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Three persons died and two other sustained injuries when a storm hit Chitwan district on Friday evening.

According to the District Police Office, Chitwan, three persons lost their lives when the trees fell on the rickshaws they were travelling in in two different places of the district.

Pradeep Kumar Lama (50) of Lama Tole, Bharatpur-11 and Maya Gurung (28) of Kataharchok, Bharatpur-7 died when a tree fell on a rickshaw (Na 2 Kha 2247) heading towards Bharatpur from Padampur, police said.

Abita Gurung (20) and Tul Maya Gurung (50), who were traveling in the same rickshaw, were injured in the incident.

They are receiving treatment at the Purano Medical College in Bharatpur.

Similarly, another person died when a tree fell on another vehicle (Na 1 Ja 6140) at Basenichok in Bharatpur-11, police said.

Police identified the deceased as Loknath Neupane (48) of Bharatpur-11.

The government has formed a probe committee to investigate the incident of a girl who was sexually abused eight years while taking part in a beauty pageant.

The Nepal Police headquarters on Friday formed a five-member probe committee at the direction of Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand to look into the incident.

The committee was formed under the leadership of senior SP Basant Kunwar. 

SP Krishna Koirala, DSP Kopila Chudal, DSP Hari Basnet and Inspector Sapana Khadka are the members of the committee.

The committee has started the work from today itself.

Saying that his serious attention has been drawn towards the videos where the victim had told the horrifying story of being sexually exploited, the Home Minister directed the police to investigate the videos and take necessary action against the perpetrators.

Earlier this morning, youths staged a demonstration outside the residence of the Prime Minister in Baluwatar to express solidarity with the victim and to demand action against the culprits.

They had demanded that a time limit on filing complaints on rape cases be removed.

Earlier on Wednesday, the girl came out with a series of videos on TikTok claiming that she was drugged and raped in 2014 when she was16-year-old.

Nepal reported 11 new Covid-19 cases on Friday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 2, 300 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 11 returned positive. Likewise, 574 people underwent antigen tests, of which no one were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 12 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 149 active cases in the country.

Sri Lanka' s prime minister has warned of a food shortage as the island nation battles a devastating economic crisis and vowed the government will buy enough fertiliser for the next planting season to boost harvests, The Times of India reported.

A decision in April last year by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to ban all chemical fertilisers drastically cut crop yields and although the government has reversed the ban, no substantial imports have yet taken place.

"While there may not be time to obtain fertiliser for this Yala (May-August) season, steps are being taken to ensure adequate stocks for the Maha (September-March) season," Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a message on Twitter late on Thursday.

"I sincerely urge everyone to accept the gravity of the ... situation."

Rajapaksa appointed nine new members to the cabinet on Friday, including to the critical health, trade and tourism ministries. But he did not name a finance minister and the portfolio is likely to be retained by Wickremesinghe.

Tourism-dependent Sri Lanka is facing a dire shortage of foreign exchange, fuel and medicines, and economic activity has slowed to a crawl, according to The Times of India.

"There is no point in talking about how hard life is," said APD Sumanavathi, a 60-year-old woman selling fruit and vegetables in the Pettah market in Colombo, the commercial capital. "I can't predict how things will be in two months, at this rate we might not even be here."

Nearby, a long queue had formed in front of a shop selling cooking gas cylinders, the prices of which have soared to nearly 5,000 rupees ($14) from 2,675 rupees in April.

"Only about 200 cylinders were delivered, even though there were about 500 people," said Mohammad Shazly, a part-time chauffeur in the queue for the third day in the hope of cooking for his family of five.

"Without gas, without kerosene oil, we can't do anything," he said. "Last option what? Without food we are going to die. That will happen hundred percent."

The central bank governor said on Thursday foreign exchange had been secured from a World Bank loan and remittances to pay for fuel and cooking gas shipments, but supplies are still to flow through, The Times of India reported.

Inflation could rise to a staggering 40% in the next couple of months but it was being driven largely by supply-side pressures and measures by the bank and government were already reining in demand-side inflation, the governor said.

Inflation hit 29.8% in April with food prices up 46.6% year-on-year.