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The dolphin census has officially begun today in the Saptakoshi River, part of the Koshi Wildlife Reserve.

This annual census has been conducted since 2022, according to Bhupendra Prasad Yadav, Senior Conservation Officer at the Reserve.

The initiative is being technically supported by the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC-Koshi Province Office) and the Kathmandu-based Himalayan Nature.

Dolphins, considered highly intelligent marine mammals, prefer to inhabit clean and deep waters. 

According to the Reserve, these mammals are found from Ganga Sagar to the Koshi River.

The census will be conducted over four days using two different survey methods. In 2012, 11 dolphins were recorded in the Saptakoshi River, and the number rose to 17 in 2017, prompting the Reserve to prioritize dolphin conservation efforts.

The most recent census in 2024 recorded 19 dolphins, and the number is expected to increase this year, said NTNC Koshi Province Coordinator Birendra Gautam.

The Newar community is observing the Sithi Nakha festival with gaiety and fervor as the last of their cultural festivals today.

The community celebrates the festival on the sixth day of the bright half of the Nepali month Jestha as per the lunar calendar. This day is also celebrated as Kumar Sashti.  

The Sithi Nakha festival holds special significance in the Newar community. This festival marks the beginning of the monsoon and is celebrated as the last festival because it coincides with the important agricultural activity of Sinya Jya (rice planting) for farmers.

Since it is also the birthday of the Hindu deity Kumar, on this day the Newar community worships Kumar and there is a tradition of eating special types of dishes called 'bara' made from pulses like, green gram, split black gram and lentils.

People also enjoy special bread made from 'mhuchhyamadhi' or the flour of the roasted wheat that is the year's freshly harvested grain. Other delicacies like 'chatamari', 'papad' and 'malpuwa' are also cooked at home on the occasion and the whole family eats them together in celebration. 

On the day of Sithi Nakha, the Newar community cleans water sources such as wells, ponds, and streams.

The tradition of cleaning the water sources is a way of keeping them clean because during the rainy season, it is likely that water sources and springs might become contaminated due to the drainage of rainwater and the runoff water. The purpose of this tradition of cleaning the water sources is to prevent water pollution.

This custom also carried significance because with the start of the monsoon the water would start to germinate from sources that were otherwise covered, blocked with vegetation or debris and gone dry in winter.

There is also the tradition of farmers transporting the cow dung and farm manure to their fields early in the morning on the day of Sithi Nakha festival due to the religious belief that farmers should not work in the fields on this day.

There is a religious belief that the soil of the farmstead should not be harmed on this day.

Upon completion of these activities, people clean their house and are busy marking the festival.

Culture expert Dr Purushottam Lochan Shrestha states that the Sithi Nakha festival holds special significance in the Newar community for two reasons. First, Sithi Nakha is the birthday of the deity Kumar, who is the elder son of Hindu god Mahadev and goddess Parvati.  Because of this, it is considered a festival of religious significance.

While the elephant-headed god Ganesh who is the younger brother of Kumar is considered the leader of the deities, Kumar is considered as the commander of the divine army.

According to Shrestha, the culture expert, the second reason is that it is believed worshipping the deity Kumar, who is the first to be worshipped among deities, will provide strength and energy to perform agricultural tasks like rice planting during the rainy season.

Therefore, this festival has a special significance to the farmer community.

There is a possibility of light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning at a few places of Koshi, Madesh, Bagmati and Gandaki Provinces and at one or two places in the rest of the country today. 

This is due to the influence of westerly winds and local winds in the western and central parts of the country, while most parts of Koshi Province are under the influence of monsoon winds, according to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology.

As a result, the weather will remain partly to generally cloudy in the hilly areas of Koshi, Madesh, Bagmati and Gandaki and mainly fair to partly cloudy in the rest of the country.

Tonight, the weather will remain partly to generally cloudy throughout the country. 

Light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning is possible at a few places of Koshi, Madesh, Bagmati and Gandaki Provinces and at one or two places in the rest of the country.

The Diamond Jubilee celebrations of the first ascent of Mt Annapurna have begun.

The celebration event was inaugurated by welcoming a team that trekked from Narchyang in Annapurna Rural Municipality-4 of Myagdi to the base camp of Mt Annapurna at the entry point of the trekking route, Narchyang Valley on Saturday.

Mathias Herzog the son of the first person to reach the summit of 8,091-meter-high Mt Annapurna, Maurice Herzog of France was part of a team of 14 foreigners, tourism entrepreneurs, and journalists who came to participate in the trekking team starting from Sunday. They were welcomed by the Annapurna Rural Municipality-4 Ward Office, Annapurna, Janajagaran Youth Club, and the Creative Mothers' Group.

French artists who came with Mathias Herzog made musical presentations in honour of the first climber. They are also scheduled to perform at the Annapurna Base Camp this evening. Six guests from France, three from Britain, five from India and one from Italy, including the son of the first climber Maurice, Mathias, and grandson Ethan Herzog, have come to participate in the Diamond Jubilee program at the invitation of the government, said Lok Bahadur Pun, Ward Chair of Annapurna Rural Municipality-4.

According to him, around 200 people are participating in the Maurice Herzog trekking team that will reach the Annapurna Base Camp at an altitude of 4,100 meters today via Narchyang valley, Humkhola, Phutphute Jharana, Sandhikharka, Bhusket, Panchkunda Lake.

The Diamond Jubilee will be celebrated by holding various programs until June 5, said Annapurna Rural Municipality Chair Bharat Kumar Pun.

Annapurna is called the eldest mountain because it was the first human step above eight thousand meters. On June 3, 1950, the French team of Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal reached the summit of Annapurna.

Wild celebrations erupted across the French capital on Saturday after Paris St Germain crushed Italian opponents Inter Milan to win the Champions League for the first time, although skirmishes with police later threatened to spoil the party, Reuters reported.

On the Champs Elysees, bus shelters were smashed up and projectiles hurled at riot police, who fired tear gas and water canons to push back surging crowds as thousands of supporters descended on the boutique-lined boulevard.

There were also clashes with police on the Paris ring road and at least two cars were torched near PSG's Parc des Princes stadium.

Inside the stadium, transformed into a giant fan zone for the night, 48,000 people let out a roar of ecstasy at the final whistle in Munich.

"Total euphoria, crazy atmosphere," said Gilles Gailliot who had been watching the game in the Paris stadium. "It made up for the wait and the years of disappointment. Finally Paris and its supporters have been rewarded," Gailliot added, according to Reuters.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned on Saturday that the threat from China was real and potentially imminent as he pushed allies in the Indo-Pacific to spend more on their own defence needs, Reuters reported.

Hegseth, speaking for the first time at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia's premier forum for defence leaders, militaries and diplomats, underlined that the Indo-Pacific region was a priority for the Trump administration.

"There's no reason to sugar coat it. The threat China poses is real, and it could be imminent," Hegseth said, in some of his strongest comments on the Communist nation since he took office in January. He added that any attempt by China to conquer Taiwan "would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the world", and echoed Trump's comment that China will not invade Taiwan on the president's watch.

China views Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to "reunify" with the democratic and separately governed island, by force if necessary. It has stepped up military and political pressure to assert those claims, including increasing the intensity of war games around Taiwan, according to Reuters.

Ukraine resisted U.S. and Russian pressure to commit to attending another round of peace talks on Monday, saying it first needed to see Russian proposals, while a leading U.S. senator warned Moscow it would be "hit hard" by new U.S. sanctions, Reuters reported.

U.S. President Donald Trump has urged Moscow and Kyiv to work together on a deal to end their three-year-old war, and Russia has proposed a second round of face-to-face talks with Ukrainian officials next week in Istanbul.

Kyiv has said it is committed to the search for peace, but that it was waiting for a memorandum from the Russian side setting out their proposals.

"For a meeting to be meaningful, its agenda must be clear, and the negotiations must be properly prepared," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on X on Friday after hosting Turkey's foreign minister for talks in Kyiv, according to Reuters.

"Unfortunately, Russia is doing everything it can to ensure that the next potential meeting brings no results," he said, citing the lack of a document from Russia.

The US has sent Iran a proposal for a nuclear deal between Tehran and Washington, the White House confirmed on Saturday, BBC reported.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he had been presented with "elements of a US deal" by his Omani counterpart Badr Albusaidi during a short visit to the Iranian capital.

It comes after a report by the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran had further stepped up its production of enriched uranium, a key component in the making of nuclear weapons.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Saturday it was in Tehran's "best interest to accept" the deal, adding: "President Trump has made it clear that Iran can never obtain a nuclear bomb," according to BBC.