World News Roundup: Mexican president says sending electoral reform plan to Congress; Facing international criticism, Singapore defends Malaysian execution and more

More than two months into an invasion that has flattened cities but failed to capture the capital Kyiv, Russia has mounted a push to seize two eastern provinces in a battle the West views as a decisive turning point in the war. German parliament approves petition to deliver heavy arms to Ukraine Germany's Bundestag lower house of parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a petition on support for Ukraine backing the delivery of weapons including heavy arms to the country to help it fend off Russian attacks.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Mexican president says sending electoral reform plan to Congress

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Thursday he would send his initiative to change the country's electoral system to Congress later in the day. Lopez Obrador was speaking at a news conference.

Facing international criticism, Singapore defends Malaysian execution

Singapore authorities late on Wednesday defended a decision to execute a Malaysian drug trafficker, in response to international criticism over their use of the death penalty. Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, had been convicted of smuggling at least 42 grams (1.48 oz) of heroin into Singapore, which has among the world's harshest narcotics laws. He was hanged on Wednesday morning, after multiple legal challenges and appeals for clemency on the grounds that he had an intellectual disability, failed.

U.S. accuses Russia of planning to shut down Ukrainian democracy

The United States accused Russia on Thursday of planning to short-circuit Ukrainian democracy by forcing the government from power and dismantling local authorities. "We have information that Russia's planning for its further invasion of Ukraine includes a forced capitulation of Ukraine's democratically elected government, including dissolving all local municipal governments in Ukraine," U.S. Ambassador Michael Carpenter said in an address to the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperating in Europe (OSCE).

Former U.S. Marine Reed lands in the U.S. after prisoner swap with Russia - spokesperson

Former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, who was detained in Russia and released in a prisoner swap between Russia and the United States, landed in his home country, Reed's spokesperson said on Thursday. The location where Reed landed was not immediately clear.

Russia warns the West: Don't test our patience

Russia on Thursday warned the West that there would be a tough military response to any further attack on Russian territory, accusing the United States and its key European allies of openly inciting Ukraine to assault Russia. Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more, and raised fears of the most serious confrontation between Russia and the United States since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Russia wants to capture fighters in Mariupol steelworks, local governor says

Russia is preventing wounded Ukrainian fighters from being evacuated from vast steelworks in the southern city of Mariupol because it wants to capture them, the local governor said on Thursday. Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the eastern region of Donetsk, said Russia was also blocking efforts to arrange humanitarian corridors elsewhere in Donetsk but that Russian forces were being held back across his region.

UK must act unilaterally if N.Ireland protocol not replaced quickly - DUP leader

Britain must act to unilaterally overrule parts of the Northern Ireland protocol if talks on overhauling post-Brexit trading arrangements are not rapidly completed, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) told Reuters on Thursday. Britain and the European Union have spent months trying to break a deadlock over how to remove many of the checks on goods coming from the rest of the United Kingdom agreed under the protocol. A British minister said on Thursday that the sides were at an impasse.

Russia steps up assault on east Ukraine, Putin threatens countries that intervene

Russia stepped up its assaults on eastern and southern Ukraine, Kyiv said on Thursday, and President Vladimir Putin threatened "lightning-fast" retaliation against any Western countries that intervene on Ukraine's behalf. More than two months into an invasion that has flattened cities but failed to capture the capital Kyiv, Russia has mounted a push to seize two eastern provinces in a battle the West views as a decisive turning point in the war.

German parliament approves petition to deliver heavy arms to Ukraine

Germany's Bundestag lower house of parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a petition on support for Ukraine backing the delivery of weapons including heavy arms to the country to help it fend off Russian attacks. "Alongside the broad economic isolation and decoupling of Russia from international markets, the most important and effective means to stop the Russian invasion is to intensify and speed up the delivery of effective weapons and complex systems including heavy arms," the petition read.

Analysis-Hobbled by the economy, Erdogan heads to Saudi to mend ties after Khashoggi U-turn

Three and a half years after accusing Saudi Arabia's leadership of murder and running a sham trial over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan plans a trip to the Gulf kingdom on Thursday to mend ties. Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government, was killed by a Saudi hit squad at the kingdom's Istanbul consulate in 2018. At the time, Erdogan accused the "highest levels" of the Saudi government of giving the orders and slammed Riyadh's own legal process while refusing to share evidence with them over concerns of tampering.