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Israel carried out an airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday, targeting a Hezbollah site said to house precision-guided missiles. The attack came after an evacuation order, despite a ceasefire brokered five months ago by the US and France, according to BBC.

Lebanon’s presidency condemned the strike and urged international pressure to stop Israeli actions.

It was Israel’s first strike on Dahieh, Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold, in nearly a month. Although the ceasefire remains officially in place, Israel continues hitting suspected Hezbollah targets, citing security threats, BBC reported.

The latest escalation adds new strain to the fragile truce and raises fears of fresh conflict along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

The US Navy has deployed a sophisticated anti-ship missile system to Batan Island in the northern Philippines for the first time, in a blatant display of force near Taiwan. The move comes amid rising tensions with China, which has held large-scale military operations outside Taiwan to warn against the island's push for legal independence, as stated by the Firstpost.

On April 26, the US Marines airlifted the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) to Batan Island. Meanwhile, US and Filipino military conducted live-fire operations in Zambales province, targeting simulated hostile drones near the disputed South China Sea.

These operations are part of the annual Balikatan military drills, which have grown considerably this year, Firstpost reprted.

Approximately 9,000 US troops, 5,000 Filipino military, plus contingents from Australia, Japan, and other countries are deployed in numerous important areas throughout the region.

Police have arrested a teacher after he along with his fellow teachers hurled stones at police and attempted to breach the prohibited area in New Baneshwor.

In response, police used a water cannon to stop the teachers from entering the the restricted area.

Around 15 teachers were injured in the incident, police said.

Police intercepted them after they tried to break through the prohibited area and enter the Parliament building.

The Nepal Teachers’ Federation gave continuation to the pretest after a meeting with the government ended inconclusively on Saturday.

The teachers have been staging protests in Kathmanud for the past 26 days, demanding immeidate enactment of the School Education Bill.

Over five billion budget from various bodies has been returned to the state treasury, citing the funds remained unspent.

The majority of the refunded budget falls under capital expenditures. Among the agencies returning the highest amounts are the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, and the Millennium Challenge Account Nepal Development Committee (MCA-Nepal).

According to Ambika Prasad Khanal, the Ministry's Information Officer, Rs 53.4 million was refunded under general expenditures, while a significant Rs 5.03 billion was returned under capital expenditures.

Towards the capital expenditures, those bodies refunding the budget are the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Rs 9.5 million), the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (Rs 3.9 million), the Election Commission (Rs 24.02 million) and the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (Rs 15.8 million).

Towards the capital expenditures, the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation refunded Rs 2.35 billion while the MCA-Nepal refunded the budget around Rs two billion.

Other bodies sending the capital expenditures budget back are the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (Rs 367.08 million), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Rs 300 million) and the Office of the Auditor General (Rs 16.01 million). 

According to the provisions of the Economic Procedure and Financial Responsibility Act and Regulations, if the budget allocated for any plan or program is not spent by mid-March and if it is not able to spend it even during the remaining period of the fiscal year, then it should be returned to the Ministry of Finance by third week of April. The MCA-Nepal has returned about 58 percent of the budget this year as it had returned 70 per cent of the budget last year.

There is uncertainty over whether US assistance will continue in this project or not, while the budget allocated by the government for this project will not be spent. For the current fiscal year, MCA-Nepal had received a budget of Rs 13.36 billion. Of this amount, Rs 9.9 billion would be funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the remaining Rs 3.45 billion would be borne from internal sources.

However, after MCA-Nepal did not spend the budget, about 58 percent of the budget has been returned to the Ministry of Finance. Not only in the current fiscal year but also in the last fiscal year, MCA-Nepal's expenditure was very weak. MCA-Nepal had spent only about 30 percent of the total budget for the last fiscal year and returned the remaining 70 percent of the budget.

The government had allocated Rs 10.84 billion for the last fiscal year to spend on projects under MCA-Nepal, out of which Rs 7.60 billion was returned. The budget could not be spent as per the target as the compensation distribution and acquisition of land required for the construction of the power transmission line has slowed down.