(PTI) Nepal's ultra-leftist Maoists have become the new moral policeman, who have targeted restaurants, bars and massage parlours seen as the hub of crime in the capital. Bam Dev Gautam, Nepal's Communist Home Minister, has targeted the 'night life' in Kathmandu, particularly in Thamel which is a popular destination for the tourists.
He has vowed to "regulate the night business", and end the "sex business flourishing at Thamel" and other parts of Kathmandu that the minister believes has led to surge in crime.
We want to regulate night business as there are reports of teenage boys and girls being involved in sex trade in the name of cabin restaurants and dance bars in Kathmandu, said Gautam.
We may consider a proposal, if the restaurant operators come with clear suggestions, to open even red light area or night life centres but these should be regulated, he stressed.
However, bar and restaurant owners fear the crackdown by the police is discouraging tourism, which is a key income-earner for the impoverished nation.
These dance bars operating in Kathmandu's tourist hub Thamel mainly caters the needs of Indian tourists, though locals and other visitors are equally lured to these entertainment centres.
"The government should allow business up to 2 am as the decision has also hampered the tourism business," says Gopi Lamichhane, owner of 'Water Town Dance Bar' of Jyatha, which employees 50 staff, including 35 girls.
It is difficult to run business these days as customers have considerably declined over the past two days, he said. We never show naked dance as alleged by the police, Lamichhane stressed, adding we mainly perform Nepali folk and modern dance.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10324 views]
Top|| File under:
(Orissa): At least 20 persons, including six policemen, were injured when two groups clashed and attacked a police station prompting the police to fire in the air in Orissa's Nayagarh district on Sunday.
Trouble had erupted over a trivial issue relating to a marriage in the area and after clashing with each other the two groups attacked the police station.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10324 views]
Top|| File under:
Bhubaneswar: "Simply out of control," is how Raphael Cheenath, Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, described the situation in Kandhamal, the district in central Orissa that has seen sustained violence against Christians by Sangh Parivar groups since December 2007.
"I see an attempt to appease the majority, because of the coming elections, in the statement given by the Chief Minister, Mr. Naveen Patnaik, when he went to Phulbani [the district headquarters of Kandhamal] yesterday [on Saturday]," he told The Hindu in an interview in Bhubaneswar at the Archbishop's House. "There was not one word in his statement about the 40,000 persons displaced and in relief camps, not one word about the 4,200 homes destroyed, and not one word about the 45 persons -- including a pastor who was cut to pieces just a few days ago in front of his wife -- who have been murdered. Why did he go?"
A tired and anguished Archbishop severely indicted the State and Central governments of insensitivity and inaction in respect of the violence and injustice perpetrated against the Dalit Christians of Kandhamal.
"My impression is that the State government is trying its best to cover up the violence by giving the impression that the normalcy has been restored, and that there is no need for further action." The Supreme Court, he said, in response to a petition filed before it on September 8 seeking protection from the relentless violence against Christians, had given the State government four weeks to respond. The Archbishop said the Sangh Parivar had used this period to "systematically destroy one village after another."
"Excuse unacceptable"
The excuse of the State government that marauding mobs often outnumbered the police force present at the spot, he said, was unacceptable. "Why did they allow the numbers to swell in the first place?" "We know that in cases of attack and even rape the police just stood by and took no action. What is left to destroy now?"
The Archbishop said he had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh three times, President Pratibha Patel twice, Home Minister Shivraj Patil twice and Congress president Sonia Gandhi once over the situation in Kandhamal. The Prime Minister, he said, called it a "national shame" and promised help, but there had not been any real change in the situation as Dalits continue to live in relief camps and were too frightened to return to their villages.
According to the Archbishop, the Sangh Parivar has "issued a fatwa" that by September 30, residents must return to their villages to be re-converted to Hinduism. "I am issuing a letter that will be distributed to Christians telling them not to worry and to be firm. No conversion is valid unless it is free. A document signed under duress is not valid under law."
He is also planning to call a meeting of Bishops and heads of religious groups to organise a rally in Bhubaneswar protesting the grave violence and injustice against Christians in Kandhamal.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10324 views]
Top|| File under:
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/29/2008 13:15 Comments ||
Top||
#2
She is a huge Bing Crosby-look alike dyke with 3 children. No wonder she hates someone like Palin who looks good in swim suit, Barbour or snowmobile suit.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/29/2008 13:24 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Hey, Jack - no dissin' der Bingle! >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/29/2008 13:44 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Reading stuff like that makes me wonder how co-existence with such people is possible within the same country. Makes me think there will be civil war some day. OK forget I said that. I need to chill.
#7
"Reading stuff like that makes me wonder how co-existence with such people is possible within the same country. Makes me think there will be civil war some day. OK forget I said that. I need to chill."
-On second thought, I don't think that's as absurd as you might think.
The very thing that appalls us about Sarah Palin -- her discomfort in the realm of reason
The Girondists took that tack to the extreme with a ferocious persecution of the Catholic Church. The cathedral of Notre Dame was gutted and converted into the "Temple of Reason". And the guillotines were kept very, very busy.
She has not learned to imagine how profoundly ludicrous it seems to the rest of us that physical proximity would constitute intellectual understanding.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(Orissa): At least 20 persons, including six policemen, were injured when two groups clashed and attacked a police station prompting the police to fire in the air in Orissa's Nayagarh district on Sunday. 
