Royal family shifts

Royal family 'shifts' to Nagarjun palace

Day after the government decided to nationalise seven royal palaces including the Narayanhiti palace, King Gyanendra moved to Nagarjun palace with his family on Friday.
A royal palace source however claimed that King Gyanendra and his family moved to Nagarjun palace as part of their vacation plan set weeks earlier and that their departure from Narayanhiti has nothing to do with yesterday's cabinet decision to bring the seven palaces under government ownership.
Nagarjun palace, northwestern suburb of Kathmandu, is known as a summer retreat of the royal family.
The palace source told Nepalnews that the King and his family are staying at Nagarjun for a month.

Thursday's government decision to nationalise the royal palaces and lands is seen as one of the boldest decisions taken in recent weeks by the interim government to clip the powers of the monarch. The Nayanhiti administration has not reacted to the latest government decision.
The five-member ministerial team headed by Home Minister Krishna Situala, which has been given 15 days to complete the task of nationalising the royal family's properties, has decided to register seven palaces in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Nuwakot, Gorkha and Lamjung districts. 1533 ropanies of land occupied by these palaces will also come under government ownership.
The committee has also decided to freeze the bank accounts of King Gyanendra, Queen Komal and Crown Prince Paras to stop transfer of late King Birendra and late Queen Aishwarya's money to them.

Weekend break may hit Salman's bail moves

Kathmandu: Salman Khan will, in all probability, be forced to spend some time in jail even if his legal team succeeds in convincing the Jodhpur High Court to stay the warrant of arrest against him. With the court being shut for the weekend, the earliest that it can take up the bail application is Monday. But Jodhpur cops are not going to wait so long to arrest Khan. Officials told TOI that a team, led by Udai Mandir station house officer Dinesh Meena, would be leaving for Mumbai on Saturday itself to take the actor into their custody. But the star himself appeared quite cool about the situation. "Don't worry about it, dear," he told TOI in his drawl when quizzed about the sessions court order sending him to prison for five years. "I will do whatever my lawyer advises," he added. The lawyer, Dipesh Mehta, is planning to move the Jodhpur High Court by way of a criminal revision application against the sessions court order and seek bail. Senior defence counsel Mahesh Jethmalani said, "He can certainly go to the high court by way of a revision application and get the non-bailable warrant stayed. The application can be filed before he surrenders but the court will stay the warrant only on condition that the actor first surrenders." The application can be filed on Saturday but its hearing can only take place on Monday as Saturday is a court holiday. There is more trouble awaiting Khan's legal team - lawyers from Jodhpur say Tuesday is also a holiday on account of Rakshabandhan so it may be a few days before the matter actually gets heard and there is no way the actor can avoid jail. vv

Bollywood salutes India’s patriotic spirit!

Today being Independence Day we’re feeling particularly patriotic. So we thought we’d introduce you to some of our most patriotic films. These films are a great way to bring about the patriotic mood and we bet you’ll find more than one of these films showing on cable today. So watch out for these… Rang De BasantiRang De Basanti is a contemporary film about the carefree ways of our youth. Of course such happy-go-lucky days don’t last forever and they are confronted with the harsh truths plaguing this country. One of their mates dies in a crash because of a faulty jet. This is because the arms dealer who supplies weapons to the country wants to make extra money by selling faulty planes. The filmmaker draws parallels with the lives of these youth and those of our freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives during the independence struggle. It goes to show that if we are not vigilant and stand up for those harming our country we will be trampled upon.