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The main opposition CPN-UML said that controversy started in the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) just to remove the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

During a press conference organised to make public its opinion after the endorsement of the $500 million US grant compact from the Parliament, the party said that the controversy in the MCC was started with an objective to remove Oli from the then Nepali Communist Party.

UML Deputy General Secretary Pradeep Gyawali said that the interpretative declaration was issued just to lie to the people.

At least 16 persons were injured when a jeep they were travelling in met with an accident near U turn mode along the KI Singh Highway in Dadeldhura.

Police said that the jeep (Se 1 Ja 401) was heading towards Bagbazaar, the district headquarters, from Koteli, Nawadurga Rural Minicipality-2 when the incident occurred.

The injured are undergoing treatment at the Dadeldhura Hospital.

Of the injured, three are said to be in critical condition, KB Saud of the District Police Office, Dadeldhura said.

Further investigation into the incident is underway, police said.

Tens of thousands of people had been ordered to evacuate their homes by Tuesday and many more had been told to prepare to flee as parts of Australia’s southeast coast are inundated by the worst flooding in decades that has claimed at least nine lives, Associated Press reported.

Scores of residents, some with pets, spent hours trapped on their roofs in recent days by a fast-rising river in the town of Lismore in northern New South Wales state.

The body of a woman in her 80s was found by a neighbor in her Lismore home on Tuesday, a police statement said. There were no details of how she died.

There were concerns that householders who climbed into their roof spaces through ceiling manholes could become trapped by rising waters.

A police rescue officer had saved an elderly woman from such a roof space that was almost filled with water, Lismore State Emergency Service Commander Steve Patterson said.

“He dived in through a window, noticed the manhole cover was open, when he checked, found a 93-year-old lady with about 20 centimeters (8 inches) left of space before the water hit the top,” Patterson told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Dozens of cars were trapped on a bridge in the nearby town of Woodburn over Monday night with both the bridge’s approaches submerged.

Up to 50 people were rescued from the bridge early Tuesday, officials said.

“We had no capabilities to get them off in the dark so we just had to make sure that they bunkered down and we went in this morning and got them all out,” Woodburn State Emergency Services Commander Ashley Slapp said.

The flood waters are moving south into New South Wales from Queensland state in the worst disaster in the region since what was described as a once-in-a-century event in 2011.

New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said there had been 1,000 rescues in his state by Tuesday and more than 6,000 calls for authorities to help.

Perrottet said 40,000 people had been ordered to evacuate, while 300,000 others had been placed under evacuation warnings.

A woman was found dead at a hotel in Buddha Chok, Dharan-18 Sunsari on Tuesday.

The body was found at the New Kantipur Hotel and Guest House this morning.

It has been learnt that a hotel staffer saw the body when he had gone to clean the room. Later, he informed the police.

Hotel owner Sushil Jimi said that the woman had been staying with a man in room number 109 for the past two days.

Police said that they are searching for the man who fled the scene after the incident.

Many Nepali Hindus are observing the Mahashivaratri festival by offering prayers to and worshiping Lord Shiva today, on Falgun Krishna Chaturdashi (the fourth day of the waning moon in the month of Falgun), as per the lunar calendar.

According to the Nepal Calendar Determination Committee, Brahma took the form of Shiva in the midnight of Krishna Chaturdashi of Falgun. So this day is observed with prayers, pooja, and visit to Lord Shiva's shrines. Hindus believe that the observation of the Mahashivaratri brings peace and prosperity to one's life.

From early morning today, devotees take bath in rivers and ponds, visit Lord Shiva's shrines and pay homage.

The day is regarded as the most favourite day of Lord Shiva, who it is believed to bring happiness in the hearts of those living in difficulty.

Fasting is observed by some on the day and the night is observed with a vigil (jagram), celebrating Shiva.

People also make fire at home, on public squares and at temples, chant hymns and take prasad on the occasion.

Classical dances are performed at Kailashkut and Kirateshwor of Pashupati area in Kathmandu.

The Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu is thronged by devotees from across the country and neighbouring India.

Meanwhile, Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) has said it has made special arrangement to facilitate the visitors.

Russian forces shelled Ukraine’s second-largest city on Monday, rocking a residential neighborhood, and closed in on the capital, Kyiv, in a 40-mile convoy of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles, as talks aimed at stopping the fighting yielded only an agreement to keep talking, Associated Press reported.

The country’s embattled president said the stepped-up shelling was aimed at forcing him into concessions.

“I believe Russia is trying to put pressure (on Ukraine) with this simple method,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday in a video address. He did not offer details of the hourslong talks that took place earlier, but said that Kyiv was not prepared to make concessions “when one side is hitting each other with rocket artillery.”

Amid ever-growing international condemnation, Russia found itself increasingly isolated five days into its invasion, while also facing unexpectedly fierce resistance on the ground in Ukraine and economic havoc at home.

For the second day in a row, the Kremlin raised the specter of nuclear war, announcing that its nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and long-range bombers had all been put on high alert, following President Vladimir Putin’s orders over the weekend.

Stepping up his rhetoric, Putin denounced the U.S. and its allies as an “empire of lies.”

Meanwhile, an embattled Ukraine moved to solidify its ties to the West by applying to join the European Union — a largely symbolic move for now, but one that is unlikely to sit well with Putin, who has long accused the U.S. of trying to pull Ukraine out of Moscow’s orbit.

A top Putin aide and head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said that the first talks held between the two sides since the invasion lasted nearly five hours and that the envoys “found certain points on which common positions could be foreseen.” He said they agreed to continue the discussions in the coming days.

Peeved over the Nepalese Parliament’s approval of the US-funded USD 500 million grant agreement despite its persistent opposition, a concerned China said on Monday that Washington should not undermine the sovereignty of other countries through “coercive diplomacy”, The Print reported.

Much to the surprise of Beijing, Nepal’s Parliament on Sunday ratified the contentious US-funded USD 500 million Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact along with an Interpretive Declaration a day ahead of the February 28 deadline set by Washington, ending months of debates, protests and polarisation in the Himalayan nation.

“We noted the decision and the declaration by the Nepalese parliament,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing here in response to questions from the official media about the Interpretive Declaration, which was passed along with the US aid highlighting Nepal’s sovereignty.

Senior leader of the ruling Nepali Congress Ram Chandra Poudel has said that the declaration includes the statements that the MCC is not part of the Indo-Pacific Strategy, Nepal’s constitution will be above any provisions of the MCC and the country will perceive it purely as economic assistance.

“China has stressed repeatedly that international formal cooperation should follow the principle of mutual respect, equal treatment and fully respect the sovereignty of the country concerned and the will of its people,” Wang said.

“It should not interfere in other country’s internal affairs to engage in coercive diplomacy, undermine other sovereignty and interest out of selfish interests,” he said, adding that Beijing always supported Nepal choosing an independent path of development.

The MCC is a bilateral United States foreign aid agency established by the US Congress in 2004. It is an independent agency separate from the State Department and USAID.

The District Administration Office clamped a curfew in Surkhet, provincial capital of Karnali Province, after the protests against the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) turned violent.

The DAO decided to clamp the curfew after the demonstrators vandalised and torched party offices of various parties and police posts.

The curfew will be clamped from 8:15 pm on Monday till 7 pm on Tuesday.