Hindustan Times News | 4th March 2022 | 8 AM

HT Daily News Wrap

Ukraine woke up to worrying developments on the day 9 of Moscow onslaught as a fire broke out at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday called for direct talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Andhra HC asks state to develop Amaravati as capital on lines proposed by previous govt & other top news in this bulletin.
On the ninth day of the Kremlin’s offensive, the Russian forces in Ukraine seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant hours after an attack by Moscow caused a fire at the power plant, local officials were quoted as saying in reports. Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is the largest in Europe and the ninth-largest across the world. A fire at the plant had triggered alarm bells across the world capitals.

A six-month-old baby was among eight people killed when a high-intensity explosion late on Thursday ripped through a house, where firecrackers were allegedly manufactured illegally in Bihar’s Bhagalpur, police said. Around a dozen people were injured in the blast, which also led to the collapse of the two-storeyed house and three other houses in the vicinity.

The Supreme Court on Friday declined to pass any order regarding the petition filed on the evacuation of Indians stranded in war-torn Ukraine. Chief Justice NV Ramana said the court will not pass any order and the government must “work out something”.  “We appreciate that (evacuation efforts). We are also concerned about the anxiety of people,” the CJI said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held a high-level meeting on the Russia-Ukraine crisis and reviewed the progress of Operation Ganga – started for the evacuation of Indians in Ukraine. The meeting comes amid reports of an Indian student being shot at in Kyiv and hospitalised. Union minister General VK Singh on Friday said he had received reports that a student who has been shot at has been hospitalised.

Amitabh Bachchan is back on screen, this time as a soccer coach in Jhund. The 79-year-old plays NGO Slum Soccer founder Vijay Barse, a Nagpur-based retired sports teacher who pioneers a slum soccer movement. It was Aamir Khan who had convinced Amitabh to take on the role. When Aamir actually got to watch the film, he turned emotional and called it ‘one of the greatest films’ of Amitabh Bachchan.

Team India head coach Rahul Dravid on Friday felicitated former India skipper Virat Kohli as the 33-year-old reached the 100th Test landmark in Mohali. Kohli became the twelfth Indian cricketer to have achieved the feat, joining an elite list of batters to have reached the figure that includes Dravid himself, alongside legends like Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, and Virender Sehwag.