Maoist rebel leader turned politician Prachanda said on Friday he would stand for election in key polls set for April that will decide Nepal's political future and formally abolish the monarchy.
The April 10 polls will elect a body that will rewrite Nepal's Constitution and formally declare the impoverished Himalayan country a republic, ending a 239-year royal dynasty led by unpopular King Gyanendra.
"As a leader of Communist Party of Nepal [Maoist], I will contest in the upcoming elections," Maoist leader Prachanda, whose nom-de-guerre means "the fierce one," told a news conference.
Analysts have said the Maoists' continued use of mafia-like tactics means they will get minimal support at the polls.
But Prachanda, a former school teacher, was confident of success.
`a majority win'
"We will not be defeated in the constituent assembly elections at any costs. In fact, our party will win a majority," Prachanda said.
Since making peace in late 2006 with the government after a decade of civil war claimed at least 12,500 lives, the ultra-leftists have emerged from their jungle and hill strongholds to Kathmandu's corridors of power.
They have been given about a quarter of the seats in an interim government and seven ministerial portfolios. In return, they have confined their guerrilla army to UN-monitored camps.
The polls, which are a central part of Nepal's peace deal, have been postponed twice, most recently in November.
The UN has warned that continued ethnic and communal violence in the south needs to be tackled before the elections can take place in April.
bus attack
Meanwhile, at least seven people were killed and 22 injured on Friday after a bus exploded in flames in southern Nepal, police and local media said.
A rebel group fighting for regional autonomy claimed responsibility, local media reported. Police said they were unable to confirm this.
The Terai Army, one of many rebel groups fighting for the autonomy of the Terai plains along Nepal's border with India, called the local Radio Birgunj station shortly after the fire, the radio station and other media reports said.
The group said they attacked the bus for defying a transport strike called by the group. Details of how the attack was carried out were unclear.
The bus was traveling from Janakpur to Birgunj in the Terai plains when it caught fire about 80km southeast of Kathmandu, a police officer said.
Police said they had removed seven badly charred bodies, including a woman and a child. They have detained a member of the bus's staff for interrogation, but said the driver of the bus had run away.
In September, the Terai Army claimed responsibility for a series of bombs in Kathmandu which killed three people.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
RSS