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Tel Aviv: Israel has determined that a missile which hit the Egyptian Red Sea town of Taba overnight was fired from Yemen, an Israeli military spokesperson said on Friday morning.

The missile originated in ‘the Red Sea area’, said Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

“In the last few hours, an aerial threat was detected in the Red Sea area. Fighter jets were scrambled to the threat area and the issue is under investigation,” Hagari said.

Egyptian media reports said six people were injured when the missile hit a medical facility in Taba, a resort town adjacent to the Israeli city of Eilat.

A US warship in the Red Sea shot down three missiles fired from Yemen that were heading north, towards Israel on Oct 19.

Saudi Arabia is reported to have shot down another missile fired from Yemen.

The launches are attributed to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed threatened on Sunday that “Israeli ships in the Red Sea will be targeted” if Israeli air strikes on Gaza continue.

At least 233 hostages have been confirmed as kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip by Hamas on Oct 7, Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Friday.

Hagari stressed that this number is not final and the military is continuing to investigate new information. 

ANI/TPS

Kathmandu: Minister for Foreign Affairs NP Saud is scheduled to hold high-level talks during his official visit to the United States of America. He will depart from Kathmandu on Sunday, Oct 29.

In a press statement issued on Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that during the visit, Saud will have a bilateral meeting with the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, in Washington, DC on Oct 30. 

The Foreign Minister will also hold meetings with Samantha Power, the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Alice P Albright, Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and other high-level officials of the US Government.

He will also meet with Congressman Mike Carey, the Nepal Caucus Co-chair in the US Congress.

The Foreign Minister’s other engagements include a talk program at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), interactions with the Nepali-American business community, meetings with the IT advisory network, and interactions with representatives of the Non-Resident Nepali Association and Nepali-American professionals, said the ministry.

The Nepali delegation includes Ambassador of Nepal to the United States of America, Sridhar Khatri, and senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Nepal in Washington, DC, as well as the presidents of FNCCI and the American Chamber of Commerce in Nepal.

Saud will return to Kathmandu on Nov 5.

Mugu: Four persons of a single family have been found dead at Mandu village of Chhayanath Rara Municipality-6 in Mugu district. They are suspected to have been murdered. However, factors like who murdered them for what reasons have been unknown.

The victims have been identified as Sridevi Bohara, 28, a local resident; her 11-year-old son Manoj; her nine-year-old daughter Apsara; and her eight-month-old son Rahar, as confirmed by Deputy Superintendent of Police Birendra Thapa. Upon receiving this distressing news, a police team promptly arrived at the scene, which is located southeast of Gamgadhi, the district headquarters. The bodies of the deceased have been transported to the district hospital for a postmortem examination.

It has been reported that Sridevi's spouse is currently abroad for employment-related reasons. DSP Thapa has stated that further investigations into the case are currently in progress.

Preliminary police inquiries suggest that on Oct 24, Sridevi, along with her children, had visited her maternal home in the nearby Kotilla village to receive Dashain tika. They returned to their home the following evening. It is believed that they may have been murdered on the same night, according to the police.

On Oct 26, when the neighbors noticed that the main door of Sridevi’s house was locked, they assumed that the family had gone to their farmland to collect vegetables. However, on Oct 27, concerned about their whereabouts, the neighbors contacted Sridevi’s maternal relatives. They were informed that Sridevi had left her maternal home on Oct 25. In response, the neighbors decided to enter her house at around 10 am today, only to discover the lifeless bodies of the four family members.

Kathmandu: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is scheduled to arrive in Kathmandu on Oct 29 during his four-day visit to Nepal. Secretary-General Guterres is visiting Nepal at the invitation of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Prime Minister Dahal extended this invitation while attending the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September and the United Nations Food Summit in Rome, Italy in July.

Prime Minister Dahal’s press advisor, Govinda Acharya, informed that the UN Secretary-General’s initial visit, set for Oct 13-15, was postponed due to the Hamas militants’ attack on Israel and is now rescheduled for Oct 29. During his visit, discussions will focus on concluding Nepal’s ongoing peace process and establishing sustainable peace in the country. Climate change, sustainable development, and the agenda for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) will also be in the spotlight.

Guterres had previously visited Nepal in 2007 in his capacity as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Guterres, who has been serving as the United Nations Secretary-General for a second term since 2017, succeeded Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, issuing a press statement on Friday, said the Secretary-General will be accompanied by Jean Pierre Lacroix, Under Secretary General for Peace Operations, Hanaa Singer-Hamdy, the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations to Nepal and other officials from the UN Headquarters in New York and the United Nations country team in Nepal.

During his visit, the Secretary-General is scheduled to pay courtesy calls on President Ramchandra Paudel and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. He will also meet with the leaders of major political parties, including Nepali Congress President and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN-UML Chairperson and former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

Secretary-General Guterres is scheduled to address a joint session of the federal parliament at 4:00 pm on Oct 31 (Tuesday). 

During his four-day visit, he is scheduled to visit Patan Durbar Square, Pokhara, Annapurna Base Camp, and Lumbini among other places.

Kathmandu: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli held a meeting today. During the meeting held at the Singha Durbar-based Prime Minister's Office, the two exchanged views about the upcoming visits to Nepal by the UN Secretary-General and the Emir of Qatar, according to the Prime Minister's Secretariat.  

Likewise, matters over the Bill relating to transitional justice were also discussed in the meeting.

Bhaktapur: The Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), Bhaktapur has appealed to the public to donate blood in order to address a nationwide shortage of blood supplies. 

At present, blood banks across the country including in Bhaktapur are facing the shortage of blood when there is a significant demand for blood supplies amidst the soaring cases of dengue fever. The blood collection has remained halted during the Dashain festival, exacerbating the shortage. 

Despite this, the NRCS in Bhaktapur is making efforts to address the demand of blood for emergency purposes. Still relatives of patients visiting the district in search of blood are not compelled to return empty-handed. 

The scarcity of blood has surfaced nationwide including in the districts in the Valley and neighboring Kavrepalanchowk, it is said.  

NRCS Bhaktapur's outgoing president Manoj Kumar Thapa said the NRCS-operated blood bank supplies 30-35 pints of blood each day, but the demand is up to 150 pints. 

"A pint of blood could save a life," he said, urging the public to donate blood. 

Janaki: Deputy Superintendent of Police Sundar Tiwari was injured after being attacked with a knife by a man who took his own 20-day-old son hostage at Dipnagar of Kohalpur-2 in Banke district. Kushal Thapa held his own son hostage in his house and threatened his family members to kill the newborn. 

Following this, the family members in fear reported the incident to the police and asked for a rescue. In the process of the rescue, Tiwari, also head of the area police office, Banke, was injured when Thapa attacked him with a knife. Tiwari has sustained cuts in his right elbow, said spokesperson for the district police office, Narayan Dangi. 

The incident took place at around 11 pm on Thursday night. Right after being informed, a team from the area police office reached the incident site and started the rescue. In the process, Tiwari tried to make Thapa understand about the situation from outside the locked room, but in vain. Later, the police team broke open the room and rescued the newborn. 

Tanahun: The Anbukhareni Rural Municipality in Tanahun district has opted for commercial avocado farming as an intervention to grow more agricultural produces for better livelihood options for the locals.

As part of 'One Ward, One Production', the rural municipality distributed a total of 1,840 avocado plants in its ward no 2 by offering 75 percent in subsidy to the farmers, chief administrative officer of the rural municipality Bishnu Prasad Sharma said. 

The farmers were provided with the avocado plants as it starts yielding in three to five years and is profitable in terms of productions and market as well.       

Likewise, the Agriculture Knowledge Centre in the district said that avocado farming is kept in priority in the district under the fruits areas development programme.

The Centre has also grown avocado saplings from last year.  

The avocado farming could be done from 200 metres to 1,600 metres above the sea level and the district's climate and land's altitude is appropriate for growing avocado. 

Chairman of Anbukhareni Rural Municipality Shukra Chuman said that avocado farming was started in the rural municipality by utilizing the barren land to ensure income of local beneficiaries and grow local productions.

The farmers get competitive price of avocado in the local market and also its demand is still high in the hospitality sector.