Submit your Article

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.

The names of US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers appeared on a hit list kept by a man accused of fatally shooting a retired Wisconsin judge, authorities and US media said today, Reuters reported.

"Yesterday our office was notified by law enforcement officials that Governor Whitmer's name appeared on the Wisconsin gunman's list," a spokesman for Whitmer told Reuters. 

"While the news reports are deeply troubling, we will not comment further on an ongoing criminal investigation," he added.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice said retired judge John Roemer, 68, was found dead on Friday in his home after the local sheriff's office received a call about "an armed person and two shots fired in a Township of New Lisbon residence."

The department called the ex-judge's killing a "targeted" attack. It said that Douglas Uhde, 56, was found in the basement of Roemer's home with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The suspect was taken to the hospital and a firearm was recovered at the scene.

On Saturday (local), the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said the accused gunman had a hit list including the name of McConnell while an ABC News affiliate reported it also included Evers, according to Reuters.

The incident marked the latest high-profile case of gun violence in the United States, following mass shootings in recent weeks at a grocery story in New York, an elementary school in Texas and a medical building in Oklahoma that left dozens dead.

Gun safety advocates are pushing the US government to take stronger measures to curb gun violence.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice said Uhde remained in critical condition at a medical facility.

"This ... does appear to be a targeted act and the individual who is a suspect appears to have had other targets as well," Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said at a Friday news conference. "It appears to be related to the judicial system,"

In April, a federal jury acquitted two men of conspiring to kidnap Whitmer in 2020 and deadlocked on the same charges for two other men, Reuters reported.

Singer Mariah Carey is being sued for copyright infringement over her 1994 Christmas mega-hit, All I Want for Christmas is You, BBC reported.

Songwriter Andy Stone says he co-wrote a song with the same name five years earlier, arguing that Ms Carey exploited his "popularity" and "style". 

Despite sharing a title, the two songs appear musically different, but Mr Stone claims Ms Carey caused confusion and did not ask for permission. 

Ms Carey has not yet responded. 

A must-have on any Christmas playlist, Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You is one of the best known Christmas records of all time.

Since appearing on the album Merry Christmas in 1994, it has topped the charts in several countries and by 2017 had reportedly earned Ms Carey more than $60m (£48m) in royalties, according to BBC.

The song has been streamed one billion times on Spotify. 

In a recent memoir, Ms Carey admitted to composing "most of the song on a cheap little Casio keyboard".

Mr Stone, who performs under the name Vince Vance with the band Vince Vance and the Valiants, is claiming at least $20m (£16m) in damages.

The complaint says that Ms Carey, as well as her co-writer Walter Afanasieff and record label Sony Music Entertainment, have earned "undeserved profits" from the song, arguing that the defendants "knowingly, wilfully, and intentionally engaged in a campaign" to infringe copyright.

Mr Stone argues that he never gave permission for his song to be used for any purpose, including "the creation of a derivative work". 

It is not clear why the legal challenge has only been made now, 28 years after Ms Carey's song was released. 

The complaint says Mr Stone's lawyers first contacted Ms Carey and her co-defendants last year, but were "unable to come to any agreement". 

It is not unusual for different songs to have the same name, and the United States Copyright Office lists 177 entries on its website under the title All I Want for Christmas is You, BBC reported.