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United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed his grief over the death of 10 Nepalis in Israel.

He expressed his grief over the death of Nepali students in the West Asian country after a meeting with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Sunday.

The Secretary General extended his condolences to the family members of the deceased.

He also expressed his belief over the safe return of Bipin Joshi who has been missing in Israel.

In addition to that Secretary General Guterres strongly condemned the armed attacks by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Israel.

The Secretary General said that the attacks by Hamas on Israel that killed thousands of civilians is unacceptable.

Urging both sides to end the war immediately, he urged them to release the people held captive unconditionally.

Secretary General Guterres said that all should comply with international humanitarian law.

On a different note, the United Nations Secretary General said that he came to Kathmandu to further strengthen the relationship between Nepal and the United Nations.

At the invitation of Prime Minister Dahal, he arrived in Kathmandu on Saturday night.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has sought help of the United Nations to conclude the peace process in Nepal.

During a meeting with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Prime Minister Dahal said that the role of the United Nations will be important in concluding the peace process in Nepal.

On the occasion, the Prime Minister said that the peace process in Nepal is at the stage of completion and the support of the United Nations is necessary for the same.

United Nations Secretary General Guterres and Prime Minister held the meeting at the latter’s office.

In the meeting, the Prime Minister said, “The role of the United Nations will be important in concluding the peace process in Nepal. The bill related to transitional justice has been registered in Parliament. The bill could not move forwards due to differences among the political parties.”

In response, Secretary General Guterres said that the United Nations will support Nepal to conclude peace process in accordance with international standards

Prime Minister Dahal has intensified discussions with the political parties to conclude the peace process in Nepal.

At the invitation of Prime Minister Dahal, the Secretary General arrived in Nepal on a four-day official visit on Saturday.

A Nepali peacekeeper has been injured in Lebanon.

According to the Nepali Army Directorate of Public Relations and Information, the soldier serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon was injured near the UN Post 8-33.

The peacekeeper sustained injuries after he was hit by a splinter from artillery or rocket or mortar during a war between the Israeli Defense Force and Hezbollah group. 

The incident occurred on October 28 while the UN peacekeeper was in a bunker, with shrapnel hitting the right arm and the right side of the stomach.

The injured soldier is currently receiving medical care at the Level OnePlus Hospital operated by UNIFIL in Naqoura, and out of a life-threatening condition.

Other peacekeepers in the mission are unharmed. 

A total of 874 Nepali armies presently serve under the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Foreign Minister NP Saud held a meeting at Foreign Ministry in Singha Durbar on Sunday.

According to the Foreign Ministry, issues like world peace, Nepal’s peace process and climate change were discussed in the meeting.

Guterres, who arrived in Nepal on a four-day official visit at the invitation of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Saturday night, is scheduled to meet President Ram Chandra Paudel and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal today itself.

Similarly, the Secretary-General will have separate meetings with Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli, the Ministry said.

The prices of gold reached an all-time high of 117, 000 per tola in the domestic market on Sunday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 116, 450 per tola.

Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1,415 per tola today.

The District Police have taken the bodies of four members of a single family who were found murdered in Chhayanath Rara Municipality-6 in Mugu district to the district headquarters, Gamgadhi for autopsy.

Four members of a single family, a mother and her three children, were found murdered in their home in Mandu village last Friday.

The deceased have been identified as Sridevi Bohara (28), her 11-year-old son Manoj, nine-year-old daughter Apsara and eight-month-old son Rahar, said Deputy Superintendent of Police Birendra Thapa at the district police office.

Bodies of the four deceased have been taken to Gamgadhi for postmortem, he said.

According to a preliminary investigation, the four were murdered with sharp weapons.

A team of police along with a detection dog reached the incident site on Saturday and launched an investigation while a special team from the province police office has also been investigating the incident, said the police. The incident site is in the southeast of Gamgadhi, the district headquarters.

The investigation suggests that on Oct 24, Sridevi, along with her children, had visited her maternal home in the nearby Kotilla village to receive Dashain tika. They returned to their home the following evening. It is believed that they may have been murdered the same night, according to the police.

On Oct 26, when the neighbors noticed that the main door of Sridevi’s house was locked, they assumed that the family had gone to their farmland to collect vegetables.

However, on Oct 27, concerned about their whereabouts, the neighbors contacted Sridevi’s maternal relatives. They were informed that Sridevi had left her maternal home on Oct 25. In response, the neighbors broke the door and entered her house at around 10 am, only to discover the lifeless bodies of the four family members.

Jajarkot: Domestic and foreign tourists have been advocating for the development of essential infrastructure to make it easier to reach Shey Phoksundo Lake. They believe that constructing the necessary facilities from Suligad, located near the Dolpa headquarters, to the lake could significantly enhance the region’s appeal to tourists.

Currently, visitors to the lake follow a route through the Jajarkot district and the Mid-Hill Highway, including an overnight stay in the Dolpa district headquarters before finally reaching the lake. To access the lake, one must traverse a dozen deteriorating wooden bridges over the Suligad River, a risky endeavor, according to Ram Prasad Khatri from Nalgad Municipality-8. 

To reach Dolpa’s Dunai, visitors must rely on some form of transportation, and from there, it takes two days of trekking to reach the lake. Stakeholders have expressed that it would be more convenient for both domestic and foreign tourists if a concrete bridge were constructed over the Suligad River, along with a reliable trekking route.

Located at an elevation of 3,600 meters above sea level, the lake covers an area of 4.94 square kilometers and is situated near Rigmo village in Shey Phoksundo Rural Municipality-8. 

While the lake is said to have a depth of 145 meters, local residents claim it reaches depths of up to 650 meters. The lake’s unique feature is its changing colors, which vary with the weather. It is shaped like the English letter Y and is often said to resemble a human lung.

Visitors should use the footpath for Shey Phoksundo Lake, Shey Phoksundo National Park, Phoksundo Waterfall, and Upper Dolpa Suligad. Various names have been given to specific areas by the local people, including Kathepul, Thoso, Lapku, and Sankul.

Although suspension bridges have been constructed over many rivers in Dolpa, there are still wooden bridges from Suligad to Phoksundo that provide access to the lake. Nima Lama, the ward chair of Shey Phoksundo Rural Municipality, suggests that while suspension bridges have been built along the trekking route from Suligad to the lake to facilitate local mobility and tourism, it is important to preserve the traditional wooden bridges. “Since the area is a popular trekking route, stakeholders should emphasize the importance of preserving these wooden bridges to attract tourists.”

Los Angeles: ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry, the Emmy-nominated actor whose sarcastic, but lovable Chandler Bing was among television’s most famous and most quotable characters, has died at 54.

The actor was found dead of an apparent drowning at his Los Angeles home Saturday, according to the Los Angeles Times and celebrity website TMZ, which was the first to report the news. Both outlets cited unnamed sources confirming Perry’s death.

“Matthew was an incredibly gifted actor and an indelible part of the Warner Bros. Television Group family,” the company said in a statement. “The impact of his comedic genius was felt around the world, and his legacy will live on in the hearts of so many. This is a heartbreaking day, and we send our love to his family, his loved ones, and all of his devoted fans.”

Perry’s publicists and other representatives did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Asked to confirm police response to what was listed as Perry’s home address, LAPD Officer Drake Madison told the AP that officers had gone to that block “for a death investigation of a male in his 50s.”

Perry’s 10 seasons on “Friends” made him one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actors, starring opposite Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer as a friend group in New York.

As Chandler, he played the quick-witted, insecure and neurotic roommate of LeBlanc’s Joey and a close friend of Schwimmer’s Ross. During the show’s hijinks, he could be counted on to chime in with a line like “Could this BE any more awkward?” or another well-timed quip.

Perry was open about his long and public struggle with addiction, writing at the beginning of his 2022 million-selling memoir: “Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”

“Friends” ran from 1994 until 2004, winning one best comedy series Emmy Award in 2002. The cast notably banded together for later seasons to obtain a salary of $1m per episode for each.

By the “Friends” finale, Chandler is married to Cox’s Monica and they have a family, reflecting the journey of the core cast from single New Yorkers trying to figure their lives out to several of them married and starting families.

The series was one of television’s biggest hits and has taken on a new life—and found surprising popularity with younger fans—in recent years on streaming services.

Perry described reading the “Friends” script for the first time in his memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.”

“It was as if someone had followed me around for a year, stealing my jokes, copying my mannerisms, photocopying my world-weary yet witty view of life. One character in particular stood out to me: it wasn’t that I thought I could ‘play’ Chandler. I ‘was’ Chandler.”

Unknown at the time was the struggle Perry had with addiction and an intense desire to please audiences.

“'Friends’ was huge. I couldn’t jeopardize that. I loved the script. I loved my co-actors. I loved the scripts. I loved everything about the show but I was struggling with my addictions which only added to my sense of shame,” he wrote in his memoir. “I had a secret and no one could know.”

“I felt like I was gonna die if the live audience didn’t laugh, and that’s not healthy for sure. But I could sometimes say a line and the audience wouldn’t laugh and I would sweat and sometimes go into convulsions,” Perry wrote. “If I didn’t get the laugh I was supposed to get I would freak out. I felt that every single night. This pressure left me in a bad place. I also knew of the six people making that show, only one of them was sick.”

He recalled in his memoir that Aniston confronted him about being inebriated while filming.

“I know you’re drinking,” he remembered her telling him once. “We can smell it,” she said, in what Perry called a “kind of weird but loving way, and the plural ‘we’ hit me like a sledgehammer.”

In the foreword to Perry’s memoir, Lisa Kudrow described him as “whip smart, charming, sweet, sensitive, very reasonable, and rational.” She added, “That guy, with everything he was battling, was still there.”

An HBO Max reunion special in 2021 was hosted by James Corden and fed into huge interest in seeing the cast together again, although the program consisted of the actors discussing the show and was not a continuation of their characters’ storylines.

Perry received one Emmy nomination for his “Friends” role and two more for appearances as an associate White House counsel on “The West Wing.”

Perry also had several notable film roles, starring opposite Salma Hayek in the rom-com “Fools Rush In” and Bruce Willis in the crime comedy “The Whole Nine Yards.”

He worked consistently after “Friends,” though never in a role that brought him as much attention or acclaim.

In 2015, he played Oscar for a CBS reboot of “The Odd Couple” that aired for two seasons. He told the AP that playing Oscar Madison, the character originally made famous in the 1960s series by Walter Matthau, was a “dream role.” He also said he was surprised how much he enjoyed being filmed again in front of a live audience.

“I didn’t realize I missed it really until it actually happened, til we actually shot the pilot and there was a studio audience there and I realized, ‘Wow, I really like this. This is nice,’” he said. “You kind of ham it up for the people in the audience. My performance never got better than when there was an audience there.”

Perry was born 19 Aug 1969, in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

AP