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The Ramayana Circuit train "named "Bharat Gaurav tourist train” of India carrying 500 Indian pilgrims arrived in Janakpurdham of Janakpur on Thursday.

The Indian train carrying religious tourists arrived in Nepal with an aim to strengthen the cultural ties between Nepal and India.

Chief Minister of Madhes Pradesh Lal Babu Raut, Tourism Minister Shatrudhan Mahato, people’s representatives and locals among others welcome the tourists at the Janakpur-based railway platform.

The train that started its journey to Janakpur from New Delhi via Ayodhya, Nandigram, Sitamarhi, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Chitrakoot, Panchvati (Nasik), Hampi, Rameshwaram and Bhadrachalam on Tuesday.

The two countries signed the Ramayan Circuit agreement during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Janakpur visit four years ago.

Nepal Workers and Peasants Party Chair Narayan Man Bijukchhe has accused the medical mafia of preventing Bhaktapur municipality from getting permission to upgrade Khwopa College into a university and running medical classes there.

While inaugurating the 12th assembly of Bhaktapur Municipality here today, the leader said the municipality had proposed to the government to grant the status of university to the college and allow it to introduce MBSS classes at a very reasonable price.

"But our plan to ensure MBBS programme within the locality got aborted due to the medical mafia," he said, adding that medical mafias were active in making sure that the government does not accept the proposal.

He took time to say that the nation and people were suffering due to the dominance of those leaders who have no idea about the country's needs. "Those in power are ignorant about nation's geography, conditions and history."

The head of the International Energy Agency has warned that Russia may stop supplying gas to Europe this winter, BBC reported.

Fatih Birol says he believes a complete shutdown is not the most likely scenario but that Europe needs to work on contingency plans just in case.

In recent weeks, several European countries said they received significantly less Russian gas than they expected. 

Russian officials deny it's deliberate and have blamed technical issues. 

Before the invasion of Ukraine, Europe imported about 40% of its natural gas from Russia but that figure has now fallen to about 20%.

'Strategic' reductions

Mr Birol says he believes that recent Russian reductions in gas supply are "strategic". The falls are making it harder for European countries to fill up their gas storage and increasing Russia's leverage this winter. 

"I wouldn't rule out Russia continuing to find different issues here and there, and continuing to find excuses to further reduce gas deliveries to Europe and maybe even cut it off completely," Mr Birol told BBC News. 

Last week the flow of natural gas through Nord Stream 1, one of the main pipelines from Russia to Europe, was just 40% of capacity. Many experts are sceptical of the Russian explanation that this was caused by "technical issues". 

Across Europe, shortfalls in gas supply continue to be reported. On Friday the Italian firm energy firm Eni said that it had only received half of the gas that it was expecting from the Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom, while Slovakia and Austria have also reported falls. 

France says it has received no Russian gas from Germany since 15 June while Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands have had their Russian gas deliveries suspended after they refused a demand to pay in Russian roubles, according to BBC.

Last month European countries agreed to try to protect themselves from the volatility of gas prices by filling up their storage facilities. They jointly committed to reaching at least 80% capacity by November, with the latest data suggesting they are at about 55%.

Mr Birol said the ongoing gas crisis now justified emergency short-term measures to reduce demand, such as increasing the use of coal-fired power stations, and if possible prolonging the life of nuclear power plants. If there was a complete shutdown of Russian gas supply, he says drastic measures may be needed. 

"I don't exclude the possibility that Europe will need a planned and orderly rationing of gas," Mr Birol says. 

"I don't say this is the base scenario, but looking at the last several months, if not several years, the experiences we have had with Russia as an energy partner, this is a scenario we cannot afford to exclude for the time being."

Ukraine is set to be approved as an EU candidate at a Brussels summit on Thursday, after the European Commission gave the green light, BBC reported.

Ukraine applied days after the Russian invasion in February, and the process has since moved at a record speed.

Its ambassador to the EU told the BBC it would be a psychological boost for Ukrainians. 

But Vsevolod Chentsov admitted "real integration" could only start when the war was over. 

Candidate status is the first official step towards EU membership and France said this week there was "total consensus" on Ukraine. But it can take many years to join and there's no guarantee of success, according to BBC.

The Western Balkan countries of Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia have been candidate countries for years; in some cases for over a decade. Bosnia and Herzegovina applied for candidacy in 2016 but has still not succeeded. 

EU leaders also meet their Western Balkan counterparts on Thursday morning, ahead of the main summit, to "build on the existing close ties", but discussions are expected to be difficult. 

Some members states are pushing for Bosnia to be given candidate status, although that is not expected to happen. However, there are hopes North Macedonia and Albania may make progress, BBC reported.