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Two persons died when a tipper hit a motorbike they were riding on at Adarsha Chok in Suryabinayak Municipality, Bhaktapur on Wednesday.

The identities of the deceased are yet to be established.

Critically injured in the incident, they breathed their last during the course of treatment at the Bhaktapur Hospital at around 3 am today, police said.

The tipper (Ba 4 Kha 5298) heading towards Jagadi hit the motorbike (Ba 89 Pa 7876) coming from the opposite direction last night.

Police said that they have impounded the tipper and arrested its driver for investigation.

A powerful earthquake struck a rugged, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, flattening stone and mud-brick homes and killing at least 1,000 people, Associated Press reported.

The disaster posed a new test for Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers and relief agencies already struggling with the country’s multiple humanitarian crises.

The quake was Afghanistan’s deadliest in two decades, and officials said the toll could rise. An estimated 1,500 others were reported injured, the state-run news agency said. 

The disaster inflicted by the 6.1-magnitude quake heaps more misery on a country where millions face increasing hunger and povertyand the health system has been crumbling since the Taliban retook power nearly 10 months ago amid the U.S. and NATO withdrawal. The takeover led to a cutoff of vital international financing, and most of the world has shunned the Taliban government. 

In a rare move, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzadah, who almost never appears in public, pleaded with the international community and humanitarian organizations “to help the Afghan people affected by this great tragedy and to spare no effort.”

Residents in the remote area near the Pakistani border searched for victims dead or alive by digging with their bare hands through the rubble, according to footage shown by the Bakhtar news agency. It was not immediately clear if heavy rescue equipment was being sent, or if it could even reach the area.

At least 2,000 homes were destroyed in the region, where on average every household has seven or eight people living in it, said Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN deputy special representative to Afghanistan, according to Associated Press.

The full extent of the destruction among the villages tucked in the mountains was slow in coming to light. The roads, which are rutted and difficult to travel in the best of circumstances, may have been badly damaged, and landslides from recent rains made access even more difficult. 

Rescuers rushed in by helicopter, but the relief effort could be hindered by the exodus of many international aid agencies from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover last August. Moreover, most governments are wary of dealing directly with the Taliban.

In a sign of the muddled workings between the Taliban and the rest of the world, Alakbarov said the Taliban had not formally requested that the UN mobilize international search-and-rescue teams or obtain equipment from neighboring countries to supplement the few dozen ambulances and several helicopters sent in by Afghan authorities. Still, officials from multiple UN agencies said the Taliban were giving them full access to the area.

The quake was centered in Paktika province, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of the city of Khost, according to neighboring Pakistan’s Meteorological Department. Experts put its depth at just 10 kilometers (6 miles). Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage, Associated Press reported.

Nepal reported 31 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 557 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 28 returned positive. Likewise, 850 people underwent antigen tests, of which three were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 10 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 142  active cases in the country.

Nepal-India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NICCI) welcomed the start of “Bharat Gaurav Tourist Train” connecting Safdarjung, New Delhi along with other religious sites related to Ramayan circuit of India to Janakpur Dham, Nepal.

For the promotion of Nepal-India religious tourism with different religious pilgrimage circuits, NICCI had proposed the agenda for the development of religious circuits connecting both the countries during the Joint Working Group meeting for the promotion of Bilateral Tourism held in Kathmandu on 8th July 2018, read a statement issued by the Nepal-India Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The agenda was endorsed by both the delegation of Nepal and India during the JWG meeting and now NICCI has been working on the final stage of development of Coffee Table Book and website including 5 Religious circuits namely; Shiva-shakti Circuit, Mahabharat Circuit, Ramayan Circuit, Buddhist Circuit and Sikh Circuit.

Flagged off on Tuesday, “Bharat Gaurav Tourist Train” initiation of Indian Railways and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTA) has the capacity of 600 religious’/pilgrimage tourist to carry from Safdarjung, New Delhi along with different Ramayan circuit sites in India to Jahakpur Dham, Nepal.

It will help promote bilateral religious tourism as well as strengthen the sentiments of the people of both the countries.