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Nepal reported 13 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 579 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which nine returned positive. Likewise, 1, 055 people underwent antigen tests, of which four were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that nine infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 110 active cases in the country.

Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota held a meeting with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba at the latter's residence in Baluwatar on Sunday.

During the meeting, the duo discussed appointment of chairman at the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee of the House of Representatives and the leadership of Public Accounts Committee.

Likewise, they also discussed the pending bills including the Citizenship Bill and the appointment of deputy speaker, the Speaker's Secretariat said.

The CPN (Unified Socialist) submitted the names of its new ministers to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.

A Secretariat meeting held on Sunday recalled the ministers representing the party in the Deuba-led government and recommended the new names.

According to a leader, party Chairman Madhav Nepal submitted the list of the names to Prime Minister Deuba this afternoon.

Here is the list of new ministers: 

1. Metmani Chaudhary- Ministry of Urban Development 

2. Bhawani Khapung- Ministry of Health and Population 

3. Jeevan Ram Shrestha- Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation 

4. Sher Bahadur Kunwar- Ministry of Employment and Social Security

5. Hira Chandra KC- State Minister for Health

The party has recalled Ram Kumari Jhankri, Birodh Khatiwada, Kishan Shrestha and Prem Ale from the government.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari will administer the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers at Sheetal Niwas tomorrow.

A massive fire at a container depot near a port city in southeastern Bangladesh killed at least 28 people and injured more than 100 others, officials and local media said Sunday, as firefighters struggled to get the blaze under control, Associated Press reported.

The fire at the BM Inland Container Depot, a Dutch-Bangladesh joint venture, broke out around midnight Saturday following explosions in a container full of chemicals. The cause of the fire could not be immediately determined. The depot is located in Chittagong, 216 kilometers (134 miles) southeast of the capital, Dhaka.

At least five firefighters were among the dead, according to Brig. Gen. Main Uddin, director general of the Bangladesh fire service and civil defense. Another 15 firefighters were being treated for burn injuries, he added. 

Multiple rounds of explosions occurred after the initial blast as the fire continued to spread, Uddin said. Explosives experts from Bangladesh’s military have been called in to assist the firefighters. The explosions shattered the windows of nearby buildings and were felt as far as 4 kilometers away, officials and local media reports said.

Firefighters were still working to bring the fire under control on Sunday.

The death toll reached 28 by late morning on Sunday, according to Ekattor TV station, and the area’s civil surgeon said the number could still rise further. Many of the casualties happened at Chattogram Medical College Hospital, while the rest of the bodies were recovered from the site of the fire, according to the Associated Press.

Many of the containers in the depot are believed to have held chemicals. The depot handles goods for export and import and is located about 20 kilometers from the country’s main Chittagong Seaport.

Bangladesh has a history of industrial disasters, including factories catching fire with workers trapped inside. Monitoring groups have blamed corruption and lax enforcement for deadly incidents over the years. 

Global brands, which employ tens of thousands of low-paid workers in Bangladesh, have come under fire to improve factory conditions in recent years. In the country’s massive garment industry, which employs about 4 million people, safety conditions have improved significantly after massive reforms, but experts say accidents could still occur if other sectors do not make similar changes. 

In 2012, about 117 workers died when they were trapped behind locked exits in a garment factory in Dhaka.

The country’s worst industrial disaster occurred the following year, when the Rana Plaza garment factory outside Dhaka collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people, Associated Press reported. 

In 2019, a blaze ripped through a 400-year-old area cramped with apartments, shops and warehouses in the oldest part of Dhaka and killed at least 67 people. Another fire in Old Dhaka in a house illegally storing chemicals killed at least 123 people in 2010.

In 2021, a fire at a food and beverage factory outside Dhaka killed at least 52 people, many of whom were trapped inside by an illegally locked door, according to the Associated Press.

Six of the nine people killed in a bus accident in Rupandehi have been identified. 

The deceased have been identified as Bishnu Paudel (56) of Yogikuti, Butwal, Krishna Prasad Basyal of Kalikanagar, Butwal-11, Rajendra Prasad Pandey of Matariya, Omsatiya Rural Municipality-4, Dinesh Das (20) of Rautahat, Tulsi Basyal (37) of Tilottama Municipality-8, Rupandehi and Arbindra Sharma (40) of Janakpurgram, India.

Also read:  9 killed, 24 injured as bus falls off bridge in Rupandehi

Police said that 24 persons were injured in the incident. Among them, 16 are in critical condition. 

There were 33 persons on board the ill-fated bus when the incident occurred.

Annapurna Media Network (AMN) in association with Alternative Energy Promotion Center (AEPC) organized an electric vehicle rally in Kathmandu on the occasion of World Environment Day on Sunday.

The rally which started from corporate office of Annapurna Media Network in Tinkune this morning passed through Gaushala, Chabahil, Mahargunj, Balaju, Sorakhutte, Lainchaur, Kesarmahal, Jamal, Durbarmarg, Gyaneshwor, Ratopul, Gaushala and culminated at Tinkune ground.

Before the commencement of the rally, Annapurna Media Network Chairman Rameshwar Thapa said that the people should contribute to the protection of the environment from today itself for the next generation.

He stressed on the need for national and international organizations, government and private sector to work hand in hand for the protection of the environment.

Saying that human activities are degrading the environment, Dr Madhusudhan Adhikari, Executive Director of the Alternative Energy Promotion Center, said that human activities should be environment friendly.

He stressed on the need for promoting electric vehicles to protect the environment.

World Environment Day was observed on June 5 in Nepal and across the world.

At least nine persons died and 26 others were injured when a commuter bus met with an accident in Rupandehi on Sunday.

The identities of the deceased are yet to be ascertained.

Among the injured, 16 are said to be in critical condition.

DSP Nawaratna Paudel, spokesperson at the District Police Office, Rupandehi, the incident occurred when the bus (Lu 2 Kha 3841) heading towards Bhairahawa from Janakpur plunged off a bridge into the Rohini River at the border of Rohini Rural Municipality-3 and Omsatiya Rural Municipality-4 along the Bhairahawa-Parasi road section at around 4 am today.

Police said that the injured have been taken to the Bhairahawa-based Bhim Hospital and Universal Medical College for treatment.

North Korea fired eight short-range ballistic missiles towards the sea off its east coast on Sunday, a day after South Korea and the United States wrapped up their first combined military exercises involving an American aircraft carrier in more than four years, Reuters reported.

The missiles were fired from the Sunan area of the North Korean capital Pyongyang, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Japan's Kyodo news agency, citing a government source, also said the North had launched multiple missiles.

The launch also followed a visit to Seoul by the US point man on North Korean affairs, US Special Representative Sung Kim, who departed on Saturday.

He met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, Kim Gunn and Takehiro Funakoshi, on Friday to prepare for "all contingencies" amid signs North Korea was preparing to conduct a nuclear test for the first time since 2017.

Washington has made very clear directly to Pyongyang that it is open to diplomacy, Kim said during the visit, which wrapped up on Sunday, noting that he was willing to discuss items of interest to Pyongyang, such as sanctions relief, according to Reuters.

Last week, the United States called for more UN sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile launches, but China and Russia vetoed the suggestion, publicly splitting the UN Security Council on North Korea for the first time since it started punishing it in 2006, when North Korea conducted its first nuclear test.

In recent weeks, North Korea has test-fired a range of missiles, including its largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

North Korea's last tests were on May 25, when it launched three missiles after US President Joe Biden ended an Asia trip where he agreed to new measures to deter the nuclear-armed state.

The first missile appeared to be the North's largest ICBM, the Hwasong-17, while a second unspecified missile appeared to have failed mid-flight, South Korean officials said at the time. The third missile was a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM), Reuters reported.

On Saturday, South Korean and American ships concluded three days of drills in international waters off the Japanese island of Okinawa, including air defence, anti-ship, anti-submarine, and maritime interdiction operations, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The exercises included the USS Ronald Reagan, a 100,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, among other major warships.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office on May 10, had agreed with Biden to increase bilateral military drills to deter North Korea.

North Korea has criticized previous joint drills as an example of Washington's continued "hostile policies" toward Pyongyang, despite its talk of diplomacy, according to Reuters.