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A Yeti Airlines plane carrying 68 passengers crashed in Pokhara on Sunday. The plane with call sign ATR-72 took off from Kathmandu to Pokhara at 10: 33 am today, police said. According to Sudarshan Bartaula, spokesperson of the Yeti Airlines, there were two pilots, two air hostesses and 68 passengers on board the ill-fated aircraft that crashed between the old airport and the Pokhara International Airport this morning. He said that there were 10 foreign passengers on the plane. Chief District Officer of Kaski district Tek Bahadur Karki said that he has directed the health facilities to be on high alert. More details about the incident are awaited.    

With the formation of a new government under Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the international community has started showing concerns about conflict-era rights abuses. On Jan 12, Human Rights Watch, a rights body, came up with a statement urging the Dahal-led government to amend the transitional justice bill.   

A new transitional justice bill, to address abuses committed during Nepal’s 1996-2006 civil war, was presented to the parliament in Aug 2022, HRW says, adding: The bill, despite significant flaws, had raised hope among the victims and their families, who have waited over 16 years for justice. The flaws include wording that makes it possible to grant amnesty for certain gross violations of human rights, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, the statement said.

In addition, verdicts from a new special court would not be subject to judicial appeal, in violation of international fair trial guarantees. The bill was neither amended nor brought to a vote before parliament was dissolved ahead of November elections, according to the statement.

Speaking with media persons on Jan 12, American Ambassador to Nepal Dean R Thompson said that the international community is keenly interested to see progress in transitional justice. “This is definitely something that I talk about with my colleagues in the international community. I hope we can see progress,” he had said: “Ruling parties in their Common Minimum Program have pledged to conclude the transitional justice process.” 

Transitional justice mechanism—Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons—are without heads and other officer-bearers. The international community, however, has not cooperated with the commissions. The bottom-line of the international community is that there should be appointment in both commissions only after the amendment of laws in line with the Supreme Court verdict 2015, said former Chair of Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

After the lifting of import restrictions, the Nepali gadget market is gradually seeing the launches of high-end mobile phones. After Apple launched the iPhone 14 series, the market is all set to get another flagship model from the OnePlus 10T. Launched in the global market last year, the OnePlus 10T could not be released in the Nepali market in 2022 due to import restrictions. Smart Talk Pvt Ltd, the national distributor of OnePlus in Nepal, is launching the 10T today. According to the distributor, OnePlus 10T is laden with various top-end specs including Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, a 50 MP triple camera, and a 4,800mAh battery. The phone inherits a unibody design similar to the OnePlus 10 Pro. The OnePlus 10T 5G resembles the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G in terms of camera arrangement, but there is a slight difference: the rear panel of the former bulges a little. The OnePlus 10T 5G has also ditched the alert slider. The OnePlus 10T 5G comes up with a large 6.7 inches Samsung E4 AMOLED display along with a screen resolution of 1080 x 2412 pixels. The smartphone has a 20:9 aspect ratio, 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+, and 10-bit color depth. It is also packed with an under-display, optical fingerprint sensor and face unlock. The phone comes with a triple camera setup which is a combination of a 50MP (Sony IMX766) wide, ultrawide, and macro. The 10T cameras support 10-bit color capture, OnePlus’s Nightscape mode, and offer improved HDR performance. The phone has a 16 MP selfie camera on the front. When it comes to video recording, the rear camera records up to 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60/120fps, and the front cameras record videos up to 1080p@30fps. The phone has OxygenOS 12.1 based on Android 12. The OnePlus 10T price in Nepal is Rs 94,999 for the 8/128GB variant and Rs 114,999 for the 16/256GB variant. The phone comes in two color options of Jade green and Moonstone Black. The handset is already available for pre-order at the e-commerce portal Daraz.  

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has won a vote of confidence from nearly every member in the 275-strong parliament. However dubious it may seem across the democratic world, Nepal now has a coalition government without any official opposition. The newly appointed prime minister from the CPN (Maoist Center) is now all set to give a full shape to his government and get into the business of governing. A committee of the seven-party ruling coalition has already prepared a policy document or the common minimum program, outlining the government’s priorities for the next five years. The document will serve as a blueprint to drive the country forward economically, socially and politically. It also includes the government’s foreign policy priorities. How Nepal deals with the external world, more specifically with India, China, and the US, will be a key determinant of its success or failure in the coming years. The common minimum program mentions the government’s foreign policy priorities in a vague way. It speaks about non-alignment approach and maintaining balanced ties, which offers no insight into how the government will go about finding the diplomatic equipoise. This issue begs clear articulation at a time when India, China and the US are trying to spread the scope of their influence in South Asia. The three countries are expecting early decisions from the new government on some of their key agendas. India wants an early decision on its Agnipath scheme concerning recruitment of Nepali as well as Indian youths in its security forces for a certain period. The previous government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba had put the issue on hold, stating that the new government would take a decision. An Indian official said the plan cannot be delayed for an indefinite period. The recruitment program by the Narendra Modi government has become a divisive topic in India as well as in Nepal, as it offers a military service period of only four years. There are concerns about the future of Agnipath retirees while some have even raised the alarm about dangers of letting military trained youths into civilian life, especially if they do not find other job opportunities. If the Nepal government opts out of Agnipath, the official said the seats reserved for Nepali would be provided to Indian nationals. With China, the new government needs to take the decision on whether or not to be part of Xi Jinping’s Global Security Initiative and Global Development Initiative. There are also the projects under the Belt and Road Initiative. Foreign policy experts consider these initiatives as China’s way of building a new world order, an antidote to the US global dominance. Chinese diplomats have already started to claim that Nepal is already part of these initiatives, even though the Nepal government has not taken any official decision. As a country sharing a border with China and India, Nepal is of strategic interest not just to Beijing and New Delhi, but also Washington. As China-US geopolitical rivalry peaks in South Asia, they are after building ally countries in the region.  Washington wants an environment conducive for the implementation of Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) projects, which has two components. The first one is the construction of a transmission line and another is an upgrade of road networks. Beijing has already raised objections to Nepal signing the compact. Protests have erupted in Nuwakot and Dang, which has alarmed the Americans. US Ambassador to Nepal Dean Thomson recently told the media that the implementation of MCC projects remains a key concern in America and they are concerned about the protests. Besides ensuring successful implementation of the MCC projects, the Dahal government must also decide on America’s State Partnership Program, which too was put on hold by the previous administration. It will be an enormous decision, with a potential to make Nepal a friend or a foe of Washington and Beijing. In his previous tenure in 2016-2017, Dahal had sent special envoys—Bimalendra Nidhi and Krishna Bahadur Mahara—to New Delhi and Beijing—signaling that he wants to maintain a balanced relationship. But he eventually ended up angering New Delhi and Washington by signing up for the BRI and deciding to hold joint military drills with China. With India, China and the US breathing down the neck to fulfill their strategic interests, it remains to be seen how the Dahal government will apply its policy of maintaining balanced ties. The common minimum program offers no clues.