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The weather will be partly cloudy in the hilly areas, including Koshi and Madhes Provinces and generally clear in the rest of the Terai region.

According to the Meteorological Forecasting Division, the weather will be partly cloudy in the hilly regions of Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki, Karnali and Sudurpaschim Provinces and mainly fair in the rest of the country.

Light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning is likely to occur at a few places of the hilly region of Bagmati, Gandaki and Karnali Provinces and at one or two places of Karnali and Sudurpashchim Provinces.

There is a possibility of light snowfall at one or two places of the high hilly and mountainous regions of Koshi and Gandaki Provinces.

Similarly, the weather will be partly cloudy in the hilly regions of Koshi, Madhes and Karnali Provinces and mainly fair in the rest of the country tonight. Light rain accompanied by thunder, gusty winds and lightning is likely to occur at one or two places of the hilly regions of Koshi, Gandaki and Karnali Provinces.

In the next 24 hours, thunder and lightning will occur at a few places of the hilly region of Koshi Province and at one or two places of the hilly region in Bagmati, Gandaki and Karnali Provinces.

In view of possible snowfall at one or two places of the high hilly and mountainous regions of Koshi and Gandaki provinces, the Department has urged the people to remain alert as there will be partial impact on daily life as well as agriculture, health, tourism, mountaineering, road and air transport in those areas.

At present, the temperature in Kathmandu Valley has been recorded at 19 degrees Celsius. According to the Department, the maximum temperature will likely remain between 30 and 32 degrees Celsius today.

Two persons died when a jeep met with an accident at Matiyardanda in Nisdi Rural Municipality-4 of Palpa on Wednesday.

The deceased have been identified as Rajeeb Sunari of Mitya Belakhar, Nisdi-4, and Tejan Somai of Mityal, Ghyangsibas, Nisdi-4, informed Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of District Police Office, Palpa, Sugandha Shrestha.

Seven-year-old Sunari and 16-year-old Somai died in the course of treatment at the Madhyabindu District Hospital in Kawasoti Municipality, Danda (Nawalparasi East) last night.

The injured are undergoing treatment at the Chitwan Medical College.

According to police, the jeep (Lu 1 Ja 3324) was heading towards Khader of Nisdi Rural Municipality-3 in Palpa from Arunkhola, Nawalparasi (Bardaghat Susta East) when the incident occurred.

There were 15 people, including the driver, in the jeep.

Cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane has been acquitted of the rape charges. A joint bench of judges Sudarshan Dev Bhatt and Anju Upreti Dhakal of the Patan High Court overturned the decision of the District Court, Kathmandu, and acquitted Lamichhane,  Bimal Parajuli, the court’s spokesperson, said on Wednesday. 

Talking to the media, Lamichhane reiterated his innocence and thanked the High Court for its verdict. 

“I was framed for a crime I did not commit. I am grateful to everyone who stood beside me and supported me all this time,” he said. 

On 29 December 2023, the Kathmandu District Court had found Lamichhane guilty of rape and sentenced him to eight years in prison.

On 6 September 2022, the victim (Gausala 26) filed a complaint, alleging that Lamichhane raped her at a hotel in Sinamangal on August 21 of that same year. Lamichhane, who was in a closed training session at the time, had allegedly taken Gaushala 26 from the Hyatt Place Kathmandu, a hotel in Tahachal, Kathmandu, to Nagarkot. They returned and stayed at a hotel in Sinamangal, where the victim claimed the rape occurred.

When the complaint was filed, Lamichhane was abroad for a cricket match and did not return to Nepal, prompting the police to issue a diffusion notice through Interpol. He was arrested at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu upon his return on 6 October 2022 and was sent to judicial custody by the district court. But the Patan High Court released him on bail of Rs 2m on 13 January 2023.

At that time, the High Court had prohibited him from traveling abroad, but after the Supreme Court lifted that restriction, he left Nepal and played international cricket.

Following a long hearing process, the District Court convicted Lamichhane on 29 December 2023. Judge Shishir Raj Dhakal concluded that Lamichhane was guilty based on the victim's brother's complaint, Lamichhane's statement, various witness testimonies, and CCTV footage.

While Lamichhane had admitted to staying in the same hotel room with Gaushala 26, he denied the rape allegations. But the District Court concluded that considering the victim's statement and Lamichhane's activities on the day of the incident, it was clear that he had raped the victim.

The indictment claimed that the victim, being above 16 but below 18 years of age (a minor according to the law), warranted a sentence of 10 to 12 years. But Judge Dhakal sentenced Lamichhane to eight years in prison, ruling that the victim was 18 years old on the day of the incident. The court also ordered Sandeep to pay the victim a compensation of Rs 500,000.

After the court pronounced him guilty and sentenced him to prison, the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) suspended Lamichhane from participating in any domestic or international competition.

Following Lamichhane’s acquittal, CAN has decided to lift his suspension and reinstate him in the national team, said Padam Khadka, treasurer of CAN. 

Nepal is set to compete in the 9th edition of the ICC T20 World Cup Cricket, which will be jointly held in the US and the West Indies from June 1 to 29.

“CAN will decide by tomorrow. Our effort will be to send him to compete in the World Cup at any cost,” said Khadka.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday organized Prof. Yadu Nath Khanal Lecture Series (third edition, 2024) in the presence of high-level government officials, political leaders, diplomats, members from civil society, media and academia. 

In the program, Prof. C. Raja Mohan delivered a keynote speech on the title Nepal-India Relations: Prospects and Pathways. 

The Ministry launched the lecture series in 2022 as a tribute to his distinguished service to the nation.

On the occasion, Foreign Secretary Sewa Lamsal delivered a welcome speech highlighting the purpose of the series and Khanal’s contribution to the country.

She said: “The overarching objective of this program is to provide a distinguished forum for discussions and deliberations and for propagating and exchanging innovative ideas and thoughts on emerging issues of foreign policy and diplomacy. Its core objective is to offer a contemporary outlook on the subject matter that would help practitioners of this field in conducting diplomacy amidst the ever-evolving regional and global dynamism.”

The lecture series is expected to bring in knowledge, expertise, experience and insights from renowned diplomats, policymakers, professors, and researchers on a diverse range of themes on Nepal’s foreign policy conduct, she said. 

“We have envisioned this platform to foster deliberations of different dimensions on Nepal’s foreign policy matters as well as the contemporary pertinent matters in international relation and diplomacy,” she added.

Also speaking the program, Prof. Mohan, one of India’s leading commentators on India’s foreign policy, delivered a speech highlighting the various dimensions of bilateral relations along with changing global and regional scenarios.  

He said: “It is possible to imagine that ‘a Nepal first strategy’ in Kathmandu and ‘a neighborhood first’ policy in Delhi can be brought into greater harmony and produce vast benefits for our peoples.’ Whatever might be our current challenges, there is much room for Kathmandu and Delhi to travel together, hopefully in the future, he said.  He further added that Nepal and India are facing a perilous moment in global affairs that is being sucked into a great power rivalry. He said: “It is also a moment of opportunity. It promises great political agency for small countries and rising powers with the will to take advantage through careful diagnosis and pragmatic engagement.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha delivered the concluding remarks.

The Patan High Court has acquitted cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane of rape.

A division bench of judges Sudarshan Dev Bhatta and Ranju Upreti Dhakal gave clean chit to Lamichhane overturning the order of the Kathmandu District Court.

The Kathmandu District Court on January 10 had sentenced Lamichhane to eight years in jail and slapped a fine of Rs 500,000 for raping a 17-year-old girl in Kathmandu hotel.

A single bench of judge Shishir Raj Dhakal, who was convicted of rape on December 29, delivered the verdict after the final hearing.

Later, he filed an appeal at the High Court on March claiming that he was innocent in the rape case.

After listening to the concluding statements of both sides, the judges also watched CCTV footage. The judges watched CCTV footage of Lamichhane and Gaushala-26 entering and exiting the hotel.

The Gaushala-26 claiming herself as a minor on September 7 had filed a rape against Lamichhane at the Metropolitan Police Circle, Gaushala.

The court, however, concluded that the girl, who filed the rape case, was not minor.

The girl in the complaint had said that she was raped at a hotel in Gaushala, Kathmandu.

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane said that he should be allowed to speak in the Parliament about the allegations leveled against him by the main opposition Nepali Congress.

He held a discussion with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli on this issue in Singha Durbar this afternoon.

Saying that all have the rights to speak in democracy, Lamichhane said that he should be allowed to clarify about the allegations leveled against him in the Parliament.

The Home Minister said that he would respect the rights of the Congress to protest if it is not satisfied with his answers.

Lamichhane said that he has no other demand than to allow him to speak in the Parliament.

The Congress has been obstructing the Parliament demanding formation of a parliamentary probe committee to investigate fraud charges against Lamichhane.

The Pokhara High Court has issued an order for a recount of votes in Byas Municipality of Tanahun district.

Responding to a writ petition filed by Deepak Raj Joshi, the candidate for the post of Mayor of Byas Municipality, on Tuesday, the Court decided that the claim of the petitioner is substantiated.

Bishwanath Aryal, Information Officer at the High Court, said that the joint bench of High Court Judges Rajan Prasad Bhattarai and Nirmala Poudel Bhattarai delivered the verdict in favor of the writ petitioner Joshi.

Joshi had filed a writ on May 26, 2022, naming five parties, including the Election Commission, as the defendants, arguing that the counting of votes was rigged. Five advocates had argued in the case from Joshi's side.

Baikuntha Neupane, who got 12,078 votes in his favor, was elected as the Mayor of Byas Municipality in the local level elections held on May 13, 2022.

Neupane's closest contender Joshi had received 11,826 votes.

Most of the commercial banks have reduced interest rates on individual fixed deposits for the month of Jestha (mid-May to mid-June). Eight commercial banks have kept their rates unchanged, while nine have reduced their rates, and three have made a slight upward revision to their rates. As a result, the average interest rate on individual fixed deposits will drop to 7.06 percent in the next month compared to 7.14 percent that the banks are providing now.

Banks have been gradually reducing interest rates on deposits amid low demand for credit and excess liquidity in the banking system. Banks now offer a maximum of 6.8 percent interest on institutional fixed deposits, while they are offering as high as 8.8 percent on remittance fixed deposit accounts. Banks cannot maintain a gap of more than five percent between the upper limit of fixed deposits and the lower limit of savings deposits. This implies that interest on saving deposits will also come down.

The central bank allows banks to change their interest rates by a maximum of 10 percent of their average interest rate in the previous months. Out of 20 commercial banks in the country, Agriculture Development Bank Ltd is offering the lowest interest rate of 5.66 percent, followed by Nepal SBI Bank (6.39 percent), Rastriya Banijya Bank Ltd (6.4 percent) and Everest Bank (6.5 percent). Nabil Bank Ltd and Nepal Bank Ltd are offering 6.75 percent interest rates each, while Sanima Bank has fixed such rates at 6.9 percent.

Laxmi Sunrise, Nepal Investment Mega, Siddhartha, Standard Chartered, Citizens, and Prime Commercial are offering a seven percent interest rate. Seven banks are offering interest rates above seven percent. NIC Asia and NMB Bank Ltd are offering the highest (7.8 percent) interest rates on individual fixed deposits for the month of Jestha.

Commercial banks started publishing rates individually since the beginning of the current fiscal year in mid-July last year. Before that, Nepal Bankers Association used to fix rates citing a ‘gentleman’s understanding’ among banks. Commercial banks have liquidity of around Rs 400bn as demand for loans is not coming, say bankers. Even though lending rates have fallen to a 27-month low, banks are not being able to invest.

Although Nepal Rastra Bank had set a target to increase bank lending by 11 percent in the current fiscal year, banks could increase their lending by only 5.1 percent as per the data till mid-March. With just three months remaining in the current fiscal year, it is impossible to achieve the target of lending growth. Banks, however, are hopeful that the demand for loans will go up in the final quarter as increasing capital spending will create more demand in the market.