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A gunman carrying a rifle and a handgun killed four people Wednesday at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus, police said, the latest in a series of deadly mass shootings across the country in recent weeks, Associated Press reported.

Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish confirmed the number of dead and said the shooter also was dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

The spate of recent gun violence across the country, including the killing of 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school eight days ago by an 18-year-old gunman carrying an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, has led to Democratic leaders amplifying their calls for greater restrictions on guns, while Republicans are emphasizing more security at schools.

The divide mirrors a partisan split that has stymied action in Congress and many state capitols over how best to respond to a record-high number of gun-related deaths in the US

It was unclear what prompted the deadly assault in Tulsa, Dalgleish said, according to Associated Press.

“It appears both weapons at one point or another were fired on the scene,” Dalgleish said. “The officers who arrived were hearing shots in the building, and that’s what led them to the second floor.”

Police responded to the call about three minutes after dispatchers received the report at 4:52 p.m. and made contact with the gunman roughly five minutes later, at 5:01 p.m. Dalgleish said.

“I was very happy with what we know so far regarding the response of our officers,” Dalgleish said. 

The length of time it took police officers in Uvalde, Texas, to engage the gunman during last week’s deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School has become a key focus of that investigation. Officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom where the gunman attacked.

Police Capt. Richard Meulenberg also said multiple people were wounded and that the medical complex was a “catastrophic scene.” The exact number of wounded was not immediately available.

Police and hospital officials said they were not ready to identify the dead.

St. Francis Health System locked down its campus Wednesday afternoon because of the situation at the Natalie Medical Building. The Natalie building houses an outpatient surgery center and a breast health center. Dalgleish said an orthopedic clinic also is located on the second floor where officers discovered the shooter and several victims, Associated Press reported.

“This campus is sacred ground for our community,” said Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum. “For decades, this campus has been a place where heroes come to work every day to save the lives of people in our community.”

Bynum added: “Right now, my thoughts are with the victims. If we want to have a policy discussion, that is something to be had in the future, but not tonight.”

Philip Tankersley, 27, was leaving his father’s room at nearby Saint Francis Hospital around 5 p.m., when hospital staff said there was an active shooter in the building across the street, locked the doors and warned them to stay away from the windows.

Tankersley said he and his mother sheltered in his father’s hospital room for more than an hour, trying to learn scraps of information from the TV news and passing nurses. He said they heard “code silver” and “level 1 trauma” announced on the hospital speakers and wondered if they were safe in the room.

“I wasn’t particularly worried because the two people that I need to look out for were in that same room as me,” he said. “But it was definitely a ‘this is happening here’ moment.”

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also at the scene, a spokesperson said. A reunification center for families to find their loved ones was set up at a nearby high school, according to Associated Press.

The shooting Wednesday also comes just more than two weeks after shooting at a Buffalo supermarket by a white man who is accused of killing 10 Black people in a racist attack. The recent Memorial Day weekend saw multiple mass shootings nationwide, including at an outdoor festival in Taft, Oklahoma, 45 miles from Tulsa, even as single-death incidents accounted for most gun fatalities.

The Tara Air Twin Otter crash near Jomsom that killed 22 people on board is a grim reminder of the challenges of flying over Nepal’s uneven terrains and navigating its unpredictable weather. Following the crash, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has issued a new directive whereby planes can fly only if the weather of the entire route is clear. Earlier, only the state of the weather at the take-off and landing sites were factored in. This should make the Nepali skies safer in the otherwise accident-prone pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons. Yet that too will be no foolproof guarantee against accidents. 

Besides highlighting the dangers of navigating Nepal’s treacherous terrains, the tragic accident on May 30 has again put a spotlight on the country’s failure to properly monitor and regulate its civil aviation sector. Most aircraft accidents in Nepal are attributed to ‘pilot’s error’ and yet it is hard to think of a single tangible measure that has been taken to minimize such errors. In fact, there are reports of pilots being put under pressure to fly even in bad weather. Nepal is also yet to take one safety measure that could have the biggest impact on air-safety: separate the regulatory and service-providing arms of CAAN. The merging of these duties in one organization creates conflict of interest and increases the chances of grave accidents. 

Nepal has made an improvement in the international civil aviation regulator ICAO’s safety audit scores (but not in the investigation of air-crashes, a measure in which the country’s scores got worse). Yet due to its failure to split up CAAN, the country’s carriers are still banned from European skies. The ban in turn dissuades European travelers from visiting Nepal, a tourism dependent country. 

As the charred bodies of crew and passengers are still being identified, this is not the right time to apportion blame. Why the Twin Otter crashed will be known only after a thorough study. But this is certainly the right time to ask why we as a country are not doing more to minimize the frequency of such tragedies. 

Newly elected Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Balen Shah held a meeting with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba at the latter's residence in Baluwatar on Wednesday.

Congratulating Shah on his election to the top post of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Prime Minister Deuba expressed his commitment that the government and Nepali Congress will help in the good works of the Metropolitan City.

"You did a miracle. I am happy. You will have our full support during the five year term," he said.

Saying that the Nepali Congress has a majority in the executive of the metropolis, Deuba said that the party would help him in the development works.

"Use any kind of measures to manage the waste. You will have the support of the center, government, ministry and Department of Roads," the Prime Minister said.

In response, Mayor Shah said that he is ready to move ahead in coordination with the Nepali Congress in the metropolis.

Two persons have been arrested for murdering their friend for drugs in Kirtipur.

The Metropolitan Police Circle, Kirtipur on Monday got information that some youths were fighting on the road to Dhalpa in Kirtipur.

DSP Purushottam Pandey of the Metropolitan Police Circle, Kirtipur said that two youths were beating Arun Khatri (29) of Tamilcha-8, Udayapur.

He said that police rounded up Ajay Napit (26) and Santosh Maharjan (22) of Baghbhairav, Kirtipur for murdering Khatri, a permanent resident of Tamilcha Municipality-8, Udayapur currently residing at Bosigaun in Kirtipur Municipality-10.

Critically injured in the incident, Khatri, who sustained injuries in his head and chest, breathed his last during the course of treatment at the Kirtipur Hospital.

Police said that they recovered controlled pharmaceutical drugs-31 ampoules of Diazepam, 64 ampoules of Phenergan and 72 ampoules of Norphin-from the bag of Khatri.

DSP Pandey said that they are investigating the case.

Through the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, the US government, in partnership with the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust and the Department of Archeology, has helped restore and preserve cultural heritage sites in Nepal.

Addressing a program organized to celebrate the completion of the Octagonal Krishna Temple, or Krishna Mandir, a restoration project in Patan Durbar Square, US Ambassador to Nepal Randy Berry said his government is proud to support it.

 “The temple has been fully restored.  Now, not only is it beautiful, but its improved structural framework is more resilient to future earthquakes,” he said.  

He further said long-standing partner in Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation projects, the contribution made by artisans and laborers from Patan and around Kathmandu Valley, and the centuries-old cultural heritage of this Square.

You will notice portraits of many of the talented stone carvers, carpenters, metalsmiths, and other artisans who restored the Krishna Temple and other structures in Patan, he said.

It is their work and their dedication to traditional design and construction methods that residents of Patan and thousands of tourists enjoy every year, he added.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reportedly dispatched 30 warplanes to the vicinity of the island of Taiwan on Monday, the same day a US senator arrived on the island for a surprise visit, and also at the same time the US Navy was holding dual carrier drills not far away from the region, Global Times reported.

With most of the aircraft involved being fighter jets, the PLA practiced the seizure of air superiority and aerial strikes in a simulation of reunification-by-force, thus warning the parties involved in the US-Taiwan collusion that the PLA has the capacity to launch a lightning-quick assault that would end the Taiwan question once and for all when necessary, experts said on Tuesday.

The 30 PLA warplanes featured in the mission were two KJ-500 early warning aircraft, four Y-8 electronic intelligence aircraft, a Y-8 electronic warfare aircraft, a Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft, six J-16 fighter jets, eight J-11 fighter jets, four J-10 fighter jets, two Su-35 fighter jets and two Su-30 fighter jets. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s self-proclaimed southwest air defense identification zone between the Dongsha Islands and the Taiwan island on Monday, said Taiwan’s defense authority on Monday.@, according to Global Times.

This was the second largest PLA aircraft activity in 2022, after 39 sorties on January 23. It also marked the first time in a long period that the PLA Air Force’s Su-35 has made a public reappearance, observers said.

On the same day, US Senator Tammy Duckworth and her delegation arrived on the island of Taiwan for a surprise three-day visit, media on the island reported. Duckworth is reportedly scheduled to meet with Taiwan’s regional leader Tsai Ing-wen and others on Tuesday.

The PLA warplane activities also came shortly after two US aircraft carriers, the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Ronald Reagan, reportedly held drills on Saturday and Sunday in waters to the southeast of Okinawa, a strategic location analysts said is a main maritime battlefield if the US militarily intervenes in a possible conflict across the Taiwan Straits.

While the PLA aircraft sorties are part of the regular drills, they are also pointed at Taiwan secessionists and external interference forces like the US, analysts said.

Most of the PLA warplanes dispatched in the drills were fighter jets, and the rest were special-mission aircraft. This means the PLA likely rehearsed the seizure of air superiority from the island’s air force and the US carrier-borne aviation force, a Beijing-based military expert told the Global Times on Tuesday, requesting anonymity, Global Times reported.

Some of the fighter jets tend to being pure air superiority fighters, like the J-11 and the Su-35, while some others tend to being more of a multi-role type that can also launch attacks on ground and maritime targets, like the J-16 and the Su-30, the expert said. The expert noted that the special-mission aircraft can provide command and control as well as intelligence and electronic warfare support.

All types of aircraft will join combat, and that is why they all need to train in drills, the expert said.

It is possible that Taiwan’s defense authority failed to identify all PLA aircraft under strong electronic interference or because of stealth capabilities from warplanes like the J-20, observers said.

Flight data released by Taiwan showed that the PLA likely practiced several waves of non-stop aerial strikes, Zheng Jian, director of the National Taiwan Studies Association and chair professor at the Taiwan Research Institute of Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Drills like this tell the island that when the PLA makes a real move, it will likely be a sudden attack that can put an end to the Taiwan question once and for all, Zheng said. If and when that happens, there would be even more warplanes, in addition to forces on the ground, at sea and in cyberspace, he said, according to Global Times.

The PLA staged in May at least two more large-scale drills around the island of Taiwan targeting collusive US-Taiwan activities, according to official announcements made by the PLA.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 7. 19 points to close at 2,130. 73 points on Wednesday.

Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 1.16 points to close at 414. 47 points.

A total of 3, 020, 067 units of the shares of 227 companies were traded for Rs 1. 07 billion.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalisation stood at Rs 3.03 trillion.

The Finance Ministry has decided to reduce the infrastructure tax levied on petrol and diesel.

The Ministry has decided to slash the infrastructure tax collected for the Budhigandaki Hydropower Project after the people from various walks of life critized the fuel price hike.

The government had been levying the infrastructure tax on diesel and petrol at the rape of Rs 10.

The price of petrol is Rs 180 and the diesel and kerosene is 163.

The Finance Minister on Tuesday had sent a letter to the Industry Ministry to reduce the tax.