SAN FRANCISCO: Tech giant Microsoft Corporation said that Zain Nadella, son of CEO Satya Nadella and his wife Anu Nadella, has died, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

The software maker told its executive staff in an email that Zain, who was 26 years old and had been born with cerebral palsy, passed away on Monday morning.

The message asked executives to hold the family in their thoughts and prayers while giving them space to grieve privately, the report said. In October 2017, the CEO talked about the birth of his son in a blogpost.

“One night, during the thirty-sixth week of her pregnancy, Anu noticed that the baby was not moving as much as she was accustomed to. So we went to the emergency room of a local hospital in Bellevue,” Nadella had said in the post.

“We thought it would be just a routine checkup, little more than new parent anxiety. In fact, I distinctly remember feeling annoyed by the wait times we experienced in the emergency room. But upon examination, the doctors were alarmed enough to order an emergency cesarean section,” he added.

The CEO mentioned that Zain was born at 11:29 p.m. on August 13, 1996, all of three pounds and he did not cry.

“Zain was transported from the hospital in Bellevue across Lake Washington to Seattle Children’s Hospital with its state-of-the-art Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Anu began her recovery from the difficult birth. I spent the night with her in the hospital and immediately went to see Zain the next morning. Little did I know then how profoundly our lives would change,” Nadella said.

“Over the course of the next couple of years, we learned more about the damage caused by in utero asphyxiation, and how Zain would require a wheelchair and be reliant on us because of severe cerebral palsy. I was devastated. But mostly I was sad for how things turned out for me and Anu,” he added.

Kyiv(AP): A 40-mile convoy of Russian tanks and other vehicles threatened Ukraine’s capital Tuesday as an intense shelling attack targeted the country’s second-largest city, and both sides looked to resume talks in the coming days aimed at stopping the fighting.

The country’s embattled president said he believed the stepped-up shelling was designed to force him into concessions.

I believe Russia is trying to put pressure (on Ukraine) with this simple method,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday in a video address. He did not offer details of hourslong talks that took place Monday, but he said Kyiv was not prepared to make concessions when one side is hitting another with rocket artillery.

The developments came as Russia finds itself increasingly isolated as a result of international condemnation and potentially backbreaking economic sanctions. Five days into the invasion, the Russian military’s movements have been stalled by fierce resistance on the ground and a surprising inability to dominate the airspace.

The Kremlin has twice in as many days raised the specter of nuclear war and put on high alert an arsenal including intercontinental ballistic missiles and long-range bombers. Stepping up his rhetoric, President Vladimir Putin denounced the U.S. and its allies as an empire of lies.

Meanwhile, an embattled Ukraine moved to solidify its ties to the West by applying to join the European Union a largely symbolic move for now, but one that is unlikely to sit well with Putin, who has long accused the U.S. of trying to pull Ukraine out of Moscow’s orbit.

A top Putin aide and head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said that the first talks held between the two sides since the invasion lasted nearly five hours and that the envoys found certain points on which common positions could be foreseen. He said they agreed to continue the discussions in the days ahead.

As the talks along the Belarusian border wrapped up, several blasts could be heard in Kyiv, and Russian troops advanced on the city of nearly 3 million. The vast convoy of armored vehicles, tanks, artillery and support vehicles was 17 miles (25 kilometers) from the center of the city and stretched for about 40 miles, according to satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies.

People in Kyiv lined up for groceries after the end of a weekend curfew, standing beneath a building with a gaping hole blown in its side. Kyiv remained a key goal for the Russians, Zelenskyy said, noting that it was hit by three missile strikes on Monday and that hundreds of saboteurs were roaming the city.

They want to break our nationhood, that’s why the capital is constantly under threat, Zelenskyy said.

Messages aimed at the advancing Russian soldiers popped up on billboards, bus stops and electronic traffic signs across the capital. Some used profanity to encourage Russians to leave. Others appealed to their humanity.

Russian soldier Stop! Remember your family. Go home with a clean conscience, one read.

Video from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, with a population of about 1.5 million, showed residential areas being shelled, with apartment buildings shaken by repeated, powerful blasts.

Authorities in Kharkiv said at least seven people had been killed and dozens injured. They warned that casualties could be far higher.

They wanted to have a blitzkrieg, but it failed, so they act this way, said 83-year-old Valentin Petrovich, who watched the shelling from his downtown apartment. He gave just his first name and his patronymic, a middle name derived from his father’s name, out of fear for his safety.

The Russian military has denied targeting residential areas despite abundant evidence of shelling of homes, schools and hospitals.

Fighting raged in other towns and cities across the country. The strategic port city of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, is hanging on, said Zelenskyy adviser Oleksiy Arestovich. An oil depot was reported bombed in the eastern city of Sumy.

Russian artillery hit a military base in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv, and more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, the head of the region wrote on Telegram. Dmytro Zhyvytskyy posted photographs of the charred shell of a four-story building and rescuers searching rubble.

In a later Facebook post, he said many Russian soldiers and some local residents also were killed during the fighting on Sunday. The report could not immediately be confirmed.

Despite its vast military strength, Russia still lacked control of Ukrainian airspace, a surprise that may help explain how Ukraine has so far prevented a rout.

In the seaside resort town of Berdyansk, dozens of protesters chanted angrily in the main square against Russian occupiers, yelling at them to go home and singing the Ukrainian national anthem. They described the soldiers as exhausted young conscripts.

Frightened kids, frightened looks. They want to eat, Konstantin Maloletka, who runs a small shop, said by telephone. He said the soldiers went into a supermarket and grabbed canned meat, vodka and cigarettes.

“They ate right in the store, he said. It looked like they haven’t been fed in recent days.

Across Ukraine, terrified families huddled overnight in shelters, basements or corridors.

I sit and pray for these negotiations to end successfully, so that they reach an agreement to end the slaughter, said Alexandra Mikhailova, weeping as she clutched her cat in a shelter in Mariupol. Around her, parents tried to console children and keep them warm. 

Ahmedabad: A mild tremor of 3.4 magnitude was recorded in Kutch district of Gujarat on Tuesday morning, officials said. There was no casualty or property damage, the district administration said.

The tremor was recorded at 7.50 am, with its epicentre 19 km west south-west of Rapar in the district, the Institute of Seismological Research (ISR) in Gandhinagar said.

It was located at a depth of 21.7 km, the ISR said.

In the last two weeks, three tremors of 3.4 magnitude have been recorded in the district, which is located in a very ‘high risk’ seismic zone.

In January 2001, a massive earthquake had jolted the district in which 13,800 people were killed and another 1.67 lakh were injured.

New Delhi: Marking two years of the 2020 northeast Delhi violence, a group of citizens and organisations on Monday came together to present a fact finding report and suggest corrective measures.

Former Indian ambassador Deb Mukharji, ex-home secretary Gopal Pillai, historian Mridula Mukharji, senior journalist and researcher Pamela Philipose, and former member of Planning Commission of India and writer Syeda Hameed presented the report.

Speaking at a press conference here, the group alleged that the Delhi Police had failed to take adequate measures to prevent the spread of the riots in spite of adequate intelligence and warning indicators of heightened tensions and threats.

In its report, the group also claimed that there were widespread instances of police misconduct which included harassing victims and citizens by various means, including large-scale arrests, refusing to arrest and take action against powerful’ people implicated in inciting violence and corruption.

The jury also flagged lack of a proper and transparent investigation into the riots that killed 53 people and injured over 250 people.

Such a report comes days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah lauded the city police for its “strict” and “fair” investigation in the northeast Delhi riots.

According to data provided by northeast district of Delhi Police, charge sheets were filed in 353 cases related to the violence and the court took cognizance in 293 such cases.

The data further stated that charges were framed in 87 cases, the fate of 16 cases was decided, conviction announced in two cases, 244 supplementary charge sheets filed and the total number of arrests made so far is 2,041.

The group further alleged that the Delhi government failed in providing adequate relief to victims of the violence. It has also not been able to prevent harassment and provide fair investigation of riot-related cases over the last two years, it said.

According to a report of the Delhi Assembly’s minorities welfare committee, as on January 18, 2021, 3,425 applications were received for compensation, of which 2,221 were approved. A sum of Rs 26,09,78,416 has been paid as compensation, while 1,179 cases were rejected or were duplicate applications.

It stated that Rs 1 crore each has been paid in two separate death cases where the victims were government employees.

Budapest (AP): The mass exodus of refugees from Ukraine to the eastern edge of the European Union showed no signs of stopping Monday, with the UN estimating more than 520,000 people have already escaped Russia’s burgeoning war against Ukraine.

Long lines of cars and buses were backed up at checkpoints at the borders of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and non-EU member Moldova.

Others crossed the borders on foot, dragging their possessions behind them.

Several hundred refugees were gathered at a temporary reception centre in the Hungarian border village of Beregsurany awaiting transport to transit hubs, where they would be taken further into Hungary and beyond.

Maria Pavlushko, 24, an information technology project manager from Zhytomyr, 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, said she was on a skiing holiday in the Carpathian mountains when she got word from home that Russia’s invasion had begun.

My granny called me saying there is war in the city, she said.

Pavlushko plans to travel from Hungary to Poland, where her mother lives. But her grandmother is still in Zhytomyr, she said, and her father stayed behind to join the fight against the invading Russian forces sent in by Vladimir Putin.

I am proud about him, she said. A lot of my friends, a lot of young boys are going … to kill (the Russian soldiers).

Many of the refugees in Beregsurany, as in other border areas in Eastern Europe, are from India, Nigeria and other African countries, and were working or studying in Ukraine when the war broke out.

Masroor Ahmed, a 22-year-old Indian medical student studying in Ternopil in western Ukraine, came with 18 other Indian students to the Hungarian border.

He said they hoped to reach the capital of Budapest, where India’s government has organised an evacuation flight for its citizens.

While Ternopil had not yet experienced violence when they left: It might be that there is bombing next hour, next month or next year. We are not sure, that’s why we left that city.

Hungary, in a turnaround from its long-standing opposition to immigration and refusal to accept refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, has opened its borders to all refugees fleeing Ukraine, including third-country nationals that can prove Ukrainian residency.

As part of an agreement with some foreign governments, Hungary has set up a humanitarian corridor to escort non-Ukrainian nationals from the border to airports in the city of Debrecen and the capital, Budapest.

Priscillia Vawa Zira, a Nigerian medical student in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, said she fled toward Hungary as the Russian military commenced an assault.

The situation was very terrible. You had to run because explosions here and there every minute,” she said.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, speaking by video to the UN Security Council, said more than 520,000 refugees had fled Ukraine, a number he said has been rising exponentially, hour after hour.”

The UN expects the total to reach 4 million in the coming weeks, Grandi said.

In Poland, which has reported the most arrivals at more than 280,000, trains continued to bring refugees into the border town of Przemysl on Monday.

In winter coats to protect them against near-freezing temperatures, many carried small suitcases as they exited the station.

Polish UN Ambassador Krzysztof Szczerski, speaking at the General Assembly, said that in addition to Ukrainians, those coming in Monday included people of some 125 nationalities, including Uzbeks, Nigerians, Indians, Moroccans, Pakistanis, Afghans, Iranians, Iraqis, Turks and Algerians.

Otoman Adel Abid, a student from Iraq, fled to Poland from the western Ukrainian city of Lviv after he said panic broke out among many in the city.

Everyone ran to buy some food and we heard bombs everywhere, he told The Associated Press. After that we directly packed our bag and clothes and some documents and we ran to the train station.

Natalia Pivniuk, a young Ukrainian woman from Lviv, described people crowding and pushing to get on the train, which she said was very scary, and dangerous physically and dangerous mentally.

People are under stress … and when people are scared they become egoist and forget about everything, she said. People are traumatized because they were on that train.

Maxime Guselnikov was leaving Poland to return to Ukraine to take up arms against Russia, he said, adding that his wife and daughter are still in Kyiv along with friends and colleagues.

I return to Kyiv to fight, he said.

The Russians came to kill our brothers, soldiers, our children, mothers, sons. I go to take revenge for it. I should react. Many of those fleeing Ukraine were travelling on to countries further west.

Aksieniia Shtimmerman, 41, arrived with her four children in Berlin Monday morning after a three-day journey from Kyiv.

Sitting on a bench inside the German capital’s main train station, she attempted to decipher a leaflet with instructions and maps on how to reach a shelter for new arrivals.

As she tried to comfort her crying 3-year-old twin boys, Shtimmerman said she had worked in telecommunications at a Kyiv university but was now only seeking a place where she and her children could eat, sleep and rest.

I grabbed my kids on Friday morning at 7 am to run away from the war, Shtimmerman said. I can’t even count anymore how many different trains we took until we arrived here.

Germany’s interior ministry said 1,800 refugees from Ukraine had arrived by early Monday, but that the number was constantly growing as more trains from Poland arrived.

In the Romanian town of Siret, the EU commissioner for home affairs, Ylva Johansson, visited a border crossing where thousands of refugees were entering from neighboring Ukraine.

Johansson, who visited some of the humanitarian stations at the border, commended the heartwarming cooperation between volunteers and the authorities, and said the EU is united in a way we have never seen before.

She said it was a very difficult time where we see war in Europe again, where we see aggression, invasion from Putin towards a sovereign, neighbouring country.

Europe is showing that we are based on other values than Putin, she said. (AP)

United Nations: India has said that it was deeply concerned over the deteriorating situation in Ukraine and reiterated its call for immediate cessation of violence and end to hostilities, saying all differences can only be bridged through honest, sincere and sustained dialogue.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti told a rare emergency special session of the UN General Assembly on Ukraine convened on Monday that New Delhi is doing whatever it can to undertake immediate and urgent evacuation efforts of Indian nationals still stranded in Ukraine.

“India is deeply concerned that the situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate. We reiterate our call for immediate cessation of violence and end to hostilities, Tirumurti said.

“My government firmly believes that there is no other choice but to return to the path of diplomacy, he said.

Noting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has advocated this strongly in his recent conversations with the leadership of the Russian Federation and Ukraine, Tirumurti said, “We reiterate our firm conviction that all differences can only be bridged through honest, sincere and sustained dialogue.

He said there is an urgent and pressing humanitarian situation developing in Ukraine.

India is doing whatever it can to undertake immediate and urgent evacuation efforts of Indian nationals who are still stranded in Ukraine. The safety and security of Indian nationals, including a large number of students, remains our top priority, he said.

He noted that the complex and uncertain situation at the border crossings is adversely impacting the uninterrupted and predictable movement of people.

This important humanitarian necessity must be immediately addressed, he said.

India thanked all neighbouring countries of Ukraine who have opened their borders for Indian citizens and given all facilities to Indian missions and their personnel to evacuate Indian nationals to their homeland.

“We stand ready to help those from our neighbours and developing countries who are also stranded in Ukraine and may seek assistance, he said.