World Teachers' Day today

THT ONLINE

KATHMANDU: The United Nations based in Nepal on Friday has highlighted the roles of teachers on the occasion of World Teachers' Day.

Issuing a press release today, the UN-Nepal has said, "The teachers have a central role in shaping children's lives. They are essential for the cultural, social, economic and intellectual development of the country. They are vital change agents in Nepal's transformational process."

In the massage issued today, the UN has stressed for three requisites in a teacher: proper training, professionalism and teachers' rights.

The UN-Nepal has also called for adequate investment in the national policies, programmes for teachers' training, recruitment, and incentives to encourage them to remain in their posts and enhance their professional skills.

Oil posts biggest gain in 2 months‚ tops $91

ASSOCIATED PRESS

DAMASCUS: Tensions between Syria and Turkey gave oil prices their biggest jump in two months Thursday, while refinery outages boosted wholesale gasoline prices.

Oil settled at $91.71 per barrel, up by $3.57, or 4 percent, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The rise follows a decline of 4 percent on Wednesday.

Oil prices rose after Turkey's military fired on targets in Syria for the second day. The Middle East and North Africa account for about a third of global oil production. Any tension in the region makes traders nervous about a disruption to supplies.

The energy market is also sensitive to any unplanned outages at a major U.S. refinery with gasoline supplies down about 8 percent from year-ago levels. Exxon Mobil Corp. reported a fire late Wednesday at its Baytown, Texas complex. On Thursday the company said there will be some impact on production, although it expects to "meet its contractual agreements."

Tunisia seeks death penalty over anti-US attacks

ASSOCIATED PRESS

TUNIS: Tunisian authorities are seeking the death penalty against several suspects who have been detained over attacks on the U.S. Embassy and the neighboring American school last month, defense lawyers said Thursday.

Anouar Ouled Ali and Mondher Charni said an unspecified number of the 87 people now held in custody risk capital punishment on charges including attacks against state security. The Sept. 14 violence came amid roiling protests across the Muslim world over a private U.S.-produced film that mocked the Prophet Muhammad.

Several thousand demonstrators stormed the U.S. Embassy compound, tore down the American flag and looted and burned buildings. Police responded with gunshots and tear gas. Four demonstrators died and scores of people were injured, including security forces.

Tunisia's governing moderate Islamist party condemned the attacks on the U.S. sites.

Separately, the Tunisian government extended for an eighth time a state of emergency put in place in January 2011 amid a popular uprising that forced longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from power, the official news agency TAP reported Thursday.

President Moncef Marzouki extended the state of emergency for one month, despite a "notable improvement in the general security situation" in the country, TAP said.

18 students die after landslide hits China school

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIJING: Officials say all 18 elementary school students buried in a landslide in a mountainous part of southwestern China are dead, while one other person is missing.

The Yiliang county government said on its website that the children were declared dead early Friday about 18 hours after the landslide smothered the school and three farmhouses. It says the missing person was in one of the farmhouses when the landslide struck after 8 a.m. Thursday.

The government says the landslide blocked a river, and its water pooled around the buried buildings, hampering rescue efforts.

Officials have yet to give a cause for the landslide but the area has been lashed by rain and is prone to earthquakes. A series of quakes last month left 81 people dead.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

A landslide toppled an elementary school building in a mountainous area of southwestern China on Thursday, killing at

Govt promotes controversial Col Raju Basnet

TIKA R PRADHAN

KATHMANDU: The government today promoted Col Raju Basnet, one of the most controversial army officers facing allegations of dozens of cases of human rights violations including enforced disappearances and torture during the time of conflict, as brigadier general.

The earlier attempts to promote Basnet had failed after immense pressure from National Human Rights Commission and international rights bodies.

The government move today is sure to draw fire from several quarters and international human rights watchdog. Rights bodies have long been calling for an independent investigation into the allegations that Basnet, as the commander of the Bhairavnath Battalion in 2003, was involved in meting out torture to Maoists and subsequently their systematic disappearance.

An investigation by the NHRC and one by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had concluded that the then Lt Col Basnet had played a leading role in torturing and disappearing at least a dozen Maoist cadres from the