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Nepal logged 6,827 new Covid-19 cases and 10 deaths on Friday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 13,791 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 4,807 returned positive. Likewise, 6,078 people underwent antigen tests, of which 2,020 tested positive.

With this, the country's active caseload reached 1,068,932. Similarly, death toll climbed to 11,697.

According to the Ministry, 5,435 infected people recovered from the disease.

There are 89,941 active cases in the country. Among them, 88,084 are in home isolation, 1,857 are in institutionalized isolation.

As many as 256 are in intensive care units and 45 on ventilators.

Meanwhile, the Kathmandu Valley recorded 2,940 new cases.

Of them, Kathmandu reported 2,153 cases and Lalitpur and Bhaktapur recorded 519 and 268 cases respectively.

Tropical Storm Ana has killed at least 86 people across southern and eastern Africa, with recovery operations still ongoing as another storm threatened more severe weather.

Storm Ana passed over Madagascar on Jan. 22, adding to days of already intense rainfall. The country declared a state of disaster on Thursday night, reporting a rise in the death toll from Ana to 48, with people killed by landslides and collapsing buildings or washed away.

Ana then made landfall in Mozambique on Jan. 24, where 18 have been reported dead, before moving inland to Malawi, where it triggered massive power cuts. Malawi's death toll rose to 20 on Thursday.

Across all three nations, Ana has affected hundreds of thousands of people and lead to widespread flooding and destruction, according to the United Nations.

"This latest storm...is a blunt reminder that the climate crisis is very much a reality," said Maria Luisa Fornara, UNICEF Representative in Mozambique.

The region has been repeatedly struck by severe storms and cyclones in recent years, destroying homes, infrastructure and crops and displacing large numbers of people.

In some cases, communities still recovering are hit again, compounding the impacts. Experts say storms are becoming stronger and more frequent as waters warm due to climate change, with rising sea levels also making low-lying coastal areas vulnerable.

Another storm, dubbed Batsirai, is now travelling towards Africa's east coast.

Meteo France on Friday described Batsirai as a small system that presented no immediate threat to a group of islands to the east of Madagascar, including the French territory of Reunion, because it was still days away.

However, it said the evolution of Batsirai's intensity and trajectory remained uncertain. Mozambique's National Institute of Meteorology warned Batsirai still had the potential to evolve into a severe tropical storm.

Light rainfall and snowfall have been predicted in a few parts of the country today due to the influence of the westerly low-pressure system.

The weather will remain partly to generally cloudy in the majority of the places across the country, said the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology.

Due to the influence of the westerly low-pressure system, the weather will remain partly to generally cloudy in Province No 1, Bagmati Province and Gandaki Province while light rainfall is likely in a couple of places in hilly areas.

Few places in high hilly areas could witness light snowfall, the Department informed.

Currently, the hilly region has cloudy conditions while few parts of the Terai region have remained foggy and misty. The weather will likely remain partly cloudy in hilly areas by tonight while remaining places will have clear weather.

Similarly, Province No 1, Bagmati Province and Gandaki Province’s hilly places will be partly cloudy on Saturday while weather is likely to be clear in other parts of the country on that day, the Department shared.

The Department recorded 4.0 degrees Celsius to be the minimum temperature of Kathmandu Valley while 14.0 is the highest today.

Jumla district recorded the minimum temperature at -5.0 degrees Celsius while Dipayal in Doti district had the maximum temperature at 19.8 degrees Celsius. RSS

A customer was beaten up at the Citizens Bank outlet in Gaushala, Mahottari. On January 25, Sanjay Mahato of Gaushala Municipality-12 had gone to the bank to open an account for his nephew. There, he was manhandled by bank security guards.

Eyewitness Raj Kumar Mahato says, “There was no crowd at the bank, and yet the staff were not working. When he [Sanjay Mahato] inquired about the delay, the guards in attendance started shoving him.”

Sanjay says he had visited the bank for the same purpose many times. He thought of inquiring only when he felt he would be turned back empty-handed that day as well.

Ram Chandra Singh Kushwaha, a security guard at the bank, clarified that the dispute ensued when Mahato entered a ‘no entry’ zone. “The officers asked me to remove him from bank premises. Mahato refused to go, resulting in a scuffle,” he adds.

According to the Police Office of Gaushala, the dispute was a minor one and was quickly resolved in a mutual agreement.