Full Coverage: Nepal

30.12.2005 At least 14,000 minors were abducted by State and Maoists, of which 60 were killed during conflict, in the past ten months, says a report.The report presented by Child Workers in Nepal, (CWIN), at Kathmandu, Nepal said that all the minors were abducted and disappeared in between January 2005 to November, by the belligerent sides

29.12.2005 The government has ratified SAFTA and endorsed a tariff liberalization plan (TLP) which will drop prices of Indian as well as other South Asian goods from the next fiscal year.

27.12.2005 Data indicate that Nepal has passed from being a "low risk" country to being one with a "concentrated epidemic", that is, one in which HIV prevalence is consistently over five percent in one or more defined sub-populations. In Nepal, core sub-groups are found among Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) nationwide and Female Sex Workers (FSWs) in Kathmandu and the Nepal-India border. The overall goal of the multi-donor project is to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS into the general population.

27.12.2005 Brief project update on HIV/AIDS Harm Reduction among Injecting Drug Users in Nepal. The project is working in close collaboration with the National Centre for AIDS and STD Control, Ministry of Health and other stakeholders.

27.12.2005 Despite all the attention it gets, the trade accounts for only 10 % of the annual national income of Nepal. And given that average growth rates of flagship export items and major commodities have gone down markedly in recent years. In that context, if one shifts gears from Hong Kong to Kathmandu these questions come up: if trade is so important, why arenÂ’t their many Nepali entrepreneurs engaged in it? The time has come to start shifting the slant of discussion to what changes in policies would lead to easier and more trade and facilitates entrepreneurship culture.

27.12.2005 Widespread poverty and ignorance are forcing more than half the number of children of Danuwar community at Bhimtar village in Sindhupalchok out of schools. They can instead be found wasting their time fishing.

27.12.2005 As against the target of constructing 3,000 km of agricultural roads in two decades under the Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP), only 300 km of agricultural roads have been constructed in a decade, a newspaper report said

26.12.2005 Ek Sansaar Ek Awaaz Radio programme was launched in Nepal on 21st December 2005 with the objective of voicing the voiceless; connecting communities and empowering people and strengthening the rural broadcastersÂ’ network. Programme Manager, OneWorld South Asia, Geeta Malhotra writes on the initiative from Nepal.

26.12.2005 Swaabhimaan 2062, an alliance formed with the Multi-Stakeholder Partnership of government, civil society organizations, public and private agencies seeks to harness the potential of ICTs for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The current Five Year Plan of Nepal also envisions that Nepal will have rural tele-centers in 1,500 VDCs to bring about development.

23.12.2005 When Dil Bhushan Pathak, a popular newscaster in Nepal, was reading the news one night, he came across an item that caused him to skip a heartbeat. In the remote Achham district in far-western Nepal, a woman had died a painful death. She was undergoing a clandestine abortion using a traditional method - the insertion of a heated rod smeared with herbal paste into the uterus.

21.12.2005 In rural Nepal few mothers use modern obstetric and midwifery services. Since 1997 the Nepal Safer Motherhood Project (NSMP) has been working with the Government of Nepal to reduce maternal mortality and to enable pregnant women to make informed decisions. The projectÂ’s success owes much to its use of Key Informant Monitoring (KIM).

20.12.2005 Banned by the Nepali king through an Ordinance, the pioneering community radio network that gave voice to thousands of rural Nepalis faced extinction, early this year.

12.12.2005 Of all the cultural practices that suppress Nepali women, none is as degrading as the practice of chopadi. It expels women from the home for the duration of their monthly periods, and for 11 days after childbirth. Dr.Aruna Upreti, a womenÂ’s health and reproductive rights activist, comments in the Nepali Times.

09.12.2005 HIV/AIDs prevention programme cannot be successful and sustainable in Nepal unless women are financially dependent and are in a position to control what happens to their own bodies - writes Kamala Sarup for NepalNews.

09.12.2005 In recent years, incidents of domestic violence against women have been on the rise in Nepal. However, the majority of such cases remain unrecorded mainly because women are vulnerable and dependent on men. Besides, several other factors continue to oppress women in this society. Here is a perspective from The Kathmandu Post.

06.12.2005 Addressing the inaugural session of the three-day informative meet titled "UN's Millennium Development Goal for gender equality and women empowerment" Judge Mohan Prasad Ghimire of the Appellate Court of Pokhara has said around 7,000 women are being trafficked from Nepal every year.

05.12.2005 The Farmers' International conference on Democracy, Peace, Food Sovereignty and Action Plan: For Road to Hong Kong, has decided to throw its weight against the ministerial meeting by derailing negotiations through intensive protests.

05.12.2005 NGO Federation Arjun Karki has showed the full solidarity of his Federation towards Maoists- Parties12-point pact.At a time when UN general secretary Kofi Anan has already welcomed the 12-point pact recently made between the seven alliance party and the Maoists, some extremists are opposing the it.