Nepal's anti-monarchy protests spread to the usually off-limits tourist district in Kathmandu yesterday, with hundreds of people chanting slogans against King Gyanendra and burning tires on the street.
Police arrested four people during the protest in the Thamel district, a maze of alleys full of backpacker hotels, bars, curio shops and trekking and travel agencies which is a magnet for most tourists entering the country.
Protests were held elsewhere in the city as well, with vehicles off the street on the 11th day of a general strike called by political parties. Around 20 people were detained during a protest by journalists.
Since Sunday is not a day off in Nepal, many people could be seen walking to work down Kathmandu's main thoroughfares.
"We will burn the crown and run the country," youths shouted as they danced around burning tires in the center of Thamel. "Death to the government."
Meanwhile, Nepal's capital faced shortages of fresh food, cooking gas and gasoline. Vendors said fresh green vegetables were unavailable and they were running out of the potatoes and onions they had in storage.
The strike has forced trucks off the highways, the only means of transporting goods and supplies in this mountainous nation with no train tracks. Only a handful of stores remained open yesterday.
"We have not had a single truck come in the past 11 days. Whatever we are selling was what we had in stock, or grown locally in Kathmandu," said Raj Maharjan, who was selling a few bundles of green onion at the Baneswor vegetable market.
Vegetable prices have risen fivefold, chicken and mutton prices have doubled and gas for cooking was scarce.
Only a few vehicles were plying the streets, and the bus station in the city center was also deserted.
"We have not had any buses leave on long distance routes. Thousands of passengers have been stranded, but we are not sure when the strike will end," said Ramesh Gurung, a bus driver who was playing cards with fellow drivers.
"I have only a little money left and no relatives in Kathmandu. I need to get home to Butwal [in south Nepal] but I have been stuck away from my family," said Madhav Silwal, a milk farmer.
The Civil Aviation Authority said most of the internal and international flights were taking off on schedule. However, the majority of the population cannot afford to buy air tickets.
Thousands of pro-democracy protesters have been demonstrating every day in the streets of Kathmandu and major cities and towns since April 6 when the alliance of seven main opposition parties called the general strike to protest King Gyanendra's rule.
Many protests have ended in clashes with security forces, who have already shot dead four people.
The protests are the worst unrest Gyanendra has faced since he sacked the government and seized power 14 months ago.
The king said he took control to restore political order and end a communist insurgency that has left nearly 13,000 people dead in the past decade and made holding elections impossible.
The seven main opposition parties decided late on Friday to continue with the strike and protests after Gyanendra offered few concessions in a message he delivered to mark Nepal's New Year.
SUPPORT: Elon Musk’s backing for the far-right AfD is also an implicit rebuke of center-right Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, who is leading polls German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a swipe at Elon Musk over his political judgement, escalating a spat between the German government and the world’s richest person. Scholz, speaking to reporters in Berlin on Friday, was asked about a post Musk made on his X platform earlier the same day asserting that only the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “can save Germany.” “We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said alongside Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain
Two US Navy pilots were shot down yesterday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the US military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of US targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Both pilots were recovered alive after ejecting from their stricken aircraft, with one sustaining minor injuries. However, the shootdown underlines just how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become over the ongoing attacks on shipping by the Iranian-backed Houthis despite US and European military coalitions patrolling the area. The US military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the
Pulled from the mud as an infant after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and reunited with his parents following an emotional court battle, the boy once known as “Baby 81” is now a 20-year-old dreaming of higher education. Jayarasa Abilash’s story symbolized that of the families torn apart by one of the worst natural calamities in modern history, but it also offered hope. More than 35,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed, with others missing. The two-month-old was washed away by the tsunami in eastern Sri Lanka and found some distance from home by rescuers. At the hospital, he was
MILITANTS TARGETED: The US said its forces had killed an IS leader in Deir Ezzor, as it increased its activities in the region following al-Assad’s overthrow Washington is scrapping a long-standing reward for the arrest of Syria’s new leader, a senior US diplomat said on Friday following “positive messages” from a first meeting that included a promise to fight terrorism. Barbara Leaf, Washington’s top diplomat for the Middle East, made the comments after her meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus — the first formal mission to Syria’s capital by US diplomats since the early days of Syria’s civil war. The lightning offensive that toppled former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8 was led by the Muslim Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in al-Qaeda’s
RSS