News in Short

• Indian Union Muslim League President and prominent spiritual leader Panakkad Sayed HyderaliShihabThangal died at the age of 74.
• Thangal had been serving as the vice-president of the Samastha Kerala JamiyyathulUlema, an influential body of Muslim scholars in Kerala.
• He became the president of IUML in 2009, following the death of his elder brother Sayed MohhammedaliShihabThangal.

• Chinese finance ministry report pegged China’s defence budget for 2022 at 1.45 trillion yuan ($230 billion), a 7.1% year-on-year increase.
• It is for the second time that China’s official defence outlay has crossed the $200 billion mark, the first being in 2021.
• China has the world’s second-highest military budget after the United States and is investing in long-range, nuclear-capable missiles and other weapons to extend power beyond its shores.

• Railway minister AshwiniVaishnaw conducted a live testing of Kavach, an indigenously developed, automatic protection technology for trains.
• ‘Kavach’, which literally means armour, is being promoted by the Railways as the world’s cheapest automatic train collision protection system.
• Kavach system enables the trains to stop on their own if the digital system notices any manual error like “jumping” of the red signal or any other malfunction.

• Former Australia spinner Shane Warne one of the all-time greats of the game who redefined spin bowling, has died of a suspected heart attack in Thailand.
• Warne made his debut in 1992. He played 145 Tests for Australia, picking up 708 wickets. In his 194 ODI appearances, he took 293 wickets.
• Warne was also the captain of the Indian Premier League's Rajasthan Royals in 2008 and led the team to the first IPL title.

• Russia’s Defense Ministry has declareda ceasefire in the besieged southern Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha to allow the exit of civilians.
• The cease-fire is first concrete sign of cooperation between the two sides after they agreed in negotiations to create humanitarian corridors aimed at evacuating civilians from conflict areas.
• The cease fire comes as Russian forces have pressed the attack in Ukraine’s south, the one area of the country where their campaign appears to be making gains.