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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday intensified a crackdown on media outlets and individuals who fail to hew to the Kremlin line on Russia’s war in Ukraine, blocking Facebook and Twitter and signing into law a bill that criminalizes the intentional spreading of what Moscow deems to be “fake” reports, Associated Press reported.

The moves against the social media giants follow blocks imposed on the BBC, the U.S. government-funded Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and Latvia-based website Meduza. The government’s sweeping action against the foreign outlets that publish news in Russian seeks to establish even tighter controls over what information the domestic audience sees about the invasion of Ukraine.

The state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said it cut access to Twitter and Facebook in line with a decision by the prosecutor general’s office. The watchdog has previously accused Twitter of failing to delete the content banned by Russian authorities and slowed down access to it.

Twitter said in a statement Friday afternoon that while the company is “aware of reports” that its platform is blocked in Russia, it has not been able to confirm whether this is the case, according to the Associated Press.

The bill, quickly rubber-stamped by both houses of the Kremlin-controlled parliament and signed by Putin, imposes prison sentences of up to 15 years for those spreading information that goes against the Russian government’s narrative on the war.

The question regarding Russia is no longer “what we do to stop disinformation,” former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said on Friday. “The question has to be how do we promote information inside Russia -- and I don’t have the answer.”

Multiple outlets said they would pause their work inside Russia to evaluate the situation. Among them, CNN said it would stop broadcasting in Russia while Bloomberg and the BBC said they would temporarily suspend the work of their journalists there.

Russian authorities have repeatedly and falsely decried reports of Russian military setbacks or civilian deaths in Ukraine as “fake” news. State media outlets refer to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “special military operation” rather than a war or an invasion, Associated Press reported.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, said the measure “will force those who lied and made statements discrediting our armed forces to bear very grave punishment.”

“I want everyone to understand, and for society to understand, that we are doing this to protect our soldiers and officers, and to protect the truth,” he added.

The law envisages sentences of up to three years or fines for spreading what authorities deem to be false news about the military, but the maximum punishment rises to 15 years for cases deemed to have led to “severe consequences, according to the Associated Press.

Legendary Australia spinner Shane Warne passed away on Friday aged 52 of a suspected heart attack, India Today reported.

The Australian cricketer was at a villa in Thailand when the doctors unsuccessfully tried to revive him.

“Shane was found unresponsive in his villa and despite the best efforts of medical staff, he could not be revived,” a statement read.

“The family requests privacy at this time and will provide further details in due course."

Only on Friday morning, Shane Warne had posted on social media, expressing his condolences to the family of another legendary Australian cricketer Rod Marsh who passed away on Thursday, according to India Today.

"Sad to hear the news that Rod Marsh has passed. He was a legend of our great game & an inspiration to so many young boys & girls. Rod cared deeply about cricket & gave so much-especially to Australia & England players. Sending lots & lots of love to Ros & the family. RIP mate," he had written on Twitter.

Warne, who had been active on social media, only posted from Thailand on Thursday evening. The legendary leg-spinner shared a photo of the villa where he had been staying in the Asian nation.

Shane Warne, one of the greatest-ever cricketers to have played the sport, picked up 708 wickets in 145 Tests. His career spanned over 15 years from 1992 to 2007. He was also a World Cup winner with Australia in 1999.

Warne is regarded as one of the greatest-ever bowlers in the history of the sport as he was an integral part of the dominant Australian sides in the 1990s and early 2000s, India Today reported.

Warne also won the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League as the captain of Rajasthan Royals. He is regarded as the greatest captain that Australia never had.

An Amsterdam museum said Thursday it has cut its close links to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and UNESCO warned of damage to Ukraine's cultural heritage, as international cultural institutions stepped up their condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Associated Press reported.

The Hermitage Amsterdam said it has long distanced itself from politics in Russia under President Vladimir Putin as it built close ties with the Hermitage, giving the Amsterdam museum 'access to one of the world's most famous art collections, which we could draw from' for exhibitions.

Russia's recent attack on Ukraine makes keeping this distance no longer tenable,' the Dutch museum said in a statement. 'Our Board and directors have decided to cut ties with the State Hermitage Museum.'

It added that it hoped to eventually be able to restore ties pending peace and 'changes in the future of Russia.'

In another move to culturally isolate Moscow, the Swedish Academy that hands out the coveted Nobel Prize in Literature broke a long-standing practice not to make political statements and condemned the invasion.

In a statement, the academy noted that its history and mission are deeply rooted in the traditions of freedom of expression, belief and inquiry, according to the Associated Press.

'We therefore join the legion of our fellow academies, literary and cultural institutions, places of higher learning, defenders of a free press, human rights organizations and nation states in expressing our abhorrence of the Russian government's unjustified attack on Ukraine and its people,' it said.

The United Nations' cultural agency, meanwhile, sounded the alarm about the damage to Ukraine's cultural patrimony in announcing it was working to assess Ukraine's educational and cultural institutions and its U.N.-designated heritage sites.

Ukraine is home to seven UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the famous St. Sophia Cathedral and related monastic buildings in the capital Kyiv. Other sites on the U.N. list are located in the western city of Lviv, the Black Sea port city of Odesa and in the second largest city of Kharkiv. All four cities have been subjected to artillery attacks and air bombardment by the invading Russian forces.

'We must safeguard this cultural heritage, as a testimony of the past but also as a vector of peace for the future,' said UNESCO's director general, Audrey Azoulay.

In a statement, Azoulay said the agency is coordinating efforts with Ukrainian authorities to mark as quickly as possible key historic monuments and sites across Ukraine with an internationally recognized sign for the protection of cultural heritage in the event of armed conflict, Associated Press reported.

UNESCO will also organize a meeting with the country's museum directors to help them safeguard museum collections and cultural property as the war rages on.

Communist Party of Nepal General Secretary Netra Bikram Chand accused the Nepali Congress and Communist leaders of trying to sell the country from the Parliament.

Speaking at a programme organised in Khulla Manch of the Capital on Friday, Chand accused the so-called Nepali Congress President and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli of trying to sell the country from the Parliament.

“Congress and Communist leaders are selling the country from the Parliament. The government branded us a criminal group and banned our activities when we spoke about the Millennium Challenge Corporation. MCC is not a grant,” he said.

He said that the United States attacked Nepal in the name of agreement.

Chand further said that the United States wanted to intervene in Nepal in a new way.

“MCC will undermine national independence. MCC is not in the interest of the nation,” he said.

Nepal logged 126 new Covid-19 cases and one death on Friday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 7, 091 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 111 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 842 people underwent antigen tests, of which 15 tested positive.

The Ministry said that 385 infected people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours.

As of today, there are 7,242 active cases in the country. 

The Ministry said that 7,099 people are staying in home isolation while 143 are in institutionalized isolation.

A powerful bomb exploded inside a Shiite Muslim mosque in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar on Friday, killing at least 45 worshippers and wounding some 65 others, many of them critically, police said, Associated Press reported.

Peshawar Police Chief Muhammed Ejaz Khan said the violence started when two armed attackers opened fire on police outside the mosque in Peshawar’s old city. One attacker and one policeman were killed in the gunfight, and another police official was wounded. The remaining attacker then ran inside the mosque and detonated a bomb.

Local police official Waheed Khan said the explosion occurred as worshippers had gathered in the Kucha Risaldar mosque for Friday prayers. The death toll will likely rise as many of the wounded are in critical condition, he added, according to the Associated Press.

Ambulances rushed through congested narrow streets carrying the wounded to Lady Reading Hospital, where doctors worked feverishly. At least 150 worshippers were inside the mosque at the time of the explosion, witnesses said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, but both the Islamic State group and a violent Pakistani Taliban organization have carried out similar attacks in the region, located near the border with neighboring Afghanistan.

Shayan Haider, a witness, had been preparing to enter the mosque when a powerful explosion threw him to the street.

“I opened my eyes and there was dust and bodies everywhere,” he said.

At the Lady Reading Hospital Emergency department, there was chaos as doctors struggled to move the many wounded into operating theaters. Hundreds of relatives gathered outside the emergency department, many of them wailing and beating their chests, pleading for information about their loved ones, Associated Press reported.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has warned against carrying out, making statements and spreading propaganda in favour of or against in the actor Paul Shah case.

The Commission said that such activities in the course of the ongoing investigation would damage the confidentiality and dignity of both the accused and the victim sides, besides influencing the investigation process as well.

"Investigation into a crime of serious nature should be carried out in a confidential, fair, independent and fear-free manner in accordance with the principles of criminal justice," reads a press release issued today by NHRC deputy spokesperson Loknath Bastola.

The press statement further cautions against disseminating news in favour of or against, recording videos without the permission of the people concerned and making public the recorded videos so as to influence the investigation process into a criminal offence of serious nature. It has urged one and all to keep in mind the fact that evidence might be destroyed due to over-publicity.

NHRC said it has been carrying out monitoring and collecting information to that connection. It said such activities have affected the right to confidentiality mentioned in Article 28 and the right to justice referred to in Article 30 of the Constitution of Nepal, Clause 298 of the Criminal Penal Code, Article 12 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, 1948 and the right to confidentiality provided in Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Shah has been accused of raping a 17-year-old girl. He turned himself in to police on Sunday. RSS

CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said that he agreed to endorse the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) with an interpretative declaration to save the post of Speaker.

Addressing a Central Committee meeting, the Maoist supremo made it clear that he was compelled to make an agreement to ratify the $500 million grant compact after the main opposition CPN-UML hatched a conspiracy to break the coalition and to remove Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota from his post.

“The alliance was on the verge of collapse due to the MCC. The UML also tried to break the coalition and to dissolve the Parliament. We decided to endorseMCC with an interpretative declaration to foil the UML’s attempt to break the alliance,” he said.

He claimed that the UML will be pushed to the corner again by keeping the alliance intact.

“The coalition would have fallen apart had there not been an agreement to ratify the MCC. We pushed the UML to the corner once again by foiling its attempt,” Chairman Dahal said.