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The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE), the sole secondary market of the country, increased by 5.29 points to reach 2222. 49 points in the pre-open session on Wednesday.

Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 1. 54 points.

As many as 957 shares of 11 companies were traded at Rs 440, 000.

Two persons including a policeman died after commuter bus hit a motorbike they were on in Jhapa on Wednesday.

DSP Basanta Pathak of the District Police Office, Jhapa said that the duo died on the spot when the bus (Province 1-02040 Pa 7149) hit the two-wheeler (Ko 1 Kha 7287) this morning.

The deceased have been identified as Prakash Rai (26) of Pathari Sanischare-8 of Morang and Jituhang Rai (26) of Shadananda, Bhojpur.

Prakash was a constable stationed at the District Police Office and Jituhang was a temporary policeman.

Police said that they have impounded the bus and arrested its driver for investigation.

Sri Lanka has decided to seek fresh assistance of $500 million from India to augment its fuel imports, as the island reels under a crippling economic crisis manifesting in persisting shortages of essentials, The Hindu reported.

For weeks now, citizens are spending long hours lining up outside fuel stations — at times all day or night — to pump petrol or diesel, currently in short supply, as crisis-hit Sri Lanka runs out of dollars to pay for imports.

Public transport has been stalled due to the unavailability of fuel, businesses have been hit, and schools were forced to remain closed as students are unable to commute. Over the last few days, Sri Lankan social media saw many accounts of families being unable to access emergency medical care due to the lack of fuel. The government has asked “non-essential” staff to work from home, to save on fuel consumption.

“The Cabinet of Ministers granted approval for the proposal submitted by the Minister of Electricity and Energy to obtain a series of short-term loan facilities worth another $500 million with the assistance of the export–import bank of the Indian government in order to purchase petroleum products required by the country settling the foreign exchange shortage existing at the moment,” the government said in a statement following the Cabinet meeting on Monday. 

Fuel prices saw a record hike on Tuesday as diesel, earlier sold for LKR 289 ($0.80) a litre, now costs LKR 400, reflecting a 38 % jump. Petrol prices rose from 338 to 420 Sri Lankan rupees, threatening to further increase costs of all essential commodities whose prices are already skyrocketing, according to The Hindu.

For several months now, Sri Lanka has been amidst an unprecedented economic downturn, sparking street protests by citizens across the country. A group of demonstrators are camping outside the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo for 46 days in a row, demanding that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who they hold chiefly responsible, quit office. 

Amid a heightening crisis, the government announced last month that it would pre-emptively default on the country’s foreign debt totalling $51 billion as the “last resort”, and is currently negotiating a package with the International Monetary Fund. However, Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe on Monday noted that it was difficult to give a timeline of Sri Lanka’s economic recovery that, he said, was contingent on the success of the measures taken by the government. 

Much of Colombo’s initiatives so far have been about tapping external help from bilateral partners and multilateral lenders. India has already extended credit lines worth $700 million so far for fuel imports —as part of the total $3.5 billion assistance extended so far since January — and delivered over 5 lakh MT of fuel, including the latest shipment of 40,000 tonnes of petrol that reached Colombo on Monday. Meanwhile, the government is also considering various options to expand Sri Lanka’s domestic energy sector, including with foreign investment. Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera on Tuesday announced plans to advertise plots for studies on oil exploration in the Mannar Basin, where Cairn India was earlier involved in exploration, The Hindu reported.

The Premier League has approved the £4.25bn takeover of Chelsea by a consortium led by LA Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly, BBC reported.

The league says the consortium has passed its owner's and directors' test.

The Premier League club was put up for sale before owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned over his links to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The purchase remains subject to the Government issuing the required sale licence. 

The final stages of the transaction will then need to be completed.

The government does not want Abramovich to make any proceeds from the sale but sources are optimistic about a deal being finalised on Tuesday night.

"We now believe everyone will be ready to issue the necessary licences" said one insider, according to BBC.

"The last remaining hurdle boils down to a number of final technical details that are being discussed with the club."

Earlier this month the deal had seemed close to collapse over concerns proceeds would not reach good causes as promised by Abramovich.

Abramovich denied that he had asked for his £1.5bn loan to Chelsea be repaid when the club was sold.

Several parties expressed an interest but Chelsea agreed to sell to the Boehly-led consortium earlier in May.

The consortium is led by Boehly but Clearlake Capital, a Californian private equity firm, would own a majority of the shares in Chelsea. Other investors include US billionaire Mark Walter, also a co-owner of the LA Dodgers, and Swiss billionaire Hansjoerg Wyss, BBC reported.

Chelsea have been allowed to continue operating under a special government licence which expires on 31 May.

Vladimir Putin is "weaponising Ukraine's crops" as "a blackmail tool" for the rest of the world, Poland's prime minister said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, BBC reported.

Mateusz Morawiecki told the BBC it was like what "Stalin did in 1933".

In a wide-ranging interview, he also warned that "only Putin" would be "happy" with a UK-EU trade war over the Brexit deal for Northern Ireland.

Ukraine's inability to export its grain has led to global food prices soaring.

It has also raised the prospect of famines in the countries which depend on its exports.

Mr Morawiecki said that this was "part of [Mr Putin's] strategy" in order to "create ripple effects in Northern Africa and huge migration waves".

His warning was echoed by the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, who told delegates in Davos that Russia was using "hunger and grain to wield power".

"Global co-operation is the antidote to Russia's blackmail," she said.

Fears are rising that the Black Sea blockade is causing a global food crisis.

On Monday, Ukraine's deputy Prime Minister urged the international community to create a "safe passage" to enable the millions of tons of grain stuck in Ukraine to leave the country.

Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, told the BBC that some sort of "corridor" was needed.

A UK government spokesperson said the country was working "intensively" with partners to find ways to allow grain exports to resume.

However, there are "no current plans" for Royal Navy warships to help break Russia's blockade, the spokesperson added.

Satellite images taken by Maxar Technologies have emerged purportedly showing grain shipments being moved to a Russian ship at the port of Sevastopol, Crimea.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify the pictures.

North Korea has fired three ballistic missiles early Wednesday morning, South Korea's military has said, BBC reported.

Authorities in Seoul said the missiles were fired in the space of less than an hour from the Sunan area in Pyongyang.

It comes just a day after US President Joe Biden left the region, following a trip that saw him vowing to bolster measures to deter North Korea. 

North Korea has been test-firing a flurry of ballistic missiles since the beginning of this year.

Japan confirmed at least two launches happened on Wednesday but acknowledged there may have been more. 

Japan's Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said first missile flew about 300km (186 mi) with a maximum altitude of around 550 km, while the second, reaching as high as 50 km, travelled around 750 km, according to BBC.

Mr Kishi criticised the launches, saying they were "not acceptable" adding that it would "threaten the peace, stability and safety of Japan and the international community". 

In a meeting convened after the missile launch, South Korea's National Security Council called the test a "grave provocation", the presidential office said. 

The launches came hours after US President Joe Biden departed for the US on Tuesday evening, after a five-day trip that saw him visiting South Korea and Japan. 

US and South Korean officials had earlier warned that North Korea appeared ready for another weapons test, possibly during Biden's visit.

During his visit to Seoul over the weekend, Mr Biden and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol agreed to hold bigger military drills and deploy more US strategic assets if necessary to deter North Korea's intensifying weapons tests, according to BBC.

Mr Biden had said the United States was "prepared for anything North Korea does."

An 18-year-old gunman opened fire Tuesday at a Texas elementary school, killing at least 19 children as he went from classroom to classroom, officials said, in the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade and the latest gruesome moment for a country scarred by a string of massacres. The attacker was killed by law enforcement, Associated Press reported.

The death toll also included two adults, authorities said. Gov. Greg Abbott said one of the two was a teacher.

The assault at Robb Elementary School in the heavily Latino town of Uvalde was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. grade school since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.

Hours after the attack, families were still awaiting word on their children.

Outside the town civic center, where families were told to gather, the silence was broken repeatedly by screams and wailing. “No! Please, no!” one man yelled as he embraced another man.

“My heart is broken today,” said Hal Harrell, the school district superintendent, announcing that all school activities were canceled for the time being. “We’re a small community, and we’re going to need your prayers to get through this.”

The attack also came just 10 days after a deadly, racist rampage at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket that added to a yearslong series of mass killings at churches, schools and stores. And the prospects for any reform of the nation’s gun regulations seemed as dim, if not dimmer, than in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook deaths.

But President Joe Biden appeared ready for a fight, calling for new gun restrictions in an address to the nation hours after the attack, according to Associated Press.

“As a nation we have to ask, when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name are we going to do what has to be done?” Biden asked. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage?”

Many of the wounded were rushed to Uvalde Memorial Hospital, where staff members in scrubs and devastated victims’ relatives could be seen weeping as they walked out of the complex.

Officials did not immediately reveal a motive, but they identified the assailant as Salvador Ramos, a resident of the community about 85 miles (135 kilometers) west of San Antonio. Law enforcement officials said he acted alone.

Ramos had hinted on social media that an attack could be coming, according to state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who said he had been briefed by state police. He noted that the gunman “suggested the kids should watch out.”

Before heading to the school, Ramon killed his grandmother with two military-style rifles he purchased on his birthday, Gutierrez said.

“That was the first thing he did on his 18th birthday,” he said.

The attack began about 11:30 a.m., when the gunman crashed his car outside the school and ran into the building, according to Travis Considine, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. A resident who heard the crash called 911, and two local police officers exchanged gunfire with the shooter.

Both officers were shot, though it was not immediately clear where on the campus that confrontation occurred, or how much time elapsed before more authorities arrived on the scene, Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, teams of Border Patrol agents raced to the school, including 10 to 15 members of a SWAT-like tactical and counter-terrorism unit, said Jason Owens, a top regional official with the Border Patrol.

One Border Patrol agent who was working nearby when the shooting began rushed into the school without waiting for backup and shot and killed the gunman, who was behind a barricade, according to a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about it.

Chiribabu Maharjan of the Nepali Congress has been elected as the mayor of the Lalitpur Metropolitan City for the second term.

He defeated his nearest rival Hari Krishna Byanjankar of the CPN-UML by 18, 162 votes.

Out of 86, 540 votes cast, Maharjan garnered 42, 722 votes while Byanjankar secured 24, 560 votes.

Similarly, Manjali Shakya has been elected as the deputy mayor. 

She defeated her closest rival Babu Raja Bajracharya of the CPN (Maoist Centre) by 6, 332 votes.

Shakya received 24, 084 votes while Bajracharya got 18, 752 votes.