Submit your Article

The Asian Games 2022, which were scheduled to be held in September in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, has been postponed until 2023 due to Covid-19 pandemic.

The Olympic Council of Asia confirmed that the Asian Games will be postponed until 2023, Reuters reported.

The call, which was first confirmed by the Chinese state media, has been taken with China is battling a resurgence in Covid-19 infections. Shanghai, the financial hub of the country, has been under a lockdown for a month now while more curbs have been introduced in Beijing, which is on edge now.

The decision comes even as China was able to host the Winter Olympics in Beijing earlier this year. There were strict Covid-19 protocols in place and the Games were held behind closed doors in February 2022.

Notably, India's Sports Minister Anurag Thakur had said last month that a call on India's participation in the Asian Games would be taken depending on China's assessment of the situation and its readiness to host the continental event amid the rising cases, according to Reuters.

"All other participating nations are discussing and in some time India will also take a decision but before that the host nation should make it clear what are they thinking and how much prepared they are," Thakur had said.

The Asian Games is the latest in the list of major sporting events which have seen delays or cancellations due to the Covid-19 crisis. The biggest global sporting event, the Olympic Games, were postponed until 2021 due to the pandemic in 2020. The Summer Games went ahead even as a section of the public in Japan were against the country hosting the global sporting spectacle.

The Olympic Games went ahead without any major Covid-19 impact as athletes from across the globe experienced the new normal as they deal with the pressure of the Olympics in Tokyo.

The 2018 edition of the Asian Games were held in Jakarta and Palembang. India had finished 8th in the medal table with a total of 69 medals, including 15 gold medals. India's elite athletes will set their sights on the Commonwealth Games in the absence of the Asian Games this year. The CWG will be held in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8, Reuters reported.

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 600 per tola in the domestic market on Friday.

With the price drop, the yellow bullion is being traded at Rs 98, 000 per tola today.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association, the yellow metal was traded at Rs 98, 600 per tola on Thursday.

Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 97, 500 per tola today.

Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1, 280 per tola. It was traded at Rs 1, 305 on Thursday.

A building collapse one week ago in central China killed 53 people, state media reported Friday as the search of the large pile of debris ended after rescuers found 10 survivors, Associated Press reported.

Authorities said at a news conference that all the missing had been accounted for as of 3 a.m., state broadcaster CCTV said in an online post.

The residential and commercial building in the city of Changsha suddenly collapsed the afternoon of April 29. Aerial photos showed it pancaked to about the second story between other buildings about six stories tall. At least nine people have been arrested on suspicion of ignoring building codes or committing other violations.

Survivors were pulled out of the rubble over several days. The 10th and last one was pulled out shortly after midnight on Thursday, 5 ½ days after the collapse. All of the survivors were reportedly in good condition after being treated in a hospital, according to the Associated Press.

The arrested include the building owner, three people in charge of design and construction and five others who allegedly gave a false safety assessment for a guest house on the building's fourth to sixth floors. The building also had residences, a café and a restaurant.

Rescuers used search dogs, hand tools, drones and electronic life detectors.

In an account of Monday's rescue of the eighth survivor, state media said rescuers faced an unstable pile of rubble that they had to work around rather than demolish. Prior to the rescue, they were able to feed in video equipment to communicate with the girl and establish that one of her legs was trapped. They also fed in saline solution for her to drink.

An increase in the number of collapses of self-built buildings in recent years prompted Chinese President Xi Jinping to call for additional checks to uncover structural weaknesses.

Poor adherence to safety standards, including the illegal addition of extra floors and failure to use reinforcing iron bars, is often blamed for such disasters. Decaying infrastructure such as gas pipes has also led to explosions and collapses, Associated Press reported.

Srijana Singh is a mayoral candidate for the Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

Singh, a candidate from the Nepali Congress, started her politics as a student leader of the Nepal Student Union, a student wing of Nepali Congress.

She is the wife of Prakash Man Singh, a prominent Congress leader and a son of political stalwart Ganesh Man Singh.

Here are some of the commitments made by Singh in her election manifesto:

1.     To make Kathmandu corruption-free city

2.     To improve the quality of education

3.     To make Kathmandu, a zero waste metropolitan city

4.     To install CCTV cameras in public vehicles to ensure women’s safety

5.     To connect culture, jatras, traditional musical instruments and language among others with tourism

6.     To work unwaveringly for the long-term development of Kathmandu by protecting and promoting the guthi system

7.     To protect daily-wage female workers and working mothers.

8.     To improve pedestrian infrastructure and pedestrianisation of city core areas

9.     To maintain austerity and good governance in the city

10. To protect and expand open areas, parks, ponds and falcha among others

Delhi Capitals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 21 runs in an Indian Premier League match on Thursday, The Indian Express reported.

Earlier, Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and decided to field first.

With this win, Delhi Capitals have played 10 matches and won 5 games, according to The Indian Express.

They are at the 5th spot in the IPL points table.

In a major victory for Sri Lanka's embattled Rajapaksa clan, the government backed nominee on Thursday won the secret vote for the position of Deputy Speaker, demonstrating the ruling SLPP coalition's ability to prove their parliamentary majority despite raging public protests demanding their resignation for mishandling the country's worst economic crisis, PTI reported.

MP Ranjith Siyambalapitiya was re-elected to the position from which he had resigned.

Siyambalapitiya, a member of the former President Maithripala Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), had resigned as his party decided to stay independent of the government.

He was elected with 148 for and 65 against with three invalid votes, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeyawardene announced.

Despite the SLFP going independent, the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) decided to back Siyambalapitiya in their bid to show that the government majority was intact. Speaking after his election as the Deputy Speaker, Siyambalapitiya said he had expected to be unanimously appointed by both the government and the Opposition.

The main Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa said they decided to field their nominee Imtiaz Bakeer Markar as they had learnt the ruling SLPP was to back Siyambalapitiya at a possible secret vote.

Premadasa accused Siyambalapitiya as a "government stooge."

The government majority was seen as fragile since the decision by some 40 lawmakers from the ruling coalition declaring independence in view of the raging public protests calling for the resignation of the entire Rajapaksa family, according to PTI.

With more members from the ruling coalition calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to make way for an interim government of all parties, Rajapaksa stayed put claiming majority.

The Deputy Speaker's vote appears to have restrengthened his position, experts said. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa are coming under increasing pressure to step down in the simmering economic meltdown where people struggle with all essentials, including having to put up with power cuts.

The main opposition party, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), handed over to the Speaker two motions of no-confidence against the SLPP coalition government and embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa under Article 42 of the Constitution.

Article 42 stipulates that the President is responsible to Parliament for the exercise, performance and discharge of his functions  PTI reported.

Any motion needs seven days' notice before getting into the order paper for debate. A date has not yet been announced for a vote on the no-confidence motions.

The Opposition parties accuse top government officials of excessively printing money, hurting farm production by banning chemical fertilizers to make the production fully organic and minimize import costs, failing to order COVID-19 vaccines in a timely manner and buying them later at higher prices.

Sri Lanka is currently in the throes of unprecedented economic turmoil since its independence from Britain in 1948. The crisis is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which has meant that the country cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods and fuel, leading to acute shortages and very high prices, according to PTI.

A key ally of Russia, authoritarian Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, has defended the war in Ukraine while indicating it has not gone to plan, BBC reported.

He told the AP news agency that the operation had "dragged on".

Belarus shares a border with Ukraine and Russia sent troops from there when it launched its invasion.

Russia's Vladimir Putin helped Mr Lukashenko cling to power in 2020 after his widely disputed presidential re-election sparked mass protests.

In turn, Belarus's long-time leader has given his backing to Russia's invasion and critics have said he is little more than a vassal and accomplice to Mr Putin.

In his interview with AP, Mr Lukashenko said that Russia's leader had no choice but to act because Ukraine was "provoking Russia".

But he added: "I am not immersed in this problem enough to say whether it goes according to plan, like the Russians say, or like I feel it, according to BBC.

"I want to stress one more time: I feel like this operation has dragged on."

Mr Lukashenko said he wanted the war to end, saying Belarus had "done and are doing everything" to stop it.

By calling it a war, he went further than Russia's own description of its invasion as a "special military operation". Moscow has justified the war as an effort to "demilitarise and de-Nazify" Ukraine - which is considered a baseless pretext. 

Mr Lukashenko also said that any suggestion that Russia might use nuclear weapons against Ukraine was "unacceptable because it's right next to us", but added he did not know whether Moscow intended to use them.

Although Belarus has provided a platform for Russian forces it has not sent its own troops in. On Wednesday it began snap military drills which it said posed no threat to Ukraine, BBC reported.

Belarus was already under Western sanctions following the 2020 election, and faces further measures over its role in the conflict.

It was one of only a handful of countries to back Russia's invasion at an emergency UN vote.

Out of the 193 UN member states, 141 condemned the war, with some major countries like China and India choosing to abstain, according to BBC.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has apologised after his foreign minister said that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had "Jewish blood", Israel says, BBC reported.

Mr Putin made the apology in a call with Israeli PM Naftali Bennett, his office said in a statement.

Russia's account of the conversation did not mention an apology.

Sergei Lavrov made the initial comments to try to justify Russia's portrayal of Ukraine as "Nazi" despite the fact that its president is Jewish.

Mr Lavrov spoke to Italian TV on Sunday, days after Israel marked Holocaust Remembrance Day - one of the most solemn occasions in the Israeli calendar.

When asked how Russia can claim that it is fighting to "de-Nazify" Ukraine when President Volodymyr Zelensky is himself Jewish, Mr Lavrov said: "I could be wrong, but Hitler also had Jewish blood. [That Zelensky is Jewish] means absolutely nothing. Wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews."

The comments sparked outrage in Israel. Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews in the Holocaust in World War Two, according to BBC.

Israel had demanded an apology, with Mr Bennett saying shortly after that "such lies are meant to blame the Jews themselves for the most terrible crimes in history and thus free the oppressors of the Jews from their responsibility". 

In Thursday's statement, Mr Bennett's office said that he had accepted Mr Putin's apology and "thanked him for clarifying his attitude towards the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust".

Russia said the two discussed the Holocaust, but did not say Mr Putin apologised. 

Israel has tried to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, but has also faced criticism for not taking a tougher line against President Putin.

Israeli media this week reported that Israel was considering boosting its military and civilian assistance to Ukraine, BBC reported.