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A bystander’s decision to shoot a man who opened fire at an Indiana mall was a rare occurrence of someone stepping in to try to prevent multiple casualties before police could arrive, Associated Press reported.

Police on Monday praised the quick actions of 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken, an armed shopper who killed 20-year-old Jonathan Sapirman after Sapirman killed three people and wounded two others at a mall in the Indianapolis suburb of Greenwood.

“Many more people would have died last night if not for a responsible armed citizen,” police Chief Jim Ison said Monday, repeatedly calling Dicken a “good Samaritan” and his response “heroic.”

It isn’t common for mass shootings to be stopped in such fashion. From 2000 to 2021, fewer than 3% of 433 active attacks in the U.S. ended with a civilian firing back, according to the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University. The researchers define the attacks as one or more people targeting multiple people.

It was far more common for police or bystanders to subdue the attacker or for police to kill the person, according to the center’s national data, which were recently cited by The New York Times.

In a quarter of the shootings, the attacker stopped by leaving the area, similar to what happened during the July 4 parade in Highland Park, Illinois, where seven people were killed, according to Associated Press.

“There’s been this statement: ‘The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.’ That’s factually inaccurate because of the word ‘only,’” said Adam Lankford, a criminal justice expert at the University of Alabama who has written books and research papers about mass shootings.

Nonetheless, gun-rights advocates, including the National Rifle Association, used that phrase on social media to draw attention to what happened in Indiana. 

Since July 1, Indiana has allowed anyone 18 or older to carry a handgun in public, though private property owners can prohibit firearms. The Greenwood mall has a ban on weapons, according to its conduct code.

Gun Owners of America hopes the mall reconsiders, saying gun-free zones create a false sense of security.

The Greenwood Park Mall, which is owned by Simon Property Group, didn’t reply to a request for comment but released a statement commending first responders and the “heroic actions of the good Samaritan who stopped the suspect.”

Lankford believes it would be a mistake to think armed civilians can be relied upon to regularly stop mass shootings.

“While it’s certainly a good thing in this mall shooting that someone was able to stop it before it went any further, let’s not think we can substitute that outcome in all past and future incidents,” Lankford said. “If everyone’s carrying a firearm, the risk that something bad happens just gets much larger.”

There have been other examples of armed people defending large groups. In May, a woman fatally shot a man in Charleston, West Virginia, after he fired an AR-15-style rifle into a crowd at an outdoor party. She was praised by police, not charged.

In 2017, Devin Patrick Kelley crashed his car and killed himself after bystanders, including one who was armed, chased him after he massacred 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Associated Press reported.

The Media Action Nepal said that only 0.30 percent of the news stories published in Nepali media had bylines of female journalists.

Out of 21,919 news items published in 20 media outlets, only 76 had bylines of female journalists, read a report published by the Media Action Nepal on Monday.

Aimed at measuring the level of gender sensitivity and determining how much and what kind of news content about women and people with different sexual orientations are published in Nepali media, the Media Action Nepal assessed a total of 23,515 media contents published by a total of 20 media outlets.

Out of the total number of media materials published in those media over the period of two months, only 388 or 1.67 percent news stories are about women and people belonging to different sexual orientations.

Of those 388 about women and people with different sexual orientations, 386 are on women’s issues and only two about sexual minorities.

The reported stated that Nepali media give less priority to issues of women and people with different sexual orientations.

Sri Lanka is in the midst of a deep and unprecedented economic crisis that has sparked huge protests and seen its president quit after fleeing the country - but other countries could be at risk of similar troubles, according to the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), BBC reported.

"Countries with high debt levels and limited policy space will face additional strains. Look no further than Sri Lanka as a warning sign," said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Saturday.

She said developing nations had also been experiencing sustained capital outflows for four months in a row, putting their dreams of catching up with advanced economies at risk.

Sri Lanka is struggling to pay for crucial imports like food, fuel and medicine for its 22 million people as it battles a foreign exchange crisis. Inflation has soared about 50%, with food prices 80% higher than a year ago. The Sri Lankan rupee has slumped in value against the US dollar and other major global currencies this year.

Many blame ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for mishandling the economy with disastrous policies whose impact was only exacerbated by the pandemic. 

Over the years, Sri Lanka had built up a huge amount of debt - last month, it became the first country in the Asia Pacific region in 20 years to default on foreign debt.

Officials had been negotiating with the IMF for a $3bn (£2.5bn) bailout. But those talks are currently stalled amid the political chaos.

But the same global headwinds - rising inflation and interest rate hikes, depreciating currencies, high levels of debt and dwindling foreign currency reserves - also affect other economies in the region, according to BBC.

China has been a dominant lender to several of these developing nations and therefore could control their destinies in crucial ways. But it's largely unclear what Beijing's lending conditions have been, or how it may restructure the debt.

Where China is at fault, according to Alan Keenan from International Crisis Group, is in encouraging and supporting expensive infrastructure projects that have not produced major economic returns. 

"Equally important has been their active political support for the ruling Rajapaksa family and its policies... These political failures are at the heart of Sri Lanka's economic collapse, and until they are remedied through constitutional change and a more democratic political culture, Sri Lanka is unlikely to escape its current nightmare."

Worryingly, other countries appear to be on a similar trajectory, BBC reported.

The ruling Nepali Congress has decided to give full shape to its sister organizations till mid-August.

Making public the party’s decisions on Monday, spokesperson Prakash Saran Mahat said that the meeting has decided to give continuity to the coalition till the forthcoming parliamentary and provincial elections.

The party endorsed the report of Local Level Election Central Mobilization Committee presented by party Vice-President and Coordinator of the Local Level Election Central Mobilization Committee Purna Bahadur Khadka and the report of Local Level Election Central Publicity Committee presented by party spokesperson and Coordinator of the Local Level Election Central Publicity Committee Mahat in the Central Executive Committee meeting.

The party has also decided to form the Membership Management Central Committee. Party General Secretary Gagan Thapa will be the coordinator of the committee.

Similarly, the party has formed the Central Disciplinary Committee under the headship of central member Ananta Prasad Dhungana.

Likewise, the party has decided to form the Central Accounts Committee under the leadership of central member Shyam Kumar Ghimire.

Ghana has confirmed its first two cases of the deadly Marburg virus, a highly infectious disease in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola, BBC reported.

It says both patients died recently in hospital in the southern Ashanti region.

Their samples came back positive earlier this month and have now been verified by a laboratory in Senegal.

Health officials in the West African nation say 98 people are now under quarantine as suspected contact cases.

No treatment yet exists for Marburg – but doctors say drinking plenty of water and treating specific symptoms improves a patient’s chances of survival.

The virus is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads between humans through the transmission of bodily fluids.

It is a severe, often fatal illness with symptoms including headache, fever, muscle pains, vomiting blood and bleeding, according to BBC.

Officials are warning people to keep away from caves and to thoroughly cook all meat products before consuming them.

In Africa, previous outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, the WHO says. The first ever Marburg outbreak was in Germany in 1967 where seven people died.

The virus killed more than 200 people in Angola in 2005, the deadliest outbreak on record according to the global health body, BBC reported.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 18. 03 points to close at 2,029.43 points on Monday.

Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 2. 83 points to close at 388. 76 points.

Meanwhile, a total of 3,142,402 unit shares of 211 companies were traded for Rs 1. 31 billion.

In today’s market, all sub-indices saw green except for Trading and Mutual Fund.

Meanwhile, Barun Hydropower Co. Limited was the top gainer today, with its price surging by 9. 98 percent. Sanima Large Cap Fund was the top loser as its price fell by 5. 90 percent.

At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 89 trillion.

Nepal logged 457 new Covid-19 cases and one death on Monday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 2, 341 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 386 returned positive. Likewise, 2, 310 people underwent antigen tests, of which 71 tested positive.

So far, 11, 953 people have lost their lives due to Covid-19 in Nepal.

The Ministry said that 48 infected people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours.

As of today, there are 1, 776 active cases in the country, the Ministry said.

The Ministry said that 15 are in the intensive care unit while one is on a ventilator.

Additional Inspector General (AIG) Bishwa Raj Pokharel resigned on Monday after he lost a legal battle for the top post of Nepal Police.

He handed over this resignation letter to the Nepal Police headquarters this afternoon.

Earlier on May 2, Pokharel had filed a writ petition against the appointment of Inspector General of Nepal Police.

In the petition, he said that the government appointed Dhiraj Pratap Singh as the IG of Nepal Police flouting the seniority basis.

Pokharel went on leave after the government appointed Singh as the IG of Nepal Police.

Earlier on July 15, a joint bench of acting Chief Justice Deepak Kumar Karki and Justice Kumar Chudal quashed the petition filed by Pokharel, giving validation to the appointment of Singh.