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Live news updates: The latest on India news, the coronavirus, the war in Ukraine and other headlines.

8:20 AM

Russian PM Mikhail Mishustin authorises Moscow's withdrawal from UNWTO

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed an order authorising the country's withdrawal from the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

 

The proposal was made by the Russian Foreign Ministry, which had reached an agreement with relevant government bodies, according to the published order released on Friday.

 

UNWTO members voted to suspend Russia from the organisation on April 27, when the Russian delegation announced its withdrawal, Xinhua news agency reported.

 

8:20 AM

Civilians flee intense fighting in eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk

Civilians fled intense fighting in eastern Ukraine on Friday as Russian and Ukrainian forces engaged in a grinding battle of attrition for key cities in the country's industrial heartland.

 

Mostly women, children and elderly residents left on a special evacuation train that departed from the city of Pokrovsk and headed west.

 

We live on the front line now, said Svitlana Kaplun, whose family fled as shelling reached their neighborhood in the city of Krasnohorivka. The kids are worried all the time, they are afraid to sleep at night, so we decided to take them out.

 

After a bungled attempt to overrun Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, in the early days of the war, Russia shifted its focus to an eastern region of coal mines and factories known as the Donbas. The area borders Russia and has been partly controlled by Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.

 

The fighting there has led to mounting casualties and renewed pleas from Ukraine to the West for more weapons.

 

8:19 AM

Saudi Arabia cuts oil flows to China while meeting other requests

Saudi Arabia will provide some Chinese buyers with less crude than they asked for next month, while fulfilling requests from many other customers in Asia after OPEC+ pledged to speed up production hikes.

 

Japan, South Korea, Thailand and India will get the oil volumes they had sought, with some even getting extra supplies, according to refinery officials who asked not to be identified as the information is private. State-run marketer Saudi Aramco typically doesn’t provide buyers with a reason why volumes are cut.

 

Aramco didn’t immediately reply to an email seeking comment on the matter.

 

8:19 AM

PMC Bank case fallout: RBI asks UCBs to make higher provisions

The Reserve Bank on Friday issued fresh provisioning norms for urban cooperative banks' inter-bank exposure as well as valuation of their perpetual non-cumulative preference shares and equity warrants, directing them to continue making provisions to the tune of 20 per cent for such exposures.

 

The banking regulator came up with these rules in the wake of the bankruptcy of the corruption-ridden Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC) in September 2019 and the subsequent merger of the cooperative bank with Unity Small Finance Bank, which came into effect from January 25, 2022.

 

Earlier, similar directions were issued after the board of the largest cooperative bank was superseded by the RBI and the subsequent circulars on these matters issued on April 20, 2020 and on January 25, 2022.

8:17 AM

Taiwan independence: China threatens to go to war, says report

China’s defence minister complained to his American counterpart on Friday about the latest US arms package for Taiwan and warned of a possible conflict over the self—governing island that China claims as its own territory.

 

Chinese Defense Minister Gen Wei Fenghe told US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a meeting in Singapore that the sale “seriously undermined China’s sovereignty and security interests,” said CCTV’s military channel.

 

China “firmly opposes and strongly condemns it,” and the Chinese government and military will “resolutely smash any Taiwan independence plot and resolutely safeguard the reunification of the motherland,” Wei said.