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As many as 32 students have fallen sick after consuming lunch provided by the school in Kakarbhitta, Jhapa on Thursday. Police have arrested Narayan Bista, a canteen owner, in connection to the incident. The meal was prepared by Bista, who runs a canteen for the school. Twenty-six of the sick students were admitted to Mechi Hospital, Bhadrapur, said school teacher Shubhadra Aryal. The ill students suffered from food poisoning, said doctors involved in their treatment. Bista has been arrested for investigations, said Deputy Superintendent of Police Gyan Kumar Mahato. "We have interrogated the canteen owner. The meal was cooked early on Thursday morning and served in the afternoon. The food items became toxic due to increasing temperature. Negligence on the part of the canteen owner is found," he said. The school has been providing free day meals to its students as part of the government's campaign to provide free lunch to students. Drinking water served to students on that day was also contaminated according to complaints, said DSP Mahato. "Complaints have it that worms were found in the water served to the students. We have launched investigations into the matter as well," he said. Acting head teacher of the school, Hari Prasad Neupane said the school would launch investigations into the matter. "We provided free meals to the students. The lunch was leftover food according to complaints. We will investigate," he said. Following this incident, the school has shut down the canteen and samples of food items served by the canteen were sent to the concerned sector for a quality check, said chairperson of the school management committee, Bhawani Kerung. The parents have accused the school administration of negligence on the case. Repeated calls to the school management to check food quality served by the canteen went unheard, they complained.

Kathmandu Metropolitan City Mayor Balen Shah has given continuity to his drive to demolish illegal structures. Shah along with his team reached the Department of Passport in Tripureshwor on Friday. The KMC had issued a 35-day notice to demolish the illegal structures. The Metropolitan City swung into action after its notice was ignored by the people. Earlier on Thursday, the KMC demolished the basement of the Alfa Beta Complex in New Baneshwor. A team led by Mayor Shah demolished the structure saying that it was built against the rule. The Alfa Beta had been operating a pharmacy in the basement. Shah with his team reached the Alfa Beta Complex after the owner ignored the 35-day notice of the KMC. When the team reached the Complex, managing director of Alfa Beta Dwiraj Sharma asked the Mayor Shah to present his building’s blueprint.

Weather across the country is expected to remain partly to generally cloudy throughout the week. Issuing a bulletin, the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology said there is a possibility of light to moderate rainfall at many places of the country in the beginning and mid-week. Similarly, there is a chance of light rainfall at a few places in the country at the end of the week. Heavy rainfall accompanied by thunderstorm and lightning has been predicted at one or two places of hilly areas of province 1, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini and Karnali provinces in the beginning and mid-week. Weather across the nation will remain partly to generally cloudy with the chance of light to moderate rainfall with thunderstorm and lightning at few places of province 1, Gandaki and Lumbini provinces and at one or two places of the remaining provinces today. As per the latest details of Meteorological Forecasting Division, today's minimum temperature of Kathmandu Valley is recorded at 20.9 degree Celsius and maximum temperature at 31.2 degree Celsius.

Police have arrested three persons of the Presidential Immigration Pvt. Ltd for defrauding millions of rupees of people with fake assurances of sending them to the United States with green cards from Nepal. After the Annapurna Post, sister publication of the Annapurna Express, published the news regarding the issue on Thursday, a team of police carried out a raid at the office of the company in Gairidhara and apprehended them. The suspects have been identified as consultancy operator Prabin Rai (35) and deputy director duo Omkar Gupta (46) and Sanjay Tamang (34). Rai, a permanent resident of Silichong Rural Municipality-2, Sankhuwasabha, has been living at Saraswatinagar, Kathmandu while Gupta of Parasi Bazaar, Ramgram Municipality-3, Nawalparasi has been residing at Gothatar and Tamang of Karphok, Suryadoya Municipality-11, Ilam has been living at Basundhara. Krishna Koirala, spokesperson at the Crime Investigation Bureau, said that they will be charged under the Education Act, 2028 and fraud case. He said that police have taken some documents of the consultancy. Though the company has been registered, it has been found that the consultancy has not taken permission from the Educational Counseling Branch of the Ministry of Education. Gupta had said that the consultancy had so far collected around Rs 130 million from around 50 people at the rate of 2.5 million each. Further investigation into the incident is underway, police said.