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Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba has urged the leaders and cadres, who have filed their candidacies against the official candidates of the party for the local level elections slated for May 13, to withdraw their nominations.

Issuing an appeal on Thursday, Prime Minister Deuba urged the rebel candidates to withdraw nominations by 5 pm tomorrow.

President Deuba urged the candidates to withdraw their nominations also by assessing the current and future situation of the country.

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 1, 000 per tola in the domestic market on Thursday.

With the price drop, the yellow bullion is being traded at Rs 98, 000 per tola today.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association, the yellow metal was traded at Rs 99, 000 per tola on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 97, 500 per tola today.

Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1, 320 per tola.

The tejabi gold was traded at Rs 98, 500 and silver at Rs 1, 340.

Nepal banned imports of cars, alcohol, tobacco and other luxury items Wednesday and shortened its work week to help conserve its dwindling supply of foreign exchange, Associated Press reported.

A notice published in the government gazette said only emergency vehicles can be imported. No imports of any type of alcohol or tobacco products, large-engine motorcycles and mobile phones costing over $600 dollars will be allowed.

The ban, in effect until the end of the fiscal year in mid-July, also forbids imports of toys, playing cards and diamonds.

Without such drastic measures, the foreign currency reserves needed to import almost everything will last only a few more months, officials said, according to the Associated Press.

Nepal's main sources of foreign currency are tourism, remittances from overseas workers and foreign aid.

Hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists usually visit the Himalayan country every year, but the number of visitors plunged during the pandemic.

Rising prices for oil have added to pressure on Nepal's foreign reserves. So to conserve fuel, Information Minister Gyanendra Karki announced Wednesday that the government would reduce the work week from five and a half days to five.

However the crisis is already easing, he said, as tourists resume visits and more Nepalis go overseas to work, sending their earnings home, Associated Press reported.

A massive fire broke out at Kamalnagar Chowk in Narayangarh Bazaar of Chitwan on Thursday.

Police said that the fire broke out at the four-storey house of Tulsiram Sapokota in Bharatpur Metropolitan City-3 at around 2 am today.

The fire also destroyed six shops operating in the house.

Police said that the details of the property destroyed in the fire is yet to be ascertained.

The flame was later taken under control with the help of locals, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and Nepal army personnel backed by the fire engines of Khaireni Municipality and Nepal Army at around 7 am, police said.

Gujarat Titans beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets in their Indian Premier League match on Wednesday, The Indian Express reported.

The Titans chased down a stiff target of 196 in the last ball thanks to the batting heroics of Rashid Khan (31 not out) and Rahul Tewatia (40 not out).

The Titans ended at 199 for five in 20 overs. Wriddhiman Saha made 68 off 38 balls at the top of the order, according to The Indian Express.

Pace sensation Umran Malik’s stunning figures of 5/25 — his maiden five-for — went in vain.

The World Bank has agreed to provide Sri Lanka with $600m in financial assistance to help meet payment requirements for essential imports, the Sri Lankan president’s media division has said, Aljazeera reported.

“The World Bank has agreed to provide $600 million in financial assistance to address the current economic crisis,” the media division said in a statement on Tuesday.

The World Bank would release $400m “shortly”, it said.

According to the statement, the World Bank said it would continue to help Sri Lanka to overcome the current economic crisis.

Sri Lanka stocks rallied on the news and the Colombo All-Share Index climbed as much as 4.1 percent, after losing about 15 percent in the past two days. The bluechip S&P Sri Lanka 20 Index surged more than 7 percent. Trading had to be suspended within minutes of the open in the prior two sessions as the S&P gauge fell by its daily set limit.

Sri Lanka’s worst financial crisis since independence in 1948 was caused by a drastic drop in its reserves that dropped 70 percent over the past two years, hitting $1.93bn at the end of March. This left Colombo struggling to pay for essentials, including fuel, medicines and food, according to Aljazeera.

Earlier this month, Sri Lanka kicked off talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial assistance. Before the IMF finalises a programme for Sri Lanka, the country needs $3-4bn in bridge financing to help meet its essential expenses.

The Sri Lankan government has also appealed to multiple countries and multilateral organisations for bridge financing until the IMF comes up with its aid.

India has helped Sri Lanka by assisting with $1.9bn, and Colombo is in talks with New Delhi for an extra $1.5bn to fund imports, including fuel.

Sri Lanka is also negotiating with China for up to $1bn in a syndicated loan.

Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Ali Sabry said Colombo would also seek assistance from the Asian Development Bank.

The country announced a suspension on some of its foreign debt repayments earlier this month and said it would divert its meagre reserves to fund essential imports such as fuel, cooking gas and medicine, Aljazeera reported.

Liverpool looks like being one European giant too many for Villarreal.

Wins in the Champions League semifinals are rarely as routine as Liverpool’s 2-0 first-leg victory on Wednesday over the Spanish underdog, which appears to have finally come unstuck on a fairytale run that has already accounted for European football royalty in Juventus and Bayern Munich, Associated Press reported.

Liverpool, still on course for an unprecedented quadruple of major trophies, proved to be a bigger test. The six-time European champions slowly dismantled the limited challenge of Villarreal on another night when they were swept along by the power of Anfield.

The goals came early in the second half — and within 133 seconds of each other — as Villarreal left back Pervis Estupinan unwittingly deflected a cross by Jordan Henderson into his own net in the 53rd minute, with goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli only managing to tip a looping ball into his own net.

One goal can quickly turn into two in these energy-charged European nights at Anfield and that’s what transpired again, with Villarreal still shaken up from conceding the opener when Sadio Mane ran onto Mohamed Salah’s through-ball and toe-poked a low finish beyond Rulli.

The second leg takes place at Estadio de la Cerámica on Tuesday and only a major surprise will prevent Villarreal — a team only in seventh place in the Spanish league and filled with players who failed to make it in England — from bowing out, just like in 2006 in its only other appearance in the semifinals, according to the Associated Press.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp struck a cautious note despite the one-sided nature of the first leg.

“Nothing has happened yet,” he said. “We’re playing a game and it’s 2-0 at halftime. You have to be completely on alert, 100% in the right mood.”

Klopp has built a formidable winning machine that looks even more complete than the team which won the Champions League in 2019, a year after also reaching the final and losing to Real Madrid under the German coach.

As his players did a lap of honor inside Anfield after the final whistle, Klopp waved to the crowd and tapped the club crest on the front of his thick coat.

Another win. Likely another Champions League final. And, amazingly, the quadruple is still on for a team that has already won the English League Cup, is into the FA Cup final and is only a point behind Manchester City in the Premier League title race.

It could yet be a Champions League final between the two northwest rivals, with City taking a 4-3 lead over Real Madrid into the second leg of their semifinal in Spain next Wednesday.

A sea of yellow-clad Villarreal fans — at around 5,000, they amounted to almost 10% of the population of the town in eastern Spain — swarmed its way from Liverpool city center to Anfield ahead of the game. A rendition of The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine,” which is the nickname of visitors, was well-received by the lively away contingent before kickoff, Associated Press reported.

That was as warm as the welcome got.

Liverpool snapped into tackles and pressed high from the first whistle, meaning Villarreal’s players hardly got out of their half all match.

“The reality is, they are in the best moment,” Villarreal coach Unai Emery said of Liverpool. “They are in the favorite to win this competition.” 

Yet, with Emery setting up his team with his back four screened by a deep-lying and narrow midfield four, Liverpool was initially starved of space in what quickly became tantamount to an attack vs. defense exercise.

There were plenty of half-chances — Mane headed wide off his face, Salah curled over then volleyed over, and Thiago Alcantara smashed a long-range shot off the outside of the post — but Villarreal held out until halftime.

Then it all went wrong.

The two goals came in between two disallowed efforts, by Fabinho then Andrew Robertson, and it was only Liverpool’s players taking their foot off the gas that stopped an even bigger victory.

“We had put in a perfect performance up to the first goal,” said Rulli, who called Liverpool the best team in the world. “After that, we were a bit uncertain.”

Klopp used the opportunity to take a number of key players off early, with a potentially tough Premier League game against Newcastle on Saturday sandwiched between the six-day turnaround for the Villarreal games, Associated Press reported.

Liverpool’s quadruple charge is likely to be heading deep into May.

The parents of a US Marine freed in a prisoner swap with Russia have spoken of their joy at his release, BBC reported.

Trevor Reed had been held in a Russian jail since 2019. He was traded for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian jailed on drug-smuggling charges.

Speaking outside the Reed home in Texas, his mother said she felt "almost as good as the day he was born".

Reed is currently on his way back to the US, where he is expected to spend several days in hospital. 

President Joe Biden said he had been "delighted" to share the news of Mr Reed's return with his parents in a phone call.

"The negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly," he said.

According to parents Joey and Paula Reed, their son was poorly treated in prison and appeared to have contracted tuberculosis, according to BBC.

The couple protested outside the White House last month, ultimately securing a meeting with the president.

In a media interview outside their home in a suburb of Dallas on Wednesday, they thanked Mr Biden, who his father said "probably saved our son's life".

They added that Mr Biden's phone call came while they were on the other line with their son. When they told the president they were at that very moment speaking with Trevor, Mr Biden told them to hang up on him.

"Anyone who says he's [Mr Biden's] not a compassionate or kind man is just a liar or an idiot," his father said about Mr Biden. 

Mr Reed, 30, went to Moscow in 2019 to learn Russian and visit his Russian girlfriend.

On a drunken night out, he was detained by two police officers after attending a party. While being driven to the police station, he is said to have grabbed the police officer driving, causing him to swerve, and elbowed the other officer who tried to intervene, BBC reported.

Maintaining that he had no recollection of the incident, he pleaded not guilty but was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2020 on assault charges.

The US government raised concerns about the fairness of his trial, with US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan recently saying that Mr Reed "remains in prison for a crime he didn't commit".

Senior US officials said on Wednesday that Mr Reed's release was "the result of months and months of hard, careful work" and there had been "growing concern" over his health while in detention.

The prisoner swap was carried out via Turkey after President Biden commuted the sentence of Mr Yaroshenko.

The Russian pilot had been serving a 20-year sentence since 2011 for smuggling cocaine into the US. Mr Yaroshenko's lawyer has confirmed his client is also homeward bound, according to BBC.

Officials have said Wednesday's exchange was not the start of a broader diplomatic dialogue with Russia and instead focused narrowly on a "discrete set of prisoner issues".

That means the fate of other Americans currently detained in Russia - including Brittney Griner, a double Olympic gold medallist in women's basketball - remains unclear for now.

Ms Griner has been in regular contact with her Russian lawyer and is awaiting a trial date, a person close to the situation told the BBC. An earlier motion challenging her arrest was denied. 

In a statement, the family of Paul Whelan, a former US Marine being held on spying charges, said they were "full of happiness for the Reeds", but time was running out for Mr Whelan, BBC reported.

"Paul has already spent three-and-a-quarter years as a Russian hostage," they wrote. "Is President Biden's failure to bring Paul home an admission that some cases are too hard to solve? Is the administration's piecemeal approach picking low-hanging fruit?"