Nepal-India border to be closed for four days
India is to close the transit points on the border with Nepal for four days in view of the State Legislative election taking place in its Uttarakhand state.
India is closing the border checkpoints bordering Baitadi and Darchula districts of Nepal for four days from today.
Information Officer at the District Administration Office, Baitadi, Khagendra Bharati said the Jhulaghat transit point in Baitadi and Lali, Joljibi, Dattu, Khalanga, Tigram and Sitapul transit points in Darchula would be closed in this connection.
The Indian administration has written to the Baitadi and Darchula districts administrations to that effect, it is said.
The border transit points have been closed based on the agreement between the two countries in view of election security sensitivity. RSS
5 killed in Tulsipur shoe store fire
As many as five persons died when a fire broke out at a shoe factory in Tulsipur of Dang on Friday.
The identities of the deceased are yet to be established.
Police said that the fire broke out at the Iram Footwear at around 2 am today.
DSP Shyamu Aryal of the Area Police Office, Tulsipur said that the fire was later taken under contol with the help of Nepal Police, Nepal Army and Armed Police Force personnel backed by fire engines from Tulsipur Sub-Metropolitan City and Ghorahi Sub-Metropolitan City.
The cause behind the fire was electric short circuit.
US Assistant Secretary Lu warns of reviewing ties with Nepal if MCC is not endorsed
US Assistant Secretary Donald Lu held separate telephone conversations with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli on Thursday.
Assistant Secretary Lu talked about Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) with all the three leaders.
During the discussion, Lu warned that the bilateral ties with Nepal will be reviewed if the MCC is not endorsed from the Parliament.
UML Foreign Affairs Department Chief Rajan Bhattarai confirmed that Assistant Secretary Lu and Oli held a phone conversation.
Bhattarai saud that Lu also talked about long relationship between Nepal and the United States.
Assistant Secretary Lu said that the historical relationship between Nepal and the United States could be affected if the MCC is not ratified.
During the conversation with Dahal, he urged him to endorse the compact by February 28, reminding him of the commitment letter send by him and Prime Minister Deuba to the MCC headquarters.
While talking to the Prime Minister, Lu asked him why they are delaying to table the MCC in the Parliament.
Nepal Teen Leaders calls application for the fourth batch
Nepal Teen Leaders (NTL), an exclusive student-centric year-long program designed for teenage students, has opened forms for the batch of 2022. Find the link to the form here.
NTL is an initiation of Career Point Education Services Pvt. Ltd. with an objective of enabling students’ growth in behavioral attributes and interpersonal skills to the best of their competencies.
This program prioritizes career-building, choosing the right career path, personality development, social and communication skills enhancement amongst the participants intending a positive impact upon their decision making ability and develop analytical perspectives over respective issues. In addition, this program has been primarily designed to create a noteworthy impact in their lives through active involvement in different tasks and activities that will be conducted through distinct expertise in respective sectors.
“Our aim is to provide proper guidance and help participants to achieve their life goals together with behavioral progress through different planned activities,” says Bishal KC, Executive Director of Career Point.
For eligibility, the candidates must have cleared class 11 or equivalent level, should have the interest to work in leadership and social issues. They must bear the commitment to participate actively in every activity. Participants should also be initiative, laborious and focused while the selected ones will be fully funded throughout the program.
UML urges Speaker Sapkota to postpone Parliament meeting
The main opposition CPN-UML has urged Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota to postpone the Parliament meeting scheduled for February 14.
UML Chief Whip Bishal Bhattarai urged Sapkota to postpone the meeting.
"The party has decided to organize an assembly in Biratnagar of Province 1. So, I urged the Speaker to postpone the Parliament meeting," party Chief Whip Bishal Bhattarai said.
"Party's office bearers, local level chiefs, deputy chiefs and all the lawmakers of the province will attend the assembly. That is why, the party has urged Speaker Sapkota to postpone the meeting," he further said.
Time has not come to decide on coalition: NC
Nepali Congress said that the time has not come to decide on the coalition.
Speaking to journalists after the executive meeting, party spokesperson Prakash Sharan Mahat said that the time has not come to take appropriate decision on the alliance.
The decision will come at the appropriate time, he further said.
The meeting also discussed upcoming local level elections and sister organizations of the party.
Mahat said that the meeting also discussed Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and to end the House deadlock.
US inflation jumped 7.5% in the past year, a 40-year high
Inflation soared over the past year at its highest rate in four decades, hammering America’s consumers, wiping out pay raises and reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s decision to begin raising borrowing rates across the economy, Associated Press reported.
The Labor Department said Thursday that consumer prices jumped 7.5% last month compared with 12 months earlier, the steepest year-over-year increase since February 1982. Shortages of supplies and workers, heavy doses of federal aid, ultra-low interest rates and robust consumer spending combined to send inflation accelerating in the past year.
When measured from December to January, inflation was 0.6%, the same as the previous month and more than economists had expected. Prices had risen 0.7% from October to November and 0.9% from September to October.
There are few signs that inflation will slow significantly anytime soon. Most of the factors that have forced up prices since last spring remain in place: Wages are rising at the fastest pace in at least 20 years. Ports and warehouses are overwhelmed, with hundreds of workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation’s busiest, out sick last month. Many products and parts remain in short supply as a result.
Russia starts Belarus military drills amid new diplomacy on Ukraine
Russia started the active phase of military drills in Belarus on Thursday as Britain launched new diplomacy in a standoff over Ukraine, warning Moscow that going to war with its neighbour would be disastrous for Russia, Ukraine and Europe,Reuers reported.
US officials have warned that Russia may attack Ukraine after massing troops near its borders, and have accused Moscow of raising tensions further by holding joint military exercises in Belarus with what NATO says is Russia's biggest deployment to the country since the Cold War.
Russia denies planning an attack, and says it has the right to move its troops as it sees fit across its own territory, and that of its allies with their agreement. It says its military exercises are defensive in nature.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said last week that Russia was expected to have 30,000 troops in Belarus as well as Spetsnaz special operations forces, SU-35 fighter jets, S-400 air defence systems and nuclear-capable Iskander missiles.
Mirroring the military exercises in Belarus, Ukraine launched its own war games on Thursday that, like Russia's Allied Resolve drills, will run until Feb. 20.
The Ukrainian forces, whose numbers have not been disclosed, are set to use Bayraktar drones and anti-tank Javelin and NLAW missiles provided by foreign partners. Kyiv was due to receive a further shipment of US military aid later on Thursday.
At talks in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warned Moscow against attacking Ukraine.
"Fundamentally, a war in Ukraine would be disastrous for the Russian and Ukrainian people and for European security and together NATO has made it clear that any incursion into Ukraine would have massive consequences and carry severe costs," she said.
Lavrov said Moscow was open to improving dire relations between Britain and Russia.
"Of course we can only normalise relations through mutually respectful dialogue... Ideological approaches, ultimatums, threats, morality lectures are a road to nowhere," he said.
'Lines in the snow'
Britain also hoped to use a visit to NATO headquarters by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to underline European solidarity as Moscow seeks guarantees that Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, will never be allowed to join NATO.
"As an alliance we must draw lines in the snow and be clear there are principles upon which we will not compromise," Johnson said. "That includes the security of every NATO ally and the right of every European democracy to aspire to NATO membership."
After French President Emmanuel Macron met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, some Russian experts have said there are tentative signs that the former KGB spy wants t avoid an escalation of the Ukraine crisis. L8N2UJ668
The United States and the European Union have threatened Russia with sanctions if it attacks Ukraine, building on steps taken after Russia annexed Crimea and backed separatists fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
The Kremlin's point man on Ukraine, Dmitry Kozak, was set to meet officials from Ukraine, Germany and France in Berlin for the latest talks on the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the talks would be important and that he hoped they could get a Trilateral Contact Group on the conflict in east Ukraine functioning again. The group includes Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a security watchdog.
French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said agreeing at the talks to continue discussions would be a positive signal.
Six Russian warships have arrived at Sevastopol in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, bulking up Moscow's forces in the Black Sea ahead of planned naval drills, Russian officials said.
