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Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Saturday that Ukrainian statehood is in jeopardy and likened the West’s sanctions on Russia to “declaring war,” while a promised cease-fire in the besieged port city of Mariupol collapsed amid scenes of terror, Associated Press reported.

With the Kremlin’s rhetoric growing fiercer and a reprieve from fighting dissolving, Russian troops continued to shell encircled cities and the number of Ukrainians forced from their country grew to 1.4 million. By Saturday night Russian forces had intensified their shelling of Mariupol, while dropping powerful bombs on residential areas of Chernihiv, a city north of Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said.

Bereft mothers mourned slain children, wounded soldiers were fitted with tourniquets and doctors worked by the light of their cellphones as bleakness and desperation pervaded. Putin continued to pin the blamefor all of it squarely on the Ukrainian leadership and slammed their resistance to the invasion, Associated Press reported.

“If they continue to do what they are doing, they are calling into question the future of Ukrainian statehood,” he said. “And if this happens, it will be entirely on their conscience.”

He also hit out at Western sanctions that have crippled Russia’s economy and sent the value of its currency tumbling.

“These sanctions that are being imposed, they are akin to declaring war,” he said during a televised meeting with flight attendants from Russian airline Aeroflot. “But thank God, we haven’t got there yet.”

Russia’s financial system suffered yet another blow as Mastercard and Visa announced they were suspending operations in the country, according to Associated Press.

Ten days after Russian forces invaded, the struggle to enforce the temporary cease-fires in Mariupol and the eastern city of Volnovakha showed the fragility of efforts to stop the fighting across Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials said Russian artillery fire and airstrikes had prevented residents from leaving before the agreed-to evacuations got underway. Putin accused Ukraine of sabotaging the effort.

At least four persons were injured when a container and a truck collided with each other at Jangha Pul in Bardibas Municipality-5 of Mahottari on Saturday.

Container driver Raju Lama (42) of Mahankal Rural Municipality-3, Lalitpur was critically injured in the incident, Inspector Balistar Singh of the Area Police Office, Bardibas said.

Lama has been sent to Kathmandu for the treatment.

Sujata Khadka (22) of Dharibathan, Ishwor-12,  Sarlahi, who was travelling in truck, sustained deep cut in his head.

Truck driver Rumesh Barayeli (30) of Bardibas-3 and assistant driver Niraj Pariyar were injured in the incident.

They are undergoing treatment at the Bardibas Hospital.

The incident occurred when the truck (Na 3 Kha 6964) heading towards Sarlahi from Bardibas collided head-on with the container (Province 1-02-001-Kha 9097) this morning, police said.

The newly-elected 19 members of the National Assembly have taken the oath of office and secrecy.

National Assembly Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina administered the oath of office and secrecy amidst a special function organized at the Federal Parliament Secretariat today.

Those taking an oath of office and secrecy as National Assembly members include Jayanti Devi Rai, Sonam Goljen Sherpa, Gopal Kumar Basnet, Urmila Aryal, Mohammad Khalid, Goma Devi Timilsina, Krishna Prasad Poudel, Kamala Panta, Bhuwan Bahadur Sunar, Suresh Kumar Ale Magar, Rajendra Laxmi Gaire, Tul Prasad Bishwokarma, Yubraj Sharma, Durga Gurung, Nar Bahadur Bista, Uday Bahadur Bohara, Madan Kumari Shah (Garima), Jagat Bahadur Parki and Narayan Dutta Mishra.

The election for 19 vacant posts of NA members was held on January 26. The term of the newly elected 19 members would be six years. On the occasion, NA Chair Timalsina handed over an emblem of the Federal Parliament to the newly elected members.

General-Secretary of the Federal Parliament Secretariat, Dr Bharatraj Gautam, on the behalf of the Secretariat, wished the newly-elected National Assembly members for a successful tenure.

Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Dilendra Prasad Badu, parliamentary party leaders, chief whips and whips of different political parties in the National Assembly were present on the occasion.

The Parliament Secretariat has scheduled a programme to impart brief information about the parliament and parliamentary practices to the newly elected NA members today itself. RSS

South Korea was deploying nearly 2,000 firefighters and troops on Saturday to battle a large wildfire that tore through an eastern coastal area and temporarily threatened a nuclear power station and a liquified natural gas plant, Associated Press reported.

The fire, which began Friday morning on a mountain in the seaside town of Uljin and spread across more than 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) to the nearby city of Samcheok, destroyed at least 90 homes and other buildings and prompted the evacuation of nearly 6,000 people.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths. South Korea's Ministry of the Interior and Safety said officials were investigating the cause of the blaze, which grew rapidly amid strong winds and dry conditions, according to the Associated Press.

As of Saturday morning, more than 1,950 firefighters and troops as well as 51 helicopters and 273 vehicles, were being deployed to contain the fire. Hundreds of firefighters worked overnight to successfully prevent the blaze from spreading to an LNG production facility in Samcheok.

President Moon Jae-in issued an alarm Friday afternoon as the fire reached the perimeter of a seaside nuclear power plant in Uljin, forcing the operator to reduce operations to 50% and cut off some electricity lines as preventive measures.

Hundreds of firefighters were deployed to the plant and kept the blaze under control before winds drove it northward toward Samcheok, said Kang Dae-hoon, a National Fire Agency official, Associated Press reported.

Officials didn't immediately say when they expected the fire to be under control.

The Russian military is observing a ceasefire in two areas of Ukraine to allow civilians to evacuate, Russian state media reported Saturday, but there was no immediate confirmation from Ukraine. It would be the first breakthrough in allowing civilians to escape the war, Associated Press reported.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that it had agreed on evacuation routes with Ukrainian forces to allow civilians to leave the strategic port of Mariupol in the southeast and the eastern town of Volnovakha “from 10 a.m. Moscow time.” The vaguely worded statement did not make clear how long the routes would remain open.

The head of Ukraine’s security council, Oleksiy Danilov, had called on Russia to create humanitarian corridors to allow children, women and the older adults to get away from the fighting, calling such corridors “question No. 1.”

As Russian forces batter strategic locations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has lashed out at NATO for refusing to impose a no-fly zone over his country, warning that “all the people who die from this day forward will also die because of you, according to the Associated Press.

NATO said a no-fly zone could provoke widespread war in Europe with nuclear-armed Russia. But as the United States and other NATO members send weapons for Kyiv and more than 1 million refugees spill through the continent, the conflict is already drawing in countries far beyond Ukraine’s borders.

Russia continues to crack down on independent media reporting on the war, also blocking Facebook and Twitter, and more outlets say they are pausing their work inside the country.

And in a warning of a hunger crisis yet to come, the U.N. World Food Program says millions of people inside Ukraine, a major global wheat supplier, will need food aid “immediately.”

Ukraine’s president was set to brief U.S. senators on Saturday by video conference as Congress considers a request for $10 billion in emergency funding for humanitarian aid and security needs, Associated Press reported.

Tibetans living Nepal as refugees celebrated Tibetan New Year (Lhosar) on Saturday.

The Tibetan Community celebrated the New Year 2149 Tiger Year in Jawlakhel this morning.

A limited number of people from the Tibetan Community and representatives of the diplomatic community were invited in the programme.

On the occasion, they worshipped the portrait  of religious leader Dalai Lama.

Chiefs and representatives of various diplomatic missions in Nepal were invited on the third day of the Tibetan New Year.

American Ambassador to Nepal Randy W. Berry, British Ambassador to Nepal Nicola Pollitt, Swiss Ambassador to Nepal Elisabeth von Capeller and Australian Ambassador among others attended the programme.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday intensified a crackdown on media outlets and individuals who fail to hew to the Kremlin line on Russia’s war in Ukraine, blocking Facebook and Twitter and signing into law a bill that criminalizes the intentional spreading of what Moscow deems to be “fake” reports, Associated Press reported.

The moves against the social media giants follow blocks imposed on the BBC, the U.S. government-funded Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and Latvia-based website Meduza. The government’s sweeping action against the foreign outlets that publish news in Russian seeks to establish even tighter controls over what information the domestic audience sees about the invasion of Ukraine.

The state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said it cut access to Twitter and Facebook in line with a decision by the prosecutor general’s office. The watchdog has previously accused Twitter of failing to delete the content banned by Russian authorities and slowed down access to it.

Twitter said in a statement Friday afternoon that while the company is “aware of reports” that its platform is blocked in Russia, it has not been able to confirm whether this is the case, according to the Associated Press.

The bill, quickly rubber-stamped by both houses of the Kremlin-controlled parliament and signed by Putin, imposes prison sentences of up to 15 years for those spreading information that goes against the Russian government’s narrative on the war.

The question regarding Russia is no longer “what we do to stop disinformation,” former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said on Friday. “The question has to be how do we promote information inside Russia -- and I don’t have the answer.”

Multiple outlets said they would pause their work inside Russia to evaluate the situation. Among them, CNN said it would stop broadcasting in Russia while Bloomberg and the BBC said they would temporarily suspend the work of their journalists there.

Russian authorities have repeatedly and falsely decried reports of Russian military setbacks or civilian deaths in Ukraine as “fake” news. State media outlets refer to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “special military operation” rather than a war or an invasion, Associated Press reported.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, said the measure “will force those who lied and made statements discrediting our armed forces to bear very grave punishment.”

“I want everyone to understand, and for society to understand, that we are doing this to protect our soldiers and officers, and to protect the truth,” he added.

The law envisages sentences of up to three years or fines for spreading what authorities deem to be false news about the military, but the maximum punishment rises to 15 years for cases deemed to have led to “severe consequences, according to the Associated Press.

Legendary Australia spinner Shane Warne passed away on Friday aged 52 of a suspected heart attack, India Today reported.

The Australian cricketer was at a villa in Thailand when the doctors unsuccessfully tried to revive him.

“Shane was found unresponsive in his villa and despite the best efforts of medical staff, he could not be revived,” a statement read.

“The family requests privacy at this time and will provide further details in due course."

Only on Friday morning, Shane Warne had posted on social media, expressing his condolences to the family of another legendary Australian cricketer Rod Marsh who passed away on Thursday, according to India Today.

"Sad to hear the news that Rod Marsh has passed. He was a legend of our great game & an inspiration to so many young boys & girls. Rod cared deeply about cricket & gave so much-especially to Australia & England players. Sending lots & lots of love to Ros & the family. RIP mate," he had written on Twitter.

Warne, who had been active on social media, only posted from Thailand on Thursday evening. The legendary leg-spinner shared a photo of the villa where he had been staying in the Asian nation.

Shane Warne, one of the greatest-ever cricketers to have played the sport, picked up 708 wickets in 145 Tests. His career spanned over 15 years from 1992 to 2007. He was also a World Cup winner with Australia in 1999.

Warne is regarded as one of the greatest-ever bowlers in the history of the sport as he was an integral part of the dominant Australian sides in the 1990s and early 2000s, India Today reported.

Warne also won the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League as the captain of Rajasthan Royals. He is regarded as the greatest captain that Australia never had.