Kathmandu, Dec 30 (ANI): Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda has said there's been too much of political interference in the education sector and that he wants this sector to remain completely independent.

Prachanda made this remark at the annual assembly of the Tribhuvan University, which had been suspended for three consecutive years due to pressure from his party's student wing, the All Nepal National Independent Students Union- Revolutionary (ANNISU-R), demanding its representation in the assembly.

"Political interference in education sector has caused great harm to the nation," he said.

He said the new education policy should aim at ending the vestiges of feudalism and the current government is committed to make education scientific and vocational, Nepalnews reported. (ANI)

Kathmandu, Dec 30 (ANI): A high level Nepal Government official has said that the ongoing global financial crisis has not yet affected the employment of Nepali youths abroad.

While speaking at an interaction program on "Global Financial Crisis and Its Impact on Foreign Employment" Krishna Hai Baskota, revenue secretary at the Ministry of Finance, said," The layoffs in the job destinations had been limited to highly paid employees and workers in the lower rungs were untouched.

"As Nepali migrant workers fall under the second category, it is unlikely that they will lose their jobs en masse," he added

He said that the government was watching the developments in the world economy very closely so that it could take appropriate and timely measures.

" There was no need for panic as the crisis was yet to be felt in Nepal," he added

However, former chairman of Security Board of Nepal Dr Chiranjivi Nepal said that as Malaysia and the Gulf countries have started to feel the heat of the global financial crisis, they are laying off unskilled workers like Nepalis.

According to Nepalnews, Tilak Bahadur Ranabhat, president of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA) urged the government to come up with concrete packages to help the remittance business that contributes around 17.4 percent to the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). (ANI)

New Delhi, Dec 30 (ANI): A jealous husband who suspected his wife was having an affair cut off her ears and severed her Achilles tendon in a revenge attack.

The Chinese man, surnamed Yang, and his wife Kan have been married for 16 years and had been living in a rented house in the village of Heiqiao, Chaoyang district, Beijing.

Yang tied his wives hands and feet with wire when she was asleep cut off her ears with a knife then severed her Achilles tendon with a pair of scissors, reports China Daily.

"He had accused me of not being loyal to him and had made me sleep on the sofa for the past few days," Kan told Beijing News.

The couple are migrant workers from Sichuan province and has two sons with he youngest one being 7-year-old.

He was living with the couple in Beijing but his father sent him back to Sichuan on Dec 15.

"He must have been considering hurting me, so he sent our son away," said Kan.

"The woman's ears have been stitched together and her condition is not life threatening," said a nurse at Huaxin Hospital, where Kan was taken after the attack.

"Her left Achilles tendon was severed and she may need plastic surgery in the future. She is clearly distressed and has been very quiet," she added.

Yang's brother said: "I tried to persuade him to confess his crime but he turned off the phone." (ANI)

Washington, Dec.30 (ANI): US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has hailed the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American president as a key moment in history.

Republican Ms Rice, the first African-American female to be Secretary of State, was quoted by the New York Daily News as saying: "I think all Americans were quite taken with the fact that we were able, after the long history we've been through, that initial birth defect of slavery, that we've elected an African-American".

In an interview for CBS' Sunday Morning programme, Rice said that was "enormously heartening for people in the country, but also people worldwide who still have trouble with differences".

Rice, brought up in segregated Alabama, warned that the US still had problems with race. "But I do think we've gotten to the place that we don't see a person and say, 'That's a black person, therefore they must be ...'. And that's an enormous step forward."

Rice, who was George Bush's national security adviser when the US invaded Iraq and then became secretary of state in Bush's second term, said the opportunities available in the US still drew people from around the world.

"But what really draws people to this country is that anybody can come here and go from modest circumstances to extraordinary achievement," she said.

"We're not united by religion. You can be African-American or Mexican-American or Korean-American, and still be American. You can be Jewish or Presbyterian or Muslim or nothing at all, and still be American," she added.

Rice said she planned to write at least two books when she returned to Stanford University in Palo Alto, California - one about foreign policy and one about her parents. She was a professor of political science at Stanford before joining the Bush White House.

Rice said she was not ready to think about how history would judge her as secretary of state.

"The legacy will be for historians years down the road. But what I will remember most is that I think we stood for freedom and liberty for everybody, not just for a few," she said. (ANI)