INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Nepal has shut schools for three days after landslides and floods triggered by two days of heavy rain across the Himalayan nation killed 151
people, with 56 missing, officials said on Sunday.The floods brought traffic and normal activity to a standstill in the Kathmandu valley,
where 37 deaths were recorded in a region home to 4 million people and the capital.Authorities said students and their parents faced
reported rain of up to 322.2 mm (12.7 inches), pushing the level of its main Bagmati river up 2.2 m (7 ft) past the danger mark, experts
said.But there were some signs of respite on Sunday morning, with the rains easing in many places, said Govinda Jha, a weather forecaster in
knee-high rubber boots using picks and shovels to clear away mud and retrieve 16 bodies of passengers from two buses swept away by a massive
landslide at a site on the key route into Kathmandu.Weather officials in the capital blamed the rainstorms on a low-pressure system in the
Bay of Bengal extending over parts of neighbouring India close to Nepal.Haphazard development amplifies climate change risks in Nepal, say
settlement and urbanisation efforts, construction on floodplains, lack of areas for water retention, and encroachment on the Bagmati river,
at a level nearly three times normal, he said.(Reuters)--Agencies
