Nepal's anti-monarchy protests spread to the usually off-limits tourist district in Kathmandu yesterday, with hundreds of people chanting slogans against King Gyanendra and burning tires on the street.
Police arrested four people during the protest in the Thamel district, a maze of alleys full of backpacker hotels, bars, curio shops and trekking and travel agencies which is a magnet for most tourists entering the country.
Protests were held elsewhere in the city as well, with vehicles off the street on the 11th day of a general strike called by political parties. Around 20 people were detained during a protest by journalists.
Since Sunday is not a day off in Nepal, many people could be seen walking to work down Kathmandu's main thoroughfares.
"We will burn the crown and run the country," youths shouted as they danced around burning tires in the center of Thamel. "Death to the government."
Meanwhile, Nepal's capital faced shortages of fresh food, cooking gas and gasoline. Vendors said fresh green vegetables were unavailable and they were running out of the potatoes and onions they had in storage.
The strike has forced trucks off the highways, the only means of transporting goods and supplies in this mountainous nation with no train tracks. Only a handful of stores remained open yesterday.
"We have not had a single truck come in the past 11 days. Whatever we are selling was what we had in stock, or grown locally in Kathmandu," said Raj Maharjan, who was selling a few bundles of green onion at the Baneswor vegetable market.
Vegetable prices have risen fivefold, chicken and mutton prices have doubled and gas for cooking was scarce.
Only a few vehicles were plying the streets, and the bus station in the city center was also deserted.
"We have not had any buses leave on long distance routes. Thousands of passengers have been stranded, but we are not sure when the strike will end," said Ramesh Gurung, a bus driver who was playing cards with fellow drivers.
"I have only a little money left and no relatives in Kathmandu. I need to get home to Butwal [in south Nepal] but I have been stuck away from my family," said Madhav Silwal, a milk farmer.
The Civil Aviation Authority said most of the internal and international flights were taking off on schedule. However, the majority of the population cannot afford to buy air tickets.
Thousands of pro-democracy protesters have been demonstrating every day in the streets of Kathmandu and major cities and towns since April 6 when the alliance of seven main opposition parties called the general strike to protest King Gyanendra's rule.
Many protests have ended in clashes with security forces, who have already shot dead four people.
The protests are the worst unrest Gyanendra has faced since he sacked the government and seized power 14 months ago.
The king said he took control to restore political order and end a communist insurgency that has left nearly 13,000 people dead in the past decade and made holding elections impossible.
The seven main opposition parties decided late on Friday to continue with the strike and protests after Gyanendra offered few concessions in a message he delivered to mark Nepal's New Year.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS