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Nepali Congress province presidents urged party leaders to set criteria for an alliance in the forthcoming elections.

During the Central Executive Committee meeting that started at the party office in Sanepa from today, they suggested leaders to forge a necessary alliance, giving continuity to the coalition in the elections.

Some were of the opinion that it would be appropriate for the Nepali Congress to contest the elections alone.

The Local Level Election Central Mobilization Committee presented a report of local level elections in the meeting.

During the meeting, leader Shekhar Koirala urged the party president to hold a policy convention at the earliest, saying that the 14th general convention only selected the leadership but could not work on formulating the policies.

Central members Koirala, Pradeep Paudel, Dev Raj Kandel, Dila Sangraula, Krishna Kishor Ghimire, Narayan Bahadur Karki, Taraman Gurung, Dinesh Kumar Yadav, Nain Singh Mahar, Guru Baral and Dinesh Koirala among others floated their opinion in the meeting.

Visiting Chinese Communist Party International Liaison Department head Liu Jianchao held a meeting with CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal at the latter’s residence in Khumaltar on Monday.

He arrived in Kathmandu at a time when Beijing had been expressing concern over the growing anti-China activities in Nepal in recent times.

China sent Liu as an envoy to unite all the Communist parties.

He paid courtesy calls on Prime Minister Sher Bahadur and Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka on Sunday.

Similarly, the Chinese leader also extended an invitation to Prime Minister Deuba to visit China.

Leading an eight-member delegation, Liu arrived in Kathmandu on a four-day visit to Nepal on Sunday.

Nepal reported 168 new Covid-19 cases on Monday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 834 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 129 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 168 people underwent antigen tests, of which 39 were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of the virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 37 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 770 active cases in the country.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 77. 01 points to close at 1,915.61 points on Monday.

Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 13. 03 points to close at 366. 86 points.

A total of 6,313,641 units of the shares of 227 companies were traded for Rs 2. 32 billion.

Meanwhile, Sanima Debenture was the top gainer today with its price surging by 2. 00 percent. Likewise, Grameen Bikas Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top loser with its price dropped by 10. 00 percent.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalisation stood at Rs 2. 73 trillion.

Multiple Chinese cities are adopting fresh COVID-19 curbs, from business halts to lockdowns, to rein in new infections, with the commercial hub of Shanghai bracing for another mass testing campaign after detecting the BA.5 Omicron subvariant, Reuters reported.

As China sticks to its "dynamic zero-COVID" policy of promptly stamping out all outbreaks, the strict curbs by local governments come despite low caseloads, at a time when much of the world co-exists with the virus.

The central government has said curbs must be as targeted as possible to reduce damage to the world's No. 2 economy, after this year's major disruptions clogged global supply chains and hit international trade. 

The highly-transmissible BA.5, which is driving outbreaks in many countries outside China, has shown signs of greater ability to escape vaccine-triggered antibody reactions than some other Omicron subvariants, health officials have said.

The discovery of one such infection in Shanghai could add pressure to quickly limit a nascent outbreak and avert more disruptive measures similar to the lockdown in April and May that roiled the global economy and markets.

Shanghai, China's most populous city of 25 million, has told people in several districts to get tested twice in another round of mass screening from Tuesday to Thursday, similar to last week's.

Its residents are already testing every few days to secure access to various locations and public transport.

Daily counts of locally transmitted infections in Shanghai increased to several dozens since July 5, up from single digits earlier this month, but are still tiny by global standards, according to Reuters.

Most of its recent cases have been among those already in quarantine. 

NEW CURBS ELSEWHERE

Mainland China reported 352 new domestically transmitted COVID infections on July 10, 46 of these symptomatic and 306 asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Monday.

In the central province of Henan, the town of Qinyang has almost completely locked down its nearly 700,000 residents from Sunday, with one person from each household allowed out every two days to get groceries.

In some areas, people have been told not to leave home at all. 

Four major districts in the northwestern city of Lanzhou, in Gansu province, and the southern cities of Danzhou and Haikou in Hainan province, are under temporary curbs for several days, with entertainment and cultural spaces shut. 

About 6 million people in the three cities are affected by the rules. 

The city of Nanchang in southern Jiangxi province, with 6.3 million residents, shut some entertainment venues on Saturday, although the duration of the curbs was not specified.

In the northwestern province of Qinghai, the city of Xining kicked off a mass testing campaign on Monday after one person tested positive on Sunday, Reuters reported.

Several major districts in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou also began mass tests on Monday.

Japan’s governing party and its coalition partner scored a major victory in a parliamentary election Sunday imbued with meaning after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe amid uncertainty about how his loss may affect party unity, Associated Press reported.

The Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito raised their combined share in the 248-seat chamber to 146 — far beyond the majority — in the elections for half of the seats in the less powerful upper house. 

With the boost, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stands to rule without interruption until a scheduled election in 2025.

That would allow Kishida to work on long-term policies such as national security, his signature but still vague “new capitalism” economic policy, and his party’s long-cherished goal to amend the US-drafted postwar pacifist constitution. 

A charter change proposal is now a possibility. With the help of two opposition parties supportive of a charter change, the governing bloc now has two-thirds majority in the chamber needed to propose an amendment, making it a realistic possibility. The governing bloc already has secured support in the other chamber.

Kishida welcomed the major win but wasn’t smiling, given the loss of Abe and the hard task of unifying his party without him. In media interviews late Sunday, Kishida repeated: “Party unity is more important than anything else.”

He said responses to COVID-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising prices will be his priorities. He said he will also steadily push for reinforcing Japan’s national security as well a constitutional amendment, according to Associated Press.

Kishida and senior party lawmakers observed a moment of silence for Abe at the party election headquarters before placing on the whiteboard victory ribbons next to the names of candidates who secured their seats.

Abe, 67, was shot while giving a campaign speech in the western city of Nara on Friday and died of massive blood loss. He was Japan’s longest-serving political leader over two terms in office, and though he stepped down in 2020 was deeply influential in the LDP while heading its largest faction, Seiwakai.

“This could be a turning point” for the LDP over its divisive policies on gender equality, same-sex marriages and other issues that Abe-backed ultra-conservatives with paternalistic family values had resisted, said Mitsuru Fukuda, a crisis management professor at Nihon University.

Japan’s current diplomatic and security stance is unlikely to be swayed because fundamental changes had already been made by Abe. His ultra-nationalist views and pragmatic policies made him a divisive figure to many, including in the Koreas and China.

Following the assassination, Sunday’s vote took on new meaning, with all of Japan’s political leaders emphasizing the importance of free speech and defending democracy against acts of violence.

Abe’s killing may have resulted in sympathy votes. Turnout on Sunday was around 52%, up about 3 points from the previous 48.8% in 2019, Associated Press reported.

“It was extremely meaningful that we carried out the election,” Kishida said Sunday. “Our endeavor to protect democracy continues.”

At least 15 people have been killed and more than 20 are feared buried under rubble after Russian rockets struck an apartment block in Chasiv Yar, a town in eastern Ukraine, officials say, BBC reported.

Some victims have been brought out alive. The death toll was given by a Ukrainian emergency services official.

One side of the five-storey building was ripped apart, leaving a mountain of rubble. Chasiv Yar is near the city of Kramatorsk, in Donetsk region.

Donetsk is the focus of a Russian push.

The region's governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said the destruction was caused by Russian Uragan rockets.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes on the residential block were carried out deliberately.

"After such strikes, they will not be able to say they did not know something or did not understand something," he said in a video address, adding that "punishment is inevitable for every Russian murderer".

Rescuers used a crane and picked through the rubble by hand on Sunday, looking for more than 20 people still said to be trapped, including a child. 

Video released by Ukraine's emergencies ministry showed rescue workers pulling a man out from underneath the collapsed building.

Some residents who survived the strike returned to the site on Sunday looking for their belongings, according to BBC.

"We ran to the basement, there were three hits, the first somewhere in the kitchen," one survivor called Lyudmila told Reuters news agency.

"The second, I do not even remember, there was a flash, we ran towards the second entrance and then straight into the basement. We sat there all night until this morning."

Another woman, Venera, told Reuters that her apartment had been destroyed in the chaos and that she had been unable to find her kittens under the rubble, BBC reported.

Thousands of leaked files have exposed how Uber courted top politicians, and how far it went to avoid justice, BBC reported.

They detail the extensive help Uber got from leaders such as Emmanuel Macron and ex-EU commissioner Neelie Kroes.

They also show how the taxi firm's former boss personally ordered the use of a "kill switch" to prevent raiding police from accessing computers.

Uber says its "past behaviour wasn't in line with present values" and it is a "different company" today.

The Uber Files are a trove of more than 124,000 records, including 83,000 emails and 1,000 other files involving conversations, spanning 2013 to 2017.

They were leaked to the Guardian, and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and a number of media organisations including BBC Panorama. They reveal, for the first time, how a $90m-a-year lobbying and public relations effort recruited friendly politicians to help in its campaign to disrupt Europe's taxi industry. 

While French taxi drivers staged sometimes violent protests in the streets against Uber, Mr Macron - now president - was on first name terms with Uber's controversial boss Travis Kalanick, and told him he would reform laws in the firm's favour.

Uber's ruthless business methods were widely known, but for the first time the files give a unique inside view of the lengths it went to in achieving its goals, according to BBC.

They show how ex-EU digital commissioner Neelie Kroes, one of Brussels' top officials, was in talks to join Uber before her term ended - and then secretly lobbied for the firm, in potential breach of EU ethics rules.

At the time, Uber was not just one of the world's fastest-growing companies - it was one of the most controversial, dogged by court cases, allegations of sexual harassment, and data breach scandals.

Eventually shareholders had enough, and Travis Kalanick was forced out in 2017.

Uber says his replacement, Dara Khosrowshahi, was "tasked with transforming every aspect of how Uber operates" and has "installed the rigorous controls and compliance necessary to operate as a public company".