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Nigerian police say a man who had a row with a Muslim cleric died in the capital, Abuja, after being set ablaze by a mob supporting the cleric, BBC reported

The 30-year-old man, Ahmad Usman, was in a local vigilante group and police say about 200 people were mobilised against him.

There are no details yet about the row.

Last month, a Christian female student was beaten to death and set on fire by Muslim students who accused her of blasphemy in the city of Sokoto.

The Abuja victim was described by police as "a member of the local vigilante around Tipper garage at Federal Housing Estate in Lugbe Area".

Police found him at the scene with severe burns and took him to hospital, but he died of his injuries.

BBC Abuja reporter Chris Ewokor says there appears to be a rise in mob violence in Nigeria. 

Two weeks ago, at least five people were killed in violent clashes between commercial motorbike operators and traders in a suburb of Abuja. 

A few days earlier, mob violence led to the death of a 38-year-old sound engineer in the country's commercial hub, Lagos, according to BBC.

Human rights campaigners say the frequent cases of mob violence are fuelled by deep-rooted impunity and a lack of confidence in the criminal justice system.

At least five people were killed and scores injured in an explosion at a depot in a south-eastern town in Bangladesh, officials say, BBC reported.

The explosion happened after firefighters were called to put out a fire at a container storage facility in the town of Sitakunda.

Twenty of the injured are in critical condition with burns covering 60% to 90% of their bodies, a doctor at a hospital treating the injured told AFP.

The cause of the fire remains unknown.

Some of the containers at the depot are believed to have stored chemicals, local media report.

The blast reportedly shattered the windows of several buildings nearby and was felt from areas as far as 4km (2.4 miles) away, according to local news outlet Prothomalo.

The town is only 40km (25 miles) from the country's second-largest city, Chittagong, and one of the city's hospitals has been inundated with victims. The injured include depot workers as well as fire-fighters and police, according to local media, according to BBC.

Several hours after the blast, fire-fighters were still attempting to extinguish the fire on Sunday morning.

About 600 people worked at the depot, the facility's director, Mujibur Rahman, told AFP.

Fires are common in Bangladesh. Last year, at least 39 people were killed after a ferry caught fire in the south of the country. And earlier that same year, at least 52 people died in a factory fire in Rupganj near the capital, Dhaka.

Three workers were also killed in 2020 after an oil tank exploded in another container storage depot in Patenga, not far from Chittagong, BBC reported.

Are the gunmen involved in Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala’s murder hiding in Nepal? Investigation into the deadly shooting has led a team of the Delhi Police’s Special Cell to the neighbouring country, sources said, India Today reported.

Based on specific intelligence inputs, the police team reached Nepal on Friday to nab the assailants believed to have fled to the Himalayan nation after the attack on Moose Wala at Jawaharke village in Punjab’s Mansa district on Sunday.

The development comes hours after news emerged that the Punjab Police detained two men in connection with Moose Wala’s murder. The two suspects were apprehended in Bhirdana village in Fatehabad for allegedly providing the Bolero car which was used in the shootout.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Punjab Police made their first arrest in the case, two days after the singer-politician was shot dead in his own jeep. Police said accused Manpreet Singh supplied vehicles to the assailants who were involved in the killing of Moose Wala. Singh was produced before a court the same day, and sent to a five-day police custody, according to India Today.

With Moose Wala’s murder suspected to be the fallout of an inter-gang rivalry, Delhi Police's Special Cell got three-day custody of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. During questioning, he admitted that his gang members, including Canada-based Goldy Brar, hatched a conspiracy to kill the Punjabi singer.

In a Facebook post, Goldy Brar had claimed responsibility for Moose Wala’s murder. He said he had killed Moose Wala to avenge the death of gangster Vicky Middukhera.

Gangster Kala Jathedi and his aide Kala Rana, who were in police custody in a different case, were also questioned in connection with the Moose Wala’s murder.

Unidentified gunmen had ambushed Moose Wala in Jawarharke village in Mansa and opened fire at the Thar he was travelling in, mere days after the singer-politician's security cover was revoked by the Punjab government.

Moose Wala had sustained 19 bullet wounds in the attack and died within 15 minutes of being shot, his autopsy report stated. He was cremated at his native Moosa village in Mansa on Tuesday, India Today reported.

Indraprastha Apollo Hospital New Delhi organized an interaction program in Kathmandu to inform the Nepali mass about the complexities of lung and heart disease.

 Senior doctors MS Kanwar, Vanita Arora, and Mukesh Goel briefed journalists about the advanced treatment modalities available in the hospital. They provided details about the lung and heart transplant services of the hospital.  

Speaking at the interaction, Dr. Kanwar said: “The lung transplant is not just a surgery but a process starting with extensive pre-lung transplant work up and optimal stabilization of the patients of end-stage various diseases.” He said many international patients from other countries are currently under our treatment at Apollo hospital or waiting to be stabilized and transferred for the lung transplant.

Dr. Arora said that in patients with reduced heart function, the cause of high mortality is either heart pump failure or sudden cardiac arrest. She said, “After careful screening patients can be saved by implanting Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy device or automatic implantable defibrillator device.”

Dr. Goel said living with chronic lung failure is very painful and taxing for the patient and family. “Lung transplant as a treatment modality can improve the quality of life for a patient suffering from end-stage of lung disease.”  

In the interaction program, they informed about the tentative cost, procedures, and other aspects of lung and heart transplants in New Delhi. They underlined the need of creating awareness in Nepali society about the transplant. There is not much awareness in Nepal about the lungs and heart transplants. 

A group of civil society leaders has objected to the political criticism and comments on the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the Nijgadh International Airport.

Issuing a statement on Friday, former lawmaker Damannath Dhungana, former Chief Justice Anup Raj Sharma, former Justice Bal Ram KC among eight leaders termed the directive issued by the International Relations Committee to the government as an interference in the jurisdiction of the court.

Earlier on May 30, the Committee had directed the government to start the construction of the Nijgadh International Airport at the earliest saying that the verdict of the Supreme Court does not seem practical from any point of view.

They said that the directive curtailed the rights of the judiciary to deliver justice.

The leaders have also said that the directive issued by the Committee to the government was against the rules of the House of Representatives.

The other civil society leaders who issued the statement were Charan Prasain, Kanakmani Dixit, Taranath Dahal, Gita Pathak and Raju Prasad Chapagain.

The government has presented a Rs 1.79 trillion budget for the fiscal year 2022-23. Critics say the allocation is bloated, given the country’s precarious economic situation. The ‘populist’ budget has been bought with the one and only intent of pleasing prospective voters, they argue. Is that really the case? ApEx talked to Achyut Wagle, professor of economics at Kathmandu University School of Management. 

What are the positive points of this year’s budget?

The budget is not very ambitious and is largely a ritualistic continuum of the past. It has expanded by less than nine percent from the last fiscal year. The idea of handing over small infrastructure projects to provincial and local levels is in conformity with the spirit of federalism. Its focus, at least in principle, on increasing productivity, particularly in agriculture, is welcome. The scheme to gradually replace cooking gas stoves with electric induction stoves with the objective of increasing the consumption of domestically-produced hydroelectric power is also a welcome proposition. Farmers’ pension scheme and setting up of a separate fund to increase farmers’ access to agricultural loans, if implemented, can help make agriculture more attractive. Incentives for tourism and export promotions were also desirable. ‘Make in Nepal’ and ‘Made in Nepal’ certainly create some branding vibe and opportunity for Nepali products.

When then are its biggest downsides?

The budget certainly has missed the bull’s eye. In 10 and half months of the current fiscal year, only 33 percent of the capital allocation has been spent. Such a trend is also observed in provincial and local governments. This exhibits Nepal’s serious capacity constraint in resource absorption. This has multiple ramifications. The shortage of loanable funds in banks is a major concern. Infrastructure and development activities naturally get curtailed as a result. This, in turn, affects the overall economy. The budget lacks convincing programs to enhance productivity and create enough jobs. On the front of agricultural productivity, lack of availability of cultivable land for commercial scale agriculture has been a big concern that this budget seems to completely ignore. Incentives, subsidies and rewards will be meaningful if there is production. The budget also has failed miserably to take subnational governments on-board in key programs related to boosting trade and productivity.

There is also a criticism that this budget is populist and election-centered. 

In multiparty competitive politics, it is natural for incumbent forces to make all possible effort to woo voters through populist elements in the budget. This government of five-party coalition is no exception. Extended social security schemes and extensive pork-barrel approach in allocation certainly indicate that. 

But this will certainly put pressure on the exchequer as it is an unsustainably deficit budget. The proposed deficit financing of over 30 percent in an allocation of Rs 1.79 trillion is unsustainable, and financing unproductive populist schemes by borrowing is absolutely undesirable. The national debt has already crossed the 38 percent mark of the revised GDP of Rs 4.85 trillion.

Will this budget help overcome the current economic crisis?

This is the saddest part of this budget. Nepali economy is heading towards a crisis primarily for three reasons. The first is the growing trade deficit that needs to be bridged entirely in foreign currency. Real exports are small due to limited value addition on input-imports. The major source of forex is workers’ remittance, which is always volatile. Our big trade deficit is also an indication of import-dependence even for survival. The budget has failed to take up and address these entangled issues. 

The second issue is the dismal state of capital expenditure. A thorough review of the problems and commitment of structural and legal reforms, for instance in facilitating transparent and timely public procurements including at the local government levels, is missing. 

Lastly, the country faces a crisis in fiscal governance at every level of government. This has given rise to pervasive corruption, irregularities and, the most alarmingly, impunity for financial crimes. 

This budget has deliberately missed these key aspects, which could result in further inefficiency and exacerbate the crisis.

What are the budget’s implementation challenges?

The revenue target may not be achieved without serious reforms in revenue administration. As Nepal’s main revenue source is customs duty, it is vital to break the politician-business-bureaucrat nexus to check under-invoicing of imported goods. But this will happen only with strong political will. 

Sourcing international funds to the tune of around Rs 300 billion (in loans and grants) is definitely daunting. Development partners are unlikely to commit new support until parliamentary elections are over. 

The ‘swadeshi’ sloganeering might just turn out to be a fiasco, as it lacks a mechanism of investment in the productive sector. Viable products for the scheme that have both scope and scale have not been identified; moreover, the possible backward linkage to Nepali products is not even duly thought about. 

Labeling the products that don’t even have 20 percent value addition as ‘swadeshi’ is a mockery of the branding endeavor.

Press Council of Nepal (PCN) has taken a series of fresh measures to implement the journalistic code of conduct.

“Implementation of ethics has become a more challenging job with the emergence of digital technology-dominated media platforms. So these measures are aimed at promoting professional, independent, and healthy journalism,” says PCN Chairperson Balkrishna Basnet.

The council recently held a code of conduct orientation for journalists on the importance of ethics. It plans to run classes on the journalistic code of conduct if any journalists are found to be violating their professional ethics.

According to Basnet, it is not just online media platforms that are breaching journalistic ethics.
“Even some established mainstream media have failed to enforce the code of conduct for journalists,” he adds.

PCN is presently offering training to the owners, editors, and journalists of new online platforms since many people are entering the media field with little or no idea of their professional responsibility. The council is also taking measures to prevent the registration of online news platforms whose names closely resemble already established news sites.  

Besides, it is also monitoring YouTube channels that call themselves purveyors of news, events, and analysis but in reality, broadcasting misinformation and provocative content to increase their viewership.  

“There are many YouTube channels that give their viewers an impression of being a legitimate news outlet. But the truth is they are acting with impunity and no one to regulate or monitor them,” Basnet says. ‘We are trying our best to bring them under the framework of proper journalism if that is what they plan to do with their channels.”  

The council has formed a panel to recommend ways to regulate the mushrooming online news media platforms.

To make the journalistic code of conduct more accessible, PNC has made the document available in languages including Doteli, Nepal Bhasha, Bhojpuri, and Maithili.

Adherence to the journalistic code of conduct, Basnet says, is vital to not just for the credibility of the concerned media, but also for promoting fact-based news stories.

“A trustworthy media is vital for society. Right now, there are several shortcomings in the Nepali media industry. We have to work together to fix them,” says Basnet.

Finance Minister Janardan Sharma said that the budget presented for the next fiscal year 2022/23 is not ambitious.

Reponding to the questions raised by the lawmakers on the budget in the Parliament, Minister Sharma said that the budget is not ambitious but based on reality.

"The budget sees the private sector as the engine of economic growth," he said, adding, "The budget has stressed on agricultural production."

He further said that the budget has given top priority to domestic production. 

Minister Sharma went on to say that the budget is trying to resolve the problems by increasing the production.