Prachanda to Meet with Cuban VP, Visit Karl Marx's birthplace.

From KantipurOnline.

http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?nid=161302

PM Dahal to visit Marx’s birthplace
Kantipur Report
KATHMANDU, Sept 21 - During his 28-hour stopover in Germany en route to New York, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal will take a two-and-half-hour drive to Traier to visit the birthplace of Karl Marx, whose writings have inspired communist revolutions all over the world, officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The house where Marx was born in 1818 was turned into the Museum-Karl-Marx-Haus in 1947 by Germany's Social Democratic Party.
The museum houses a study centre with 80,000 volumes including the works of Marx and the spectrum of his reading, the history of socialism, the history of the socialist and workers' movement as well as the social and economic history of the 19th century.
"The exhibition in the Museum-Karl-Marx-Haus will inform you: about the person Karl Marx, his life, his work, his allies and his adversaries," according to the website of the museum. "Account is also given, for the first time, of the history of his influence which extends from the end of the nineteenth century up to present, thus
encompassing the entire panorama of the twentieth century."
While in Frankfurt he will also release a book in German whose title translates in English as Revolution in Nepal, one of the officials accompanying the prime minister said.
In New York Prime Minister Kamal Dahal is scheduled to meet four presidents, one vice president, two heads of government and representatives of the US and Russia, according to the program made public by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Besides attending a dinner and tea reception hosted by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Dahal will also have a meeting with him the day before he leaves New York.
He will attend a reception hosted by US President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.
Foreign ministry sources say that there is no separate meeting scheduled with Bush.
"Bush only meets very important world leaders during the General Assembly," a Ministry of Foreign Affairs source said.
Ex-king Gyanendra had made preparations to attend the UN General Assembly in 2005 after he took over executive powers, but decided not to go after he was not invited by Bush for the reception traditionally hosted for world leaders on the eve of the General Assembly.
The presidents Dahal is scheduled meet are the Sri Lankan, Swiss, Turkish and Serbian presidents. He will meet the Cuban vice president and the heads of government of Bnagladesh and Mongolia.
"The Turkish president requested a meeting with our prime minister and we could not refuse," said a source. "There was also a request from Cuba for a meeting with its vice president."
The meeting with the Swiss president was mutually arranged, he said.
Dahal will also meet Minister for International Development of Norway Erik Solheim and US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Richard Boucher. Both are frequent visitors to Nepal. While Solheim was here the day Dahal was sworn in as prime minister, Boucher last visited here in 2006.
The Russian foreign minister, who is leading his country's delegation to the UN General Assembly, will also meet the Nepali prime minister.
Dahal is also scheduled to give a talk at the India China Institute of the New School University on the topic "A Maoist Vision for New Nepal" and a talk at the Asia Society titled "A New Nepal: Challenges for Enduring Peace and Democracy".
While Kul Chandra Gautam, former assistant secretary general of the United Nations will moderate the former, Tamrat Samuel, former deputy special representative of the UN Secretary-General to UNMIN, will moderate the latter.
He is also scheduled to participate in a BBC world debate on the Millennium Development Goals and give an interview to CNN.
In between he will go on a half-day tour of the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre were located, and the financial capital of the world, according to the published programme for the New York visit.
No programmes are scheduled for the prime minister for September 28 when he will leave New York in the evening.