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Qatar Airways is starting flights from Kathmandu to Canberra. The flight from Kathmandu will make a stop at Doha and then fly to Canberra. The airlines last week hosted a press confer­ence in the presence of Austra­lian Ambassador Peter Greme Budd, Qatar Ambassador Yousef Mohammed Al-Hail and Coun­try Manager Jayaprakash Nair to celebrate the launch of Qatar Air­ways’ inaugural Canberra flight. Canberra is will be the fifth Aus­tralian airport to get direct flights from Kathmandu. Qatar Airways already operates a daily service to Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

NIC Asia Bank has launched ‘Samunnati Plus Bachat Khata’, with 10 percent annual inter­est. Special features of the sav­ings account include minimum balance of Rs 10,000, 50 per­cent discount on locker facility, free debit card, free mobile and internet banking, among oth­ers, according to a press release issued by the bank.

Telecom service provider Ncell has topped the list of companies paying the highest taxes (Rs 8 billion) in the first six months of the current fiscal, followed by Nepal Telecom (Rs 6 bil­lion), Surya Nepal (Rs 3 billion), Gorkha Brewery (Rs 1.5 billion), Nepal Investment Bank (Rs 1.5 billion) and Nabil Bank (Rs 1 billion). APEX BUREAU

Turkish Airlines started regular flights to Freetown last week, as its 52nd destination in Africa. Beginning February 24, new direct flights to Freetown, Capital of Sierra Leone, also bring the total countries reached by the flag carrier to 121.

Turkish Airlines flies to more destinations in Africa than any other airline and this latest addition to Free­town marks another milestone in its international expansion, a press release issued by the company reads. The airlines already has services to city-hubs of Accra, Lagos, Bamako, Conakry, Dakar, Abidjan, Cotonou, Douala, Yaounde, N’Djamena, Ougadou­gou, Niamey, Cape Town, Johannesburg and more.

The Freetown flights will be available twice a week on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The service will provide a link between Istanbul Atatürk International Airport and Lungi International Airport via Ouagadougou.

Long Night of Storm, a collection of short stories by the renowned Indian writer of Nepali descent, Indra Bahadur Rai, and translated from Nepali into English by Prawin Adhikari, was launched in Kathman­du this week. The book is published by Speaking Tiger, New Delhi.Adhikari is also the writer of the short story collections ‘The Vanish­ing Act’ and ‘Folk Gods’.

Writers and translators Khagen­dra Sangroula and Muna Gurung spoke about the book at the event and about Rai’s contributions to Nepali literature. Following their speeches, Adhikari shared his experiences of meeting Rai and translating his stories.

The event was jointly organized by Quixote’s Cove, Speaking Tiger and Station 5 Café.

Long Night of Storm contains 16 stories picked from Rai’s two short story collections: ‘Bipana Katipaya’ and ‘Kathastha’. APEX BUREAU

Kathmandu: A nine-day Asia Pacific Internet Summit this week discussed a range of issues including the latest developments in internet and network engineering and future innovations in the field.

The Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (APRICOT) 2018 brought together around 900 internet technologists from 50 countries to discuss advanced networking topics during the 10-day jamboree held from February 19 to 28.

At the event, internet and wireless networking campaigner Mahabir Pun talked about smart cities of the future and his latest project, the Nepal Innovation Center. He shared that the center has been working on a medical drone, on water processing technology and on e-rickshaw and tempo batteries.

During the conference, the renowned Cloudflare Company announced the beginning of its Data Centre in Nepal. This is the company’s second such center in South Asia. The new center is expected to make internet browsing more efficient and reduce the cost of internet bandwith. RSS

JITPUR, KAPILVASTU: The Jagadish­pur Tal, which figures on the list of major wetlands of the world, is gradually developing into a tourism attraction. Jagadishpur Tal is located at Kapilvastu-9, some 11 km north of Taulihawa, the headquarters of Kapilvastu district in central Nepal.

This lake has become a new des­tination for the tourists visiting Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautama Buddha, which is also in Kapilvastu. Although there is no exact data on their number, foreign visitors com­ing to Lumbini these days have been regularly visiting the Jagadishpur Tal for sight-seeing.

The many species of birds that inhabit the Jagadishpur wetland area are the primary source of attraction for visitors. Most foreign tourists to Jagadishpur Lake are from Britain and Australia.

“One can see the water birds that have migrated from Siberia and Tibet, and inhabit, breed and hatch in this area during the winter. The indigenous birds join them, which is really very enjoyable to see,” says senior ornithologist Hem Sagar Baral. According to Baral, migratory birds from as far as Siberia, China, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan come to this wetland area. A total 22,491 water birds were counted in the Jaga­dishpur wetland this year, according to Baral.

“Although birds are having prob­lems with their habitat and feeding due to climate change effects, Jaga­dishpur wetland still offers a good environment for them. It’s a big lake and the birds can freely roam and play around in and around the lake,” says Baral, while underlining the need to protect the wetland area. RSS

Darchula: India has construct­ed four wooden bridges over the Mahakali River without the consent of Nepal. The Mahakali River forms the westernmost international border between Nepal and India. India had sent a letter to the District Adminis­tration Office, Darchula a cou­ple months ago seeking Nepal’s agreement for that connection. It started building the four bridges before Nepal gave its consent. The Indian side has constructed the wooden bridg­es at Najangkhola, Lakhanpur, Dopakhe and Kauthala, which are all close to the tri-junction border area of Nepal, India and China. RSS