Live news: Ukraine says Russia pounding Donbas, failing to take targets

Live news updates: Russian Foreign Minister says lifting Western sanctions on Russia was part of peace talks.

6:45 PM

Russia says risks of nuclear war must be kept to minimum

Russia believes the risks of nuclear war should be kept to a minimum and that any armed conflict between nuclear powers should be prevented, the TASS news agency quoted a foreign ministry official as saying on Saturday. Vladimir Yermakov, the foreign ministry's head of nuclear non-proliferation, said all nuclear powers must stick to the logic laid out in official documents aimed at preventing nuclear war, Reuters reported.

6:16 PM

Russia will quit international space station over sanctions

The head of Russia’s space program said Moscow will pull out of the International Space Station, state media reported, a move it has blamed on sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine.

4:38 PM

Russia says it seeks to move away from US dollar

Russia is seeking to move away from the US dollar and rely less on imports in response to sanctions, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told China’s Xinhua news agency. Lavrov also said that video calls between Ukraine and Russia are happening daily, Bloomberg reported. 

 

3:48 PM

Russia expects trade with China to reach $200 bn by 2024

Russia's foreign ministry on Saturday said it expected commodity flows with China to grow and trade with Beijing to reach $200 billion by 2024, the Interfax news agency reported, as Moscow looks east in the face of growing western isolation. The ministry said Chinese companies must be wary of the risk secondary sanctions pose, but said Beijing was ready to expand its cooperation with Moscow, Interfax reported.

2:42 PM

NW, central India experience hottest April in 122 years

As a result of the continued heatwaves, the maximum temperatures in northwest and central India were the highest for the month of April in the last 122 years, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) announced on Saturday.

The all India temperatures (maximum and mean) recorded till April 28, 2022, are the fourth highest with 35.05 degrees Celsius in last 122 years.

Earlier, March 2022 was the hottest in 122 years for the country, as well as northwest India.

The average maximum temperature was 35.90 degrees Celsius and 37.78 degrees Celsius for northwest and central India, respectively, for April 2022.

2:41 PM

Indian students in Chinese universities relieved at Beijing announcement on their return to campus

Indian students enrolled in Chinese universities heaved a sigh of relief with China announcing plans to allow the return of "some" of them who have been stranded in India for over two years following the visa and flight restrictions imposed by Beijing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rohit Kumar Yadav, an MBBS student at Shihezi University, said he is relieved that he will be able to return to campus and appear in offline exams.

"Medicine is a practical-oriented course and despite all the efforts by university to make online classes more interactive, it is not the same kind of exposure... I am glad this difficult phase will end and I will be able to return to campus and also appear in offline exams," he said.

2:23 PM

Govt 'totally unprepared' to tackle coal-rail-power crisis: Chidambaram

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday took a swipe at the Centre over the issue of widespread power outages, saying the government has found the "perfect solution" to it which is to cancel passenger trains and run coal rakes.

He also said the ministries of coal, railway and power are desperately inventing excuses to hide their "monumental incompetence".

Various states continued to reel under power crisis on Friday with soaring mercury pushing demand higher, as opposition parties blamed the Centre for coal shortage at thermal plants.

2:03 PM

Sri Lanka's powerful Buddhist clergy threatens to issue anti-govt decree

Sri Lanka's powerful Buddhist clergy has threatened to issue a decree against the government led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and decided to stage a protest against it on Saturday for its failure to make way for an interim government to resolve the ongoing political and economic crisis.

Thousands of demonstrators have hit the streets since April 9, as the government ran out of money for vital imports; prices of essential commodities have skyrocketed and there are acute shortages in fuel, medicines and electricity supply.

In recent weeks, the Buddhist clergy, civil society and trade chambers have demanded the formation of an interim government in the predominantly Buddhist nation.

1:55 PM

Amid heatwave, Haryana's power demand touches all-time high

Amid a heatwave spell, the peak power demand in Haryana touched an all-time high with additional requirement of 3,000 MW electricity.

The BJP government claims necessary arrangements are being made to overcome the shortage.

About 400 MW will be produced through a short-term forecasting model, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said at a recent review meeting with officers of power distribution companies here.

1:42 PM

CJI Ramana urges chief justices of HCs to improve judge-to-population ratio

Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Saturday highlighted the issue of judicial vacancies and urged the chief justices of high courts to improve the judge-to-population ratio so that it is comparable to advanced democracies.

Ramana said as on today, out of 1,104 sanctioned posts of high court judges, there are 388 vacancies.

Speaking at a joint conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts at Vigyan Bhawan here, he said an important factor in promoting access to justice is filling up of judicial vacancies and increasing the sanctioned strength of judges.

"From day one, it has been my endeavour to fill judicial vacancies. We have made 180 recommendations for appointments in various high courts last year. Out of these, 126 appointments have been made. I thank the Government of India for clearing the names.

1:36 PM

General Manoj Pande takes charge as Army chief

General Manoj Pande took charge as the 29th Chief of the Army Staff on Saturday after incumbent Gen MM Naravane retired from service.

Gen Pande, who was serving as the vice chief, became the first officer from the Corps of Engineers to helm the force.

Before taking charge as vice chief of the Army on February 1, Gen Pande was heading the Eastern Army Command, tasked with guarding the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh sectors.

Gen Pande took charge of the Army at a time India is facing myriad security challenges, including along the borders with China and Pakistan.

As the Army chief, he will also have to coordinate with the Navy and the Indian Air Force on the government's plan to roll out theatre commands.

1:04 PM

Ukraine fights to hold off Russian advances in south, east

Ukrainian forces fought to hold off Russian attempts to advance in the south and east, where the Kremlin is seeking to capture the country's industrial Donbas region, and a senior US defence official said Moscow's offensive is going much slower than planned.

 

While artillery fire, sirens and explosions were heard Friday in some cities, the United Nations sought to broker an evacuation of civilians from the increasingly hellish ruins of Mariupol, where the mayor said the situation inside the steel plant that has become the southern port city's last stronghold is dire.

 

Citizens are begging to get saved, Mayor Vadym Boichenko said. There, it's not a matter of days. It's a matter of hours.

12:38 PM

While discharging our duty, we should be mindful of Lakshman Rekha: CJI

Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana on Saturday said the Constitution provides separation of power among the three organs of the state and while discharging duty, one should be mindful of 'Lakshman Rekha'.

 

Speaking at the Joint Conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts, Ramana said deliberate inaction by governments despite judicial pronouncements is not good for the health of democracy.

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the joint conference.

12:33 PM

Ukraine says Russia stole 'several hundred thousand tonnes' of grain

Russian forces have stolen "several hundred thousand tonnes" of grain in the areas of Ukraine they occupy, Ukraine's deputy agriculture minister said on Saturday.

 

Speaking to Ukrainian national TV, Taras Vysotskiy expressed concern that most of what he said was 1.5 million tonnes of grain stored in occupied territory could also be stolen by Russian forces.

 

Ukraine's foreign ministry accused Russia on Thursday of stealing grain in territory it has occupied, an act it said increased the threat to global food security.

12:10 PM

Thousands of elderly people in Shanghai hit hard by lockdown

Thousands of elderly people in the Chinese city of Shanghai have been hit hard by a Covid-19 lockdown that has now dragged on for five weeks.

Since the outbreak began in early March, more than 500,000 people have tested positive for the virus, with 337 deaths, according to a BBC report.

Nearly 10,000 of those people have been aged over 80, the report said.

China's Covid rules demand that anyone who is infected, or a close contact, must be sent to a state-run quarantine centre.

It is not uncommon for hundreds of people to be put together in such centres.

Images shared on social media have showed unsanitary conditions, with clogged up toilets and overflowing rubbish bins, the BBC reported.