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Fifteen persons have taken ill after consuming toxic mushroom in Butwal.

Among them, five are undergoing treatment at the Intensive Care Units and their condition are critical, the Area Police Office, Butwal said.

Rina BK (28) of Nayagaun, Butwal Sub-Metropolitan City-12, Kamala BK (28), Supriya BK (8), Bishnu BK (38), Durga BK (33) and Hum Bahadur BK (50) have fallen sick after consuming mushroom brought from a jungle, the Area Police Office, Butwal said.

Thag Bahadur KC, Chief at the Area Police Office, Butwal, said that Hima Kumari Chantyal (62) and Gauri Maya Sen (62) of Laxminagar, Butwal-4, Dipa Sen (65), Yethartha GC (14), Manju Sen (42), Hari Sen (64) and Prakash Sen (37), Pema Thapa (45) of Shantichok, Belbas, Sushila Roka (43) and Rima BK (28)  have also taken ill.

CPN-Unity National Campaign Coordinator Bamdev Gautam has proposed an alliance of communist forces in the upcoming Parliamentary and Province Assembly elections.

During a meeting held with CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli in Balkot on Thursday, Gautam floated a proposal to contest the upcoming elections by forging an alliance of leftist parties.

"The defeat of communists is certain if they contest the elections on their own. That is why, let's contest the Parliamentary and Province Assembly elections by forging alliance, " he said.

Gautam told Oli that CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Nepal have also expressed their readiness to contest the elections by forging an alliance of leftist parties.

The CPN-Unity National Campaign Coordinator further said that he would be involved in the campaign to unite the Nepal Communist Party.

According to a source, Oli is positive towards the proposal. But, he said that Dahal and Nepal should change themselves first.

Following differences between party Chairman Upendra Yadav and Federal Council Chairman Baburam Bhattarai, the Janata Samajbadi Party has split.

During a meeting held between the two leaders that lasted for two hours on Wednesday, Bhattarai has decided to form a new party in consensus, a source said.

Earlier on Monday night, the Yadav faction held a party’s central executive committee and decided to recall all the ministers representing the party in the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government. The leaders of the Bhattarai faction, however, were not invited to the meeting.

The meeting had also decided to give rights to Yadav to select the new ministers.

Out of the 33 members in the central executive committee, Yadav has a majority with 22 members. The party has 19 lawmakers in the House of Representatives.

More than 6, 000 people of 1, 718 families have been displaced due to floods and inundation in Morang.

According to Chief District Officer Kashiraj Dahal, 1, 718 families have been compelled to leave their homes owing to floods and inundation triggered by torrential rainfall.

He said that 6, 717, who were displaced due to water-induced disasters, have been kept in schools, public places and community buildings.

Most of the displaced families are from Biratnagar Metropolitan City.

Dahal said that the squatters living around the Singhiya River and Keshaliya River have been affected the most.

Along with Biratnagar, the people, who were displaced by the floods and inundation,are from Jahada, Katahari, Dhanpalthan, Gramthan and Budhiganga Rural Municipality and Rangeli Municipality.

China has welcomed the new Nepali ambassador to China.

Responding to a question during a regular press briefing, Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry Information Department Zhao Lijian said that China is looking forward to his assumption of the post at an early date.

He said that China and Nepal are connected by mountains and rivers and enjoy an ever-lasting friendship.

China is ready to work with Nepal to follow through on the important consensus of the leaders of the two countries, deepen political mutual trust, promote mutually beneficial cooperation and elevate the strategic partnership of cooperation featuring ever-lasting friendship for development and prosperity to new heights, he further said.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari had appointed Bishnu Pukar Shrestha as the new ambassador to China a week ago.

Doctors and bankers were among hundreds of Sri Lankans who marched on Wednesday to demand the government resolve a severe fuel shortage at the heart of the Indian Ocean island's worst economic crisis in decades or step down, BBC reported.

Weeks of street demonstrations against cascading woes such as power cuts and shortages of food and medicine brought a change in government last month after nine people were killed and about 300 injured in protests.

Left with just enough fuel for about a week and fresh shipments at least two weeks away, the government restricted supplies on Tuesday to essential services, such as trains, buses and the health sector, for two weeks.

The government-ordered petrol shipment would arrive on July 22, while Lanka IOC, a unit of Indian Oil Corporation, is expecting a shipment of petrol and diesel around July 13. 

"The government is also attempting to secure fuel shipments at an early date. However, until those are confirmed, the details would not be released," the statement said.

Doctors, nurses and medical staff say that despite being designated essential workers, they struggle to find enough fuel to get to work.

"This is an impossible situation, the government has to give us a solution," H.M. Mediwatta, secretary of one of Sri Lanka's largest nursing unions, the All Island Nurses Union, told reporters.

The South Asian nation's most serious economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948 comes after COVID-19 battered the tourism-reliant economy and slashed remittances from overseas workers.

Rising oil prices, populist tax cuts and a seven-month ban on the import of chemical fertilisers last year that devastated agriculture have compounded the troubles, according to BBC.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said the World Bank had agreed to restructure 17 projects it is funding in Sri Lanka. Similar support extended earlier had been used to buy fuel and medicine.

"More World Bank assistance will follow after negotiations with the IMF are finalised," he said on Twitter.

An International Monetary Fund team is in Colombo for talks on a bailout package of as much as $3 billion. Sri Lanka hopes to reach a staff-level agreement by Thursday, but even so, it is unlikely to bring immediate funds, BBC reported.

The US will increase its military presence across Europe as Nato agreed a "fundamental shift" in its response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, BBC reported.

A permanent army headquarters will be created in Poland, while new US warships will go to Spain, fighter jets to the UK and ground troops to Romania.

Mr Biden said Nato was "needed now more than it has ever been".

The alliance is having its biggest overhaul since the Cold War, Nato head Jens Stoltenberg said.

The new plan in response to Russia's invasion will mean more than 300,000 troops at high readiness next year, up from the current level of 40,000.

Mr Biden told a summit in Madrid that Nato would be "strengthened in all directions across every domain - land, air and sea".

The UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has also said it is significantly increasing the availability of forces to Nato's collective defence, with more warships, fighter jets and land forces on standby - although the MoD said it would not give details on numbers as they are "militarily sensitive".

The US announcement sees it shore up its presence across the continent but particularly in eastern Europe where the new permanent headquarters for its 5th Army Corps will be based, according to BBC.

Mr Biden repeated the alliance's commitment to "defend every inch" of its territory, saying: "We mean it when we say an attack against one is an attack against all." 

The measures include: 

• Boosting the fleet of US naval destroyers in Spain from four to six
• An additional "rotational brigade in Romania consisting of 3,000 fighters and another 2,000-personnel combat team
• Two more squadrons of F-35 stealth jets to the UK
• Additional air defence and other capabilities in Germany and Italy.

The UK has already nearly doubled the size of its military presence in Estonia, with just over 1,600 troops there.

More will be allocated to the defence of the Baltics, however the MoD said these additional troops may be held at high readiness back home.

At the summit Nato leaders agreed to accept the previously neutral Nordic states Finland and Sweden into the alliance, with their membership needing to be ratified by the governments of all 30 Nato members.

Mr Biden said this was "exactly" what Russian President Vladimir Putin did not want and said his strategy of invading Ukraine had backfired.

Nato Secretary General Mr Stoltenberg said Finland and Sweden had been formally invited to join the military alliance, describing it as the "fastest accession process ever", and said he expected the swift progress to continue.

The two applicants must now show that they meet Nato's standards in politics, law, and in their armed forces - something which is expected to be relatively straightforward for the Nordic countries, BBC reported.

Mr Stoltenberg said Ukraine could continue to count on the alliance's assistance in the face of Russian aggression for "as long as it takes", adding that Ukraine was fighting for its independence but also for values shared by Nato.

He said member states had agreed a "comprehensive assistance package" for Ukraine, which included fuel, medical supplies, body armour, anti-drone systems and equipment to counter mines.

The UK will provide an additional £1 billion in military aid for Ukraine, a near-doubling in its support for the fight against the Russian invasion, BBC reported.

The new funding takes the military aid given to Kyiv to £2.3bn - and the UK has also spent £1.5bn in humanitarian and economic support for Ukraine.

Boris Johnson said British spending was "transforming Ukraine's defences".

The pledge came after President Volodymr Zelensky urged Nato leaders to do more to help Ukraine's war effort.

Mr Zelensky told Nato leaders the monthly cost of defence for Ukraine was around $5bn (£4.12bn).

The UK is second only to the US in terms of military aid for Ukraine - the US recently approved a $40bn (£33bn) package of support.

The new British aid will go towards paying for "sophisticated air defence systems", drones, electronic warfare equipment, and "thousands of pieces of vital kit", the UK government said.

The new £1bn is set to come from departmental underspends, the UK government said, plus £95 million from the Welsh and Scottish governments' budgets. 

An "underspend" means departments spent less than anticipated, not that government finances were in surplus overall. Public sector borrowing was £151.8bn in the year ending March 2022, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Announcing the extra support, the government claimed the equipment was the first step to helping Ukraine recover territory lost to Russia, on top of their "valiant defence".

But questions remain about whether the aid will be sufficient, according to BBC.

Addressing Nato leaders at their summit in Madrid on Wednesday via video link, Mr Zelensky said they needed more modern weapons systems and artillery to "break the Russian artillery advantage".

"Russia still receives billions every day and spends them on war. We have a multibillion-dollar deficit, we don't have oil and gas to cover it," Mr Zelensky said.

Also speaking in the Spanish capital, Mr Johnson said: "Putin's brutality continues to take Ukrainian lives and threaten peace and security across Europe.

"As Putin fails to make the gains he had anticipated and hoped for and the futility of this war becomes clear to all, his attacks against the Ukrainian people are increasingly barbaric.

"UK weapons, equipment and training are transforming Ukraine's defences against this onslaught."

The UK's commitment comes as the members of Nato agreed a 10-year "strategic concept" to address future threats to European and global security.

At the same time, the US government announced it will increase its military presence across Europe as Nato agreed a "fundamental shift" in its response to Russia's invasion.

The UK currently spends around 2.3% of GDP on defence, which is above the 2% target set by Nato and among the highest of member nations.

However, the defence budget has been the source of tension between No 10 and Ministry of Defence, amid calls for more funding for the armed forces, BBC reported.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told reporters in Madrid: "To be fair, No 10 does say 'if you include the extra Ukrainian spend', they have put a sort of caveat to that.

"Because of course it isn't core defence spending. I mean, it is not my core budget, it doesn't buy me any more planes, tanks or ships."

But Mr Wallace added it was "obliquely helping Britain's defence because we're helping Ukraine".