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The government of Nepal on Monday thanked the Indian government for its continued support for the development of infrastructure in the country.

Nepal thanked India during the second Project Monitoring Committee (PMC) meeting on the construction of Nepal Bharat Maitri Polytechnic (NBMP) held in Hetaunda of Makwanpur district.

According to a statement, the meeting was co-chaired by Satish Sivan, Joint Secretary (DPA-III Division), Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India and Kamal Prasad Pokhrel, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Government of Nepal.

The meeting reviewed overall implementation and progress of the project and directed the contractor and the consultant of the project for timely completion.

Noting that the COVID pandemic had posed a major challenge to the project’s progress, both sides said that it has now come out of those challenges and is in the final stages of completion.

During the meeting, the Indian side expressed its happiness at the fruitful cooperation with the government of Nepal and the joint efforts made towards strengthening the education infrastructure in Nepal. 

Nepal recorded 58 new Covid-19 cases on Monday. 

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 3 539 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 50 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 879 people underwent antigen tests, of which 8 tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 148 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 4, 819 active cases in the country.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said that the government is committed to hold local level elections in a free, fair and fearless environment.

Speaking at a program organized in Nuwakot on Monday, he said, "The country is preparing for the local level elections. The government is committed to hold the upcoming elections in a free, fair and fearless environment and all the concerned stakeholders should be committed to the same."

Saying that rumors are being spread about the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), he said that those who are spreading rumors are involved in the decision making process of the MCC.

The Prime Minister said that CPN-UML leader Bhim Rawal is one of the persons who has been protesting against MCC the most. He further said that Rawal should be ashamed to say so.

"UML Chairman and the then Prime Minister KP Oli has tabled the MCC in the Parliament saying that the compact should be ratified. Now, I have said that the MCC should be endorsed from the Parliament," he said.

"Bhim Rawal is one of the persons who has been protesting against MCC the most. He was the Defence Minister when the Cabinet endorsed the MCC. What was Bhim Rawan looking at then? Why is he protesting againt the MCC now," he questioned.

The spokesperson for China's embassy in Washington responded to media reports on Sunday that Moscow had asked Beijing for military equipment since launching its invasion of Ukraine by saying, "I've never heard of that."

The spokesperson, Liu Pengyu, said China's priority was to prevent the tense situation in Ukraine from getting out of control, Reuters reported.

"The current situation in Ukraine is indeed disconcerting," he said in an emailed response to a query from Reuters.

"The high priority now is to prevent the tense situation from escalating or even getting out of control."

Earlier the Financial Times and Washington Post cited U.S. officials as saying that Russia has asked China for military equipment since its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, according to Reuters.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation."

CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has also directed his party leaders not to speak against the alliance. That is why there is no problem in the alliance now, he said.

Speaking to journalists at the Dhangadi Airport on Monday, Chairman Dahal said, "Our first priority is to win the elections on our own strength. But, if there is a possibility of forging an electoral alliance then the coalition will be given the priority."

Hinting at the faction led by Shekhar Koirala of Nepali Congress, he claimed that the top-notch leaders of the coalition are for forging an electoral alliance though there are differing views within the party.

Chairman Dahal further said that preparations are underway to incorporate Nepali Congress in the Sudurpaschim Province.

A U.S. official said Russia asked China for military equipment to use in its invasion of Ukraine, a request that heightened tensions about the ongoing war ahead of a Monday meeting in Rome between top aides for the U.S. and Chinese governments, Associated Press reported.

In advance of the talks, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan bluntly warned China to avoid helping Russia evade punishment from global sanctions that have hammered the Russian economy. “We will not allow that to go forward,” he said.

The prospect of China offering Russia financial help is one of several concerns for President Joe Biden. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said that in recent days, Russia had requested support from China, including military equipment, to press forward in its ongoing war with Ukraine. The official did not provide details on the scope of the request. The request was first reported by the Financial Times and The Washington Post.

The Biden administration is also accusing China of spreading Russian disinformation that could be a pretext for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces to attack Ukraine with chemical or biological weapons, according to the Associated Press.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put China in a delicate spot with two of its biggest trading partners: the U.S. and European Union. China needs access to those markets, yet it also has shown support for Moscow, joining with Russia in declaring a friendship with “no limits.”

In his talks with senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi, Sullivan will indeed be looking for limits in what Beijing will do for Moscow.

“I’m not going to sit here publicly and brandish threats,” he told CNN in a round of Sunday news show interviews. “But what I will tell you is we are communicating directly and privately to Beijing that there absolutely will be consequences” if China helps Russia “backfill” its losses from the sanctions.

“We will not allow that to go forward and allow there to be a lifeline to Russia from these economic sanctions from any country anywhere in the world,” he said.

In brief comments on the talks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian did not mention Ukraine, saying that the “key issue of this meeting is to implement the important consensus reached by the Chinese and U.S. heads of state in their virtual summit in November last year.” 

“They will exchange views on China-U.S. relations and international and regional issues of common concern,” Zhao said in comments posted on the ministry’s website late Sunday, Associated Press.

The White House said the talks will focus on the direct impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on regional and global security.

Russian missiles pounded a military base in western Ukraine on Sunday, killing 35 people in an attack on a facility that served as a crucial hub for cooperation between Ukraine and the NATO countries supporting its defense, Associated Press reported.

The barrage marked an escalation of Moscow’s offensive and moved the fighting perilously close to the Polish border.

The attack so near a NATO member-country raised the possibility that the alliance could be drawn into the fight, and was heavy with symbolism in a conflict that has revived old Cold War rivalries and threatened to rewrite the current global security order.

More than 30 Russian cruise missiles targeted the sprawling facility at Yavoriv, which has long been used to train Ukrainian soldiers, often with instructors from the United States and other countries in the Western alliance. Poland is also a transit route for Western military aid to Ukraine, and the strikes followed Moscow’s threats to target those shipments. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it a “black day,” and again urged NATO leaders to establish a no-fly zone over the country, a plea that the West has said could escalate the war to a nuclear confrontation, according to the Associated Press.

“If you do not close our sky, it is only a matter of time before Russian missiles fall on your territory. NATO territory. On the homes of citizens of NATO countries,” Zelenskyy said.

In addition to the fatalities, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that 134 people were wounded in the attack.

Ina Padi, a 40-year-old Ukrainian who crossed the border with her family, was taking shelter at a fire station in Wielkie Oczy, Poland, when she was awakened by blasts Sunday morning that made the glass in the windows shake.

“I understood in that moment, even if we are free of it, (the war) is still coming after us,” she said, Associated Press reported.

Since their invasion more than two weeks ago, Russian forces have struggled in their advance across Ukraine, in the face of stiffer than expected resistance, bolstered by Western weapons support. Instead, Russian forces have besieged several cities and pummeled them with strikes, hitting two dozen medical facilities and leading to a series of humanitarian crises.

The U.N. has recorded at least 596 civilian deaths, though it believes the true toll is much higher, and Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office said that at least 85 children are among them. An American filmmaker and journalist was also killed Sunday. Millions more people have fled their homes amid the largest land conflict in Europe since World War II. 

Talks for a broad cease-fire have so far failed, but the Kremlin’s spokesman said another round would take place on Monday by videolink, according to Russian state news agency Tass. Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden is sending his national security adviser to Rome to meet with a Chinese official. There are worries in Washington that Beijing is amplifying Russian disinformation and may help Moscow evade punishing Western economic sanctions. 

Zelenskyy said he will continue negotiating with Russia and making requests for a meeting with Putin, which, so far, have gone unanswered by the Kremlin. Daily talks, Zelenskyy said, were necessary to establish a cease-fire and add more humanitarian corridors, which saved more than 130,000 people in six days, Associated Press reported.

The attacked training base near Yavoriv is less than 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Polish border and appears to be the westernmost target struck during Russia’s 18-day invasion.

Saudi Arabia on Saturday executed 81 people convicted of crimes ranging from killings to belonging to militant groups, the largest known mass execution carried out in the kingdom in its modern history, Associated Press reported.

The number of executed surpassed even the toll of a January 1980 mass execution for the 63 militants convicted of seizing the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979, the worst-ever militant attack to target the kingdom and Islam’s holiest site.

It wasn’t clear why the kingdom choose Saturday for the executions, though they came as much of the world’s attention remained focused on Russia’s war on Ukraine — and as the U.S. hopes to lower record-high gasoline prices as energy prices spike worldwide. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly plans a trip to Saudi Arabia next week over oil prices as well, according to the Associated Press.

The number of death penalty cases being carried out in Saudi Arabia had dropped during the coronavirus pandemic, though the kingdom continued to behead convicts under King Salman and his assertive son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The state-run Saudi Press Agency announced Saturday’s executions, saying they included those “convicted of various crimes, including the murdering of innocent men, women and children.”

The kingdom also said some of those executed were members of al-Qaida, the Islamic State group and also backers of Yemen’s Houthi rebels. A Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Iran-backed Houthis since 2015 in neighboring Yemen in an effort to restore the internationally recognized government to power. 

Those executed included 73 Saudis, seven Yemenis and one Syrian. The report did not say where the executions took place, Associated Press reported.

“The accused were provided with the right to an attorney and were guaranteed their full rights under Saudi law during the judicial process, which found them guilty of committing multiple heinous crimes that left a large number of civilians and law enforcement officers dead,” the Saudi Press Agency said. 

“The kingdom will continue to take a strict and unwavering stance against terrorism and extremist ideologies that threaten the stability of the entire world,” the report added. It did not say how the prisoners were executed, though death-row inmates typically are beheaded in Saudi Arabia.

An announcement by Saudi state television described those executed as having “followed the footsteps of Satan” in carrying out their crimes. 

The executions drew immediate international criticism.

“The world should know by now that when Mohammed bin Salman promises reform, bloodshed is bound to follow,” said Soraya Bauwens, the deputy director of Reprieve, a London-based advocacy group, according to the Associated Press.

Ali Adubusi, the director of the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, alleged that some of those executed had been tortured and faced trials “carried out in secret.”