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Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) Chairman Upendra Yadav and Federal Council Chairman Baburam Bhattarai are holding separate meetings.

The meeting of the JSP leaders of the Bhattarai faction has started in Kathmandu. Federal Council Chairman Bhattarai inaugurated the meeting.

The extended meeting of the Central Committee will be held for two days (today and tomorrow).

JSP leader Bishwodeep Pandey said that the extended meeting of the Central Committee will discuss the party's internal situation, future strategy and review local level elections among other issues.

Meanwhile, Yadav has called the meeting for June 13 and 14 in Birgunj.

International Liaison Department head of the Chinese Communist Party Liu Jianchao called on CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli at the latter’s residence in Balkot on Tuesday.

Earlier on Monday, the visiting Chinese leader held a meeting with CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal in Khumatar.

During the meeting that lasted for around two hours, Liu expressed his concern over the growing anti-China activities in Nepal in recent times.

Leading a six-member delegation, the Chinese leader arrived in Kathmandu on a three-day visit to Nepal on Sunday.

The Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu coordinated his visit.

He is also scheduled to meet President Bidya Devi Bhandari and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Nepal among other leaders.

Sri Lanka's main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa has told the BBC he intends to run for president, once Gotabaya Rajapaksa steps down, BBC reported.

This comes after his Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party held talks with allies to get support for the move.

Sri Lanka is facing an unprecedented economic crisis which has brought thousands to the streets since March. 

The country has run out of cash and is struggling to import basic items like food, fuel and medicine.

President Rajapaksa announced that he plans to resign this week, and the speaker of parliament has said lawmakers will choose the next president on 20 July.

Mr Premadasa told the BBC that his party and allies agreed he should be "putting my nomination for the position of presidency, if a vacancy occurs".

He lost the presidential election in 2019, and would need the support of the governing alliance MPs to win.

He is banking on getting it due to the popular discontent against Mr Rajapaksa and his family, who have dominated Sri Lankan politics for more than two decades, according to BBC.

The country's inflation rate reached a whopping 55% in June, and millions of people are struggling to make a living. 

Mr Premadasa said he was ready to take part in an all-party interim government. 

The SJB leader has been criticised for refusing to take the post of prime minister when it was offered to him in April. His rival Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed - but has also indicated he would resign to make way for a unity government.

Mr Premadasa described the current situation in Sri Lanka as "confused, uncertainty and total anarchy", saying it needs "consensus, consultation, compromise and coming togetherness".

The country's usable reserves have dropped to around $250m (£210m), according to local media reports.

The crippling shortage of fuel has devastated public transport. There are rolling power cuts as power plants lack enough fuel to function. Schools are closed this week as well due to the fuel crisis. Many people are trying to leave the country.

Mr Premadasa has conceded that there are no quick fixes.

To return the economy to 2019 levels would take approximately four to five years, he said, adding that his party had an economic plan to overcome the crisis, BBC reported.

"We are not going to hoodwink the people. We are going to be frank and present a plan to get rid of Sri Lanka's economic ills," Mr Premadasa said. 

But the protesters at the Galle Face site in Colombo say that all 225 members of parliament are responsible for the current situation, and they want a new beginning with fresh and energetic people in politics.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said on Monday that countries should avoid being used as "chess pieces" by global powers in a region that he said was at risk of being reshaped by geopolitical factors, Reuters reported.

Addressing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) secretariat in a speech in the Indonesian capital

Jakarta, Wang said many countries in the region were under pressure to take sides.

"We should insulate this region from geopolitical calculations… from being used as chess pieces from major power rivalry and from coercion," said Wang, who was speaking through a translator.

"The future of our region should be in our own hands," he said.

Southeast Asia has long been an area of friction between powers given its strategic importance, with countries in the region now wary of being caught in the middle of US-China rivalry.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea as its territory based on what it says are historical maps, putting it at odds with some ASEAN countries which say the claims are inconsistent with international law.

Wang's speech comes just days after he attended a G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Bali and amid intense Chinese diplomacy that has seen him make string of stops across the region in recent weeks, according to Reuters.

On the sidelines of the G20, Wang held a five-hour meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken with both describing their first in-person talks since October as "candid".

Wang said on Monday he had told Blinken both sides should discuss the establishment of rules for positive interactions and to jointly uphold regionalism in the Asia-Pacific.

"The core elements are to support ASEAN centrality, uphold the existing regional corporation framework, respect each other's legitimate rights and interests in the Asia-Pacific instead of aiming to antagonize or contain the other side," Wang said.

Responding to a question about Taiwan after his speech, Wang said Washington "by distorting and hollowing out the One China policy, is trying to play the Taiwan card to disrupt and contain China's development."

Tensions between Beijing and Taipei have escalated in recent months as China's military conducted repeated air missions over the Taiwan Strait, the waterway separating the island from China.

China considers Taiwan its "sacred" territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan says it wants peace but only its people can decide their future.

Washington says it remains committed to its One China policy and does not encourage independence for Taiwan, but the United States is required to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself under its US Taiwan Relations Act.

"The two sides across the (Taiwan) Strait will enjoy peaceful development. But when the one-China principle is arbitrarily challenged or even sabotaged, there will be dark clouds or even ferocious storms across the strait," Wang said, Reuters reported.

Taiwan's Foreign Ministry branded Wang's comments "absurd", saying it condemned them in the strongest terms.

"Taiwan stands at the forefront of resisting authoritarian expansion and will not succumb to threats of force from the Chinese government," ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said, according to Reuters.