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Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s Chechnya region, has claimed that he travelled to Ukraine to meet Chechen troops fighting alongside Russian forces. Chechen television channel Grozny posted a video on its Telegram social media channel earlier on Sunday that showed Kadyrov in a darkened room in military uniform discussing with Chechen troops a military operation they said took place 7km (4.3 miles) from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

Source: aljazeera.com

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is visiting Turkey Monday in his first official trip to the country since he took office in December. He will hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, followed by a news conference. A Turkish presidency statement said the two leaders are expected to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war and Turkish-European Union Relations, along with bilateral relations.

Source: apnews.com

Iran will stay in the Vienna nuclear talks until its demands are met and a "strong agreement" is reached, Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani said on Monday. "We will remain in the Vienna talks until our legal and logical demands are met and a strong agreement is reached," Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, which makes the decisions in the Vienna talks, said in a tweet.

Source: reuters.com

Sci-fi epic “Dune” won five prizes and brooding Western “The Power of the Dog” was named best picture as the British Academy Film Awards returned Sunday with a live, black-tie ceremony after a pandemic-curtailed event in 2021. New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion was named best director for “The Power of the Dog,” becoming only the third woman to win the prize in the awards’ seven-decade history. Lead acting trophies went to Hollywood star Will Smith and British performer Joanna Scanlan.

Source: apnews.com

“I just tested positive for Covid,” the former president, 60, said in a tweet on Sunday. “I’ve had a scratchy throat for a couple days, but am feeling fine otherwise. Michelle and I are grateful to be vaccinated and boosted, and she has tested negative. It’s a reminder to get vaccinated if you haven’t already, even as cases go down.”

Source: theguardian.com

Seventeen million people in the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen began their first full day under lockdown Monday, with restrictions also imposed in Shanghai and other major cities in an effort to extinguish the biggest threat to the nation's zero-tolerance Covid strategy. The southern city took the measures on Sunday as authorities battled an Omicron flare-up in factories and neighbourhoods linked to nearby Hong Kong, which is recording scores of daily deaths as the virus runs rampant.

Source: france24.com

William Hurt, the Oscar-winning US actor whose roles ranged from acclaimed 1980s dramas to Marvel films, has died at the age of 71, US media say. Hurt won the best actor Oscar in 1986 for playing a prisoner in a Brazilian jail in Kiss of the Spider Woman. He was nominated two more times in the next two years, for Children of a Lesser God and Broadcast News. In recent years, he has been known as General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross in five Marvel blockbusters.

Source: bbc.com

In Indonesia, a magnitude-6.7 quake that was 16 kilometers deep struck about 169 kilometers (104.8 miles) west of Pariaman, a town in West Sumatra province, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake was felt in many parts of the province. It occurred just before dawn and was centered about 161 kilometers southeast of South Nias, a district in North Sumatra province. Another earthquake of 6.4-magnitude shook parts of the Manila region and outlying provinces at dawn but there were no reported damages or injuries, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.

Source: apnews.com

Saudi Arabia has executed 81 men over the past 24 hours, including seven Yemenis and one Syrian national, on charges including terrorism and holding “deviant beliefs“, state news agency SPA said on Saturday. The number dwarfed the 67 executions reported in the kingdom in all of 2021 and the 27 in 2020.

Source: theguardian.com

Vietnam has banned a new Hollywood film starring Tom Holland over scenes with a map showing Beijing's claims to the South China Sea, state media reported Saturday. The action-and-adventure caper "Uncharted" shows a map featuring the so-called nine-dash line, which sets out Beijing's expansive claims to the disputed waters, where Hanoi has rival claims.

Source: france24.com

YouTube is immediately blocking access around the world to channels associated with Russian state-funded media, it said on Friday, citing a policy barring content that denies, minimizes or trivializes well-documented violent events.

Source: france24.com

Voting is under way in Turkmenistan for a tightly controlled snap election, with the son of outgoing President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov poised to win the ballot in the ex-Soviet Central Asian nation. Nine candidates are on the ballot in the republic of six million people.

Source: aljazeera.com

Alec Baldwin has filed an arbitration claim against the producers of the movie “Rust” in a bid to shield himself from liability and cover his legal fees after the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the western last year. In the arbitration demand filed Friday, Baldwin alleges he was not responsible for the death of Hutchins, whom he shot during rehearsals on a movie ranch outside Santa Fe, N.M. Seeking indemnification from the “Rust” production company, Baldwin reiterated earlier public statements that he was not in charge of firearm safety or hiring and had been told the gun did not contain any live ammunition.

Source: latimes.com

The World Health Organization advised Ukraine to destroy high-threat pathogens housed in the country's public health laboratories to prevent "any potential spills" that would spread disease among the population, the agency told Reuters. Biosecurity experts say Russia's movement of troops into Ukraine and bombardment of its cities have raised the risk of an escape of disease-causing pathogens, should any of those facilities be damaged.

 

Queen Elizabeth II's heralded return to major public duties has been put on hold, as royal officials announced Friday she would not attend next week's Commonwealth Day service. The 95-year-old monarch had been scheduled to attend the annual event at Westminster Abbey in central London on Monday afternoon, joined by some 1,500 guests. But Buckingham Palace said "after discussing the arrangements with the Royal Household, the Queen has asked the Prince of Wales to represent Her Majesty" instead.

Source: france24.com

India said on Friday it had accidentally fired a missile into Pakistan this week because of a "technical malfunction" during routine maintenance, giving its version of events after Pakistan summoned India's envoy to protest. Military experts have in the past warned of the risk of accidents or miscalculations by the nuclear-armed neighbours, which have fought three wars and engaged in numerous smaller armed clashes, usually over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

Source: reuters.com

Russia's state media watchdog Roskomnadzor says Instagram will be blocked in the country due to "calls for violence" against Russian soldiers. Instagram owner Meta said it would let its users in some countries call for violence against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian soldiers.

Source: bbc.com

China on Friday ordered a lockdown of the 9 million residents of the northeastern city of Changchun amid a new spike in COVID-19 cases in the area attributed to the highly contagious omicron variant. Residents are required to remain home, with one family member permitted to venture out to buy food and other necessities every two days. All residents must undergo three rounds of mass testing, while non-essential businesses have been closed and transport links suspended.

Source: apnews.com