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Two more persons were tested positive for cholera in Kathmandu Valley.

With the confirmation of the two new cases, the number of people infected with the highly contagious fatal disease has reached 23. 

According to Dr Chumanlal Das, Director at the  Epidemiology and Disease Control Division, cholera has been confirmed in two more persons on Wednesday night.

Dr Das said that a 12-year-old boy of Manohara Municipality-2 and a 58-year-old man of Kathmandu-13 were tested positive for cholera.

He said that the boy is undergoing treatment at  a local hospital in Kageshwori Manohara and the man is receiving treatment at the Teku Hospital.

Earlier on July 5, two persons were tested positive for cholera.

A Dalit woman member of Rawabesi Rural Municipality-3, Khotang was found hanging on Thursday.

Menuja Bishwokarma (30) of Lamidanda, who was elected as a Dalit member of the ward from the Nepali Congress in the local level elections held of May 13, was found dead this morning.

Rural Municipality Chairman Phatik Kumar Shrestha said that Shrestha was found hanging at her parental home.

Her husband Dhupendra Bishwokarma is in Dubai for foreign employment.

The body has been taken to the District Hospital for postmortem.

DSP Umesh Lamsal of the District Police Office said that they are investigating the case.

A group of 60 women from various walks of life will trek to Shey Phoksundo Lake in Dolpa with an objective to draw attention of the concerned authorities to the impact of climate change on the lives of women and tourism.

Women leaders of various sectors including people's representatives of all the seven provinces will take part in the trek.

During a program organized on Wednesday, the Sathsathai foundation said it is organizing the trek to Phosundo Lake in October this year with an aim to encourage women from all around the world to stand together for climate change.

Earlier in March, the foundation had organised a trek to Kala patthar on the occasion of Women's Day. As many as 40 women from different walks of life took part in the trek.

Minister for Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation Jeevan Ram Shrestha also took part in the program.

He said that the government of Nepal would also give priority to this program where women from various sectors would participate.

Saying that trekking and mountaineering are the main basis of tourism in Nepal, special guest and Supreme Court Justice Sapana Pradhan Malla said that the government and the people should take initiatives to promote them.

On the occasion, Foundation Chairperson Prajeeta Karki said that the main objective of the program is to highlight adverse effects of climate change on the mountain region and tourism.

A man accused of opening fire on a Fourth of July parade near Chicago contemplated a second attack after the deadly shooting, authorities say, BBC reported.

According to police, the 21-year-old suspect drove for more than two hours to Wisconsin after the shooting, which left seven dead and dozens wounded. 

He saw another Independence Day celebration there and allegedly considered attacking it, police said.

During a court hearing, prosecutors also said he confessed to the shooting. 

At Wednesday's court appearance, a judge ruled that the suspect, Robert Crimo, would be held without bail and assigned a public lawyer.

At a news conference following the hearing, police said investigators had determined that Mr Crimo attempted to dump his phone in Madison, Wisconsin after the Monday morning attack in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park.

Police said the gunman told them he had disguised himself as a woman so he could escape Highland Park alongside fleeing residents.

In the brief hearing, Assistant State Attorney Ben Dillon said surveillance video showed the suspect leaving the area and dumping a rifle. He then took his mother's car and drove about 150 miles (240 km) north-west to Madison.

Madison's police chief said in a news conference that the FBI called around 17:00 local time (22:00 GMT) on Monday to request that the force mobilise its SWAT team due to the suspect being in their area, according to BBC.

But before the tactical team was ready, the police learned that the suspect had been caught.

According to Mr Dillon, the gunman then confessed after being caught, telling police he "looked down his sights, aimed, then opened fire at people across the street".

If convicted, the seven murder counts the suspected gunman currently faces would carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. Dozens more charges are expected before the investigation ends.

Prosecutors said on Wednesday that 83 spent shell casings, as well as rifle magazines, were recovered from the scene of the shooting. 

The new information comes as questions are being raised over how the suspect was able to buy guns. 

He passed background checks meant to prevent potentially dangerous individuals from buying weapons, even though he had previously made threats that were reported to authorities, BBC reported.

Three other firearms were also found at his home. Police said the suspect had two prior contacts with law enforcement but was still able to purchase five guns in the past year. 

In April 2019, police were called to the suspect's home one week after he reportedly attempted to take his own life. And in September 2019, police were called by a family member who said he had made violent threats to "kill everyone". 

Police responded and seized 16 knives, a dagger and a sword from his home. He was not arrested and no further action was taken. 

In a separate and more recent incident, Mr Crimo reportedly behaved suspiciously during an April visit to a local synagogue during Passover. A volunteer security co-ordinator told The Forward, a Jewish news organisation, that he believed the suspect was "sizing up" the facility, although he left without incident. 

Illinois state police said that the suspect's father sponsored his application for a firearms licence in December 201 when he was just 19. His uncle denied this in a statement to the Chicago Sun. 

Illinois is one of 19 US states with so-called red flag laws, designed to keep guns out of the hands of people who may pose a danger to themselves or others. Some commentators have pointed to the Highland Park shooting as evidence that similar regulations are ineffective.

Allison Anderman, an attorney at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said that "implementation seems to have been an issue" in his case.

The Illinois law came into effect in January 2019, just months before police first encountered the gunman. 

Ms Anderman added that red flag laws do not require individuals to be taken into custody. Instead, they simply prevent them from having guns until they "get their crisis under control". 

"It's very possible that law enforcement officers did not know about it or did not know how to properly use it," she said. "A single instance where a law was not properly implemented does not call into question the effectiveness of these laws".

Experts believe that data suggests that red flag laws are at least somewhat effective. In Florida, for example, data shows that judges have acted more than 8,000 times under that state's version of the law to restrict gun access.

"These are people who were either troubled or emotionally dysregulated. or expressing homicidal threats, that had guns taken away," said Dexter Voisin, a social sciences professor and gun violence expert at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.

"It's not that the laws don't work. It's that folks actually have to work with the system".