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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Nepal has seen incredible changes in its governance, economic development, and international engagements.

In a tweet to mark the 75 years of diplomatic relations between Nepal and the US on Friday, Blinken said that the US looks forward to many more decades of friendship.

"Today we mark 75 years of US-Nepal diplomatic relations. Nepal has seen incredible changes in its governance, economic development, and international engagements," Blinken said in the tweet, adding "We are proud of our accomplishments as partners, and look forward to many more decades of friendship."

Nepal and the US established diplomatic ties on April 25, 1947.

President Biden is asking Congress for $33bn (£27bn) in military, economic and humanitarian assistance to support Ukraine - although he insisted that the US was not "attacking Russia", BBC reported.

Mr Biden said it was "critical" for US lawmakers to approve the deal, which he said would help Ukraine defend itself.

The proposal includes more than $20bn in military aid, $8.5bn in economic aid and $3bn in humanitarian aid.

"It's not cheap," Mr Biden said on Thursday. 

"But caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen."

Although the US has already announced help for Ukraine, the proposals are a significant ramping up of aid.

President Biden said US military support to Ukraine has so far amounted to 10 anti-tank weapons for every tank that Russia has deployed to Ukraine. 

But despite his strong rhetoric, he said the US was not attacking Russia. "We are helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression," he insisted, according to BBC.

On Thursday, a spokesperson for Russia's Foreign Ministry said Western military support for Ukraine threatens "the security of the continent".

President Biden is asking Congress to authorise an enormous sum of money for Ukraine - more than twice as much as the US has already spent on providing military equipment and humanitarian aid. 

The US president wants to show he is undeterred by vague threats about the possible use of nuclear weapons, and a warning from Vladimir Putin that there could be retaliatory strikes against countries that intervene in Ukraine.

He shrugged off those comments - saying they show the desperation Russia is feeling about their abject failure to do what they set out to do.

Explaining to Americans why this money is needed - at a time when many are suffering from rising living costs - he said it was not cheap, but doing nothing was more costly, BBC reported.

An additional plan to allow US authorities to not just freeze but liquidate the assets of Russian oligarchs is bold - and it has raised concerns among civil liberties groups in America. But it is likely to gain bipartisan support in Congress.

Yet it will not begin to cover cost of the additional sums of money the White House wants to spend supporting Ukraine's war efforts, according to BBC.

Russia pounded targets from practically one end of Ukraine to the other Thursday, including Kyiv, bombarding the city while the head of the United Nations was visiting in the boldest attack on the capital since Moscow’s forces retreated weeks ago, Associated Press reported.

Nearly a dozen people were wounded in the attack on Kyiv, including one who lost a leg and others who were trapped in the rubble when two buildings were hit, rescue officials said.

The bombardment came barely an hour after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a news conference with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who said Ukraine has become “an epicenter of unbearable heartache and pain.” A spokesperson said Guterres and his team were safe.

Meanwhile, explosions were reported across the country, in Polonne in the west, Chernihiv near the border with Belarus, and Fastiv, a large railway hub southwest of the capital. The mayor of Odesa, in southern Ukraine, said rockets were intercepted by air defenses.

Ukrainian authorities also reported intense Russian fire in the Donbas — the eastern industrial heartland that the Kremlin says is its main objective — and near Kharkiv, a northeastern city outside the Donbas that is seen as key to the offensive, according to the Associated Press.

In the ruined southern port city of Mariupol, Ukrainian fighters holed up in the steel plantthat represents the last pocket of resistance said concentrated bombing overnight killed and wounded more people. And authorities warned that a lack of safe drinking water inside the city could lead to outbreaks of deadly diseases such as cholera and dysentery.

In Zaporizhzhia, a crucial way station for tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Mariupol, an 11-year-old boy was among at least three people wounded in a rocket attack that authorities said was the first to hit a residential area in the southern city since the war began. Shards of glass cut the boy’s leg to the bone.

Vadym Vodostoyev, the boy’s father, said: “It just takes one second and you’re left with nothing.”

The fresh attacks came as Guterres surveyed the destruction in small towns outside the capital that saw some of the worst horrors of the first onslaught of the war. He condemned the atrocities committed in towns like Bucha, where evidence of mass killings of civilians was found after Russia withdrew in early April in the face of unexpectedly stiff resistance.

“Wherever there is a war, the highest price is paid by civilians,” the UN chief lamented.

Separately, Ukraine’s prosecutor accused 10 Russian soldiers of being “involved in the torture of peaceful people” in Bucha. Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova did not say her office had filed criminal charges, and she appealed to the public for help in gathering evidence. Russia denies it targets civilians.

During his nightly video address, Zelenskyy renewed his pledge to hold Russian soldiers accountable for crimes they commit and said about the 10 identified earlier Thursday: “Some of them may not, after all, live until a trial and fair punishment. But only for one reason: This Russian brigade has been transferred to the Kharkiv region. There they’ll receive retribution from our military.”

In the attack on Kyiv, explosions shook the city and flames poured out of windows in at least two buildings — including a residential one — in the capital, which has been relatively unscathed in recent weeks. Ukrainian emergency services said 10 people were wounded in the attack, which sent plumes of smoke billowing over the city, Associated Press reported.

The explosions in northwestern Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky district came as residents have been increasingly returning to the city. Cafes and other businesses have reopened, and a growing numbers of people have been out and about, enjoying the spring weather.

It was not immediately clear how far away the attack was from Guterres.

Getting a full picture of the unfolding battle in the east has been difficult because airstrikes and artillery barrages have made it extremely dangerous for reporters to move around. Several journalists have been killed in the war, now in its third month.

Also, both Ukraine and the Moscow-backed rebels fighting in the east have introduced tight restrictions on reporting from the combat zone.

Western officials say the Kremlin’s apparent goal is to take the Donbas by encircling and crushing Ukrainian forces from the north, south and east.

But so far, Russia’s troops and their allied separatist forces appear to have made only minor gains, taking several small towns as they try to advance in relatively small groups against staunch Ukrainian resistance, according to the Associated Press.

Nepali Congress leader and Sudurpaschim Province Assembly member Karna Malla has announced to resign from his post on Thursday. 

He announced his resignation after the party expelled him from the general membership.

"This is the second time that the party expelled me from the general membership. That is why, morality does not allow me to remain as an elected lawmaker of the Province Assembly from the party," he said so by organizing a press conference in Dadeldhura this afternoon, adding, " I would like to announce from this press conference that I am not a member of the Province Assembly from today itself."