Nepal

Kathmandu, November 11

Police have seized a large number of playing cards installed with electronic chips that enable players to cheat opponents by formulating a game plan in advance.

Every card in the deck, according to police, comes with a thin chip that transmits information to players via bluetooth device in their smartphones, smartwatches, contact lenses and earphones.

&We have confiscated at least 2,500 playing cards. Of them, at least 1,300 decks of playing cards were installed with chips, along with hundreds of bluetooth devices and special contact lenses from a rented room of Nir Bahadur Karki, 36, at Sitapaila, Kathmandu,& said Deputy Superintendent of Police Rugam Kunwar at Metropolitan Police Circle, Kalimati.

All the devices were illegally imported from China.

The cards look like ordinary playing cards available in the market.

&We saw the chips in the cards after we scanned them using a device used for detecting counterfeit currency,& said Deputy Superintendent of Police Kunwar. This is the first time police have confiscated such cards.

Police found that the cards were mainly used in the game of flush. Once the cards are distributed among players face down, the devices inform the user which player will win the game, according to police.

Police also confiscated dozens of wallets, belts and props fitted with bluetooth devices that would transmit information to smart devices.

It is learnt that one set of such playing cards were sold at Rs 100,000.

As the festive season of Dashain and Tihar recently concluded, police are still investigating how many such cards have already been supplied in the market.

Police had intensified their crackdown against illegal gambling this festive season in comparison to previous years, confiscating millions from gamblers.

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Kathmandu, November 11

Honorary Consular Corps-Nepal and World Federation of Consuls are jointly organising the ‘HCC-N & FICAC Regional Conference 2019& in Kathmandu from November 12 to 15.

The conference is being organised in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation and Visit Nepal-2020.

ion and Visit Nepal-2020. It will be attended by approximately 150 Honorary Consuls and Consular Generals from Nepal and other countries. The theme of the conference is ‘Solidarity for Shared Prosperity&, according to a press statement issued by the organisers today.

The conference will be inaugurated by Vice-president Nanda Bahadur Pun on November 13 at Soaltee Crowne Plaza, Kathmandu. Pradeep Kumar Shrestha, dean of HCC-N and Honorary Consul of South Africa, will welcome delegates to the conference.

FICAC President Aykut Eken and Foreign Affairs Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali will be addressing the inaugural ceremony of the conference. President Bidhya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli are also expected to attend the event.

Delegates in the conference will deliberate on the main theme and the agenda of emerging global concerns in order to make this world a prosperous place to live.

On the last day of the conference, a ‘Kathmandu Declaration& will be adopted which will be a guiding principle for HCC-N and FICAC for carrying out its activities in the days ahead, according to the press statement.

There will also be separate plenary sessions on ‘Solidarity for Shared Prosperity&, ‘Gender Equality&, ‘Climate Change and Melting Glaciers&, and ‘Connectivity and Prosperity&. Various experts will be delivering their insights as keynote speakers on the aforementioned topics during the respective sessions in the conference.

The conference will serve as an avenue for exploring opportunities for attracting FDIs in various sector of economic development in Nepal such as; hydropower, tourism, joint venture in BFIs and other MNCs, industries and trade.

The conference expects the participating members to be ambassadors in sharing their experiences in promoting Visit Nepal 2020, read the statement.

The post HCC-N&FICAC conference from November 12 appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

Kathmandu, November 11

Canadian Deputy High Commissioner to India, with concurrent accreditation to Nepal and Bhutan, Deirdre Kent suggested that public toilets should be more women-friendly.

Kent said so during a field visit to a recently built ‘environmentally, socially and economically sustainable& public toilet at Ratnapark today. She said though public toilets were essential for everyone, concerned agencies should focus on building infrastructure suitable for women.

The toilet was the site for a pilot demonstration for sustainable public toilet model in Nepal by AEROSAN Sustainable Sanitation in collaboration with GUTHI and Kathmandu Metropolitan City with financial support of the Canadian government-funded Grand Challenges Canada.

Kent said, &In cities with large populations like Kathmandu, it is important to have these kinds of facilities. We appreciate the work AEROSAN and KMC have done and the support provided to improve the condition of public toilets.&

Prakash Amatya, country representative of AEROSAN, said the public toilet was adapted to make it female friendly and faecal waste from it was used to generate usable biogas, which had minimised environmental impact.

The public toilet was renovated and redesigned to make it safe, sanitary, female-, disabled-, and environment-friendly through the use of simple interventions like proper ventilation, natural lighting, addition of female-friendly and disabled-friendly design elements such as separated and accessible hand-washing stations.

The toilet also has a biogas system that converts waste from the toilet to biogas (equivalent to 2 LPG gas cylinders per month) that is used by toilet operators to run a small teashop. The public toilet has been serving as a demonstration model for sustainable public toilets for the last two years.

AEROSAN is an organisation working across the globe to provide sustainable sanitation solutions.

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