KATHMANDU: The makers of a film depicting torture by Nepal’s army accused the government of censorship yesterday after they had to cancel the movie’s release because of delays in approvals. Badhshala, (Slaughterhouse) is based on torture and disappearances carried out by a Kathmandu-based battalion during the 1996-2006 civil war. The army has objected to the four-million-rupee ($46,512) film scheduled for release yesterday, saying it could harm the peace process and that it was made using army uniforms without permission. Director Manoj Pandit called the affair “an attack on artistic freedom” in Nepal. “The government has ignored its deadlines for a decision,” said Pandit, who delivered a DVD to Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai.
Activist killed in Bangladesh strike
DHAKA: A ruling party activist was beaten to death during clashes in northwestern Bangladesh yesterday as a nationwide strike called by the opposition shut schools and businesses. Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) enforced the strike to protest against police firing on a rally on Wednesday, when two senior party officials were hit by rubber bullets. It was the 12th strike this year by the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami party over a controversial tribunal trying their leaders for crimes during the 1971 war.
Majority in Taiwan against new N-plant
TAIPEI: More than half of Taiwan’s public want construction of a nuclear plant to be halted due to safety concerns, according to two surveys. Fifty-four percent of the 1,071 people interviewed in a survey commissioned by weekly magazine Business Today favoured the scrapping of the plant, which would be the fourth, while 23 percent opposed it. Another survey by the Taipei-based China Times newspaper said 62.4 percent of 761 people said it should be stopped against 21.2 percent who wanted work to continue.
Siblings held over skeleton ‘mother’
TOKYO: Three siblings lived for up to three years with what is thought to be the skeleton of their mother, police in Japan said yesterday. Two sisters aged 59 and 52 and their brother, 65, have denied that they conspired to abandon a body, a crime under Japanese law, because they say their 88-year-old mother is still alive. “Our mother has become a god. She is not dead but is in the process of being elevated into a higher being,” they told officers in Usa in the southwest, Jiji Press said. “We discovered from an autopsy that the skeletonised body is that of a female who died two or three years ago, but we have to wait for DNA test results,” police said.
Xi to visit S Africa from March 26
JOHANNESBURG: China’s incoming president Xi Jinping will visit South Africa this month, shortly after he takes up the post, the foreign ministry said yesterday. “On 26th (March) there will be state visit of China in Pretoria,” said spokesman Clayson Monyela. Xi will then attend a BRICS summit in Durban.
Five cops held over ‘torture’ video
JAKARTA: Indonesian police arrested five policemen yesterday over alleged torture of militants after a video posted on YouTube showed a suspect being shot and others abused. The incident occurred in Poso, a hotbed for militant activity on the island of Sulawesi where police have become the main target. Agencies
