China March 14 (Hindustan Times)- China on Monday sealed off the northeastern province of Jilin with over 24 million people following a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases, the first time an entire province has been cut off since the unprecedented lockdown

A global food crisis looms unless the war in Ukraine is stopped because fertilizer prices are soaring so fast that many farmers can no longer afford soil nutrients, Russian fertilizer and coal billionaire Andrei Melnichenko said on Monday.

Russian strikes hit fresh civilian targets in central and eastern Ukraine on Friday, including a city previously considered a safe haven, as Moscow’s troops edged closer to the capital Kyiv.

The EU announced a pause Friday in the talks it is chairing on the revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, days after fresh Russian demands complicated negotiations which had appeared close to completion.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Friday that the city’s COVID-19 vaccination programme would focus on its elderly and children, as authorities battled to reduce a surge of coronavirus infections and climbing death rates.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday he did not believe the conflict in Ukraine would spiral into a nuclear war.

Russia announced a new ceasefire in Ukraine on Wednesday to let civilians flee besieged cities while Ukrainian authorities said it would make a fresh attempt to evacuate stranded civilians through 6 “humanitarian corridors” amid reports of Russia

Britain is planning to supply Ukraine with anti-aircraft missiles to help it defend its skies from Russian invasion, defence minister Ben Wallace said, stressing that the technology fell within the definition of defensive weapons.

The Kremlin accused the United States on Wednesday of declaring an economic war on Russia that was sowing mayhem through energy markets, and put Washington on notice it was considering its response to a ban on Russian oil and energy.

Iran will not back down on its red lines in nuclear talks with major powers, President Ebrahim Raisi said on Tuesday, after the European Union said the time had come for Washington and Tehran to take political decisions needed to reach an accord.

Desperate civilians fled besieged Ukrainian cities on Tuesday after Russia offered “humanitarian corridors”, as the number of refugees leaving the country since Moscow’s invasion passed two million.

Flood warnings stretched across Australia’s east coast on Tuesday and tens of thousands of Sydney residents fled their homes as torrential rains again pummelled the country’s largest city, flooding several big suburbs.

Russia has told Ukraine it is ready to halt military operations “in a moment” if Kyiv meets a list of conditions, the Kremlin spokesman said on Monday.

China’s Red Cross will provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine “as soon as possible”, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday, as he praised his country’s friendship with Russia as “rock solid”.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is set to announce the construction of a new AU$10 billion nuclear submarine base, while warning Australians that Russia’s conflict with Ukraine will “inevitably stretch to the Indo-Pacific.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday his campaign in Ukraine was going according to plan and would not end until Kyiv stopped fighting.He made the comments in a phone call with Turkish President Tayyep Erdogan, who appealed for a ceasefire

Russia blocked Facebook and some other websites and passed a law that gave Moscow much stronger powers to crack down on independent journalism, prompting the BBC, Bloomberg and other foreign media to suspend reporting in the country.

India March 6 Hindustan Times-One person has died and 24 people were injured in a grenade attack by suspected terrorists in a busy market area of Srinagar on Sunday. A policeman is among the injured,the Hindustan Times reported.

Up to a dozen explosions were heard in downtown Kyiv on Friday morning and air raid sirens wailed, in an apparent sign Russian missile strikes on and around the capital were intensifying.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Friday the West’s “haste” to reach a nuclear deal “cannot prevent the observance of Iran’s red lines,” including economic guarantees.

The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said that attacking a nuclear power plant is a war crime on Friday after Russia seized a Ukrainian nuclear facility that is the biggest in Europe.

Some 498 Russian servicemen have been killed and nearly 1,600 wounded during the ongoing attack on Ukraine, Russia’s military officially announced on Wednesday.

Authorities in Australia issued more orders for people to leave their homes on Thursday after heavy rain triggered flash floods in its largest city, with officials warning of worse to come and some 500,000 people likely to face orders to evacuate.

Dozens of anti-war demonstrators were detained in Moscow and St Petersburg on Wednesday as voices against President Vladimir Putin’s special military operation in Ukraine grew louder and stronger.

A second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine will take place on Wednesday evening in Belarus, the Office of the President of Ukraine has confirmed. Kiev, however, warned that it would not accept any ultimatums from Moscow.

Russian forces said they had captured a port on the Black Sea on Wednesday as Russian and Ukrainian troops battled for another city and Ukraine’s leader said Moscow wanted to “erase” his country.

The fate of nearly 4,000 Indians stuck in conflict zones in Ukraine is fast becoming a test for special relations between New Delhi and Moscow, the Hindustan Times reported Wednesday.

Russia warned Kyiv residents to flee their homes on Tuesday and rained rockets down on Kharkiv, as Russian commanders who have failed to achieve a quick victory shifted their tactics to intensify the bombardment of Ukrainian cities.

Hong Kong residents braced for a city-wide lockdown, emptying supermarkets and pharmacies, even as leader Carrie Lam called for calm on Tuesday and appealed for the public not to worry over a compulsory mass COVID-19 testing plan.

A delegation of former senior U.S. defence and security officials sent by President Joe Biden arrived in Taipei on Tuesday on a visit denounced by China and happening in the midst of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.