Submit your Article

Democratic Socialist Party has decided to vote in favour of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

The Parliamentary Party meeting held at the party's central office in Babarmahal on Wednesday decided to vote in favour of the MCC, a leader, who attended the meeting, said.

The party decided to stand in favour of the MCC saying that is a development programme, the leader said.

The Democratic Socialist Party has 13 lawmakers in the Parliament.

The government tabled the MCC in the House of Representatives on Sunday.

The Parliament meeting has been called for Thursday to take the proposal ahead.

Signed in September 2017, the MCC compact is an assistance under which the United States will provide $500 million to Nepal for electricity transmission lines and road maintenance.

The United States has given the government of Nepal a deadline of February 28 for the parliamentary ratification of the MCC.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has urged all the Nepalis not to travel to Ukraine except for emergencies after escalating tension between Ukraine and Russia reached a critical point.

The tension has escalated on Ukraine’s border after Vladimir Putin ordered his military to enter the Russian-controlled areas of southeast Ukraine following a decision to recognise the territories as independent states.

Saying that the conflict between the two countries could turn into a war, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has requested all Nepali citizens in Ukraine to return home by assessing the situation.

“The Ministry has urged all the Nepalis staying in Ukraine to return home by assessing the developing situation and also requested the people not to travel to Ukraine except for emergencies,” read a statement issued by the Ministry on Wednesday.

The United Nations human rights expert on Myanmar on Tuesday said Russia and China were providing the junta with fighter jets being used against civilians, and urged the UN Security Council to halt the flow of weapons enabling atrocities, Reuters reported.

Thomas Andrews, a former US congressman serving in the independent post, released a report that also named Serbia as one of three countries supplying arms to the Myanmar military since it seized power last year, with “full knowledge that they would be used to attack civilians”.

“It should be incontrovertible that weapons used to kill civilians should no longer be transferred to Myanmar,” Andrews said in a statement.

Chaos has gripped Myanmar since a coup ended a decade of tentative democracy, triggering protests that troops suppressed with lethal force.

At least 1,500 civilians have been killed, according to activists cited by the UN, which also says more than 300,000 people have been displaced by rural conflict between the military and armed opponents.

The junta says it is fighting “terrorists” and objects to what it calls UN interference.

Myanmar’s military and Russia’s foreign ministry could not immediately be reached for comment on the report.

Asked about the report at a regular briefing, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, said China “has always advocated that all parties and factions should proceed in the long-term interests of the country” and “resolve contradictions through political dialogue”.

In a statement, Serbia’s foreign ministry denied supplying arms and said since Myanmar’s coup it had “examined the new situation very carefully and in March last year made a decision not to deliver weapons to this country either under previously concluded agreements or new export requests.”

Human rights groups and the UN have accused the junta of using disproportionate force to fight militias and ethnic minority rebels, including artillery and air strikes in civilian areas.

The East-West faceoff over Ukraine escalated dramatically Tuesday, with Russian lawmakers authorizing President Vladimir Putin to use military force outside his country and U.S. President Joe Biden and European leaders responding by slapping sanctions on Russian oligarchs and banks, Associated Press reported.

Both leaders signaled that an even bigger confrontation could lie ahead. Putin has yet to unleash the force of the 150,000 troops massed on three sides of Ukraine, while Biden held back on even tougher sanctions that could cause economic turmoil for Russia but said they would go ahead if there is further aggression.

The measures, accompanied by the repositioning of additional U.S. troops to the Baltic nations on NATO’s eastern flank bordering Russia, came as Russian forces rolled into rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine after Putin said he was recognizing the independence of the separatist regions in defiance of U.S. and European demands.

Speaking at the White House, Biden said the Kremlin had flagrantly violated international law in what he called the “beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.” He warned of more sanctions if Putin went further.

“We are united in our support of Ukraine,” Biden said. “We are united in our opposition to Russian aggression.” When it comes to Russian claims of a justification or pretext for an invasion, Biden said, “None of us should be fooled. None of us will be fooled. There is no justification.” 

Hopes for a diplomatic resolution to the threat of invasion, which U.S. officials have for weeks portrayed as all but inevitable, appeared to evaporate. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled plans for a Thursday meeting in Geneva with his Russian counterpart, saying it would not be productive and that Russia’s actions indicated Moscow was not serious about a peaceful path to resolving the crisis.

Western nations sought to present a united front, with more than two dozen European Union members unanimously agreeing to levy their own initial set of sanctions against Russian officials. Germany also said it was halting the process of certifying the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia — a lucrative deal long sought by Moscow but criticized by the U.S. for increasing Europe’s reliance on Russian energy.