Hindustan Times News | 7th March 2022 | 6 PM

HT Daily News Wrap

Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought Ukrainian President support for evacuating hundreds of Indian nationals, Russia declared a ceasefire in Kyiv & 3 other major cities to open humanitarian corridors, an autopsy conducted on the body of Australian cricket star Shane Warne has concluded that he died of natural causes and other top news in this bulletin.

The Indian rupee hit a lifetime low in opening deals on Monday as a sharp surge in global crude oil prices threatened to push up imported inflation and widen the country’s trade and current account deficits. The partially convertible rupee was trading at 76.92/93 per dollar, after touching 76.96, its weakest level ever. It had closed at 76.16 on Friday. The benchmark 10-year bond yield was trading at 6.86%, up 5 basis points on the day. Oil prices soared more than 6%, touching their highest since 2008 on Monday after the United States and European allies mull a Russian oil import ban while delays in the potential return of Iranian crude to global markets fuelled tight supply fears. Indian shares tumbled over 2% on Monday, with investors dumping risky assets as oil prices soared after the United States and European allies were said to be mulling a Russian oil import ban.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday sought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s support for evacuating hundreds of Indian nationals stranded in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy amid intense fighting in the region. The main focus of India’s evacuation efforts in Ukraine over the past few days has been the safe and secure exit of some 700 Indians, mostly students, from Sumy. Close to 16,000 Indian nationals have been evacuated from across Ukraine, including other areas in the eastern part of the country facing heavy Russian shelling and violence. During a 35-minute phone conversation, Modi sought continued support from the Ukrainian government in ongoing efforts for evacuating Indian nationals from Sumy, people familiar with the matter said.

The Russian military declared a ceasefire in the capital city of Kyiv in Ukraine and three other major cities on Monday to open humanitarian corridors, news agency Reuters reported citing local media. The decision followed a request personally made by French President Emmanuel Macron, the report said. The corridors to allow safe passage to civilians trying to flee the war will open at 1000 Moscow time (0700 GMT). It will continue for 11 hours, according to the report. Besides Kyiv, forces will hold fire in Kharkiv, Mariupol and Sumy. A day earlier, a similar ceasefire was announced in Mariupol. But after a brief pause in firing, Ukrainian officials said Russian forces resumed artillery fire and airstrikes which prevented residents from leaving. Putin has blamed Ukraine for sabotaging the effort.

Police in Thailand said Monday that an autopsy conducted on the body of Australian cricket star Shane Warne has concluded that he died of natural causes. A statement issued by deputy national police spokesperson Kissana Pathanacharoen said the opinion issued by the doctor who carried out the autopsy has been conveyed to Warne’s family and the Australian Embassy. It said the family did not have any doubt that the 52-year-old cricketer, widely considered one of the sport’s greatest spin bowlers, died of natural causes. The statement, issued ahead of a planned police news conference, did not specify the cause of death. Preliminary evaluations from Thai authorities suggested Warne died from a heart attack. Warne was found unresponsive in his hotel room on the Thai resort island of Samui on Friday and could not be revived at a nearby hospital. His body was transferred Sunday to the Thai mainland for an official autopsy at a state hospital.

The Ukraine government has a contingency plan in place if President Volodymyr Zelensky is killed during the Russian invasion, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during an interview with CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday. ‘The Ukrainians have plans in place — that I’m not going to talk about or get into any details on — to make sure that there is what we would call “continuity of government” one way or another. And let me leave it at that,’ Blinken said when he was asked if the United States was working on an interim plan to support a Ukrainian government without Zelensky. This comes amid reports that Zelensky has survived three assassination attempts since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Zelensky too talked about the threat to his life. In fact, he opened the recent Zoom meeting with US senators saying that this is probably the last time they were seeing him live.

That’s all from us for now. We will be back with the morning news bulletin.