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Nepal’s ruling party has merged with a former Maoist rebel group to form a super bloc that experts say will reshape politics after years of turbulence in the Himalayan nation. Officials said yesterday the new alliance, the Nepal Communist Party, was formally signed into agreement following late-night negotiations between the two sides on Monday. They forged a political alliance to trounce the incumbent party in last year’s landmark general elections, but this formal merger creates a political behemoth unprecedented in Nepali politics. “This is an agreement to merge, but there are other issues we need to conclude before we completely unify,” senior Maoist leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha said, adding the transition process was expected to take at least a month. The new alliance commands a large majority in both houses of parliament, and comes just days after Communist leader K P Sharma Oli was sworn in as prime minister. Oli’s main Communist party and the Maoists heavily defeated the incumbent Nepali Congress party in polls last year billed as the final step in a post-war transformation  to a federal republic. The Maoists, who fought government forces in a bitter civil war that claimed more than 16,000 lives and overthrew Nepal’s 240-year-old monarchy, dominated politics for more than two decades. The decade-long conflict ended in a 2006 peace deal that saw guerrilla leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal become Nepal’s first post-war prime minister. But their political support has waned in recent years, with their party ranking third in last year’s general elections. Political historian Aditya Adhikari said the merger was a “rare union” between two sides with starkly different backgrounds. The ruling Communist party is older and considered more conservative than its new partners in the Maoists, who have pursued more progressive  politics in the post-war era. “If they manage to stick together it will change the future of Nepal’s politics,” said Adhikari, author of The Bullet and the Ballot Box, a history of Nepal’s Maoist struggle.  “But they will likely function as a coalition or two factions within a party, negotiating power sharing.” A rumoured agreement to share power between Prime Minister Oli and Dahal, the Maoist leader, has provoked criticism amid concern this alliance could destabilise politics down the track. Brittle alliances have been struck between Nepal’s three dominant parties since 2008, and there are fears this latest merger could prolong the revolving door nature of the country’s politics. Oli has been prime minister once before, while Dahal has served in the top office twice. Many voters cast ballots in last year’s elections hoping for stability and much-needed development in the impoverished Himalayan nation. The last government – a coalition between the Maoists and the Nepali Congress party – was the country’s ninth in just 11 years before the alliance  fractured. Communist leader K P Sharma Oli and top Maoist Pushpa Kamal Dahal of ruling Left Alliance sign an agreement on unification of the two parties in Kathmandu yesterday.

Leaders of the two Nepalese communist parties that formed an electoral alliance and won the largest number of seats in parliamentary polls last year have agreed to merge their parties, a spokesman said on Tuesday. The ruling Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) or the UML and a party of former Maoist rebels, late on Monday signed the deal formalising the unification, said Yogesh Bhattarai, a ruling party leader. The two parties agreed that KP Sharma Oli, the chairman of the UML, who became prime minister last week, will lead the government for two and half years, while former rebel leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal will succeed him in the remaining term. Under the power-sharing deal, the Maoists, who waged a 10-year war that ended in 2006, will join the coalition government this week. The alliance won 174 seats in the 275-member federal parliament in elections held last year under the country's new constitution.

Nepal’s new bicameral parliament will begin work in March for the first time since its approval in the 2015 constitution, ending a transition that began 10 years ago, President Bidya Devi Bhandari office said yesterday. The first session of the federal parliament, made up of the house of representatives (lower house) and National Assembly (upper house), will take place on March 5 at the International Convention Centre in New Baneshwor, the president office said in a statement. She summoned the meeting of the federal parliament on the recommendation of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, who was sworn in on February 15, the Kathmandu Post reported. Oli heads a coalition between his Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist), and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) – which swept the general elections in  December. The CPN-UML and the CPN-M, which are in the middle of a process of party unification, will control 174 of the 275 seats in the new House of Representatives. The country’s main opposition party, the Nepali Congress, will have 63 seats. The presidents of the house of representatives and the National Assembly will be elected within 15 days of the first parliamentary session and in the meantime the senior-most representative of each chamber will chair the session. “The top leaders from the major parties will address the first meeting,” parliament’s spokesperson Bharat Raj Gautam told Efe news. In 15 days, Nepal is due to have a new operational parliament and all the institutions approved in the 2015 constitution, will be set up. With that, the country will bring to an end a highly unstable period of transition that began with the end of the monarchy in 2008, two years after the end of the war against the Maoist rebels in 2006.

Nepali school students playing at a football ground at Bahuneypati, some 70km northeast of Kathmandu.

During the New Year also known as Spring Festival, all of China goes on vacation either within the country or outside. A total of 6.5mn Chinese are expected to travel overseas during the week-long Spring Festival holiday, according to a report by China Tourism Academy and Ctrip. Nepal, a next-door neighbour, is benefiting greatly from Chinese holidaymakers going abroad. “We have received very good flow of Chinese tourists for this Chinese New Year,” Bishwesh Shrestha, managing director of tour operator, said yesterday. Similar is the experience of another travel agency, which is the first travel agency to bring Chinese tourists to Nepal. “We are organising a trip for around 200 Chinese travellers during this week alone,” Kishor Pandey, chairman of the travel company, said. With the company organising trip for around 300 Chinese travellers a month on other occasions, the number of Chinese visitors managed by the company in a week is a significant jump. With inflow of Chinese tourists during the festival growing, Nepal’s hotels are crowded with Chinese travellers. A five-star hotel in Kathmandu said that around 10% of hotel rooms are occupied by Chinese tourists currently, while on other  occasions the rate is 3-4%. “We have got very good booking from Chinese tourists until February end,” said Atma Khanal, sales executive at the Hotel. Travel agencies said that all the airlines conducting flight from China to Nepal have been almost fully booked for the next two weeks. In order to show Nepal’s hospitality to Chinese tourists, the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) in co-ordination with civil aviation authority of Nepal and department of immigration has made arrangement of distributing postcard written ‘Happy New Year’ in Chinese language to the Chinese visitors at the Tribhuvan International  Airport in Kathmandu. “We have also arranged people who can speak Chinese language at the airport to ease the Chinese visitors,” said Deepak Joshi, chief executive officer, NTB. Based on ongoing arrivals and booked seats in the airlines, the NTB expects arrivals of at least 30,000 Chinese tourists over the next two weeks. This will be the major boost to Nepal tourism sector as Nepal expects at least 150,000 Chinese tourists by air in 2018, according to NTB. Nepal received a total of 104,664 Chinese tourists in 2017, according to Nepal’s department of immigration. China is the second largest source market for Nepal’s tourism sector. Travel and tour operators said that Nepal could attract even more Chinese tourists during the Spring Festival if more flights are arranged between the two countries and more Chinese cities are connected with flights. These Chinese airlines currently operate from Lhasa, Kunming, Chengdu and Guangzhou to Kathmandu but Chinese capital Beijing and major financial city Shanghai are still out of direct air connectivity with Nepal. Joshi said they have also planned to make arrangement of chartered flights between various Chinese cities and  Nepal.

The leader of Nepal’s largest Communist party was sworn in yesterday as prime minister, two months after leading his party to a thumping victory in landmark elections billed as a turning point for the Himalayan nation. K P Sharma Oli will head the first government elected under a new national constitution that cements Nepal’s transformation from Hindu monarchy to a federal republic 11 years after the end of a brutal Maoist insurgency. An alliance of Oli’s main Communist party and the former Maoist rebels trounced the incumbent Nepali Congress party in last year’s polls, winning a strong majority in both houses of parliament and six of the seven provincial assemblies. The Communist leader was sworn in as prime minister by President Bidya Bhandari yesterday afternoon. Nepal’s post-war charter sets out a sweeping overhaul of the political system, devolving significant power from the centre to the seven provinces. But the handover of power after last year’s polls was delayed by disagreements over how the new election rules in the constitution should be implemented. The long delay has dampened the optimism that accompanied the polls, when many voters cast their ballots hoping a new government would bring much-needed stability and development. Nepal has cycled through 11 prime ministers since the civil war ended in 2006, allowing corruption to flourish and growth stagnate. Sher Bahadur Deuba, who resigned as prime minister earlier yesterday, spent just eight months in office. Rules under the new constitution make it harder to oust the premier, raising hopes that the next government could last a full five year term. During Oli’s last term in office in 2015, relations between Kathmandu and its traditional ally Delhi soured after protests over the constitution led to a blockade of the Nepal-India border. The blockade caused a crippling shortage of goods in the landlocked Himalayan nation as it was still reeling from a devastating earthquake that hit earlier that year killing nearly 9,000 people. Oli blamed the blockade on Delhi and tilted Nepal’s diplomatic relations towards China, stoking nationalistic sentiment. Beijing responded by pumping vast sums of money into Nepal in the form of large-scale infrastructure projects. Analysts say Oli will likely take a more pragmatic approach to balancing relations with Nepal’s two giant neighbours this time around. “He used the nationalistic platform for elections. Now he doesn’t need to bait India to get support,” said Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times newspaper. Both Oli and New Delhi appear keen to rebalance relations between the neighbours. India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj was recently in Kathmandu for meetings with the government-in-waiting and there has been talk of a visit to Nepal by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Where Oli makes his first overseas visit will be closely watched. He is expected to continue to court Beijing, with an eye on investment for a long-mooted Himalayan rail link and energy-staved Nepal’s hydropower system. The 65-year-old’s health is a cause of concern within political circles. He had a kidney transplant about 10 years ago and regularly flies to Bangkok for health checkups. Some say he downplays the severity of his health problems.

The leader of Nepal's largest Communist party was named prime minister Thursday, two months after leading his party to a thumping victory in landmark elections billed as a turning point for the impoverished Himalayan nation. K.P. Sharma Oli will head the first government elected under a new national constitution that cements Nepal's transformation from monarchy to a federal republic 11 years after the end of a brutal Maoist insurgency. The Communist leader is expected to take the oath of office later Thursday, presidential secretary Bhesh Raj Adhikari told AFP. An alliance of Oli's main Communist party and the former Maoist rebels trounced Deuba's Nepali Congress party in last year's polls, the first under the country's new post-war constitution. The charter sets out a sweeping overhaul of the political system, devolving significant power from the centre to the seven provinces. But the handover of power was delayed by disagreements over how the new election rules in the constitution should be implemented. The long delay has dampened the optimism that accompanied the polls, when many voters cast their ballots hoping a new government would bring much-needed stability and development. Nepal has cycled through 11 prime ministers since the civil war ended in 2006, allowing corruption to flourish and growth stagnate. Sher Bahadur Deuba, who resigned as prime minister earlier Thursday, spent just eight months in office. Rules under the new constitution make it harder to oust the premier, raising hopes that the next government could last a full five year term. - Regional relations - During Oli's last term in office in 2015, relations between Kathmandu and its traditional ally Delhi soured after protests over the constitution led to a blockade of the Nepal-India border. The blockade caused a crippling shortage of goods in the landlocked Himalayan nation as it was still reeling from a devastating earthquake that hit earlier that year killing nearly 9,000 people. Oli blamed the blockade on Delhi and tilted Nepal's diplomatic relations towards China, stoking nationalistic sentiment. Beijing responded by pumping vast sums of money into Nepal in the form of large-scale infrastructure projects. Analysts say Oli will likely take a more pragmatic approach to balancing relations with Nepal's two giant neighbours this time around. ‘He used the nationalistic platform for elections. Now he doesn't need to bait India to get support,’ said Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times newspaper. Both Oli and New Delhi appear keen to rebalance relations between the neighbours. India's foreign minister Sushma Swaraj was recently in Kathmandu for meetings with the government-in-waiting and there has been talk of a visit to Nepal by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Where Oli makes his first overseas visit will be closely watched. He is expected to continue to court Beijing, with an eye on investment for a long-mooted Himalayan rail link and energy-staved Nepal's hydropower system. The 65-year-old's health is a cause of concern within political circles. He had a kidney transplant about 10 years ago and regularly flies to Bangkok for health checkups. Some say he downplays the severity of his health problems.

Nepal's prime minister resigned Thursday, making way for a new communist government to take power two months after landmark elections in the impoverished Himalayan nation. Sher Bahadur Deuba served just eight months as prime minister, overseeing the first elections to be held under a new national constitution intended to cement Nepal's transformation from Hindu monarchy to a federal republic. Work on the constitution began 11 years ago as part of a deal that ended a brutal Maoist insurgency. But it was delayed by disagreements between the parties and only signed in 2015 after a devastating earthquake spurred warring politicians into action. ‘My main responsibility was to hold the three phases of elections for the implementation of the new constitution,’ he siad in a televised address to the country. ‘My responsibility has been fulfilled so I have decided to resign.’ The next government will be formed by an alliance of the main Communist party and the Maoists, who together trounced Deuba's Nepali Congress party in last year's polls. The president is expected to appoint the Communist party leader, K.P. Sharma Oli, as prime minister in the next few days. The historic elections in December were the first under the country's new post-war constitution, which sets out a sweeping overhaul of the political system, devolving significant power from the centre to the seven provinces. The Communist alliance won a landslide victory, but the handover of power was delayed by disagreements over how the new election rules in the constitution should be implemented. The long delay has dampened the optimism that accompanied the polls, when many voters cast their ballots hoping a new government would bring much-needed stability and development. Nepal has cycled through 11 prime ministers since the civil war ended in 2006, allowing corruption to flourish and growth stagnate. Rules under the new constitution make it harder to oust the premier, raising hopes that the next government could last a full five year term.

Rights groups have criticised Nepal for failing to prosecute wartime rights abuses, saying the government appeared more interested in protecting perpetrators than ensuring  justice. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists said in a statement on Tuesday that the government had deliberately hamstrung two commissions tasked with probing crimes committed during the country’s brutal 10-year civil war by failing to allocate adequate funds and manpower. Nepal established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons in 2015 – nine years after the end of the conflict – to investigate abuses by both sides in the conflict between Maoist rebels and the state. But they have been widely criticised as toothless and there have been only two convictions, one for the brutal killing of a teenage girl by soldiers and another for the killing of a  journalist by Maoist rebels. The government recently extended the mandates of the commissions for another year, but has not passed the legislation needed to give them legal powers to prosecute war crimes. “Families and victims of Nepal’s decade-long civil war have waited far too long for answers, and cynical government attempts such as extending the mandate without broader reform... is a further slap in the face,” Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in the  statement.  “The two commissions have gathered a lot of documentation, but the authorities seem more committed to protecting perpetrators than ensuring justice in the process.” At the beginning of the year, the commission tasked with probing disappearances during the conflict declared hundreds of the missing as dead. The move drew criticism from victims groups who slammed it as arbitrary, saying that no investigation had been carried out. More than 17,000 people were killed, 1,300 disappeared and thousands displaced during the civil war, which ended in 2006 with a peace deal between Maoist insurgents and government forces. The pact also heralded the end of the Hindu monarchy, abolished two years later after the former rebels won power in Nepal’s first post-war national elections.

A Buddhist monk who blessed Everest climbers headed for the summit of the world’s highest mountain has died in Nepal aged 87, local officials said yesterday. Lama Geshe was a fixture of the Everest climbing community and few would dare attempt to climb the fabled 8,848m (29,029ft) peak without seeking his blessing. The Buddhist teacher died on Tuesday morning at his home in the village of Pangboche, which lies in the shadow of Everest in Nepal’s Khumbu Valley, former local official Pemba Tshering Sherpa said. Lama Geshe was revered by the Sherpa community – a Buddhist ethnic group from the Himalayas who are the backbone of Nepal’s mountaineering industry, guiding hundreds of climbers up its mountains each year. Sherpa, who consider Everest sacred and call it Chomolungma (“Goddess Mother of Mountains”), would not climb the mountain without first visiting Lama Geshe. His home became an essential stop for all climbers heading to the mountain. “Sherpas believe that his prayers were extremely powerful in protecting them on Everest,” said Dawa Steven Sherpa of Asian Trekking, a mountaineering expedition organiser in Nepal. “There will be a little bit of anxiety among the Sherpa going to the mountain this year because they will be missing a vital ingredient for safety.” Each climbing season Lama Geshe would bless hundreds of mountaineers, reciting a mantra, or prayer. Lama Geshe would also give climbers a talisman containing part of the mantra to wear around their necks during their ascent of Everest.  Lama Geshe studied in Tibet as a young boy and earned the highest academic achievement among monks, a Buddhist doctorate.  He fled Tibet during the Chinese occupation in the 1950s and returned to his childhood home in the Khumbu Valley.  He was married and had two children, which is permitted in certain Buddhist monastic  traditions.

A wild elephant killed two women outside their home near a wildlife reserve in south-eastern Nepal, local police reported Wednesday. They were working in their field on Tuesday afternoon when the animal fatally trampled the pair, aged 45 and 35, near the village of Kanchanpur in Saptari district, police officer Dilli Chauhan said. The elephant came from Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, a habitat for wild animals from water buffalo to rare species of birds. On Monday, a leopard killed a 6-year-old boy who was returning home on the outskirts of Kathmandu. Police found the boy's dead body inside a forest after his family alerted police to the disappearance. Under Nepalese law, the victim's family is entitled to one million rupees (9740 dollars) in compensation for death by wild animal. Conflict between wild animals and humans has increased in recent years in Nepal, raising concerns about the safety of people living near protected areas.

In a first-ever initiative, the Indian government is sponsoring a 20-day course from February 12 to March 03, at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) at Pune for 20 Nepali actors and actresses. The participants, hailing from different regions of Nepal, have been shortlisted on the basis of their performances and accomplishments in films and theatre. During the course, the participants would receive rigorous training in acting through the teaching of Rasa theory, sense memory, improvisation, scene-work and lip sync playback. The FTII, Pune has specially designed the curriculum based on the needs and requirements of the participating actors and actresses.  Apart from their training at FTII, the participants would also get an opportunity to interact with the leading Bollywood  celebrities.  The course also entails contemporary dance workshops, yoga classes as well as an exposure visit to an ongoing shooting location at Mumbai. The course provides excellent opportunity to the participating actors and actresses to further hone their acting skills and capabilities. Through this unique opportunity, the ties between the film fraternities of India and Nepal will be further strengthened. The FTII, Pune, established in 1960, is a premier film training institute of India and boasts of a rich legacy in quality Indian cinema. The FTII is regarded as a centre of excellence across the world and the films made by its students have enjoyed excellent receptions in festivals in India and abroad apart from winning various National and International awards.  The FTII alumni have left an indelible imprint across all facets of Indian cinema and television and have built an excellent reputation in its allied industries. The FTII is an autonomous institute under the ministry of information and broadcasting of India.

Nepal’s Communist parties will form the next government, the election commission confirmed yesterday after releasing long-delayed election results months after polls billed as a turning point for the Himalayan nation roiled by decades of political instability. The leftist alliance swept the National Assembly elections securing 39 seats. Of the total 56 seats in the upper house, leftist alliance constituents Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), the largest party, won 27 seats and CPN (Maoist Center) secured 13 seats. The ruling Nepali Congress bagged 12 seats, Federal Socialist Forum Nepal and Rastriya Janata Party Nepal won two seats each. The results were announced by the elections commission Nepal on Thursday. The election was held on Wednesday, almost two months after the conclusion of the House of Representatives (HoR) and Province Assemblies election. The alliance of the largest Communist party and former Maoist rebels has secured a strong majority in both the directly elected lower house of parliament and the indirectly elected upper house, according to official results from the commission. Nepal voted in historic elections late last year seen as the end of a drawn-out peace process that began 11 years ago when Maoist guerrillas ended their bloody campaign against the state and joined government. Two years later, Nepal overthrew its 240-year-old monarchy, beginning its transition to a federal democracy. The elections were the first under the country’s new post-war constitution, which sets out a sweeping overhaul of the political system, devolving significant power from the centre to the seven provinces. The Communist alliance also has a majority in six of the seven newly-formed  provincial assemblies. The final results were delayed by disagreements over how the new election rules in the constitution should be implemented. The long delay has quashed much of the optimism that accompanied the polls, when many voters cast their ballots hoping a new government would bring much-needed stability and development to the impoverished country. “It might take months for a new government to take full shape and start working. This sets a bad precedent,” said Guna Raj Luitel, editor of the Nagarik newspaper. “Such a lengthy process will have a negative impact on our democracy. It will make it inefficient.” The leader of the Communist CPN-UML, K P Sharma Oli, is expected to be confirmed as the next prime minister in a parliamentary vote later this month. During his last term in office, sharp-tongued Oli tilted Nepal’s diplomatic relations towards China, straining ties with its traditional ally India. Beijing responded by pumping vast sums of money into the impoverished Himalayan nation in the form of large-scale infrastructure projects. Delhi appears determined to redress that balance and nearly doubled its aid to Nepal in its latest annual budget. It also sent foreign minister Sushma Swaraj to Kathmandu last week on a charm offensive, which included meetings with prime minister-in-waiting Oli.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the Social Democrats yesterday sealed a deal on a new coalition, potentially ending four months of political deadlock in Europe’s top economy. After a third extra day of negotiations that dragged on until dawn, a relieved Merkel told reporters the agreement would create “the good and stable government that our country needs and that many in the world expect from us”. After making major concessions to get the accord, she acknowledged it had been a “long road that led us here” but added that “in the end, I think it was worth it”. The breakthrough will come as a relief to Germany’s EU partners as the bloc faces tough negotiations on migration and Brexit. Merkel, Europe’s most experienced leader, has seen her standing at home and abroad weakened by the longest stretch of coalition-building in the country’s postwar history. But before she can be sworn in, a final hurdle looms: the hard-fought “grand coalition” pact between her CDU/CSU bloc and the Social Democratic Party must still be approved by the SPD’s sceptical rank-and-file. Germany has been stuck in political limbo since September’s inconclusive general election saw mainstream parties bleed support to the far-right AfD, which tapped into anger over Merkel’s liberal refugee policy. After a failed attempt to forge an untried alliance with two smaller parties, Merkel opted to woo back the reluctant SPD — her junior partner for two of her three terms since 2005. SPD leader Martin Schulz responded by abandoning his post-election vow to renew the party in opposition — a U-turn that angered many. But a copy of the coalition agreement obtained by AFP indicated that he was able to extract a high price from the conservatives in the final round of talks including control of the powerful finance and foreign ministries, as well as the labour, family affairs, justice and environment portfolios. Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief of the influential Bild daily, called it “the first SPD government led by a CDU chancellor”. Merkel admitted the debate on the division of ministries “wasn’t easy” while Schulz held up the coalition deal as bearing “the strong signature of the Social Democrats”. Sources close to the talks said Schulz, a former European Parliament chief, was now set to take over the foreign ministry and would reportedly give up the party chairmanship in return. He declined to comment, saying any announcements would have to wait until after an SPD leadership meeting. Meanwhile the finance job could go to the popular mayor of northern port city Hamburg, pro-business centrist Olaf Scholz, often eyed as a potential SPD chancellor candidate. The change could mean a mild shift away from the austerity imposed at home and abroad by former finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, although the parties agreed to stick to a balanced budget policy. Merkel’s fate now lies in the hands of the SPD, as Schulz has promised to give his party’s 460,000 members the final say on whether to accept the coalition pact. Observers expect the referendum to be tight, with the SPD’s left and youth wings fiercely opposed to another four years governing in Merkel’s shadow. The yes-or-no referendum will be held by postal ballot, with the result expected to be announced around March 4. A green light could see a new Merkel-led government in place by the end of next month. A thumbs-down could see the country headed for fresh elections or leave Merkel at the helm of an unstable minority government — a prospect she has baulked at. Schulz put a fairer Europe at the heart of his negotiating efforts, insisting that Berlin must join French President Emmanuel Macron’s push to deepen eurozone integration. According to the coalition deal, the parties agreed to support Macron’s reform drive and tentatively backed his idea of a eurozone investment budget. On the hot-button topic of migration, the two camps said they would aim to limit the annual intake to 180,000-220,000 people, a key CSU demand. CSU leader Horst Seehofer is also set to take control of a revamped homeland security ministry. The SPD however won assurances that family reunifications for refugees would resume in August, restricted to 1,000 people a month. An SPD push to overhaul the two-tier healthcare system also yielded results, with a new commission set to examine levelling out doctor pay under statutory and private insurance schemes. But the protracted haggling has left its scars, and surveys suggest the two camps could lose their majority if a “no” vote from SPD members sends the country back to polling booth. Christian Democratic Union leader and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Christian Social Union leader Horst Seehofer and Social Democratic Party leader Martin Schulz pose in Berlin after a statement on a new coalition government.

Inside a giant igloo in a snowy Norwegian village, the sound of a horn rings out, warming the mood of a freezing audience, huddled together in -24 Celsius. But the four musicians performing are even colder: the instruments they are playing are all made of ice. The xylophone, claves and wind instruments have been painstakingly carved from ice blocks extracted from a frozen lake, and are now part of a finger-numbing performance at the 13th Ice Music Festival in the mountain village of Finse. The problem is, the longer the musicians play, the more the instruments start to disintegrate. It is not an easy task “to perform on instruments that are melting while you play them,” says percussionist Terje Isungset, also the founder of the festival. Wearing thick wool gloves, he blows warm air into his ice-sculpted horn, illuminated under blue and turquoise lights. Next to him, a singer with an angelic voice covers her mouth with a scarf to stay warm, while a bass player removes his gloves so he can pull the strings on his ice-made instrument. The setting of the festival, 195km west of Oslo, is not for anyone sensitive to a shivering climate. Held in the first week of February inside an igloo built solely of ice, dozens of people wearing clothing fit to survive freezing mountain weather sit on snow benches while cheering and wrapping their arms around each other. As the night grows older, a band member blows into a long ice wind instrument shaped like an Australian didgeridoo, vibrating across the venue. “It’s a fine line between art and madness,” Emile Holba, a UK-based photographer and crew member, tells AFP as he bursts into laughter. “Things can go wrong, instruments can break...the audience likes the purity of it,” he adds. The festival has previously been held in Geilo, a ski resort in the central mountain region of Norway. But organisers say the weather there has become milder, making it difficult to build ice venues and harder to prevent the instruments from melting. “This winter...the ice was really slushy and difficult to deal with,” Isungset said. “It’s the first time I have seen ice like this.”  In search of guaranteed freezing temperatures, the festival moved further west to Finse, a 30-minute train ride from Geilo. Surrounded by mountains framing a glacier, the area was used to create the snow planet ‘Hoth’ in the opening scene of Star Wars movie The Empire Strikes Back. The village was also the base for Antarctic expedition training by British explorer Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) and his Norwegian counterpart Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930). “It’s kind of otherworldly...there is magic there,” says Holba. Preparing the festival is no simple task. It took organisers a week to build the igloo and the ice needed to be sourced and collected by a crew of more than 20 people. Large chunks were removed from a nearby lake and the musicians used chainsaws, hammers and chisels to carefully sculpt the instruments. “It’s just music...and trying to create something out of nearly nothing,” Isungset said. After the festival, some of the instruments do become nearly nothing again, the ice dripping away back into the earth. But a few of the ice-creations do survive. If deemed to be in good enough shape, the instruments are stored inside a freezer, waiting in frozen isolation, to be used again the following year. Terje Lsungset, the founder and artistic director of the Ice Music Festival, tests a musical instrument made of ice outside his workshop in the small mountain village of Finse in the municipality of Ulvik in southern Norway.

Elections for Nepal’s National Assembly, also known as the Upper House of the Federal Parliament, were held yesterday in six of the Himalayan nation’s seven provinces. According to the Election Commission of Nepal, 52 candidates from different political parties are vying for the 32 seats in Province 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.  The commission said the voting was not required in Province 2 where all eight candidates have been elected  unopposed.  The National Assembly will have 59 members. Of them, 56 will be elected by an electoral college comprising assembly members of the seven provinces and chiefs and deputy chiefs of municipalities and rural municipalities.  Similarly, three will be nominated by the president as per the recommendation of the government. “The election for the local levels has commenced and has started functioning, the meeting of the provincial councils has been held and the provincial council also will take over its work, along with the House of Representatives. Upon perceiving the circumstances there are no bases which can prove that transition will last long”, Indira Dhakal, a local journalist, said. K P Sharma Oli, who is expected to be the first prime minister of Nepal under new constitution, will hold the post for two and a half years, before the remaining two and a half years’ term would be completed by Maoist leaded Pushpa Kamal Dahal. The merger of the two parties, Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) and the Maoist Center, has been the long awaited event for the Nepali citizens, but the speculation of the breaking off the alliance is raised very often. The vote counting is expected to start soon after polling concludes. The National Assembly election has come after the country concluded the elections of the House of Representatives, or the lower house, and the Provincial Assembly simultaneously in two phases on November 26 and December 7, 2017. Nepal held local, federal parliament and provincial elections last year after the country became a federal democratic republic in 2008 after overthrowing the 240-year  monarchy.

Nepal will ban from the roads vehicles older than 20 years across the country in a bid to control worsening air quality and to ease traffic congestion, officials said yesterday. The government decision, which followed a similar campaign in the capital Kathmandu a year ago, will throw out around 5,000 ageing vehicles, including buses, trucks and pickups. “After mid-March, vehicles that are older than 20 years will not be allowed to drive on the roads,” said Birendra Bahadur Swar, a spokesman of the department of transport management. The rule exempts taxis.  “We will check the vehicles and if they are 20 years old, then they won’t be allowed to drive. We hope this will help reduce pollution and ease traffic across the country,” he said. Authorities have also banned cars from core parts of Kathmandu to reduce  congestion.  The global Environmental Performance Index released early last month ranked Nepal’s air quality as one of the worst in the world.

The Supreme Court in the Maldives is trying to impeach President Abdulla Yameen for not obeying its order to release jailed opposition leaders, the attorney general (AG) said yesterday, warning of further instability in the Indian Ocean nation. The Maldives, best known for its luxury resorts, has been in a political crisis since the top court threw out terrorism convictions last week against former president Mohamed Nasheed and others who have been trying to oust the president for years. Yameen has faced calls at home, and from the United States and India, among other nations, to heed the court decision on Nasheed, the island’s first democratically elected president, and the others, but so far has dug in his heels. Home to about 400,000 people, the Maldives has also been drawn into a regionwide tussle for influence between India – with which it has longstanding political and security ties – and China, which opened an embassy in 2011 and has offered technical and financial assistance to build infrastructure. Attorney General Mohamed Anil said the government had received information the Supreme Court was preparing to fire Yameen, but such a move would be illegal and resisted by government law enforcement authorities. “We have received information that things might happen that will lead to a national security crisis,” Anil told reporters in the capital, Male. “The information says the Supreme Court might issue a ruling to impeach or remove the president from power,” he said, adding that government bodies had been given instructions not to carry out such an order. Meanwhile, Parliament Secretary General Ahmed Mohamed, who is politically neutral, suddenly resigned yesterday, citing personal reasons a day before the opening session of the body. Mohamed had told Reuters he would abide by a separate Supreme Court ruling ordering the reinstatement of 12 legislators who defected from Yameen’s ruling party last year. Allowing them to return to the legislature would deprive him of a majority. More than 100 riot police stood guard outside government offices in Male, including parliament, as well as at Republic Square, a site of protests by opposition activists, although the streets were quiet. The combined opposition said it feared a military takeover of the islands to preserve Yameen’s grip on power. “The intimidation of the Supreme Court justices, with the highly irregular statement made by the attorney general defying the Supreme Court, supported by the two chiefs of the security forces, is tantamount to the effective sidelining of the judiciary and in direct contravention of the constitution,” it said in a statement. “Maldivians are fearful that President Yameen is about to order a full military takeover of the country, in an attempt to ensure he is not removed from office.” The crisis poses the biggest threat to Yameen’s control of the Maldives since he took power in 2013, defeating Nasheed in an election which the latter’s supporters said was rigged. Yameen has stopped short of saying he will not obey the court order. He told a party meeting on Saturday he “did not expect the Supreme Court ruling at all”. Critics of the government continued to face pressure. Yesterday, police raided the home of Hassan Saeed, the head of the judicial administration department, which the opposition said was considering a corruption investigation into Yameen. Police said in a statement they were looking to arrest Saeed over an investigation into apartment purchases. They were also inquiring about whether family members of Supreme Court Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and Supreme Court Justice Ali Hameed, who handed down last week’s ruling, were involved in the apartment purchases, police said. Yameen’s senior ruling party members also called on authorities to shut down independent TV channel Raajje TV saying it was spreading discord. In response, the US embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, issued a tweet to say it was “dismayed to hear rumours” about a potential shutdown, and calling it “yet another blow” to freedom of the press. The political drama in the Maldives, which is made up of 26 coral atolls and 1,192 individual islands, centres on tiny, densely populated Male, the base of all its major institutions. Besides political wrangling, the largely Muslim island chain is grappling with problems such as significant numbers of radicalised youth who enlisted to fight for the Islamic State militant group in the Middle East. Yameen on Saturday fired his second police chief in three days.

Maldives President Abdulla Yameen fired his second police chief in three days and the opposition said it feared violence, as the island nation was pitched deeper into a crisis caused by Yameen’s failure to obey a court order to free jailed opponents. Three days after the Supreme Court threw out terrorism convictions against Yameen’s political opponents, his government yesterday was still ignoring international and domestic pressure to set them free. The court dismissed cases against nine people, including former president Mohamed Nasheed, the country’s first democratically elected leader, who now lives in exile in Britain and has been campaigning to have his political rights  restored. One of the others also lives in exile; the other seven are jailed in the Maldives’ largest prison, on the island of Maafushi. Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets to demand compliance with the court order, and Western countries and international organisations have urged Yameen to obey it. The court also ordered 12 members of parliament who had been stripped of their seats to be restored to the body. The 12 had quit Yameen’s ruling party last year, and allowing them to return to the legislature would deprive him of a majority. The crisis poses the biggest threat to Yameen’s control of the Maldives since he took power in 2013, defeating Nasheed in an election that Nasheed’s supporters say was rigged. Yameen has stopped short of saying he will not obey the court order to free his opponents. He told a party meeting yesterday he “did not expect the Supreme Court ruling  at all”. “We’ve started dialogue with the Supreme Court. We’ve sat and started talking about difficulties or concerns the state has,” he said. “We’re working on making sure we can respect the court order in a way that doesn’t cause any difficulties to the people.” He fired the chief of police on Thursday shortly after the court order was handed down, and yesterday he fired the acting police chief he had chosen to replace him. The director of the Maafushi prison also resigned his post yesterday amid disagreement among staff over whether to release the opposition leaders, an official at the Maldives Correctional Services (MCS) said. An MCS spokesman was not immediately available to  comment. Hundreds of opposition supporters chanted slogans such as “Enforce the Supreme Court ruling,” and “Defend the constitution,” in a Friday night rally outside the opposition MDP campaign centre in Male, the capital. The joint opposition said in a statement it was “deeply fearful that the government’s refusal to implement the Supreme Court order could escalate to unrest and incite violence across the country.” The Maldives, an Indian Ocean island chain of around 400,000 people known to outsiders mainly as a tropical paradise for the tourists that provide most of its foreign exchange income, has experienced political unrest since Yameen took power. Yameen is the half-brother of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled the Maldives for three decades until losing an election to Nasheed in 2008. Yameen and Gayoom have since had a falling out and Gayoom is now aligned with the opposition. Parliament Secretary General Ahmed Mohamed said that parliament intended to reinstate the 12 legislators as required by the court. He also said Speaker Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed had asked to cancel this year’s opening session of parliament scheduled for tomorrow, citing  security reasons. The United Nations, the United States, the European Union and India have urged Yameen’s government to follow the court ruling. “We understand the situation is extremely tense,” Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters on Friday.

The Maldives’ top court has ordered the release of nine key political prisoners in a surprise move that cleared the way for exiled former leader Mohamed Nasheed to run for president. The atoll nation’s joint opposition welcomed the surprise ruling, which has also granted them a parliamentary majority and stunned the government of strongman President Abdulla Yameen. “The Supreme Court’s verdict effectively ends President Yameen’s authoritarian rule,” the opposition said in a statement calling for his resignation. The Maldives’ popular image as an upmarket holiday paradise had been severely damaged by a major crackdown on dissent under Yameen, who has overseen the jailing of almost all the political opposition. Yameen’s spokesman, Ibrahim Hussain Shihab, said the court had made its decision without hearing out the government. “While the ruling makes significant implications on various points of constitutional import and criminal justice procedures, it was issued without representation of the state from either the attorney general or the prosecutor general,” Shihab said in a statement. However, he said the administration “will work to engage, and consult with, the Supreme Court in order to comply with the ruling in line with proper procedure and the rule of law”. On the tiny streets of the capital Male, there were celebrations. Hundreds of opposition activists took to the streets and were quickly pushed back by police who fired teargas. Nasheed, who is currently in neighbouring Sri Lanka, urged his supporters to avoid confrontation with the police. “President Yameen must abide by this ruling and resign,” Nasheed said on twitter. “Urge all citizens to avoid confrontation and engage in peaceful political activity.” Nasheed, who is living in self-imposed exile, was sentenced to 13 years in jail on a terrorism charge widely criticised as politically motivated. In its order, seen by AFP, the Supreme Court said the “questionable and politically motivated nature of the trials of the political leaders warrant a retrial”. The court ordered authorities to immediately free nine jailed leaders. The Maldives police said in a tweet that it will abide by court orders, but within minutes the government announced the sacking of police chief Ahmed Areef. Attorney General Mohamed Anil told a hurriedly summoned press conference at the military headquarters in the capital that Yameen sacked the police chief because he was uncontactable after the court order. Anil said they were also in the process of “verifying the validity” of the court order. The court also restored 12 dissident members of parliament who had been controversially expelled in July for defecting from Yameen’s party. The latest order gives Yameen’s opponents a majority in the 85-member parliament. Earlier this week, opposition figures jointly petitioned the court to remove Yameen over alleged corruption. Opposition figures including Nasheed and another five dissidents named in Thursday’s order have united against the president. Among those who petitioned the top court was Yameen’s half-brother and former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, whose legislator son, Faris Maumoon, had been arrested. He was among those whose release the court ordered. Also among them is Ahmed Adeeb, Yameen’s erstwhile deputy, who is serving a 15-year jail term after being convicted on a charge of attempted assassination in September 2015. Another key dissident, Qasim Ibrahim, who helped Yameen in the 2013 run-off election, was also ordered to be released. He, however, is not in the Maldives. Like Nasheed, he also obtained prison leave for medical treatment and has remained in Europe. Almost all key opposition leaders and a number of ruling party dissidents have either been jailed or gone into exile in the Maldives in recent years under Yameen. The president took office in 2013 after winning a controversial run-off vote against Nasheed. The former president was jailed in 2015, but granted prison leave in 2016 for medical treatment in London, where he secured political asylum. Last year he announced his intention to return and run for president in elections due later this year, but he was prevented by the criminal conviction against him. The United States has said democracy is under threat in the strategically located archipelago of 340,000 Sunni Muslims, which sits on key international shipping lanes.