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The Supreme Court issued an interim order, asking the government not to implement its decision to extend the term of Gandhi Mallikarjun Rao (GMR), an Indian promoter company of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project. The Cabinet had decided to extend GMR's term by two years. A single bench of SC Justice Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada issued the interim order on Thursday against the Cabinet decision of July 15 early this year.  The term of the GMR had expired three years back. The SC questioned why the Cabinet made the decision on extension of the project while it was earlier decided by the Investment Board. The order has stated that special rights was delegated to the case as per the SC Regulations 2074 since the issue was required to be settled in a speedy manner. The Investment Board of Nepal and GMR had signed the project development agreement seven years ago with two years term. Later, the company was given one more year since the project did not advance as agreed in the contract. Likewise, the Board again had given one more year for financial closure for the Indian company. Since then, no process was applied to continue the contract or maintain continuation of the contract. Last time, the government had extended the tenure of the project based on the recommendation made by a taskforce formed under the leadership of National Planning Commission Vice-Chairman Bishownath Poudel. Ratan Bhandari, an advocate of Nepal’s water resources and energy sector, had filed the writ petition at the SC demanding to scrap the government decision to give more time for GMR.

Most of the child care homes in Nepal have been running without a proper implementation of existing laws that ensure safety of children, a research has found. It further states that most children's homes do not have any paperwork on the admitted children, and there is a huge gap when it comes to authorities monitoring these institutions. The research was conducted by Center for Legal Research and Resource Development (CeLRRd), in collaboration with National Child Rights' Council, ECPAT Luxembourg, and Shakti Samuha, and its findings were presented by lead researcher Kapil Aryal at an event in Kathmandu on Nov 2. The research was conducted in several child care homes (CCH) based in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Chitwan, Kavre, Makwanpur, Dhading, Rasuwa, Pokhara, Gorkha, and Surkhet. According to the findings, there are many child care homes (CCH) that do not have proper documentation of where the children came from. Aryal says 10.4 percent of the care homes admitted to not having any filing system of the admitted children. But this data does have its limitations. According to Aryal, the researchers did not have the jurisdiction to ask for proof of documentation with the remaining 89.4 percent of the child care homes. He and his team suspect that a significant number of children's homes are operating without proper documentation. Furthermore, these institutes also lack proper staff to take care of children living there. “In one of the CCH, we had one person who cooked, cleaned, looked after the children, and is also running the institute,” says Aryal, ensuring no proper care for those children. Some of these orphanages were on the same building as a guest house, exposing many children to exploitation and sexual abuse. “They were also reluctant to let us visit,” he says. The findings also show that most of these institutions lack budget security, good food, and good health services. It does raise a question on how the government has been monitoring these institutions. Aryal says that there is a huge gap in communication between local, provincial and federal government which is why people running these institutions have gone unnoticed. “This lack of competence from the government exposes children to trafficking, sexual exploitations and pedophiles,” he adds. Also, the study says that most of these children are brought to the orphanages despite having a guardian, which can be considered as “orphanage trafficking”. One of the reasons being an excuse for asking for additional funding by showing the increasing number of children living in the institutions. Secondly, according to UNICEF’s report, more than 85 percent of child care homes are located in tourist destinations of Nepal. “This is a way of attracting tourist volunteers, when voluntourism is already illegal in Nepal for the ones holding a tourist visa, and additional fundings,” says Aryal, exposing these children to potential pedophiles. One of the conclusions that came out from this presentation is that there is a huge gap that needs to be filled between to child protection and human trafficking. Nepal still does not recognize ‘orphanage trafficking’ as a form of human trafficking but only as human transportation. “Not being able to address this has left many children we encountered vulnerable,” adds Aryal.

As many as 53 people drowned in rivers and other water bodies in various parts of Bihar during the four-day Chhath festivities, said a disaster management official here on Tuesday, Business Standard reported. Expressing grief, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh each for the next of the kin of each deceased, the official said. The CM directed all district magistrates to ensure expeditious payment to the victims' families. According to the official, five people drowned in Purnea district on October 30, while three deaths each were reported from Patna, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur and Saharsa, according to Business Standard. One person each died in Gaya, Begusarai, Katihar, Buxar, Kaimur, Sitamarhi and Banka among other districts. "At least 18 people died in the state on October 31, the last day of the festival. The state disaster management is trying to establish the identity of all deceased at the earliest," added the official.

At least 14 people – including three children – were shot in a drive-by shooting Monday night at a busy corner in Chicago where people had gathered for a vigil, and investigators are trying to find the shooters, police said, CNN reported. Two people traveling in a dark SUV opened fire on Halloween night at people on the corner of California Avenue and Polk Street around 9:30 p.m. before the vehicle was driven away, police said. A 15th person – a woman – suffered scrapes when a vehicle struck her as she tried to flee from the site, police said. A 3-year-old boy, an 11-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy were among those shot, police said. Gunshot victims were being treated at hospitals. Their conditions were described as critical for two, serious for five, good for six, and unknown for one, police said Tuesday morning. The vigil was unrelated to the shooting, police said in a news release without giving further details on a motive. People not involved in the vigil may have been at the corner at the time, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said in a news conference, according to CNN. “There may have also been others gathered for other various reasons,” he said. “It’s a very, you know, common corner where people congregate and have different meetings and gatherings.” More than 500 mass shootings have happened in the United States so far this year, according to the non-profit Gun Violence Archive. The count was at 574 as of Tuesday, an average of more than 1.8 mass shootings every day, says the group, which like CNN defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter. Also Monday night, a teenager was killed and six others were injured in a shooting at a Halloween party in a home in Kansas City, Kansas, police said. As many as 100 teenagers were at the home when the gunfire erupted, CNN reported.