Nepalinews

WASHINGTON:  A visa program aimed at diversifying the US immigrant population came under attack from President Donald Trump on Wednesday after he learned that the man accused of killing eight people in New York City on Tuesday used it to enter the country. Sayfullo Saipov, who was charged in Tuesday’s truck attack, immigrated to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2010 after winning a lottery enabling him to obtain a so-called “diversity visa,” two government officials confirmed to Reuters. The program, established by Congress and coordinated by the State Department, has its roots in efforts to bring more Irish and Italian immigrants into the United States. Citizens of countries that send relatively few immigrants to the United States can enter a lottery that grants winners permanent US residency. Applicants must have at least a high school education or its equivalent, or relevant work experience. Just under 11.4 million applicants entered the 2016 lottery for 50,0...

NEW YORK:  Islamic State has claimed responsibility, without providing proof, for a truck attack earlier this week that killed eight people in the deadliest assault on New York City since Sept. 11, 2001. The militant group on Thursday described accused attacker Sayfullo Saipov, 29, as “one of the caliphate soldiers” in a weekly issue of its Al-Naba newspaper. The Uzbek immigrant was charged in federal court on Wednesday with acting in support of Islamic State by plowing a rented pickup truck down a popular riverside bike trail, crushing pedestrians and cyclists and injuring a dozen people in addition to those killed. According to the criminal complaint against him, Saipov told investigators he was inspired by watching Islamic State propaganda videos on his cellphone, felt good about what he had done, and asked for permission to display the group’s flag in his room at Bellevue Hospital. Saipov was taken to Bellevue after being shot in the abdomen by a police officer ...

DUBAI:  Saudi Arabia will allow women into sports stadiums as of next year, the kingdom’s latest step toward easing rules on gender segregation — but they will be seated in the so-called family section, an area separate from the male-only crowd. Still, the decision, announced on Sunday, marks another incremental step toward greater women’s rights in the kingdom.The General Sports Authority described the decision as one that will allow “families” into the stadiums — a term authorities use to refer to the public spaces that accommodate women. These “family” sections are for women who are out on their own or who are accompanied by a male relative. Many restaurants and cafes, which often also have separate entrances for women, have similarly segregated seating arrangements. The authority said the three major sports stadiums in the capital, Riyadh, and the cities of Jiddah and Dammam will undergo renovations to accommodate families. The decision comes after the public appear...

A federal judge in Washington on Monday blocked President Donald Trump from banning transgender people from serving in the US military, handing a victory to transgender service members who accused the president of violating their constitutional rights. Trump announced in July that he would ban transgender people from the military in a move that would reverse Democratic former President Barack Obama’s policy of accepting them and halt years of efforts to eliminate barriers to military service based on sexual orientation or gender identity.The transgender service members sued in August to try to block the ban, which had not yet gone into effect, and US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly granted them an injunction halting enforcement of it until their case is resolved. The service members asserted that Trump’s policy violated their rights to due process and equal protection under the law under the US Constitution. Kollar-Kotelly said the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in the...

SEOUL:  South Korea and China will push to normalize their ties badly strained over the deployment of a contentious US missile defense system in the South, both countries announced Tuesday, with Seoul saying their leaders are set to hold summit talks next week. South Korea allowed the United States to install the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system on its soil this year, triggering angry rhetoric and economic retaliation from China which views THAAD’s powerful radar as a threat to its own security. South Korea and the United States have repeatedly said the system is only aimed at defending against North Korea’s advancing nuclear threats, rather than peering into Chinese territory.On Tuesday, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said there was recently diplomatic communication between the two countries, during which they agreed to put bilateral exchange and cooperation back on a normal track soon and boost cooperation for a peaceful, diplomatic resolution of the North Korean nuclea...

WASHINGTON:  Under pressure in advance of hearings on Russian election interference, Facebook is moving to increase transparency for everyone who sees and buys political advertising on its site. Executives for the social media company said Friday they will verify political ad buyers in federal elections, requiring them to reveal correct names and locations. The site will also create new graphics where users can click on the ads and find out more about who’s behind them.More broadly, Rob Goldman, Facebook’s vice president in charge of ad products, said the company is building new transparency tools in which all advertisers — even those that aren’t political — are associated with a page, and users can click on a link to see all of the ads any advertiser is running. Users also will be able to see all of the ads paid for by the advertisers, whether or not those ads were originally targeted toward them. The move comes after the company acknowledged it had found more than 3,000...

SYDNEY:  A proposal to expand the world’s largest marine conservation park in Antarctica by linking it with smaller ones failed at a meeting as Russian and Chinese delegates did not endorse it, a conservationist attending the session said on Saturday. The plan was proposed at a meeting in Hobart, Australia, on Friday of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, which last year created the Ross Sea Marine Protected Area.Twenty-four countries and the European Union agreed to protect 1.55 million square km (600,000 square miles) of ocean from commercial fishing for 35 years in the Ross Sea. The giant marine park becomes active on December 1. Ross Sea, a deep bay in the Southern Ocean off Antarctica, is one of the world’s most ecologically important areas, home to penguins, whales, seabirds and colossal squid. At the Hobart meeting, some commission members urged extending protection to a network of areas through East Antarctica’s Southern Oce...

PARIS:  Paris St Germain went a provisional seven points clear at the top of Ligue 1 after Edinson Cavani’s first-half double and a Dante own goal after the break secured a 3-0 home win over Nice in an entertaining clash on Friday. The result left  PSG  in the driving seat with 29 points from 11 games, though second-placed champions AS Monaco can reduce the gap when they visit Girondins Bordeaux on Saturday.Nice, who finished third last season, stayed 14th with 10 points after their fourth successive league defeat. PSG  were unfazed by the absence of their suspended Brazil forward Neymar, who was sent off in Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Olympique Marseille, as Angel Di Maria made the most of a rare start in the wake of strong competition up front. The Argentine winger set up both of Cavani’s goals, having whipped in a third-minute free kick from the left which the Uruguay hitman superbly headed home at the near post. The pair combined again in the 31st as Di Mari...

MANCHESTER:  Substitute Anthony Martial’s 81st minute strike gave Manchester United a 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on Saturday to keep them in touch with Premier League leaders Manchester City. After last week’s surprise defeat at Huddersfield Town, Jose Mourinho’s team could ill afford another slip-up and they had to battle hard against a resilient Spurs to take the points.United move on to 23 points, two behind leaders City who are at West Bromwich Albion later on Saturday, while third-placed Spurs are on 20.

MUMBAI:  A flagship government program to modernise India’s sanitation has failed to tackle the practice of low caste women clearing faeces by hand, and has even exacerbated the problem by building toilets not connected to water supplies, campaigners say. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or Clean India Mission, with much fanfare after he took office in 2014, sweeping a Delhi street with a broom. Since then, thousands of toilets have been built across the country.But Dalit communities, especially women, are still forced to be manual scavengers, a euphemism for clearing faeces from dry toilets and open drains by hand, despite laws to end the practice. The workers have it harder now, activists said. “Swachh Bharat has diverted attention from ending manual scavenging, and makes it seem like the whole country is cleaning. But if that’s the case, then why are people still dying in septic tanks,” said activist Bezwada Wilson. “There is also no dis...

MADRID/BARCELONA:  Catalonia’s police force told its officers to remain neutral in the struggle over the region’s fight for independence on Saturday, a step towards averting possible conflict as the Madrid government starts to impose direct control. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dismissed the Catalan government, took over the administration and called a new election after the regional parliament made a unilateral declaration of independence on Friday, aggravating Spain’s worst political crisis in four decades.The declaration of Catalonia as a separate nation was almost immediately rendered futile by Rajoy’s actions, while other European countries, the United States and Mexico also rejected it and expressed support for Spain’s prime minister. But emotions are running high and the next few days will be tricky for Madrid as it embarks on enforcing direct rule. Rajoy designated Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz Santamaria to oversee the process. The regional parliamen...

KATHMANDU:  A bus carrying passengers returning from a Hindu festival to the  Nepal i capital of Kathmandu skidded off the main highway and plunged into a river on Saturday, killing at least 31 people and leaving others trapped, officials said. The accident occurred around dawn, around 50 km (30 miles) west of the city on the Prithvi Highway that connects Kathmandu with the southern plains.“We have recovered 31 bodies and are looking for more,” government official Ram Mani Mishra told Reuters from the scene. “It’s highly unlikely for anyone to survive for so long under water.” Rescuers on rubber boats and police divers managed to spot the bus hours after the crash and were trying to lift it from water with the help of a crane, Mishra said. Apart from the deaths, 16 people have been injured, government administrator Shyam Prasad Bhandari said. Two with grave injuries were taken to Kathmandu while the rest were treated at a local hospital, he said. Police said surviv...

KATHMANDU:  Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has extended deep sorrow over the death of many people in a bus accident in Dhading Saturday morning. A bus (Na 6 Kha 1467) en route to Kathmandu from Rajbiraj in Saptari district skidded off the road and plunged into the Trishuli River at around 5:00 am from the turning point at Ghatbesi in Gajuri Rural Municipality along the Prithvi Highway in Dhading district.In a message of condolence today, the Prime Minister said he was heartbroken by the news of the loss of many lives in the accident. He extended emotional tributes to the bereaved families and wished for speedy recovery of the injured. The Prime Minister has instructed the local administration, Nepal Police, Nepal Army and the Armed Police Force to intensify the search for those went missing in the incident. According to the police, the bus was carrying 55 passengers beyond its capacity at the time.

CHITWAN:  The Chitwan National Park (CNP) has urged the general public not to tease and agitate wild elephants coming to the human settlement during winter season. Generally the wild elephants entering the CNP from Parsa National Park via Thori and Madi have been creating troubles in the human settlements surrounding the CNP.According to Chief Conservation Officer at CNP Ramchandra Kandel, the wild tuskers enter the human settlements and damage crops only when it get agitated following chasing away by the locals. The elephants get agitated after people chase them with fire and other weapons, Kandel said and urged the locals not to irritate them in order to avoid damages to their own properties.

POKHARA:  The Chairperson of CPN-Maoist Centre Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said the House of Representatives and State Assemblies elections will be held on stipulated time. He also ensured that upcoming polls will not be deferred on at any pretext, it will be held on time.“Government committed for holding polls, opposition desire and verdict of Apex court’s demanding progress on elections, does not leave any ground to be susceptible towards elections,” Dahal said so while addressing a press meet organised by Press Centre Nepal Kaski, on Friday. Former PM Dahal was optimistic that after House of Representatives and State Assemblies elections will ensure political stability in the nation. “Elections are important for constitution implementation, political stability and economic prosperity in the nation. We have alerted the government as there is delima among general public regarding holding upcoming polls or not,” Dahal shared. Maoist leader Dahal also clarified that the allia...

NEW YORK:  To play a blind woman for her latest film role, Blake Lively took no short cuts into the darkness. The 30-year-old actress learned to use a walking cane, wore opaque contact lenses off-camera to better understand her character and learned how to navigate the main set without her vision.Lively stars in “All I See Is You,” a dreamy, beautiful movie about a woman who lost her eyesight in a car accident as an adolescent, but regains her vision through surgery in her 20s. She begins a period of self-discovery, which threatens to upend her life and marriage. Says Lively: “This movie speaks to relationships, I think, whether we have the literal blindness or it’s just figurative.”

NEW YORK:  Jessica Alba and husband Cash Warren are expecting their first baby boy. The actress and Honest Company founder announced her pregnancy on Instagram in July and revealed on the platform Wednesday that the baby is a boy. She chatted about her pregnancy later with Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show.” Alba told Fallon she’s been trying to resist cravings for ice cream. Alba and Warren have two daughters, Honor and Haven. Alba most recently appeared as a judge alongside fellow actress-turned-entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow on the Apple Music summer series “Planet of the Apps.”

LONDON:  Around the time 17-year-old England striker Rhian Brewster became the first player since Pele to score a hat-trick in a semi-final at any World Cup on Wednesday, another gifted Liverpool attacker signed a new five-year contract. At 18, Wales international Ben Woodburn is six months Brewster’s senior but two years younger than Dominic Solanke, the third of Liverpool’s trio of young forwards who have all made an impact on the international stage as they await their chance under manager Juergen Klopp.Earlier this season, Woodburn even scored a goal in a senior World Cup match, netting on his debut in the 1-0 victory over Austria in a vital qualifier, while Solanke won the Golden Boy award as the best player at the Under-20 World Cup, which England won. Meanwhile, Brewster awaits what could be his crowning moment in Saturday’s final against Spain. “Brewster will walk back into Liverpool’s Melwood training ground feeling a million dollars,” said Jamie Redknapp, a form...