18 May 2019, Kathmandu
Today’s news is centered on Buddha as it is Buddha Jayanti today. Following are some main stories that caught the readers’s attention:
National News
The Mahakali-Mechi march that began on March 17 for an end to racial discrimination and untouchability concluded upon reaching Kakarvitta. Participants of the march Hom Raj Acharya, Ashok Darnal and Rita Pariyar said that the march was organised with the objective of putting an end to untouchability in every nook and corner of the country.
The State government of State-5 is organising a variety of programmes today to mark the 2563rd Buddha Jayanti, and also the beginning of the Lumbini Visit Year.
An unidentified group carried out a bomb blast in the house of Chair of Balan Bihul municipality Dayananda Goti last night. The improvised explosive device (IED) went off at the waiting room in the house premises.
Nepali Congress joint General Secretary Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat has said that the awareness campaign was organised in order to consolidate the role of the main opposition party. The campaign will also address intra-party conflict and help it stand tall and strong before the majority government.
The government of State-5 is beginning the Lumbini Visit Year 2076 campaign today marking the 2563rd Buddha Jayanti. However, many sites related to Buddha is west Nawalparasi remain neglected.
State 3 chief minister Dormani Poudel has said the State government is fully committed to multi-party system, human rights, independent judiciary, periodic election, free press and the rule of law.
The Buddha’s philosophy and precepts on world peace, fraternity and human welfare have become the guiding principles today not only for the Buddhists but to the entire humanity.
The Limbu Museum located at Mamangkhe of Sirijangha rural municipality is in shadow due to the lack of its proper management and publicity. The ethnographic museum was established in 2057 BS and it has a collection of historical goods and artefacts reflecting the identity of the Limbu community.
The Nepali Congress has wished the Kirat community people at home and abroad for their good health, long life and progress on the occasion of the ‘Ubhauli’ festival.
The 16th Rot Festival, a religious and cultural festival of offering rot, a special kind of food, to the Guru Gorakhnath, began from today at the Gorakhnath Temple in Gorkha district. Rot, which is made of rice flour dough prepared by adding several verities (52) of spices and dry fruits like coconut, cardamom and clove and sugar, is cooked in ghee or baking on fire with special recitations of mantras in silence. It is considered the most preferred food of Guru Gorakhnath.
President Bidya Devi Bhandari has announced the inauguration of the ‘Lumbini Visit Year- 2076 BS’ amidst a special ceremony held today in Lumbini, commemorating the Buddha Purnima.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has pledged to develop Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, as a place of inspiration for the world peace. He made this pledge while addressing the Sangha Daan programme organised at the Thai Monastery in Lumbini on the occasion of the 2563rd Buddha Jayanti today.
Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa ‘Badal’ has said the Buddhist philosophy would have a significant role for making the vision of prosperous Nepal, happy Nepali true through the means peace and good governance. In his address to a programme orgniased by the local Buddhist organisation named Shree Buddha and Melamchi Ghyang Guthi today on the occasion of the 2563rd Buddha Jayanti at local Boudha Stupa, the home minister said the Buddhist philosophy was born out of the Buddha’s quest to find answers to human misery and a lack of peace. He described ‘self-centrism’ as the main cause of misery and the absence of peace.
The Finance Committee under the House of Representatives has endorsed the report containing suggestions collected from various parts of the country on the upcoming budget.
International News
If Uttar Pradesh were a country, it would be one of the world’s most populous. And this poverty-stricken northern melting pot of over 200 million people is the biggest prize in India’s election ending on Sunday. Uttar Pradesh (UP) has 80 parliamentary seats, the most of any state, and at the 2014 election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept up 71 of them.
A former left-wing guerrilla leader wanted by the United States for drug trafficking was arrested on his release from prison in Colombia on Friday, his political party said.
President Donald Trump on Friday announced a six-month delay in imposing steep tariffs on auto imports, seeking to pressure Europe and Japan into bargaining table concessions on trade.
Aminu Magami, a taxi driver in northwest Nigeria, froze in fear when more than 20 gunmen stormed an expressway one night in February, shooting into the air.
Exit polls in Australia’s climate-dominated election campaign pointed on Saturday to a win for Labor after six years of conservative rule. Between 16 and 17 million people were expected to vote across the vast island-continent in a bitterly fought election that may be the first anywhere decided by climate policy.
The first exit polls from Australia’s climate-dominated election Saturday showed a victory for the opposition Labor party. A Nine-Galaxy poll showed Labor beating the governing Liberal coalition 52-48, which would signal a clear parliamentary majority.
The government should add a public vote to the Brexit legislation which MPs will vote on next month. Sir Keir Starmer said including another referendum in the Withdrawal Agreement Bill would “break the impasse”.
An “incredibly rare” Roman coin minted for an ill-fated emperor has been found during work to upgrade an A road. It depicts Ulpius Cornelius Laelianus, who reigned for about two months in AD269 before he was killed.
