WORLD
Russia wants more talks with Ukraine: Kremlin
Moscow is interested in holding the next rounds of peace talks with Kiev as soon as Ukrainian negotiators are ready, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. Russia has conveyed its position clearly to the Ukrainian side during the previous three rounds of negotiations, Peskov told a daily briefing, Xinhua news agency reported.
Ukraine cold could push Russian soldiers to desert convoy stalled outside Kyiv for days
Arctic air moving through Russia and Ukraine will combine with an easterly wind to make the temperature feel as cold as minus 20 by Wednesday, according to forecasts. Russian troops are expected to find these conditions tough as they remain stuck in a column around 20 miles outside of the Ukrainian capital that has barely moved since last week, the report said.
Ukraine crisis to push up power tariff as coal prices zoom
The crisis has pushed up coal price, which is a key raw material used by the thermal power units dotted around the country. At present, many of India's ultra-critical thermal power plants depend on imported coal. Global coal prices have risen sharply following the surge in oil and gas prices over the last two weeks as the conflict in Ukraine intensified.
'Zelensky survived more than dozen attempts on his life'
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has already survived more than a dozen attempts on his life, said Mykhailo Podoliak, an advisor to the Head of the Presidents Office. "Foreign sources talk of two or three attempts. I believe that there have been more than a dozen such attempts. We are constantly receiving intelligence that there are certain reconnaissance groups trying to enter government quarters and the like," Podoliak said, Ukrayinska Pravda reported.
Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers to meet in Turkey
The meeting will be trilateral with the Turkish Foreign Minister participating in the peace talks. Russia and Ukraine are at war after a Russian invasion of its neighbour two weeks ago, which Moscow describes as 'special operations'. The news of the foreign ministers' meeting was received cautiously, given the current state of hostilities.
US-Pak ties 'brittle' and 'transactional', worsened by 'China factor'
Pakistani diplomat Sajjad Ashraf, writing for East Asia Forum, says: "The nature of and the confusion emanating from the American withdrawal from Afghanistan has further exposed the brittleness of this relationship. The Taliban victory is seriously testing Pakistan's long fraught bilateral relationship with America."
ISIS says Ukraine war is a 'divine punishment' for the West
The Islamic State have praised the Ukraine war as a "divine punishment" for the West which it hopes will destroy the "enemies of Islam", Daily Mail reported. The terror group labelled Russia's invasion of its neighbour as "crusaders against crusaders" in a full-page article in its al-Naba newsletter. It said Muslims should not take sides in the war and predicted that there would be "major consequences" regardless of the result.
Russia drops gold tax to encourage savers to dump dollars
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a law that exempts individuals from value added tax (VAT) on the purchase of gold. The measure is meant to provide support to Russian citizens, looking to invest their rubles, which have been depreciating in value amid Western sanctions, RT reported.
Pak govt urged to ban wheat export amid Ukraine-Russia crisis
Agricultural experts of Pakistan have called upon the government to impose a ban on wheat exports of local grains amid serious repercussion of the Russia-Ukraine war, which will disrupt the supply of wheat in the international market. A farmer's lobby group, Sindh Abadgar Board, has suggested the government to maintain wheat stocks through procurement during the on-going harvest and put a stop to wheat exports.
AWS rejects new sign-ups, Microsoft suspends new sales in Russia
Amazon's cloud-computing unit, Amazon Web Services announced that it is no longer accepting new customers based in Russia or Belarus, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Amazon said that AWS has no data centres or infrastructure in Russia, and has no policy of not conducting business with the Russian government.
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