A little-known Hindu fundamentalist group, Nepal Defense Army, has owned up responsibility for the gory incident at the sacred site.

Eyewitnesses said the explosion at the Church of the Assumption occurred when a congregation of over 300 was about to start Saturday mass, and just a few minutes after an unidentified woman exited the prayer hall at about 9:15 a.m, leaving behind a bag.

Prabin Tandukar, who was inside the prayer hall at the time of the explosion, said there were two big bangs. “Initially, we thought the electric lights had gone off,” he said recalling the harrowing incident. “But we realized that it was a bomb when we saw a number of people maimed or injured.”

The deceased in the incident have been identified as Celeste Joseph, 15, and Deepa Patrick, in her early 20´s. Both of them were from Patna, India and had been living at Dhalku, Kathmandu. Joseph was a Grade X student at St Mary´s School, Jawalakhel. The husband of Deepa, the other slain in the blast, also sustained injuries, according to police.

Joseph died on the way to the hospital. Likewise, Patrick died while undergoing treatment at Patan Hospital.

Doctors fear that many of the injured may have lost their hearing or eyesight.

While eight of the injured are undergoing treatment at Patan Hospital, five others are at Alka Hospital, Jawalakhel. Likewise, one 10-year-old child has been referred to Bir Hospital from Patan for further treatment. Six of the injured are in critical condition, a hospital source said. Three of the injured have been discharged from hospital after treatment.

The explosion shattered reinforced glass on the roof of the church, besides causing minor physical damage inside the prayer hall.

The Church of the Assumption is the first and the biggest Catholic Church in Nepal. A large number of expatriates visit the church every Sunday.

Nepal Police chief Ramesh Chand Thakuri, other senior police officials and various religious leaders visited the church following the incident. Police have seized bomb remnants and a some pamphlets of the Nepal Defense Army (NDA) left at the incident site, for necessary investigations. Investigation officials said the pressure-cooker bomb was found to have contained metal splinters and iron nails.

Metropolitan Police Crime Division, Hanumandhoka has started investigations into the incident under the supervision of Police Headquarters.

Father Bogati of the Assumption Church said they had not received any apparent threats from any party lately. However, an unidentified group had warned the church over the phone some six month ago against conducting church activities.

Bogati said the NDA, which claimed responsibility for the bomb blast, was also behind the killing of Father John Prakash at Don Bosco School in Sirsiya, Morang, on July 1, 2008.

Meanwhile, police have beefed up security around mosques and churches in the Valley.

What is NDA?

One Ram Prasad Mainali of Sarlahi district formed the NDA after the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly last year declared Nepal a secular state and abolished the 240-year-old institution of monarchy. The armed outfit claims that it is fighting for the re-establishment of a Hindu kingdom in Nepal.

The group detonated bombs at a mosque and a church in Biratnagar, besides carrying out bomb explosions in various parts of the capital. Police in Sarlahi and Kathmandu had initiated separate legal cases against Mainali for illegal possession of arms and ammunition. He walked out of prison after serving jail terms and paying fines.

Religious leaders urge restraint

Leaders of the Hindu, Muslim and Christian communities have urged everyone to exercise restraint over the incident.

The appeal comes in the wake of fears that the incident would pose a threat to the religious harmony that has obtained for so long in the country.

Chairman of World Hindu Federation Nepal chapter, Damodar Guatam, has denounced the attack. “I urge all to exercise restraint and not to be involved in activities that affect the sentiments of people belonging to other religions”.

Nazarul Hassan, President of Islamic Association, Nepal, claimed that the incident was aimed at disturbing religious harmony in the country. He urged the government to take necessary measures not to let similar incidents occur in future.

Those killed in the incident

1. Deepa Patrick, 22, of Patna, India, recently residing in Dhalku, Kathmandu

2. Celeste Joseph, 15, also of Patna and recently residing in Dhalku

List of injured

1. Father Rakesh, 28, of Patna, India

2. Annie Amatya, 13, Patandhoka, Lalitpur

3. Manisha Shakya, 19, Pulchowk, Lalitpur

4. Kanchhi Tamang, 45, Patandhoka, Laliptur

5. Renuka Thakuri, 50, Dhobighat, Lalitpur (already discharged)

6. Rabi Shrestha,10, Morang, currently residing at Gwarko, Lalitpur (later referred to Bir Hospital)

7. Sweety Singh,17, Patna, India, currently residing in Dhalku, Kathmandu

8. Munna Singh,21, of Patna, India, currently residing in Dhalku

9. Binaya Patrick,21, Patna, India, currently residing in Dhalku

10. Buddha Laxmi Joseph, 21, Patna, India, currently residing in Dhalku,

11. Shyam Kumar Rai, 30, Morang, currently residing in Pulchowk, Lalitpur

12. Reena Tamang,15, Thapathali, Kathmandu (already discharged)

13. Roji Singh,15, Patna, India, currently residing in Dhalku, Kathmandu (already discharged)

14.

The findings suggest that pig populations need to be more closely monitored in the future for emerging influenza viruses, said a team led by Rebecca Garten of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a report released Friday by the journal Science.

First detected last month, at least 42 countries now have confirmed the new virus in more than 11,000 people — although those are only the cases tested, and authorities say many more have been sickened. Mexico has reported 75 swine flu deaths, the U.S. 10 and Canada and Costa Rica one each.

How the new flu originated has taken a back burner to the more pressing work of treating the sick and trying to create a vaccine. But almost immediately, the CDC learned that the novel flu´s parents were some older swine viruses — one of them a combination of pig, bird and human strains — that had mixed genes in a new way.

Friday´s report takes a closer look at all of the virus´ genetic material, and found the closest ancestor for all eight gene segments is of swine origin. That suggests this new virus might have been infecting pigs somewhere in the world for years, even if the infected pigs didn´t appear sick.

In fact, viruses with genes that most resembled the new swine virus — known scientifically as part of the H1N1 flu family — were identified on average 10 years ago.

Flu viruses of any origin very easily swap genetic material with each other. So each time two or more viruses come into contact in a species, they have an opportunity to mix and create new strains that can be more dangerous or more easily transmitted to each other or another species.

The new work doesn´t shed any light on where this new virus made its jump from pigs to people. Some of the genetic ancestors come from a virus that first hit U.S. pig farms in 1998. Others are traced to pig viruses in Europe and Asia.

But scientists haven´t yet found the key genetic clue: What made this virus able to easily spread from person to person?

On the good side, CDC reiterated that none of its genes show any of the markers of extra virulence or high transmissibility that have been found in some other influenza A viruses.

While the journal Science normally publishes on Thursday, the new study was released immediately because of the widespread interest in the topic.

Roh had been hiking in the village of Bongha on Saturday morning when he threw himself off a mountainside rock, lawyer Moon Jae-in told reporters. In a suicide note left for his family, Roh called life “difficult” and apologized for making “too many people suffer,” a TV report said.

Roh was rushed to a hospital in the nearby port city of Busan around 8:15 a.m. (2315 GMT) and died around 9:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) from head injuries, officials at Busan National University hospital said.

The lawyer confirmed that Roh left a “brief” suicide note for his family. Investigators have not seen the note, a Busan police official said. He did not give his name, citing department policy.

MBC television said the note asked that his body be cremated.

The apparent suicide — the first by a modern South Korean leader — shocked the nation.

President Lee Myung-bak said Saturday the news was “truly hard to believe” and called Roh´s death “sad and tragic,” presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said.

Many gathered around TV monitors at Seoul´s main train station watching broadcasts of the news.

“I´m heartbroken. I can´t imagine how much pain he was in,” said Park Kyung-hee, 46, in downtown Seoul.

Roh, a former human rights lawyer who served as president from 2003 to 2008, prided himself on being a “clean” politician in a country with a long history of corruption.

But he and his family have been ensnared in recent weeks in a burgeoning bribery scandal.

Last month, state prosecutors questioned Roh for some 13 hours about allegations that he accepted more than $6 million in bribes from a detained South Korean businessman while in office — accusations that deeply shamed him.

“I have no face to show to the people. I am sorry for disappointing you,” an emotional-looking Roh said April 30 before undergoing questioning by prosecutors.

Roh acknowledged that his wife took $1 million from Park Yeon-cha, head of a local shoe manufacturer, but suggested it was not a bribe. He also said he was aware that Park gave another $5 million to a relative but said he thought it was an investment. Prosecutors suspect the $6 million eventually was conveyed to Roh.

Several of Roh´s former aides and associates also have been investigated on suspicion of taking money from Park, who was indicted in December on separate bribery and tax evasion charges. Roh´s elder brother was indicted in December for his alleged involvement in a separate bribery scandal.

Roh denied the allegations against him during questioning, prosecution spokesman Cho Eun-sok said.

Prosecutors expressed their condolences Saturday and said the investigation will be wrapped up soon, MBC reported.

Roh — a native of Gimhae, located 280 miles (450 kilometers) from Seoul — came from a poor farming family and never went to college. He studied law on his own, passing South Korea´s difficult bar exam.

He built a reputation as a lawyer defending students accused of sedition under past military rule, and once was arrested, with his law license suspended, for supporting an outlawed labor protest.

Roh joined the National Assembly as an opposition liberal lawmaker in 1988.

His ascension to the presidency came after a surprise 2002 election win on a campaign pledge not to “kowtow” to the United States, a pledge that resonated with young voters.

He maintained predecessor President Kim Dae-jung´s “sunshine policy” of offering North Korea aid as a way to facilitate reconciliation, holding a summit in Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in 2007, the second such meeting between leaders of the wartime rivals.

In 2004, Roh called on the public to vote for candidates from his Uri Party in parliamentary elections, a violation of the president´s political neutrality. The move prompted lawmaker to vote for his impeachment, making him the first South Korean president to be impeached. He was reinstated after two months of suspension, after a court ruled against the impeachment.

(Associated Press writers Jae-soon Chang and Jean H Lee contributed to this report.)

The tribunal´s second week promises to be crucial, with European nations likely to push Asian countries for help at a meeting in Vietnam and Aung San Suu Kyi´s official period of house arrest due to expire.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner pleaded innocent Friday at the court in Yangon´s Insein prison, where she faces charges of breaching the terms of her house arrest after an eccentric American man swam to her lakeside home.

“We expect to begin our defense case this coming week,” Nyan Win, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD) party and also a member of her legal team, told AFP.

“Now we are preparing a witness list and are preparing what we need for tomorrow (Monday),” he said, adding that the prosecution was expected to call final witnesses early next week.

Nyan Win estimated it would take another two weeks for a verdict at the trial, which has provoked a storm of international outrage over the military regime´s treatment of Suu Kyi.

The opposition leader faces up to five years in jail if convicted. American intruder John Yettaw and two female assistants who live with Suu Kyi are also on trial.

The latest, six-year period of Suu Kyi´s house arrest is due to expire on Wednesday and the junta has not yet said whether it will extend it.

Wednesday is also the 19th anniversary of Myanmar´s last general elections, which Suu Kyi´s NLD won by a landslide although the ruling generals never allowed it to take power.

On Friday Nyan Win quoted Suu Kyi as saying: “I have no guilt as I didn´t commit any crime.”

The prosecution case centers on her allegedly allowing Yettaw, a former US military veteran, to stay at her home for two days after the bizarre incident earlier this month in which he swam to her home.

Yettaw has said in the trial that his motive for the stunt was that he wanted to warn Suu Kyi that she would be assassinated.

He brought a number of unusual objects to her house including two black shawls for Muslim women and a copy of the “Book of Mormon”.

Myanmar´s ruling generals opened up the trial to journalists and diplomats on Wednesday for a day, in an apparent concession to international criticism of the trial, but then put the proceedings back behind closed doors.

The junta went on the offensive Friday, blaming “anti-government elements” for Yettaw´s visit and alleging he was a “secret agent or her boyfriend”.

Differences over how to handle the Myanmar regime are expected to dominate a meeting of European and Asian foreign ministers in Hanoi starting on Monday.

EU nations have talked of boosting their sanctions against Yangon, but while Myanmar´s partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have issued a rare expression of “grave concern” they have ruled out further action.

Myanmar´s giant neighbors China and India have been silent on the trial.

Maria Amelia Lopez, who was introduced to the world of blogging by one of her grandchildren, used a mix of humor and nostalgia to recall life during the long dictatorship of Francisco Franco and give her take on modern life.

“Today it?s my birthday and my grandson, who is very stingy, gave me a blog,” she wrote on her first post on amis95.blogspot.com on December 23, 2006.

Her blog quickly soared in popularity after the media reported on it, having seen more than 1.5 million hits, and it earned Lopez a meeting with Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who she openly supported.

In summer, Lopez would write from her seaside home in Muxia in northwestern Spain, where she was born in 1911; and from the Galician farmhouse where she lived with her grandson Daniel during the rest of the year.

Her posts touched on personal health problems, from trips to the doctor to bouts of dizziness, to her opinion on current events; from the violence of the Basque separatists to Iran´s nuclear pretensions.

She blogged sporadically — sometimes once a week, sometimes daily — with the aid of her grandson because cataracts impaired her vision.

In recent months Lopez was increasingly posting video messages on her blog instead of written texts.

In one of her last posts made in February, she enthused about how the “Internet amazes me more and more” after her grandson Daniel introduced her to the social networking site Facebook.

She promptly set up a group on Facebook to defend old people´s rights.

“One day soon I am going to die. All I am really scared of is losing my mind. In the meantime, I´ll carry on,” she said in an interview with Britain´s The Guardian newspaper in September 2007.

The findings by a team from Cambridge University raise questions about the ability of users of the sites to permanently delete potentially embarrassing photographs.

The researchers posted photographs on 16 popular websites and noted the web addresses where the images were stored, before deleting them.

But researchers said that although the images appeared to have gone, they were still able to find them 30 days later on seven sites, including Facebook, by using the direct web addresses.

Special photo-sharing sites, such as Flickr and Google´s Picasa, fared better than Facebook and Microsoft´s Windows Live Spaces removed the photos instantly, the research found.

Joseph Bonneau, an American member of the research team, told AFP: “When you delete a photo, many of the sites don´t actively remove it, they basically just wait for it be overwritten.

“In theory, the photos could take months to disappear.

“It is possible to have them removed right away but it takes more work on their part so it is easier for them just to leave it.

“They have a responsibility to ensure users´ privacy and they are not fulfilling that responsibility.”

A spokesman for Facebook said that while photographs are deleted from the site immediately, they may continue to exist for a short time elsewhere.

“When a user deletes a photograph from Facebook it is removed from our servers immediately,” the spokesman told the BBC.

“However, URLs to photographs may continue to exist on the Content Delivery Network (CDN) after users delete them from Facebook, until they are overwritten.

“Overwriting usually happens after a short period of time.”

The hostel, which was established 12 years ago, now houses 200 students from about six remote villages of Myagdi and Parvat districts. Since this remote school started providing hostel facilities, countless students like Lalkumari have got the chance to continue their education.

However, for Bhumika Tilija, whose house is just 10 minutes away from the school, the compulsory hostel requirement is an obvious disadvantage. She´d rather stay at home but due to the school requirements, she has been staying at the hostel for a year now.

“Students don´t get enough study time at home due to household chores. The hostel has been set up to help their education,” says Raman Pun, the school principal.

Pun says that the compulsory hostel requirement is in place to give the students equal treatment and opportunities.

The school has also begun extra evening classes to help the students´ education. Pun claims that it is because of such rules that 72% of his students pass the SLC exams.

“We have asked for construction of houses without using cement and steel rods and asked the modern homes built during the conflict period to get a traditional look,” conservation officer of ACAP in Ghandruk Sudip Adhikari said.

About half a dozen modern houses were built in Ghandruk during the conflict period flouting the standard norms though the standard had been set up almost a decade ago to conserve traditional homes in the model village of Kaski. The Maoist rebels had bombed the local ACAP office in 2001 and forced displacement of the office, making the act of monitoring difficult. “After the closure of ACAP office, we ourselves were also not in a position to enforce the rule,” president of the Local Tourism Management Committee Davin Gurung said.

Gurung said that the rule has been employed to conserve the 400-500 year-old heritage of the village. “Hundreds of tourists from abroad come here to see these traditional houses. If these houses do not remain, who will come to visit them in the future?” Gurung asked.

The few modern homes built flouting the norms have been asked just to modify the face to give them a traditional look without completely demolishing them and the owners have also agreed to do so. Proprietor of Annapurna Hotel Amrita Gurung said, “I had built the concrete building demolishing the old one after the older leaked water and the woods also decayed.”

She now plans to roof the building with stones by making it inclined and cover the railings with stones to give it a traditional look.

Hotel Mountain´s Ganesh Gurung and Hotel Buddha´s Jimbal Lama have also agreed to modify their concrete buildings bearing expenses of up to Rs 700,000 each. Tourism is the major source of income in the hilly village that yields only potato, wheat and millet due to high altitude.

There are around 80 quality hotels that can accommodate around 1,000 tourists in the area from Syauli Bazar to Annapurna Base Camp, says the local committee putting the number of other registered hotels in the area at 200.

The officials at the PMO are in a great dilemma over whether to include the new names in the February list.

A senior bureaucrat said that the Maoists have been exerting pressure on the PMO officials to accept the new list that includes additional names as martyrs.

On Sunday, outgoing Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Janardan Sharma called PMO officials to accept the new list. But the officials could not convey any decision to Sharma.

“We are now cross-checking the new list with the old one to find out the number of new names. It is very difficult for us to incorporate the new names in the old one approved by the cabinet just three months ago,” a PMO official told myrepublica.com on Sunday.

The officials at the PMO, however, said that it is difficult for them to incorporate the new names in the old list.

In a controversial move on February 27, the cabinet had declared around 8,000 people killed during decade-old insurgency, acting on a proposal from Sharma.

Though the government took the decision three months ago, the actual number and the names of the martyrs have not been made public, terming the information as secret. PMO officials said they are still counting the number of the martyrs due to incomplete facts related to name, caste, birth place, date of death and so on, of the martyrs.

The process of the decision as well as the numbe of ´martyrs´ was questioned at that time.

Initially, the list was questioned by the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), which was a partner in the then Maoist-led government, and Nepali Congress. But the CPN-UML silenced its protest later after the cabinet declared Rishi Prasad, a UML leader who was killed in the course of the Constituent Assembly election, a martyr.

It is general practice for the cabinet to receive any proposal related to martyrdom from the Home Ministry. Had the general norms been followed, the ministry would have collected the possible names for the honor and present before the cabinet with justification why the individuals deserve martyrdom. But Home Ministry officials revealed that the ministry was not involved in the whole process. This time around, a Maoist NGO — Sahid Pratisthan — had prepared the list of martyrs. The list excludes security personnel and non-Maoist people killed during the Maoist conflict.

When asked about whether his party would accept if the new names are excluded in the list of martyrs, Sharma said, “Ask the chief secretary.” kiran@myrepublica.com

Rumor and humor are synonymous with Bhattarai, but some people had started writing obituary about the 87-year-old leader when he was in the hospital.

Three weeks after he was discharged from the hospital, Bhattarai was seen having munchies at Thamel´s Tibel Guest House, and he looked more humorous than he used to be in the past.

“Would you like to have red wine?” P L Singh, one of Bhattarai´s closest aides, asked Bhattarai after he had already had some pieces of momos, pakodas, french fries and a cup of coffee. “Nope, it is getting late,” Bhattarai replied. “Will be late to have dinner and …”

“That´s why, let´s start,” said Singh after he knew the missing portion in Bhattarai´s comment was drink that he pointed with his right hand. “It´s good for the heart.” Bhattarai spent about an hour at the guest house entertaining everyone. When former chief election commissioner Keshav Raj Rajbhandari, who was defense secretary during Bhattarai´s premiership, reminded the octogenarian leader of his last remarks about becoming prime minister for a third time, Bhattarai satirically said, “I found you are a very clever man.”

The former prime minister, who was carried on a wheelchair with support of two youth, did not miss the opportunity to banter with former mayor PL Singh, who was walking past. He said when he became prime minister for the third time, he would provide a vehicle for Singh.

Bhattarai insisted for ice cream thrice during his stay. His aide Amita Kapali had to suggest chocolate ice cream when the waiter asked for a choice between vanilla and chocolate.

Before leaving the Guest House, Bhattarai appreciated the food and drink items. “I found you have run the hotel very well, everything was very delicious,” Bhattarai praised the guest house owner Pasang Chhiring.

And, he asked for Pasang´s visiting card. “I need it to suggest to foreigners if they ask me for place to find good food,” he said. P L Singh was quick to add, “You will get ten percent commission out of that.”

Singh said this is the way Bhattarai has been spending his days since he got well. “I have been living at Kisunji´s residence for the past one week and he is taken to some special place every day,” informed Singh.

Bhattarai has visited several places ranging from Hotel Soaltee to Lasun Restaurant to try different types of food during the past two weeks. “And, he meets some local elderly people wherever he goes,” said Singh. On Sunday, famous ornithologist Dr Harisharan Nepali and former chief election commissioner Rajbhandari were among a few accompanying Bhattarai. Dr Nepal asked Bhattarai to put his signature in two old books — Birds of Nepal, co-authored by Roberl L Flemings (Sr and Jr) and Lain Singh Bangdel, and A Handbook of Game Hunting in Nepal authored by the late King Mahendra.