A few weeks ago the Judicial Council of Nepal agreed standards for the appointment of judges. Reportedly it recommended a provision that any lawyer implicated in contempt of court should be disqualified from becoming a judge. The case certainly exposes the tensions between freedom of speech and the administration of justice. What does contempt actually amount to in our context? A serious question must be asked: does this provision not automatically restrict the freedom of speech of lawyers and at the same time grant the judiciary arbitrary power? Does this one-sided and biased decision of the Judicial Council not amount a mockery of fair justice?

A former Foreign Minister of Australia and a noted academician Gareth Evans has talked about the perception of would be nuclear powers in his most recent essay “Nuclear Disarmament Disarmed”. He has rightly said, “Others will want as long as nuclear-armed states retain them”. There is no reason to disagree with Evans when he believes that no country in the world will be prepared to abandon the acquisition of nuclear weapons unless those armed with them are willing to forego them.

On the 28th of September another plane went down in flames near Kathmandu Airport, taking the lives of all 19 passengers on board. Since the inception of the aviation industry in Nepal, more than 600 people have sacrificed their lives in air accidents. With the crash of a Dornier of Sita Air, the air crash trend in Nepal’s space has become a never ending sequel.

An apple farmer in Jumla has to protect his saplings through three harsh winters before they start bearing fruit. When mature, one tree can yield as much as 100kg of apples, and they sell for Rs 15 per kg in the Khalanga Bazar. These are packed into boxes and transported to Kathmandu where the apples sell for Rs 250 per kg.

Instead of blaming Baburam for all of Nepal’s woes, should everyone not be focusing instead on shortening the long political transition?  After all, Nepal’s peace process must reach a definite conclusion before CA polls are held. Nepal’s political future can only accommodate a smooth functioning national polity based on fresh representational mandate, nothing short of a CA poll. PM Bhattarai must deliver on it and no one should try to influence its outcome either.

During our recent ten-year conflict, both state and Maoist forces committed gross violations of human rights, including mass killings and rapes.

US President Barack Obama has appointed Peter W. Bodde, the new US Ambassador to Nepal. President Obama nominated Bodde after the former ambassador Scott H. DeLisi was appointed for Uganda. 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. He has already assumed office in Kathmandu.

Nuclear energy has attracted renewed interest in recent years, partly because of its ability to generate electricity while producing only negligible emissions of greenhouse gases. For many developing countries, however, establishing and maintaining a nuclear power sector presents a plethora of challenges. This is especially true for a "least developed country" like Nepal, my own nation. Though Nepal became a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2008, the country's limited human and capital resources make it an unlikely candidate to develop a nuclear energy sector. But because of the global threat of climate change, even nations without power reactors of their own could benefit from a worldwide expansion of nuclear energy. If climate change progresses, Nepal faces threats to its water supply due to Himalayan glacier melt and to its agricultural sector because of potential changes PDF in weather patterns. Nepal therefore has good reason to welcome the further development of nuclear energy in other countries.