, Jan 2 : Senior Maoist leader Mohan Baidya today said that his party will not unify with any other party at the cost of ''Prachanda Path'', which has been the party''s guiding ideology for the past few years.

Baidya clarified that his party cannot do without Prachanda Path, which follows the nick name of party Chairman and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ''Prachanda'', but hinted that the Maoists could confer with other parties to further enhance the party''s guiding ideology.

Baidya''s statement comes a day after the CPN-Unity Centre (Masal) decided to unify with the CPN-Maoist.

Kathmandu  - Nepal's tourism industry recorded strong growth in 2008, making it the most successful year for the industry in eight years, tourism officials said Friday.

The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) said preliminary figures for the year showed total tourist arrivals for 2008 were around 550,000, but added that full report was still being prepared.

"The total number of tourists arriving by air in 2008 was 4 per cent higher than in 2007," the NTB said. "374,661 visitors arrived in Nepal through Kathmandu airport, the highest since 2000."

Tourism authorities said the figure does not include those arriving in Nepal overland from Tibet and India.

Kathmandu  - An investigation into air crash near Mount Everest in October blamed pilot error for the accident, a government report said Thursday.

The crash at Lukla airport, about 175 kilometres north-east of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, on October 4, 2007, killed 18 people, including 12 Germans, two Australians and four Nepalese nationals. The only survivor was the plane's captain.

A report submitted to the government said the primary cause of the accident of the Yeti Airlines Twin Otter aircraft was misjudgment by the pilots while landing at the airport.

Kathmandu, Dec 27 : The Ministry of Defense has asked the Nepal Army (NA) to stop the recruitment process.

According to Nepalnews, the Ministry wrote a letter to army headquarters on Wednesday ordering it to suspend the process.

On Friday, army chief General Rookmangud Katawal met Prime Minister Prachanda to tell him that the Nepali Army was merely filling the positions that had become vacant and had not violated the agreements by doing so.

He had said that it would be difficult to stop the process midway.

Kathmandu  - At least one person was wounded when a bomb exploded near Kathmandu's airport, police said Saturday.

The blast occurred Saturday morning near a police check post, just half a kilometre away from the terminal building of Tribhuvan International Airport.

"A woman standing near the police check post was wounded by shrapnel from the blast," Kathmandu district police office said. "We have detained two people on suspicion of involvement."

Police said there had been no claims of responsibility, and were investigating the incident.

Kathmandu, Dec 26 : The CPN (Maoist) and the CPN-UML has agreed to enter into a new understanding with the Nepali Congress (NC) so as to take the peace process to a logical conclusion.

During a meeting between top leaders of the parties here on Thursday, Chairman of the Maoist party and Prime Minister Prachanda said that the major parties must forge consensus afresh since the 12-point agreement of November2005 cannot be the basis for a way forward in the political context arising after the Constituent Assembly elections.