Author: Jimmie Mann

Tourism professionals in Nepal have been elated these days as their country was included lately on a second list of 40 destinations by China for group tours from Wednesday. “We had been waiting for this news for long,” a smiling Kishore Raj Pandey, chairman of Saathi Nepal Travel and Tours, told Xinhua. Pandey is a pioneer in bringing Chinese tourists to Nepal in 2001 after China declared the South Asian country an outbound destination for Chinese visitors. Pandey has already received notification from two Chinese travel and tour agents that they are sending two groups of Chinese to Nepal in…

Newly elected President of Nepal Ram Chandra Poudel was sworn in on Monday to start his five-year term. Poudel was administered the oath of office and secrecy by acting Chief Justice Hari Krishna Karki at the Office of the President. He succeeded Bidya Devi Bhandri. Poudel, 78, won the presidential vote on March 9 as the candidate of eight ruling parties, becoming the third president of Nepal, which became a republic in 2008. The presidential vote involved members of the House of Representatives, the National Assembly and the seven provincial assemblies.  Newly elected President of Nepal Ram Chandra Poudel (L)…

Nepal has decided to bar solo or independent trekkers from trekking in Nepal without the help of a guide starting from April 1, a senior official of Nepal Tourism Board said on Friday. The tourism organization made it mandatory for a sole foreign trekker to take a guide on Thursday. “The decision was taken considering the safety of such trekkers,” Mani Raj Lamichhane, the board’s spokesperson, told Xinhua. “We have received 40 to 50 cases of trekkers being out of contact during the treks annually, which conveyed the message to the world that Nepal is not a safe destination,” he…

Seven people were injured when a fire erupted in a shoe factory in Pakistan’s east Punjab province on Monday, rescue teams said. The incident happened in the provincial capital of Lahore where the fire engulfed part of the factory, partially damaging it, workers from state-owned Rescue 1122 told media. The injured people were all laborers who were working in the factory when the incident happened. The injured laborers were shifted to a nearby hospital, and three of them were in critical condition. The fire was doused after a two-hour operation by the firefighters, said the rescue workers. The incident temporarily…

Pakistan’s transport services exports increased 9.91 percent in the first seven months of the current fiscal year 2022-2023 when compared to the same period of the last fiscal year, according to figures from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday. Pakistan earned 476.84 million U.S. dollars by providing different transport services in various countries during the July-January period of the ongoing fiscal year as against the earnings of 433.86 million dollars during the same months of fiscal year 2021-2022, the PBS figures showed. Among the transport services, the exports of air transport rose from 354.19 million dollars during the…

Pakistan observed the annual Earth Hour Saturday night by turning off lights and appliances in an effort to spread awareness about the green planet and energy conservation. The Earth Hour was observed in Pakistan under the theme of “60 minutes for the planet” by keeping the lights off in official as well as private buildings for one hour across the South Asian country. Pakistan’s Parliament, Supreme Court, President House, Prime Minister House and Pakistan TV Headquarters in the capital Islamabad were among the buildings which observed the Earth Hour. Earlier in the day, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said in…

At least four people were killed and 17 others injured in separate rain-related incidents in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said on Saturday. The PDMA said in a report that women and children were among the victims of the rain-triggered incidents of roof collapse in various areas of the province over the last 24 hours. Two people lost their lives and several others were injured when the roof of a house collapsed due to heavy rains in Mardan district of the province, the PDMA report said, adding that one death each was reported in…

Matt Wallace is a relative unknown on the PGA Tour but on Saturday he went viral over an intense interaction with his caddie at the Valspar Championship in Florida. Wallace, who has four European Tour wins and a victory on the Asian Tour, was looking to move up the leader board and get into a position to catch eventual winner Taylor Moore and other contenders like Jordan Spieth and Tommy Fleetwood. However, things went awry on 18. Matt Wallace hits out of the sand to the first green during the Valspar Championship, Saturday, March 18, 2023, at Innisbrook in Palm Harbor, Florida. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)…

(9/3 – 125) Kazakhstan is gearing up for snap elections of the lower house of parliament on March 19, and there is a sense of anticipation in the air. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who came to power in 2019, called for snap elections in the wake of the deadly street protests in January 2022. The elections are part of the president’s ambitious reform agenda, Jana Kazakhstan (New Kazakhstan), which aims to usher in a new era of political liberalization. The parliamentary elections are stage two of Tokayev’s program, following his re-election winning 80 percent of the votes last November. The coming…

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Militants launched a deadly suicide attack on the police headquarters of Pakistan’s largest city on Friday, officials said, as the sound of gunfire and explosions rocked the heart of Karachi for several hours. Three security forces and a civilian were killed and 18 security forces wounded, according to government officials and Ghulam Nabi Memon, police chief for the southern Sindh province where Karachi is located. Two suicide bombers were killed and at least one blew himself up after entering the police building, officials added. Pakistani Taliban in a brief statement claimed responsibility. Murtaza Wahab, a government…