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Sri Lanka has suspended sales of fuel for non-essential vehicles as it faces its worst economic crisis in decades, BBC reported.

For the next two weeks, only buses, trains and vehicles used for medical services and transporting food will be allowed to fill up with fuel.

Schools in urban areas have shut, while officials have told the country's 22 million residents to work from home.

The South Asian nation is in talks over a bailout deal as it struggles to pay for imports such as fuel and food.

Sri Lanka is the first country to take the drastic step in halting sales of fuel to ordinary people "since the 1970s oil crisis, when fuel was rationed in the US and Europe and speed limits introduced to reduce demand", Nathan Piper, head of oil and gas research at Investec, told the BBC.

He said the ban underlined the steep rise in oil pricing and limited foreign exchange reserves in Sri Lanka. 

Many of the island's residents don't know how they will cope without fuel. There have been long queues at filling stations across Sri Lanka for months. 

Chinthaka Kumara, a 29-year-old taxi driver in Colombo, thought the ban would "create more problems for people". 

"I'm a daily wage earner. I've been in this queue for three days and I don't know when we will get petrol," he told BBC Sinhala.

Drivers have been asked to go home, with tokens distributed aimed at rationing scarce fuel stocks. Some kept queuing, but others couldn't. 

"I was in a queue for two days. I got a token - number 11 - but I don't know when I will get fuel," S Wijetunga, a 52-year-old private sector executive, told the BBC. 

"I need to go to the office now, so I have no option but to leave my vehicle here and go in a three-wheeler." 

Kenat, a motorised rickshaw driver in the Colombo suburb of Kotahena, said people like him were being "destroyed".

"Our family used to have three meals a day. Now we eat only twice a day. If this continues, it will come down to one meal," he told BBC Tamil.

Donald Trump rebuffed his own security’s warnings about armed protesters in the Jan. 6 rally crowd and made desperate attempts to join his supporters as they marched to the Capitol, according to dramatic new testimony Tuesday before the House committee investigating the 2021 insurrection, Associated Press reported.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a little-known former White House aide, described an angry, defiant president that day who was trying to let armed protesters avoid security screenings at a rally that morning to protest his 2020 election defeat and who later grabbed at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV when the Secret Service refused to let him go to the Capitol.

And when the events at the Capitol spiraled toward violence, with the crowd chanting to “Hang Mike Pence,” she testified that Trump declined to intervene.

Trump “doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong,” Hutchinson recalled hearing from her boss, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Hutchinson’s explosive, moment-by-moment account of what was happening inside and outside the White House offered a vivid description of a president so unwilling to concede his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden that he acted out in rage and refused to stop the siege at the Capitol. It painted a damning portrait of the chaos at the White House as those around the defeated president splintered into one faction supporting his false claims of voter fraud and another trying unsuccessfully to put an end to the violent attack.

Her testimony, at a surprise hearing announced just 24 hours earlier, was the sole focus at the hearing, the sixth by the committee this month. The account was particularly powerful because of her proximity to power, with Hutchinson describing what she witnessed first-hand and was told by others in the White House, according to Associated Press.

Hutchinson said that she was told Trump fought a security official for control of the presidential SUV on Jan. 6 and demanded to be taken the Capitol as the insurrection began, despite being warned earlier that day that some of his supporters were armed.

The former aide said she was told of the altercation in the SUV immediately afterward by a White House security official, and that Bobby Engel, the head of the detail, was in the room and didn’t dispute the account. Engel had grabbed Trump’s arm to prevent him from gaining control of the armored vehicle, she was told, and Trump then used his free hand to lunge at Engel.

That account was quickly disputed. Engel, the agent who was driving the presidential SUV, and Trump security official Tony Ornato are willing to testify under oath that no agent was assaulted and Trump never lunged for the steering wheel, a person familiar with the matter said. The person would not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

As the events of Jan. 6 unfurled, Hutchinson, then a special assistant to Meadows, described chaos in White House offices and hallways. Trump’s staff — several of whom had been warned of violence beforehand — became increasingly alarmed as rioters at the Capitol overran police and interrupted the certification of Biden’s victory.

Trump was less concerned, she said, even as he heard there were cries in the crowd to “Hang Mike Pence!” Hutchinson recalled that Meadows told aides that Trump “thinks Mike deserves it.” The president tweeted during the attack that Pence didn’t have the courage to object to Biden’s win as he presided over the joint session of Congress, Associated Press reported.

The young ex-aide was matter-of-fact in most of her answers. But she did say that she was “disgusted” at Trump’s tweet about Pence during the siege. 

“It was unpatriotic, it was un-American, and you were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie,” Hutchinson said, adding that, “I still struggle to work through the emotions of that.” 

Trump denied much of what Hutchinson said on his social media platform, Truth Social. He called her a “total phony” and “bad news.” 

Members of the panel praised Hutchinson’s bravery for testifying and said that other witnesses had been intimidated and did not cooperate.

“I want all Americans to know that what Ms. Hutchinson has done today is not easy,” said Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican who led questioning.

Some of Hutchinson’s former colleagues, too, dcfended her account. Mick Mulvaney, who preceded Meadows as Trump’s chief of staff, tweeted that he knows Hutchinson and “I don’t think she is lying.” Sarah Matthews, a former Trump press aide who has also cooperated with the committee, called the testimony “damning.” 

As she described the scene in the White House after the election, Hutchinson depicted a president flailing in anger and prone to violent outbursts. Some aides sought to rein in his impulses. Some did not.

At one point on Jan. 6, Hutchinson said, White House counsel Pat Cipollone barreled down the hallway and confronted Meadows about rioters breaching the Capitol. Meadows, staring at his phone, told the White House lawyer that Trump didn’t want to do anything, she said, Associated Press reported.

Earlier, Cipollone had worried out loud that “we’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable” if Trump went to the Capitol after his speech at the rally, Hutchinson recalled. 

Before the crowd left for the Capitol, Hutchinson said she also received an angry call from House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who had just heard the president say he was coming. “Don’t come up here,” McCarthy told her, before hanging up. 

Hutchinson told the panel that Trump had been informed early in the day that some of the protesters outside the White House had weapons. But he responded that the protesters were “not here to hurt me,” Hutchinson said.

Singer R. Kelly could face decades in prison when he is sentenced on Wednesday, nine months after being found guilty of running a scheme to sexually abuse women and children, BBC reported.

In September, a New York jury convicted the disgraced pop star of racketeering and eight counts of sex trafficking.

The 55-year-old R&B singer will spend at least 10 years in prison, with the maximum possible sentence being life.

Prosecutors have said he should spend at least 25 years behind bars.

The singer - known for the hit songs I Believe I Can Fly and Ignition (Remix) - was found to have been the ringleader of a violent and coercive scheme to lure women and children for him to sexually abuse.

The six-week trial heard how he trafficked women between different US states, assisted by managers, security guards and other entourage members, over two decades, according to BBC.

Prosecutors said he showed a "callous disregard" for his victims and showed no remorse.

"Indeed, the defendant's decades of crime appear to have been fuelled by narcissism and a belief that his musical talent absolved him of any need to conform his conduct - no matter how predatory, harmful, humiliating or abusive to others - to the strictures of the law," they said.

The court also heard how Kelly had illegally obtained paperwork to marry singer Aaliyah when she was 15 in 1994, seven years before the singer died in a plane crash.

The certificate, leaked at the time, listed Aaliyah's age as 18. The marriage was annulled months later.

After several delays, he will be sentenced at the US District Court in New York on Wednesday, BBC reported.

Kelly is separately facing trial in Chicago on child sex images and obstruction charges. He is also due to face sex abuse charges in Illinois and Minnesota.

Ghislaine Maxwell has been sentenced to 20 years in a US prison for helping former financier Jeffrey Epstein abuse young girls, BBC reported.

Maxwell, 60, was convicted in December of recruiting and trafficking four teenage girls for sexual abuse by Epstein, her then boyfriend.

One of her accusers said outside the court in New York that she should stay in prison for the rest of her life.

Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019. 

He had been awaiting his own sex trafficking trial.

Ghislaine Maxwell's crimes took place over a decade, between 1994 and 2004.

Pronouncing the sentence, Judge Alison J Nathan said Maxwell's conduct had been "heinous and predatory".

"Ms Maxwell worked with Epstein to select young victims who were vulnerable and played a pivotal role in facilitating sexual abuse," she added, according to BBC.

She said the case called for a "very significant sentence" and that she wanted to send an "unmistakable message" that such crimes would be punished. 

As well as jail time, the judge imposed a fine of $750,000 (£610,000).

Maxwell, whose lawyers had argued for a term of less than five years, looked straight ahead and showed no emotion as the sentence was passed in front of a packed public gallery.

Earlier, she addressed her victims. She said she empathised with them, adding that she hoped her prison sentence would allow the victims "peace and finality".

Maxwell has been in custody since her arrest in July 2020, held mostly at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center.

The case against the British former socialite has been one of the highest-profile since the emergence of the #MeToo movement, which encouraged women to speak out about sexual abuse, BBC reported.

Former CPN-UML Vice-Chairman Bamdev Gautam has announced the formation of a new political party--Nepal Communist Party Ekata Rastriya Abhiyan--on Tuesday.

He announced the formation of the new political party by organizing a press conference  at the Reporters' Club in Kathmandu this afternoon.

The party will have a 75-member Central Committee and a 15-member Standing Committee.

A Nepali parliamentary delegation led by Speaker of the House of Representatives Agni Prasad Sapkota has left for Azerbaijan to attend the conference of the Non-Aligned Movement Parliamentary Network to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan on Tuesday.

The event will be held from June 30 to July 2.

House of Representatives member Pushpa Bhushal and National Assembly member Ram Chandra Rai and Sapkota's personal secretary Govinda Pathak among others are in the delegation team.

Speaker Sapkota is scheduled to address the conference on behalf on Nepal.

The conference is scheduled to endorse the Statute on working modalities of the Non Aligned Movement Parliamentary Network and issue the Baku Declaration.

A leak of toxic chlorine gas at Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba has killed 13 people and injured more than 260 others, state media report, BBC reported.

Authorities said a chemical storage container fell while being transported as a result of a crane malfunction.

CCTV footage showed the container being hoisted into the air and then suddenly dropping on to a ship and exploding.

A large cloud of bright yellow gas is seen spreading across the ground, sending people running for safety.

State media said on Monday night that 123 of the injured were still being treated at local hospitals for chemical exposure. Some were reportedly in a critical condition.

Chlorine is a chemical used in industry and in household cleaning products. It is a yellow-green gas at normal temperature and pressure, but is usually pressurised and cooled for storage and shipment, according to BBC.

When chlorine is inhaled, swallowed or comes into contact with skin, it reacts with water to produce acids that damage cells in the body. Inhaling high levels of chlorine causes fluid to build up in the lungs - a life-threatening condition known as pulmonary oedema.

Residents of Aqaba city, which is 16km (10 miles) north of the port, were advised to stay inside and close windows and doors following the leak, which happened at 15:15 (12:15 GMT) on Monday. 

Aqaba's southern beach, which is only 7km away and is a popular tourist destination, was also evacuated as a precaution, AFP news agency reported.

After several hours Minister of State for Media Affairs Faisal Shboul declared that there was no longer any risk to the city and its residents.

The Civil Defence Department sent specialist teams to the port to deal with the leak and clean-up operation. 

Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh flew to Aqaba and visited a hospital that was treating some of the injured.

He ordered Interior Minister Mazen Faraya to oversee a transparent investigation into the "regrettable" tragedy and to guarantee "all resources to ensure the total security of workers at the ports and all necessary precautions in relation to hazardous materials".

The deputy director of Aqaba's port told AlMamlaka TV that an "iron rope" carrying the container "broke" while it was being loaded on to a vessel, BBC reported.

The container was filled with between 25 and 30 tonnes of chlorine and was being exported to Djibouti.

Nepal reported 44 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 852 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 38 returned positive. Likewise, 946 people underwent antigen tests, of which six were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of the virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 17 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 229 active cases in the country.