Miss Nepal vanquishes Maoists

September 24th, 2009 KATHMANDU - A 20-year-old popular Buddhist model and music video star Thursday prevailed over Nepal's Maoists as well as 14 other contenders to walk off with the Miss Nepal 2009 crown held under the shadow of Maoist threats. Zenisha Moktan, the winner, comes from the Tamang community, one of the poorest and underprivileged communities in Nepal and the worst victims of human trafficking.

September 22nd, 2009 KATHMANDU - After being blocked by the Maoists, Nepal's oldest and best known beauty pageant, Miss Nepal, is finally scheduled to be held Thursday without drawing attention to its Indian sponsor, Dabur Nepal, which is thought to be the actual target of the former guerrillas. The Dabur Vatika Miss Nepal contest, which was sponsored by Indian ayurvedic product manufacturer Dabur to promote its Dabur Vatika range of cosmetics for women, has now been repositioned as the Fem Miss Nepal 2009 pageant in a bid to downplay the role of the Indian company that the Maoists have been pressuring the pageant organisers to replace.

September 12th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Though former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell aka Ginger Spice kicked up a furore in Nepal by hugging and kissing Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal in public, Indian and Australian singing divas, who too are currently touring the Himalayan republic for a good cause, are not spicing up their acts with similar encores. Bollywood sensation Sunidhi Chauhan and Australian pop singer Kate Miller-Heidke are taking part in the MTV End Exploitation and Trafficking (MTV EXIT) campaign, sponsored by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and London-based charity MTV Europe Foundation to raise awareness about domestic and cross-border human trafficking through a series of concerts that end Sep 19.

September 11th, 2009 KATHMANDU - When he became the new prime minister four months ago, Nepal's veteran communist leader Madhav Kumar Nepal was criticised strongly for spurning the verdict of the people, who had voted against him in last year's election, causing him to lose both his constituencies. This week, the 56-year-old has triggered a fresh controversy after receiving a kiss in public - from former Spice Girl band member Geri Halliwell, also known as 'Sexy Spice' and 'Ginger Spice'.

September 10th, 2009 LONDON - Former Spice Girls singer Geri Halliwell has launched a campaign to help women in Nepal. The English singer has been in the country since Sep 6 and is using the opportunity to visit females living in the south-west of the country and raise awareness of the gender-based violence women are facing there, reports contactmusic.com.

September 2nd, 2009 KATHMANDU - Branded an Indian language, Hindi has been given the thumbs-down in Nepal as the medium of official work. However, Indian celebrities continue to be courted by Nepal for that touch of glamour, entertainment and driving home a special message.

August 24th, 2009 NASSAU - Indian hopes were dashed when Miss India Ekta Choudhry failed to make the top 15 in the Miss Universe 2009 contest. Miss Venezuela Stefania Fernandez, was eventually named winner of the 2009 Miss Universe pageant.

August 24th, 2009 ATLANTIS PARADISE ISLAND - Miss Venezuela Stefania Fernandez was crowned Miss Universe 2009 here Monday, beating 84 contenders in the 58th edition of the annual pageant. Miss Universe 2008 Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela placed the glittering $120,000 crown on 18-year-old Fernandez who looked pretty in a red evening gown.

August 24th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Pop stars from Nepal and India are teaming up for a series of concerts in Nepal's main cities for an anti-trafficking campaign sponsored by MTV. Indian crooner Sunidhi Chauhan and Nepali pop icon as well as Coke's poster boy Nima Rumba will join local stars Kranti Ale and Nalina Chitrakar for the campaign that kicks off with a concert in Kathmandu Sep 5, the first in a series of free "MTV EXIT Live in Nepal" concerts, said a statement by the American embassy here.

August 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Out of the shadow of a Maoist government that focused on moral policing during its brief stint in power, Nepal's oldest and best known beauty pageant that had been stopped by the former guerrillas is now hoping for resurrection. Miss Nepal, the country's most popular beauty contest that was started 15 years ago but was obstructed by the women's wing of the Maoist party last year, is once more calling for young, unmarried and tall beauties to come forward with their applications by this month to win the crown that brings a cash prize as well as the opportunity to take part in the Miss World contest.

August 13th, 2009 KATHMANDU - The popular Miss Nepal beauty pageant will be held either next month or in October, the event's organisers, The Hidden Treasure, have said. The event management company, which is based in Lalitpur, announced that it has begun accepting applications from Nepali women who are above 18 and are at least above 5 feet 4 inches (around 162.5 cm) tall, and have completed high school.

July 3rd, 2009 KATHMANDU - King of pop Michael Jacksons untimely death last week spurred fresh public interest in him worldwide. Now an enterprising restaurant in Kathmandu, a city that was not in the singers ken, is hoping to cash in on that.

June 21st, 2009 LALGARH - A group of intellectuals - comprising filmmakers, theatre personalities and writers - Sunday visited the troubled Lalgarh area of West Bengal and alleged that the security forces were torturing women and children here. The intellectuals, under the banner of Swajan, have been bitterly opposed to the state's Left Front government.

June 16th, 2009 KATHMANDU - The news of rising Bollywood star Shiney Ahuja being sent to police custody on the charge of raping his teenaged domestic help has been splashed in the Nepali media, getting more prominence than the upcoming visit of Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon. Barring the Maoist dailies, Nepal's major newspapers and the tabloids Tuesday reported the incident as did the sedate official media that generally stays aloof from sensational news.

June 16th, 2009 KATHMANDU - The news of rising Bollywood star Shiney Ahuja being sent to police custody on the charge of raping his teenaged domestic help has been splashed in the Nepali media, getting more prominence than the upcoming visit of Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon. Barring the Maoist dailies, Nepal's major newspapers and the tabloids Tuesday reported the incident as did the sedate official media that generally stays aloof from sensational news.