Live news: 35 die in Russia air strike on Ukraine military base near Poland
Live news updates: Troops launch missile attack on a large Ukrainian military facility near the Polish border.
 "Ukraine")
People leaving Ukraine as Russian forces continue to move in
Foreign military instructors have worked in the past at the Yavoriv International Center for Peacekeeping and Security. It was not clear if any were present at the time.
'The Kashmir Files' to be tax free in Karnataka: CM
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday announced making the movie 'The Kashmir Files' tax free in Karnataka.
The film directed by Vivek Agnihotri is based on the killings and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir valley by Islamic extremists.
"Kudos to @vivekagnihotri for #TheKashmirFiles, a blood-curdling, poignant & honest narrative of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from their home land. To lend our support to the movie & encourage our people to watch it, we will make the movie tax-free in Karnataka," Bommai tweeted.
Besides, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh governments have also decided to make the movie tax-free.
Putin supporters demonstrate in Belgrade
Dozens of cars drove through the Serbian capital of Belgrade on Sunday in support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The occupants waved Russian and Serbian flags, honked horns and chanted pro-Putin slogans. Some cars had the letter Z painted on them a symbol of support for the Russian president.
The protest was organised by a small far-right group.
Serbia has refused to join international sanctions against its ally Russia despite formally seeking EU membership and voting in favour of the U.N. resolution condemning Moscow's aggression.
Serbia's dominant state-controlled media are daily carrying Moscow's war propaganda, creating a strong pro-Putin mood among Serbia's ultranationalists and far-right groups.
TMC constitutes panel to review poor performance in Goa polls
The Trinamool Congress on Sunday constituted a committee to review the party's dismal performance in the recently held assembly elections in Goa, where it drew a blank.
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, in a statement, said that the party will convene a series of internal review meetings to introspect its role in Goa.
The review committee, headed by the party's Haryana leader Ashok Tanwar, will also comprise Sushmita Dev, and Sourav Chakraborty, he said.
"We are convening a series of internal review meetings and the first conclave will be held on March 26 where candidates, their core team members and individual members of the party will be invited," the Diamond Harbour MP, who had visited Goa several times in past four months to build the party's organisation, said.
"We began our mission in Goa to fill the void created due to lack of an efficient, robust opposition. Over the next five years, we recommit ourselves to playing that role," Banerjee said.
The party secured a little over five per cent of the votes but failed to win a seat. Several senior Congress leaders including former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro, had joined the party ahead of the elections.
Uma Bharti throws stone at liquor shop in Bhopal to 'warn' administration
Senior BJP leader Uma Bharti, who has been demanding total prohibition in the party-ruled Madhya Pradesh, walked into a liquor shop in Azad Nagar area of Bhopal on Sunday evening and hurled a stone at alcohol bottles kept on a shelf there.
A video of the incident, which Bharti shared on her Twitter handle, went viral on social media.
The former Union minister said that through her act, she has warned the local administration to get the liquor shop shut within a week.
In the video, the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, surrounded by her supporters and local residents, is seen entering the liquor shop, lifting a stone and hurling it at some bottles kept on the shelf. After that, her followers raise slogans in her support and also chant 'Bharat Mata ki jai'.
The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh has recently unveiled a new excise policy, under which it has permitted setting up of home bars and slashed retail prices of liquor by 20 per cent.
Bharti had earlier announced that she would run an anti-liquor campaign in the state. But she had also clarified that her campaign for liquor ban was not against the state government.
While sharing the video of her act at the outlet, Bharti said in a tweet, "There are a number of liquor shops situated in a colony of labourers at Barkheda Pathani area, where liquor is served in 'ahata' (enclosed space)."
"The money of these labourers gets drained out in these shops. The residents and women have objected and protested as the liquor shop is against the government's policy. The administration had given assurances several times in the past that it would close the shop, but this has not happened for many years," she said.
"Today, I gave a warning to the administration to get it closed in a week," she added.
China staring at biggest Civid-19 crisis since Wuhan as cases triple
China's high-tech Shenzhen city, which has a population of over 17 million, was the latest to shut down to control the surge of COVID-19 cases, as the government scrambled to contain the worst outbreak of virus cases in the last two years.
Shenzhen will seal all communities, villages and suspend bus and metro services from Monday to Sunday due to the latest COVID-19 outbreak, state-run China Daily reported on Sunday.
Shenzhen which has been battling an Omicron surge since late February, will carry out three rounds of citywide COVID-19 tests next week.
In a statement, city authorities urged the residents to work from home and to step out only to buy daily necessities.
After topping 1,000 new cases for two days in a row, new locally transmitted cases in China surged to more than 3,100, the National Health Commission reported on Sunday. This is the highest in two years.
All outbound travellers from Shenzhen must submit negative nucleic acid test results taken within the previous 24 hours, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
The situation is such that China is on the brink of its biggest COVID-19 crisis since Wuhan, the Post report said.
The coronavirus first broke out in Wuhan in December 2019 before it spread to almost all parts of the world, claiming over 6 million lives so far.
It is significant that cases in China are on the rise when most of the countries are opening up following decrease in cases.
China's Zero COVID-19 case policy is coming increasingly under stress in the past few weeks as several cities including Shanghai and Beijing are witnessing fresh wave of cases.
Russians join anti-war protest in Cyprus
Dozens of Russian nationals joined Ukrainians in the coastal resort town of Limassol, home to a sizeable Russian expatriate community, to protest the war in Ukraine.
About 50 Russians converged on Limassol's promenade prior to joining with other protesters Sunday to chant slogans including Stop the war, stop Putin and Russia without Putin."
They waved blue and white flags that they said were the Russian national flag without the red stripe that represented blood and violence.
Protester Evgeniya Shlikava, who has been living and working in Cyprus for five years, told The Associated Press that despite Russian propaganda, Ukraine didn't deserve this action from our government and that protesters are demanding an immediate end to the war that we don't support.
I do believe that the person who did the most to make Russia weak and not united is Putin himself, said Shlikava, who faulted the Russian president and his supporters for bringing the world's wrath on Russia that is proud of its humanistic values and culture.
But now Russia is the aggressor for the whole world, and we protest it, Shlikava said.
Ruckus erupts outside movie hall over cancellation of The Kashmir Files' tickets
A ruckus erupted outside the Inox multiplex here in sector 4 of the millennium city, screening the critically acclaimed film The Kashmir Files', on Sunday over the cancellation of tickets of some visitors.
Incensed over the denial of entry to the movie hall despite having tickets booked in advance with them, some of the audiences entered into a scuffle with the cinema hall's security personnel, necessitating intervention by police.
The trouble began when some visitors were denied entry to the hall despite having tickets while the movie hall managers said they had to cancel the tickets to reissue them without tax after the Haryana government made the movie tax-free, said police.
The situation was brought under control after the movie-goers and cinema hall owner reached a compromise over cancelled tickets, it added.
"To implement the revised tax-free pricing for the movie as per the Haryana government's order and to ensure that the benefit of the same is passed on to the maximum number of guests with immediate effect, the tickets which were already issued with the tax amount, had to be reissued, Inox Cinema said in an official statement.
This process required reprogramming of the existing tickets and the same was communicated to guests so that they can rebook the ticket and enjoy the movie at a lower tax-free price, the statement explained.
We are extremely heartened by the response we have received for the movie across the country and are looking forward to welcoming guests to enjoy it in coming days," it added.
Patnaik's BJD forms zilla parishads in all 30 districts of Odisha
After securing almost 90 per cent of the zilla parishad seats in Odisha, the ruling BJD headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday scripted history by forming councils in all the 30 districts of the state.
As per the ruling party, 70 per cent of the ZP presidents are women. They are heading ZPs in 21 of the 30 districts. Large districts such as Mayurbhanj, Ganjam, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Bolangir and Sambalpur are headed by women zilla parishad presidents.
"For the first time in the history of Odisha, and probably across the country, a single party has formed zilla parishads in all the districts of the state," BJD vice-president Debi Prasad Mishra said.
While the average age of ZP presidents is 41 years, Patnaik selected younger and educated candidates with clean records to head the zilla parishads in all the districts, he said, adding that 67 per cent of ZP president seats (unreserved/women) were filled by OBC members.
As many as 15 of the 30 districts (or 50 per cent) now have zilla parishad president aged below 40 years, while 23 of the 30 districts (or 76 per cent) have ZP presidents aged below 50 years.
Apparently keeping an eye on the next general elections in 2024, Patnaik, in a major decision, has chosen young, educated and talented party workers as zilla parishad presidents with a long-term strategic view to mentor them for leadership positions.
For instance, 23-year-old Saraswarti Majhi, a science graduate, has been selected as the youngest zilla parishad president from tribal dominated Rayagada district.
"I will stress on education of children and health of elderly persons," she said.
Patnaik has also selected 26-year-old Samari Tangul of Swabhiman Anchal (a former cut-off area) as the zilla parishad president of Malkangiri.
More than 100 mn Covid-19 jabs given in Rajasthan: Health minister
Health Minister Parsadi Lal Meena on Sunday said more than 10 crore vaccines against COVID-19 have been administered across the state.
He praised the healthcare staff and the public for cooperating with the government in fighting the pandemic.
The health minister said so far, 98.4 per cent of the people have been administered first dose of the vaccine and more than 84 per cent have been administered both doses.
Till Sunday evening, more than 10 crore vaccine doses were administered 9.33 crore jabs to people above 18 years and 53.33 lakh doses to those aged between 15 and 18 years.
As many as 13.73 lakh people have also received precautionary doses, making Rajasthan only the sixth state to achieve the feat, the minister said.
Further elaborating on the numbers, Meena said 5.06 crore people have been administered the first dose and 4.26 crore people have received both doses.
Cent percent of the population in more than 20 districts, including Pratapgarh, Kota, Jaipur-I and II, Bundi, Sawai Madhopur, Alwar and Sikar, have been administered the first dose of the vaccine.
The minister said Rajasthan is on the seventh position after Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, to have vaccinated such large population.
US journalist killed in attack near Kyiv
A US journalist being treated at a hospital in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv says that he and a US colleague were shot after they were stopped at a checkpoint just after a bridge in Irpin, a town near Kyiv.
Juan Arredondo told Italian journalist Annalisa Camilli in an interview from the hospital before being taken for surgery that the colleague who was with him was hit in the neck and remained on the ground earlier on Sunday.
Camilli told The Associated Press that she was at the hospital when Arredondo arrived and that Arredondo had himself had been wounded, hit in the lower back when stopped at a Russian checkpoint.
Arredondo told Camilli he didn't have further information on the fellow U.S. journalist, whom he identified as Brent Renaud, a friend. He told Camilli they were filming refugees fleeing the area when they were shot at while in a car approaching a checkpoint. The driver turned around but the firing at them continued, Arredondo added.
A statement from Kyiv regional police said that Russian troops opened fire on the car, and that one journalist died. Arredondo said that an ambulance brought him to the hospital and that Renaud was left behind.
Putin frustrated with progress of forces in Ukraine, says US Security Advisor Jake Sullivan
Russian President Vladimir Putin is "frustrated" by the progress his forces have made in Ukraine, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Sunday, as he vowed "every inch of NATO territory" will be defended.
"Vladimir Putin is frustrated by the fact that his forces are not making the kind of progress that he thought they would make against major cities, including (capital) Kyiv; that he is expanding the number of targets, that he is lashing out, and that he is trying to cause damage in every part of the country (reflects that), Sullivan told CNN in an interview.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, leading to intense battles in all major cities and towns of the country. Fragmented cease-fire talks are yet to bear results.
The United States, Sullivan said, has been warning since well before the invasion begun in February that the Russian plans involve attacking all over Ukraine - north, south, east and west.
"So, this (country-wide attack) does not come as a surprise to the American intelligence and national security community," he said.
America, he reiterated, will not have US military forces operating in Ukraine, and there are none operating there now.
"But we will defend every inch of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) territory, even as we seek to provide military assistance to the Ukrainian fighters who are bravely defending their homes and bravely defending their cities, he said.
US President Joe Biden, he said, has been in close contact with the Ukrainian leadership and speaks to his counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy regularly.
TMC, Congress councillors shot dead in separate incidents in Bengal
Two elected councillors of the TMC and Congress were shot dead in separate incidents in Panihati and Jhalda areas of West Bengal on Sunday, police said.
Anupam Dutta, the TMC councillor of ward number eight of Panihati Municipality in North 24 Parganas district, was shot at from a close range by unidentified motorcycle-borne youths while he was visiting a park on North Station Road in Agarpara in the evening, a police officer said.
The councillor sustained serious head injuries and was rushed to a private hospital in the area where doctors declared him brought dead, he said, adding that a police contingent has been deployed as the situation was tense.
In Jhalda Municipality of Purulia district, four-time Congress councillor Tapan Kandu was shot dead by unidentified assailants, another police officer said.
The councillor was shot at by three motorcycle-borne youths when he went for a walk near his residence in his ward number two in the evening, he said.
Kandu, who slumped to the ground, was lifted up by locals even as the assailants escaped the spot. He was rushed to a private hospital in Ranchi in neighbouring Jharkhand, where doctors declared him brought dead.
One day Indian voter will surprise BJP: Tharoor
The Indian voter has always been capable of throwing up surprises and the BJP will also get to know about it one day, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said on Sunday.
His remarks came in the backdrop of the party's debacle and drubbing in the just-concluded assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur.
The Congress could have done much better in Uttarakhand, and in Goa, "we had very good chances of being the single largest party", Tharoor said at the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF).
"But mind you in both the states the number of voters are relatively small, and that perhaps contributed," the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.
Sonia Gandhi to remain Congress president, says TV channel quoting sources
Declare 'The Kashmir Files' tax-free, BJP MLA urges Maharashtra CM
BJP MLA Nitesh Rane has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray requesting that the recently-released film 'The Kashmir Files' be exempted from entertainment tax in the state.
Rane stated in his letter sent on Saturday that the tax break will enable people to see for the first time the correct and true depiction of atrocities inflicted by Muslim terrorists on the Hindu community in Jammu and Kashmir.
'The Kashmir Files' movie, which depicts Hindus who fell prey to Muslim terrorism, should be declared tax-free in the state, Rane stated in the letter written in Marathi.
Written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri and produced by Zee Studios, the film depicts the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from Kashmir following systematic killings of people from the community by Pakistan-backed terrorists.
It stars Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty and Pallavi Joshi among others.
On Sunday, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh governments decided to make 'The Kashmir Files' movie tax-free.
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First Published: Mar 13 2022 | 6:30 AM IST
