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Fake Bhutanese refugee scam: Former home minister Bal Krishna Khand arrested by Nepal Police
Kathmandu, May 10 ,2023Former home minister Bal Krishna Khand has been arrested in Kathmandu for his alleged involvement in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam.Khand is considered a confidant of the Nepali Congress president and five-time prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. He was the second-rank member of the Deuba cabinet before the general elections in November last year.A senior police official informs he was arrested at his own house in Maijubahal of Kathmandu this morning.Amid criticisms that the Nepal Police failed to arrest former minister and CPN-UML leader Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, another high-profile arrest has been reported.Meanwhile, Khand’s personal secretary Narendra KC has been arrested in Jadibuti of Kathmandu, according to the police.The police so far have arrested nearly one dozen people in connection with the corruption case including former home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa’s advisor Indrajit Rai, Rayamajhi’s son Sandeep and former home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey.Media reports have also hinted at the involvement of former PM Deuba’s wife Arzu Rana and Khand’s wife Manju Khand, but the police say further investigation is underway.
Trump declines to testify in New York rape, defamation trial
Former President Donald Trump has rejected his last chance to testify at a civil trial where a longtime advice columnist has accused him of raping her in a luxury department store dressing room in 1996.Trump, a Republican candidate for president in 2024, was given until 5pm local time (21:00 GMT) Sunday by US District Judge Lewis A Kaplan to file a request to testify. Nothing was filed.It was not a surprise. Trump has not shown up once during the two-week New York City trial where writer E Jean Carroll testified for several days, repeating claims she first made publicly in a 2019 memoir. She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages totalling millions of dollars.The jury has also watched lengthy excerpts from an October videotaped deposition in which Trump vehemently denied raping Carroll or ever really knowing her.Without Trump’s testimony, lawyers were scheduled to make closing arguments Monday, with deliberations likely to begin on Tuesday.After plaintiffs rested their case Thursday, Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina immediately rested the defence case as well without calling any witnesses. He did not request additional time for Trump to decide to testify. Tacopina declined to comment to the Associated Press news agency after the deadline passed Sunday.On Thursday, Kaplan had given Trump extra time to change his mind and request to testify, though the judge did not promise he would grant such a request to reopen the defence case so Trump could take the stand.At the time, Kaplan noted that he had heard about news reports Thursday in which Trump told reporters while visiting his golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland, that he would “probably attend” the trial. Trump also criticised Kaplan, a Bill Clinton appointee, as an “extremely hostile” and “rough judge” who “doesn’t like me very much”.On the witness stand, Carroll, 79, testified that Trump, 76, raped her in early 1996 after they met at the entrance of the midtown Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman.She said the encounter began as a fun and flirtatious outing as Trump coaxed her into helping him shop for a gift for another woman. She said they ended up in the store’s desolate lingerie section, where they teased each other to try on a see-through bodysuit.As Carroll recalled it, laughter accompanied them into a dressing room where Trump became violent, slamming her up against a wall, pulling aside her tights and raping her before she kneed him and fled the store.In his deposition, Trump said Carroll made it up. He called it “a false, disgusting lie” delivered by a “nut job” trying to stoke sales of her book.He also repeated comments he made in statements that she was not his “type”.“She’s not my type and that’s 100 percent true,” he said.And he repeated his claims in a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which he bragged that men who are celebrities can grab women by the genitals without asking.“Historically that’s true with stars,” he said.Carroll sued Trump in November, minutes after New York state enacted a law allowing adult sexual assault victims to sue others even if the attacks occurred decades earlier.Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, wrote a letter to the judge Sunday to complain that Trump still has not removed April 26 posts on his social media network in which he called Carroll’s allegations “a made up SCAM.” And she noted that he repeated disparaging remarks about the trial three days ago in Ireland.After the April 26 postings on Truth Social, Judge Kaplan, who is not related to Carroll’s lawyer, said Trump’s comments were “highly inappropriate” and expressed concern that Trump was trying to communicate to the jury “about stuff that has no business being spoken about”.
Russia-Ukraine live: Four killed in Russian drone attacks
Four people have been killed in Russian overnight drone strikes across Ukraine.Ukraine says its forces destroyed 35 Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia launched over Kyiv.Concerns about safety at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant increases amid fresh Russian drone attacks.Moscow intensifies the shelling of the ruined city of Bakhmut, as it hopes to lock in gains before May 9 – a major Russian holiday that marks the anniversary of its defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.Head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, says Russia has promised his fighters enough ammunition to stay in Bakhmut, after a threat to pull out in scathing videos.
Rastriya Swatantra Party to focus on organisation-building
The newly formed party is widening its reach in all districts, provinces, constituencies and local units, giving fresh impetus to the drive after withdrawing support to government.
Apex court issues short-term interim order in Dhaka Kumar Shrestha’s case
A single bench of Justice Til Prasad Shrestha on Monday ordered not to implement the RSP’s decision to make Bindabasini Kansakar a member of the House of Representatives in place of Shrestha.
