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World TB Day is being marked across the world today. 

In Nepal, different programs are being organized by the Ministry of Health and Population, and the health care fraternities to raise public awareness against TB.   

As per the National Strategic Plan to End Tuberculosis, Nepal has set a goal to decrease incidence rate from 238 in 2020/21 to 81 patients per 100,000 population by 2025/26; decrease mortality rate from 58 in 2020/21 to 23 per 100,000 by 2020/21; end TB by 2035; prevent TB by 2050; and reduce the catastrophic cost to zero.

This year's World TB Day 2026 is being celebrated under the theme of ‘Yes! We can end TB!’, which is a bold call to action and a message of hope, affirming that it is possible to get back on track and turn the tide on the TB epidemic, even in a challenging global environment, the World Health Organization stated. 

"With decisive country leadership, increased domestic and international investment, rapid uptake of new WHO recommendations and innovations, accelerated action, and strong multisectoral collaboration, ending TB is not just aspirational - it is achievable," it said.

According to the WHO, 83 million lives have been saved since 2000 by treating TB patients, while 10.7 million people fell ill with TB in 2024 and 1.23 million people died of TB in the same year. In Nepal, 67,000 TB patients were confirmed in 2024. 

At least four people died in separate road accidents in Doti, Jhapa and Parbat districts. 

Two youths died in Doti, one in Jhapa and the next one in Parbat.

Subodh Rokaya (22) and Kailash BK (19) of Adharsha Rural Municipality died after a jeep they were travelling in fell off the road in Doti on Monday, Information Officer of District Police Office in Doti Nabraj Dhungel said.

Dhungel said that the jeep (Sudurpaschim Province 01-001 Cha 3923) skidded off the road as the driver lost control over the vehicle. 

The bodies of Rokaya and BK were recovered near Sailikhola, some 900 meters down the road. 

Likewise, biker Sukdev Ganesh (50) died after a van (Pra-1-01-002 B 6411)  hit a motorcycle (BR-11C-3071) at Kachankabal Rural Municipality-4 in Jhapa last night. 

Critically injured Ganesh died while receiving treatment in a health facility in the locality, spokesperson of District Police Office in Jhapa Khagendra Bahadur Khadka said.

Furthermore, the driver of a jeep (Ga 1 Jha 8029) died after the vehicle fell some 30 meters down the road on the bank of the Kaligandaki river along the Kushma-Phalebas section at Madikuwa in Phalebas Municipality-4, Parbat district.   

Police Inspector Dinesh Poudel said that the deceased has been identified as Sajjan Pariyar (35). 

The jeep was carrying urea fertilizer from Kusma bazaar to Phalebas Municipality.

Two pilots died in a runway accident that shut New York's LaGuardia Airport on Monday and U.S. President Donald Trump deployed armed immigration agents to help ease hours-long ​security lines at major airports strained by personnel shortages, although their impact was not immediately clear, Reuters reported. 

The crash between an Air Canada Express (AC.TO), opens new tabjet and a fire truck at LaGuardia injured dozens of passengers and led to hundreds of flight cancellations at the start of the working week in the latest disruption for airports and carriers that have been knocked off-kilter by a weeks-long budget standoff in Congress, according to Reuters. 

Bahrain has put forward a draft United ​Nations Security Council resolution that would authorise countries to use "all necessary means" - diplomatic language for force to protect commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, according to a text seen by Reuters on Monday, Reuters reported. 

Diplomats said the draft text was backed by other Gulf Arab states and the United States, although they said it was unlikely to succeed.

The move underscores mounting concern ​in the region that Iran could continue to threaten the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic chokepoint that carries ​about a fifth of global oil supplies and underpins Gulf economies, according to Reuters. 

Iran denied on Monday that it had engaged in negotiations with the United States, after President Donald Trump postponed a threat to bomb Iran's power grid because of what he described as productive talks with unidentified Iranian officials, Reuters reported. 

A European official said that ​while there had been no direct negotiations between the two nations, Egypt, Pakistan and Gulf states were relaying messages. A Pakistani official and a second source told Reuters that direct talks on ending the war ‌could be held in Islamabad as soon as this week.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that the U.S. and Iran had held "very good and productive" conversations about a "complete and total resolution of hostilities in the Middle East".

Less than 48 hours before the U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone to President Donald Trump about the reasons for launching the kind of complex, far-off warthe American leader once had campaigned against, Reuters reported. 

Both Trump and Netanyahu knew from intelligence briefings earlier in the week that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his key lieutenants would soon meet at his compound in Tehran, ​making them vulnerable to a “decapitation strike” – an attack against a country's top leaders often used by Israelis but traditionally less so by the United States.

But new intelligence suggested that the meeting had been moved forward to Saturday morning from Saturday night, according to three people briefed on the call, according to Reuters. 

A dedicated desk has been brought into operation at the Tribhuvan International Airport for foreign citizens of Nepali origin and non-resident Nepalis arriving to the country.

The TIA Immigration Office has started providing services by setting up a special desk at the arrival and departure halls of the airport. 

According to Narahari Ghimire, Chief Immigration Officer of the TIA Immigration Office, separate desks had been arranged for NRNs  before and now a dedicated desk has been arranged for foreign citizens of Nepali origin. This arrangement has been made with the aim of further strengthening their relationship with the Nepali language, culture and homeland, as well as promoting tourism and investment.

As per the decision of the Department of Immigration on March 21, a separate queue and immigration desk have been arranged for foreign citizens of Nepali origin at the arrival and departure gates of the TIA Immigration Office, a press release issued by the Office today states.

Bangladeshi Ambassador to Nepal Md. Shafiqur Rahman paid a courtesy call on Vice President Ramsahay Prasad Yadav at the latter's office, Lainchaur today. 

Issues of bilateral relations were discussed during the meeting.

On the occasion, Vice President Yadav reminded that the bilateral relations subsisting between Nepal and Bangladesh since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1972 is cordial and friendly.