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The mayor of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol said Monday that more than 10,000 civilians have died in the Russian siege of his city, and that the death toll could surpass 20,000, as weeks of attacks and privation leave the bodies of Mariupol’s people “carpeted through the streets.”

Speaking by phone Monday with The Associated Press, Mayor Vadym Boychenko also accused Russian forces of having blocked weeks of thwarted humanitarian convoys into the city in an attempt to conceal the carnage there from the outside world, Associated Press reported.

Mariupol has been cut off by Russian attacks that began soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in late February, and has suffered some of the most brutal assaults of the war. Boychenko gave new details of recent allegations by Ukrainian officials that Russian forces have brought mobile cremation equipment to Mariupol to dispose of the corpses of victims of the siege.

Russian forces have taken many bodies to a huge shopping center where there are storage facilities and refrigerators, Boychenko said.

“Mobile crematoriums have arrived in the form of trucks: You open it, and there is a pipe inside and these bodies are burned,” he said.

Boychenko spoke from a location in Ukrainian-controlled territory but outside Mariupol. The mayor said he had several sources for his description of the allegedly methodic burning of corpses by Russian forces in the city, but did not detail the sources of his information. 

The discovery of large numbers of apparently executed civilians after Russian forces retreated from cities around the capital, Kyiv, this month already has prompted widespread condemnation and charges from Ukrainians and the West that Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine, according to the Associated Press.

Elsewhere Monday, US officials pointed to new signs that Russia’s military is gearing up for a major offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, switching its focus after Russian forces failed in their initial drive to capture Kyiv.

Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region since 2014, and have declared independent states. A major confrontation between the two countries’ fighters in Donbas would allow Russia to try to use its numbers and greater military might to capture more territory there. Western military strategists say Russia also hopes to force Ukrainian fighters out into the open in more conventional battles in the east, rather than the successful hit-and-run attacks Ukrainian fighters have often employed so far.

Russia has appointed a seasoned general to lead its renewed push in the eastern Donbas region.

A senior US defense official on Monday described a long Russian convoy now rolling toward the eastern city of Izyum with artillery, aviation and infantry support, as part of redeployment for what appears to be a looming Russian campaign in the east.

More artillery is being deployed near the city of Donetsk, while ground combat units that withdrew from around the Kyiv and Chernihiv areas appear destined for refitting and resupplying before they position in Donbas, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal US military assessments.

With their offensive in many parts of the country thwarted, Russian forces have relied increasingly on bombarding cities — a strategy that has flattened many urban areas and killed thousands of people, Associated Press reported.

A new organization called Entrepreneur Association of Nepal has been formed with the objective of identifying the overall problems of the entrepreneurs of the country and taking them to the policy making level.

The organization was formed from the first meeting held under the chairmanship of Surendra Pandey, who is also the former finance minister.

Young entrepreneur Deepak Bastola and Bishal KC has been elected as the coordinator and secretary respectively of the newly formed forum.

Secretary KC informed that the organization has been established to play a coordinating role at the local, national and international level by providing all kinds of support to the new entrepreneurs. "Our plan is to set up an idea bank and create a National Incubation Lab for investment by collecting ideas and funds" says KC.

The meeting formed a 51-member organization under the headship of Bastola.

Sandesh Dhakal, agname, The NaZim has unveiled the release of new single ‘K Vayo’ from the upcoming first studio album ‘Insane Mind’.

After releasing ‘Yeutai’  focused on the English language, The NaZim says, the listeners asked for a native nepali hip-hop song. The new song, scheduled to release on April 19, hints about the pressure and stress resulting sleepless nights felt by a middle class adult while balancing music and personal life.

“I had a dream to create songs that act as a friend or supporting medium for the youth”, he says. Nepali hiphop genre has a potential to be internationally renowned but due to the prevailing problems, many artists and creative minds are shaded, he adds. 

Youtube here.

Pakistan’s parliament has elected Shehbaz Sharif as the country’s new prime minister following the weekend removal of Imran Khan in a vote of no confidence, Aljazeera reported.

Ahead of the vote on Monday, lawmakers from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party resigned en masse, boycotting the election of Sharif, the younger brother of three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

A swearing-in ceremony is due to be held later on Monday.

The vote was held under tight security, with nearly all roads leading to the National Assembly sealed.

Sharif, who led the opposition effort to dismiss Khan, has promised his government would improve the economy and not seek revenge from political opponents, according to Aljazeera.

The 70-year-old leader comes from a family of industrialists that has become a political dynasty.

He was elected to National Assembly in 2018 and headed the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party after his elder brother was barred from holding public office for life after being held guilty of corruption.

Khan, a cricketer-turned-politician, was removed in the early hours of Sunday after 174 MPs voted against him in parliament, Aljazeera reported.

Later in the day, tens of thousands of PTI supporters took to the streets in cities across Pakistan to express their support.

“The rallies have given the message that Khan was still a popular leader,” political analyst Zahid Hussain told Al Jazeera.

Nepal reported 22 new Covid-19 cases on Monday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 3, 972 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 22 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 172 people underwent antigen tests, of which no one were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 46 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 568 active cases in the country.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 44. 56 points to close at 2,419.80 points on Monday.

Similarly, the sensitive dropped by 8.87 points to close at  454.87 points.

A total of  5,095,834 units of the shares of 233 companies were traded for Rs 2.26 billion.

Meanwhile, NESDO Samridha Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 10 percent. Likewise, Emerging Nepal Limited was the top loser with its price dropped by 9.98 percent.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 3.43 trillion.

One person was killed and another one injured in a communal clash in Khambhat city of Gujarat during a procession taken out on the occasion of Ram Navami on Sunday, while Himmatnagar city in the state also witnessed violence between members of two communities during a similar event, police said, The Economic Times reported.

The clashing groups indulged in stone-pelting and arson at both the places and the police had to lob tear gas shells to bring the situation under control, officials said.

While Khambhat city is located in Anand district, Himmatnagar lies in Sabarkantha district, according to The Economic Times.

“The body of an unidentified man, who appears to be around 65 years old, was recovered from the spot in Khambhat, where two groups pelted each other with stones after a clash broke out between them during a Ram Navami procession late this afternoon,” Superintendent of Police Ajeet Rajyan said.

Another person was injured and a few shop cabins were set on fire by the miscreants during the incident, he said.

Three persons died after being hit by a car near BP Chowk in Nepalgunj on Sunday. 

The deceased have been identified as Samina Idrisi (65) of Nepalgunj-11, Ali Idrisi and five-year-old Kasim Idrisi, said Police Inspector Himalaya Shah Chief of Banke District Traffic Police Office.

Inspector Shah further said that the car (Province 3-01-23 Cha 8481) hit the pedestrians last night. 

The car driver had taken all the critically injured pedestrians to the Teaching Hospital Nepalgunj. 

The hospital pronounced them dead after 15 minutes of their arrival. 

Police arrested car driver Indra Bahadur Thapa (28) of Nepalgunj sub-metropolitan city-10 and started an investigation into the incident, Inspector Shah said. RSS