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Sri Lanka's main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa has told the BBC he intends to run for president, once Gotabaya Rajapaksa steps down, BBC reported.

This comes after his Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party held talks with allies to get support for the move.

Sri Lanka is facing an unprecedented economic crisis which has brought thousands to the streets since March. 

The country has run out of cash and is struggling to import basic items like food, fuel and medicine.

President Rajapaksa announced that he plans to resign this week, and the speaker of parliament has said lawmakers will choose the next president on 20 July.

Mr Premadasa told the BBC that his party and allies agreed he should be "putting my nomination for the position of presidency, if a vacancy occurs".

He lost the presidential election in 2019, and would need the support of the governing alliance MPs to win.

He is banking on getting it due to the popular discontent against Mr Rajapaksa and his family, who have dominated Sri Lankan politics for more than two decades, according to BBC.

The country's inflation rate reached a whopping 55% in June, and millions of people are struggling to make a living. 

Mr Premadasa said he was ready to take part in an all-party interim government. 

The SJB leader has been criticised for refusing to take the post of prime minister when it was offered to him in April. His rival Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed - but has also indicated he would resign to make way for a unity government.

Mr Premadasa described the current situation in Sri Lanka as "confused, uncertainty and total anarchy", saying it needs "consensus, consultation, compromise and coming togetherness".

The country's usable reserves have dropped to around $250m (£210m), according to local media reports.

The crippling shortage of fuel has devastated public transport. There are rolling power cuts as power plants lack enough fuel to function. Schools are closed this week as well due to the fuel crisis. Many people are trying to leave the country.

Mr Premadasa has conceded that there are no quick fixes.

To return the economy to 2019 levels would take approximately four to five years, he said, adding that his party had an economic plan to overcome the crisis, BBC reported.

"We are not going to hoodwink the people. We are going to be frank and present a plan to get rid of Sri Lanka's economic ills," Mr Premadasa said. 

But the protesters at the Galle Face site in Colombo say that all 225 members of parliament are responsible for the current situation, and they want a new beginning with fresh and energetic people in politics.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said on Monday that countries should avoid being used as "chess pieces" by global powers in a region that he said was at risk of being reshaped by geopolitical factors, Reuters reported.

Addressing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) secretariat in a speech in the Indonesian capital

Jakarta, Wang said many countries in the region were under pressure to take sides.

"We should insulate this region from geopolitical calculations… from being used as chess pieces from major power rivalry and from coercion," said Wang, who was speaking through a translator.

"The future of our region should be in our own hands," he said.

Southeast Asia has long been an area of friction between powers given its strategic importance, with countries in the region now wary of being caught in the middle of US-China rivalry.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea as its territory based on what it says are historical maps, putting it at odds with some ASEAN countries which say the claims are inconsistent with international law.

Wang's speech comes just days after he attended a G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Bali and amid intense Chinese diplomacy that has seen him make string of stops across the region in recent weeks, according to Reuters.

On the sidelines of the G20, Wang held a five-hour meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken with both describing their first in-person talks since October as "candid".

Wang said on Monday he had told Blinken both sides should discuss the establishment of rules for positive interactions and to jointly uphold regionalism in the Asia-Pacific.

"The core elements are to support ASEAN centrality, uphold the existing regional corporation framework, respect each other's legitimate rights and interests in the Asia-Pacific instead of aiming to antagonize or contain the other side," Wang said.

Responding to a question about Taiwan after his speech, Wang said Washington "by distorting and hollowing out the One China policy, is trying to play the Taiwan card to disrupt and contain China's development."

Tensions between Beijing and Taipei have escalated in recent months as China's military conducted repeated air missions over the Taiwan Strait, the waterway separating the island from China.

China considers Taiwan its "sacred" territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan says it wants peace but only its people can decide their future.

Washington says it remains committed to its One China policy and does not encourage independence for Taiwan, but the United States is required to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself under its US Taiwan Relations Act.

"The two sides across the (Taiwan) Strait will enjoy peaceful development. But when the one-China principle is arbitrarily challenged or even sabotaged, there will be dark clouds or even ferocious storms across the strait," Wang said, Reuters reported.

Taiwan's Foreign Ministry branded Wang's comments "absurd", saying it condemned them in the strongest terms.

"Taiwan stands at the forefront of resisting authoritarian expansion and will not succumb to threats of force from the Chinese government," ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said, according to Reuters.

India is expected to surpass China to become the world’s most-populous nation in 2023, four years ahead of an earlier estimate by the United Nations, Economic Times reported.

The UN expects global population to hit 8 billion on Nov. 15 and grow to 8.5 billion by 2030. More than half the projected rise between now and 2050 is expected to be in just eight countries: Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania, according to a report titled World Population Prospects 2022.

China is expected to experience an absolute decline in its population as early as next year, the report said. A Chinese official had earlier this year estimated that the country’s population may peak as early as 2022 as its population of 1.41 billion grew at the slowest pace since the 1950s, according to government data. An earlier report projected India surpassing China by 2027.

Lower mortality rates and demographic changes may ensure that central and southern Asia become the world’s most-populous region by 2037. Numbers in sub-Saharan Africa may almost double by late 2040s to cross 2 billion. Population growth rates in Europe and Northern America were almost zero in 2020 and 2021, data show, according to Economic Times.

The global population is expected to grow to 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion in 2100, lower than the UN’s 2019 estimate of 11 billion. In India, the total fertility rate may decline to 1.29 births per woman by 2100 instead of the UN’s earlier estimate of 1.69 births, according the report, which cites data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Women and men are expected to be equal in numbers by 2050 as the current global count of 49.7% women compared to 50.3% men is expected to be inverted, the report said. Sustained high fertility and rapid population growth present challenges to achieving sustainable development, it said, Economic Times reported.

The Indian rupee ended at a record closing low against the dollar on Monday as continued foreign portfolio outflows from domestic stockmarkets and a broadly stronger greenback weighed on the currency despite intermittent dollar selling intervention, Reuters reported.

The partially convertible rupee closed trading at 79.4375/4475 per dollar in the local session at 1000 GMT, compared to its close of 79.25 on Friday. The unit touched a lifetime low of 79.44 during the session, surpassing its previous low of 79.3750 touched last week.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced an array of measures last Wednesday to bring in dollars, including allowing overseas investors to buy short-term corporate debt and opening up more government securities under the fully accessible route.

"These measures would ease some pressure on the rupee in the near term. However, a widening trade deficit and continued FPI outflows will continue to weigh on the INR," said Sachchidanand Shukla, chief economist at Mahindra Group.

Indian shares fell as IT services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS.NS) dragged down technology companies after posting weak results last week.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) have sold shares worth nearly $30 billion so far in 2022 with traders fearing more outflows if a global recession were to kick in, according to Reuters.

The dollar was on the front foot at the start of a week in which US and Chinese data and European energy security were top of mind, as investor concerns about global economic growth offered support to the safe haven currency.

Traders said the RBI was spotted selling dollars via state-run banks sporadically to brake the decline in the rupee but the direction of the currency is unlikely to be altered any time soon.

The rupee is likely to be still trading near its historic low in three months' time, battered by widening trade and current account deficits, according to a Reuters poll where nearly one in three analysts expected it to weaken to 80 per dollar by September, Reuters reported.

Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Balen Shah has been invited for a friendly visit by the Matihani Municipality of Mahottari district, which is also the home district of Shah.

Hari Prasad Mandal, mayor of Matihani met Shah and extended his invitation. Shah also expressed his desire to visit Mahottari. The meeting was arranged by Ashutosh Karn where both of the mayors discussed future coordination between two cultural cities.

Mandal presented a photo of Laxminarayan Temple of Mahottari to mayor Shah while Kathmandu's side gave a statue of Lord Ganesh as a token of love.

Novak Djokovic underlined his recent dominance at Wimbledon with a composed and controlled fightback against Australia's Nick Kyrgios to win a fourth consecutive men's singles title, BBC reported.

Serbia's Djokovic, 35, lost the first set after some superb serving from Kyrgios, but ended up winning 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-3) on Centre Court. 

It is Djokovic's seventh SW19 men's title and only Roger Federer has more.

Victory also moved him one behind Rafael Nadal's record 22 men's majors.

Top seed Djokovic made a slower start than his 27-year-old opponent, who initially seemed nerveless in his first Grand Slam singles final.

But the Serb did not lose belief as he showed all of his experience and nous to turn the match around.

"He's a bit of a god, I'm not going to lie. I thought I played well," Kyrgios said as he congratulated Djokovic, according to BBC.

Losing his winning position began to irritate Kyrgios, who is known for his fiery temperament as well as his exciting tennis.

While Kyrgios increasingly remonstrated with his support team, Djokovic remained cool in the heat of the battle on a scorching Centre Court. 

After clinching victory with his third match point, Djokovic dropped to his haunches and picked a blade of the Centre Court grass to eat in what has now become a customary celebration.

It was a first major win of the year for the Serb, who was stopped from playing in the Australian Open after being deported because of his vaccination status, and lost to Rafael Nadal in the French Open quarter-finals, BBC reported.

Nepali Congress province presidents urged party leaders to set criteria for an alliance in the forthcoming elections.

During the Central Executive Committee meeting that started at the party office in Sanepa from today, they suggested leaders to forge a necessary alliance, giving continuity to the coalition in the elections.

Some were of the opinion that it would be appropriate for the Nepali Congress to contest the elections alone.

The Local Level Election Central Mobilization Committee presented a report of local level elections in the meeting.

During the meeting, leader Shekhar Koirala urged the party president to hold a policy convention at the earliest, saying that the 14th general convention only selected the leadership but could not work on formulating the policies.

Central members Koirala, Pradeep Paudel, Dev Raj Kandel, Dila Sangraula, Krishna Kishor Ghimire, Narayan Bahadur Karki, Taraman Gurung, Dinesh Kumar Yadav, Nain Singh Mahar, Guru Baral and Dinesh Koirala among others floated their opinion in the meeting.

Visiting Chinese Communist Party International Liaison Department head Liu Jianchao held a meeting with CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal at the latter’s residence in Khumaltar on Monday.

He arrived in Kathmandu at a time when Beijing had been expressing concern over the growing anti-China activities in Nepal in recent times.

China sent Liu as an envoy to unite all the Communist parties.

He paid courtesy calls on Prime Minister Sher Bahadur and Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka on Sunday.

Similarly, the Chinese leader also extended an invitation to Prime Minister Deuba to visit China.

Leading an eight-member delegation, Liu arrived in Kathmandu on a four-day visit to Nepal on Sunday.