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After the parliamentary probe committee failed to find alleged entry of unauthorized persons in the Finance Ministry on the eve of budget announcement, experts have suggested the panel conduct a polygraph test of former Finance Minister Janardan Sharma and the staffers of the Ministry involved in making the budget to find the truth behind the incident.  

Former Home Secretary Govinda Prasad Kusum said that the investigation can be done by other methods to find whether the CCTV footage has been deleted or not.

He said that the authority can also take call records of the accused.

“No one can take the call detail records without taking permission from the concerned authority. It can be taken in a secret way if the investigation does not reach a conclusion,” he said, adding, “There is a provision to take call detail records in the issues of public concern and national security.”

He was of the opinion that it is a violation of the law to say that the hard drive could store the data for only 13 days or 16 days.

Former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Nepal Police Hemanta Malla Thakuri said that both the Parliament and the government are heading towards the wrong path in the finance minister case.

He said that the investigation has not reached a logical conclusion as the parliamentary committee took the wrong way instead of carrying out the investigation by calling police.

“The government had to protect the scene and the evidence soon after the incident came to light,” he said, adding, “The evidence of the incident is not limited to the Finance Ministry.”

Thakuri was of the opinion that the Parliament had made a mistake not by directing the government to conduct investigation of the incident site.

“The Parliament should have taken the help of Nepal Police. The Parliament and the government did not think it was necessary,” he said.

The former DIG suggested an investigation of the incident site.

He went on to say that it is important to take the call detail records and track the location.

Thakuri further said that the parliamentary committee has not fully utilized its rights yet.

“The committee should have made the working procedure. It has the right. Why didn’t the committee use it? This is a matter of doubt,” he said.

Tensions over Taiwan, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, are likely topics for a call expected this week between US President Joe Biden and China’s leader Xi Jinping, the White House said on Tuesday (Jul 26), Reuters reported.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that managing economic competition between the two countries would also be a focus of the call, which Biden said on Monday is expected later this week.

It will be the fifth call between the leaders, and comes as China has delivered heightened warnings to the Biden administration about a possible visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to democratically governed Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory.

“Everything from the tensions over Taiwan, to the war in Ukraine, as well as how we better manage competition between our two nations, certainly in the economic sphere,” Kirby said of the topics to be discussed.

“This is a call that has been scheduled for a long time and there’s already a pretty robust agenda of things for these two leaders to talk about,” he said.

Under its one-China policy, the United States does not have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but is bound by US law to provide the island with the means to defend itself. The White House has been quick to reiterate that stance has not changed despite speculation over a possible trip by Pelosi, according to Reuters.

Kirby said that Pelosi is in the line of succession to the presidency and as such, her overseas travel was a matter of US national security. But only she could make decisions about her travel.

“Bellicosity” in rhetoric from Beijing over the potential trip only escalates tensions, he said.

“We find that unhelpful and certainly not in the least bit necessary given the situation,” he said.

The administration has been debating whether to lift some tariffs on Chinese goods as a way to boost the US economy, but Kirby said a decision was not expected ahead of the call.

Biden could head into the call with momentum if the US Congress passes legislation to provide about US$52 billion in subsidies for the US semiconductor industry, as well as an investment tax credit for chip plants estimated to be worth US$24 billion, which Biden has urged as crucial for competing with China economically.

The Senate is expected to vote on final passage in coming days and the US House could follow suit as soon as later this week, Reuters reported.

European Union members have agreed to cut gas use in case Russia halts supplies but some countries will have exemptions to avoid rationing, BBC reported.

EU members, locked in talks since the idea was suggested last week, have now agreed to voluntarily reduce 15% of gas use between August and March.

"This was not a Mission Impossible!", tweetedthe Czech Republic, which holds the rotating EU presidency.

However, the deal was watered down after previously not having exemptions.

The EU has said its aim from the deal is to make savings and store gas ahead of winter, warning that Russia is "continuously using energy supplies as a weapon".

The voluntary agreement would become mandatory if supplies reach crisis levels.

However, some countries not connected to the EU's gas pipe lines, such as Ireland, Malta and Cyprus, would be exempt from any mandatory gas reduction order as they would not be able to source alternative supplies.

Elsewhere the Baltic nations, which are not hooked up to the European electricity system and are heavily reliant on gas for electricity production are also exempt from compulsory targets in order to avoid the risk of an electricity supply crisis.

Countries can also ask to be exempt if they exceed gas storage filling targets, if they are heavily dependent on gas for "critical" industries, or if their gas consumption has increased by at least 8% in the past year compared to the average of the past five years.

Nathan Piper, an oil and gas analyst for Investec, said there is a "high political and economic price" as the EU looks to reduce its dependence on Russian gas - and that price was being reflected in the exemptions for members, which would likely reduce the impact of the measures, according to BBC.

But Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy, said initial calculations indicated that even if all exemptions to ration were used, the EU as a whole would still reduce demand to a level "that would help us safely through an average winter".

She also outlined work to boost alternative gas supplies from countries including Azerbaijan, the United States, Canada, Norway, Egypt and Israel.

Ahead of the deal announcement, Germany's Economy Minister Robert Habeck said: "Of course there are a lot of compromises in this text now. This is how Europe works."

Mr Habeck said a "problem might occur" that all the exemptions cause "too much bureaucracy so that we are too slow in times of crisis", but he added the exemptions were "reasonable".

Hungary was the only member to oppose the deal, BBC reported.

A member of Viktor Orban's inner circle has resigned after the Hungarian prime minister spoke out against becoming a "mixed race". 

Zsuzsa Hegedus, who has known the nationalist Mr Orban for 20 years, described the speech as a "pure Nazi text", according to Hungarian media, BBC reported.

The International Auschwitz Committee of Holocaust survivors called the speech "stupid and dangerous".

Mr Orban's spokesman said the media had misrepresented the comments. 

The speech took place on Saturday in a region of Romania which has a large Hungarian community.

In it, Mr Orban said European peoples should be free to mix with one another, but that mixing with non-Europeans created a "mixed-race world". 

"We are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed-race," he said. 

Mr Orban's anti-migration views are well known, but for Ms Hegedus Saturday's speech crossed a line. 

"I don't know how you didn't notice that the speech you delivered is a purely Nazi diatribe worthy of Joseph Goebbels," she wrote in her resignation letter, according to the Hungarian hvg.hu news website.

Goebbels was the head of Adolf Hitler's propaganda ministry, according to BBC.

Hungary's largest Jewish group also condemned the speech and called for a meeting with Mr Orban.