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China reported 13,000 Covid cases on Sunday, the most since the peak, the most since the peak of the first pandemic wave over two years ago, with Shanghai now the epicentre of the country’s worst outbreak, Xinhua reported,

The highly transmissible Omicron variant has spread to more than a dozen provinces, rattling China’s “zero-Covid” strategy which had until March successfully kept the daily caseload down to double or triple digits.

But the current outbreak is also testing the patience of the Chinese towards tough restrictions, as Beijing imposes targeted lockdowns, mass tests and travel curbs at a time when much of the world has re-opened.

Tens of millions of Chinese residents have once more endured some form of lockdown over the last month, disrupting work and damaging the economy, according to Xinhua.

The country recorded 13,146 cases on Sunday, the National Health Commission said in a statement, with “no new deaths” reported.

It is China’s highest infection toll since the middle of February 2020.

The streets of Shanghai were quiet Sunday as a citywide lockdown dragged on, with nearly 70 percent of the national infection caseload discovered from mass testing its 25 million residents.

But city authorities have conceded they are struggling to contain the outbreak, with thousands now in state quarantine and the capacity of health workers stretched.

Vice Premier Sun Chunlan urged “resolute and swift moves to stem the spread of the virus” after a visit to Shanghai, official news agency Xinhua reported Sunday.

Anger is rising among residents over lockdowns that were initially planned to last just for four days, but now appear likely to drag on for several more days as fresh rounds of mass testing are carried out, Xinhua reported.

Parents have expressed fears of separation from their children in the event of a positive test, while residents have griped about a lack of fresh food and the ability to walk dogs outside.

China, the country where the coronavirus was first detected in 2019, is among the last remaining places following a zero-Covid approach to the pandemic.

The outbreak has taken on an increasingly serious economic dimension, trimming analysts’ growth projections as factories close and millions of consumers are ordered indoors.

Shanghai’s restrictions threaten to snarl supply chains, with shipping giant Maersk saying some depots in the city remained closed and trucking services would likely be hit further due to the lockdown.

The World Health Organization’s emergencies director Michael Ryan last week said it was important for all countries, including China, to have a plan to wind down pandemic restrictions.

But he said China’s vast population provides a unique challenge to its health system and authorities will have to “define a strategy that allows them to exit (the pandemic) safely”, Xinhua reported.

A person died and two other sustained injuries when a Scorpio jeep bearing an Indian registration number plate hit them at Tinkairiya in Bideha Municipality-6 of Dhanusha district on Saturday.

The deceased has been identified as Harichan Mandal (35).

The four-wheeler (BR. 0PB-3902) heading towards Kamala from Janakpur yesterday evening, police said.

The injured have been sent to the Janakpur Provincial Hospital for treatment.

Police said that they have impounded the vehicle and arrested its driver for investigation.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has reached Vanarasi as a part of his three-day India visit on Sunday.

PM Deuba left New Delhi for Vanarasi at 9 am today.

The prime minister will visit Vishwanath and Pashupatinath Temples.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath welcomed him at the airport.

The head of the government is scheduled to return home today itself.

Earlier on Saturday, PM Deuba held a meeting with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House and inked four deals and also inaugurated cross-border railway, a transmission line and Indian digital card RuPay.

A man died after being struck by a lightning in Taplejung.

The deceased has been identified as Mukesh Bhattarai (23) of Ambegudin Lhasa Tole of Sirijunga Rural Municipality-2.

According to Inspector Kailash Kumar Adhikari, spokesperson at the District Police Office, the incident occurred at around 9 pm yesterday.

Critically injured in the incident, Bhattarai was rushed to a hospital but doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

Gujarat Titans defeated Delhi Capitals by 14 runs in their IPL match here on Saturday, The Indian Express reported. 

Sent in to bat, Shubman Gill smashed 84 off 46 balls to guide Gujarat Titans to 171 for 6.

Besides Gill, skipper Hardik Pandya made 31 off 27 balls after being asked to bat. David Miller remained unbeaten on 20 off 15 balls.

Mustafizur Rahman scalped three wickets for 23 runs, while Khaleel Ahmed picked up two wickets giving away 34 runs for DC, according to The Indian Express.

Jos Buttler smashed the first century of IPL 2022 to power Rajasthan Royals to 23-run win over five-time champions Mumbai Indians, who slumped to their second consecutive defeat on Saturday, The Indian Express reported.

Opening the innings after being sent into bat, Buttler hit a whirlwind 100 off 68 balls, only his second ton in the history of the IPL. He struck 11 boundaries and five sixes during his knock. Besides Buttler, Shimron Hetmyer (35 off 14) looked in destructive form while skipper Sanju Samson (30 off 21) too got a start. Jasprit Bumrah (3/17) was the pick of the bowlers for MI.

Chasing the total, Tilak Verma smashed 61 off 33 balls, while opener Ishan Kishan made 54 off 43 balls but it was not enough to guide MI home as they finished at 170 for eight. Yuzvendra Chahal once again shone bright with the ball picking up two wickets for 26 runs from his four overs, according to The Indian Express.

A 36-hour curfew has been declared in Sri Lanka, as a state of emergency is enforced amid violent protests against food and fuel shortages, BBC reported.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued a notice prohibiting anyone from being on any public road, in a park, on trains, or on the seashore, unless they have written permission from the authorities. 

The curfew began at dusk on Saturday.

Social media sites have been blocked, including Facebook and Twitter.

WhatsApp is also down, and mobile phone users received a message saying this was "as directed by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission". 

The stringent restrictions are aimed at preventing new protests, after crowds were accused of setting vehicles ablaze near the president's private residence on Thursday.

The military has since been deployed and now has the power to arrest suspects without warrants, according to BBC.

The island nation is in the midst of a major economic crisis. It is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which is used to pay for fuel imports.

Faced with power cuts lasting half a day or more, and a lack of fuel and essential food and medicines, public anger has reached a new high.

Thursday's protest outside President Rajapaksa's Colombo house began peacefully, but participants said things turned violent after police fired tear gas, water cannons and also beat people present.

Protesters retaliated against the police by pelting them with stones.

At least two dozen police personnel were reportedly injured during the clashes, according to an official cited by Reuters news agency. 

On Friday, 53 demonstrators were arrested, and local media reported that five news photographers were detained and tortured at a police station. The government said it would investigate the latter claim. 

Despite the crackdown, protests continued, and spread to other parts of the country.

Demonstrators in the capital carried placards calling for the president's resignation, BBC reported.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's decision to impose a state of emergency has come as a shock to many. 

One of the most draconian pieces of legislation in Sri Lanka, it is meant to be deployed in situations of "exceptional threat, danger or disaster". 

One of the last times it was invoked, for instance, was in the aftermath of the deadly Easter Sunday bombings in 2019. 

The law allows for the detention of people without proof or the presumption of innocence, and severely restricts fundamental rights such as the freedom of movement and expression. 

It also allows the police and military to arrest and detain people without warrants.

This has given rise to fears that the government is going to resort to a brutal crackdown on protesters, who are angry about the toll taken on their lives by the ongoing economic crisis. 

Civil protesters and journalists have already reported being tortured by police for simply being present at the protests outside Mr Rajapaksa's home, and one of the organisers was taken in for questioning late on Friday night. 

The imposition of the law cannot be challenged in the courts, although parliament will need to ratify it within 14 days of its declaration. 

The government has the majority in parliament to pass it. Thereafter it will need to be extended on a monthly basis, according to BBC.

President Rajapaksa said the decision to declare a state of emergency was taken in the interests of public security, the protection of public order, and to ensure the maintenance of supplies and essential services.

The demonstrations mark a massive turnaround in popularity for Mr Rajapaksa, who swept into power with a majority win in 2019, promising stability and a "strong hand" to rule the country, BBC reported.

Ukrainian troops moved cautiously to retake territory north of the country’s capital on Saturday, using cables to pull the bodies of civilians off streets of one town out of fear that Russian forces may have left them booby-trapped, Associated Press reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that departing Russian troops were creating a “catastrophic” situation for civilians by leaving mines around homes, abandoned equipment and “even the bodies of those killed.” His claims could not be independently verified. 

Associated Press journalists in Bucha, a suburb northwest of Kyiv, watched as Ukrainian soldiers backed by a column of tanks and other armored vehicles used cables to drag bodies off of a street from a distance. Locals said the dead — the AP counted at least six — were civilians killed without provocation by departing Russian soldiers.

"Those people were just walking and they shot them without any reason. Bang,” said a Bucha resident who declined to give his name citing safety reasons. “In the next neighborhood, Stekolka, it was even worse. They would shoot without asking any question.”

Ukraine and its Western allies reported mounting evidence of Russia withdrawing its forces from around Kyiv and building its troop strength in eastern Ukraine. 

The visible shift did not mean the country faced a reprieve from more than five weeks of war or that the more than 4 million refugeeswho have fled Ukraine will return soon. Zelenskyy said he expects departed towns to endure missile and rocket strikes from afar and for the battle in the east to be intense.

In his nightly video address Saturday, the Ukrainian leader said the country’s troops were not allowing the Russians to retreat without a fight: “They are shelling them. They are destroying everyone they can.”

Russia, Zelenskyy said, has ample forces to put more pressure on Ukraine’s east and south, according to the Associated Press.

“What is the goal of the Russian troops? They want to seize the Donbas and the south of Ukraine,” he said. “What is our goal? To defend ourselves, our freedom, our land and our people.”

Moscow’s focus on eastern Ukraine also kept the besieged southeastern city of Mariupol in the crosshairs. The port city on the Sea of Azov is located in the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas region, where Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian troops for eight years. Military analysts think Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to capture the region after his forces failed to secure Kyiv and other major cities.

The International Committee of the Red Cross had hoped to evacuate Mariupol residents Saturday but had not yet reached the city. A day earlier, local authorities said the Red Cross was blocked by Russian forces.

An adviser to Zelenskyy, Oleksiy Arestovych, said in an interview with Russian lawyer and activist Mark Feygin that Russia and Ukraine had reached an agreement to allow 45 buses to drive to Mariupol to evacuate residents “in coming days.” 

The Mariupol city council said earlier Saturday that 10 empty buses were headed to Berdyansk, a city 84 kilometers (52.2 miles) west of Mariupol, to pick up people who managed to get there on their own. About 2,000 made it out of Mariupol on Friday, some on buses and some in their own vehicles, city officials said, Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said 765 Mariupol residents on Saturday used private vehicles to reach Zaporizhzhia, a city still under Ukrainian control that has served as the destination for other planned evacuations. 

Among those escaping was Tamila Mazurenko, who said she fled Mariupol on Monday, made it to Berdyansk that night and then took a bus to Zaporizhzhia. Mazurenko said she waited for a bus until Friday, spending one night sleeping in a field.

“I have only one question: Why?” she said of her city’s ordeal. “We only lived as normal people. And our normal life was destroyed. And we lost everything. I don’t have any job, I can’t find my son.”

Mariupol has been surrounded by Russian forces for more than a month and suffered some of the war’s worst attacks, including on a maternity hospital and a theater that was sheltering civilians. Around 100,000 people are believed to remain in the city, down from a prewar population of 430,000, and they face dire shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine, according to the Associated Press.

Zelenskyy said a significant number of Russian troops were tied up in Mariupol, giving Ukraine “invaluable time ... that is allowing us to foil the enemy’s tactics and weaken its capabilities.”