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The price of gold has dropped by Rs 300 per tola in the domestic market on Wednesday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the yellow metal is being traded at Rs 150, 500 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 150, 800 per tola on Tuesday.

Similarly, the price of silver has dropped by Rs 5 and is being traded at Rs 1,735 per tola today.

The Narayangadh-Butwal road section along the East-West Highway has been obstructed.

Nawalparasi (Bardaghat Susta East) road has been obstructed again following a landslide at Daunne in Binayi Triveni Rural Municipality-2.

Deputy Superintendent of Police at the District Police Office, Bardaghat-Susta East, Bed Bahadur Poudel said the road that came into partial operation since Tuesday evening has been disrupted following torrential rain last night.

Efforts are underway to operate the road, he added.

If you want to be fit but don’t have time to head to the gym, there is help available in the form of workout apps. While many apps come with costly subscriptions, there are plenty of free ones that provide you just the tools you need to start your fitness journey. Here are our top three favorite ones to get you started.

Caliber

The group and individual workouts come at a price but Caliber’s free version has a vast library of more than 500 exercises. There are additional resources and tools to aid your fitness journey that are completely free. Each has a demo video, detailed instructions, pictures showing you which body parts are involved in which exercise. Also, the app allows you to track your progress by recording and charting strength and body metrics like your weight, waist size, and body fat percentage.

Fiit

Available in both paid and free versions, this app is a treasure trove. The app has over 2,000 workouts ranging from strength training to cardio to yoga. The good thing is that the free version gives you unlimited access to all group classes. You can also invite family and friends to join. The workouts are of different lengths. Some are as short as 10 minutes while others, like the full body workout, last for an hour or longer. Most of the workouts are designed in a way that requires no equipment, just your body weight will do. 

Nike Training Club

This is a free exercise app that features a clean interface and a large library of individual workouts and on-demand classes. It will be helpful for users of all fitness levels. But you will need some basic equipment like dumbbells, kettlebells, and some gym equipment to take part in many of the workouts available here. Even if you are going to the gym, this app can be a handy tool to guide you through the workouts. Nike Training Club will help you develop strength and endurance.

British Ambassador to Nepal, Rob Fenn, paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli at the latter’s office in Singha Durbar on Tuesday.

On the occasion, they discussed matters of mutual relations and interest between the two countries, according to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.

PM Oli said that the government has kept development, increased participation of youths in policy-making and meeting the sustainable development goals in priority while strengthening Nepal's federalism and democracy.

The Prime Minister asserted that the government is working to fulfill the national aspiration of 'Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali'. He added that the government is committed to fulfill the expectation of the people towards it, as the government is formed in collaboration of two large parties.

The British Ambassador expressed happiness for finalizing the legal topics related to transitional justice based on political agreement. He assured of continued assistance of the UK government in Nepal's development, good governance and federalism strengthening, among others.

He also expressed commitment to assist the Nepali traders in exporting their goods to the UK.

A parliamentary committee’s report on Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons, Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Third Amendment) Bill, 2081 has been tabled in the House of Representatives (HoR).

Chairperson of the Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee, Bimala Subedi tabled the committee's report on the bill in the Parliament meeting today.

The HoR had sent the bill to the committee for clause-wise discussion. It may be noted that the committee’s meeting on August 8 had unanimously passed the report on the bill.

Also today, Chairperson of the Infrastructure Development Committee Deepak Bahadur Singh tabled the committee’s annual report, 2080.

Chairperson Singh shared that some development projects have fallen victims to political reasons, making their outcome uncertain.

There are several problems such as transfer of employees with the change of minister, not allowing the employees engaged in the program to work in the same project until completion, and political interference in project works.

Likewise, Chairperson of the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee Amar Bahadur Thapa tabled the annual report of the committee for the year 2081 BS.

In the meeting, Speaker Devraj Ghimire informed the House that the names of the members in the implementation of the state directive principles, policies and responsibilities under the joint committee, and monitoring and evaluation committee have been changed.

The next meeting of the Parliament will be held at 1 pm on August 14.

Altogether 170 people have lost their lives to various incidents of monsoon-induced disasters in the last two months.

Similarly, 44 have been reported missing while 195 have suffered injuries in disasters such as floods, landslides and inundation among others from June 10 to August 8.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said that the number of deaths of people in the monsoon-triggered disasters has gone up compared to last year.

Natural disasters claimed lives of 72 persons, left 100 injured while 28 went missing last monsoon, according to the NDRRMA.

Altogether 2,998 households have suffered damages from monsoon-induced disasters while 197 houses were completely destroyed and 170 houses were partially destroyed this monsoon.

So far, three public offices, five concrete bridges, 15 suspension bridges and one hydro power plant have suffered damages from the disasters.

Over 169 cases of flood, 336 cases of landslides, 228 cases of heavy rainfall and 88 lightning cases were recorded during the two months.

Likewise, 471 disasters such as fire, storm, animal attacks, wildfire and snake bites were also reported during this period in which 19 people died, the NDRRMA statistic showed.

Since the arrival of monsoon, on an average 171.7 millimeters of rainfall has been measured to have taken place across the country. The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology had predicted more than average rainfall this monsoon.

Chandani Dodhara in Kanchanpur district recorded the highest rainfall in the past 77 years at 624 millimeters this monsoon, according to the Department.

A total of 8,252 police personnel from Nepal Police, 5,817 from Armed Police Force, 4,708 from Nepali Army were involved in search, rescue and relief distribution operation during the disasters.

The government has approved a plan of action for overall reforms in the civil aviation sector. 

A meeting of the Council of Ministers on August 12 also approved the plan of action on the operation of Gautam Buddha International Airport and Pokhara International Airport, Minister for Communications and Information Technology Prithvi Subba Gurung said on Tuesday at a news conference at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. 

The Cabinet meeting appointed Ramesh Acharya of Dhading district to the post of General Manager of Food Management and Trading Company Limited and Prakash Prasad Pokharel of Ilam district as the General Manager of Nepal Transit and Warehousing Company Limited.

Minister Gurung, who is also the government spokesperson, said that the Cabinet meeting appointed Dr Rewati Raman Poudel, Dr Yamuna Ghale, Dr Reshma Shrestha and Jagat Bahadur Deuja as the members of the Federal Land Utilization Council. 

Similarly, the meeting has approved the participation of Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya in the 12th Conference on South Asian Election Management to be held from August 13-16 in Bhutan.

Furthermore, the meeting has approved the loan assistance of USD 110 million to be received from the Asian Development Bank for irrigation projects and formed a panel under the leadership of a joint secretary at the Finance Ministry to hold talks on receiving US Dollars 15 million in grants.

Likewise, the meeting approved the resignation tendered by two first-class officers, Indu Bikram Joshi and Komal Prasad Dhamal, of the Civil Service.

Lawmakers have expressed concern over 'unsafe' aviation service, drawing the attention of the government to make civil aviation safe.

During an emergency hour of today’s meeting of the House of Representatives, lawmaker Sobita Gautam stressed the need of formulating laws to make the country's aviation sector safe immediately if needed.

“A serious problem has been seen in the country's aviation sector. All bodies concerned are requested to make this sector safe. Let’s immediately formulate laws making the aviation sector systematic and safe,” she mentioned.

Sharing that air and road travel has become unsafe in recent periods, lawmaker Bina Lama drew the government's attention towards making it safe. 

Similarly, lawmaker Birendra Mahato drew the government's attention towards the incident of the disappearance of Arun Sharma (20) of Kalyanpur-3 in Siraha district for the past 35 days from Kathmandu.

He said Tarai settlements are at the risk of encroachment of rivers, demanding construction of embankments.