<p><span style="line-height: 1.42857;">A woman was crushed to death by a paddy thresher in Beldandi rural municipality-5 in Kanchanpur district this morning.&nbsp;</span><br></p><p><br></p><p>Radha Kumari Rana, 22, was threshing paddy when her head accidently got crushed by the thresher machine, according to Jhilmila Police Post. She died on the spot, police said.</p><p><br></p><p><b>One killed, 8 injured in road accident&nbsp;</b></p><p><br></p><p>A man died while eight others were injured when a jeep met with an accident at Jagaat in Sandhikharka Municipality in Arghakhanchi district today.</p><p><br></p><p>The incident took place when the Butwal-bound jeep coming from Gulmi district suddenly plunged some 100 metres off the road near the Jagat Dadh River, said Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Ek Narayan Koirala.</p>

<p><span style="line-height: 18.5714px;">The main ritual of the four-day Chhath festival, a religious and cultural festival of worshipping and offering homage to the nature and the sun god, begins from tomorrow.</span><br></p><p><span style="line-height: 18.5714px;"><br></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 18.5714px;">The festival starts on Kattik Shukla Chaturthi or the fourth day of the waning moon in the Nepali month of Kattik as per the lunar calendar.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 18.5714px;"><br></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 18.5714px;">As part of the main rituals of the festival, what is called the 'arawa-arawaen' ritual is observed on the first day tomorrow. and it concluds with &nbsp;making offerings and paying homage to the rising sun.</span></p>

<p><span style="line-height: 1.42857;">The government has decided to appoint Secretary Lok Darshan Regmi as the Chief Secretary.</span><br></p><p><br></p><p>A meeting of the Council of Ministers held at the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Singha Durbar today promoted Home Secretary Regmi to the post of Chief Secretary. Now, he serves as the 24th chief secretary of the government. Incumbent Chief Secretary Rajendra Kishor Chhetri is retiring Tuesday due to age-limit.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Talking to media persons following the meeting, Spokesperson for the government and Minister for Information and Communications, Mohan Bahadur Basnet said the meeting also decided to reshuffle government secretaries and installed them in different ministries and commissions.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Similarly, the meeting allocated the responsibility of NRA CEO to the former Finance Secretary Yubraj Bhusal for the time being.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Moreover, the meeting endorsed the provision for exempting the registration fees for transfer of houses built in the Giranchaur Integrated Model Settlement in Melamchi of Sindhupalchowk to the earthquake survivors.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>The meeting decided to sign on a memorandum of understanding between the Nepal Government and the European Union regarding the election observation and give authority to form a talks team to negotiate for an agreement relating to receiving a loan of 80 million US dollars from the World Bank for the Livestock Sector Innovation Project.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>The Council of Ministers has reached an agreement regarding the 'medical education ordinance' and the final decision on this is expected from the next meeting, according to Government Spokesperson Basnet.&nbsp;</p>

<p><span style="line-height: 1.42857;">Bodies of siblings &nbsp;Chandraman Shrestha and Raj Kumar Shrestha from Butwal &nbsp;Sub metropolis-15, Rupandehi who had gone missing in course of taking bath at Devghatdham, the confluence of Narayani and Kaligandaki rivers last Thursday, &nbsp;have been retrieved.&nbsp;</span><br></p><p><br></p><p>The body of elder brother Chandraman, 38, was found near Tirbeni the following day while the body of younger brother Rajkumar, 28, was retrieved from the Narayani River near Amaltarai of Nawalparasi this morning, District Police Office Chitwan Deputy Superintendent of police Shiba Sharma Acharya said.&nbsp;</p>

<p><span style="line-height: 1.42857;">Altogether 807 people have filed their candidacy for the first phase of the House of Representatives and State Assemblies elections to be held on November 26.</span><br></p><p><br></p><p>The first phase of the twin elections is taking place in 32 districts in all the provinces.&nbsp;</p><p>According to the Joint Election Operation Centre (JEOC) at the Election Commission, of the total 807 persons filing candidacies, 323 have registered their candidacy for the House of Representatives election and 484 for the State Assembly elections.</p><p><br></p><p>The Election Commission has fixed the time from 10 am to 5 pm today to file complaints against the candidates, the Election Commission spokesman Nawaraj Dhakal said.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>The complaints would be looked into and the list of candidates published on October 24. Similarly, the EC will allocate election symbols to the candidates after the conclusion of withdrawing their names by the candidates, if they wish to do so.</p>

<p><span style="line-height: 1.42857;">The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) has finalized its candidates contesting the first phase of the House of Representatives elections on November 26 from five places.&nbsp;</span><br></p><p><br></p><p>Accordingly, party chairman Kamal Thapa will be contesting from Makwanpur-2, vice-chairman Rajib Parajuli from Parsa-2, general secretary Rajendra Lingden from Jhapa-3, Kunti Kumari Shahi from Dailekh-1 and Bikram Thapa from Kathmandu-7.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Party spokesperson Bhuwan Pathak said that the Democratic Alliance has agreed to give seven election constituencies to the RPP and selection of the candidates in the remaining two constituencies still remains to be decided upon.&nbsp;</p>