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Thousands of tourists have been stranded in Finland's Lapland as a severe cold spell has grounded flights out of one of its airports, BBC reported. 

Departures from Lapland's Kittila airport that would have ferried winter travellers back to places like London, Bristol, Manchester, Paris and Amsterdam were all cancelled on Sunday as temperatures did not go above -35C on Sunday.

The issue is expected to continue on Monday as a low of -39C is forecast by Finland's meteorological agency. The first flight out of Kittila has already been cancelled, according to BBC. 

Donald Trump has urged Cuba to "make a deal" or face consequences, warning that the flow of Venezuelan oil and money would now stop, BBC reported. 

The US president has been turning his attention to Cuba since US forces seized Venezuela's leader Nicolas Maduro in a 3 January raid on its capital, Caracas.

Venezuela, a long-standing ally of Cuba, is believed to send around 35,000 barrels of oil a day to the island, according to BBC. 

Iran has warned it will retaliate if attacked by the US, as BBC sources and activists report hundreds of protesters have now been killed in an escalating government crackdown, BBC reported. 

"Things here are very, very bad," a source in Tehran said on Sunday. "A lot of our friends have been killed. They were firing live rounds. It's like a war zone, the streets are full of blood. They're taking away bodies in trucks."

The BBC counted about 180 body bags in footage from a morgue near Tehran. The US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency says it has verified the deaths of 495 protesters and 48 security personnel nationwide, according to BBC. 

As many as 2,662 general convention representatives of the Nepali Congress have registered their names in favor of the special general convention (SGC) that began at Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu.

Eight stalls were set up on the first day of the event organized by a faction of NC supporting SGC. 

The general convention representatives had begun registering their names in favor of the SGC since 9 am Sunday.

Event coordination committee coordinator Yubraj Pandey informed the number of leaders in favor of SGC from Koshi Province stood 425, while from Madhes Province 446, from Bagmati Province 432, from Gandaki Province 296, from Lumbini Province 398, from Karnali Province 134, from Sudurpaschim Province 148, and Kathmandu Valley (Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur) 178 and from sister organizations, well wishers and liaison committees 195.

The registration will resume from 8 am on Monday, it was informed. 

Nepali Congress (NC) General Secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa asserted that the special general convention (SGC) was called in a bid to address public disenchantment. 

Addressing the two-day SGC that kicked off in the federal capital, Kathmandu on Sunday at the call of SCG supporters, General Secretary Thapa stated that the political parties should address the public resentment demonstrated during the Gen Z movement last September. 

Thapa said, "The public, during that uprising, vented their ire on the government in which the Nepali Congress was the partner. The new generation is angry due to corruption, misgovernance and anomalies. They are angry, hurt and dissatisfied with the rule of 'Nepo babies' in the republican system introduced by abolishing the monarchy."

In this light, he added the SGC has been summoned to listen to and address those voices. According to him, summoning the SGC at the initiatives of the General-Secretaries duo of the party may seem to emerge due to power struggle within the party, but, it is rather meant to be a struggle of ideologies and norms and values. 

"It was imperative to ponder the resentment and dissatisfaction expressed by thousands of men and women taking to the streets in the name of the Gen Z movement. In view of such an incident, Democratic Party like Nepali Congress does not have the luxury to overlook it and term it a normal incident," Thapa reminded.

Referring to the absence of party President and Acting President in the SGC, the General Secretary regretted that their wish to see the presence of the party leadership in the SGC remained unfulfilled. It may be noted that the leaders in the faction led by party President Sher Bahadur Deuba have snubbed the SGC and therefore have remained absent in the SGC. 

NC is the national power, he observed, it is therefore the NC's responsibility to seek resolutions to the national issues. "We must continue to uphold the confidence of the public. The Nepali Congress has a long history of successfully earning and maintaining public trust since democratic movement of 2007 BS," he mentioned. 

In order to ignite hope among new youths, creation of an environment where youths are retained within the country is essential, according to him. 

During his address, Thapa pledged adherence to the decisions made by the SGC representatives. 

He clarified that according to the party statute, no one is greater than the general convention and thus viewed that the SGC should be concluded by making it special as its name suggests.

The Election Commission (EC) has stated that a trustworthy security environment for the upcoming House of Representatives (HoR) polls will be created for the political parties, candidates, and voters alike.

EC Spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai said that a robust security situation would be ensured for the political parties and candidates to visit the voters for the election campaigns and for the voters to cast their votes.

Spokesperson Bhattarai made it clear that all four security agencies were working in a coordinated fashion as per the integrated security planning and the government was also providing resources for the polls. 

The political parties, candidates, and campaigners enjoy the situation to visit the voters and take their views to the people in a fearless manner, he added.

As the winter season gets colder, the tourist excitement in the religious and touristic district of Mustang has started to decline. As the winter season approaches, hotels in the district headquarters Jomsom and hotels operating on the national highway, including the hotels, are facing downfall.

Recently, as the Beni-Jomsom road has become easier, some tourism entrepreneurs have been waiting for tourists. As the winter season gets colder, the Pokhara-Jomsom air service was also suspended a month in advance. The pressure of tourist vehicles on the national highway road is also very low.

According to RSS, The first snowfall of this season occurred in Upper Mustang last October, while there has been no snowfall in Lower Mustang. However, the extreme cold and the effect of the northern wind have affected people’s lives here. As the winter season begins, the temperature in Upper Mustang has dropped to -20 degrees Celsius in the morning and evening, and in Lower Mustang to -10 degrees Celsius.

Due to the effects of the northerly winds of winter, local residents are unable to move outside easily. Even though the weather is sunny in the afternoon, the cold wind has started blowing along with the northerly winds, which has affected daily life.

As the residents there have locked themselves in their homes and gone down to the valley to escape the cold, Upper Mustang has become completely deserted, said Umesh Poudel, head of the ACAP Lomanthang office to RSS. Although the hotels in Muktinath located here are open, there is no tourist activity.

With the extreme cold of winter, the rivers, branches, taps of houses, irrigation canals and safety tanks of houses in Upper Mustang have frozen and formed ice, affecting the daily lives of the local citizens there. The cold has been affecting the health of the local citizens who have not descended to the valley to escape the winter. In Lower Mustang, local farmers are enduring the extreme cold and are engaged in apple orchard management work.

The number of foreign tourist arrivals in January has increased by 5,559 or 54 percent compared to December. According to police sources, it is said that one to one and a half hundred tourists still come to Mustang daily via the Beni-Jomsom road.  According to the tourism records of the District Police Office, when comparing the tourist arrivals from July-December of the last fiscal year, it is seen that the tourist arrivals from the same month of the current fiscal year have decreased by 10.05 percent. 

The Kaligandaki Rural Municipality in Syangja has decided to provide financial assistance to families giving birth to three children.

The rural municipality has decided to provide financial assistance from the current fiscal year to families who have three children in order to prevent the declining population rate.

Chairman of the rural municipality, Khim Bahadur Thapa, said that recently, due to the decreasing population, it has become challenging to maintain population balance in the long term, which is why the rural municipality has taken this step.

“The population within the rural municipality is decreasing, and over time, the number of people in the village could become quite low.  In view of this, we have moved forward with the aim of stopping the declining population rate, providing families with positive motivation towards giving birth to children, maintaining long-term population balance, and implementing nutrition-friendly local governance,” he said.

He stated that the rural municipality has approved the procedure for providing financial assistance to families who give birth to three children and is preparing to provide financial aid to families who meet the criteria set in the procedure.

According to the procedure approved by the rural municipality, families permanently residing within the rural municipality who have had a third child after the month of Shrawan in the current fiscal year must submit an application along with the necessary documents to the concerned ward office.

Recently, the villages have started to empty as people are having only one or two children and, on the other hand, migrating from villages to cities.

“The rural municipality provides financial assistance of Rs 4,000 per month to families who have three children according to the procedure. The support is intended as a positive incentive for nurturing and caring for children, given to each family for up to two years,” Thapa said.