- Thursday, 19 February 2026
TRN Online
Six new cases, 44 recoveries in 24 hours
In 1,986 Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests done in the past 24 hours, a total of six people were found infected with SARS-CoV-2, informed the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) in its regular update.
Civic poll on scheduled date: CEC Thapaliya
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said the free and fair election would be held in the stipulated time.
Beni-Maldhunga road to be closed for five hours daily
Myagdi, April 16 (RSS): Beni-Maldhunga road would remain closed for five hours daily from today. Vehicular movement along the road section would be closed from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm daily till May 8 in order to upgrade it. The road section connects Myagdi and Mustang districts with the national highway. According to the Beni-Jomsom-Korala road project, the Beni-Maldhunga road would be closed in order to accelerate the construction activities of the road section in a smooth and easy manner. The Beni-Jomsom-Korala road project and the construction company had proposed the District Administration Office to close the vehicular movement along the road section after road expansion activities were affected due to pressure of vehicles. Earlier, the road section was also closed for five hours daily from December 30, 2021 to January 28, 2022. Proprietor of assistant construction company, Omkareshwor, Amrit Dahal, said that they had demanded the District Administration Office to close the vehicular movement along the road section in order to expedite road construction activities. Activities related to upgrading and expanding the 13-kilometer road linking Maldhunga of Kushma municipality-1 and Beni of Myagdi to two-lane are underway at the cost of Rs 528 million.
Commitment to prioritize child rights issues in upcoming election
Kathmandu, April 16 (RSS): Leaders of major political parties have pledged to prioritise issues and concerns related to children and child rights in their manifesto for the upcoming local level election. The local level election is slated for May 13 in a single phase. At a political discourse organized by the Children as Zones of Peace National Campaign here today, they assured to take concrete steps for implementation and protection of child rights enshrined as the fundamental rights in the Constitution of Nepal. CPN (UML) general-secretary Shankar Pokharel said that his party had been championing the cause of child rights and called for declaring schools as a peace zone since insurgency. "There is no doubt that the State should lay its focus on children to ensure the bright future of the nation," he noted. Similarly, the ruling Nepali Congress's assistant general-secretary Jivan Pariyar shared that they had been addressing many concerns related to children by holding discussions and consultations during the promulgation of the constitution. "Nepali Congress is committed to enforcing the policies and laws formulated to guarantee child rights." He lamented that the issues of child rights were neglected even in educated families. Likewise, CPN (Maoist Centre)' leader Shakti Bahadur Basnet spoke of the need to walk the talk instead of confining child rights issues to sloganeering. He viewed the current constitution as child-friendly as he argued that it was promulgated by the elected people's representatives. Child rights defender Gauri Pradhan said that the political parties, as well as the State, should prioritize concerns of child rights such as smooth registration process for childbirth, free education and free enrollment, sports, entertainment and protection of child rights. Advocate Indu Tuladhar pointed out the need to adhere to the provision in the election code of conduct that bars mobilizing children in the election promotion and forbids the use of the school for election promotion. Rajesh Sharma from the host organization urged all political parties to prioritize issues of children in their manifesto.
Balaju Bais Dhara Jatra in pictures
Hindu devotees celebrated the Balaju Bais Dhara Jatra (22 water spouts festival) on Saturday. The festival is celebrated every year on the day of Chaitra Sukla Purnima.
Route construction to Everest summit from tomorrow
The construction of the route to reach the summit of Mount Everest will start on Sunday. A team of icefall doctors had completed the construction of the route from Khumbu icefall, a dangerous route to Mt. Everest, to the second camp 6,400 meters high on April 7.
Youth Chef Competition to explore and promote Nepali cuisine at int level
The hotel management students from 11 colleges within the Kathmandu Valley will take part in the cooking competition to be organized in association with the Global Nepalese Chefs Federation and International Chefs Society, informed Federation's president Laxman Prasad Bhandari.
Governance Of Economic Life
Dev Raj Dahal, Economic society, such as agriculture, industries, business chambers, service sectors, producers and consumers associations, and cooperatives, is a key lifeline to fulfill basic necessities. It symbolizes the market transaction and is licensed by the state to do a profit, pay taxes and undertake social works in the spirit of fair business practices of conscience shuva lav. Elinor Ostrom says, “No market can survive without extensive public goods provided by governmental agencies. No government can be efficient and equitable without considerable inputs from citizens.” The peaceful pursuit of economic life cannot be delinked from the integrity of ecology, society, politics, and the apt use of resources. Incentives for economic actors do exist to utilize land, labor, capital, technology, and knowledge relative to their virtual costs and benefits. Flourishing economic life needs a system of property rights, contract enforcement, rule of law, competition rules, transport, information, and conflict easing means to keep supply-demand equilibrium. Equality and social inclusion are back in the vision of Nepal’s constitution presuming redistributive measures of diffusing prosperity across social strata. High inequality and social exclusion bear negative impacts on productivity, education, health, and social mobility.Public goodsNormally, decisions of the public economy are made by political leaders. Even private economic action has attendant effects on public policies of the government. The market fosters efficiency, the agility to fight, not equality and the free will of people. It is good at satisfying private wants, not public goods such as nature, education, health, security, rule of law, culture and infrastructure. It rewards those who can vie in market transactions, not those who are powerless and dispossessed seeking care from the government and protection from the state. But politics provides equal vote to people, the right to organize and engage in collective bargaining for wage increases, shape public policies, and grasp the loyalty of society. The inability of Nepali leadership to live up to the party and constitutional ideals made them vulnerable to climate change, dysfunctional globalization, national capability deficits in meeting the needs of the poor, economic stagnation, and coy social security. Nepal’s market is spatially segmented, not integrating and articulating to each other and widening the economy of scale. Corporate balance sheets hardly place adequate value on the nation’s natural resources. The addiction for profits has weakened ecological resilience and destroyed nature's maze of life. Human survival rests on respect for nature, its energetic life, and self-generating ecosystems of astonishing links.The operation of the economic and political syndicates in Nepal, however, marks the monopolistic tendencies of powerful business-oriented political elites, not the creation of an earth-caring, competitive market and easy access of ordinary people to essential goods. Owing to open border and transportation facilities, Nepali markets of Terai are articulating more to the Indian border towns than Nepali hills and mountains. Fragile infrastructural conditions have increased the costs of goods and proper integration of rural and urban areas. This has suffocating effects on the regional coherence of interests and intra-societal economic integration. The Competition Promotion, Market Protection and Consumer Protection Acts deem the practices of cartel, syndicate, and monopoly illicit. Economic life in Nepal turns secure if power and wealth are set at balance at the end of each generation of people. The adoption of pseudo-scientific neo-liberal policies, deconstruction of the administrative basis of the Nepali state, and use of cynical postmodern projection of groups identity and group rights have disrupted the execution of constitutional visions of right to work, social justice, social protection, and equilibrium among the executive, legislative and judiciary branches of the polity. It is unclear whether the synergy of socialist-oriented egalitarian society envisaged in the constitution is attained through the coordination of public, private and cooperative sectors when all the indicators of progress-- growth, agricultural and industrial production, current account, trade, remittance, foreign currency reserve, investment, foreign aid and tourism signify downhill path while burdens of import, debt, and inflation on the prices of essential goods uphill trail. The contribution of tax to GDP stands at about 22 percent which is inadequate to finance a self-sufficient state. In this context, the conflicting interpretation of the nation’s economic woes by the Ministry of Finance, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), and National Planning Commission as evident from the seminars organised by National Economic Association and NRB on Economics and Finance does only arouse the nervousness of people at a time of local election. The roots of economic woes are systemic yet economic policy wonks from the government and opposition have made only hard-hitting criticism of each other for adopting inept economic policy choices to address the nation’s problems of poverty, inequality, and marginalization, not a shared roadmap of progress.Nepali policymakers so far seem far removed from the reflection of local knowledge and society, read only the farewell of the nation-state, indulged in unhealthy economic conformity, ignored macroeconomic realities, squeezed the internal labor market, and compounded the economic ills of average Nepalis forcing them to earn in a foreign land for their livelihood. It might peeve the nation’s constitutional vision of creating an independent economy rooted in a social welfare state. The policies of labor market flexibility, no work no pay and hire, and fire of workers contradict the constitutional vision of social justice.The retreat of the Nepali state from segmental market institutions made the poor defenseless and created insecurity to the middle class - the mediating force of society - forcing it to leave the place of their origin and migrate to safer areas of developed countries while the poor in the arid part of the Gulf region as blue-collar workers. Hobbled by patronage culture, cronyism, corruption, political instability, and repulsive transition, the state is forced to take the side of the capital. Governing institutions are less robust to address post-democratic regimes and expand the productive sector of the economy parallel to constitutional promise. Leadership focus on financial capitalism marked the beginning of the crises of livelihood, economic downturn, and social struggles thus hurting the governance of economic life.Subsidy cuts on agriculture and closure of many public enterprises and privatization of essential services, such as education, health, and public utilities for rents for Nepali leadership reflect the failure to fulfill their democratic mandate and enable the public sector to play a strategic role in infrastructure investment, production, trade creation, and trade diversification and poverty alleviation. A market economy cannot function in the absence of an institutional vision of a virtuous government, social support, and adequate regulatory measures. Ironically, pre-mature de-agrarian nation, de-industrialization in favor of service sectors in Nepal bore worsening effects on the livelihood and compressed the process of social modernization. The dominance of money over democracy allowed many regimes to skate back politics into the pre-democratic era and converted people into migrants, wage workers, passive voters, and consumers. Civil society, driven by charity, has to reclaim the state’s role for the public good and avert the counter-revolution of economic leaders against the egalitarian effects of democracy and exert weight for harnessing the nation’s unutilized potential-- natural resources, clean energy, culture, tourism, production, and trade diversification and bulging youth population. Globalization has internationalized Nepal’s economic life and population and opened contact with many countries and peoples. But in no way the benefits of globalization have been deployed in productive sectors of the economy harnessing its comparative and competitive advantages both to fulfill essential needs and diversify production, trade, and commerce. The regional and global participation of national civil society in multi-level governance criticises economic policy makers for the lack of this neglect and bypassing the spirit of the constitution yet they also ignite fresh reasons for hope from a sort of global civic rebirth articulated in the global consensus to new interest in the social charter, social movements, world social forums, global consensus on climate change and Sustainable Development Goals. Democratic autonomyThe governance of economic life in Nepal is not irremediably determined by growth, private sector, market, polity, state, trade or technological import but by their cohesiveness with the community, compassion, wisdom, nature, and culture in a sustainable course. The universality of human rights has set the indivisibility of humanity and contributed to the emergence of regional and global public to debate and take action on infrastructural development, connectivity, participatory democracy, and economic diplomacy. There are 3.5 million shareholders of cooperatives of various types from bee-keeping, seed, and coffee to medicinal plants. Social cooperatives have the potential to boost the collective forms of capital ownership, weave together rival forces and provide citizens democratic autonomy. But they also express the appropriation of scarce resources by powerful persons in the allocation of projects. The government and private sector have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for public-private partnership for multi-layered local development aiming to assume roles in local planning, budgeting, revenue, infrastructural development, urban development, tourism, environmental promotion, health, land use, disaster preparedness, tax administration reforms, etc. The competitive spirit of Nepali entrepreneurs, farms, and the state, however, requires strong incentives and innovation ensuring the young people are trained to become entrepreneurs in various ecological zones and utilize comparative resource advantages so as to realize the nation’s potential and attain the lofty purpose.(Former Reader at the Department of Political Science, TU, Dahal writes on political and social issues.)
Distribution of advanced breed buffaloes to farmers
BY OUR CORRESPONDENTJajarkot, Apr 15 : A cooperative in the Jajarkot district has distributed buffaloes of advanced breeds to local farmers.As per the annual approved program of the Karnali Provincial government, 10 buffaloes were distributed to 10 farmers affiliated to the cooperative through Panchase Multi-purpose Cooperative of Nalgad Municipality-5.The Province Government has introduced the program to promote milk production. The cooperative has distributed 10 milking buffaloes at the rate of Rs. 150,000 to make the farmers self-reliant by increasing their income.In order to improve the income of the animal husbandry business and make the farmers self-reliant, 10 buffaloes were brought from Nepalgunj in the grant amount of Rs. 1.5 million from the Veterinary Hospital and Veterinary Service Office. Also, Rs. 450,000 were provided from the cooperative and distributed to the farmers, said Jar Bahadur Bhakri, chief of Veterinary Hospital and Veterinary Service Office.Ganesh Prasad Gautam of Nalgad-5, who has been in the agri-animal husbandry business, said that he was very happy to get the buffalo.He said that buffalo would help them improve their income and provide education to their children.The manager of the cooperative Kishor Rawal informed that the cooperative has been distributing modern agricultural inputs and seasonal and non-seasonal vegetable seeds to the farmers.The cooperative, which was established by 25 people in 2065 BS, has now 764 share members.
KMC begins clearing garbage
By Arpana Adhikari ,Kathmandu, Apr 16 : The Kathmandu Metropolitan City’s Solid Waste Management Division has started removing garbage from the major streets of Kathmandu.Garbage dumped by households, shops, hotels, businesses, and offices had been polluting the capital for more than 10 days. But KMC, the main authority for collecting and disposing of the trash in the city, finally sprang into action on Friday and began clearing the roads and alleys of the city. Aashish Sharma, a student who roamed around Baneshwor, Lazimpat, Maitidevi, Ghantaghar, Kamalpokhari, and Durbarmarg Friday morning, was delighted to see the trash gone. “This is not how the streets of the capital frequented by tourists should be,” he said.Kalpana Shrestha, a resident of Gyaneshwor, also expressed joy at having the rubbish pile dumped near her house finally cleared.All garbage collection was stopped earlier this month due to the blockade of the Tinpiple to Mukhu Bhanjyang road by locals demanding immediate reconstruction of the damaged sections of the highway.Sailung Construction received the contract to work on the highway nine years ago. However, despite repeated deadline extensions, it has failed to work satisfactorily which caused the locals to protest. “The Road Division under the federal government is responsible for handling such road construction issues. Yet, the KMC is the body that is blamed for not taking action to dispose the city’s waste,” complained Sarita Rai, head of the Environment Department of KMC. “All we can do is request the construction company to speed up their work.”Rai said the repeated obstructions seen in the city’s waste management was due to a lack of a sustainable approach. For now, though, KMC has begun clearing the trash littering the streets and also began collecting garbage from people’s homes on Wednesday, Rai informed.This is not the first protest by the locals of Tinpiple and Tisdale. Time and again, the residents of Sisdole, the only landfill site for all the 18 local levels of Kathmandu Valley, stop garbage trucks from coming to their area citing health concerns.“The KMC has been addressing all the demands raised by the people of Tisdale. However, road reconstruction is not in our jurisdiction,” stressed Rai.Tisdale was designated a dumping site in 2005 and was only supposed to be used for three years. However, it has been more than 15 years and Sisdole is still in use.The Ministry of Urban Development has been constructing an alternative dumping site at Banchare Danda on the border of Nuwakot and Dhanding. However, the contractor has already missed multiple deadlines for its completion and work remains in limbo.“The construction of the first cell [at Banchare Danda] is complete and ready for use. However, it has remained unused because the trucks must cross Sisdole to reach it, a near-impossible task because of the mounds of garbage that cannot be driven on,” said Rai.Waste segregation made mandatoryMeanwhile, the KMC issued a public notice on Thursday asking households and businesses to mandatorily segregate biodegradable waste and non-biodegradable wastes before disposing of them for garbage collection.Such calls have been issued on previous occasions as well but the metropolis has not been able to change the habits of its residents.
24-hour free maternity service at RAHS
Bukhari, April 16 : Rapti Academy of Health Sciences (RAHS), Dang, has been running a 24-hour free maternity service since Friday. Saying Safe Motherhood Programme is now free in the Academy, Vice-Chancellor Dr. Basanta Lamichhane shared that a woman visiting the Academy to receive maternity service has not to pay any charge. After his appointment to the post of Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Lamichhane had expressed a commitment to provide free maternity services in the hospital. Earlier, the service under the safe motherhood program was free in the hospital, the woman visiting the hospital for delivery service after midnight had to pay the charge in a lack of required human resources. Vice-Chancellor Dr. Lamichhane shared that additional human resources would be added to provide free maternity service and it would be provided by mobilizing the available human resources of the hospital for the time being.
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Climate toll on Arctic bases: Sunken runways, damaged roads
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER WASHINGTON Apr 16 , (AP) — U.S. military bases in the Arctic and sub-Arctic are failing to prepare their installations for long-term climate change as required, even though soaring temperatures and melting ice already are cracking base runways and roads and worsening flood risks up north, the Pentagon’s watchdog office said Friday.The report from the inspector general of the Department of Defense provides a rare bit of public stock-taking of the military’s state of readiness – or lack of readiness – for the worsening weather of a warming Earth.The U.S. military long has formally recognized climate change as a threat to national security. That’s in part because of the impact that intensifying floods, wildfires, extreme heat and other natural disasters are having and will have on U.S. installations and troops around the world.Increasing hurricanes, flooding, storms and wildfires in recent years have caused billions of dollars in damage to Florida’s Tyndall Air Force Base, Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base and other U.S. military installations, and interrupted training and other operations.For years, laws, presidential orders and Pentagon rules have mandated that the military start planning and work so that its installations, warships, warplanes and troops can carry out their missions despite increasingly challenging conditions as the use of fossil fuels heats up the Earth.While even acknowledging climate change was a career risk for administration officials under former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden directed faster, more sweeping action on climate change by the Department of Defense and other agencies as one of his first acts in office.Despite Biden’s emphasis, inspectors visiting the United States’ six northernmost military bases last June and July found none were carrying out the required assessments and planning to prepare their installations and operations against long-term climate change.Further, “most installation leaders at the six installations we visited in the Arctic and sub-Arctic region were unfamiliar with military installation resilience planning requirements, processes, and tools,” the inspector general reports said.Senior officers told the inspector general’s inspection team that their operations lacked the training and funding to start the required work on hardening their bases. Some saw requirements for that kind of long-term planning as assembling a “wish list” that would go up against competing priorities, the officers told the inspectors.A Pentagon spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. The inspector general report cited Defense officials as saying that the Biden administration has finished or is working on many of the report’s recommendations to better incorporate climate preparations at bases and across military branches, and would increase resources to bases to make that possible.One of the bases is in Greenland and the other five in Alaska: Thule Air Base, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Clear Space Force Station, Eielson Air Force Base, Fort Wainwright and Fort Greely.The Arctic and sub-Arctic are important to U.S. strategic aims in part because of rising tensions and competition with Russia and China, and in part because sharply rising temperatures are melting sea ice and opening up both shipping lanes and access to the region’s oil and other resources, increasing interest and traffic in the region.The Defense Department also sees “the Arctic is a potential vector for an attack on the U.S. homeland, a region where Russia and China are operating more freely, and a strategic corridor for DoD forces between the Indo-Pacific and Europe,” the report notes.The inspectors found the kind of problems associated with worsening climate change already causing trouble at the U.S. bases.At Fort Wainwright in Alaska, heightened wildfire risks in 2019 interrupted training for two Pacific Air Force squadrons, so that one was able to carry out only 59% of planned training for a period, the report said.Many of the specific discussions of climate risks at the six bases were blacked-out in the version of the report made public Friday.But inspectors photographed and described some. That included cracked and sunken runways undermined by melting ice, damaged hangers and roads, and a collapsed rock barrier that had been piled up to hold back floodwater from a river swollen by glacial melting, at Thule in Greenland.Leaders at all six bases visited noted that kind of damage, inspectors said, “however, officials from five of these installations said they had not begun incorporating future climate risks into their installations’ planning.”“They stated that their day-to-day focus was on reacting to immediate problems or reducing risk to existing hazards, rather than planning for future hazards,” the report noted.The Arctic is warming two to three times faster than the rest of the world. A March heat wave that hiked Arctic temperatures 50 degrees (30 Celsius) higher than normal stunned scientists.Of 79 U.S. military installations overall, the Department of Defense says two-thirds are vulnerable to worsening flooding as the climate worsens and half are vulnerable to increasing drought and wildfires.
California COVID cases up, but no plans to add restrictions
By DON THOMPSON,SACRAMENTO, Calif. Apr 16 , (AP) — California has no plans to impose new statewide pandemic restrictions despite a rise in coronavirus cases primarily due to the new highly transmissible omicron variant BA.2, the state’s top health official says.The most populous state has seen “some slow but noticeable increase in our case rates” in the last 10 days, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency. California’s slower increase contrasts with some other parts of the country, especially the Northeast.Philadelphia this week became the first major U.S. city to reinstate an indoor mask mandate. Confirmed cases jumped more than 50% in 10 days and the city’s health commissioner said she wanted to intervene to head off a wave of hospitalizations and deaths.“In California, we haven’t seen a city or a county have that kind of case rate increase as of yet,” Ghaly told The Associated Press on Thursday, adding he has seen no indication local officials plan to toughen their approach. Local officials can proceed more aggressively than the state if they choose and some have during previous waves.California lifted its mask mandate in mid-February but Los Angeles County waited more than two weeks longer. And it was only two weeks ago that the city of Los Angeles ended its mandate for many indoor businesses and operators of large outdoor events to verify that customers have been vaccinated against COVID-19.In LA County, which has more than a quarter of California’s population of nearly 40 million, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Thursday that cases rose 15% in the last week and she expects further increases as students return to school after spring break. But she is confident health workers and facilities are ready for any influx of seriously ill patients.“Part of responding appropriately is ensuring that we’re always well prepared for situations that may require additional safety and mitigation strategies,” Ferrer said.In mid-February California became the first state to formally adopt an “endemic” approach to the coronavirus. That plan emphasizes prevention and quick reaction to outbreaks over mandated masking and business shutdowns.California remains focused on encouraging individuals to get vaccinated and boosted, wear a mask where appropriate and take other precautions to “make good, thoughtful personal decisions to protect themselves,” Ghaly said.“This is a frequent, fast-moving situation, as it has been over the last two years, and that’s what we’re looking at. But at this moment, really no changes to our mitigation approaches across the state,” Ghaly said.Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Southern California, said California’s more individualized response reflects the progress that’s been made since the onset of the pandemic two years ago prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to impose the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order.“In 2022 we have a variety of tools that we did not have in 2020, so it makes sense to take a different approach,” Klausner said, The goal is “to use our tools more surgically, instead of as blunt instruments like we were doing in 2020.”The BA.2 subvariant has become the dominant strain in the United States and in California in recent weeks after already spreading rapidly through Europe and Asia. California has continued relaxing precautions even as the threat of a new wave increases.On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration delayed for at least a year his first-in-the-nation plan to require all schoolchildren to receive the coronavirus vaccine. Earlier this month California health officials dropped a recommendation that people quarantine themselves for at least five days if they are exposed to COVID-19, even if they have no symptoms.That’s because the virus has evolved to have a shorter incubation period of just two to three days, and usually by the time people learn they may have been exposed to someone with the virus it’s too late to head off infecting others by isolating.They also eased California’s requirement for vaccine verification or proof of negative tests for those attending indoor events with more than 1,000 people, making it a “strong recommendation.”On Friday, Los Angeles County also eased its five-day quarantine requirement. But unlike the state, it still requires people who had close contact with an infected person to get tested and wear a mask for 10 days.So far California public health officials haven’t had to trigger requirements in the state’s endemic plan to flood resources to areas with outbreaks, Ghaly said, as there are plenty of virus tests, testing sites, masks and other supplies statewide.COVID-19 hospitalizations are near record lows and intensive care patients are at their lowest levels since the start of the pandemic, allowing hospitals to reduce their use of temporary medical staff that were so vital during earlier waves.“The hospitals are in very good shape to manage even some increase in caseloads from COVID,” Ghaly said.But financially, more than half are operating at a deficit because of losses during the pandemic, the California Hospital Association said Friday. It plans to release a report next week saying losses last year were three times initial projections, on top of losses during the pandemic’s first year.About 75% of Californians are considered fully vaccinated, which health officials said is the best way to prevent severe illness, hospitalization, and death even with widespread breakthrough infections from recent variants.
Leicester fix semifinal date with Roma
APEindhoven, Apr 16 : Leicester became the first team to advance to the semifinals of the inaugural Europa Conference League after coming from a goal down to beat PSV Eindhoven 2-1 in the Netherlands.Leicester’s 2-1 aggregate victory after a 0-0 draw in the first leg sets up a semifinal match against Roma.With José Mourinho in charge, Roma is one of the favorites to win UEFA’s new third-tier competition. The Italian club got its revenge with a 4-0 victory over Norway’s Bodø/Glimt to make the semifinals 5-2 on aggregate.Ricardo Pereira scored the winner two minutes from time to earn the first European semifinals for Leicester after goalkeeper Yvon Mvogo saved substitute Patson Daka’s attempt.Eindhoven opened the scoring when former Germany international Mario Götze set up Eran Zahavi to net his eighth European goal this season and fourth in the last four Europa Conference League games.James Maddison canceled that out for Leicester in the 77th minute.At Stadio Olympic in Rome, striker Tammy Abraham opened the scoring for Roma in the fifth minute before Nicolò Zaniolo stole the show. He increased the lead to 3-0 with two goals — the first one between the legs of goalkeeper Nikita Haikin — in the span of six minutes later in the first half and completed his hat trick early in the second.Marseille won the second leg at PAOK Thessaloniki 1-0 to advance 3-1 on aggregate and meet Feyenoord in the semifinals after the Dutch club knocked out Slavia Prague 6-4 on aggregate. Cyriel Dessers scored twice to lead Feyenoord to a 3-1 victory over Slavia.
Locals await inauguration of bridge at Tamghas
By Tilachan PandeyTamas, Apr 16 : Construction of a three-way suspension bridge connecting three districts – Gulmi, Syangja, and Palpa – has been completed seven years after its foundation stone was laid.The then chief secretary of the Nepal government Lilamani Paudel and Chandra Bhandari, a Constituent Assembly member elected from Gulmi district, had laid the foundation stone for the bridge on December 1, 2014.Situated over the Kali Gandaki River in Ruru Kshetra, the bridge was expected to be completed within three years of awarding the contract to Nayabato, Rubina, Mana JV at Rs. 98.8 million on June 24, 2014.“The bridge construction has been completed after extending the deadline thrice,” said Bharat Aryal, chief at the Suspension Bridge Division Office. Locals informed that they were awaiting completion of the bridge construction for many years. “We had planned to inaugurate the bridge through Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. It is not possible now as the election code of conduct has come into effect,” said Aryal.Aryal informed that they were discussing with stakeholders to inaugurate the bridge through someone at the earliest.The major pillar of the bridge is 177.4 metres long and the three spans of the bridges are at an equal distance from the centre. It joins Rurukshetra Rural Municipality of Gulmi, Kali Gandaki Rural Municipality of Syangja and Tansen Municipality of Palpa. Authorities of the three districts and local levels have assured to work together to keep the multi-way bridge functioninal for years.
