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A 52-year-old Indian climber died while ascending the peak of Mt Kanchenjunga in Nepal, according to the organiser of the expedition, PTI reports. 

Narayanan Iyer, a resident of Maharashtra, died on Thursday at 8,200 meters altitude of the world’s third-highest mountain peak lying at the India-Nepal border, Nivesh Karki, executive director of the Pioneer Adventure, the organizer of the expedition, told PTI. 

According to the preliminary report, the Indian climber died due to high altitude sickness, some 386 metres below the 8,586-metre high peak. The climber refused to descend when the organisers “asked him to descend when he fell sick” while scaling the mountain, which led to his death, Karki told PTI.

Nepal has made substantial progress in the status of press freedom. According to a report prepared by Reporters Without Borders Nepal has climbed up by 30 points in the global ranking at 76th position. \

Last year, Nepal had been placed at 106th position, Pakistan at 145th, Sri Lanka 127th, Bangladesh 152nd, and Myanmar at 140th position in the index.

The 2022 edition of the World Press Freedom Index, which assesses the state of journalism in 180 countries and territories, highlights the disastrous effects of news and information chaos – the effects of a globalized and unregulated online information space that encourages fake news and propaganda.

Within democratic societies, divisions are growing as a result of the spread of opinion media following the “Fox News model” and the spread of disinformation circuits that are amplified by the way social media functions. At the international level, democracies are being weakened by the asymmetry between open societies and despotic regimes that control their media and online platforms while waging propaganda wars against democracies. Polarisation on these two levels is fuelling increased tension, the report says. 

Nepal logged 15 new Covid-19 cases on Friday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 2, 450 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 15 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 003 people underwent antigen tests, of which no one were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of the virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 17 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 215 active cases in the country. 

Namaste Eid 2022, powered by Ntorq, is going to be held in Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu from 1 pm to 7 pm on Saturday.

Namaste Eid 2022, will be the fourth edition of the Eid event initiated in Nepal by Open Space Network.

The aim of this festival is to promote culture, harmony, and friendship, read a statement issued by Open Space Network.

"We will strengthen and unite local communities by reviving, celebrating, and sharing the essence of Eid through this event," Faija Parweenn of the Open Space Network said.

The Asian Games 2022, which were scheduled to be held in September in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, has been postponed until 2023 due to Covid-19 pandemic.

The Olympic Council of Asia confirmed that the Asian Games will be postponed until 2023, Reuters reported.

The call, which was first confirmed by the Chinese state media, has been taken with China is battling a resurgence in Covid-19 infections. Shanghai, the financial hub of the country, has been under a lockdown for a month now while more curbs have been introduced in Beijing, which is on edge now.

The decision comes even as China was able to host the Winter Olympics in Beijing earlier this year. There were strict Covid-19 protocols in place and the Games were held behind closed doors in February 2022.

Notably, India's Sports Minister Anurag Thakur had said last month that a call on India's participation in the Asian Games would be taken depending on China's assessment of the situation and its readiness to host the continental event amid the rising cases, according to Reuters.

"All other participating nations are discussing and in some time India will also take a decision but before that the host nation should make it clear what are they thinking and how much prepared they are," Thakur had said.

The Asian Games is the latest in the list of major sporting events which have seen delays or cancellations due to the Covid-19 crisis. The biggest global sporting event, the Olympic Games, were postponed until 2021 due to the pandemic in 2020. The Summer Games went ahead even as a section of the public in Japan were against the country hosting the global sporting spectacle.

The Olympic Games went ahead without any major Covid-19 impact as athletes from across the globe experienced the new normal as they deal with the pressure of the Olympics in Tokyo.

The 2018 edition of the Asian Games were held in Jakarta and Palembang. India had finished 8th in the medal table with a total of 69 medals, including 15 gold medals. India's elite athletes will set their sights on the Commonwealth Games in the absence of the Asian Games this year. The CWG will be held in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8, Reuters reported.

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 600 per tola in the domestic market on Friday.

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 98, 600 per tola on Thursday.

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

Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1, 280 per tola. It was traded at Rs 1, 305 on Thursday.

A building collapse one week ago in central China killed 53 people, state media reported Friday as the search of the large pile of debris ended after rescuers found 10 survivors, Associated Press reported.

Authorities said at a news conference that all the missing had been accounted for as of 3 a.m., state broadcaster CCTV said in an online post.

The residential and commercial building in the city of Changsha suddenly collapsed the afternoon of April 29. Aerial photos showed it pancaked to about the second story between other buildings about six stories tall. At least nine people have been arrested on suspicion of ignoring building codes or committing other violations.

Survivors were pulled out of the rubble over several days. The 10th and last one was pulled out shortly after midnight on Thursday, 5 ½ days after the collapse. All of the survivors were reportedly in good condition after being treated in a hospital, according to the Associated Press.

The arrested include the building owner, three people in charge of design and construction and five others who allegedly gave a false safety assessment for a guest house on the building's fourth to sixth floors. The building also had residences, a café and a restaurant.

Rescuers used search dogs, hand tools, drones and electronic life detectors.

In an account of Monday's rescue of the eighth survivor, state media said rescuers faced an unstable pile of rubble that they had to work around rather than demolish. Prior to the rescue, they were able to feed in video equipment to communicate with the girl and establish that one of her legs was trapped. They also fed in saline solution for her to drink.

An increase in the number of collapses of self-built buildings in recent years prompted Chinese President Xi Jinping to call for additional checks to uncover structural weaknesses.

Poor adherence to safety standards, including the illegal addition of extra floors and failure to use reinforcing iron bars, is often blamed for such disasters. Decaying infrastructure such as gas pipes has also led to explosions and collapses, Associated Press reported.

Srijana Singh is a mayoral candidate for the Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

Singh, a candidate from the Nepali Congress, started her politics as a student leader of the Nepal Student Union, a student wing of Nepali Congress.

She is the wife of Prakash Man Singh, a prominent Congress leader and a son of political stalwart Ganesh Man Singh.

Here are some of the commitments made by Singh in her election manifesto:

1.     To make Kathmandu corruption-free city

2.     To improve the quality of education

3.     To make Kathmandu, a zero waste metropolitan city

4.     To install CCTV cameras in public vehicles to ensure women’s safety

5.     To connect culture, jatras, traditional musical instruments and language among others with tourism

6.     To work unwaveringly for the long-term development of Kathmandu by protecting and promoting the guthi system

7.     To protect daily-wage female workers and working mothers.

8.     To improve pedestrian infrastructure and pedestrianisation of city core areas

9.     To maintain austerity and good governance in the city

10. To protect and expand open areas, parks, ponds and falcha among others