Submit your Article

Kankai Municipality in Jhapa district has banned the sale and consumption of tobacco products effective from tomorrow (July 17).

The municipality has formulated an act and the town assembly meeting took a decision in this regard, said the municipality mayor Rajendra Kumar Pokharel.

“The sale and consumption of tobacco products have been banned in view of health and environmental risks. This will come into effect from tomorrow. I urge all to implement the municipality’s decision,” said the mayor.

This is as part of the municipality’s campaign to make Kankai clean, beautiful, managed, and developed local level, he added.
Violation of the directive and selling tobacco products is subject to a punishment of Rs 50,000 in fine, said the municipality chief administrative officer Mohan Prasad Neupane.

In the case of the consumption of tobacco products in public places, Rs 5,000 is fined.

Sixty-four households at Odak of Maiwakhola Rural Municipality-4 in Taplejung are to be evacuated to safety. 

The settlement has been facing a constant risk of floods and landslides for two weeks due to monsoon rains.

The local disaster management committee meeting on Saturday agreed to build temporary shelters at ward 3 promptly to shift the vulnerable households, according to Rural Municipality Chair Bijay Prakash Wanem. 

The hut construction project will commence on July 23.

The evacuation works will take place under coordination of various local agencies.

People of Odak have suffered the most in the entire rural municipality from monsoon-related consequences.

Bridges along the local rivers and rivulets have been swept away by floods and ground cracking is common at various places.

Law enforcement is searching for a man accused of fatally shooting four people in Hampton, Georgia, Saturday morning, according to authorities, CNN reported.

The Henry County Sheriff’s Office identified the suspect as 40-year-old Andre Longmore. Authorities believe the suspect is driving a 2017 black GMC Acadia with license plates DHF 756, which is not his own vehicle.

The first call about the shooting came in around 10:45 a.m. ET, Hampton police Chief James Turner said at a Saturday afternoon news conference.

The incident happened in an area close to the Dogwood Lakes subdivision in Hampton – about 29 miles south of Atlanta – an area that features lake-front homes and a nearby baptist church.

 Turner said the victims were all adults, three men and one woman. He added authorities were not releasing the names of the victims to allow the families to be notified.

Since the shooting, “all hands have been on deck,” Turner said.

 Henry County Sheriff Reginald Scandrett said an arrest warrant has been issued for Longmore on murder charges, according to CNN.

Addressing the suspect, he said, “We will hunt you down in any hole you may be residing in and bring you to custody.”

He added the sheriff’s office is offering a $10,000 reward for any information leading to Longmore’s arrest. “The suspect is known to be armed and dangerous,” Scandrett said.

The sheriff’s office is working with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation as well as police departments across the Atlanta metro area to track down the suspect, according to Scandrett.

Turner said investigators “do not have a motive at this time” for the killings. There are at least “four crime scenes that we’re actively investigating,” he said. He added that police do not believe Longmore is related to the victims but authorities are “still investigating.”

 At the news conference, Hampton Mayor Ann Tarpley said “today is a sad and somber occasion” and vowed the person responsible would be held responsible and “brought to justice.”

“We ask that you lift up the families and the victims in your prayers, your thoughts, and that you give them the privacy that they may need to overcome this horrific tragedy,” she went on. “We have full confidence in our law enforcement that they will perform their duties and bring the suspect to justice.”

Officials advised the public to avoid the area near the incident, CNN reported.

The shooting is one of at least 382 mass shootings in the United States in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The archive, like CNN, defines a mass shooting as one that injured or killed four or more people, not including the shooter.

The train service in operation from Jayanagar in India to Janakpurdham, Nepal is going to be expanded to Bhangaha Bijalpura in Mahottari.

Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Prakash Jwala will launch the extension service today.

The train service currently being provided in a 35 km stretch from Jayanagar to Janakpurdham and Kurtha will increase to 52 km. After being halted for a long time, the train service has been operating regularly for the past 15 months.

After the completion of the second phase of physical infrastructure expansion, the train service is going to be extended to Bijalpura, said the Railways General Manager Niranjan Jha.

However, due to the dispute over land compensation, the construction of the third phase railway infrastructure from Bijalpura to Bardibas has been stopped.

The broad gauge two-set train was put into operation from April 2, 2022.