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CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said that it is difficult to take an immediate decision on the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

Addressing a meeting of the party’s Karnali Province virtually on Thursday, he said that it is hard to take the decision on the MCC in this situation.

“It is difficult to take an immediate decision on the MCC. Many leaders have differences over some of the provisions of the MCC. We will take the decision on the issue only by holding discussions with the leaders,” he said.

Chairman Dahal said that the leaders in the ruling coalition are holding discussions on a daily basis about the provisions to be amended in the MCC.

Meanwhile, he claimed that the ruling coalition will not fall apart at any cost.

During the meeting, Chairman Dahal directed the party leaders and cadres to start preparations for the upcoming local level elections.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, however, is in favour of the parliamentary ratification of the MCC.

The exams of the Public Service Commission (PSC), which were postponed in view of the third wave of Covid-19, will resume from February 18.

A meeting of the PSC held on Thursday made the decision to this effect.

The PSC said that the written exams of undersecretary, section officer and 7th, 8th and 9th levels of health service among others will be conducted from February 18.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 14.60 points to close at 2,876.74 points on Thursday.

Similarly, the sensitive dropped by 3.25 points to close at 539. 65 points.

A total of 15,780,713 units of the shares of 224 companies were traded for Rs 8.61 billion.

Meanwhile, Wean Nepal Laghubittiya Sanstha Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 10 percent. Likewise, RMDC Laghubittiya Sanstha Limited was the top loser with its price dropped by 3.49 percent.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalisation stood at Rs 4.06 trillion.

Home Minister Balkrishna Khand has enquired with Chief District Officers about the situation of law and order in the districts.

He telephoned the chief district officers of 14 districts this morning to know the security situation of the districts.

On the occasion, Home Minister Khand had enquired about the COVID-19 situation, peace and security, public service delivery, employees’ details, need for deployment of extra employees and regularity of district security committee meetings.

The Home Minister talked to the CDOs of Sunsari, Morang, Jhapa, Bara, Nawalparasi-West, Rupandehi, Kapilvastu, Kailali, Banke, Bardiya, Dang, Parsa and Kanchanpur and Assistant CDO of Nawalparasi-East.

Kanchancpur CDO Ram Prasad Pandey said that the follow-up and monitoring of the Home Minister has cautioned the district security bodies to keep the information updated in a systematic manner.

Likewise, Parsa CDO Umesh Kumar Dhakal said the home minister's telephone on his own had encouraged them to carry out their works in the districts. RSS

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has urged Democratic Socialist Party Chairman Mahantha Thakur to help him endorse the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) from the Parliament.

During a meeting held at the PM’s official residence in Baluwatar on Thursday, Deuba and Thakur discussed contemporary political issues along with the MCC.

It has been learnt that the Prime Minister told Thakur that the role of Democratic Socialist Party will be important to pass the MCC from the Parliament.

In response, Thakur said that his party is positive towards the parliamentary ratification of the MCC.

On top of that, Prime Minister Deuba also said that the alternative of Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota will also be sought if he expressed his reluctance to table the MCC in the Parliament.

He also urged Thakur to help him if the situation demands to remove the Speaker.

Meanwhile, Thakur said that the government should take the decision on the MCC at the earliest. He further said that the party will make its position clear on the MCC after the government takes decision on the issue.

A massive fire broke out at the SS Shoe factory at Bhurmeli Tole in Kakadbhitta of Mechinagar-6, Jhapa on Thursday. 

The fire that broke out at the factory of Shyam Tamang has not been taken under control yet. 

A team under the command of DSP of the Area Police Office, Kakadbhitta has been deployed to extinguish the fire. 

The fire engines from Birtamod and Bhadrapur Municipality are helping the police personnel to douse the flame. 

DSP Basanta Pathak of the District Police Office, Jhapa said that the reason behind the fire is yet to be established.

A calm oasis amongst the chaotic streets of Patan, Dhokaima Cafe offers a multi-cuisine menu including fusion dishes inspired by Nepali and Newari cuisines. If you are in the mood for coffee, dessert, beverage, or a full meal – Dhokaima is the place to be.

The cafe is ensconced inside the charming premises of a building that evokes traditional Nepali and European design sensibilities.

And if you happen to be a quiet, bookish type, you can always pick a book or magazine from the cafe bookshelf and enjoy it with a hot cup of coffee.

Also read: House of Eggs: The best eggs in town

Dhokaima also organizes events and meetings.  The cafe has a seminar hall (YalaMaya Kendra) in addition to other rooms for the purpose. It even has a huge parking space–another worry off your shoulders.

Chef’s Special:

-Dhokaima club sandwich

-Grilled trout

-Spicy whole dish

Opening hours: 07:00 AM – 09:00 PM

Location: Patan Dhoka, Lalitpur

Phone/card pay: Accepted

Reservation:  01-5522113

Social media giant Facebook has seen its daily active users (DAUs) drop for the first time in its 18-year history.

Facebook's parent company Meta Networks says DAUs fell to 1.929bn in the three months to the end of December, compared to 1.930bn in the previous quarter.

The firm also warned of slowing revenue growth in the face of competition from rivals like TikTok and YouTube, while advertisers are also cutting spending.

Meta's shares slumped by more than 20% in after-hours trading in New York.

The slide in Meta's share price wiped around $200bn (£147.5bn) off the company's stock market value.

Shares in other social media platforms, including Twitter, Snap and Pinterest, also fell sharply in extended trading.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the firm's sales growth had been hurt as audiences, especially younger users, had left for rivals. 

Meta, which owns the world's second biggest digital advertising platform after Google, also said it had been hit by privacy changes on Apple's operating system.

The changes have made it harder for brands to target and measure their advertising on Facebook and Instagram and could have an impact "in the order of $10 billion" for this year, according to Meta's chief financial officer Dave Wehner.

Meta's total revenue, the bulk of which comes from advertising sales, rose to $33.67bn in the period, narrowly beating market predictions.

It also forecast revenues of between $27bn to $29bn for the next quarter, which is lower than analysts had expected.

While the company has been making its own investments in video to compete with TikTok -owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance - it makes less money from those offerings than its traditional Facebook and Instagram feeds.

Mr Zuckerberg said he was confident the investments in video and virtual reality would pay off, as previous bets on mobile advertising and Instagram stories have.

But, he noted, the firm didn't have to contend with a major rival during previous shifts in strategy.

"The teams are executing quite well and the product is growing very quickly," he said. "The thing that is somewhat unique here is that TikTok is so big a competitor already and also continues to grow at quite a fast rate."

Meta on the wane? 

Facebook has always been a platform that grows. 

For every quarter in its existence the global numbers have been in one direction.

Yet in the last few years, growth has stalled in Europe and US. That was masked by rises in users from the rest of the world.

Facebook just isn't as popular with younger people as it was. By its own admission, TikTok is hurting business. 

But there are other reasons too that investors are worried about Meta. 

Meta changed its name because it wanted to focus on the Metaverse. But Meta is nowhere near building a Metaverse yet, it's a pipedream at the moment. 

Instead it is pumping billions of dollars into trying to create one - all because Mark Zuckerberg thinks there's an appetite for it - a huge risk. 

Perhaps the answer to Meta's immediate problems would be to buy TikTok? Well US regulators would never allow that due to anti-competition laws. 

And Facebook is now seen by many in Silicon Valley as a poisonous brand. It's certainly not a cool place to work in the same way it was say ten years ago. 

That makes attracting talent more difficult. 

Meta has some serious problems going forward. This milestone could be just the beginning.