Nepal

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal’s capital on Monday announced it would ease strict pandemic measures, with plans to reopen schools and sports venues and slowly return city life to normal, as COVID-19 cases began to decline.

The Nepalese government imposed tough restrictions last month as virus cases broke records, fueled by the omicron variant. Schools were shut, religious festivals banned, and restaurants were limited to serving small numbers of customers.

KATHMANDU, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Nepal's reliance on India for exports has increased in recent years, with over four-fifth of the total volume going to the southern neighbor in the first four months of the current 2021-22 fiscal year starting in mid-July, government data show.

Nepal exported goods worth 66.94 billion Nepali rupees (557 million U.S. dollars) to India during the first four months of the current fiscal year, or 81.51 percent of the total exports.

KATHMANDU, Nov 15 (NNN-XINHUA) – The Nepali government started vaccinating its population aged below 18 with COVID-19 vaccines yesterday, said a senior official from the Ministry of Health and Population.

“We have started vaccinating people aged 12 and above with the Pfizer vaccine starting from Sunday,” Sagar Dahal, chief of the National Immunisation Programme under the ministry, told Xinhua. “It is for the first time that we vaccinate people aged under 18.”

KATHMANDU, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Nepal has managed to increase forested areas and the population of endangered animals, tigers and one-horned rhinos in particular, in its efforts to preserve biodiversity over the years.

The forested areas in the country have reached 45 percent of the total land area. "This is a significant jump from less than 30 percent in the early 1990s," Megh Nath Kafle, spokesperson for the Ministry of Forests and Environment, told Xinhua.

KATHMANDU, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Science holds the key to origins tracing of COVID-19, an issue "much politicized" by some powerful countries, and the U.S. attempt to explore the origins of the coronavirus through its intelligence community has exposed its "ugly intention" to check the rise of China, according to a Nepali newspaper.

KATHMANDU, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday called for countries to work together to ensure that a pandemic at the magnitude of COVID-19 shall not occur again in the near future.

"The pandemic's impact differs from country to country," Ghebreyesus said at the inaugural ceremony of the 74th Session of the WHO Regional Committee for Southeast Asia. "We must ensure that a pandemic of this magnitude does not occur in the near future."

He urged the entire world to work together to make it a reality.

KATHMANDU, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) have jointly launched a new initiative in Nepal to help seven hospitals in the South Asian country improve its healthcare waste management system so as to better handle the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN agency said Friday.

Kathmandu, Jul 19 (PTI) Nepal's new Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has said that he looks forward to working closely with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to strengthen the relations between the two neighbouring countries as well as the people-to-people contacts.

Prime Minister Modi immediately congratulated Deuba after he won a vote of confidence in the reinstated House of Representatives on Sunday night.

Kathmandu, Jul 13 (PTI) Nepal's Opposition leader Sher Bahadur Deuba is set to form a small Cabinet on Tuesday, a day after the Supreme Court directed President Bidya Devi Bhandari to appoint the Nepali Congress chief as the country's new prime minister.

According to a Nepali Congress (NC) leader, 74-year-old Deuba will form a small Cabinet comprising the NC and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) representatives among others on Tuesday afternoon, when he takes the oath of office and secrecy from President Bhandari.

KATHMANDU, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba was appointed prime minister of the country on Tuesday within a deadline set by the Supreme Court.

"The president has appointed Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba as the prime minister" under the Constitution of Nepal, Bhesh Raj Adhikari, chief personal secretary to Nepali President Bidya Devi Bhandari, told Xinhua.

"He will be administered the oath of office and secrecy at 6"00 p.m. today (Tuesday)," said Adhikari.