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Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Badri Prasad Pandey pointed out the need of exploring safe alternative route to scale the world's highest peak, Sagarmatha, with a conclusion that the existing route to the summit was getting riskier.

The discussion held in the Ministry on Friday drew a conclusion to explore alternatives to the existing traditional route from Khumbu Icefall to Camp 1 since as it is quite complex and riskier for the climbers.

"Sagarmatha is the symbol of our national pride. Every year, thousands of foreigners and Nepali climbers come here to scale the summit. We should open up for secured, environment-friendly and sustainable solutions for their life saving", Minister Pandey noted in the discussion.

Also on the occasion, famous French mountaineer Mark Mari Batart and Nepali climber Sping Kaji Sherpa had presented comprehensive information about research, survey and photographic documents about the alternative route to highest peak.

Batart and Sherpa have been active in the campaign for exploring new route to the summit since 2018 AD.

The Sudurpaschim Province government has called on all the District Administration Offices and local levels within the Province to conduct massive public awareness campaign against the ill social and traditional practices including Chhaupadhi.

In Chhaupadhi practice, menstruating women and girls are confined to the Chhaugoth, an outdoor shed due to superstitious belief that if women and girls stay with their family members during menstrual time (four days), it would irate their family deities.

Against such social ill, the meeting of Office of Chief Minister and Council of Ministers convened in Dhangadi today directed all the concerned authorities within the province to run a social awareness campaign against the Chhaupadhi.

The decision was made considering the severity of a recent incident that a 28-year-old woman from Nigali at Krishnapur municipality-1 in Kanchanpur district died after snakebite while staying in a Chhaugoth during her menstruation last Saturday.

The provincial government expressed its commitment to taking forward the abolishment of Chhaugoth and regulating discriminatory practices as untouchability, which are social blights.

Furthermore, it has been decided that the provincial, district level and local level committees will hold regular meetings and monitor their respective areas for effective implementation of the legislation introduced by the government to eliminate Chhaupadi.

It is worth reminding that the government of Nepal had criminalized the Chhaupadhi practice early in 2017 by introducing a law. Nevertheless, the continuity of such ill practice continues to take a toll on women and girls.

The province government has decided to amplify its activism such as sensitizing people against Chhaupadhi practice, dismantling the Chhaugoth and ensuring effective implementation of legislation against Chhaupadhi among others.

Towards this, today's meeting also decided to devise an annual action-plans targeting schools, community and religious organizations within the province through the Ministry of Social Development to run awareness drive against all ill-practices and caste-based discrimination.

Earlier, the District Administration Office, Kanchanpur, had called for an urgent action to demolish all Chhaugoths in all nine local levels within the district while Krishnapur municipality, one among the 9 local levels, also recently issued similar directives, mandating the pulling down of the Chhaugoths within the municipality within 15 days.

At least 34 people have died and several are still missing after a tourist boat capsized in Vietnam during bad weather, BBC reported.

The incident took place in Ha Long Bay, a popular tourist destination in the north of the country.

Most of the passengers were reportedly Vietnamese families visiting from the capital Hanoi.

Heavy rain has been hindering the search for survivors, rescuers say, but so far 11 people have been pulled from the water alive, according to BBC.

The UK Ministry of Defence has said it will not compensate thousands of Afghans whose personal details were leaked in 2022 but who were not evacuated. Over 19,000 names were exposed, sparking fears of Taliban retribution, according to BBC.

An independent review found it unlikely that being on the leaked list alone would make someone a target. Defence Secretary John Healey has since lifted a super-injunction that had kept the breach confidential.

Law firm Barings Law is preparing legal action on behalf of over 1,000 affected Afghans. One former UK military worker, now in Britain, said his family—still in Afghanistan—remains in hiding and urged the government to prioritise their relocation.

More than 16,000 people were deemed at risk from the leak. The UK has spent £400m on Afghan resettlement so far, with total costs expected to rise to £6bn, BBC reported.