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Assistant Foreign Minister of Australia Tim Watts arrived on a two-day visit to Nepal. The centerpiece of Watts’ visit is going to be the handover of a 13th century wooden tunala (temple strut) from Ratneshwar Temple at Sulima Square to the local community in a ceremony organized at Patan Museum. The Art Gallery of New South Wales has returned this important artifact to Nepal, and will be represented at the handover by Director Dr Michael Brand, according to a statement issued by the Australian Embassy in Kathmandu this morning. During the visit, Assistant Minister Watts is scheduled to pay a courtesy call on Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud. He will convey Australia’s appreciation of its close cooperation with Nepal over 63 years of diplomatic relations and thriving people-to-people linkages. The Nepali community is Australia’s fastest growing migrant population and currently numbers around 130,000, adds the release. The Australian Assistant Minister will also visit BioVac Nepal in Banepa, where academic and research cooperation and technology transfer from Australia has supported BioVac to become a state-of-the-art diagnostic and animal vaccine production facility. He will then visit the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology (TIO). In the past thirty years, the Australian Government and the Fred Hollows Foundation have supported TIO’s work to provide eye care services in Nepal, as well as the manufacture of intraocular lenses for national and global distribution. Likewise, Watts will hand over an Australian-made Portable Altitude Chamber to the Himalayan Rescue Association for its use at the Pheriche Medical Outpost and Everest ER Clinic at Everest Base Camp. It may be noted that Assistant Minister Watts’ visit to Nepal is part of a four-country program that includes his participation in the sixth Indian Ocean Conference in Bangladesh, and bilateral visits to Bhutan and India.  

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is going to answer the questions raised by lawmakers in the House of Representatives on May 18. The lawmakers had been demanding that the prime minister should answer the questions raised in the Parliament. During a Parliament meeting held on Monday, the lawmakers demanded that the government inform the House about the progress made by the government in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam.  

The Kathmandu District Court on Monday allowed police to keep former deputy prime minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, who was arrested in connection with the fake Bhutanese refugee scam, in custody for three days for investigation. Rayamajhi, who was apprehended from Budhanilkantha on Sunday, was produced before the court on Monday. Rayamajhi, also the CPN-UML secretary, has already been suspended from the party. Police have already started an investigation into the case by detaining 12 persons including former home minister Bal Krishna Khand.  

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and National Assembly (NA) Chairperson Ganesh Prasad Timilsina held a meeting on Monday. During the meeting held at the Prime Minister's official residence in Baluwatar, this morning, they discussed the current budget session of the federal Parliament and joint session of the Parliament for the presentation of government's policies and programs for the upcoming fiscal year.