New US envoy Powell arrives

The newly appointed US ambassador to Nepal, Nancy J Powell arrived in Kathmandu on Monday afternoon.

Powell is replacing former ambassador James F Moriaty who left Nepal in July after serving three years in Nepal.

According to reports, Powell is scheduled to present her credentials to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Thursday.

Powell has been ambassador to Pakistan, Ghana and Uganda. Before her appointment as envoy to Nepal, Powell worked as National Intelligence Officer for South Asia at the National Intelligence Council.

Nancy J Powell, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Career Minister, was confirmed by the US Senate on June 28, 2007 to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Nepal.

Powell, born in Cedar Falls, Iowa, had joined the Foreign Service in 1977. She has also studied French, Nepali, and Urdu.

Govt - NEFIN sign 20-points agreement

After the 10th round of talks, the government and the agitating Nepal Federation of National Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) on Tuesday have signed a 20-point agreement.

The talks held at the Park Village Resort at Godavari of Lalitpur reached to the conclusion after the government and NEFIN representatives agreed on constitutional guarantee of at least one seat to each indigenous group in the constituent assembly.

“The government has agreed to give at least one seat to a person from each indigenous nationality group,” said Dr Om Gurung, Coordinator of the NEFIN talks team.

Dr. Gurung said that the talks also agreed to state‘s restructuring bases on ethnicity, religion and geography.

The government side has also agreed to seriously take up the NEFIN’s key demand for federation based on ethnicity, languages and regions during the upcoming meetings of the ruling eight-party alliance.

After the agreement, the NEFIN has called off all strikes it had been coordinating in the past.