Submit your Article

Nepal reported 43 new Covid-19 cases on Friday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 853 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 32 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 703 people underwent antigen tests, of which 11 were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 14  infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 181 active cases in the country.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 13.78 points to close at 1862.06 points on Friday.

Similarly, the sensitive index rose 2.81 points to close at 364.90 points.

A total of 3,541,537 units of the shares of 223 companies were traded for Rs 1.15 billion.

Likewise, all the sub-indices saw green in today’s market  except for Mutual Fund.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 2.65 trillion.

Afghanistan does not have enough medical supplies to treat the injured from an earthquake that killed 1,000 people, a senior official said on Friday, as authorities ended the search for survivors in remote southeastern mountains, Reuters reported.

About 2,000 people were injured and 10,000 houses were partially or completely destroyed in the early Wednesday earthquake, Mohammad Nassim Haqqani, a spokesperson for the disaster ministry, told Reuters.

"The health ministry does not have enough drugs, we need medical aid and other necessities because it's a big disaster," he said.

The 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck about 160 km (100 miles) southeast of Kabul near the Pakistani border, in a region of arid mountains dotted with small settlements that has was often contested over Afghanistan's decades of war.

Poor communications and a lack of proper roads have hampered relief efforts in a country grappling with a humanitarian crisis that deteriorated sharply after the Taliban took over last August as US-led international forces withdrew.

The disaster is a major test for the hardline Islamists, who have been largely isolated; shunned by many because of worries about human rights and cut off from much direct international assistance because of sanctions.

Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates all said on Thursday they planned to send aid. Supplies from Pakistan have already crossed the border, according to Reuters.

India, which has a strained relationship with the Taliban, said it had sent 27 tonnes of supplies on two flights to be handed over to international aid agencies.

Haqqani said the search for survivors had been called off, some 48 hours after the disaster struck.

"The search operation has finished," he said.

He did not elaborate on why. People have been pulled alive from the rubble of other earthquakes after considerably more time.

Large parts of South Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate.

In 2015, an earthquake struck the remote Afghan northeast, killing several hundred people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan, Reuters reported.

The decision made by the Secretariat meeting of the party held on June 5 to reshuffle the ministers has pushed the CPN (Unified Socialist) into a grave crisis.

At a time when the differences have been exacerbating within the party, Health Minister Birodh Khatiwada among other ministers and lawmakers submitted an eight-point attention letter to Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal on Friday.

Along with Khatiwada, Urban Development Minister Ram Kumari Jhankri, Tourism Minister Prem Ale, Labour Minister Krishna Kumar Shrestha, lawmakers Krishna Lal Maharjan, Gopal Bahadur Bam, Bina Budhathoki, Niru Devi Jairu, Dhan Bahadur Budha and Pushpa Kumari Karna Kayastha signed the letter.

They have demanded that the party call the Parliamentary Party meeting at the earliest.

In the letter, they expressed their dissatisfaction saying that the list of the proposed new ministers is non-inclusive. They even said that the party treated them like criminals.

The Unified Socialist had appointed five ministers on October 8 for six months. But, a dispute has surfaced in the party even though a proposal to reshuffle the ministers was submitted to the Prime Minister after eight months.

Sri Lanka's economy has "completely collapsed," Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Wednesday, as the crisis-hit nation faces an increasingly dire situation that has left millions struggling with fuel, electricity and food shortages, CNN reported.

"Our economy has faced a complete collapse," Wickremesinghe told Sri Lanka's Parliament, adding the government was seeking help from its global partners and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stabilize the economy. 

But Wickremesinghe warned the island nation of 22 million was "facing a far more serious situation" beyond the shortages.

crisis in seven decades, after its foreign exchange reserves plummeted to record lows, with dollars running out to pay for essential imports including food, medicine and fuel.

In recent weeks, the government has taken drastic measures to cope with the crisis, including implementing a four-day work week for public sector workers to allow them time to grow their own crops. However, the measures are doing little to ease the struggles faced by many in the country. 

In several major cities, including the commercial capital, Colombo, hundreds continue to queue for hours to buy fuel, sometimes clashing with police and the military as they wait. 

Trains have reduced in frequency, forcing travelers to squeeze into compartments and even sit precariously on top of them as they commute to work. 

Patients are unable to travel to hospitals due to the fuel shortage and food prices are soaring. Rice, a staple in the South Asian nation, has disappeared from shelves in many shops and supermarkets, according to CNN.

This week alone, 11 people have died waiting in queues for fuel, according to police officials. 

Wickremesinghe, who took office days after violent protests forced his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa to resign, appeared to place the blame on the previous government for the country's situation in his comments Wednesday. 

"It is no easy task to revive a country with a completely collapsed economy, especially one that is dangerously low on foreign reserves," he said. "If steps had at least been taken to slow down the collapse of the economy at the beginning, we would not be facing this difficult situation today." 

Last week, Sri Lanka's power and energy minister told reporters the country had only enough fuel stock to last five days.

Sri Lanka has mainly been relying on neighboring India to remain afloat -- it has received $4 billion in credit lines -- but Wickremesinghe said that too might not be enough.

"We have requested more loan assistance from our Indian counterparts. But even India will not be able to continuously support us in this manner," he said, CNN reported.

The next step, he said, was to strike a deal with the IMF.

Fifa has approved 26-man squads for this year's World Cup in Qatar, BBC reported.

The move is in line with recent national competitions and is an expansion on the 23-man squads that had been used before the coronavirus pandemic.

Fifa also said up to 15 substitutes can be named for a game, meaning no player misses out - something England head coach Gareth Southgate had called for.

"I think everybody has to be available for all the games," he said in April.

Southgate added: "If the squads are going to be bigger then it needs to be a situation where everybody is able to change on a matchday."

The deadline for all 32 countries competing to submit their final squads is 20 October - 30 days before the first game between Senegal and the Netherlands at the Al Thumama Stadium, according to BBC.

Fifa also said that no more than 26 people - up to 15 substitutes and 11 team officials, of which one must be the team doctor - will be allowed to sit on the bench. 

England begin their campaign against Iran on the opening day, 21 November, at 13:00 GMT, while Wales - who are drawn in the same group - face the USA later at 19:00 GMT, BBC reported.

Nike has announced plans to leave Russia, becoming the latest Western brand to quit the country since the invasion of Ukraine in February, BBC reported.

The US sportswear giant halted online orders and closed the stores it owned in the country in March.

Shops run by local partners continued to operate, but the firm is winding down those agreements.

Networking giant Cisco also said it would start to fully shut down operations in Russia and Belarus.

Other companies that have finalised plans to leave in recent weeks include McDonald's and Starbucks.

"Nike has made the decision to leave the Russian marketplace," the company said in a statement. "Our priority is to ensure we are fully supporting our employees while we responsibly scale down our operations over the coming months."

Russia has grown increasingly economically isolated since the invasion, as the West and allies impose sanctions and international companies head for the exits, according to BBC.

The country is now working on legislation that would punish foreign companies seeking to leave, allowing the government to seize their assets and impose criminal penalties, according to Reuters.

Nike has more than 50 stores in Russia, about a third of which are closed, according to its website.

In May, Russian media reported that the company was ending its agreement with its largest franchisee in Russia, responsible for 37 stores.

Nike had previously disclosed that Russia and Ukraine together accounted for less than 1% of the company's revenue.

Cisco said on Thursday that it had "made the decision to begin an orderly wind-down of our business in Russia and Belarus".

This decision will affect a few hundred employees, the US company said, adding that it wanted to ensure they are "treated with respect".

"Cisco remains committed to using all its resources to help our employees, the institutions and people of Ukraine, and our customers and partners during this challenging time," a spokesperson for the firm said, BBC reported.

The networking giant had already stopped business operations, including sales and services, in the region in March, taking a $200m (£160m) hit to third quarter revenues.

Survivors of Afghanistan's deadliest earthquake in two decades say they have nothing to eat, no shelter, and fear a possible cholera outbreak, BBC reported.

The BBC's Secunder Kermani reports from Paktika province, the hardest hit by the disaster.

Searching through the debris, in what is left of his family home, Agha Jan's eyes well up with tears. 

"These were my sons' shoes," he says, brushing the dust off them. His three young children and two wives were killed in the earthquake as they slept.

As the tremors struck in the early hours of Wednesday, Agha Jan rushed towards the room where his family was staying. 

"But everything was under the rubble," he tells the BBC. "Even my shovel. There was nothing I could do. I called out to my cousins to help but when we pulled my family out, they were already all dead."

The area around Agha Jan's village in Barmal district, Paktika province, is one of the worst affected by the earthquake, in which around 1,000 people are believed to have been killed and 3,000 more injured.

It's a three-hour drive to the nearest big city, on mostly dirt roads - the remote location making it all the more difficult to transport the injured. Some had to be flown to hospital in the Taliban's military helicopters, according to BBC.

Almost every house in the village, generally constructed from mud and stone, appears to be badly damaged. Almost every family seems to be grieving a lost relative.

Habib Gul was across the border in the Pakistani city of Karachi, working as a labourer, when he heard the news. He rushed back to his village in Barmal to discover 20 of his relatives had been killed - 18 of them in a single house. 

"Whose names can I give you? So many of my relatives were martyred, three sisters, my niece, my daughter, young children."

Every villager we meet wants to show us the destruction to their home. Partly because they want the world to see the devastation, but also, more practically, because they are hoping their names can be added to aid distribution lists.

"If the world looks on us like brothers and helps us, we will stay here on our land," Habib Gul tells the BBC. "If they don't, we will leave this place where we have spent so long with tears in our eyes."

Overhead, military helicopters whir through the sky. They're no longer transporting injured victims but delivering supplies. Taliban officials tell us the rescue operation has been completed and is now over, BBC reported.

The most pressing need is shelter for the hundreds of families left homeless. 

Agha Jan and one of his surviving sons are pitching a large sheet of tarpaulin between wooden sticks on a piece of empty ground. Other families are in tents, flanked by the remnants of homes they worked so hard to construct, according to BBC.