NEPAL’S RULING PARTY MERGES INTO SUPER BLOC WITH MAOISTS

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s ruling party has merged with a former Maoist rebel group to form a super bloc that experts say will reshape politics after years of turbulence in the Himalayan nation. Officials said on Tuesday the new alliance, the Nepal Communist Party, was formally signed into agreement following late-night negotiations between the two sides on Monday. They forged a political alliance to trounce the incumbent party in last year’s landmark general elections, but this formal merger creates a political behemoth unprecedented in Nepali politics. The new alliance commands a large majority in both houses of parliament, and comes just days after Communist leader K. P. Sharma Oli was sworn in as Prime Minister. Oli’s main Communist party and the Maoists heavily defeated the incumbent Nepali Congress party in polls last year billed as the final step in a post- war transformation to a federal republic. The Maoists, who fought government forces in a bitter civil war that claimed more than 16,000 lives and overthrew Nepal’s 240- year- old Hindu monarchy, dominated politics for more than two decades. The decade- long conflict ended in a 2006 peace deal that saw guerrilla leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal become Nepal’s first post- war prime minister.

POLISH LOGGING IN ANCIENT FOREST BREACHES EU LAW – COURT ADVISOR

LUXEMBOURG: Poland’s rightwing government breached EU law by allowing logging in one of Europe’s last primeval forests, the legal advisor to the bloc’s top court said on Tuesday, setting up a new clash between Brussels and Warsaw. Logging in the Bialowieza Forest began in May 2016 but the European Commission took Poland to court last year arguing that it was destroying a forest that boasts unique plant and animal life. Yves Bot, advocate general to the European Court of Justice, said the decisions by the Polish government to allow logging in forest “infringe EU law,” and that Warsaw has “failed to fulfill its obligations” under the bloc’s environment rules. The logging was “liable to result in a deterioration of the breeding sites of protected species.” The Luxembourg-based EU court often, but not always, follows the legal opinions of the advocate general when making its final decision. Its ruling is expected at a later date. Bialowieza includes one of the largest surviving parts of the primeval forest that covered the European plain 10,000 years ago. The vast woodland, which straddles the border with Belarus, is home to 800 European bison, the continent’s largest mammal.