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Tanahun: The Anbukhareni Rural Municipality in Tanahun district has opted for commercial avocado farming as an intervention to grow more agricultural produces for better livelihood options for the locals.

As part of 'One Ward, One Production', the rural municipality distributed a total of 1,840 avocado plants in its ward no 2 by offering 75 percent in subsidy to the farmers, chief administrative officer of the rural municipality Bishnu Prasad Sharma said. 

The farmers were provided with the avocado plants as it starts yielding in three to five years and is profitable in terms of productions and market as well.       

Likewise, the Agriculture Knowledge Centre in the district said that avocado farming is kept in priority in the district under the fruits areas development programme.

The Centre has also grown avocado saplings from last year.  

The avocado farming could be done from 200 metres to 1,600 metres above the sea level and the district's climate and land's altitude is appropriate for growing avocado. 

Chairman of Anbukhareni Rural Municipality Shukra Chuman said that avocado farming was started in the rural municipality by utilizing the barren land to ensure income of local beneficiaries and grow local productions.

The farmers get competitive price of avocado in the local market and also its demand is still high in the hospitality sector.

Kathmandu: The Embassy of India in Kathmandu has donated cricket bats to the Nepali senior cricket team. During an event, Ambassador of India to Nepal, Naveen Srivastava, presented 20 cricket bats, which were procured from Sareen Sports, to Nepal Cricket Team Captain Rohit Paudel. This handover took place in the presence of Chatur Bahadur Chand, President of the Cricket Association of Nepal, and Paras Khadka, the Secretary.

The equipment was delivered on behalf of the BP Koirala India-Nepal Foundation and SJVN Ltd. As a gesture of appreciation, the cricket team also presented the ambassador with a signed jersey from the Nepal Cricket Team.

In his remarks, Ambassador Naveen Srivastava congratulated the Nepal national Cricket Team for their impressive performance, particularly in the recent Asia Cup and Asian Games. He emphasized that this donation symbolizes a new chapter in the strong people-to-people ties between India and Nepal. The Ambassador extended his best wishes to the cricket team for the upcoming tri-nation T20 Cup Finals and the ICC-T20 World Cup Qualifiers scheduled to begin at the end of the month.

Chand, Khadka and Monty Desai, the cricket team’s Head Coach, expressed their gratitude to the Embassy, BP Koirala India-Nepal Foundation, and SJVN Ltd. They highlighted that this equipment handover signifies the beginning of a collaborative journey between the Embassy and the Cricket Association of Nepal.

Bharatpur: A person died and three others were critically injured in separate road accidents in Chitwan district.

Anan Lama, 23, of Sunkoshi Rural Municipality-5 in Sindhupalchowk district died after a bus (Ba 3 Kha 2354) from the opposite direction hit his scooter (Ba 96 Pa 3634) at Bahera Chowk of Khairahani Municipality-1 along the East-West Highway on Thursday evening, the District Police Office, Chitwan, said. 

Critically injured Lama passed away while receiving treatment at Purano Medical College.

Likewise, three youths were critically injured after a motorcycle (Ba Pra 06-001 Pa 4790) fell off the road at Badreni of Ratnanagar Municipality-7 in the district.  

Police said that motorcyclist Samit Mahato, 20, and pillion riders Bigyan Chaudhary and Roshan Chaudhary of are receiving treatment at a medical college in Bharatpur. The health condition of all three injured is critical, it is said.

Washington: The United States announced a latest $150m for arms and equipment military aid package to bolster Kyiv to fight and succeed against Russia.

The US government in a latest package announces arms and equipment which includes air defense, artillery, anti-tank, and other capabilities, said a press statement from US Department of State.

The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken said in a statement on Thursday, “This new package of arms and equipment includes air defense, artillery, anti-tank, and other capabilities which will further enhance Ukraine’s capacity to defend its territory against Russian offensives while continuing its counter-offensive against Russia’s forces. Ukraine’s forces are fighting bravely to reclaim territory seized by Russia's forces, and this additional support will help them continue making progress. This package provides $150m of arms and equipment authorized under previously directed drawdowns for Ukraine.”

US while reiterating its support for the war torn Ukraine noted that the US and its ally partners will continue to support Ukraine until Russia withdraws its forces from the country.

Quoting the statement, “Russia started this war and could end it at any time by withdrawing its forces from Ukraine and stopping its brutal attacks, which continue to take the lives of innocent people. Until it does, the United States and the coalition we have built of more than 50 nations will continue to stand with Ukraine, and we will continue to work with Congress to help Ukraine secure its future—a future in which its people rebuild and live safely in a resilient and thriving democracy.”

On Aug 14, the United States government announced security assistance of $200m for Ukraine which continues to defend its territory and protect its people.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a US State Department statement that the package, which is valued at $200m, includes air defense munitions, artillery rounds, anti-armour capabilities, and additional mine-clearing equipment.

Moreover, In July this year, the US government announced a $1.3bn military aid package for Ukraine—during its ongoing conflict with Russia—including air defense systems and attack drones.

According to the US Department of Defence, the package includes four more National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), medium-range air defense batteries that have helped Ukraine withstand ongoing Russian barrages of missiles and drones.Notably, it is the same system that is used to protect Washington DC and the area around the US capital.

The package will give Kyiv a total of 12 NASAMS. The US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said last November that the NASAMS had a 100 percent success rate in intercepting Russian attacks, CNN reported.

Lloyd Austin, United States Secretary of Defense on July 18 said following an international meeting of countries providing aid to Ukraine “Make no mistake: We are determined to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom for as long as it takes.”

ANI

Beijing: 

Former Premier Li Keqiang, China’s top economic official for a decade, died Friday of a heart attack. He was 68.

Li was China’s No. 2 leader from 2013-23 and an advocate for private business but was left with little authority after President Xi Jinping made himself the most powerful Chinese leader in decades and tightened control over the economy and society.

CCTV said Li had been resting in Shanghai recently and had a heart attack on Thursday. He died at 12:10 am Friday.

Li, an English-speaking economist, was considered a contender to succeed then-Communist Party leader Hu Jintao in 2013 but was passed over in favor of Xi. Reversing the Hu era’s consensus-oriented leadership, Xi centralized powers in his own hands, leaving Li and others on the party’s ruling seven-member Standing Committee with little influence.

As the top economic official, Li promised to improve conditions for entrepreneurs who generate jobs and wealth. But the ruling party under Xi increased the dominance of state industry and tightened control over tech and other industries. Foreign companies said they felt unwelcome after Xi and other leaders called for economic self-reliance, expanded an anti-spying law and raided offices of consulting firms.

Li was dropped from the Standing Committee at a party congress in Oct 2022 despite being two years below the informal retirement age of 70.

The same day, Xi awarded himself a third five-year term as party leader, discarding a tradition under which his predecessors stepped down after 10 years. Xi filled the top party ranks with loyalists, ending the era of consensus leadership and possibly making himself leader for life. The No 2 slot was filled by Li Qiang, the party secretary for Shanghai, who lacked Li Keqiang’s national-level experience and later told reporters that his job was to do whatever Xi decided.

Li Keqiang, a former vice premier, took office in 2013 as the ruling party faced growing warnings the construction and export booms that propelled the previous decade’s double-digit growth were running out of steam.

Government advisers argued Beijing had to promote growth based on domestic consumption and service industries. That would require opening more state-dominated industries and forcing state banks to lend more to entrepreneurs.

Li’s predecessor, Wen Jiabao, apologized at a March 2012 news conference for not moving fast enough.

In a 2010 speech, Li acknowledged challenges including too much reliance on investment to drive economic growth, weak consumer spending and a wealth gap between prosperous eastern cities and the poor countryside, home to 800m people.

Li was seen as a possible candidate to revive then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping’s market-oriented reforms of the 1980s that started China’s boom. But he was known for an easygoing style, not the hard-driving impatience of Zhu Rongji, the premier in 1998-2003 who ignited the construction and export booms by forcing painful reforms that cut millions of jobs from state industry.

Li was believed to have supported the “China 2030” report released by the World Bank and a Cabinet research body in 2012 that called for dramatic changes to reduce the dominance of state industry and rely more on market forces.

The Unirule Institute, an independent think tank in Beijing, said state industry was so inefficient that its return on equity—a broad measure of profitability—was negative six percent. Unirule later was shut down by Xi as part of a campaign to tighten control over information.

In his first annual policy address, Li in 2014 was praised for promising to pursue market-oriented reform, cut government waste, clean up air pollution and root out pervasive corruption that was undermining public faith in the ruling party.

Xi took away Li’s decision-making powers on economic matters by appointing himself to head a party commission overseeing reform.

Xi’s government pursued the anti-graft drive, imprisoning hundreds of officials including former Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang. But party leaders were ambivalent about the economy. They failed to follow through on a promised list of dozens of market-oriented changes. They increased the dominance of state-owned banks and energy and other companies.

Xi’s government opened some industries including electric car manufacturing to private and foreign competition. But it built up state-owned “national champions” and encouraged Chinese companies to use domestic suppliers instead of imports.

Borrowing by companies, households and local governments increased, pushing up debt that economists warned already was dangerously high.

Beijing finally tightened controls in 2020 on debt in real estate, one of China’s biggest industries. That triggered a collapse in economic growth, which fell to three percent in 2022, the second-lowest in three decades.

Li showed his political skills but little zeal for reform as governor and later party secretary of populous Henan province in central China in 1998-2004.

Li earned the nickname “Three Fires Li” and a reputation for bad luck after three fatal fires struck Henan while he was there. A Christmas Day blaze at a nightclub in 2000 killed 309 people. Other officials were punished but Li emerged unscathed.

Meanwhile, provincial leaders were trying to suppress information about the spread of AIDS by a blood-buying industry in Henan.

Li’s reputation for bad luck held as China suffered a series of deadly disasters during his term.

Days after he took office, a landslide on 29 March 2013, killed at least 66 miners at a gold mine in Tibet and left 17 others missing and presumed dead.

In the eastern port of Tianjin, a warehouse holding chemicals exploded 12 Aug 2015, killing at least 116 people.

A China Eastern Airlines jetliner plunged into the ground on 22 March 2022, killing all 132 people aboard. Authorities have yet to announce a possible cause.

Li oversaw China’s response to Covid-19, the first cases of which were detected in the central city of Wuhan. Then-unprecedented controls were imposed, shutting down most international travel for three years and access to major cities for weeks at a time.

In one of his last major official acts, Li led a Cabinet meeting that announced 11 Nov 2022, that anti-virus controls would be relaxed to reduce disruption after the economy shrank by 2.6 percent in the second quarter of the year. Two weeks later, the government announced most travel and business restrictions would end the following month.

Li was born July 1, 1955, in the eastern province of Anhui and by 1976 was ruling party secretary of a commune there.

Studying law at Peking University, he was the campus secretary of the ruling party’s Communist Youth League, an organization that launched the political careers of former party leaders Hu Jintao and Hu Yaobang. He was a member of the League’s Standing Committee, a sign he was seen as future leadership material.

After serving in a series of party posts, Li received his PhD in economics in 1994 from Peking University.

Following Henan, Li served as party secretary for Liaoning province in the northeast as part of a rotation through provincial posts and at ministries in Beijing that was meant to prepare leaders. He joined the party Central Committee in 2007.

AP

Washington: The US military launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against US bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.

The US strikes reflect the Biden administration's determination to maintain a delicate balance. The US wants to hit Iranian-backed groups suspected of targeting the US as strongly as possible to deter future aggression, possibly fueled by Israel's war against Hamas, while also working to avoid inflaming the region and provoking a wider conflict.

Information about the specific targets and other details were not yet provided.

According to the Pentagon, there have been at least 12 attacks on US bases and personnel in Iraq and four in Syria since Oct 17. Air Force Brig Gen Pat Ryder said 21 US personnel were injured in two of those assaults that used drones to target al-Asad Airbase in Iraq and al-Tanf Garrison in Syria.

In a statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the “precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on Oct 17.”

He said President Joe Biden directed the narrowly tailored strikes “to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests.” And he added that the operation was separate and distinct from Israel's war against Hamas.

The Biden administration has not accused Iran of having a direct role in the Oct 7 Hamas attack on Israel and has said it appears so far that Tehran was not aware of it beforehand. But the US has noted that Iran has long supported Hamas and has raised concerns that Iran and its proxies could turn the conflict into a wider war.

Austin said the US does not seek a broader conflict, but if Iranian proxy groups continue, the US won’t hesitate to take additional action to protect its forces.

According to the Pentagon, all the US personnel hurt in the militant attacks received minor injuries and all returned to duty. In addition, a contractor suffered a cardiac arrest and died while seeking shelter from a possible drone attack.

The retaliatory strikes came as no surprise. Officials at the Pentagon and the White House have made it clear for the past week that the US would respond, with Ryder saying again Thursday that it would be “at the time and place of our choosing.”

“I think we’ve been crystal clear that we maintain the inherent right of defending our troops and we will take all necessary measures to protect our forces and our interests overseas,” he told reporters during a Pentagon briefing earlier in the day.

Biden said Wednesday that he warned Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, that if Tehran continues to “move against” US forces in the Middle East, “we will respond.”

The latest spate of strikes by the Iranian-linked groups came in the wake of a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital, triggering protests in a number of Muslim nations. The Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in retaliation for the devastating Hamas rampage in southern Israel nearly three weeks ago, but Israel has denied responsibility for the al-Ahli hospital blast and the US has said its intelligence assessment found that Tel Aviv was not to blame.

The US, including the Pentagon, has repeatedly said any strike response by America would be directly tied to the attacks on the troops, and not connected to the war between Israel and Hamas. Such retaliation and strikes against Iranian targets in Syria after similar attacks on US bases are routine.

In March, for example, the US struck sites in Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard after an Iranian-linked attack killed a US contractor and wounded seven other Americans in northeast Syria. American F-15 fighter jets flying out of al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar struck several locations around Deir el-Zour.

US officials have routinely stressed that the American response is designed to be proportional, and is aimed at deterring strikes against US personnel who are focused on the fight against the Islamic State group.

US officials have not publicly tied the recent string of attacks in Syria and Iraq to the violence in Gaza, but Iranian officials have openly criticized the US for providing weapons to Israel that have been used to strike Gaza, resulting in civilian death.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, has beefed up air defenses in the region to protect US forces. The US has said it is sending several batteries of Patriot missile systems, a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and additional fighter jets.

The THAAD is being sent from Fort Bliss, Texas, and the Patriot batteries are from Fort Liberty in North Carolina and Fort Sill in Oklahoma. An Avenger air defense system from Fort Liberty is also being sent.

Officials have said as much as two battalions of Patriots are being deployed. A battalion can include at least three Patriot batteries, which each have six to eight launchers.

Ryder said Thursday that about 900 troops have deployed or are in the process of going to the Middle East region, including those associated with the air defense systems.

AP

Balewa: A baby weighing 4.75 kilograms was born by natural birth in Dhaulagiri Hospital, the heaviest baby born in the hospital so far. 

The health condition of the newborn and his mother is normal, the hospital said.

Malati Chhantyal Tamang, 32, of Jaimini Muncipality-3 in the district gave birth to the baby boy on Thursday, Nursing In-Charge of the hospital Devi Bhattarai said.  

The baby boy was delivered even without the presence of specialist doctors in the hospital during the Dashain vacation.

The newborn is the fourth baby of Chhantyal.

Chhantyal said that she was suggested to visit a hospital in Pokhara to deliver the baby but got admitted to the Dhaulagiri Hospital considering that the new born would also be delivered without a caesarean section as all her three babies were born by natural birth.

Prior to this, a baby weighing 4.5 kgs was born in the Dhaulagiri Hospital but by caesarean section.

New Delhi: The Indian government on Thursday vowed to explore “all legal options” after a Qatari court handed death sentences to eight Indian employees of a Qatari company on spying charges.

According to Indian media reports, the eight men are retired Indian naval officers who worked for the consulting company Al Dahra, advising the Qatari government on the acquisition of submarines.

India’s External Affairs Ministry said in a statement it was awaiting the detailed judgment in the case.

“We are in touch with the family members and the legal team, and we are exploring all legal options,” it said. “We attach high importance to this case and have been following it closely. We will continue to extend all consular and legal assistance. We will also take up the verdict with Qatari authorities.”

The statement did not provide further details.

Qatar’s government declined to immediately comment on the sentences.

Qatari authorities provided New Delhi consular access to the eight Indian nationals during their trial.

Millions of Indians live and work in the Gulf, a large number of them as semi-skilled or unskilled workers. They constitute an important source of income for India and contribute to the success of Gulf economies.

AP