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Indian authorities have launched an investigation into four Indian-made cough syrups that the World Health Organization (WHO) said were linked to the death of 66 children in The Gambia. Samples of all the drugs in question have been taken and sent for testing to the Regional Drugs Testing Lab in Chandigarh by India's Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), and the results are expected to guide the further course of action. "As per the tentative results received by WHO, out of the 23 samples of the products under reference which were tested, 4 samples have been found to contain Diethylene Glycol/Ethylene Glycol," said a statement issued by the Indian Health Ministry on Thursday. It has also been informed by WHO that the certificate of analysis will be made available to WHO in the near future, and WHO will share with the Indian regulator which is yet to be done. "The exact one to one causal relation of death has not yet been provided by WHO to CDSCO," the statement added. Diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol are toxic to humans when consumed and can prove fatal. Its effects include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, inability to pass urine, headache, altered mental state, and acute kidney injury which may lead to death. The Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited had manufactured and exported the four syrups, namely Promethazine Oral Solution BP, Kofexnalin Baby Cough Syrup, MaKoff Baby Cough Syrup and MaGrip n Cold Syrup, to The Gambia. The Times of India quoted a senior official of Maiden Pharmaceuticals as saying on Friday that the company did not know how it all happened. "We are still getting the information," the official said. None of these four drugs of Maiden Pharmaceuticals is sold domestically in India. Meanwhile, leading pediatricians in India are quite critical of the incident. A leading pediatrician at the government-run Ram Manohar Lohia hospital in Delhi said that the syrups are not actually required in treatment for children up to three years. "As per the set standards, these particular four syrups which were exported from India to Gambia are actually not required for treatment of respiratory related ailments among infants up to three years. They were perhaps administered to the kids in a fit of medical activism," said the pediatrician. Ritabrata Kundu, a child health specialist at Kolkata-based Institute of Child Health, said the involved syrups contained contaminated substances, adding, "The act on the part of the pharma company is highly condemnable. It is wrong usage of drugs, which are not used in syrups sold in India." Neelam Mohan, a leading pediatrician based in Gurugram, a city adjacent to New Delhi, is of the view that syrups meant for children must be used very cautiously. "I can't really comment on why these deaths have occurred till the investigations get completed. But there is definitely a concern on usage of substances like Diethylene Glycol and Ethylene Glycol in making those cough syrups, as mentioned by WHO," Mohan said. Mohan added that it was high time the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) created guidelines for public use of such products meant for children. (Xinhua)

Micro-blogging platform Twitter, over the course of last month, has been internally testing a function that would let users edit tweets, and now this feature is finally live, but with a limitation.  According to GSM Arena, users can only edit their tweets if they are subscribed to Twitter Blue. That much was known from the first time the company teased it.  However, you should also note that currently, editing tweets is only available in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The functionality will roll out to the US soon, but so far there's been no mention of it becoming available to those who don't subscribe to Twitter Blue, reported GSM Arena.  It may eventually get there, but for starters, it will be an added perk for the subscription service. Further, it's worth noting that the new feature to edit tweets has some limitations. For example, users cannot edit tweets 30 minutes after they've been published.  There's also a limit to the number of times each tweet can be edited, and Twitter will show a history of previous versions of that tweet, so people know exactly what's changed. Twitter Blue's official account shared these updates in a series of tweets.  The first one read, "test went well, Edit Tweet is now rolling out to Twitter Blue members in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand! US coming soon." "plus, a version history is available on every edited Tweet so you know what changed," read a subsequent tweet. In a third tweet, they wrote, "loving your edits, we're excited to continue expanding this test to new markets--can't wait to hear what you think!" It has definitely taken Twitter a long time to introduce this feature, one that's pretty much been a staple of a lot of other social media services, it may just be a case of 'better late than never', as per GSM Arena.  For those unfamiliar, Twitter Blue is a service offered by Twitter that unlocks exclusive features such as the ability to quickly undo a just-sent tweet and theme options within the app. The subscription service also lets users try out new features before they become available to the public, such as the new 'Edit' button. (ANI)

Tucked away in Patan, approximately a three-minute walk from the durbar square, Sanchyan Ramen Restaurant is a small and cozy place serving Japanese cuisine. Sanjay Maharjan opened the restaurant in 2018 after having lived and worked in Japan for a decade.  The restaurant has five different seating areas with a counter at the left end, with an open kitchen behind that. The counter is lined with stools and you can sit there too if you want to enjoy the view of the place as you eat. The staff are friendly and welcoming. Although small, the place has a really comforting vibe. There is a small paper mache lamp with Japanese writings on it that casts a warm glow. The food matches the wonderful ambience. One of their bestsellers is Sanchyan ramen. It comes with three pieces of pork and a boiled egg. The soup has a distinct flavor and the noodles are thin and perfectly cooked. It’s a really good bowl of ramen and we highly recommend it. Besides ramen, they also have a good variety of sushi. We would like to suggest you try California rolls which has avocados with veggies as the filling. You might not like avocados, but trust us when we say you might like this roll. The texture is just right. You won’t even taste the avocados but somehow it makes the filling an absolute delight. For drinks, there are some pretty neat Japanese alcohol options. If you would rather have a non-alcoholic beverage, try their homemade plum soda or the homemade ginger ale. Both are refreshing and taste great. The plum soda, however, is only available during summer, which is the season for plums. But the ginger ale is available all year round. What’s so good about these drinks is that they are healthy, and not something that’s found everywhere. There are also soft drinks and cocktails on the menu if you’d like to stick to your regular drinks.  After Dashain, you won’t have to go all the way to Patan to try their delicious food. They are all set to open a branch at Durbar Marg, Kathmandu. Their specials:

• Sanchyan ramen
• California rolls 
• Homemade plum soda

Amid the ongoing food insecurity in Afghanistan, the World Food Programme (WFP) is set to provide more than 15m Afghans with food assistance every month till March 2023. "Our plan for winter is to provide food assistance to more than 15m every month," said Wahidullah Amani, local media reported citing WFP Afghanistan Spokesman.  Citing the sources, Khaama Press reported that WFP has decided to provide more than 15m people in Afghanistan with food assistance straight after the US, Europe and other global partners concluded that humanitarian aid is not sufficient to solve the ongoing crisis in the war-torn nation.  Earlier, the World Food Programme stated that it would buy 80,000 tons of wheat from Ukraine to distribute to Afghanistan's needy people. However, several locals have complained of not receiving any aid, lack of transparency in international aid amid the high prices of basic amenities in the country and unemployment.  "There are economic problems such as high prices and also unemployment. I haven't received any aid," said Samsor, an Afghan local vending on the street, Khaama Press reported. "We haven't received the aid. We need aid but if the leaders pay attention to us," said Bismillah, another Kabul resident. Amid the Ukraine war, the World Food Programme has called for $1.1bn to continue delivering monthly food and nutritional assistance for the next six months to 15m acutely food-insecure people in Afghanistan.  The World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Afghanistan condemned the ongoing economic crisis in Afghanistan as people in the country are on the brink of starvation and facing poverty.  In a tweet, OCHA in Afghanistan wrote, "19 M people are facing food insecurity, 25M people are living in poverty, 5.8M people are in protracted internal displacement, thousands of houses damaged by floods and earthquakes," expressing concerns about the plight of Afghans, TOLOnews reported. "To survive the winter, they require food, nutrition support, warm clothing & a roof over their heads," tweeted OCHA. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme has also raised concerns about the economic crisis in Afghanistan.  "The economic crisis wiped out jobs, salaries & livelihoods across Afghanistan, helping families & communities support themselves is more important than ever," wrote WFP on Twitter. The rising crisis in Afghanistan has hit small enterprises the hardest and private companies have laid off more than half of their employees due to a shortage in sales and a drastic decline in the consumer demand for products. (ANI)

Nepal’s economy has emerged strongly from the pandemic with GDP estimated to have grown by 5.8 percent in the fiscal year 2022, up from 4.2 percent in 2021, a new World Bank Report has said.

Growth was driven by industry and services benefiting from post-pandemic demand and generous financing conditions. Agricultural growth, by contrast, slowed due to unseasonal rains, according to South Asia Economic Focus 2022.

 According to the report, average consumer inflation rose from 3.6 percent in 2022 to 6.3 percent in 2022, including price increases in transportation, education, and housing. Inflation has been broad-based, and the rising cost of basic necessities negatively impacts the poor and vulnerable.

The rapid increase in domestic demand, coupled with rising prices for imported goods, fueled imports early in 2022. By contrast, remittances - Nepal’s largest source of foreign exchange earnings – did not begin growing again until late 2022 and have remained below 2021 levels as a percentage of GDP, the report reads.

Remittances are an important income for households and impact welfare across the distribution. As a result, the current account deficit (CAD) widened to 12.8 percent of GDP in FY22, which Nepal opted to finance through concessional borrowing, trade credits, and a drawdown in reserves which declined from USD 11.8 billion in mid-July 2021 to USD 9.5 billion in mid-July 2022, equivalent to 6.9 months of import cover.

Growth estimates for the South Asia region comprising India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives — were revised down to 5.8 per cent from 6.8 per cent forecast in June.

After facing heavy losses, Nepal Airlines has decided to sell five of its Chinese-made aircraft as nobody wants to lease them. The aircraft spent more time on the ground than in the air, and they were becoming a financial burden on the debt-ridden national flag carrier.  Eight years after acquiring a batch of Chinese planes it had hoped to fly on underserved mountain routes, Nepal Airlines finally decided that it didn't want the albatross around its neck anymore after the direction of the Ministry of Finance.  In 2012, the corporation advanced the purchase agreement of four Y12E (Y12E) and two MA60 (MA60) aircraft from China. One of these planes is now in a state of non-operation after the accident, while the remaining five are sitting idle in the parking lot of Tribhuvan International Airport. Besides maintenance issues and lack of spare parts, Nepal Airlines couldn't find pilots to fly the aircraft, and there was no sense in keeping them anymore. The deadline for the bids set by Nepal Airlines is October 31. Some top Nepal Airlines officials say they do not expect to see potential lessees. It is said that the Ministry of Finance has instructed the corporation to prepare to sell the aircraft to anyone who wants it after not even leasing it from this call, reported hamrakura.com. After purchasing the Chinese aircraft, it became a headache for the first batch that entered in 2014.  Now, as the losses continue to increase, the situation has arisen that these aircraft have to be sold at a loss price. In November 2012, state flag-carrier Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) signed a commercial agreement with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), a Chinese Government undertaking to procure the aircraft. China at the time had provided the grant and concessional loan assistance of 408m Chinese Yuan, equivalent to Rs 6.67bn.  Out of the total aid money, a grant worth 180m yuan (Rs 2.94bn) went to pay for one MA60 and one Y12e aircraft. The other aircraft were bought for 228m yuan (Rs 3.72bn) with a soft loan provided by China's EXIM Bank.  Soon after their arrival, the NAC board then realized that aircraft cost more to operate than to purchase and bring to Nepal. In July 2020, the NAC board decided to stop the operation of aircraft and since they have been kept at the Tribhuvan International Airport. Though the planes are out of service due to high-cost operationalization and being unfit to fly, the Ministry of Finance has started paying back the interest on the loans for the planes. (ANI)

The Royal Swedish Academy on Friday jointly awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize to human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian human rights organization Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties.  "BREAKING NEWS: The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2022 #NobelPeacePrize to human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian human rights organization Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties," the official Twitter handle of the Nobel Prize said. "The #NobelPeacePrize laureates represent civil society in their home countries. They have for many years promoted the right to criticize power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens," the tweet added.  The organizations have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human right abuses and the abuse of power. Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy. The Russian human rights organization Memorial was established in 1987 by human rights activists in the former Soviet Union who wanted to ensure that the victims of the communist regime's oppression would never be forgotten.  "Memorial is based on the notion that confronting past crimes is essential in preventing new ones. The organization has also been standing at the forefront of efforts to combat militarism and promote human rights and government based on rule of law," the Academy said in a tweet. The Center for Civil Liberties, another awardee of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, was founded for the purpose of advancing human rights and democracy in Ukraine. It has taken a stand to strengthen Ukrainian civil society and pressure the authorities to make Ukraine a full-fledged democracy. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the center has engaged in efforts to identify and document Russian war crimes against the Ukrainian population.  The center is playing a pioneering role in holding guilty parties accountable for their crimes. Last year, journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.  The 2021 peace prize laureates are representative of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions. Dmitry Muratov, a Russian journalist and the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize and has for decades defended freedom of speech in Russia under increasingly challenging conditions. In 1993, he was one of the founders of the independent newspaper Novaja Gazeta. Maria Ressa, co-founder and CEO of the Philippines-based news website Rappler. She uses freedom of expression to expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country, the Philippines. (ANI)

The UN Human Rights Council's vote against a US-led draft decision on Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region showed that the international community would not be easily misled despite pressure from the US and some other Western countries, said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson in a late statement on Thursday, Global Times reported. The international community is clearly aware that the ultimate motive of the US and some other Western countries behind their Xinjiang narrative is to contain China and does not like this pattern of using human rights as a pretext to meddle in other countries' internal affairs, said the spokesperson. The remarks came after the 51st session of the Human Rights Council on Thursday voted down a draft decision on Xinjiang region, which was pushed by the US and some other Western allies. Despite pressure from the US and its allies, the draft decision ended up unsupported by the majority of the Human Rights Council membership, especially many members from the developing world. The agenda has again failed to gain international support, said the spokesperson. The issues related to Xinjiang are not about human rights. They are about countering violent terrorism, radicalization and separatism. Thanks to strenuous efforts, there has been no violent terrorist incident in Xinjiang for over five consecutive years. The human rights of people of all ethnic backgrounds in Xinjiang are protected like never before, the foreign ministry spokesperson said. "For some time now, the US and some other Western countries have been misinforming the public about Xinjiang region and seeking political manipulation in the name of human rights simply to smear China's image and contain China's development," said the spokesperson. The spokesperson stressed that these countries have ignored facts and truths about Xinjiang region, noting that in recent years, nearly 100 countries, including many Islamic countries, have spoken out openly in support of China's just position on issues related to Xinjiang and have expressed opposition toward using these issues to interfere in China's internal affairs. The issues that the Human Rights Council truly needs to focus on are the serious human rights violations concerning the US, the UK and some Western forces, including systemic racism and racial discrimination, the rights of refugees and migrants and rampant gun violence, said the spokesperson, according to Global Times. China urged the US and other Western forces to abandon political manipulation, disinformation and suppression, return to the track of dialogue and cooperation, and make real contributions to the global advancement of human rights.