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The price of gold has risen by Rs 500 per tola in the domestic market on Monday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association, gold is currently trading at Rs10, 2500 per tola. The yellow metal was traded at Rs 102, 000 per tola on Sunday. 

Similarly, the Tejabi gold is now trading for Rs 102, 000 per tola in the market.

Similarly, the price of silver rose by Rs 5 per tola and is now trading at Rs 1, 420 per tola.

Three Covid-19 fatalities have been reported in Shanghai, the first to be officially counted since the beginning of the city’s lockdown, The Guardian reported.

The three people reported on Monday included two women aged 89 and 91, and a 91-year-old man, who also had underlying health conditions, and were reportedly unvaccinated. Shanghai municipal authorities said the three were admitted to hospital and became critically ill. They died on Sunday “after all efforts were made to rescue them”.

As of 5 April, more than 92 million Chinese people over 65, including 20.2 million over the age of 80, were not fully vaccinated.

The outbreak of the Omicron variant in the Chinese city of more than 24 million people, has so far infected at least 320,000 people since March. It is the worst outbreak in China since the beginning of the pandemic, but despite the high number of cases, zero deaths had been attributed to it. Media reporting has revealed numerous deaths of people after they contracted Covid-19, particularly among elderly people in care homes, but authorities have largely attributed them to the underlying health complaints and not counted them as pandemic fatalities, according to The Guardian.

At a press conference on Monday, Wu Qianyu, a first-level inspector of the municipal health commission, said the direct cause of death of the three people was their underlying conditions, suggesting authorities have markedly changed the way they attribute Covid-19 deaths.

Shanghai authorities reported 22,248 cases for Sunday, including 19,831 asymptomatic. Of the total cases, 1,414 were detected outside quarantine and isolation facilities – where all positive cases must be sent, except those requiring hospitalisation.

The city has suggested it will consider the outbreak contained when there are no new cases found outside quarantined buildings or areas. On Monday Reuters reported authorities had set a target to stop the spread of the virus outside the quarantine and isolation system by Wednesday, which would allow some easing of restrictions.

There has been widespread unrest among Shanghai residents who have complained of food shortages and overzealous enforcement of restrictions, and businesses reporting major impediments to production and supply. It has sparked rare mass online complaints and some protests, The Guardian reported.

While bulk of cases are still being reported in Shanghai, there are multiple outbreaks across China. On Friday the northwestern city of Xian announced a four-day period of curbs on the movement of its 13 million residents, including the closure of entertainment venues and restaurant dining, and bans on some transport leaving the city. Xian was also the site of long lockdowns in December in response to an outbreak of the Delta variant. In Suining, Jiangsin province, authorities have conducted mass testing of almost 900,000 workers, and suspended trains. On Sunday Jilin province lifted its lockdown, but urged continued caution and advised residents to ensure they had enough supplies on hand for one month if needed for a future lockdown, according to The Guardian.

Yannick Carrasco converted a penalty kick 10 minutes into stoppage time as Atlético Madrid beat Espanyol 2-1 to end its three-match winless streak and strengthen its hold on fourth place in the Spanish league on Sunday, Associated Press.

Carrasco scored from the penalty spot in the final play of the game at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium to give Atlético a three-point cushion over fifth-place Real Betis, which was held at sixth-place Real Sociedad on Friday.

The penalty for Atlético was awarded following a lengthy video review to determine whether the ball touched the hand of Espanyol striker Raúl de Tomás inside the area.

Carrasco had already scored to put Atlético ahead in the 52nd, while De Tomás equalized for the visitors in the 74th, according to the Associated Press.

Atlético played a man down from the 71st after midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia was sent off for a handball that earned him a second yellow card. Espanyol equalized in the ensuing free kick with De Tomás' shot getting past Atlético goalkeeper Jan Oblak.

The victory left Atlético tied on points with third-place Sevilla and second-place Barcelona. Sevilla hosted leader Real Madrid later Sunday.

Barcelona will host relegation-threatened Cádiz on Monday.

Atlético hadn't won in three matches. It also hadn't scored goal during that streak, including in the 0-0 home draw against Manchester City on Wednesday in the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, when it was eliminated 1-0 on aggregate after losing the first leg in England, Associated Press reported.

Espanyol had won three of its last five games, with one loss and a draw. It sits in 11th place.

Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema struck a last-gasp winner as the visitors recovered from two goals down to beat title rivals Sevilla 3-2 in a thrilling LaLiga clash on Sunday that took Carlo Ancelotti’s side a step closer to winning the title, Reuters reported.

The victory means Real now have a 15-point lead at the top over closest rivals Barcelona, who have two games in hand, Sevilla in third and fourth-placed Atletico Madrid, who earlier beat Espanyol 2-1, with six rounds of matches remaining.

Benzema fired home two minutes into added time after Rodrygo and Nacho Fernandez had pulled Real level to cancel out Sevilla’s 2-0 halftime lead through goals from Ivan Rakitic and Erik Lamela at a packed Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium.

“Everyone is waiting for Real Madrid to stumble, but Real Madrid don’t stumble because we have heart and character. LaLiga is not finished, but we have taken a big step,” said Ancelotti.

It was a tale of two halves as Sevilla dominated the first but disappeared after the break in a match that was marked by several controversial decisions by referee Guillermo Cuadra, according to Reuters.

He did not give a penalty for what looked to be a clear handball by Sevilla defender Diego Carlos after 17 minutes and then declined to show Real’s Eduardo Camavinga a second yellow card for a foul from behind on Antony Martial in the 37th.

The referee also disallowed Vinicius Jr’s equaliser for Real for a marginal handball decision in the 78th minute, sticking by his call after being sent to the pitchside monitor by VAR.

“We did it even after a lot of controversy because we don’t understand how the ref can call a handball by Vinicius and not call it for Diego Carlos,” Ancelotti told a news conference, Reuters reported.

Gujarat Titans defeated Chennai Super Kings by three wickets in an IPL match on Sunday, The Indian Express reported.

Invited to bat, CSK posted 169 for five, riding on Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 48-ball 73 and Ambati Ruyudu’s 46 off 31 balls.

In reply, David Miller smashed an unbeaten 51-ball 94, while stand-in skipper Rashid Khan slammed a 21-ball 40 as GT chased down the total with one ball to spare.

Earlier, Gaikwad returned to form with a scintillating innings, which was studded with five sixes and as many fours, while Rayudu had four hits to the fence and two maximums. For GT, Alzarri Joseph (2/34) took two wickets, while Mohammed Shami (1/20) and Yash Dayal (1/40) claimed one each, according to the Indian Express.

Beibei sleeps beside thousands of strangers in rows of cots in a high-ceilinged exhibition center. The lights stay on all night, and the 30-year-old real estate saleswoman has yet to find a hot shower. 

Beibei and her husband were ordered into the massive National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai last Tuesday after spending 10 days isolated at home following a positive test. Their 2-year-old daughter, who was negative, went to her grandfather, while her nanny also went into quarantine.

The convention center, with 50,000 beds, is among more than 100 quarantine facilities set up in Shanghai for people such as Beibei who test positive but have no symptoms. It is part of official efforts to contain China’s biggest coronavirus outbreak since the 2-year-old pandemic began, Associated Press reported.

Residents show “no obvious symptoms,” Beibei, who asked to be identified only by her given name, told The Associated Press in an interview by video phone.

“There are people coughing,” she said. “But I have no idea if they have laryngitis or omicron.”

The shutdown of Shanghai, which confined most of its 25 million people to their homes, is testing patience of people who are increasingly fed up with China’s “zero-COVID” policy that aims to isolate every case.

“At the beginning people were frightened and panicked,” Beibei said. “But with the publication of daily figures, people have started to accept that this particular virus is not that horrible.”

Beibei was told she was due to be released Monday after two negative tests while at the convention center. 

Most of Shanghai shut down starting March 28. That led to complaints about food shortages and soaring economic losses, according to the Associated Press.

Anyone who tests positive but shows few or no symptoms is required to spend one week in a quarantine facility. Beibei said she had a stuffy nose and briefly lost part of her senses of taste and smell, but those symptoms passed in a few days.

On Monday, the government reported 23,460 new cases on the Chinese mainland — only 2,742 of which had symptoms. Shanghai accounted for 95% of the total, or 22,251 cases, including 2,420 with symptoms.

The city has reported more than 300,000 cases since late March. Shanghai began easing restrictions last week, though a health official warned the city didn’t have its outbreak under control.

At the convention center, residents are checked twice a day for fever and told to record health information on mobile phones, according to Beibei. 

Most pass the time by reading, square dancing, taking online classes or watching videos on mobile phones.

The 420,000-square-meter (4.6 million-square-foot) exhibition center is best known as the site of the world’s biggest auto show. Other quarantine sites include temporary prefabricated buildings, Associated Press reported.

Residents of other facilities have complained about leaky roofs, inadequate food supplies and delays in treatment for medical problems.

“We haven’t found a place with a hot shower,” Beibei said. “Lights are on all night, and it’s hard to fall asleep.”

A video obtained by AP showed wet beds and floors due a leaky roof in a different facility in a prefabricated building.

“Bathrooms are not very clean” at the NECC, Beibei said. “So many people use them, and volunteers or cleaners can’t keep up.”

Ukrainian fighters who were holed up in a massive steel plant in the last known pocket of resistance inside the shattered city of Mariupol ignored a surrender-or-die ultimatum from Russia on Sunday and held out against the capture of the strategically vital port, Associated Press reported.

The fall of Mariupol, the site of a merciless 7-week-old siege that has reduced much of the city to a smoking ruin, would be Moscow’s biggest victory of the war and free up troops to take part in a potentially climactic battle for control of Ukraine’s industrial east.

Capturing the southern city would also allow Russia to fully secure a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and deprive Ukraine of a major port and its prized industrial assets.

As its missiles and rockets slammed into other parts of the country, Russia estimated that 2,500 Ukrainian troops and about 400 foreign mercenaries were dug in at the sprawling Azovstal steel mill, which covers more than 11 square kilometers (4 square miles) and is laced with tunnels.

Many Mariupol civilians, including children, are also sheltering at the Azovstal plant, Mikhail Vershinin, head of the city’s patrol police, told Mariupol television on Sunday. He said they are hiding from Russian shelling, and from any occupying Russian soldiers, according to the Associated Press.

Moscow had given the defenders a midday deadline to surrender and “keep their lives,” but the Ukrainians rejected it, as they’ve done with previous ultimatums.

“We will fight absolutely to the end, to the win, in this war,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal vowed on ABC’s “This Week.” He said Ukraine is prepared to end the war through diplomacy if possible, “but we do not have intention to surrender.”

As for besieged Mariupol, there appeared to be little hope Sunday of military rescue by Ukrainian forces anytime soon. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the remaining Ukrainian troops and civilians in Mariupol are basically encircled. He said they “continue their struggle,” but that the city effectively doesn’t exist anymore because of massive destruction.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sent Easter greetings via Twitter, saying: “The Lord’s Resurrection is a testimony to the victory of life over death, good over evil.”

If Mariupol falls, Russian forces there are expected to join an all-out offensive in the coming days for control of the Donbas, the eastern industrial region that the Kremlin is bent on capturing after failing in its bid to take Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, Associated Presa reported.

The relentless bombardment and street fighting in Mariupol have killed at least 21,000 people, by the Ukrainians’ estimate. A maternity hospital was hit by a lethal Russian airstrike in the opening weeks of the war, and about 300 people were reported killed in the bombing of a theater where civilians were taking shelter.

An estimated 100,000 remained in the city out of a prewar population of 450,000, trapped without food, water, heat or electricity in a siege that has made Mariupol the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war.

“All those who will continue resistance will be destroyed,” Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the Russian Defense Ministry’s spokesman, said in announcing the latest ultimatum.

Drone footage carried by the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti showed towering plumes of smoke over the steel complex, which sits on the outskirts of the bombed-out city, on the Sea of Azov.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar described Mariupol as a “shield defending Ukraine” as Russian troops prepare for battle in the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists already control some territory, according to the Associated Press.

Russian forces, meanwhile, carried out aerial attacks near Kyiv and elsewhere in an apparent effort to weaken Ukraine’s military capacity ahead of the anticipated assault.

After the humiliating sinking of the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet last week in what the Ukrainians boasted was a missile attack, the Kremlin had vowed to step up strikes on the capital, Associated Presa reported.

Nepal is asking citizens living abroad to deposit funds in domestic banks as part of efforts to ensure the financial system has enough liquidity and to preserve foreign exchange reserves, finance minister Janardan Sharma said on Saturday, Reuters reported.

Speaking to Reuters, he denied Nepal was facing an economic crisis despite the impact of soaring commodity prices as the tourist industry, a key source of revenues, struggles to recover after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nepal, wedged between China and India, this month imposed curbs on luxury goods imports to rein in capital outflows. Foreign exchange reserves fell over 18% to $9.6 billion as of mid-March from mid-July - enough for around six months imports.

By depositing their savings in Nepal, overseas Nepalis would continue to "maintain their link as well as benefit from 6 to 7% interest" offered by Nepali banks, Sharma said, according to Reuters.

Sharma said the economy did not face a crisis and Nepal's situation could not be compared with Sri Lanka. That South Asian country is facing its worst economic crisis in decades and anti-government protests.

In Nepal, remittances by overseas workers, which constitute nearly a quarter of the economy and are crucial for external payments, fell 3.0% to $5.3 billion between mid-July to mid-March, compared with a 5% increase in the same period a year earlier.

Earnings from tourism, which fell sharply after the start of the pandemic in 2020, are slowly picking up, but remain well below pre-COVID levels, Reuters reported.

Sharma said if 100,000 Nepali nationals living abroad deposited $10,000 each in Nepali banks it could go a long way to help Nepal overcome the current liquidity constrains.

Nepal has also decided to accept $659 million in aid from the United States and about $150 million in soft loan from the World Bank, Sharma said.

"The money to be received from the United States over five years is a (non-refundable) grant," he said, according to Reuters.