A strike to force the resignation of the Nepalese prime minister shut down the capital for second day yesterday as political parties struggled to reach a compromise to end the standoff between the government and the former Maoist rebels.
Thousands of police officers in riot gear watched as Maoist supporters demonstrated in the streets of Kathmandu, chanting anti-government slogans and demanding that Nepalese Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal step down to allow a Maoist-led coalition government to take power.
Nepalese Home Ministry spokesman Jaya Mukund Khanal said there were no reports of violence but that highways were deserted and few ambulances, press vehicles or water trucks were seen on city streets. Schools, markets, factories and businesses were shuttered; only government offices were open, and their employees had to walk to work.
Leaders of the three major political parties — the Maoists, the Nepali Congress and the prime minister’s Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) — met until late on Sunday, but failed to reach an agreement to end the standoff.
“We have made progress and will meet again on Monday for further talks,” said Jhalnath Khanal of the Communist Party.
The Maoists say they have the largest number of seats — although not the majority — in the National Assembly and greatest amount of support among the population. They have been seeking to oust the government for months, although this is the first time they have called a strike.
Thousands of supporters of the Maoists went through neighborhoods of the capital demanding that people close their shops. The group has been known to resort to violence against those who defy their strike calls.
On Saturday, Maoists staged a huge rally in Kathmandu, but the prime minister refused their demands to step down. He said the Himalayan country’s political crisis should be resolved through dialogue.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the