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Japanese police have admitted there were flaws in the security for former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot dead in the southern city of Nara on Friday, BBC reported.

"It is undeniable that there were problems in the security," said Nara police chief Tomoaki Onizuka.

A gunman opened fire on Abe at a political campaign event - a crime that has profoundly shocked Japan.

Sunday's elections for the upper house are going ahead as planned.

Voting began at 07:00 local time (22:00GMT), just two days after Abe's assassination.

Analysts suggest his killing could boost support for the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), for which Abe was a leading and hugely influential figure. 

Elections for Japan's less-powerful upper house of parliament are typically seen as a referendum on the current government. 

Campaigning continued on Saturday with tighter than usual security.

Police say the suspect, named as Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, held a grudge against a "specific organisation". 

Japanese media quote sources close to the investigation, who say Yamagami believed Abe to be linked to a religious group which, Yamagami alleged, had ruined his mother financially, according to BBC.

The suspect has admitted shooting Abe with a homemade gun, according to police.

"The urgent matter is for us to conduct a thorough investigation to clarify what happened," police chief Onizuka said, without specifying where he saw failings. He was on the verge of tears, addressing journalists.

Yamagami told police he had served in Japan's navy, the Maritime Self-Defense Force, for three years. More recently, he had worked at a factory in western Japan.

Abe was Japan's longest-serving prime minister and died aged 67. He was campaigning for the LDP in the run-up to upper house parliamentary elections on Sunday.

Current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, also an LDP member, said he was "simply speechless", vowing that Japan's democracy would "never yield to violence".

He said the election campaign would continue on Saturday with tightened security, with Sunday's vote still set to go ahead. 

Gun violence is extremely rare in Japan, where handguns are banned and incidences of political violence are almost unheard of.

Police are investigating why Abe was targeted and whether his killer acted alone.

Abe was giving a speech on behalf of a political candidate at a road junction when he was shot from behind. Photos show the suspect standing close to Abe moments beforehand.

Witnesses described seeing a man carrying a large gun moving within a few metres of Abe and firing twice. The former prime minister fell to the ground as bystanders screamed in shock and disbelief, BBC reported.

Thousands gathered in the US capital on Saturday, marching through pouring rain and risking arrest to protest the reversal of abortion rights last month, BBC reported.

The demonstration came two weeks after the Supreme Court repealed Roe v Wade - the ruling that had guaranteed abortion access nationwide for nearly 50 years.

Chanting "we won't go back", protesters converged on the White House, with some tying themselves to the gates outside. 

An estimated 10,000 people gathered from across the US, organisers said. 

Lauren Pierce, 33, an attorney from Dallas, was among them, travelling some 1,300 miles (2,100km) to attend the demonstration.

"There's nothing, to me, more worth fighting for than this cause - our fundamental right to have bodily autonomy," she said. "If that means taking up space and getting arrested then I think it's worth it."

Ms Pierce's home state of Texas is among the 10 US states where abortion has already been prohibited. At least a dozen other states are expected to follow.

Anti-abortion campaigners, many of whom see abortion as "murder", have celebrated the court's decision and the opportunity to outlaw the procedure in large swathes of the country.

Ms Pierce said she had begun to hear of Texans who have found themselves suddenly without reproductive care. The average one-way driving distance for a person in Texas seeking an abortion in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy is now 250 miles, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice research group, according to BBC. 

"We're blocked in," she said. 

Ms Pierce, like many others gathered at the White House, expressed frustration with President Joe Biden and his administration for not doing more to protect abortion access. Indeed, during Saturday's event organised by the Women's March, mention of Mr Biden's Democratic party drew nearly as many jeers as did mention of the Republicans. 

On Friday, facing pressure from progressives, Mr Biden signed an executive order directing his health department to protect abortion care, including access to medication abortion and emergency contraception, and safeguards for patient privacy.

But the president's power is limited. He cannot force through legislation in Congress and he cannot undo the decision of the Supreme Court, now a 6-3 conservative supermajority. 

"We know there are limits to his authority, but we want him to push that authority to its limit," said Rachel O'Leary Carmona, executive director of the Women's March. 

Still, Ms Carmona said the order was an important first step. 

"We're calling on President Biden to continue to take steps to protect abortion nationally," she said. "And if he can't do anything more from behind his desk he should get out into the streets." 

But to many pro-choice advocates, Mr Biden's administration has failed to meet the moment after a historic reversal in women's rights. 

"This is the first time ever a constitutional right has been taken away," said Helen Miller, 56, from Virginia. "We're here for our daughters, our children, our lives."

Some 40 million women of reproductive age are expected to lose access to abortion in the coming weeks, BBC reported.

Joanne Morris, 75, took in Saturday's protest from her hot pink wheelchair, holding a cardboard sign. "This boomer believes in choice and freedom," it said.

Standing with her daughter, Lisa, Ms Morris said she had travelled from Pennsylvania for her 16-year-old granddaughter. 

"I want to see her have the same choices that I had," she said. 

Ms Morris, a retired nurse, was 26 when the Supreme Court recognised a federal right to an abortion. She said didn't believe she would live to see Roe fall. "It feels like the country is headed in the wrong direction," she said, according to BBC.

Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister agreed to resign Saturday after the country’s most chaotic day in months of political turmoil, with protesters storming both officials’ homes and setting fire to one of the buildings in a rage over the nation’s severe economic crisis, Associated Press reported.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he will leave office once a new government is in place, and hours later the speaker of Parliament said President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would step down Wednesday. Pressure on both men grew as the economic meltdown set off acute shortages of essential items, leaving people struggling to buy food, fuel and other necessities.

Police had attempted to thwart promised protests with a curfew, then lifted it as lawyers and opposition politicians denounced it as illegal. Thousands of protesters entered the capital, Colombo, and swarmed into Rajapaksa’s fortified residence. Video images showed jubilant crowds splashing in the garden pool, lying on beds and using their cellphone cameras to capture the moment. Some made tea, while others issued statements from a conference room demanding that the president and prime minister go.

It was not clear if Rajapaksa was there at the time, and government spokesman Mohan Samaranayake said he had no information about the president’s movements.

Protesters later broke into the prime minister’s private residence and set it on fire, Wickremesinghe’s office said. It wasn’t immediately clear if he was there when the incursion happened.

Earlier, police fired tear gas at protesters who gathered in the streets to march on the presidential residence, waving flags, banging drums and chanting slogans. In all, more than 30 people were hurt in Saturday’s chaos.

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said in a televised statement that he informed Rajapaksa that parliamentary leaders had met and decided to request he leave office, and the president agreed. However, Rajapaksa will remain temporarily to ensure a smooth transfer of power, Abeywardena added, according to Associated Press.

“He asked me to inform the country that he will make his resignation on Wednesday the 13th, because there is a need to hand over power peacefully,” Abeywardena said.

“Therefore there is no need for further disturbances in the country, and I urge everyone for the sake of the country to maintain peace to enable a smooth transition,” the speaker continued.

Opposition lawmaker Rauff Hakeem said a consensus was reached for the speaker of Parliament to take over as temporary president and work on an interim government.

Wickremesinghe announced his own impending resignation but said he would not step down until a new government is formed, angering protesters who demanded his immediate departure. 

“Today in this country we have a fuel crisis, a food shortage, we have the head of the World Food Program coming here and we have several matters to discuss with the IMF,” Wickremesinghe said. “Therefore, if this government leaves there should be another government.”

Wickremesinghe said he suggested to the president to have an all-party government, but did not say anything about Rajapaksa’s whereabouts. Opposition parties were discussing the formation of a new government.

Rajapaksa appointed Wickremesinghe as prime minister in May in the hope that the career politician would use his diplomacy and contacts to resuscitate a collapsed economy. But people’s patience wore thin as shortages of fuel, medicine and cooking gas only increased and oil reserves ran dry. Authorities have also temporarily shuttered schools. 

The country is relying on aid from India and other nations as leaders try to negotiate a bailout with the International Monetary Fund. Wickremesinghe said recently that negotiations with the IMF were complex because Sri Lanka was now a bankrupt state.

Sri Lanka announced in April that it was suspending repayment of foreign loans due to a foreign currency shortage. Its total foreign debt amounts to $51 billion, of which it must repay $28 billion by the end of 2027, Associated Press reported.

Months of demonstrations have all but dismantled the Rajapaksa political dynasty, which has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades but is accused by protesters of mismanagement and corruption. The president’s older brother resigned as prime minister in May after violent protests saw him seek safety at a naval base.

With fuel costs making other forms of travel impossible for many, protesters crowded onto buses and trains Saturday to get to the capital, while others made their way on bicycles and on foot. At the president’s seaside office, security personnel tried in vain to stop protesters who pushed through fences to run across the lawns and inside the colonial-era building. 

At least 34 people including two police officers were hurt in scuffles. Two were in critical condition, while others sustained minor injuries, according to an official at the Colombo National Hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media. 

Privately owned Sirasa Television said at least six of its workers, including four reporters, were hospitalized after being beaten by police while covering the protest at the prime minister’s home.

Sri Lanka Medical Council, the country’s top professional body, warned that hospitals were running with minimum resources and would not be able to handle any mass casualties from the unrest. 

Protest and religious leaders said Rajapaksa has lost his mandate and it is time for him to go.

“His claim that he was voted in by the Sinhala Buddhists is not valid now,” said Omalpe Sobitha, a prominent Buddhist leader. He urged Parliament to convene immediately to select an interim president, according to Associated Press.

The government of Nepal has decided to observe one-day national mourning on July 9 in honor of former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe who succumbed to bullet injuries on Friday.

A Cabinet meeting held today decided to observe the national mourning over the death of Abe tomorrow.

Abe died after being shot while campaigning for a parliamentary election in the Nara region on Friday.

He was rushed to a hospital but doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

Abe (67) was the longest-serving leader of Japan before he resigned for health reasons in 2020.

Nepal reported 98 new Covid-19 cases on Friday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 061 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 83 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 093 people underwent antigen tests, of which 15 were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 27 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 564 active cases in the country.

The government has withdrawn the Citizenship Bill from the Parliament on Friday.

The Nepal Citizenship (First Amendment) Bill 2075 presented by Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand has been withdrawn from the House of Representatives.

The main opposition CPN-UML lawmakers protested against the proposal to withdraw the bill.

Minister Khand said that the Citizenship Bill will be presented again from the Cabinet meeting today itself.

The KP Sharma Oli government had registered the bill at the Parliament Secretariat on August 7, 2018.

Two persons died and 44 others were injured in a tractor accident at Dumkata in Chainpur Municipality-10, Sankhuwasabha district on Friday.

DSP Laldhoj Subedi of the District Police Office said that the deceased have been identified as Keshav Karki and Ganga Bahadur Tamang.

Among the injured, one is said to be in critical condition.

Police said that the injured are being treated at the Manakamana Community Hospital and the District Hospital.

According to police, they have arrested tractor (Ko 2 Ta 3961) driver Mohan Kumar Tamang (34) of Chainpur-10 for investigation.

Chief of Army Staff Prabhuram Sharma and Indian ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava held a meeting at the Bhadrakali-based Jungiadda on Friday.

During the meeting, the duo discussed issues of mutual interest among others, read a statement issued by the Nepal Army.

Nepal Army said that this kind of meeting will help further strengthening the bilateral ties between the two countries.

After assuming office, ambassador Srivastava has already paid courtesy calls on Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka and leaders of major political parties.