In the meantime I have been diligently working to prepare some wonderful posts for you in an entirely new yet similar style, and in an exciting yet still familiar format when the new month begins tomorrow, readers. Then I will be coming down.
Until then let's begin with a photograph not found in the web version of the Boston Globe:
"EVICTION IN NEPAL -- Children watched a bulldozer demolish homes in their neighborhood near the Bagmati River in Katmandu Tuesday. Government forces reportedly vacated more than 200 squatters who had set up homes illegally along the banks of the river. Police estimated there are more than 1,200 squatters in the area (Boston Globe May 9 2012)."
I'm sure Palestinians can empathize.
"Nepal calls elections after failing to write constitution" by Binaj Gurubacharya | Associated Press, May 28, 2012
KATMANDU, Nepal - Nepal’s prime minister called new elections for November after the term of the Constituent Assembly expired at midnight Sunday without political leaders completing the task of writing a new constitution.
Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai said the Constituent Assembly had failed to achieve its goal.
“We have no other option but to go back to the people and elect a new
assembly to write the constitution,’’ Bhattarai said in his
announcement broadcast live over television.
The Constituent Assembly was elected to a two-year term in 2008 to draft a new constitution but has been unable to finish the task. Its tenure has been extended four times, but the Supreme Court rejected any further extensions.
Leaders of the main political parties met Sunday but failed to reach any agreement.
The four main parties were attempting to resolve differences over whether the states to be created by the constitution should be determined on the basis of ethnicity.
The debate has brought street protests and demonstrations from factions who oppose and support the idea of drawing up states based on ethnicity.
Police clashed with protesters Sunday outside the Constituent Assembly, where political leaders were meeting in a last-minute attempt to agree on a new constitution before the deadline.
Thousands of protesters opposed to the idea of creating states on the basis of ethnicity tried to push through a riot police line on the northern side of the assembly hall. Police pushed them back and a scuffle ensued, with the protesters throwing stones and police responding with tear gas and batons.
Occupy.... Nepal?
Three policemen and several protesters were injured.
On the other side of the assembly hall, thousands of people demonstrated in support of states based on ethnicity. A thick police line kept the opposing groups apart.
Finance Minister Barshaman Pun, also a member of Bhattarai’s Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), said the government had even discussed imposing a state of emergency but was not able to do so because they could not meet the requirements for taking such an action.
Security forces have been placed on high alert.
The prime minister’s announcement came at midnight when the streets were deserted and protesters had gone back home.
The assembly was elected in 2008 two years after prodemocracy protests forced the king to give up his authoritarian rule and restore democracy. The assembly immediately abolished the centuries-old monarchy and converted Nepal into a republic.
--more--"
"Plane crash kills 15 in Nepal mountains; 6 survive" Globe wires, May 15, 2012
KATMANDU, Nepal - A plane crashed into a mountain in the Himalayas while trying to land at an airport in northern Nepal on Monday, killing 15 people and injuring six, some critically....
It was the second Agni Air crash in two years. In August 2010, one of its planes crashed in the Everest region, killing 14, including four Americans.
--more--"
Also see:
Mount Everest will be crowded again days after 4 climbers killed
Woman breaks own Everest age record
DNA to be used to answer Bigfoot question
The Globe resembles a supermarket tabloid more and more every day.
