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Visiting Foreign Secretary of India Vikram Misri paid a courtesy call on CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman and former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Sunday.

The meeting was held at Chairperson Dahal's personal residence in Lalitpur, according to Dahal's secretariat.

During the meeting, they exchanged views on various dimensions of Nepal-India relations. 

Foreign Secretary Misri is currently in Kathmandu on a two-day official visit at the invitation of Nepal's Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai.

Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak has directed the employees of subordinate bodies to serve the national interests and ensure an accessible atmosphere to the public for getting government services.

Speaking at the signing of a work performance agreement with the Home Secretary and the heads of various departments and divisions of the Ministry today, Minister Lekhak acknowledged that there have been major accomplishments in curbing drug abuse, road accidents, suicides, and cybercrime adding that tangible outcomes will require more time.

Highlighting drug abuse, road fatalities, cybercrime, and suicide as the pressing challenges of the time, the Minister echoed the need for measurable results within the current fiscal year. 

He also instructed that the post-earthquake reconstruction efforts in the western Nepal be completed within the fiscal year. 

The Minister extended his congratulations and appreciation to all those who contributed to the Home Ministry's 88 percent progress achieved in the last fiscal year. He added that success and failure are shared responsibilities in a team work.

Minister Lekhak said that progress on the bills related to the Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force has been delayed due to some technical issues. 

He urged the stakeholders to work assiduously to ensure these bills are registered in the House of Representatives within this month. "Policy and legal reforms remain our top priority, and works are progressing accordingly,” the Home Minister affirmed.

The Health Ministry of the Bagmati Province Government has announced a free insurance facility for journalists from 13 districts in the province. 

Province Health Minister Kiran Thapa talked about this policy to the media in Bhaktapur today. 

He said that the government was serious about the health issues of journalists and will be launching an insurance scheme for journalists within the province.  The insurance premiums will be paid by the province government, he added. 

Minister Thapa also assured that the insurance process will be simplified and made transparent and user-friendly, with a focus on digital accessibility.

He said the Ministry has allotted Rs 2 million for the implementation of the programme in the current fiscal year.   

According to the Minister, various campaigns such as "My Health, My Responsibility, One Hour for Myself", "One District, One Healthy City", and "One Local Level, One Model Health Institution"  will be launched in the current fiscal, reflecting the government's priority to the health sector.

Pakistan has issued no warnings or restrictions for mountaineering expeditions in the north, an official said Sunday, despite the recent deaths of climbers, Associated Press reported.

Climbers were well aware of the harsh weather and all the other risks and challenges, said Faizullah Faraq, a spokesman for the government of Gilgit-Baltistan, the northern region home to some of the world’s highest mountains. “Despite that, they willingly accept these challenges and come here to attempt these summits.”

Chinese climber Guan Jing, 37, was the latest person to perish on one of Pakistan’s mountains. She died last Tuesday after being hit by falling rocks on K2, the world’s second-highest peak known for its treacherous slopes and extreme weather conditions. Rescue teams recovered her body on Saturday.

Her body was still in the mortuary of the Combined Military Hospital in Skardu on Sunday. Contact has been made with Chinese authorities in Islamabad, and “now it is up to them to make further decisions in this regard,” said Faraq, according to Associated Press.

The leaders of France, Germany and Britain will try to shore up Ukraine's position on Sunday as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy prepares to meet Donald Trump in Washington with the U.S. leader pressing Kyiv to accept a deal to end the war, Reuters reported.

President Trump is leaning on Ukraine to strike an agreement after meeting Vladimir Putin on Friday in Alaska where, according to sources, the Russian president offered to relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine in exchange for vast swathes elsewhere.

At face value, some of Putin's demands would be hugely difficult for Ukraine to accept, setting the stage for potentially fraught talks about ending Europe's deadliest war in 80 years, which has killed or wounded more than 1 million people, according to Reuters.

Visiting Foreign Secretary of India Vikram Misri paid a courtesy call on President Ram Chandra Paudel today at the Office of the President, Shital Niwas.

On the occasion, President Paudel stated that Nepal has benefited from the progress of its close neighbor, India, and expressed hope to benefit even more in the future.

"We are pleased with the progress achieved by India, an emerging global power, in the socio-economic and technological sectors. As a good friend and close neighbor of India, Nepal has gained from India's progress and hopes to benefit even more in the future," said Kiran Pokhrel, the President's Press Advisor, quoting the President.

Highlighting the longstanding social, cultural, religious, spiritual, economic, and people-to-people relations between Nepal and India, the President said that these ties are founded on sovereign equality, friendly cooperation, mutual respect, and trust.

President Paudel reiterated that Nepal always accords top priority to its relations with India and applauded India’s ‘Neighborhood First’ policy, which underscores the importance it has placed on relations with neighboring countries.

In response, Indian Foreign Secretary Misri affirmed that Nepal remains among India’s top priorities under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He added that during his two-day official visit to Nepal, he looks forward to engaging with relevant officials to discuss extending connectivity and enhancing development cooperation between the two countries, in line with the needs of the modern era and mutual interests.

Foreign Secretary Misri arrived in Kathmandu this morning at the cordial invitation of Nepal’s Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 25. 70 points to close at 2, 762. 66 points on Sunday.

Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 4. 64 points to close at 474. 18 points.

A total of 20,513,625-unit shares of 317 companies were traded for Rs 7. 73 billion.

Meanwhile, RBB Mutual Fund 1 (RMF1) was the top gainer today with its price surging by 9. 93 percent. Likewise, Sampada Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited (SMPDA) was the top loser as its price fell by 7. 06 percent.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 1. 56 trillion.

Thousands of Afghans brought to safety in the UK have had their personal data exposed, after a Ministry of Defence (MoD) sub-contractor suffered a data breach, BBC reported.

The names, passport information and Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) details of up to 3,700 Afghans have potentially been compromised after Inflite The Jet Centre, which provides ground-handling services for flights at London Stansted airport, suffered a cyber-security incident.

It comes just a month after it was a revealed another major data breach in 2022 exposed the details of almost 19,000 people who had asked to come to the UK in order to flee the Taliban, according to BBC.

The government said the incident "has not posed any threat to individuals' safety, nor compromised any government systems".