 | | Qatari women set to launch fashion magazine |
 MAKING
a foray into the fashion and lifestyle world, three young Qatari
women have joined hands to launch an English magazine from Doha.
Named HauteMuse, the magazine will be published quarterly. Talking
to Qatar Tribune, Fatma Hamad al Thani and Noor Rashid al Thani,
both owners of the magazine, said that each issue would be theme-based
with an innovative layout. "We will... |
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|  |  | | UK Monarchy: How Relevant? |
 AMID
the flag-waving and the street parties to celebrate the marriage
of Prince William and Kate Middleton on Friday, bigger questions
about the relevance of the monarchy to modern Britain lurk like
uninvited guests. Extravagant living in a time of austerity
abrades public sensibilities; unearned privilege is resented,
while snobbery and elitism are seen as dangerously outmoded.
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| |  | | THE PRICE OF
DELUSION |
| COL Moamar Qadhafi is a vain man. Like
the other Arab dinosaurs he has his dyed hair, his designer
shades, his spoiled children and his compound full of sycophants.
He doesn´t want, one day, to be dragged from a rat hole
like Saddam Hussein or hauled from a bunker like the Ivory Coast´s
Laurent Gbagbo. So what´s his calculation? Does he have
one at all? Here in liberated eastern Libya, where the tricolour
Qadhafi banished now flies... |
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Nepal braces for more battle over budget
IANS
KATHMANDU WITH the major opposition party as well as 10 others threatening to oppose a new budget, Nepal’s three-monthold government faces a tough battle in parliament three days hence.
The Maoists, the dominant party in the two-member ruling coalition, are liable to get a dose of their own medicine with the Nepali Congress (NC), Terai parties from the south, and other fringe parties uniting to prevent Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari from getting the budget for 2011-12 passed in parliament.
On Thursday, the 11 parties submitted a joint memorandum to both Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal and parliament chairman Subash Chandra Nembang, apprising them of their intention to oppose the new budget.
This month, the Khanal government, under tremendous criticism for “having failed on all fronts”, announced its intention to start the budget session from May 2 with the new budget to be tabled for discussions the next day.
The Nepali Congress was the first to oppose the move, saying it would not allow the government to table a new budget before May 28, a crucial date.
As per the interim constitution, the new constitution has to be enforced by May 28.
However, the indications are that the government will fail to meet the deadline, barring a last-minute miracle.
Though Khanal met Nepali Congress chief Sushil Koirala on Thursday to lobby for support, Koirala rejected the overture.
It is a moment of just desserts for the Maoists who prevented the earlier government of prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal from passing the budget in November.
Sitting in opposition at that time, they had attacked the then Finance Minister Surendra Pandey in parliament, forcing the government to enforce the budget by ordinance.
The current finance minister already carries on his shoulder the heavy burden of a bureaucratic dispute.
Finance secretary Rameshwor Khanal resigned recently after tussles with the finance minister, who has been accused of drafting the new budget in consultation with a few corporate houses and seeking to shelter businessmen under investigation for tax evasion.
The premier himself is accused of having abandoned the Nepali Congress, an old ally, and striking an opportunistic deal with the Maoists to win the prime ministerial election.
Due to the bad blood created since then, no party other than the Maoists joined the Khanal government and even the Maoists have been dragging their feet about sending ministers, causing the cabinet to be still incomplete.
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