Temporary police dies after falling off cliff in Nuwakot

A temporary police died after he fell off a cliff in Nuwakot.

The deceased has been identified as Yogendra Neupane (26) of Satare, Belkotgadhi  Municipality12, the District Police Office, Nuwakot said.

The incident occurred while he was on his way to his work place in Bidur from his home, SP Ram Prakash Shah, Chief at the District Police Office Nuwakot said.

His body has been handed over to his family members after carrying out postmortem, police said.

Gold price drops by Rs 1, 600 per tola on Wednesday

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 1, 600 in the domestic market on Wednesday.

With the price drop, the yellow bullion is being traded at Rs 100, 600 per tola today.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association, the yellow metal was traded at Rs 102, 200 per tola on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 101, 600 per tola today.

Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1, 420 per tola.

Nepse surges by 7.22 points in pre-open session

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) increased by 7. 22 points to reach 3664. 47 points in the pre-open session on Wednesday.

Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 2 points to reach 449. 76 points.

As many as 1, 442 shares of 26 companies were traded at Rs 384. 609.

In the pre-open session, the value of 22 companies were increased while the value of five companies decreased.

1 killed, 2 injured in Kavre lightning

A person died and two others were injured after being struck by a lightning at Kerabari in Mahabharat Rural Municipality-7 of Kavre district on Tuesday.

The deceased has been identified as Kanchi Maya Moktan (16), daughter of local Dil Bahadur Moktan.

The incident occurred at around 6 pm yesterday.

The condition of those injured in the incident is normal, Chairman of Mahabharat Rural Municipality-7 Jagat Tamang said.

 

 

Bangalore defeat Lucknow by 18 runs

Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Lucknow Super Giants by 18 runs in their Indian Premier League match here on Tuesday, The Indian Express reported.

Sent into bat, Royal Challengers Bangalore scored 181 for six with skipper Faf du Plessis making a brilliant 96 off 64 balls, an innings that contained 11 fours and two sixes.

In reply, LSG were stopped at 163 for eight, according to The Indian Express.

Sri Lanka crisis: One killed after police fire live bullets at protesters

Police in Sri Lanka opened fire on crowds protesting at fuel shortages during the economic crisis, leaving one man dead and 11 others wounded, BBC reported.

The casualties in the central town of Rambukkana came after live ammunition was used by police for the first time since protests erupted in early April.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets since Sri Lanka ran out of money for vital imports.

They want President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign but he is refusing to quit.

His appointment of a new cabinet on Monday angered many Sri Lankans. There were protests in a number of areas on Tuesday after Sri Lanka's main fuel retailer put prices up by nearly 65%.

The Rambukkana crowds had been protesting for about 15 hours demanding fuel, BBC Sinhala's Ranga Sirilal reports.

"Police had to fire to control the protesters. They set fire to some tyres too, so police had to fire to disperse them," police spokesman Nihal Talduwa told the BBC.

The authorities say the crowd threw stones and other objects at police, injuring a number of them. 

Two of the injured protesters are reported to be in a critical condition. The man who died was likely to have been shot, Mihiri Priyangani, director of the Kegalle Teaching Hospital, told Reuters news agency. 

"We are suspecting gunshot injuries but need a post-mortem to confirm the exact cause of death."

Thousands of angry motorists and bus drivers have been burning tyres and blocking the nearby highway linking the capital Colombo with the city of Kandy.

The island nation is grappling with its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.

It is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which has meant that Sri Lanka cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods and fuel, leading to acute shortages and very high prices, according to BBC.

With power cuts lasting half a day or more, public anger has soared.

The demonstrations mark a massive turnaround in popularity for Mr Rajapaksa who swept into power in 2019, promising stability and a "strong hand" to rule the country.

Critics say corruption and nepotism - his brothers and nephews occupied several key ministerial portfolios - are the main reasons for the crisis.

The new cabinet contained several party stalwarts, but was shorn of Rajapksa family members, apart from the president's elder brother Mahinda who kept his job as prime minister, BBC reported.

Ukraine war: Kyiv's allies pledge more weapons to help win war

Ukraine's allies have pledged to send more weapons to help it defend against a renewed Russian offensive, BBC reported.

The US and others vowed to send artillery, anti-tank and air Defence aid to Kyiv during a 90-minute video call on Tuesday. 

Ukraine says it needs the weapons to help defend itself as Russia launched a new campaign in the country's east.

Clashes there have marked what Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky said was the start of the "battle for the Donbas". 

The eastern Donbas - which comprises the Luhansk and Donetsk regions - is where Russia is concentrating its efforts.

According to Ukraine, Russian forces have been attacking Ukrainian positions along the entire 300-mile (480km) front line since Monday.

It was amid these renewed attacks that Western leaders met to discuss further military assistance for Ukraine, according to BBC.

Following the meeting, the US defence department said additional military aircraft and aircraft parts had been sent to Ukraine to increase their fleet size and repair others in Ukraine's arsenal that were damaged.

The US defence department added that the US had not provided aircraft to Kyiv itself, and did not provide details on which countries have provided the aircraft.

President Zelensky has been appealing to the US for Soviet-made air defence systems and fighter jets as an alternative to a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Last month, the US refused a proposal by Poland to provide it with MiG-29 fighter jets, which it would then transfer to Ukraine.

President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters after the meeting between Western allies, added that the US is planning to provide a further military aid package to Ukraine of a similar size to the $800m (£615m) aid package he announced last week, according to US media.

He said Washington would also be sending Ukraine more artillery - heavy guns deployed in land warfare.

Other countries also pledged to help Ukraine with further military assistance during the meeting.

"They [Ukraine] need support with more artillery, that is what we will be giving them," said the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in parliament after the meeting, BBC reported.

In Berlin, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany was providing finance to enable Ukraine to buy anti-tank weapons and ammunition from German arms manufacturers. 

Meanwhile, the Czech Republic said it would repair Ukrainian tanks and armoured vehicles when they are damaged in combat.

Further economic sanctions against Russia was another topic on the agenda.

The arms pledges follow persistent calls from President Zelensky for allies to increase their weapons supplies to Kyiv.

"We need heavy artillery, armed vehicles, air defence systems and combat aircraft — anything to repel Russian forces and stop their war crimes," Mr Zelensky said on Twitter last week. "Nobody will stop Russia except Ukraine with heavy weapons".

Russia fiercely opposes such assistance.

"The United States and Western states under its control are doing everything to drag out the military operation for as long as possible," Russia's defence chief Sergei Shoigu said.

The leaders also discussed how to provide security guarantees to Ukraine after the war even if it is not a member of Nato, a French presidential advisor said.

Nato is a military alliance whose 30 members - including the US, UK and Germany - have agreed to come to one another's aid in the event of an armed attack against any one of them.

Since Ukraine is not a Nato member, the alliance isn't obliged to come to its defence. 

Its members fear that involving themselves in direct armed confrontation could lead to an all-out conflict between Russia and the West.

Instead, Nato members have supplied Ukraine with millions of dollars worth of military aid since Russia launched the invasion, according to BBC.

 

Massive flames force evacuation of hundreds of Arizona homes

Winds kicked up a towering wall of flames in rural northern Arizona on Tuesday, tearing through two-dozen structures and forcing the evacuation of more than 700 homes, Associated Press reported.

Coconino County declared an emergency Tuesday as the fast-moving wildfire outside of the Northern Arizona University college town of Flagstaff ballooned to over 9 square miles (23 square kilometers) Tuesday, Sheriff Jim Driscoll said during a news conference. 

County officials said 766 homes and 1,000 animals have been evacuated. More than 2,000 people live in the area, officials said.

A couple of hundred homes are still threatened as smoke billowed into the air in an all-too-familiar scene. Residents recalled scrambling to pack their bags and flee a dozen years ago during a much-larger wildfire burned in the same area.

Driscoll said the sheriff’s office got a call saying a man was trapped in his house, but that firefighters couldn’t get to him. They do not know if he survived, according to the Associated Press.

Flame lengths are as high as 100 feet (30 meters), the US Forest Service said. Firefighters on Tuesday were up against 50 mph (80 kph) gusts that pushed the wildfire over the highway and weren’t expected to let up much this week, authorities said.

About 200 firefighters were working the blaze that appeared to be moving northeast away from the more heavily populated areas of Flagstaff, toward Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument and volcanic cinders, said Coconino National Forest spokesman Brady Smith. 

“It’s good in that it’s not headed toward a very populated area, and it’s headed toward less fuel,” he said. “But depending on the intensity of the fire, fire can still move across cinders.”

A top-level national fire management team is expected to take over later this week.

Fire and law enforcement agencies that were knocking on doors to warn of evacuations Tuesday were forced to pull out to avoid getting trapped by the flames, Paxton said. Arizona Public Service Co. shut off power to about 625 customers to keep firefighters safe, a spokeswoman said.

Red flag warnings blanketed much of Arizona and New Mexico on Tuesday, indicating conditions are ripe for wildfires. Residents in northern New Mexico’s Mora and San Miguel counties were warned to be ready to evacuate as wildfires burned there amid dry, warm and windy conditions, Associated Press reported.

The National Interagency Fire Center reported Tuesday that nearly 2,000 wildland firefighters and support personnel were assigned to more than a dozen large wildfires in the Southwestern, Southern and Rocky Mountain areas. Scientists say climate change has made the US West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

The fire in Flagstaff was estimated at 100 acres (40 hectares) early Tuesday but quickly grew to 9.3 square miles (24 square kilometers), scorching timber and grass. It started Sunday afternoon 14 miles (22 kilometers) northeast of the city nestled in the largest contiguous Ponderosa pine forest in the US Investigators don’t know yet what caused it and have yet to corral any part of the blaze.

The Arizona Department of Transportation shut down a section of US 89, the main route between Flagstaff and the far northern part of the state, and a primary route to and from Navajo Nation communities, because of the wildfire. Various organizations worked to set up shelters for evacuees and for animals.

Ali Taranto rushed to Flagstaff from Winslow, where she works at a hospital, to check on a property she owns that was threatened by the wildfire. She also was getting messages to check on a neighbor who she found didn’t have access to oxygen while the power was out and didn’t have the strength to manually open her garage door to evacuate, according to the Associated Press.

Taranto said the neighbor was “disoriented and gasping for air” when she reached her. Firefighters in the area helped get the garage door open and the neighbor to the hospital, she said. Taranto was looking for a shelter for the neighbor’s two dogs.

By the time Taranto left the area, the highway into Flagstaff was shut down and she had to drive an extra two hours back home. At least two other neighbors didn’t evacuate, she said.

“To see flames several yards away from your property line and to hear the propane tanks bursting in the background, it was very surreal,” Taranto said. “Ash falling down. It was crazy.”

The wind is expected to be a challenge the rest of the week, along with warmer-than-average weather and low humidity, the National Weather Service said, Associated Press reported.