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Young people risk hearing loss from loud music in venues such as nightclubs and concerts, the World Health Organization (WHO) said as it issued a new global standard for safe listening, Reuters reported.

Nearly 40% of teenagers and young adults aged 12–35 years in middle and high-income countries are exposed to potentially damaging sound levels in venues such as nightclubs, discotheques and bars, the WHO said in a statement, adding that it recommended a maximum average sound level of 100 decibels.

The risk of hearing loss is intensified because most audio devices, venues and events do not provide safe listening options, Bente Mikkelsen, WHO director for the department for noncommunicable diseases said on Wednesday.

The WHO also said that it recommended live monitoring of sound levels and designated “quiet zones” at venues.

The new recommendations are in addition to guidelines the WHO issued in 2019 outlining how individuals can limit hearing damage due to prolonged exposure to loud music on devices such as mobile phones and audio players.

Nepal logged 105 new Covid-19 cases and three deaths on Thursday. 

With this, the country's active caseload mounted to 1,116,761. Similarly, the death toll has climbed to 11,943. 

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 2, 448 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 70 returned positive. Likewise, 2,476 people underwent antigen tests, of which 35 tested positive.

The Ministry said that 320 infected people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours.

As of today, there are 7, 517 active cases in the country. 

The Ministry said that 7, 349 people are staying in home isolation while 168 are in institutionalized isolation.

Among the infected, 61 are in Intensive Care Units and nine are on ventilators.

The Ministry of Finance has allocated Rs 8.11 billion for the local level elections. 

Earlier, the Election Commission had demanded Rs 8.95 billion to hold the local level elections. But, the Ministry trimmed down the budget of some of the titles and decided to allocate Rs 8.11 billion for the civic polls. 

The Ministry has not allocated the budget for information technology, transportation of ballot paper and electronic voting machines.

The Election Commission had demanded Rs 10 million for the electronic voting machines. 

Though the experts had suggested the Election Commission to use electronic voting machines in the local level elections, the poll has given priority to the paper ballots. 

The government has announced to conduct local level elections on May 13 in one phase as per the recommendation of the Election Commission.

Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has directed the Security Board of Nepal, and Nepal Stock Exchange Limited (NEPSE) to focus on improving the capital market. Both of the agencies were handed an 11-point directive in this regard. 

At a programme organized on Wednesday, Minister Sharma asked NEPSE and SEBON leaderships not to be swayed by anyone’s influence and pressure while discharging their respective duties. 

Recently, the government had appointed Krishna Bahadur Karki as chief executive officer at NEPSE and Ramesh Hamal as chairperson of SEBON.

They are made aware of how the investment of the general public could be made secure and problems of capital market solved. “Time has come to create an environment where money in the capital market is spent in mega projects. Individual’s money had entered the capital market, which should be further capitalized,” he directed the newly appointed leadership.

Different anomalies, such as insider trading, pump and dump and circular business which have posed threat to capital have been discouraged after he assumed the office, Minister Sharma asserted.

On the occasion, Finance Secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini viewed that new leaderships have been expected to lead the capital market in a positive way. Revenue Secretary Krishna Hari Pushkar said the share market was improving. 

SEBON’s Chair Ramesh Hamal said share investors must be well informed by augmenting financial literacy. RSS

Three artefacts dating back to 13th to 17th centuries that were stolen have been brought back to Nepal from the United States.

These stolen artefacts – a wooden toran (festoon), a woodwork featuring the image of a flying gandarva, and an idol of Gautam Buddha in meditation posture dating back to the Malla dynasty – were handed to the Department of Archaeology amid a function here today. 

The objects that were stolen from different places of Nepal at different dates and kept at a museum and two galleries in the US were brought to Nepal with the diplomatic initiatives of the two countries.

Of them, the toran dating back to 17th century was stolen after 1985 from the entrance to Yampimahabihar in Lalitpur.

Similarly, the flying gandarva was stolen in the year 1997 from a puja house of family deities of Shakya at Itumbahal of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

The Buddha idol dating back to 13th century is priced at USD 30,000. Similarly, the toran is priced at USD 110,000 and the flying gandarva at USD 22,000.

Addressing the event, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Prem Bahadur Ale thanked the representatives of the US-based museum for handing over the stolen objects back to Nepal. RSS

Senior Chinese officials told senior Russian officials in early February not to invade Ukraine before the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, the New York Times reported, quoting Biden administration officials and a European official who cited a Western intelligence report, Reuters reported.

The Times said the intelligence report indicated senior Chinese officials had some level of knowledge about Russia’s plans or intentions to invade Ukraine before Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the operation last week.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed to Reuters that China had made the request but declined to provide details. The source declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

“The claims mentioned in the relevant reports are speculations without any basis, and are intended to blame-shift and smear China,” said Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

The U.S. State Department, the CIA and the White House National Security Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

After weeks of warnings from Western leaders, Russia unleashed a three-pronged invasion of Ukraine from the north, east and south on Feb. 24, just days after the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics ended.

Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met at the start of the Olympics on Feb. 4 and declared an upgraded “no limits” partnership in which they pledged to collaborate more against the West.

The New York Times said the intelligence on the exchange between the Chinese and Russian officials was collected by a Western intelligence service and was considered credible by officials reviewing it.

U.S. officials have confirmed previous Times reporting that Washington passed on to senior Chinese officials intelligence on the Russian troop buildup around Ukraine ahead of the invasion in the hope that Beijing would persuade Moscow to stand down its troops.

The newspaper said senior officials in the United States and in allied governments passed around the intelligence as they discussed when Putin might attack Ukraine but intelligence services had varying interpretations, adding that it was not clear how widely the information was shared.

One official the Times said was familiar with the intelligence said the material did not necessarily indicate the conversations about an invasion took place at the level of Xi and Putin.

Bonny Lin, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said it was unclear how much Xi knew about Putin’s intentions.

The ruling coalition has urged the main opposition CPN-UML to end the House obstruction. 

During a meeting of the senior leaders of the ruling alliance held at Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s official residence in Baluwatar on Thursday, they discussed contemporary political issues and ongoing House obstruction. 

The main opposition CPN-UML has been obstructing the House for the past few months demanding resignation of Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota or expulsion of 14 lawmakers including Madhav Kumar Nepal.

On the occasion, Prime Minister Deuba also thanked CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal for helping to endorse the $500 million grant compact from the Parliament, government spokesperson and Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said. 

The ruling parties have also decided to hold talks with their party leaders about forging electoral alliance in the upcoming local level elections.

Nepal voted in favour of a UN resolution to denounce Russia for invading Ukraine.

Nepal was one of the 141 nations of the 193 member states who voted for the resolution, 35 abstained, and five voted against.

The only countries to vote in support of Moscow were Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea and Syria.

Longstanding allies Cuba and Nicaragua joined China in abstaining. India also abstained from voting.

The resolution strongly condemns the Russian’s attack on Ukraine in violation of Article 2 (4) of the UN Charter.

The resolution demanded that Russia immediately stop using force against Ukraine and also not to use force against any of the member states.

Earlier on Sunday, the United Nations had voted to call a rare session of the 193-member UN General Assembly to discuss Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

On the occasion, Nepal had voted in favour of the session. India and China had remained neutral.