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Srijana Singh is a mayoral candidate for the Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

Singh, a candidate from the Nepali Congress, started her politics as a student leader of the Nepal Student Union, a student wing of Nepali Congress.

She is the wife of Prakash Man Singh, a prominent Congress leader and a son of political stalwart Ganesh Man Singh.

Here are some of the commitments made by Singh in her election manifesto:

1.     To make Kathmandu corruption-free city

2.     To improve the quality of education

3.     To make Kathmandu, a zero waste metropolitan city

4.     To install CCTV cameras in public vehicles to ensure women’s safety

5.     To connect culture, jatras, traditional musical instruments and language among others with tourism

6.     To work unwaveringly for the long-term development of Kathmandu by protecting and promoting the guthi system

7.     To protect daily-wage female workers and working mothers.

8.     To improve pedestrian infrastructure and pedestrianisation of city core areas

9.     To maintain austerity and good governance in the city

10. To protect and expand open areas, parks, ponds and falcha among others

In a major victory for Sri Lanka's embattled Rajapaksa clan, the government backed nominee on Thursday won the secret vote for the position of Deputy Speaker, demonstrating the ruling SLPP coalition's ability to prove their parliamentary majority despite raging public protests demanding their resignation for mishandling the country's worst economic crisis, PTI reported.

MP Ranjith Siyambalapitiya was re-elected to the position from which he had resigned.

Siyambalapitiya, a member of the former President Maithripala Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), had resigned as his party decided to stay independent of the government.

He was elected with 148 for and 65 against with three invalid votes, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeyawardene announced.

Despite the SLFP going independent, the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) decided to back Siyambalapitiya in their bid to show that the government majority was intact. Speaking after his election as the Deputy Speaker, Siyambalapitiya said he had expected to be unanimously appointed by both the government and the Opposition.

The main Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa said they decided to field their nominee Imtiaz Bakeer Markar as they had learnt the ruling SLPP was to back Siyambalapitiya at a possible secret vote.

Premadasa accused Siyambalapitiya as a "government stooge."

The government majority was seen as fragile since the decision by some 40 lawmakers from the ruling coalition declaring independence in view of the raging public protests calling for the resignation of the entire Rajapaksa family, according to PTI.

With more members from the ruling coalition calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to make way for an interim government of all parties, Rajapaksa stayed put claiming majority.

The Deputy Speaker's vote appears to have restrengthened his position, experts said. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa are coming under increasing pressure to step down in the simmering economic meltdown where people struggle with all essentials, including having to put up with power cuts.

The main opposition party, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), handed over to the Speaker two motions of no-confidence against the SLPP coalition government and embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa under Article 42 of the Constitution.

Article 42 stipulates that the President is responsible to Parliament for the exercise, performance and discharge of his functions  PTI reported.

Any motion needs seven days' notice before getting into the order paper for debate. A date has not yet been announced for a vote on the no-confidence motions.

The Opposition parties accuse top government officials of excessively printing money, hurting farm production by banning chemical fertilizers to make the production fully organic and minimize import costs, failing to order COVID-19 vaccines in a timely manner and buying them later at higher prices.

Sri Lanka is currently in the throes of unprecedented economic turmoil since its independence from Britain in 1948. The crisis is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which has meant that the country cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods and fuel, leading to acute shortages and very high prices, according to PTI.

A key ally of Russia, authoritarian Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, has defended the war in Ukraine while indicating it has not gone to plan, BBC reported.

He told the AP news agency that the operation had "dragged on".

Belarus shares a border with Ukraine and Russia sent troops from there when it launched its invasion.

Russia's Vladimir Putin helped Mr Lukashenko cling to power in 2020 after his widely disputed presidential re-election sparked mass protests.

In turn, Belarus's long-time leader has given his backing to Russia's invasion and critics have said he is little more than a vassal and accomplice to Mr Putin.

In his interview with AP, Mr Lukashenko said that Russia's leader had no choice but to act because Ukraine was "provoking Russia".

But he added: "I am not immersed in this problem enough to say whether it goes according to plan, like the Russians say, or like I feel it, according to BBC.

"I want to stress one more time: I feel like this operation has dragged on."

Mr Lukashenko said he wanted the war to end, saying Belarus had "done and are doing everything" to stop it.

By calling it a war, he went further than Russia's own description of its invasion as a "special military operation". Moscow has justified the war as an effort to "demilitarise and de-Nazify" Ukraine - which is considered a baseless pretext. 

Mr Lukashenko also said that any suggestion that Russia might use nuclear weapons against Ukraine was "unacceptable because it's right next to us", but added he did not know whether Moscow intended to use them.

Although Belarus has provided a platform for Russian forces it has not sent its own troops in. On Wednesday it began snap military drills which it said posed no threat to Ukraine, BBC reported.

Belarus was already under Western sanctions following the 2020 election, and faces further measures over its role in the conflict.

It was one of only a handful of countries to back Russia's invasion at an emergency UN vote.

Out of the 193 UN member states, 141 condemned the war, with some major countries like China and India choosing to abstain, according to BBC.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has apologised after his foreign minister said that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had "Jewish blood", Israel says, BBC reported.

Mr Putin made the apology in a call with Israeli PM Naftali Bennett, his office said in a statement.

Russia's account of the conversation did not mention an apology.

Sergei Lavrov made the initial comments to try to justify Russia's portrayal of Ukraine as "Nazi" despite the fact that its president is Jewish.

Mr Lavrov spoke to Italian TV on Sunday, days after Israel marked Holocaust Remembrance Day - one of the most solemn occasions in the Israeli calendar.

When asked how Russia can claim that it is fighting to "de-Nazify" Ukraine when President Volodymyr Zelensky is himself Jewish, Mr Lavrov said: "I could be wrong, but Hitler also had Jewish blood. [That Zelensky is Jewish] means absolutely nothing. Wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews."

The comments sparked outrage in Israel. Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews in the Holocaust in World War Two, according to BBC.

Israel had demanded an apology, with Mr Bennett saying shortly after that "such lies are meant to blame the Jews themselves for the most terrible crimes in history and thus free the oppressors of the Jews from their responsibility". 

In Thursday's statement, Mr Bennett's office said that he had accepted Mr Putin's apology and "thanked him for clarifying his attitude towards the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust".

Russia said the two discussed the Holocaust, but did not say Mr Putin apologised. 

Israel has tried to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, but has also faced criticism for not taking a tougher line against President Putin.

Israeli media this week reported that Israel was considering boosting its military and civilian assistance to Ukraine, BBC reported.