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Residents in Brazil'snortheastern state of Pernambuco were bracing for more days of heavy rain after at least 91 people were killed as downpours triggered floods and landslides, according to the Civil Defense, CNN reported.

A further 26 people are still reported missing, said the Civil Defense on Twitter.

The state governor, Paulo Câmara, said that many more people could be unaccounted for.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro spoke to the press after visiting the area on Monday.

"Unfortunately, these catastrophes happen," Bolsonaro said during a press conference, saying "similar problems" happened before in other cities affected by heavy floods.

"We flew over the affected area, tried to land but, following recommendation from the pilots, decided not to due to inconsistency of the soil," Bolsonaro told reporters, according to CNN.

Since heavy rains began on Wednesday, nearly 4,000 have lost their houses, according to CNN Brasil. Fourteen municipalities have declared a state of emergency. 

The Pernambuco civil defense has urged residents living in high-risk areas around the city of Recife to seek shelter elsewhere after the rain caused landslides there. Schools in Recife have opened to shelter displaced families.

Brazil's northeast has been suffering from exceptionally high volumes of rain, officials say. Some areas have registered more rain in a 24-hour period over the weekend than the total volume expected for the month of May. 

Some parts of the state had a reprieve from the rain Monday as showers moved toward the coast, but Pernambuco is forecast to get another 30-60 mm of rain in the next two days, while isolated areas could see over 100 mm. The region could experience more than half a month's worth of rainfall in just four days, between Saturday over the weekend until the end of Tuesday, CNN reported.

Gusts -- which can lead to power outages and falling debris -- could also be as high has 100 kph.

The weekend downpour triggered the fourth major flooding event in five months in Brazil, according to a Reuters report, which highlighted a lack of urban planning in low-income neighborhoods throughout much of the country. Favelas -- slums or shantytowns -- are often erected on hillsides prone to giving way, usually outside major cities.

In December, downpours caused two dams to burst in nearby Bahia state, killing dozens and submerging entire streets, according to CNN.

The Nepali embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan organized a program to celebrate the Mt. Everest Day at the embassy in Islamabad. 

The program was organized to commemorate the first ascent to the Mt. Everest by Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Edmund Hillary on May 29, 1953.

Nepali Ambassador to Pakistan Tapas Adhikari welcomed the guests to the program and congratulated Abdul Joshi on his recent ascent to the Mt. Everest on May 16, 2022.

On the occasion, Ambassador Adhikari expressed his confidence that his expedition will inspire many young Pakistanis for mountaineering and adventure tourism and increase people-to-people contacts between Nepal and Pakistan, according to Islamabad Post.

He also highlighted the impacts of climate change on the mountains and urged for collectively addressing the negative consequences.

During the programme, Joshi shared his interesting expedition experience while scaling the summit. He also drew many parallels between Nepal and Pakistan, particularly in the field of trekking and tourism.

The black box of the crashed Tara Air plane has been recovered on Tuesday. 

The plane with call sign 9N-AET, which had gone missing since Sunday, was found crashed on Monday morning. The wreckage of the aircraft was found scattered at Sanosware in Mustang district this morning.

There were 22 people including two German nationals, four Indians and 13 Nepali nationals on board the ill-fated aircraft when the incident occurred.

The plane had taken off for Jomson from Pokhara at 9: 55 am on Sunday.

It has been learnt that the aircraft was scheduled to fly at 6: 15 am but got delayed due to bad weather.

This is the seventh crash in the Pokhara-Jomsom route in the last three decades.

Black box is a small machine that records information about an aircraft during its flight, used to discover the cause of an accident.

The murder of a singer in the northern Indian state of Punjab, a day after his security cover was trimmed, has sparked outrage, BBC reported.

Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, popularly known as Sidhu Moose Wala, was shot by unidentified people while he was travelling in the state's Mansa district on Sunday evening. He was 28.

Two others were injured in the attack.

The murder led to a political storm in the state, with opposition leaders criticising the government and police.

State police chief VK Bhawra had said on Sunday that a Canada-based gangster had claimed responsibility for the attack.

But Moose Wala's family demanded an apology from Mr Bhawra for linking the death to gang rivalry without a proper investigation, according to BBC.

On Monday, Mr Bhawra clarified in a statement that he hadn't said that Moose Wala was a "gangster or affiliated with gangsters".

"One Goldy Brar has claimed the responsibility on behalf of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. The investigation would look into all aspects regarding the murder," he said, adding that he had been "misquoted" by some media outlets.

Punjab's chief minister Bhagwant Mann has ordered an inquiry - led by a high court judge - into the incident. 

Opposition leaders have questioned why the singer's security cover was scaled back.

Police said that Moose Wala's security detail had been reduced to two commandos from four, and that these officers weren't travelling with the singer when he was attacked, BBC reported.

He was among over 400 people in Punjab whose security detail was withdrawn or scaled back recently by the government. 

Mr Mann had said the step was partly taken because of a government exercise to crack down on so-called "VIP culture" which privileges politicians above ordinary citizens. 

Police officials said it was also done to deploy more personnel for security ahead of the upcoming anniversary of the controversial Operation Blue Star - when the Indian army stormed the Sikhs' most sacred shrine in 1984.

But the government's move sparked controversy after the names of people on the list were leaked on social media, with some pointing out that it increased the threat to their lives.

Mr Mann has expressed shock at Moose Wala's murder and promised that the culprits would be punished. He also urged people to maintain peace after protests erupted in some parts of the state. 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said he was "deeply shocked and saddened" by Moose Wala's murder - the singer had joined the party last year, according to BBC.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa also urged federal home minister Amit Shah to initiate an inquiry into how the list of persons whose security was withdrawn got leaked.

Moose Wala, known for his temperamental and edgy lyrics, was one of Punjab's biggest pop stars. He was also a controversial figure who had several brushes with the law. 

Critics often called him out for promoting gun culture - a major concern in Punjab - through his songs and social media activity.

In May 2020, the singer was booked for firing an AK-47 rifle at a shooting range during the Covid lockdown. He also had a police case against him for allegedly promoting violence and gun culture through his song Sanju.

He contested the state assembly election earlier this year as a Congress candidate but lost.

His death shocked fans across the country and abroad, especially Canada, which has a sizeable Punjabi diaspora population. Social media was flooded with tributes, with many demanding justice for Moose Wala, BBC reported.

Australia's new Labor government has secured a majority in parliament, election analysts say, BBC reported.

The centre-left party, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, defeated Scott Morrison's conservative coalition in an election on 21 May.

A record vote for independents and minor parties had made it uncertain whether Mr Albanese would govern in his own right.

But he now has the 76 lower house seats needed, after victories in tight races.

It is a different story in the Senate, where Mr Albanese's government will need crossbench support to pass laws.

About a third of Australians voted for candidates outside the major parties, with support surging for the Greens and independents running on climate platforms, according to BBC.

Mr Albanese has promised a "constructive relationship" with the expanded crossbench, despite not needing to rely on their votes in the House of Representatives. Two seats there remain undecided. 

He will announce his cabinet on Tuesday.

The veteran politician, who heads Australia's first Labor government in almost a decade, has promised to adopt more ambitious emissions reduction targets. 

However, he has so far refused calls to phase out coal use or to block the opening of new coal mines.

Mr Albanese flew to Tokyo last week for a summit with the leaders of Japan, India and the US, known as the Quad. 

His government is also aiming to sure up ties in the Pacific in the face of growing Chinese influence. Foreign Minister Penny Wong made a trip to Fiji within days of being sworn in.

Her visit came as China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi embarked on a tour of small Pacific nations, hoping to secure trade and security deals, BBC reported.

Last month, China and the Solomon Islands agreed a security pact that sparked fears in Australia and the US that Beijing could build a naval base in the region.

Mr Morrison lost power after shedding almost 20 seats at the election. These included traditional conservative strongholds in the cities, where climate policies were seen as a key factor.

Staunch conservative and former defence minister Peter Dutton will now be opposition leader, after he was chosen by the Liberal Party to replace Mr Morrison.

Barnaby Joyce - who made international headlines over a row about Johnny Depp's dogs- was replaced by David Littleproud as leader of the Nationals, the Liberals' junior coalition partner, according to BBC.

In the last 40 years only one government - under John Howard in 2004 - has won a Senate majority.

Shanghai will move into a normalised epidemic-control phase from Wednesday and will allow malls and shops to reopen and people in "low-risk" areas to return to work, city officials said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Railways will also resume normal operations and the number of domestic flights to the city will increase, vice mayor Zong Ming told an online press conference, adding that they will also look to adjust passenger load factors. 

Public venues, however, will still need to cap people flows at 75% of capacity and people will need to show a negative PCR test taken within the last 72 hours to enter, according to Reuters.

The city announced an end to its two-month lockdown on Monday.

Chandrapala Weerasuriya can’t remember when he last took his medication. The 67-year-old retired businessman, living in Sri Lanka’s Gampaha district, has always relied on a drug to keep at bay his hereditary nervous condition, which makes him dizzy and unable to walk.

But since his prescription recently ran out, he cannot get another supply. The drug is simply not available in Sri Lanka any more.

“I am afraid that I might become paralysed because there is no one to care for us,” he said fretfully. “My wife and I do everything alone. We split the household chores and manage it between ourselves. My wife has a knee problem and she can barely walk.”

Sri Lanka’s financial crisis, its worst since independence, is swiftly becoming an alarming health crisis. The government’s coffers have fallen to their lowest levels on record and last week the country was forced to default on its international loans for the first time in its history. Without crucial foreign currency, Sri Lanka has been unable to import the essentials: food, fuel – and medicine.

Sri Lanka imports more than 80% of its medical supplies. Now almost 200 medical items are in shortage, including 76 essential, life-saving drugs, from blood-thinners for heart attack and stroke patients to antibiotics, rabies vaccines and cancer chemotherapy drugs. Essential surgical equipment and anaesthesia is running out so fast that the decision was made this week for only emergency surgeries, mostly heart and cancer patients, to go ahead. All routine surgeries – anything from hernias to swollen appendixes – have been put on hold. Some government hospitals have been instructed to only admit emergency patients.

“Ultimately, people are definitely going to die,” said a doctor in Colombo who had been told not to speak to the media.

She described how the hospital was so low on certain drugs they had to instruct families of patients to go out to pharmacies and try to buy it themselves. “There have been incidents where the family members have gone around looking for drugs and by the time they’ve come back with the drug, it’s been too late and the patient has died,” she said.

The doctor said the shortages were getting worse. “I’m worried about pregnant mothers because soon I don’t know whether we will have enough drugs to perform cesarian sections,” she said.

Cancer drugs, which are notoriously expensive to import, have been particularly badly hit by shortages in recent weeks, and the responsibility to source them has fallen on the heads of oncologists themselves. They have been putting out global appeals for donations, and writing letters to private supporters, organisations and governments, to ensure cancer treatments are not delayed.

Dr Buddhika Somawardana, an oncologist at Colombo’s largest cancer hospital, described the “great stress” he and other doctors were under as essential cancer drugs began to run out over a month ago or stopped being available at all.

“One of the drugs we give patients undergoing chemotherapy, which boosts their blood count so they aren’t liable to serious infections, is not available any more,” he said. “So far, we managed to get donation of 80,000 vials. But that will not last very long.”

He added: “Somehow, thanks to donations, we have mostly been managing without any huge issues. But we had to postpone some chemotherapy, which may have detrimental effects on the cancer outcome.”

Somawardana said the crisis was placing a huge “financial and psychological burden” on cancer patients, who were having to source and pay vast sums for their own medicines to continue their treatment, previously free and easily accessibly in hospitals under Sri Lanka’s lauded universal healthcare system.

Cancer doctors too were feeling the pressure of having to be the ones both to appeal for global drug donations, as well as treat their patients. “I didn’t know how long we will be able to go on like this,” he said.

Ruvaiz Haniffa, a doctor in Colombo, expressed his frustration that doctors had “seen this coming as early as January” but little had been done by authorities to set up backup plans to ensure no medicines ran short, even as the country’s foreign reserves began to deplete to worryingly low levels.

Chandrapala Weerasuriya can’t remember when he last took his medication. The 67-year-old retired businessman, living in Sri Lanka’s Gampaha district, has always relied on a drug to keep at bay his hereditary nervous condition, which makes him dizzy and unable to walk, The Guardian reported.

But since his prescription recently ran out, he cannot get another supply. The drug is simply not available in Sri Lanka any more.

“I am afraid that I might become paralysed because there is no one to care for us,” he said fretfully. “My wife and I do everything alone. We split the household chores and manage it between ourselves. My wife has a knee problem and she can barely walk.”

Sri Lanka’s financial crisis, its worst since independence, is swiftly becoming an alarming health crisis. The government’s coffers have fallen to their lowest levels on record and last week the country was forced to default on its international loans for the first time in its history. Without crucial foreign currency, Sri Lanka has been unable to import the essentials: food, fuel – and medicine.

Sri Lanka imports more than 80% of its medical supplies. Now almost 200 medical items are in shortage, including 76 essential, life-saving drugs, from blood-thinners for heart attack and stroke patients to antibiotics, rabies vaccines and cancer chemotherapy drugs. Essential surgical equipment and anaesthesia is running out so fast that the decision was made this week for only emergency surgeries, mostly heart and cancer patients, to go ahead. All routine surgeries – anything from hernias to swollen appendixes – have been put on hold. Some government hospitals have been instructed to only admit emergency patients, according to The Guardian.

“Ultimately, people are definitely going to die,” said a doctor in Colombo who had been told not to speak to the media.

She described how the hospital was so low on certain drugs they had to instruct families of patients to go out to pharmacies and try to buy it themselves. “There have been incidents where the family members have gone around looking for drugs and by the time they’ve come back with the drug, it’s been too late and the patient has died,” she said.

The doctor said the shortages were getting worse. “I’m worried about pregnant mothers because soon I don’t know whether we will have enough drugs to perform cesarian sections,” she said.

Cancer drugs, which are notoriously expensive to import, have been particularly badly hit by shortages in recent weeks, and the responsibility to source them has fallen on the heads of oncologists themselves. They have been putting out global appeals for donations, and writing letters to private supporters, organisations and governments, to ensure cancer treatments are not delayed.

Dr Buddhika Somawardana, an oncologist at Colombo’s largest cancer hospital, described the “great stress” he and other doctors were under as essential cancer drugs began to run out over a month ago or stopped being available at all, The Guardian reported.

“One of the drugs we give patients undergoing chemotherapy, which boosts their blood count so they aren’t liable to serious infections, is not available any more,” he said. “So far, we managed to get donation of 80,000 vials. But that will not last very long.”

He added: “Somehow, thanks to donations, we have mostly been managing without any huge issues. But we had to postpone some chemotherapy, which may have detrimental effects on the cancer outcome.”

Somawardana said the crisis was placing a huge “financial and psychological burden” on cancer patients, who were having to source and pay vast sums for their own medicines to continue their treatment, previously free and easily accessibly in hospitals under Sri Lanka’s lauded universal healthcare system.

Cancer doctors too were feeling the pressure of having to be the ones both to appeal for global drug donations, as well as treat their patients. “I didn’t know how long we will be able to go on like this,” he said.

Ruvaiz Haniffa, a doctor in Colombo, expressed his frustration that doctors had “seen this coming as early as January” but little had been done by authorities to set up backup plans to ensure no medicines ran short, even as the country’s foreign reserves began to deplete to worryingly low levels, according to The Guardian.