Menon to arrive in Nepal for talks with Maoist government

September 28th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has said his visit to the United States and participation in the United Nations General Assembly has been successful. Speaking to reporters at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on arrival today, Madhav Kumar Nepal said his 23-member delegation was able to generate support and solidarity from the international community for peace and stability here.

September 24th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Maoist chairman Prachanda has said that his party would table 'no confidence' motion in the parliament against the UML-led government if there's no agreement to resolve the question of civilian supremacy. Speaking to reporters here on Wednesday, Prachanda said the Maoist party would try to reach an understanding with the UML and the Nepali Congress till October 7, but it would go for no confidence motion if the talks failed.

June 26th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Less than a week after India sent its Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon to Kathmandu to discuss border problems with Nepal's new government as well as the halted peace process, Pakistan is sending its foreign secretary here for talks. Salman Bashir is arriving Saturday on a three-day visit, Nepal's foreign ministry said.

June 24th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Closely watching the battle in India's West Bengal state between security forces and tribals backed by Indian Maoists, Nepal, the survivor of a decade-old Maoist uprising, Wednesday said the neighbouring country's decision to ban the Left radicals was its own internal affair. "It is the decision taken by a sovereign country," said Shankar Pokhrel, Nepal's information and communications minister who is also the spokesman of the communist-led government that came to power last month after the fall of the country's first Maoist government.

June 21st, 2009 KATHMANDU - Despite the growing violence in Nepal with the Maoists beginning new protests against the government and the upsurge in Maoist activities in India's Orissa, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal states, Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon Sunday ruled out any links between the two, saying there was no evidence. "There is nothing to suggest there is any link," said the Indian envoy, the first high-ranking Indian official to visit Nepal after the fall of the Maoist government and the formation of a new communist-ruled alliance.

June 21st, 2009 KATHMANDU - Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon's two-day visit to Nepal was disrupted Sunday by nationwide protests called by the Maoists to vent their anger at the government for revoking an earlier government's decision to sack the army chief, Gen Rookmangud Katawal. Menon, who was scheduled to meet four ministers Sunday before departing for New Delhi, managed to hold talks with only Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala as the foreign ministry, relocated to the former royal palace recently, was away from the ministerial hub which lay under Maoist siege.

June 15th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Alarmed at the inability of the new Nepal government to get its act together and the growing Maoist opposition, India is sending its Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon to Kathmandu Saturday to express its concern and push forward the halted peace process. Menon is arriving on a two-day whirlwind visit Saturday, a Nepali foreign ministry official told IANS Monday.

May 23rd, 2009 KATHMANDU - As Nepal Saturday looked forward to an end to a political crisis that has gripped the nation for three weeks with the fall of the Maoist government, fresh violence erupted in Kathmandu Valley with an explosion in a church killing at least one person and injuring nearly a dozen. The blast occurred at the Assumption Church in Dhobighat in Lalipur district, run by the Nepal Catholic Society.

May 23rd, 2009 KATHMANDU - Madhav Kumar Nepal, a UML (Unified Marxist Leninist) nominee, was chosen as the new Prime Minister of Nepal in the Legislature-Parliamentary session of the Constituent Assembly (CA) on Saturday. Madhav, in the absence of any challenger, was chosen unopposed.

May 23rd, 2009 KATHMANDU - The Legislature-Parliamentary session of the Constituent Assembly (CA) is all set to elect UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal as the new prime minister of Nepal. Only Madhav Kumar Nepal has filed nomination for the scheduled election for the prime minister.

April 22nd, 2009 KATHMANDU - A 52-year-old Bhutanese man living in a refugee camp in eastern Nepal was gunned down Tuesday, police said. Shantiram Nepal, a 52-year-old, was killed by a group of people who attacked him at his hut in eastern Nepal's Beldangi camp.

February 26th, 2009 KATHMANDU - While seeking to scrap a controversial peace and friendship treaty it signed with its southern neighbour India almost six decades ago, Nepal's ruling Maoist party is now planning to ink a new peace and friendship pact with its other giant neighbour China. Beijing has sent a 14-member delegation to Nepal, headed by Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue, to propose the new pact to Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, the details of which are to be discussed during Prachanda's upcoming visit to China.

February 17th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Before returning to New Delhi at the end of his two-day whirlwind visit to Nepal, Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon Wednesday ruled out sharing Nepal issues with the Himalayan republic's other giant neighbour China. Reacting to the proposal mooted by opposition leader and former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala that China and India should form a joint Nepal mechanism, the Indian envoy said the prime focus of his visit was to review New Delhi's bilateral relationship with Kathmandu and discuss how to strengthen it further.

February 17th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Work has resumed at the project site of Indian company GMR Energy in western Nepal after obstruction by locals since Sunday, Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said Wednesday at the conclusion of his two-day visit to this Himalayan country. 'Work has resumed.

February 16th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon began his whirlwind assessment visit to Nepal Tuesday with a flurry of consultations, including a 90-minute meeting with Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda. Arriving at the Tribhuvan International Airport in the afternoon after his flight from New Delhi was delayed by bad weather, the Indian envoy told the media that he had come to learn about developments in Nepal's ongoing peace process and the drafting of a new constitution and to reiterate India's support.