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The government on Thursday appointed Capitan Dipuraj Jwarchan as the acting general manager of the Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC).

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation appointed Jawarchan as the acting general manager of the NAC today.

Earlier on June 20, the government had decided to appoint Jwarchan as the general manager of the NAC.

A Cabinet meeting had suspended the then NAC Chairman Yuvaraj Adhikari expressing dissatisfaction with his working style.

Tourism Minister Prem Bahadur Ale had proposed the Cabinet to suspend him.

Police have arrested three foreign nationals and a Nepali national in possession of over five kg heroin.

According to the Narcotics Control Bureau, a Tanzanian national, two Indian nationals and a Nepali national were nabbed with the heroin.

DSP Jeevan Kumar Shrestha, Chief at the Narcotics Control Bureau, said that the detainees have been identified as Tanzanian national Abuu Liki Abdallah (30), Indian nationals Bikram Jeet Singh (43) and Munim Singh (46) and Nepali national Bikki Rauniyar (30).

Shrestha said that they were apprehended from a hotel in Boudha.

According to a preliminary investigation, Abdullah was a seller and two Indian nationals were the buyers.

Police launched an operation after they concluded that drugs were being smuggled to Nepal by making it as transit, DSP Shrestha said.

The Tanzanian national had landed at the Tribhuvan International Airport via Johannesburg of South Africa on a Fly Dubai flight on June 16.

A team deployed from the Bureau followed him after he was spotted behaving suspiciously at the airport.

The team from the Bureau detained him with 5.9 kg heroin hidden inside a suitcase.

During the interrogation, Indian nationals and a Nepali national were arrested from a hotel in Boudha.

Further investigation into the incident is underway.

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

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association, gold is currently trading at Rs 97, 500 per tola. The yellow metal was traded at Rs 97, 300  per tola on Wednesday. 

Similarly, the Tejabi gold is now trading for Rs 97, 000 per tola in the market. Earlier on Wednesday, it was traded at Rs 96, 800.

Similarly, the price of silver decreased by Rs five per tola and is now trading at Rs 1, 250 per tola.

India reported 13,313 fresh Covid-19 cases and 38 deaths in the 24 hours ending at 8 am on Thursday, The Indian Express reported.

The new cases marked an increase from the previous day’s nearly 12,000 new cases, while the daily positivity rate saw a dip from 3.94 per cent to 2.03 per cent, data released by the Ministry of Health showed.

The active cases in the country stood at 83,990.

Delhi reported 928 new Covid-19 cases (lowest since June 13) and 3 pandemic related deaths on Wednesday. There are 5,054 active cases in Delhi while the city’s positivity rate stands at 7.08%. A total of 26,453 people got vaccinated in the capital in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile Mumbai recorded 1,648 new Covid cases on Wednesday and the total number of active cases in the city stands at 13,501, according to The Indian Express.

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray  tested positive for Covid-19on Wednesday. Their diagnosis comes at a time when the state is in the midst of a political crisis. The ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi government is facing the threat of being toppled after Shiv Sena leader Eknath Khadse and 40 other rebel MLAs have left the state, and are currently camping in Assam’s Guwahati.

An earthquake measuring 4.1 ML on the Richter scale shook Gorkha district on Thursday.

According to the National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Center, the tremor was felt at 3: 56 am local time with its epicenter near Dhampus of Machhapuchhare Rural Municipality.

The jolt was felt in Parbat, Myagdi and Baglung of Gangaki Province and also in Tanahun.

Two persons died when a tipper hit a motorbike they were riding on at Adarsha Chok in Suryabinayak Municipality, Bhaktapur on Wednesday.

The identities of the deceased are yet to be established.

Critically injured in the incident, they breathed their last during the course of treatment at the Bhaktapur Hospital at around 3 am today, police said.

The tipper (Ba 4 Kha 5298) heading towards Jagadi hit the motorbike (Ba 89 Pa 7876) coming from the opposite direction last night.

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

The head of the International Energy Agency has warned that Russia may stop supplying gas to Europe this winter, BBC reported.

Fatih Birol says he believes a complete shutdown is not the most likely scenario but that Europe needs to work on contingency plans just in case.

In recent weeks, several European countries said they received significantly less Russian gas than they expected. 

Russian officials deny it's deliberate and have blamed technical issues. 

Before the invasion of Ukraine, Europe imported about 40% of its natural gas from Russia but that figure has now fallen to about 20%.

'Strategic' reductions

Mr Birol says he believes that recent Russian reductions in gas supply are "strategic". The falls are making it harder for European countries to fill up their gas storage and increasing Russia's leverage this winter. 

"I wouldn't rule out Russia continuing to find different issues here and there, and continuing to find excuses to further reduce gas deliveries to Europe and maybe even cut it off completely," Mr Birol told BBC News. 

Last week the flow of natural gas through Nord Stream 1, one of the main pipelines from Russia to Europe, was just 40% of capacity. Many experts are sceptical of the Russian explanation that this was caused by "technical issues". 

Across Europe, shortfalls in gas supply continue to be reported. On Friday the Italian firm energy firm Eni said that it had only received half of the gas that it was expecting from the Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom, while Slovakia and Austria have also reported falls. 

France says it has received no Russian gas from Germany since 15 June while Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands have had their Russian gas deliveries suspended after they refused a demand to pay in Russian roubles, according to BBC.

Last month European countries agreed to try to protect themselves from the volatility of gas prices by filling up their storage facilities. They jointly committed to reaching at least 80% capacity by November, with the latest data suggesting they are at about 55%.

Mr Birol said the ongoing gas crisis now justified emergency short-term measures to reduce demand, such as increasing the use of coal-fired power stations, and if possible prolonging the life of nuclear power plants. If there was a complete shutdown of Russian gas supply, he says drastic measures may be needed. 

"I don't exclude the possibility that Europe will need a planned and orderly rationing of gas," Mr Birol says. 

"I don't say this is the base scenario, but looking at the last several months, if not several years, the experiences we have had with Russia as an energy partner, this is a scenario we cannot afford to exclude for the time being."