Daily News Dose: Russia declares ceasefire in two Ukrainian cities | Mar 5, 2022

Hello listener, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. I'm your host, Gopika KP. These are the major news stories of the day

1. Russia declares ceasefire in two Ukrainian cities for civilian evacuation
2. Protest against K-Rail continues, Congress to hold statewide stir on March 7
3. Deep depression over Bay of Bengal, Kerala likely to experience rain
4. Jadeja's second Test ton flattens Sri Lanka
5. IS claims Pakistan bombing that kills 56 at Shiite mosque

Let’s get into the details.

1) A partial ceasefire by Russian forces around the Ukrainian city of Mariupol will allow civilians to leave the city during a five-hour period from Saturday morning, the city authorities said. Civilians will be allowed to leave Mariupol between noon and 5 p.m. Moscow time, Russia's RIA news agency quoted city authorities as saying.
Russia said earlier on Saturday its troops, which have encircled the Azov Sea port city in Ukraine's south, would stop firing and allow civilians to pass. Russia also plans a partial ceasefire to allow a humanitarian corridor out of Volnovakha.
Separately, the Mariupol city council said in a statement that civilians will be able to proceed towards the city of Zaporizhzhia and will be able to use specially arranged bus routes as well as their own cars. Saturday's evacuation will be the first of several stages, it said.

2) Protests against the laying of survey stones for K-Rail's SilverLine project continued unabated even as the Congress announced a statewide stir on Monday. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K Sudhakaran will inaugurate the protest, which has 'No to K-Rail, Yes to Kerala' as its slogan, in front of the State secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram at 11 am on March 7. The party will hold protests in front of Collectorates in other districts, the Congress said.

3) The depression over southwest Bay of Bengal moved nearly northwards and intensified into a deep depression and lay east-southeast off Tamil Nadu coast on Friday evening with several areas along the coast receiving light rain during the day. Kerala is likely to experience rain from Saturday to Monday due to the influence of the depression, IMD said. Southern and mid-Kerala is likely
to witness more rain as opposed to northern parts

4) Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja completed his second Test hundred and with Ravichandran Ashwin helped the hosts to a big first innings total against Sri Lanka on the second day of the opening Test at Mohali on Saturday. Left-hander Jadeja was unbeaten on 102 and with Ashwin, who made 61, added 130 for their partnership as India reached 468/7 at lunch on the second day.
A minute's silence was observed before the start of play for Australian greats Rod Marsh and Shane Warne, who both died on Friday.

5) The Islamic State says a lone Afghan suicide bomber struck inside a Shiite Muslim mosque in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar during Friday prayers, killing at least 56 worshippers and
wounding 194 people. The Islamic State affiliate in the region known as Islamic State in Khorasan province and headquartered in Afghanistan claimed Friday's devastating attack in a statement translated by the SITE Intelligence group. The statement was posted on the group's Amaq News Agency.

Now, let’s check out the covid update

6) With 5,921 people testing positive for coronavirus infection in a day, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases now stands at 40.29 crore and that of active cases is at 63,878, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday. The death toll due to the disease has climbed to 5,14,878 with 289 fresh fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

That brings us to the end of this episode! Be sure to come back tomorrow. As always, thanks for listening to Daily News Dose.