The tiger population in Nepal has increased this year, according to a recent data released by the government on the occasion of the first “Tiger Conservation Day.”

There are total of 155 adult tigers—or, about six adult tigers per 100 square kilometers. Last year, the record showed a total of 121 adult tigers in Nepal. Officials said this was a good population for breeding purposes.

This is good news for conservationists, as the worldwide tiger population is decreasing due to deforestation, encroachment and poaching. The total population is estimated to be 3,500.

The governments of Nepal and India signed a joint resolution to work together to conserve tigers. India and Nepal together hold over fifty percent of the world’s tigers.

The resolutions were signed as an outcome of the 4th Nepal-India Consultative Meeting on Trans-boundary Biodiversity Conservation, at a function held in Kathmandu on Thursday.

“Besides having common boundary, we are facing similar challenges of tiger conservation. Such relation is extremely important for combating illegal wildlife trade and landscape level conservation for tigers and other wild animals,” said SP Yadav, the joint director of the National Tiger Conservation Authority of India.

Tiger Population Monitoring was done in Chitwan National Park under the coordination of Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation and with the support of WWF Nepal and National Trust for Nature Conservation.

Authorities have said that Nepal’s habitat is best for tiger conservation, as tigers look for peaceful and dense jungles. The Nepalese government says it is committed to increasing the tiger population to 250 by 2022, which would be the next Year of the Tiger.

—Rajneesh Bhandari

Click here to view the embedded video.

The government—after missing the deadline to write a new constitution—did nothing specific in the past 21 days except wait for a new government to take over. While millions of Nepalis struggled through the workday with only four hours of electric power, the three major political parties–Maoists, Nepali Congress and CPN UML–were claiming political power. But, none of the three prime ministerial candidates managed to score a simple majority.

One of them looked very familiar. Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal—“Prachanda”—was back a year after being forced to resign as prime minister after an attempt to sack the army chief was revoked by president Ram Baran Yadav.

A candidate needs to get 300 votes in his favor to win, and as none of the parties have majority, the candidates need to find coalition support. The intrigue began in early morning Wednesday, when Maoists decided to support the CPN UML if they got a two-thirds majority in the election.

By the afternoon, CPN-UML’s Jhalanath Khanal—who had joined the race thinking that Prachanda would withdraw—came close to securing the PM post after Maoists and two other parties expressed their conditional support to him. Khanal himself went to meet members of one group, the Front, asking for support. The Front declined, saying that they “will not vote as none of the candidates agreed to fulfill [our] demands.”

In the two different rounds of election organized in the evening, Prachanda scored 242 votes, Nepali Congress’ candidate Ram Chandra Paudel managed 124 votes. Khanal withdrew from the voting process after being unable to secure two-thirds support.

The next election between Prachanda and Paudel will take place on Friday. “I am confident that I will win the election in the second round,” Paudel said. The lights were still on in Constituent Assembly Hall as he exited, but the rest of Kathmandu flickered and went dark.

–Rajneesh Bhandari

Addressing the nation, 57-year-old Prime Minister Nepal said, “It is already too late to table the annual policies, program and budget in the Legislature-Parliament. Despite having a clear majority in the House, I decided to tender my resignation, with the hope that peace process and constituent making process will be completed, as it would not be right to keep the nation at indecision and confusion in situation like this.”

And there has been a lot of confusion. Four weeks ago, the three major political parties agreed that they could not agree on a new constitution. Instead, they extended the process for another year, and in the meantime hammered out a three-point agreement. The prime minister’s resignation was key for the Maoists.

The other parties are demanding the dissolution of Maoist’s sister organization Young Communist League, which has been charged with violating law and human rights, as well as demand that Maoists return property seized during the conflict. The major disagreement between the Maoists and the other parties is about the issue of the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist army.

Because of the political deadlock, the discussion on major issues such as army integration, the structure of the government: presidential form or prime minister as the chief executive; questions about the numbers of states under federation and the judiciary system; and whether it will be independent or under parliament, is disrupted. Whoever leads will not have an easy time to get consensus on these issues.

–Rajneesh Bhandari

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Compared to countries in Europe, for example, the U.S. has been very lazy about any regulation, let alone tightening a few. Of the 80,000 chemicals currently in use, only a handful have ever been tested for safety. As a result, the report says, Americans are consistently exposed to toxins that could lead to cancer. The report also points out that pregnant women are especially at risk– “to a disturbing extent, babies are born ‘pre-polluted.’”

We covered this last year in “A Minute of Your Time,” when we pointed out that there’s one effect in particular that one would think members of Congress would be very worried about: