans that has been shared with more than 50 outside law enforcement agencies. The complaint said the network “records the long-term travel patterns, daily habits, and intimate information of millions of
Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday blessed a giant new tower at Barcelona’s famed Sagrada Familia Basilica after celebrating mass inside what is now the world’s tallest church. A fireworks and light show illuminated the exterior of the temple at the end of the ceremony, bathing the unfinished basilica in shifting colours that highlighted its towering spires. A choir of 600 singers performed at the service which lasted around 90 minutes and was attended by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as well as King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia. The stained-glass windows in various colours shone brightly in between the tree-like
Voters in Switzerland yesterday cast their ballots on an initiative championed by the top right-wing party to cap the Alpine country’s population at 10 million. As of press time last night, early results showed that Swiss voters were leaning against it. The populist Swiss People’s Party, which has the most seats in parliament, has stirred up and fostered anti-migration sentiment over the years, notably about an influx of workers from the neighboring EU. Critics called the bid a self-inflicted wound, saying the boom in migration over the past generation has brought foreign labor and skills to sectors such as healthcare, finance, pharmaceuticals
Scientists have discovered communities of marine life — including jellyfish, tubeworms and brittle stars — thriving on a whale graveyard. The graveyards form when whale carcasses fall to the sea floor, becoming a sustaining snack for nearby critters. This one, which is up to 7km below the surface of the southeastern Indian Ocean, spans the largest area, and is so far the deepest found. A whale’s sheer size and the unique chemistry of its bones are the keys to forming these unique underwater neighborhoods, said Song Xikun (宋希坤), a biologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering
RSS