Astha Shrestha Wins Miss Nepal US(A) 2012

Astha Shrestha, 18, from Maryland was crowned Miss Nepal US(A) 2012 at the Grand Finale of the beauty pageant held in The Johnson Center of George Mason University, Fairfax, VA on August11, 2012.

Nurja Shrestha, 23, from Texas won the first runner-up and Aashma Dhakal, 18, from New York won the second runner-up title.

Source texasnepal.com

KFC, Pizza Hut shut in Nepal over death threats

All four KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants in Nepal shut down on Tuesday saying that staff had attacked and threatened to kill branch managers.

Devyani International, which operates outlets of KFC and Pizza Hut in Nepal and neighbouring India, wrote a letter to authorities announcing the immediate closure of its eateries in the capital Kathmandu.

"In order to disrupt our operations, some staff have physically attacked and threatened to kill the senior managers," the company said in a letter leaked to local media and seen by AFP.

"These acts have put the life of senior managers at risk. To maintain the safety of our restaurants and the staff, we have shut down our services for an indefinite period," it said.

The U.S. restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken entered the Nepalese market last Wednesday, along with Pizza Hut. Both belong to the Yum! brand, the world's largest restaurant company in terms of units.

This is certainly a milestone for Nepal; the market so far has been untouched by global brands of stature like KFC and Pizza Hut. Excited customers lined up for hours to get a taste of American fast food, showing the level of anticipation and expectation Nepalese customers have from these two brands.

 source ekantipur.com

Miss Sherpa 2012 » Sonam Dolma Sherpa (Lama)

Sonam Dolma Sherpa (Lama)
Cont. No.: 11
Hobby: Travelling and modeling
Vote for supporting her at Miss Sherpa 2012 Event. Click like on both the picture and this page for valid note.
Photography by: Season Media
For SMS voting type MS<space>11 and send to 4243.

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Government to approach ADB for metro railway DPR

The government is all set to approach the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the preparation of a detailed project report (DPR) of a metro railway system and feasibility study of a North-South railway link.

The Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management is preparing to propose the ADB for this within a week.

In a bid to cater to the demand of mass transport system, the government has planned to a build metro railway system or Mass Rapid Transit System (underground and elevated railway) in the Capital. Korean consulting companies in joint venture with local partners are conducting a feasibility study of the metro railway.

“We will soon be formally proposing the ADB for metro’s DPR and in-depth feasibility study of a North-South railway connecting India and China,” said a high level official at the ministry. The official said they were working on the study to make it more attractive to prospective investors or seek grant assistance from donors in future for the construction work.

The North-South link is conceived for connecting two neighboring countries as part of Trans-Asia Railway Network. In December last year, Nepal had agreed to be a part of the railway network that will connect the country with railway networks of Europe, enabling uninterrupted movement of people and goods. India and China had also agreed to participate in the Trans-Asia Railway link.

The government has been working on the metro plan for the last three years. According to the preliminary inception report prepared by consulting firms, the metro system in Kathmandu will have five lines with a combined length of 67km. Four lines are planned to be built inside the Ring Road, with the one running around the Ring Road will be 27.35km long. Chungsuk Engineering Company, Korea Transport Institution, Kunhwa Consulting and Engineering Company, Korea Rail Network Authority and two local companies— Building Design Authority and Environmental and Research Management Consultant—are preparing the feasibility study report.

“We hope to get the complete feasibility report within two months,” said Ram Kumar Lamsal, director general of the Railway Department. He said that the preliminary report has showed that three lines would be elevated and the other two would be built underground.

The proposed metro network will have 31 stations with its main terminal at Ratnapark, according to the inception report. The metro will cover almost all major bus stops such as Kalanki, Satdobato, Koteshwor, Chabahil, Narayan Gopal Chowk, Gongabu of the Ring Road and New Baneshwor, Singha Durbar and Thamel.

Source Ktm2day.com

Maya’s Bar (pre-release review)

Nepali movie ‘Maya’s Bar’ is releasing on  July 27, 2012. The movie directed by Dinesh DC featuresRajesh Hamal, Gajit Bista, Nisha Adhikari, Karishma Manandhar and Saroj KC in leading roles

The movie features the cinematography of Purushottam Pradhan, fight direction of N.B. Maharjan, music direction of Suresh Adhikari, and editing of Banish Shah.

Story:

Maya’s Bar is the story of Maya (Nisha Adhikari) and her family. Maya lives happily with her husband Gajit and a son, Bishal until they face a financial crisis. To cope with the financial problem Gajit joins fight club as a fighter and Maya joins a dance bar as a dancer. They both work for a company of Trilok Rana (played by Rajesh Hamal). But, both Gajit and Maya are not happy with their spouse’s profession. Gajit and Maya would occasionally express their respective dissatisfaction on Gajit’s work as a fighter and Maya’s work as a dancer. I wouldn’t like to ruin your movie viewing experiences by telling the story and problem that leads to the unexpected death of Maya (oops …).

Source xnepali.com

Shoes With Buddha’s Images Anger Buddhists

First there were images of Hindu Goddess Laxmi printed on bikini bottoms and now a California-based company has come under fire for promoting a range of shoes with the Lord Buddha’s images.

Times of India reports the Tibetan and the Buddhist community are outraged at the shoe company Icon Shoes who even dared to call the collections “Thangka of the Buddha”

Followers of Buddhism across the world have written to the company  to express their disgust  claiming the move to be insensitive. The company’s Facebook page has been flooded with protest notes.  They have also been asked not only to stop selling those products but manufacturing them as well.

Based out of Palm Desert, California, ICON was launched in 1999 by a Hollywood filmmaker and art collector.

Source www.texasnepal.com

Nepali Movie ATM (2012) - When Passionate Love Becomes Lust for Blood

A new Nepali movie named ‘ATM’ has been criticized for vulgar dialogues and sex scenes. Very intimate kissing scenes, suggestive dialogues and scenes including an actress grabbing crotch of a male actor and anactor grabbing the breast of an female actress are some of the visuals in the promotion video that the Nepali society can’t easily digest.

If the promotion video were censored by the censor board of Nepal, all the scenes would have been deleted before it were allowed to be released in public. But, as only the movie is censored before it is screened in theaters, the promo is widely available in internet and the censor board is only an onlooker in this case.

Produced by Kusma Bhudathoki and directed by Yadav Silwal, even the trailer of Nepali movie ATM (2012) features some bold lustful lip-kissing scenes and much dragging of the heroine over a forest floor by perhaps a deranged lover after hints of sex scenes.

The star cast includes Dinesh Karki, Jiya KC, Soniya KC and Sabina Sharma.

The music director of A.T.M. is Santosh Pragadh and the lyricist is Sankar Adhikari. A song with the suggestive title of "Chanchal Jawani" has already created a buzz.

Watch a trailer of ATM.

Source http://filmnepal.net

RESONANCE with Subani Moktan

Subani Moktan is all set to add another feather to her ever growing list of accomplishments. Besides teaching music at the Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory, she is a news anchor at News 24 and is also pursuing her MBA degree.

This talented young singer is poised to rock the Nepali music industry by becoming one of the few women to lead a rock band. Her band is called Resonance and features singer and songwriter Subani Moktan on the vocals and keys, Dev Lama on guitars, Pratik Baniya on bass and Rishav Acharya on drums. All these artists have had experience playing with other well established artists and bands around Kathmandu; Subani Moktan  with Supersonic and Rusty Nails and Funky Sisters, Dev Lama with What the Funk, We're Soul'd Out, Pratik Baniya with Contemporary Jazz Combo and Rishav Acharya with Street Life Collective.

Resonance and Subani in particular, are being promoted by Nirakar Yakthumba of 1974 AD. "Very few female Nepali singers in our music industry have or front their own bands. Most remain solo singers, sing on tracks or are pop divas. Subani is very talented, young, good looking and it's about time Nepal gets its next top rock star- why not a girl" says Nirakar. 

 1. You started singing with your sister. Now you are with a band. How was the transition and do you miss her?I have not stopped singing with my sister.

It's an honour to be in a band  full of extremely talented musicians, and as each of us have different styles and favour different genres; people automatically assume there will be clashes amongst us. But that hasn't happened. We are still young as a band and respect each other immensely. As for my sister, one of the things I miss is that we're likeminded people.

2. What are you expecting out of Resonance?
To be known for our talents, to be successful commercially in the Nepali music industry and to cut an album with original songs besides just gigs and covers.

3. What has having Kunti Moktan as your mother taught you about life and singing?
To go by my guts and stick to my principles in life… stay true to who I am whatever the circumstances may be.

Resonance will put on their very first performance on the 3 August at Moksh in Jhamsikhel, Kathmandu.

source www.wavemag.com.np

Dragonair to fly daily from next month

Dragonair has announced operating daily flights on the Kathmandu-Hong Kong sector from Sept 1. The carrier, which flies thrice weekly on the route, said that daily flights would run for eight months.

Dragonair’s flight leaves Hong Kong at 18:20 Hong Kong time and reaches Kathmandu at 22:30 from Sunday to Friday. The flight then leaves Kathmandu at 23:30 arriving at 06:35 in time for a full day in Hong Kong.

On Saturdays, the timings are 18:55 out of Hong Kong arriving 21:40 in Kathmandu and departing Kathmandu at 22:40 and reaching Hong Kong at 05:45 on Sunday morning. The Sunday to Friday flights involve a stop in Dhaka on the way to Kathmandu, but passengers are not required to leave the aircraft, the carrier said. “The good response of the passengers as well as cargo in Nepal has encouraged the carrier to increase the flight frequency to a daily,” said Thomas Bellamy, Dragonair Manager Nepal.

With a daily flight, Dragonair will offer better convenience for Nepali passengers travelling to and from Hong Kong, as well as to other destinations in China, Japan, Australia, America, Canada, Korea and many more locations worldwide, the carrier said. Dragonair is the sister airline of Cathay Pacific.

The flight will continue to be operated by A330 aircraft.

source ktm2day.com

Tribhuvan Int’l Airport to get two new surveillance radars

Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) is likely to get two new surveillance radars — one at TIA itself replacing the existing one and another at Bhattedanda, Lalitpur — which will help improve reliability and safety of air transport in Nepal.

The first one will work as the primary radar and will have a coverage of 60 nautical miles around the valley and surrounding areas. The second will work as a secondary surveillance radar (SSR) that will give coverage of up to 200 nautical miles.

TIA officials said the coverage of the new SSR would extend up to Nepalgunj in the west and the entire country in the east, north and south. It will enable the radar system to detect and measure the position of aircraft. Currently, the 14-year-old radar system at TIA functions both as the primary and secondary radar system.

While functioning as a secondary radar system, it cannot detect an aircraft’s position when it is flying below 5,000 ft due to hills and mountains. With the secondary radar system at Bhattedanda, the radar system will be able to detect aircraft flying at an altitude of less than 5,000 ft too due to the high altitude of the location.

Despite having the same capacity, the current radar has been failing to locate and detect aircraft below that altitude requiring airports to contact the pilot to find out its location.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is currently undertaking a study of these two projects under its TIA Modernization Project. A five-member technical team led by Hiroyuki Ueda, senior advisor on transport at JICA, has been conducting a detailed study of the projects. The team had arrived on July 27 and is scheduled to finish the study on Aug 23.

Installation of the automated equipment will help TIA to handle the growing air traffic and improve safety and efficiency. “Particularly, the new radar system will enable pilots and air traffic controllers to see displays with highly accurate traffic data, displays that update in real time and don’t degrade with distance or terrain,” said CAAN officials.

The system will also give pilots access to weather services, terrain maps and flight information services.

The radar at TIA was manufactured by Japan’s Toshiba Company in 1998, and it was installed under a grant assistance from the Japanese government. The existing radar was set up at a cost of US$ 34 million. It was last serviced at a cost of Rs 42.5 million on April 8, 2010 after a gap of 12 years even though maintenance is required every seven years.

Officials said that although the radar at TIA is functioning well, sporadic problems have been occurring due to its age. Besides, if a new system is installed, CAAN said it wouldn’t have to bear the high maintenance costs of the old radar and also be freed of the hassle of looking for rare spare parts.

“Installation of a secondary radar was proposed in 1994 when the existing radar was installed at TIA, however, due to multiple reasons, the plan was put on ice,” said Hans Raj Pandey, chief of communications navigation and surveillance (CNS) at CAAN.

“At the request of the government, the process of replacing the old radar at TIA and installing an SSR at Bhattedanda has begun.” Pandey said that the radar would also assist a number of international routes like Trans Himalaya 1 (Bangkok-Kolkata-Nepalgunj-Indek in Pakistan) and Himalaya 2 (Kathmandu-Bagdogra-Guwahati-Silchar-Imphal-Kunming).

Nepal has been pressing for the use of these lucrative airspaces at different aviation forums. TIA’s existing radar cannot provide coverage to the proposed new air routes.

CAAN officials said that the project would be undertaken under a grant assistance of the government of Japan. The combined cost of the projects was estimated to be over Rs 1.5 billion three years ago.

The government had also asked for assistance to build the project during the two-day visit to Nepal of Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba in April. In May, another JICA team was in Kathmandu for an initial inquiry of the project.

During the peak season from September-November, TIA handles more than 70 international aircraft movements and 230 domestic flights movement per day.

Source ekantipur.com