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He was among over 400 people in Punjab whose security detail was withdrawn or scaled back recently by the government.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

Canada should introduce a total ban on the buying and selling of all handguns, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said, BBC reported.

His government is proposing a new law that would freeze private ownership of all short-barrelled firearms.

The legislation would not ban the ownership of handguns outright - but would make it illegal to buy them. 

Mr Trudeau's proposal comes days after a deadly shooting at a Texas primary school, in the neighbouring US, killed 21 people.

The bill. which was presented to Canada's parliament on Monday, makes it impossible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in the country.

"Other than using firearms for sport shooting and hunting, there is no reason anyone in Canada should need guns in their everyday lives," Mr Trudeau told reporters.

"As we see gun violence continue to rise, it is our duty to keep taking action," he said.

It marks the most ambitious attempt yet by his government to restrict access to firearms.

The bill would also require rifle magazines to be reconfigured so they can hold no more than five rounds at a time.

And it would take away firearms licences from gun owners involved in domestic violence or criminal harassment.

Unlike in the US, gun ownership is not enshrined in Canada's constitution, but firearms are still popular, especially in rural parts of the country, BBC reported.

Canada already has stricter rules on gun ownership than its southern neighbour and records fewer firearm incidents every year.

For example, all guns must be kept locked and unloaded and anyone wishing to buy a firearm must undergo extensive background checks.

But there have been calls in recent years to tighten gun legislation there even further, especially following a number of deadly shootings.

In April 2020, a gunman posing as a police officer killed 22 people during a shooting spree in Nova Scotia - the deadliest in Canada's history.

Within days, Mr Trudeau announced an immediate ban on 1,500 different kinds of military-grade and assault-style weapons.

The new bill would effectively limit the number of legally-owned handguns in Canada to present levels, according to BBC.

European Union leaders agreed Monday to embargo most Russian oil imports into the bloc by year-end as part of new sanctions on Moscow worked out at a summit focused on helping Ukraine with a long-delayed package of new financial support, Associated Press reported.

The embargo covers Russian oil brought in by sea, allowing a temporary exemption for imports delivered by pipeline, a move that was crucial to bring landlocked Hungary on board a decision that required consensus. 

EU Council President Charles Michel said the agreement covers more than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia. Ursula Von der Leyen, the head of the EU’s executive branch, said the punitive move will “effectively cut around 90% of oil imports from Russia to the EU by the end of the year.”

Michel said leaders also agreed to provide Ukraine with a 9 billion-euro ($9.7 billion) tranche of assistance to support the war-torn country’s economy. It was unclear whether the money would come in grants or loans.

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, responded to the EU’s decision on Twitter, saying: “As she rightly said yesterday, Russia will find other importers.”

The new package of sanctions will also include an asset freeze and travel ban on individuals, while Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank, will be excluded from SWIFT, the major global system for financial transfers from which the EU previously banned several smaller Russian banks. Three big Russian state-owned broadcasters will be prevented from distributing their content in the EU, according to Associated Press.

“We want to stop Russia’s war machine,” Michel said, lauding what he called a “remarkable achievement.”

“More than ever it’s important to show that we are able to be strong, that we are able to be firm, that we are able to be tough,” he added.

Michel said the new sanctions, which needed the support of all 27 member countries, will be legally endorsed by Wednesday. 

The EU had already imposed five previous rounds of sanctions on Russia over its war. It has targeted more than 1,000 people individually, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and top government officials as well as pro-Kremlin oligarchs, banks, the coal sector and more.

But the sixth package of measures announced May 4 had been held up by concerns over oil supplies. 

The impasse embarrassed the bloc, which was forced to scale down its ambitions to break Hungary’s resistance. When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed the package, the initial aim was to phase out imports of crude oil within six months and refined products by the end of the year, Associated Press reported.

Both Michel and von der Leyen said leaders will soon return to the issue, seeking to guarantee that Russia’s pipeline oil exports to the EU are banned at a later date.

Hungarian Prime minister Viktor Orban had made clear he could support the new sanctions only if his country’s oil supply security was guaranteed. Hungary gets more than 60% of its oil from Russia and depends on crude that comes through the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline.

Von der Leyen had played down the chances of a breakthrough at the summit. But leaders reached a compromise after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged them to end “internal arguments that only prompt Russia to put more and more pressure on the whole of Europe.”

The EU gets about 40% of its natural gas and 25% of its oil from Russia, and divisions over the issue exposed the limits of the 27-nation trading bloc’s ambitions. 

In his 10-minute video address, Zelenskyy told leaders to end “internal arguments that only prompt Russia to put more and more pressure on the whole of Europe.”

He said the sanctions package must “be agreed on, it needs to be effective, including (on) oil,” so that Moscow “feels the price for what it is doing against Ukraine” and the rest of Europe. Only then, Zelenskyy said, will Russia be forced to “start seeking peace.”

It was not the first time he had demanded that the EU target Russia’s lucrative energy sector and deprive Moscow of billions of dollars each day in supply payments, according to Associated Press.

But Hungary led a group of EU countriesworried over the impact of the oil ban on their economy, including Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. Hungary relies heavily on Russia for energy and can’t afford to turn off the pumps. In addition to its need for Russian oil, Hungary gets 85% of its natural gas from Russia. 

Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal held meetings with Secretary-General of the European External Action Service (EEAS) Stefano Sannino; Managing Director for Asia and Pacific at the EEAS Gunnar Wiegand. He also meets other senior officials at the Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) and the Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA) of the European Commission at the European Union headquarters in Brussels today.

During the meeting with the Secretary-General of the EEAS, the Foreign Secretary discussed overall bilateral relations and cooperation between Nepal and the EU, reads the press statement. The Foreign Secretary participated in a lunch meeting hosted by the Managing Director for Asia and Pacific at the EEAS in the afternoon.  During the occasion, they discussed all major areas of Nepal-EU relations and also reviewed the areas of cooperation since the 13^th Joint Commission meeting held in Kathmandu in November last year.

The discussion focused on areas such as the socio-economic impact of COVID-19, development cooperation, economic relations and EU market access to Nepali products in the context of the planned graduation of Nepal from the LDC status, cooperation in climate change and environmental issues, air safety and access of Nepal’s airlines to the EU sky, among others, according to a press statement.  

They expressed satisfaction over the ongoing cooperation between Nepal and the EU and agreed to continue working towards further consolidating the cooperative relations.

The Foreign Secretary also held separate meetings with DG INTPA and DG CLIMA at the European Commission. During the meeting with Mr. Jean-Louis Ville, Acting Director for Middle East, Asia and Pacific at DG INTPA, they discussed various aspects of development cooperation between Nepal and the EU.

 Similarly, the meeting with Dimitrios Zevgolis, Head of Unit for Multilateral Affairs at DG CLIMA, focused on the issue of climate change and environment protection, and the cooperation in the areas of adaptation, and mitigation, climate finance and technology transfer.