Submit your Article

A United States high-ranking Congressional delegation has arrived in Kathmandu for an official visit on Friday.

The delegation led by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (New York) includes Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island), Cory Booker (New Jersey), Mark Kelly (Arizona), and Representative Mondaire Jones (17th Congressional District, New York), read a statement issued by the United States.

During the visit, the delegation will meet with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and other government officials and political leaders to discuss a range of issues.

The group of lawmakers is also concerned about the effects of climate change in the Himalayan region. They plan to take part in a hike on Saturday afternoon to learn more about this urgent crisis, the statement further read.

Nepal reported 18 new Covid-19 cases on Friday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 2, 133 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which nine returned positive. Likewise, 1, 518 people underwent antigen tests, of which ninevwere tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 25 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 282 active cases in the country.

Bharatpur Metropolitan City Mayor Renu Dahal resigned from her post on Friday.

She tendered her resignation to file candidacy for the post of mayor in the Bharatpur Metropolitan City.

Dahal submitted her resignation letter to Deputy Mayor Parbai Shah Thakuri this afternoon.

"The mayor has submitted her resignation. It has already been approved," Thakuri said.

Leader Dahal resigned from her post after the Election Commission said that all the local elected representatives need to resign before filing nominations if they want to contest the local level elections slated for May 13.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Friday.

During the meeting held at the Prime Minister's official residence in Baluwatar, Prime Minister Deuba said that that Nepal has been organizing various programs to make the country's health service more effective.

He also thanked the World Health Organization for providing humanitarian aid to Nepal to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

On the occasion, Tedros praised Prime Minister Deuba for vaccinating almost all the people against the Covid-19.

He was of the opinion that the Nepal government's strategy was effective in controlling the Covid-19.

Tedros also thanked the government for starting to campaign to vaccinate children against typhoid.

Britain and India agreed on Friday to step up defence and business cooperation during a visit to New Delhi by Boris Johnson, who said a bilateral free-trade deal could be wrapped up by October, Reuters reported.

On his first visit to the Indian capital as UK prime minister, Johnson discussed with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi ways to boost security ties with India, which buys more than half of its military hardware from Russia.

Britain hopes its offer of closer security ties with the West will encourage India to cut its defence reliance on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special military operation"

"We had wonderful talks that have strengthened our relationship in every way," Johnson told a joint news briefing with Modi on the final day of his two-day trip.

"We have agreed a new and expanded defence and security partnership, a decades-long commitment that will not only forge tighter bonds between us, but support your goal of Make in India," he said, referring to Modi's domestic manufacturing push, according to Reuters.

Johnson said negotiators from the two countries were expected to complete a free-trade deal by the end of this year.

"We're telling our negotiators to get it done by Diwali in October. This could double our trade and investments by the end of the decade," he said.

Britain's efforts to bolster security ties follow an attempt last month by the United States to move India away from Russia, with its own offer of more defence and energy sales, after President Joe Biden called India "somewhat shaky" in acting against Russia.

India abstained from a United Nations vote condemning the invasion and has not imposed sanctions on Moscow, taking a stance that sparked off a recent flurry of diplomatic activity, such as visits by the foreign ministers of Russia and China.

Johnson said Britain would also support India’s goal of building its own fighter jets, to reduce expensive imports of military equipment. India now has a mix of Russian, British and French fighter jets, Reuters reported.

The Indian government last year gave a 480-billion-rupee ($6.28 billion) contract to state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd for 83 light-combat aircraft, Tejas, for delivery starting around 2023.

Johnson said Britain was also creating an India-specific open general export license to slash delivery times for defence items. Only the European Union and the United States currently have such licences, according to Reuters.

Birgunj Metropolitan City Mayor Bijay Kumar Sarawagi tendered his resignation on Friday.

Sarawagi, who is filing his candidacy again for the post of mayor from the CPN-UML in the upcoming local level elections, resigned from his post this afternoon.

The  Metropolitan Committee and the Province Committee of the party have already recommended the name of Sarawagi to the Central Committee as the mayoral candidate of the Birgunj Metropolitan City.

Sarawagi said that he resigned from the post as there is a provision in the election code of conduct that the local representatives must resign if they want to contest the local level elections.

The main opposition CPN-UML has made public its election manifesto on Friday.

Party Chairman KP Sharma Oli made public the election manifesto prepared by the Central Committee for the local level elections slated for May 13 amidst a program this afternoon.

The Central Committee endorsed the manifesto prepared by the Election Manifesto Drafting Committee.

General Secretary Shankar Pokharel said that the party will made public the commitment paper of 753 rural municipalities today itself.

Police have arrested two persons with a Red Panda hide from the Mahendrasalik-based Hotel Mirchi in Kathmandu Metropolitan City-1.

The arrestee has been identified as Tulsang Dorje Gole (29) of Bhedpu, Melung Rural Municipality-5, Dolakha and Ram Kumar Shrestha (38) of Panchkhal Municipality-2, Kavre.

Acting on a tip-off, a police team deployed from the Metropolitan Police Circle, Durbarmarg raided the hotel and confiscated the hide of an endangered animal.

Police said that they are looking into the case.