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A day after the Supreme Court overturned its previous decision, police arrested former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Armed Police Force (APF) Ranjan Koirala from Baneshwor on Friday.

Police said that they apprehended Koirala from his hide out this afternoon.

A full bench of Acting Chief Justice Deepak Kumar Karki and justices Tanka Bahadur Moktan and Kumar Chudal overturned the Supreme Court's decision on Thursday.

Following the decision of the full bench, Koirala, who was slapped with a life term on the charge of murdering his wife Gita Dhakal, will have to go back to the prison.

Earlier, a joint bench of the then Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana and Justice Tej Bahadur KC had passed a judgement to commute the life term handed down to Koirala to eight and a half years on June 29, 2020.

He was freed following the decision.

On August 5, 2020, the Office of the Attorney General filed a writ expressing dissatisfaction over the decision of the Supreme Court.

Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand said that the government has started preparations to enact necessary laws on rape and sexual violence.

Speaking at a program organized to mark the 22nd anniversary of the National Human Rights Commission in Lalitpur on Friday, Minister Khand said that the government has staged homework to formulate necessary laws to bring the culprits of rape, sexual violence and domestic violence among others to justice.

He said that the government is committed to creating a human rights-friendly environment.

Minister Khand further said that the government has adopted a zero tolerance policy for human rights violations.

On a different note, he said that the National Human Rights Commission and Civil Society have done a praiseworthy work in the campaign aginst human trafficking.

The National Assembly has endorsed the policies and programs of the government for the fiscal year 2022/ 23 on Friday.

The government is going to make public the budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2022/23 through a joint assembly at 3 pm on Saturday.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari has presented the policies and programs of the government on May 24.

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The main opposition CPN-UML has expressed its dissatisfaction over the remarks of Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Dilendra Prasad Badu.

Speaking at a meeting of the House of Representatives on Friday, Minister Badu accused former Prime Minister and UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli of taking the commission while he was in the government.

Later, the UML lawmakers obstructed the meeting demanding that the remarks made against Oli be removed from the record. They have also demanded an apology from Badu.

Minister Badu termed the remarks made by Oli during the discussion on policy and programs held on Thursday as baseless. 

UML Chief Whip Bishal Bhattarai said that as a minister Badu cannot make such unconstitutional statement.

The Parliament meeting has been adjourned for 15 minutes following the obstruction.

A passenger bus met with an accident in Salyan on Friday.

The bus (Na 3 Kha 3884) was heading towards Dang from Patihalna of Bagchaur Municipality-9, Salyan when the incident occurred at Shardha Khola in Bagchaur Municipality-2.

The details of the incident are yet to come.

At least six houses were reduced to ashes when a fire broke at Chinnamasta Rural Municipality-5 in Saptari on Friday. 

Ward Chairman Jaya Prakash Thakur said that the fire that started from a mosquito coil destroyed the houses of six pets including Mahendra Kamait.

The District Police Office, Saptari said that properties worth around Rs 2.3 million were destroyed in the fire.

Chairman Thakur said that the fire was taken under control with the help of locals after three hours.

Goodfellas actor Ray Liotta has died in his sleep in the Dominican Republic at the age of 67, BBC reported.

The US star had been on location filming the movie Dangerous Waters, his publicist Jennifer Allen said.

He was best known for playing mobster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's 1990 gangster film Goodfellas and also appeared in Field of Dreams.

Liotta got his big break playing ex-convict Ray Sinclair in 1986 black comedy Something Wild, according to BBC.

He got a Golden Globe nomination for that role and went on to star in the 1988 film Dominick and Eugene, about the strained relationship between twins with very different characters.

India and Japan have agreed to work together on assisting crisis-hit Sri Lanka, the Japanese government said, following a recent meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, The Hindu reported.

Mr. Modi and Mr. Kishida met on May 24 on the sidelines of the Quad summit and held bilateral talks on “close cooperation” to promote efforts to realise a ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’, in addition to collaboration in spheres including defence, clean energy, and investment.

Following the meeting, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the leaders “discussed the situation in Sri Lanka and confirmed that they will cooperate with each other in light of the current economic crisis and deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the country.” Further, they “shared the view to work together to develop Indo-Pacific Economic Framework into an inclusive framework that will bring substantive benefits to the region,” according to a statement.

Ministry of External Affairs made no specific mention of Sri Lanka. “The two leaders exchanged views on recent global and regional developments. They noted the convergences in their respective approaches to the Indo-Pacific and reaffirmed their commitment towards a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region,” read its May 24 statement, according to The Hindu.

For over half a century, Japan has been one of Sri Lanka’s top donors and development partners, although its grants and investments have received much less attention compared to those from China or India.   

Japan’s announcement of collaborating with India to help Sri Lanka, assumes significance, coming shortly after Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s proposal that Quad members— United States, India, Japan, and Australia — take the lead in setting up a foreign aid consortium to assist Sri Lanka, that is reeling under the worst economic crisis since Independence.  India has extended about $ 3.5 billion assistance since January this year, by way of loan deferments and credit lines for essential imports. 

Japan’s initiative also comes despite Colombo scrapping two major infrastructure projects with Japanese involvement. In September 2020, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered the termination of a $ 1.5-billion Japanese-funded light rail project, on that basis that it was not a “cost-effective solution”. In early 2021, Sri Lanka ejected Japan and India out of a trilateral project to jointly develop a container terminal at the strategically located Colombo Port, causing considerable diplomatic tensions. India’s Adani Group was subsequently roped in to develop another terminal at the same port, The Hindu reported.

Meanwhile, addressing the ‘International conference on the future of Asia’ organised by Nikkei virtually, Mr. Gotabaya said Sri Lanka “urgently requires” assistance of friends in the international community “to ensure that our immediate needs in terms of the importation of essential medicines, food supplies, and fuel are met.”

Japan “remains one of Sri Lanka’s key development partners”, the Sri Lankan President said, expressing hope that ongoing negotiations on “bridging funds” from Japan would soon conclude. “We are also in urgent need of bridging financing to restore confidence in our external sector and stabilise our economy until the debt restructuring process is completed and an IMF programme commences,” he said, while thanking India, Sri Lanka’s “close friend and neighbour”. 

Colombo earlier sought India’s help in securing bridge financing to cope with the downturn, until an International Monetary Fund package materialises. The government is in talks with IMF on debt restructuring after opting for a preemptive default on its foreign debt of about $ 50 billion, according to The Hindu.