Security Information Taplejung: British mountaineers trapped by Maoists Goethe Zentrum opens reading room Typhoid, Malaria & Kal-Azar desease hit Terai Royal Nepal resumed its flights Singapore Airlines supended its flights Buddha Air Global warming hits Everest glacier Mount Everest Himalaya peaks

British montaineers trapped by Maoist rebels One of Britain's best mountaineers has been trapped by armed Maoist rebels while on a climbing expedition in Nepal's north-eastern Taplejung district. It is the second time in 2002 that British media have published reports on Maoist activities against tourist groups in Taplejung's Kangchenjunga area. A number of the group were stopped on the way up to the mountain by suspected Maoist rebels demanding a high amount of money in cash. The Britons were locked up and threatened they would be killed if they attempted to summon police or army personell. Earlier this year Nepali media have reported on Maoist attempts to collect money from tourist along the route to Manang.

Trekking to Jomsom and Mustang:
According to experts, the long trekking route to Jomsom is unsafe and dangerous due to Maoist activities in this area. Maoists have threatened some tourists who were on a trek to Mustang.

Goethe Zentrum opens reading room
Goethe Zentrum (Centre) Kathmandu, inaugurated a reading room and media room to help students and readers get easy access to the German books.

Kathmandu: Illegal taxi service operating at Tribhuvan International Airport
Tribhuvan International Airport has restricted vehicle entrance except for diplomat and the government vehicles for security reasons. A private company has been operating its taxi service around the restricted area. The company is freely operating a pre- paid taxi service with a stall at the gate of arrival terminal. The company has been dishing out at least Rs. 150 -300 per trip to any destination, making it all the more difficult for arriving passengers and tourists. The company is also providing entrance passes to the brokers of various hotels and guest houses. The brokers often force and haggle the tourists to come with them and stay in the places suggested by them. These services are illegal, but tolerated by the Port Authority.

Typhoid and Malaria engulf Chitwan district
The epidemic of typhoid has trapped thousands of people of Chitwan district which has caused over crowd in the Bharatpur Hospital. The condition has been worsened as malaria also spread in the district. During monsoon each year, the disease strikes the region but never like an epidemic as of this year. The disease started spreading in the region in the first week of June 2002. The fever has affected more than 80 per cent children of the Chitwan district. The disease is spreading uncontrollably. Experts also detected typhoid in 60 patients. The typhoid initially engulfed some wards of Bharatpur Municipality and spread all over the municipality and other surrounding villages. According to experts, contaminated drinking water is the main cause behind the epidemic.Typhoid patient have mild fever and headache initially which soon increased tremendously bringing them to a bed of a hospital

Monsoon and kal-azar rules Terai districts
Last year, several persons died in Sarlahi district after they were caught by kal-azar, a vector-borne disease, which starts with the wake of the monsoon. The same fateful situation repeated this year. But a significant death toll is expected by the end of this year#s monsoon. Mahottari district is one of the most affected ones. Mainly lack of proper hygiene, sanitation, health education and unsafe food and drinking water are the causes of the epidemic. Kal-azar, which is transmitted by sand-fly, was known to be an epidemic in the southern Terai some 50 years ago. But it was, up to some extent, controlled by the government#s DDT vaccine campaign that had aimed to eradicate malaria under the Malaria Eradication Programme, 1952. Now it is reviving as the major death-causing factor for the poorest of the poor living in the Terai belt.

Buddha Air has starting operating its daily flights to Janakpur. Janakpur is the sixth destination operated by Buddha Air established five years ago. It is already operating its flights to Pokhara, Bhairahawa, Bhadrapur and Nepalgunj. Necon Air is already operating in Janakpur.

Singapore Airlines to suspend its flights to Kathmandu from May 31, 2002
Singapore Airlines has decided to suspend its Kathmandu flights from May 31 stating that it could not meet the operational costs due to a heavy decline in the number of passengers. Singapore Airlines might resume its flights as soon as the tourism industry begins to revive and tourist arrivals go up. Singapore Airlines is the next to follow a similar decision taken by Aeroflot, the Russian National flag carrier, taken in February last year. Singapore Airlines is operating three flights per week from Singapore to Kathmandu and is regarded as one of the largest tourist carriers to Nepal.

Royal Nepal Airlines to serve Dubai thrice weekly
RNAC has decided to start thrice weekly Kathmandu-Dubai-Kathmandu flights from June 17 this year. The flights will leave Kathmandu at 10 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and would return at 7.50 a.m. the next day.

A glacier from which Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay set out to conquer Mount Everest nearly 50 years ago has retreated five kilometers up the mountain due to global
warming, a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) study said. A team of climbers reported after their two-week visit to the highest mountain last month that the impact of rising temperatures was everywhere to be seen."The landscape bears the scars of sudden glacial retreat, while glacial lakes are swollen by melted ice," the climbers said.

The government today announced heavy cut down on royalty to climb Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world. According to the new provisions, a climber can now scale the 8,848 metres high Mount Everest, from the normal route, by paying a royalty of US $ 25,000, which is far less than previous rate of $ 70,000. A solo expedition will be charged $ 25,000 to climb Everest while a two-member team can climb the peak by doling out $ 40,000. Likewise, a three-member team will get a permit on the south east ridge for $ 48,000; a four-member team for $56,000; a team of five climbers for $ 60,000; while a six-member team will be charged $66,000. A seven-member expedition will have to pay $ 70,000 on the normal route; and each additional member of a 12-member team will be charged $10,000. Rates on the other routes remain unchanged at $ 70,000. Other routes to climb the highest mountain are on the south pillar, the southwest face and the west ridge.
About 10 to 15 expeditions are granted permits to climb the Everest every year.

The government has announced the opening of nine more peaks for mountaineering effective from the spring of 2001. With these, the total number of Himalayan peaks opened for mountaineering has reached 160.

The new peaks opened for climbing include...

- 8,413-meters high Lhotse Middle
- 7,590-m high Peak 38
- 7,036-m Hunchi
- 6,677-m Numri
- 6,500-m Tengkangpoche
- 5,927-m Nheserku peak in the Mahalangur mountain range of Solukhumbu district
- 6,251-m P2 in the Manaslu range
- 6,012-m Thapa peak in the Dhaulagiri range
- 5,751-m Thorang peak in the Annapurna range.

The newly opened peaks are located in the districts of Gorkha, Mustang, Manang and Solukhumbu.

With the opening of the 8,000-meter-plus high Lhotse Middle, the number of 8,000-meter-plus mountains opened for mountaineering has reached 13. Other 8,000-meter-plus being Mt Everest, Kanchanjungha Main, Kanchanjungha South, Kanchanjungha West (Yalungkang), Lhotse Main, Lhotse sar, Makalu, Manaslu, Cho Oyu, Annapurna and Dhaulagiri.

The Spring mountaineering season began on March 1 and will end on May 31 when all the teams will be required to quit climbing and retreat from the mountains before the monsoon dumps heavy snow mixed with storm making climbing almost impossible.ment holidays.