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A Tara Air aircraft which had taken off for Mustang from Pokhara has gone out of contact.

The plane with call sign 9N-AET had taken off for Jomson from Pokhara at 9: 55 am.

An official at the Civil Aviation Authority, Pokhara said there were two German nationals, four Indians and 13 Nepali nationals in the aircraft.

There were 22 persons on board including three crew members.

Two persons died in a motorbike accident at Bhaunee in Belbari Municipality-10 of Morang district on Saturday.

The deceased have been identified as bike rider Rajesh Dhimal (25) and pillion rider Anil Chaudhary (24) of Sundarharaicha Municipality 11, Morang.

Police said that the incident occurred when the two-wheeler (Ko 10 Pa 3599) heading towards west from east hit either a parked truck or a tractor last night.

Police said that they have impounded both the vehicles and arrested their drivers for investigation.

Critically injured in the incident, the duo were taken to the Birat Nursing Home and Biratnagar Hospital in Biratnagar.

Chaudhary breathed his last during the course of treatment at around 9: 30 pm yesterday while Dhimal died at around 6 am on Sunday.

Police said that they are looking into the case.

A man was found dead in a field at Maheshwor in Katahari Rural Municipality-1 of Morang district.

According to the DSP Deepak Shrestha of the District Police Office, Morang, the deceased has been identified as Tulasi Shrestha (50) of Katahari-2.

He said that the body may have been dumped in the field near the roadside after the murder.

DSP Shrestha said that the body was found with a deep cut on the forehead.

Police said that he had been staying with his brother Chitra Kumar after he got divorced with his wife.

Chitra Kumar has a chicken farm Katahari-1. Tulasi was found leaving the house on Saturday night.

Police suspected that he had left the house to go to his brother’s farm. But, when locals started searching for him, he was found dead in the field.

Later, locals informed the police after they found the body.

A team led by DSP Rajan Karki has started the investigation.

A trained dog has also been mobilised for the investigation.

DSP Shrestha said that preparations are underway to send the body to the Koshi Hospital in Biratnagar for postmortem.

Sri Lanka has taken delivery of a consignment of Russian oil to restart operations at the country’s only refinery, the energy minister said, Aljazeera reported.

The delivery of Russian crude oil – which could soon be subject to a European embargo – had been waiting offshore for over a month as Sri Lanka was unable to raise the millions to pay for it, Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera told reporters on Saturday.

Sri Lanka will pay $72.6m to buy the 90,000-tonne shipment of Russian oil, the minister said.

“I have reached out to multiple countries, including Russia, for support to import crude and other petroleum products,” Wijesekera said.

The 90,000-tonne consignment was ordered through Dubai-based Coral Energy, the minister said, adding that the shipment would facilitate restarting the country’s sole refinery, which has been closed since March 25, according to Aljazeera.

“The next shipment will also be ordered from the same company. Another consignment will be needed within the next two weeks to keep the refinery running continuously,” he added.

Colombo is in talks with Moscow to arrange direct supplies of crude, coal, diesel and petrol despite US-led sanctions on Russian banks and a global diplomatic outcry over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“I have made an official request to the Russian ambassador for direct supplies of Russian oil,” Wijesekera told reporters.

“Crude alone will not fulfil our requirement, we need other refined [petroleum] products as well.”

Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence, with shortages of fuel and other essentials making life extremely difficult for the island nation’s 22 million people, Aljazeera reported.

The country’s efforts to secure fuel supplies came as European Union leaders were in talks to negotiate a fresh round of sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine conflict, including an oil embargo. Russian oil is already subject to a US embargo.

Sri Lanka’s state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) refinery was shuttered in March following a foreign exchange crunch, which left the government in Colombo unable to finance imports, including crude.

The Sapugaskanda refinery on the outskirts of the capital Colombo will resume work in about two days to produce about 1,000 tonnes of diesel daily to meet the country’s acute fuel shortage, according to Aljazeera.