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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS