Hindustan Times News | 23rd February 2022 | 8 AM

HT Daily News Wrap

US President Joe Biden announced the "first tranche" of sanctions against Russia, including steps to starve the country of financing, a total of 21 million voters are set to cast their votes in this phase to decide from 624 candidates, around 240 Indians reached India from Ukraine on Air India's Boeing 787 aircraft and top news in this bulletin.
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced the “first tranche” of sanctions against Russia, including steps to starve the country of financing, saying Moscow had started an invasion of Ukraine. “We’re implementing sanctions on Russia’s sovereign debt. That means we’ve cut off Russia’s government from Western financing,” Biden said, threatening tougher steps if Russia “continues its aggression.” “It can no longer raise money from the West and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or European markets either.” The measures target VEB, Russia’s state development bank, and members of the country’s “elites,” the US leader said. “They share the corrupt gains of the Kremlin policies, and should share in the pain as well.” The announcement came after the European Union unveiled its own sanctions in a coordinated Western effort to pressure Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

A total of 21,290,564 voters are set to cast their votes in this phase to decide from 624 candidates. The polling will begin at 7am on Wednesday and will continue till 6pm. The election commission (EC) said on Tuesday it had made elaborate arrangements to hold fair, safe and peaceful polls. Chief electoral officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said 91 of the total 624 candidates in the fray are women. “With a view to keep strict vigil on the fourth phase polls, the commission has deployed 57 general, nine police and 18 expenditure observers apart from 1,712 sector magistrates, 210 zonal magistrates, 105 static magistrates and 3,110 micro observers,” Shukla said. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the region in the 2017 assembly elections with 50 of 59 seats, the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party clinched 40 of the seats in the 2012 elections.

A man with a firearm who held several people hostage in an Apple store in central Amsterdam late Tuesday was overpowered after a siege lasting several hours, police said, adding that the last of the hostages had been freed. Police had deployed several special units to “get the situation under control” after being alerted of an armed robbery at 5:40 pm (1640 GMT) which had rapidly transformed into a hostage situation. Police said the gunman was “lying on the street and a robot was examining him for explosives” in front of the store in Leidseplein in the heart of the Dutch city. The last hostage held in the store was safe, they added.


Around 240 Indians reached India from Ukraine on Air India’s Boeing 787 aircraft. The flight AI 1946 took off from Boryspil International Airport in Kyiv at around 6pm (IST) and landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport at around 11.40pm on Tuesday. Many of these Indians are students pursuing medical education in Ukraine. Recounting the ground situation, the students said it is peaceful but there is a lot of panic. Students have followed the advisory of the Embassy which asked the students to leave the country at the earliest. “Nothing much is happening there. It seems peaceful. But the way things are going, what people are saying, we don’t know what will happen in the coming days,” Shivam Chaudhary, a student, said to ANI. Another student told the news agency that his parents are now much relieved that he has left Ukraine amid the crisis building up.

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s stepson was among the three booked on charges of possession of liquor, only to be released after orders from “higher authorities,” police said on Tuesday. According to the FIR, Musa Maneka, the First Lady Bushra Bibi’s son from her previous marriage, and two of his friends were arrested near Gaddafi Stadium on Monday after police found alcohol in the car they were travelling in. “The three youths, including the First Lady’s son, were released the same day after orders from the top. Some legal formalities like personal guarantee from the families of the suspects were met,” a police official told PTI on Tuesday. He added that when Maneka was picked up for possessing liquor, he threatened security officials with dire consequences as he was the son of Pakistan’s First Lady, the official said.