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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.

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

Kathmandu: Commercial paragliding flights have commenced in Chandragiri, Kathmandu. Babu Adventures, the company founded by Nepal’s first high-altitude paragliding instructor and pilot, Sanobabu Sunuwar, has launched paragliding services.

Sunuwar, who has the remarkable achievements of scaling Mount Everest and paragliding from its summit to sea level, is also the recipient of the ‘Adventurer of the Year-2012’ award from National Geographic.

Paragliding flights take off from Chandragiri Hill, situated 20 minutes west of Bhaleshwar Temple. The flight starts at Chandragiri, which is 2,300 meters above sea level, and ascends up to a hundred meters in the sky before landing in Chitlang at 1,700 meters above sea level.

During the paragliding experience, participants can enjoy breathtaking aerial views of Bhaleshwar Temple and most parts of the Kathmandu Valley. The flight also offers panoramic views of regions such as Rasuwa and Dhading, as well as an enchanting perspective of Makwanpur’s Tistung, Palung, and the man-made Indrasarovar Lake.

The flight route predominantly traverses lush forests, enhancing the experience. According to government regulations, the company is permitted to fly up to 12 paragliders simultaneously, serving up to 100 people daily.

Sunuwar, who runs a paragliding school in Swarek Maidan, Syangja, believes that adventure air tourism has vast potential across Nepal and they've invested in Chandragiri to provide Kathmandu residents with a taste of flying in their city.

He said, “We’re on a mission to promote paragliding throughout Nepal. Given the high population density in Kathmandu, we hope to quickly and effectively spread its appeal.” The company is also prepared for ‘cross-country’ paragliding. They have invested around Rs 15m in establishing paragliding operations in Chandragiri, with plans for further investment.

Regarding the fee, the company charges Rs 8,000 per person for paragliding at Chandragiri, which includes a 15 to 25-minute paragliding flight, photographs, videos, and transportation from Kathmandu to the paragliding site. Photo and video equipment are provided by the company. Foreign nationals are charged Rs 12,000 per person for the same package. Nepali tourists who don’t require transportation by the company can enjoy paragliding at a rate of Rs 7,200.

To make a booking for paragliding in Chandragiri, interested individuals should contact Babu Adventures at least one day in advance. Bookings can be made through the company’s website.

Washington: Economic crises are rippling through the countries bordering Israel, raising the possibility of a chain reaction from the war with Hamas that further worsens the financial health and political stability of Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon and creates problems well beyond.

Each of the three countries is up against differing economic pressures that led the International Monetary Fund to warn in a September report that they could lose their "sociopolitical stability." That warning came shortly before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct 7, triggering a war that could easily cause economic chaos that President Joe Biden and the European Union would likely need to address.

The possible fallout is now starting to be recognized by world leaders and policy analysts. For a Biden administration committed to stopping the Israel-Hamas war from widening, the conflict could amplify the economic strains and possibly cause governments to collapse. If the chaos went unchecked, it could spread across a region that is vital for global oil supplies—with reverberations around the globe.

“The more unstable things are economically, the easier it is for bad actors in the region to stir the pot," said Christopher Swift, an international lawyer and former Treasury Department official. "The notion that you can divorce politics from economics is a little bit myopic, and naive. Politics, economics and security go together very closely.”

World Bank head Ajay Banga warned at a conference in Saudi Arabia this week that the war puts economic development at a “dangerous juncture.”

The financial situation is serious enough that Charles Michel, president of the European Council, met with the IMF last Thursday and told officials there that they needed to do more to support the Egyptian government, which he said is under pressure due to the possibility of migrants arriving from Hamas-controlled Gaza as well as people fleeing a civil war in Sudan.

“Let’s support Egypt," Michel told reporters afterward. “Egypt needs our support and we need to support Egypt.”

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi refuses to take in Palestinian refugees, fearing that Israel wants to force a permanent expulsion of Palestinians and nullify Palestinian demands for statehood. The Egyptian leader also said a mass exodus would risk bringing militants into the Sinai Peninsula.

Already, over a million people have been displaced within Gaza, and the threat of the war's escalation looms with clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border between the Israeli military and Hezbollah militants.

“To presume that there won’t be a movement of people is naïve and premature,” said Swift. “Any sudden blow to the el-Sissi regime from the outside, whether it’s an economic blow, or whether it’s the sudden migration of a lot of people out of Gaza into the Sinai could have destabilizing effects.”

Swift said that while el-Sissi’s regime is heavily dependent on US economic and military assistance, it's increasingly going to be popular opinion within Egypt that determines his actions, a lesson learned from the Arab Spring protests that brought down the Mubarak regime in 2011.

In April, the IMF concluded that Egypt's financing needs for the year were equal in size to 35 percent of its gross domestic product. On Oct 5, Moody’s downgraded Egyptian debt that was already at junk status. The downgrade came as past efforts have failed to help Egypt’s economy, which was saddled with about $160bn in debt as of the end of last year.

Mirette F. Mabrouk, director of the Middle East Institute’s Egypt Studies program, said, “Egypt is in the worst economic crisis I can remember in at least five decades” and that only complicates the current turmoil from the war.

“If you have this conflagration in Gaza, you need the rest of the region to be stable for everyone to take appropriate and correct action,” Mabrouk said. “You don’t need more instability in a region that is already quite unstable.”

Mabrouk said one of the most immediate signs of increasing distress is that Egypt’s central bank has in the past week imposed foreign currency restrictions on cards linked to local bank accounts.

One major potential setback for Egypt stemming from the latest Israel-Hamas War would be the loss of tourists seeking to explore the country's ancient pyramids and history. Tourism is one of Egypt's leading economic sectors, and along with foreign investment provides needed access to the rest of the global economy.

A representative from the Egyptian government did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

Nearby Jordan is struggling due to slower economic growth and less foreign investment, according to the IMF. Its debt outlook is healthier than Egypt's, but its unemployment rate is in the double digits, according to financial data provider FactSet.

The size of the Lebanese economy shrank by more than half from 2019 to 2021, according to the World Bank. Lebanon's currency, which since 1997 had been pegged to the US dollar at 1,500 Lebanese pounds to the dollar, now trades around 90,000 pounds to the dollar.

While many businesses have taken to charging in dollars, public employees who still get their wages in lira have seen their purchasing power crash, with many now relying on remittances from relatives abroad to stay afloat. International donors including the United States and Qatar have been subsidizing the salaries of Lebanese army soldiers.

The country’s leaders reached a tentative agreement with the IMF in April 2022 for a bailout package but they have not implemented most of the reforms required to finalize the deal. The IMF warned in a report earlier this year that without reforms, public debt in the small, crisis-ridden country could reach nearly 550 percent of GDP.

Before the latest Israel-Hamas war, some officials had pointed to Lebanon’s rebounding tourism industry as an economic lifeline. But since the conflict has threatened to envelop Lebanon—with regular small-scale clashes already taking place between militants from Hamas-allied Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the country’s southern border—foreign embassies have warned their citizens to leave and airlines have canceled flights to the country.

Paul Salem, president of the Middle East Institute in Washington, said that “if tensions spread to the Gulf, this conflict will have the potential to severely impact international markets and struggling economies and populations around the globe.”

AP