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A US judge has ordered that Twitter's lawsuit against Elon Musk go to trial in October, a blow to the world's richest man who had asked for a delay, BBC reported.

Mr Musk walked away from his $44bn (£36bn) bid to buy Twitter earlier in July, prompting the company to sue him.

Twitter hopes that the court will order Mr Musk to complete the takeover at the agreed price of $54.20 per share.

The tech billionaire has accused Twitter of withholding information about fake accounts.

His legal team has called for the trial to be held early next year due to its complexities, but Twitter asked for a September date.

On Tuesday, a judge in the state of Delaware agreed with the company and said a delay to the trial would cast a "cloud of uncertainty".

"Delay threatens irreparable harm," Chancellor Kathaleen St Jude McCormick said. "The longer the delay, the greater the risk."

The lawsuit accused Mr Musk of a "long list" of violations ahead of the potential merger and argued that he had "cast a pall" over the company, according to BBC.

At the hearing on Tuesday, Twitter's lead counsel William Savitt said the ongoing uncertainty about whether the takeover would go forward or not "inflicts harm on Twitter everyday".

Nepal logged 357 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 857 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 268 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 500 people underwent antigen tests, of which 89 tested positive.

No one died due to the virus today.

The Ministry said that 62 infected people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours.

As of today, there are 1, 982 active cases in the country, the Ministry said.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 16. 27 points to close at 2,045.69 points on Tuesday.

Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 2. 77 points to close at 391. 53 points.

Meanwhile, a total of 5,713,248 unit shares of 213 companies were traded for Rs 2. 29 billion.

In today’s market, all sub-indices saw green. Life Insurance topped the chart with 80 points.

Meanwhile, Emerging Nepal Limited was the top gainer today, with its price surging by 8. 01 percent. Civil Bank Debenture was the top loser as its price fell by 7. 75 percent.

At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 92 trillion.

The Indian rupee hit a seventh straight session of record lows on Tuesday as weakness in domestic shares and currencies weighed, but dollar selling intervention by the central bank helped limit further losses, Reuters reported.

The US dollar hovered just above a one-week low reached overnight versus major peers as markets reduced the odds of a percentage-point Federal Reserve rate hike this month.

The partially convertible rupee was trading at 79.93/94 per dollar after hitting a record low of 80.05. The unit had ended at 79.97 on Monday, according to Reuters.

Spain's Health Ministry has said that 510 people died from heat-related causes in the first week of a heatwave when the mercury reached 45 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country, Xinhua reported.

The fatalities were reported by the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) on Monday, which forms part of the Ministry, between July 10 and 16, with Saturday the deadliest to date with 150 victims.

According to the ISCIII System of Monitorisation of Daily Mortality, the number of heat-related deaths increased sharply as the heatwave escalated, Xinhua news agency reported.

It said deaths quadrupled from 15 to 60 in the four days from July 10 to 13. The figure then jumped further to 93 last Thursday and 123 on Friday, before reaching a climax of 150 on Saturday.

The toll is feared to rise even further when new figures are published for Sunday.

The heat is especially affecting the elderly, with 321 of the 510 victims aged 85 years or above, 121 between 75 and 84 years of age, and 44 between 65 and 74 years of age.

However, deaths were also reported among the younger population, including two municipal workers in Madrid who died of heatstroke. This prompted the city hall to adopt more flexible working hours, so that workers could avoid working outdoors during the hottest hours of the day.

Among the younger victims were also a fireman and a shepherd, who died in the wildfires that are engulfing Spain as well as some other areas in Southern Europe, according to Xinhua.

This is Spain's second heatwave of the summer. The previous one, from June 11 to 17, caused 829 deaths, according to ISCIII.

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 200 per tola in the domestic market on Tuesday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association, the yellow bullion is being traded at Rs 93, 800 per tola today.

Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 93, 300 per tola.

The yellow metal was traded at Rs 94, 000 per tola on Monday. 

Similarly, the price of silver has decreased by Rs 5 and is being traded at Rs 1,160 per tola today.

A man died after being hit by a bus near Chaumala Multiple Campus in -Gauriganga Municipality-1 of Kailali on Tuesday.

According to the District Police Office, Kailali, the deceased has been identified as Khadak Thapa (46) of Katan, Gauriganga-2.

Police said that the incident occurred when the bus (Na 6 Kha) hit a bicycle Thapa was riding on today.

Critically injured in the incident, Thapa breathed his last during the course of treatment at the Dhangadhi-based Nisarga Hospital.

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

The special probe committee of the House of Representatives concluded that the CCTV footage of the day when the then Finance Minister Janardan Sharma had invited two outsiders to tweak tax rates a day before he presented the budget in Parliament on May 29 was deleted in a premeditated manner.

The plan to grill Sharma has also been postponed after the probe committee could not find the CCTV footage.

According to an official of the committee, the Finance Ministry sent the CCTV footage twice but could not find the video where the then Finance Minister Sharma invited two unauthorized persons to tweak the tax rates.

The Finance Ministry handed over the hard drive of the CCTV footage on Friday. However, the footage came out to be of June not of May. Therefore, the committee sent a letter, urging the Ministry to send the footage of May.

Though the Ministry sent the whole system on Monday, the committee could not find the actual footage it had been looking for, a source at the committee said.

“Now, the committee has decided to start the process to retrieve the footage,” the source said.

The committee has planned to take the statement of the then Minister Sharma after completing the process of CCTV footage, the source said.

The committee has already taken the statements of the finance secretary and revenue secretary. Both of them strongly denied the allegations leveled against them.

The probe committee was formed on June 6, the day when then Finance Minister Sharma resigned from his post.

Annapurna Post, the sister publication of the Annapurna post, had first reported that the then Minister Sharma had invited a pair of outsiders into his chamber to tweak the tax rates.