Beijing’s public toilets must not exceed two flies, according to new standards handed down by zealous officials striving to clean up China’s notoriously filthy loos.

The unusual rule applies to lavatories in parks, railway stations, airports, hospitals, malls and supermarkets in the capital, said the Beijing News today.

More conventional demands from the municipal committee in charge of the image of the city include an order that there is no accumulation of urine or water in the capital’s public toilets and that bins aren’t overflowing.

A coordinated plan of five ministries to accelerate the reduction of maternal and child under-nutrition in the country is taking pace, officials said.

National Planning Commission has recently prepared a six-year plan to improve the nutrition of babies up to two years of age through the coordinated efforts of the ministries of health, education, agriculture, local development and physical planning and works.

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)-organised international conference on Himalayan glaciers concluded in the capital today.

The five-day gathering, ‘Cryosphere of the Hindu Kush Himalayas’, brought scholars and practitioners from across the globe together to discuss recent research on snow, glaciers, glacial hydrology, and capacity building in cryospheric research in the Himalayan region.

The government has got a commitment of $8.3 million (around Rs 720.93 million) grant under the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

"Nepal has received a commitment of $2.7 million grant for biodiversity, $4 grant for climate change and $1.6 million grant for land degradation," chief of foreign assistance division

under the finance ministry Lal Shankar Ghimire briefed the Global Environment Facility's sixth constituency meeting of South Asia held in Maldives.

A panel formed to investigate alleged misappropriation of revenue by the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division and its 29 units submitted its report to the Directorate of Traffic Police today.

The 24-page report prepared by DSP Gopiman Shrestha based on monitoring of MTPD and its units was submitted to DoTP DIG Kedar Prasad Saud at the Nepal Police Headquarters.

The Prime Minister’s Office has formed a committee led by Chief Executive Officer of Investment Board Radhesh Panta to move ahead the work on West Seti Hydro project (750 MW).

The Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Means had earlier directed that work on West Seti be moved ahead through Investment Board rather than Ministry of Energy. Citing the month-long halt on the project, the PMO formed the committee.

At least 26 people were killed and more than 100 missing after flash floods hit a wedding party and three villages in northern Afghanistan, an official said Monday.

Most of the victims were women and children as the floods, caused by heavy rains, swept through areas of Deh Mardan district in Sari Pul province, said Fazlullah Sadat, head of the provincial disaster management authority.

“We have found 26 bodies mostly women and children — and more than 100 others are still missing,” he told AFP.

In a major boost to the 140-km long Muzaffarpur-Dha-lkebar cross border transmission line between Nepal and India, the Nepal Electricity Authority has sent its approval of the financial structure to India and agre-ed to implement soon by appointing board of directors for the company established to construct the project.

In course of a decade, Nepal and four other countries in the South-East Asia Region, namely Bhutan, DPR Korea, Thailand and Sri Lanka have brought down the number of confirmed malaria cases by more than half, WHO said in a statement issued on the occasion of the World Malaria Day, which is observed on April 25.

WHO noted that the estimated malaria incidence per 1,000 population at risk was reduced by 27 per cent from 30 in 2000 to 22 in 2010 in the region.

Census of 12-horned deer population has begun in Kanchanpur-based Suklaphanta Wild Life Conservation Area from today.

Binaja Kumar Jha, ranger at Sunklaphanta Wild Life Conservation Area, 20 technicians and five elephants have been deployed to conduct the count of the rare species.