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The District Police Office, Udayapur has made public two persons arrested for murdering Kabita Sunuwar (15) of Belka Municipality-3, Buddhachowk on Wednesday.

Kavita’s dead body was found near a local Jasoda rivulet on Tuesday morning. 

Police made public Sarita Dhakal Khatry (17) of Belka-3 and her elder uncle’s son Binod Dhakal (19), a resident of Sikkim Paiyu of India and are currently living in Belka, as the murderers of the adolescent girl. 

Kabita, a 10th grader of Koshi Janata Secondary School, was murdered while she was on the way to school for SEE tuition classes. Her dead body was found almost two kilometres away from the home. 

In course of an immediate investigation into the murder incident, police had arrested Sarita and Binod, informed District Police Office chief Subas Bohora. 

According to the police, both Kabita and Sarita were 10th graders in the same Koshi School. They had some personal disputes and to take revenge Sairita had used his brother to plot the murder of Kavita, police said. 

According to the investigation’s preliminary findings, Sarita had sent a mobile text to Kavita on Tuesday morning for early tuition classes. “Sarita also took his brother Binod to the forest which is their route to go to school. When Sarita and Kabita met on the way, Binod had attacked Kabita on her head from the back with a beer bottle. She had fallen unconscious after the assault and then after Sarita and Binod beat her with stones to death”, the police investigation revealed. 

Police have made necessary preparation to file a murder case against Binod and Sarita, police said. RSS

India's first case of the XE variant of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) was reported from Mumbai on Wednesday, Hindustan Times reported.

Results of the 11th genome sequencing declared by the city civic body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC,)  found one sample positive for XE variant and another for Kappa variant.

The individual who tested positive for the XE variant was a fully vaccinated 50-year-old women with no comorbidity and asymptomatic, BMC officials said. She had come from South Africa on February 10 and had no prior travel history. On arrival, she had tested negative for the virus.

The woman, a costume designer, had been inoculated against the virus with two doses the Comirnaty vaccine.

On March 2, in a routine test at Suburban diagnostics, she was found infected and was quarantined in a room in Taj Lands End. Officials said another test was done on the next day by Spice Health, where she tested negative, according to Hindustan Times.

The BMC had tested 230 samples which 99.13 per cent or 228 samples tested positive for the Omicron strain that had driven the spread of the virus earlier this year across the country. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) had earlier said the new subvariant – ‘XE’ – a hybrid strain of two Omicron sub variants, could be the most transmissible coronavirus strain so far. 

According to the global health body, early studies indicated the variant had a growth rate advantage of 10 per cent as compared to BA.2, one of the very contagious variants.

A study in UK, which is facing a fresh wave of infections, suggested that while there were signs of “community transmission” of XE in England, it remained less than one per cent of the totally sequenced coronavirus cases.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) was studying XE — a mutation of the BA.1 and BA.2 Omicron strains — and as of March 22, 637 XE cases had been detected in England, according to official figures, Hindustan Times reported.

Professor Susan Hopkins, the UKHSA's chief medical advisor, said such variants were known as “recombinant” and usually died off "relatively quickly".

A two-year-old child died after being hit by a car in Lubu, Lalitpur on Wednesday.

The deceased has been identified as Aryan Puri of Ramechhap currently residing in Lubu.

The car (Ba 16 Cha 3687) hit Puri at around 5 pm yesterday, police said.

Critically injured in the incident, he breathed his during the course of treatment at the Imadole-based Kist Medical College.

Police said that they have impounded the four-wheeler and arrested its driver for investigation.

India has decided to allow Nepal to sell an additional 325 MW of electricity in the competing Indian market.

During a press conference organized at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation on Wednesday, Minister Pampha Bhusal said that India has given permission to sell 325 MW of electricity to its market.

Earlier, India had given permission to sell 39 MW of electricity while Nepal had been urging India to buy additional electricity.

During his visit to India, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi had held a discussion on the buying and selling of electricity.

Following the discussion, the India’s Energy Ministry gave a permission to sell electricity to the Indian market from the Nepal Electricity Authority.

Nepal has been buying electricity from India at present.