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President Ram Chandra Paudel appointed Kham Bahadur Garbuja, a House of Representatives member, as the Minister of State for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation on Wednesday.

The appointment was made in accordance with the recommendation made by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, said the President's Office.

A series of dialogue held between the government and the agitating teachers concluded in a nine-point agreement on Wednesday, thereby ending the 28-day-long Kathmandu centric agitation of the public school teachers. 

With this, the Nepal Teachers' Federation urged all agitating teachers to go back to the respective schools and begin academic session from Thursday.

Following the agreement between the government and the Teachers' Federation, Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Raghuji Pant, informed that all teachers and school employees would be provided discount during treatment at Civil Hospital, Kathmandu.

The teachers working in temporary category- relief quota, learning grant, technical stream, special education, among others- will be allowed sick leave reserves, which (remuneration) would be provided in lump sum upon retirement. 

The remuneration to the early child development facilitator and school employees will be provided as per government scheme, the grade system to the permanent teachers will be aligned with civil service's grade system.

Both permanent and temporary teachers of various categories will be provided remote allowance, and the teachers and employees at community schools will be linked to the Social Security Fund. The teachers will be included in the list of official hierarchical portfolio. Agreement was also made on managing grades of first class lower secondary and second class secondary school teachers. 

Moreover, the teachers, security persons, employees and journalists injured during the protest would be provided treatment for free of cost.

The agreement was endorsed by the meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Wednesday itself. 

Minister Pant thanked teachers for the agreement that they would call off protest and return schools from Thursday.  He also thanked all others cooperating to this end.

Following the agreement, Chairman of the Teachers' Federation, Laxmi Kishor Subedi, also urged all agitating teachers to return respective schools and begin teaching learning and conduct exams. He thanked government, political parties, media persons and others for extending support to the teacher's demands.

He reiterated on timely enforcement of the agreement. 

The new education bill will be passed by the federal Parliament before mid June as per agreement. The agreement relating to the new bill was also signed by the chief whips of the major political parties and the Parliament committee on education, health and IT.

Earlier, the teachers gathered in thousands from across the country consistently demonstrated in the New Baneshwor to Babarmahal section of the Kathmandu Valley, posing various demands including the introduction of a new National School Education Act.

The teachers who even adopted various artistic ways of posing demands and criticizing sheer delay in government's proper response to them clashed with security forces, causing injuries in the ultimate days.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) produced a tremendous comeback and defeated Delhi Capitals (DC) by 14 runs in a thrilling showdown at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.

Batting first Kolkata piled a stiff 204/9 in 20 overs.

Delhi in response got off to a shaky start before Faf du Plessis and Axar Patel dug deep to shift the momentum. Despite their impressive efforts, combined with Vipraj Nigam's late show, Delhi fell short and managed 190/9 in the end.

International Jazz Day is being observed by organizing various programs on Wednesday.

In western countries, the music is popular among the youth. In November 2011, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) General Assembly declared April 30 as the International Jazz Day. 

The day is celebrated to promote intercultural dialogue, respect for human rights and human dignity, eradicate discrimination, promote freedom of expression and gender equality, and strengthen the role of youth for social change. 

UNESCO believes that the International Day will provide an opportunity for communities, schools, artists, historians, academics and jazz enthusiasts around the world to learn about the art of jazz, its origins, future and effects and contribute to the promotion of international peace and culture. 

According to UNESCO, jazz will contribute to creating opportunities for unity, mutual understanding and tolerance, empowering young people from marginalized societies, and encouraging traditional music to be revitalized in a newer form. 

The influence of westerly and local winds is prevailing in the country at present. 

According to the Meteorological Forecasting Division, there is also an impact of water vapour-rich air coming from the Bay of Bengal. 

The weather will be partly to generally cloudy in the hilly region and partly cloudy in the rest of the country this afternoon, the country's weather bulletin stated. 

Some places of the hilly region of the country are likely to receive light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning. 

Light rain and snowfall is likely to occur at some places of the mountainous regions of Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki and Karnali Provinces. 

The strong wind is likely to occur at some places in the Tarai region of Lumbini Province. Similarly, the weather will be partly to generally cloudy in the hilly region and fair in the rest of the country tonight. 

Light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning is likely to occur at one or two places of the hilly regions of Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini, Karnali and Sudurpashchim Provinces. 

Light rain and snowfall is likely to occur at one or two places of the mountainous region of Koshi, Bagmati and Gandaki Provinces. 

Nepal will issue Everest permits only to climbers with experience of scaling at least one of the Himalayan nation’s 7,000-meter (22,965 ft) peaks, according to the draft of a new law aimed at reducing overcrowding and improving safety, Reuters reported.

Nepal, which is heavily reliant on climbing, trekking and tourism for foreign exchange, has faced criticism for permitting too many climbers, including inexperienced ones, to try to ascend the 8,849-meter (29,032 ft) peak.

This often results in long queues of climbers in the “Death Zone,” an area below the summit with insufficient natural oxygen for survival.

Overcrowding has been blamed for the high number of deaths on the mountain. At least 12 climbers died, and another five went missing on Everest’s slopes in 2023 when Nepal issued 478 permits. Eight climbers died last year, according to Reuters.

Israel is perpetrating a “live-streamed genocide” in Gaza, committing illegal acts with the “specific intent” of wiping out Palestinians, Amnesty International has said, Aljazeera reported.

Israeli forces in Gaza have violated the United Nations Genocide Convention with acts that include “causing serious bodily or mental harm to civilians” and “deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction”, the human rights organisation said in its annual report released on Monday.

Israel has repeatedly “denied, obstructed and failed to allow and facilitate” humanitarian access to Gaza, and invaded the southern city of Rafah, despite warnings by the international community and the International Court of Justice about the “devastating effect it would have on the civilian population”, Amnesty said.

Israeli air strikes have also frequently hit civilians who were following evacuation orders, while its forces continued to “arbitrarily detain and, in some cases, forcibly disappear Palestinians”, the rights group said, according to Aljazeera.

At least 22 people have been killed and three others injured in a fire at a restaurant in China’s northern city of Liaoyang, Chinese authorities said.l, Aljazeera reported.

Authorities did not provide details on what caused the blaze, which broke out shortly after noon local time (04:25 GMT) on Tuesday.

But images from the scene showed huge flames spurting from the windows and doors of the multi-storey building in Liaoyang, about 580km (360 miles) northeast of the capital Beijing.

“The incident has resulted in 22 deaths and three injuries,” state broadcaster CCTV said, according to Aljazeera.