Ban Ki Moon commends Nepal's peace process

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday praised the progress in rehabilitating former Maoist combatants in Nepaland integrating them into the national army, voicing the hope that the process will be carried out smoothly. Ban acknowledged the role of political parties, the Government, and Nepal's Army, as well as Maoist commanders and combatants in the efficient transfer of weapons and maintaining security in cantonments.

Ban Ki Moon

He urged all political parties to maintain the momentum and consensus to bring the peace process and the drafting of the new constitution to a successful and timely conclusion.
The Secretary-General urged all parties to ensure that transitional justice mechanisms currently being debated are established in compliance with international law, prioritizing victims' rights, and making sure that they operate with full independence.
The Secretary-General reaffirmed the continued support of the United Nations to Nepal's peace process. Hope We Nepalese gain lead the peace process to the conclusion and deliver the new constitution which will be loved by most of the Nepalese.

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Ban Ki Moon commends Nepal's peace process

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday praised the progress in rehabilitating former Maoist combatants in Nepaland integrating them into the national army, voicing the hope that the process will be carried out smoothly. Ban acknowledged the role of political parties, the Government, and Nepal's Army, as well as Maoist commanders and combatants in the efficient transfer of weapons and maintaining security in cantonments.

Ban Ki Moon

He urged all political parties to maintain the momentum and consensus to bring the peace process and the drafting of the new constitution to a successful and timely conclusion.
The Secretary-General urged all parties to ensure that transitional justice mechanisms currently being debated are established in compliance with international law, prioritizing victims' rights, and making sure that they operate with full independence.
The Secretary-General reaffirmed the continued support of the United Nations to Nepal's peace process. Hope We Nepalese gain lead the peace process to the conclusion and deliver the new constitution which will be loved by most of the Nepalese.

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Obama nominates Peter W Bodde new US ambassador to Nepal

US President Barack Obama has nominated Peter W Bodde, the new US Ambassador to Nepal.

According to the press statement issued by White House, President Obama nominated Bodde after he nominated present ambassador Scott H. DeLisi to Uganda.

Peter  W Bodde

Currently Bodde is Assistant Chief of Mission for Assistance Transition in Iraq and Coordinator for Minority Issues at the US Embassy in Baghdad.

A career foreign service official, Bodde had earlier served in various capacities in India, Nepal and was the Deputy US Ambassador to Pakistan from 2006 to 2008.

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Bomb explosion kills three in Capital City of Nepal Kathmandu

At least three people, including a woman, were killed Monday in a powerful petrol bomb blast in the Nepali capital, media reports said.

More than six people were injured -- five of them critically, Xinhua reported.
 Local media reports said the blast took place around 1 p.m. outside the gate of the Nepal Oil Corporation's central office in Babarmahal area, close to the country's seat of government Singhadurbar.
 The Samyukta Jatiya Mukti Morcha-Bishwokranti (SJMM), an ethnic outfit, has claimed responsibility for the bombing. 

 Police cordoned off the site immediately after the incident. The injured were admitted to the Bir Hospital.
 Local media said a meeting on fuel price hike was underway in the Nepal Oil Corporation's office when the explosion rocked the building.

At least six people were also injured in the blast, officials say.

There has been no comment from the government as yet.

"A bomb blast killed two people and injured five in an area near government offices and the district court. The explosion occurred at 1:25pm (0740 GMT)," Nepal police spokesman, Binod Singh, was quoted by news agency Agence France Presse as saying.

"A special team of police have been deployed in the area. They are gathering evidence and the area has been cordoned off."

A person claiming to be a spokesman for the Unified National Liberation Front said it was a group fighting for the rights of indigenous communities and cited the government's inability to curb corruption and fuel price rises as reasons behind the attack, BBC Nepali reports.

The device, which went off at 1:25pm (0740 GMT) in a busy area of Kathmanduas workers were heading out of offices on their lunch breaks

A previously unknown group calling itself the Unified Ethnic Liberation Front claimed responsibility, Home Minister Bijay Kumar Gachchadar said, although the group’s agenda remains unclear.

“We will take action against the group. This is a political group which the police are investigating,” he told AFP.

“This is a very serious incident. Two were killed on the spot and one died in hospital. Seven were wounded.

“This is not due to a lapse in security but it represents an ongoing threat. I have ordered that security be tightened.”

Live television pictures from outside the offices of the state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) showed blood spattered across the road while police cleared panicked office workers from an area surrounding a body.

“We rushed to the site after hearing the explosion. There was panic and crying,” said Ramesh Koirala, chief of the NOC’s administration department.

“I saw that one body was piled up on another. The police haven’t picked up the dead bodies yet. There were internal organs scattered across the road. One of our employees, who is in his 30s, has been seriously injured.”

Another witness told News 24 TV: “There was a sudden explosion while we were talking and we ran for cover.

“We assumed that sound of the explosion was from a punctured tyre but we quickly realised that it was a bomb blast.”

Three people were killed and two others injured in December 2009 when a bomb went off in the southwest of the country but the device was thought to be a left-over from the Maoist insurgency.

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Bomb explosion kills three in Capital City of Nepal Kathmandu

At least three people, including a woman, were killed Monday in a powerful petrol bomb blast in the Nepali capital, media reports said.

More than six people were injured -- five of them critically, Xinhua reported.
 Local media reports said the blast took place around 1 p.m. outside the gate of the Nepal Oil Corporation's central office in Babarmahal area, close to the country's seat of government Singhadurbar.
 The Samyukta Jatiya Mukti Morcha-Bishwokranti (SJMM), an ethnic outfit, has claimed responsibility for the bombing. 

 Police cordoned off the site immediately after the incident. The injured were admitted to the Bir Hospital.
 Local media said a meeting on fuel price hike was underway in the Nepal Oil Corporation's office when the explosion rocked the building.

At least six people were also injured in the blast, officials say.

There has been no comment from the government as yet.

"A bomb blast killed two people and injured five in an area near government offices and the district court. The explosion occurred at 1:25pm (0740 GMT)," Nepal police spokesman, Binod Singh, was quoted by news agency Agence France Presse as saying.

"A special team of police have been deployed in the area. They are gathering evidence and the area has been cordoned off."

A person claiming to be a spokesman for the Unified National Liberation Front said it was a group fighting for the rights of indigenous communities and cited the government's inability to curb corruption and fuel price rises as reasons behind the attack, BBC Nepali reports.

The device, which went off at 1:25pm (0740 GMT) in a busy area of Kathmanduas workers were heading out of offices on their lunch breaks

A previously unknown group calling itself the Unified Ethnic Liberation Front claimed responsibility, Home Minister Bijay Kumar Gachchadar said, although the group’s agenda remains unclear.

“We will take action against the group. This is a political group which the police are investigating,” he told AFP.

“This is a very serious incident. Two were killed on the spot and one died in hospital. Seven were wounded.

“This is not due to a lapse in security but it represents an ongoing threat. I have ordered that security be tightened.”

Live television pictures from outside the offices of the state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) showed blood spattered across the road while police cleared panicked office workers from an area surrounding a body.

“We rushed to the site after hearing the explosion. There was panic and crying,” said Ramesh Koirala, chief of the NOC’s administration department.

“I saw that one body was piled up on another. The police haven’t picked up the dead bodies yet. There were internal organs scattered across the road. One of our employees, who is in his 30s, has been seriously injured.”

Another witness told News 24 TV: “There was a sudden explosion while we were talking and we ran for cover.

“We assumed that sound of the explosion was from a punctured tyre but we quickly realised that it was a bomb blast.”

Three people were killed and two others injured in December 2009 when a bomb went off in the southwest of the country but the device was thought to be a left-over from the Maoist insurgency.

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Iran unveils nuclear achievements, cuts oil exports to some Europea Countries

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday fed home-made nuclear fuel rods into the core of the Tehran research reactor as the country cut oil exports to six European nations, Press TV reported. The countries include the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Portugal.

The oil exports were cut in response to sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU) against Iran's energy and banking sectors.

Ahmadinejad also unveiled the country's latest nuclear achievements, the report said.

The presidential website said: "Some new and worthwhile achievements of the country's nuclear scientists in the field of atomic energy will be unveiled ... we will display the extraordinary capability of Iranian young scientists and their nuclear knowledge to the world."

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran Fereydoun Abbasi were present at the ceremony.

Ali Bagheri, deputy chief of Iran's national security council, told RIA Novosti that Tehran produced the nuclear fuel rods domestically as "western countries were unwilling to help".

Western nations accuse Iranof secretly working to build nuclear weapons. Iran vehemently denies the charges, saying its nuclear programme is confined to production of peaceful atomic energy. 

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Is American Space Plane the X-37B spying on China??

A new report indicates that the X-37B - a top-secret space plane operated by the US Air Force - may be spying on China.



The X-37B was lofted into orbit some 10 months ago. Although the Pentagon has understandably remained tight-lipped over its mission, Spaceflight editor David Bakee speculates the plane could in fact be monitoring Beijing’s new space station/lab, the Tiangong-1.


"Space-to-space surveillance is a whole new ball game made possible by a finessed group of sensors and sensor suites, which we think the X-37B may be using to maintain a close watch on China's nascent space station," Baker told the BBC.

"The parallels with X-37B are clear. With a period differential of about 19 seconds, the two vehicles will migrate toward or against each other, converging or diverging, roughly every 170 orbits."

According to Baker, monitoring the space lab might not be such a bad idea for the United States and its NATO allies.

"As with the Cold War, the proliferation of space surveillance systems enabled us to get arms agreements that would not have been possible without each side knowing fully what the other side was doing,” he added. 



However, Brian Weeden, a technical adviser to the Secure World Foundation and a former orbital analyst with the USAF, believes the X-37B is more likely tracking ongoing events in the volatile Middle East and Afghanistan.

"A typical spy satellite is in a polar orbit, which gives you access to the whole Earth. [Now], the X-37B is in a much lower inclination which means it can only see a very narrow band of latitudes, and the only thing that's of real interest in that band is the Middle East and Afghanistan.

"Is it spying on Tiangong-1? I really don't think so. I think the fact that their orbits intersect every now and again - that's just a co-incidence. If the US really wanted to observe Tiangong, it has enough assets to do that without using X-37B."

The Boeing X-37 (also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle) is typically described as an unmanned vertical-takeoff, horizontal-landing (VTHL) spaceplane. The X-37B variant is capable of remaining in orbit for up to 270 days at a time.

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Photographs of Bunglow of MUAMMAR GADDAFI!!! get exclusive pictures

Babak Dehghanpisheh visited a Gaddafi family home this morning and discovered a secret palace hidden behind an ordinary façade. Read about the garden labyrinth, 40-foot deep bunker, hot tub, waterfall, Playboy magazine collection, yachting brochures and an empty box of Coronas.

Rebel fighters and civillians walk near the swimming pool inside the house of Aisha Gaddafi, Gaddafi's daughter.

The neighbors always knew they would be surprised by what’s inside the house on Dhel, or shadow, street. But when they got the first glimpse of Muammar Gaddafi’s house in southeast Tripoli last Sunday, they were in complete shock. “It’s amazing. We didn’t believe [it],” says Hassan Salem, a 46-year-old engineer who lives in the neighborhood. “We thought we are in a dream.”.

A rebel fighter poses for a photo as he sits on a couch framed by a golden mermaid with the face of Aisha Gaddafi, Gaddafi's daughter, in her Tripoli house.

There have been many rumors about the Saharan madman’s palaces and underground bunkers over the years, testaments to a dictator’s ego and paranoia that in some cases seemed to outdo his peers, like Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Well, as it turns, the rumors are true. “There are a lot of hidden things inside,” says Bahauldin Babai, 28, a doctor who also lives in the neighborhood and now helps guard the house from looters. In order to prevent further damage and looting to the compound, rebel military leaders have sealed the doors. The only way in or out is with a ladder, which some neighbors are happy to supply

A rebel fighter seen at the parking lot near the house of Al-Saadi Gaddafi, Gaddafi's son.

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The house was built by Gaddafi in the 80s and later given to his son Mutassim. It looks inconspicuous enough on the outside with an ordinary gate and dun-colored walls, which blend with the surrounding houses. On the other side of the gate, it’s a step through the looking glass: an inner ring of 30-foot high walls surround a huge, beautifully manicured garden with trimmed hedges, small ponds, and pink bougainvilleas. The earthy smell of fresh grass fills the air in late afternoon

Libyan rebels take souvenir pictures on Wednesday, August 24 under the tent where Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi used to receive foreign dignitaries and officials at his Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli.

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  Get More pictures and News Clicking Here 

Pictures of gaddafi's bunglow

Libyan rebels stand next to the entrance of a tunnel at the Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli on Thursday, August 25.

Rebel fighters enter a bunker in the Gaddafi's main compound on Thursday.

Telephones inside a bunker of Gaddafi's main compound in Bab al-Aziziya in Tripoli.

Rebel fighters try clothes in the house of Aisha Gaddafi.

A damaged electric golf cart is jammed against the wall of a tunnel in the bunker of Gaddafi's compound

MUAMMAR GADDAFI with his female body guard

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Photographs in White House when Laden was killed!!!

Sometime after midnight last night I Tweeted this: "Can't wait to see White House photographer Pete Souza's behind-the-scenes photos of the past few days' events." Souza has delivered. For the past several years, the White House chief photographer has been chronicling every moment of the Obama Administration. He has unprecedented access to the President and his staff and gets himself into meetings and rooms you'd think he wouldn't ever be allowed. Case in point: Souza was in the Situation Room with President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and other senior officials while the mission in Pakistan to take out Osama bin Laden was taking place yesterday. The photo above is truly remarkable — check out the no-BS look on the President's face and Secretary Clinton's expression of near shock at what she's watching. Absolutely awesome. We can only guess that they're watching the mission unfold via a camera mounted on one of the Navy SEAL's helmets. Check out more cool photos from yesterday's events in the White House after the jump.

By the way, one more thing about Souza's photos. He posts a selection of them every day on theWhite House Flickr feed, and perhaps even cooler, every single photo that he and his staff takes are protected pieces of the National Archives. Which means that he's not allowed to delete any photos and the entire collection will be made available to the public following the completion of Obama's presidency. That's pretty amazing.

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