5,657 new Covid cases added in a single day in Nepal. Highest number of deaths today.

As of Friday afternoon, the total number of Covid-19 patients in Nepal has reached 323,187, according to the Ministry of Health and Population.

In the last 24 hours, 5,657 new cases have been reported in the country from PCR test which is the highest number till date for Nepal. Similarly, 525 individuals had antigen tests for the virus during this time span, with an additional 70 being found infected making the total number of 5,727 positive cases in a single day.

There are currently 38,813 active cases from the total of 2,473,956 tested for Covid. In the last 24 hours, 928 people have made a full recovery, while 33 people have died which marks as the highest mortality from Covid in a single day in Nepal.

According to the health ministry, 281,095 people have recovered from the disease whereas 3,279 people had died so far.

1000+ New Corona Cases Confirmed in Nepal

As of Sunday afternoon, the Ministry of Health and Population announced that the country's Covid-19 tally had reached 283.

In the last 24 hours, 1,015 new cases have been identified in the country, according to the ministry. There are 435 of them in the Kathmandu valley.

A total of 5,084 swab samples were analyzed during this time span. In total, 2 million and 345,501 people in the country have been tested.

Similarly, 69 people died during this time period.

699 people had antigen tests for the virus during this time span, with 81 of them being infected.

There are 6,290 active cases as of today. There are 576 of them in hospitals, 116 of them in intensive care units, and 46 on ventilators.

According to the ministry, 275,300 people have made a full recovery so far, while 3,083 have died. In the last 24 hours, 262 people have been released from hospitals.

In the last 24 hours, 262 people have been released, while eight people have died.

Over 80 people have been placed under quarantine across the country.

SEE Results Postponed Due to Increased Covid-19 Cases.

The National Examination Board says it will not be publishing the results of the annual secondary education exams (SEE) for the next few days as the number of Covid-19 cases in the country, especially in Kathmandu, is rapidly rising.

Officials at the board had said earlier last week they would report the results this week.

Yet, NEB Examination Controller Ram Raja Khakurel says, "We are currently checking the examinees' names and second names and their scores. Apparently the movement of students will go up until the results are out, so we are waiting for the next couple of days.

The 10th-grade exams scheduled for late March were postponed and later cancelled because of the increased risk of Covid-19 spread in Nepal. The board had agreed to report the results for the last academic year, based on the internal evaluations made by the teachers and school administration.

As many as 482,219 students were to enroll in the 2019/20 academic year SEE.

Versatile actor Irrfan Khan passes away at the age of 54

Actor Irrfan Khan died at age 54 after being admitted to Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai on Tuesday, where colon infection was being observed. The star had revealed in 2018 that a neuroendocrine tumor had been diagnosed.

Film-maker Shoojit Sircar posted the news of his death on Twitter. "My lovely friend Irfaan. You were battling and battling, and fighting. I am always going to be proud of you .. We are going to meet again .. Congratulations to Babil and Sutapa .. You fought too, you gave everything you could in this battle, Sutapa. Om shanti. Salute to Irfaan Khan,' he wrote.

Corona virus patient dies in Birgunj

A woman who tested positive for coronavirus in a rapid diagnostic test died in Parsa district Birgunj on Saturday. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test report is yet to be released.

Ashok Batika's 23-year-old daughter, Birgunj-10, died while Narayani Hospital doctors were planning to keep her in isolation, says medical superintendent Dr. Madan Udahyaya of the hospital.

Her body is still being held at the hospital. The deceased was found to also have suffered from blood cancer. Upon experiencing some complications, the family had rushed her to Bharatpur Cancer Hospital in Chitwan on March 18. She was diagnosed as having cancer there. She was discharged four days later.

After the lockdown began next week, she experienced some health issues again.

Students beaten in Kirtipur during lockdown

A group of Tribhuvan University students in Kirtipur, Kathmandu, said some of its members were beaten up on Saturday morning by unidentified locals in the region.

The group says the leaders went to the local police station today requesting that during the lockdown they provide help for protection and relief. However they were attacked on the street by a gang of local teens, according to gang chief Rup Narayan Shrestha.

One called Lalit Jung Rawat was wounded during the clash, and he was rushed to a nearby hospital.

According to DSP Chhedi Lal Kamati, the head of the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police Circle, the situation soon got under control.

Nepal Govn. claims to have spent NRs. 381 billion in earthquake reconstruction

The government has spent about Rs 381 billion on restoring various buildings, facilities, and residential houses that were damaged in the first five years after the 2015 earthquake.

However, the reconstruction hasn't been complete till now.

The National Reconstruction Authority claims it invested Rs 309 billion through government agencies and Rs 72 billion through NGOs.

By then, 63 per cent of the earthquake survivors have completed the reconstruction of their residential homes, while other 25 per cent of the survivors are currently reconstructing their houses, according to the authorities.

"Thanks to the help and good wishes from various industries, we have achieved the stage at which we can present our accomplishments, experiences and learn about our rehabilitation and restoration to the world with trust and pride," says Sushil Gyewali, Chief Executive Officer of the Authority.

3 people killed in bus accident in Sindhupalchowk

At least 3 people have been killed on the spot after a passenger bus en-route to Melamchi, Sindhupalchowk from Kathmandu met with an accident on Friday. 14 others have been injured in the accident. The deceased were identified as Chandra Bahadur Deuja and Khum Adhikari of Melamchi municipality-10, and Tulasa Parajuli of Melamchi-12. Area police office Melamchi informed the bus met with the accident at around 2 p.m. at Tamakhani in Melamchi municpality-12. The police informed that the bus with registration number Ba 2 Kha 4325 plunged about 50 meters down from the road. Among the 35 passengers in the bus, 9 injured have been admitted in Nepal Medical College, Jorpati and Regional hospital at Melamchi.

SEE exam starts from today. Around 5 lakh candidates to appear

Secondary Education Exam SEE has started across the country from Thursday. As per the office of the Controller of the Examination OCE, total of 485,596 people are appearing in the SEE this year, of which, 461,515 are regular and 24,071 are exempted. The OCE has informed that the SEE is being conducted across 1,956 exam centers. Exam Controller Ambika Prasad Regmi has said 184,290 students are appearing in the exam from province-1, 70,402 from province 2, and 182 thousand from province 3. Likewise, 48,954 people are appearing in the exam from province-4, 79 thousand from province 5, 38 thousand from Karnali province and 55 thousand from province 7. This year, students from 9,988 schools are appearing in the SEE exam. As per the article 17 under Education Act 2028 B.S., any activities affecting the exam will lead to fine of Rs 100 thousand, or six months imprisonment or both. Various mechanisms have been planned for various levels including central, provincial, district and local. The exam is to take place for the first time after the change the curriculum in a span of a decade. This time, students will have to take practical exams as well in all the compulsory subjects save for math. The students will get their results in grading system. The exam towards general will go on till March 31 whereas exam towards technical category will finish on April 3rd.

Typing BFF for checking FB security status: Fake or Real

Typing 'BFF' in comments to check the status of facebook account has gone viral among Nepalese these days as rumours of typing green bff in comment box will assure the security of a facebook account whereas the unchanged color (black) will be a strong signal that the facebook account is literally not secure. Many posts in groups and pages have been gaining likes and comment has been taking advantages of this information. But, focus should be made on the question, 'Is this rumour true?' rather than running blindly after the rumours all over specially in Nepal. The posts relating to this rumour has been posting the pictures of Mark Zuckerberg along with the post which apparently makes the reader to believe the posts are official.
BFF, simply denotes 'Best Friends Forever', and most of us know that. Typing BFF in facebook comments will create an animation of two hands, red and green (denoting two different persons) giving a hi-5 resulting in the green colored BFF in the comment. The green colored BFF simply denotes link to animation which is displayed anytime someone clicks it and not the security of facebook account. Previously, facebook has released similar types of comment words such as XOXO, and Congrats. When user types these words, red colored link with animations appear in the comments. These types of words were developed by facebook just for the improvement of user experience.
We wonder how so many facebook users believed this rumour and ended up typing BFF in comment box wherever they just saw the rumoured posts. We, from our side suggest the users not to follow the rumours as they are just click baits for publicity of people or pages.

Balewa airport comes in operation after 25 years

The Balewa airport in Baglung, which had remained shut for nearly two and a half decades, has conducted test flight on Tuesday. The test flight of Tara Air from Pokhara to Balewa airport was conducted with the objective to bring the airport into regular operation by March 23. Tara air said there was no difficulty in operating regular flights. Captains Sanjeev Shrestha, Santosh Shah, Prabhakar Ghimire and Cabin crew Srijana Humagain conducted the test flight. They also surveyed the airport flying multiple times around the airport region to analyze appropriate directions and necessary infrastructures. Air Traffic officer at Balewa airport Imnath Adhikari said the airport was ready for operation and adding a few infrastructures on site will further enhance the airport. The airport is finally resuming its operation as a result of constant effort by the locals and the elected representatives of the Dhaulagiri region. The airport was actually constructed 26 years ago with the effort of locals providing voluntary labour from then 14 Village Development Committees.

3 wards offices running in the same building, Dhankuta

There has been a controversy on the issue of deciding the site for the ward office of Sahid-bhumi rural municipality, Dhankuta district. Due to the conflict on office site and lack of adequate employees, offices of three different wards are running in the same building. The ward office has been hosting the ward offices of ward 1 and 3 as well. The service seekers have been experiencing difficulty due to the operation of three offices in the same building. It requires at least 5 rooms to operate a single ward office. Every ward office must have separate cabin for the president, secretary and the accountant. However, the offices of all three ward president have been arranged in the same work cabin in the building. A ward office in ward number 1 has not been established due to the inability to reach the conclusion on the issue of deciding the central site for the ward office. Likewise, lack of employees in ward number 3 has left the ward without an office building. Although the ward has made all preparations to operate the ward office, it remains stalled as the rural-municipality has not sent any employees yet to fulfill the office recruitment.

CIB Raid in NCC Bank Ltd., 13 staffs arrested

The Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police - CIB has arrested 13 individuals including committee members following a raid in the board meeting of Nepal Credit and Commerce (NCC) bank. The arrested individuals were identified as Bishnu Prasad Dhital, Ichhya Bahadur Tamang, Durgadutta Joshi, Suwarna Raj Bhandari, Madhuwan Lal Shrestha, Rishiraj Bhatt. Likewise, Ramchandra Basaula, Bikash Shrestha, Sagar Neupane, Maan Bahadur Raut, Binitmani Upadhyaya, Mohan Kharel and Sudip Thapa were also arrested. Dhital is the incumbent chairperson of Apex Development Bank while others are employees and operators of the same Apex Bank. They have been arrested in accusation of being involved in a financial scam worth Rs 1 Billion and 510 million of Banks money. Four different development banks were merged in NCC bank, which includes Apex, Infrastructre, Supreme and International Development bank. The Central Bank of Nepal (Nepal Rastra Bank) has started its investigation following a complaint that Apex bank had been lending out money unregulated despite the initiation of merger procedure. Apex bank has been accused of over-valuating collateral on loans and also lending out money to black-listed debtors. The CIB informed that the arrested individuals will be put under trial under the Banking Offence and Punishment Act. The Central Bank has requested the investigation sending a letter to the CIB regarding the issue of unregulated loan flow against standard practices. CIB had put on an active investigation on the issue based on bank's directions.

Nepal Police publicizes names of Kailali Witch case

District Police Office, Kailali have made public people involved in Radha Chaudhari's case along with people who had attacked the Chief of Godaghodi municipality. Organizing a press conference on Thursday, District Police Office, Kailali revealed six people involved in Chaudhary's case and 4 people involved in attacking chief of municipality. Main accused Ram Bahadur Chaudhari aka Bholebaba, his aide Kismat Chaudhary,18, Smaarika Chaudhari,24, Ved Prasad Chaudhary, 34 and ChanKala Chaudhary, 33 of Godaghodi ward no 5 and Sita Rani Chaudhary, 41 were made public. According to Chief and SP of District Police Office, Kailali, Binod Ghimire, they all accepted their crime. Meanwhile, Police made public Kamal Chettri of Ghodaghodi municipality ward no 1, Bharat Shah, 36, of Ghodaghodi municipality-9, Purna Prasad Khanal of Dhangadi sub metropolis-8 and Hridaya Raj Bogati of Tikapur municipaity-1 in accusation of attacking Chief of Ghodaghodi municipality of Kailali Mamata Prasad Chaudhary. SP Vinod Ghimire informed that the police are in search of other remaining ones, among the 13 assailants involved in the attack. Meanwhile, It is learnt the police is undergoing essential investigation extending time from the court.

Government bans vehicles more than 20 years old

The government has imposed full ban on public transportation that are more than 20 years old from Thursday. It has been warned to seize the vehicles and auction them in junks, given the Transportation Management Department turns deaf ear towards the government decision. The government has taken the decision to this effect to mitigate the air pollution and road accidents that are taking place due to the outdated means of transportation. The Department has estimated that there are around 5,000 outdated vehicles, currently running across the country. It had commenced its effort to remove the outdated vehicles last year from February itself. However, it had not come into effect completely. Thus, the decision has been taken to remove such vehicles across the nation by mid-March this year, amending the regulatory and publishing the notice in Nepal state-paper last year about the same. Number of electronic tempos currently in the valley is 600 inside the valley and 200 outside the valley. Transportation entrepreneurs, have however, demanded to allow operate the vehicles in good condition by conducting tests instead of displacing it. They claimed not all the vehicles become useless just because it has been 20 years or more.

US Bangla air crash update

At least 50 people have lost their lives as a US-Bangla airplane crashed while landing at Tribhuwan International Airport, Kathmandu. Death of 49 people have been officially confirmed while the condition of one person is still unknown. Similarly, 21 wounded are undergoing treatment in different hospitals. Among the injured, two have sustained minor injuries while others were partially burnt. Among the victims, who were taken to KMC hospital of Sinamangal after being rescued, 8 were declared dead. There were 67 passengers and four crew members on board the airplane. Among the 67 passengers, 33 were Nepali. According to the airport, 2 among the passengers were kids, 28 women and 41 men. The mishap took place when the airplane, flying from Dhaka to Kathmandu, plunged into a pit towards eastern side after it overshot while landing. The airplane caught fire right after the crash. Nepal Army, Armed Police Force (AFP) and Nepal Police were deployed for the rescue work following the crash. The injured were taken to the hospital via helicopter and ambulance. Meanwhile, the fire was taken under control in a short period of time. Tribhuwan Airport, which had halted its operation following the crash, resumed operation after 5 pm.

Reason behind US Bangla airplane crash

The reason behind the crash of US Bangla airplane at the Tribhuwan International Airport is said to be the pilot's fault. Chief of the airport Raj Kumar Chhetri said the pilot of the crashed airline, at 2:18 pm, had asked for the permission to land via Zero two lane when he had to land from 2 Zero lane, which means the plane had to be landed in the south whereas the pilot headed the plane towards north in order to land towards the same direction. Chhetri said the Air Traffic Controller had also asked him if there was any problem, in reply for which, the pilot said there was no problem. He also informed that the airplane revolved around twice towards northern east direction and when he was warned he was going towards wrong direction, there was no response. Following the same, the airplane plunged in the pit outside the airport breaking the bar towards the east.

Supreme Justice boycotts full bench

Supreme Court Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana has boycotted full-bench saying Chief Justice Gopal Parajuli had already crossed his retirement age last August. Delivering his written statement, Justice Rana- a member of the full bench that has been conducting hearing on the contempt of court case against Kantipur Daily and Dr. Govinda KC, said he cannot provide justice sitting alongside a retired Chief Justice and left the bench. The second day of the case hearing, which was originally scheduled for 11 am, could not begin till 12 pm. Meanwhile, member of the bench, Justice Rana came and expressed his dissenting opinion on the case. Justice Rana was of opinion that according to the birth certificates of CJ Parajuli, shown in course of discussion on Sunday, had two birth dates- one in 1952 and another in 1954. As per the system of Judicial Council Act, CJ Parajuli had to be retired on August 5, 2017. The full bench led by CJ Parajuli had justices including Om Prakash Mishra, Dipak Kumar Karki, Kedar Prasad Chaalise, Shaaradaa Prasad Ghimire and Tej Bahadaur KC alongside Justice Rana on Sunday.

Kailali hunger strike ends after 8 days

The 24 inmates, imprisoned in the Kailalai jail for their involvement in Tikapur incident, who had been staging hunger strike for the past eight days in demand of their release have postponed the strike. They deferred the fast-unto-death following the four-point agreement forged with the local administration. It has been agreed that the district administration office will inform the concerned bodies for oath-taking procedure of the elected parliamentarian Resham Chaudhary, and to make concrete effort to withdraw the complaint and give compensation within a fortnight. The prisoners have warned to stage the hunger strike again in case their demands are not addressed in the next fifteen days. Earlier, all the political parties in Kailali had issued a press release and demanded secured lives of the prisoners. Chief District officer of Kailali, Govind Rijal broke the hunger strike feeding juice to the inmates.

A girl seriously beaten up for 6 hours in accuse of being a witch (With Video Link)

A 17-year old girl named Radha Chaudhary, Ghoda ghodi Municipality Kailali district was seriously beaten up by a person named Ram Bahadur Chaudhary, calling himself an avatar of Lord Shiva and his friend Kismati Chaudhary, calling herself Parbati (wife of Lord Shiva) infront of whole villagers.
Radha has been in treatment in Seti Zonal Hospital since the incident. Her condition is being worst as her mental condition is being degraded. Reportedly, there are swelling all over her body. However, Ram and Kismati is currently under police custody and are currently subjected under investigation.
Mayor of the city, Mr. Mamata Prasad Chaudhary has been attacked by a group pre-assumably Biplav Maoist group after the incident. He has been shot and attacked by sharp weapon on his head and stomach. Mr. Chaudhary has been accused of not taking any action in such a serious case and had done simple paperworks for solving the case.

Video (Facebook Link) : 

https://www.facebook.com/pahilokhabar12/videos/886645494849481/

This is not a first incident where a Nepali girl has been beaten fatally in the accuse of being a witch. In the 21st century, where Nepal is being taken as a developing country and in a remarkable pace of development in every field, this type of incident marks the illiteracy and the superstition of people.