UKRAINE: President Volodymyr Zelensky today ruled out a ceasefire in his country’s war with Russia, saying the Kremlin’s forces would use the pause to rearm and regroup before overwhelming Kiev’s troops.

“A pause on the Ukrainian battlefield will not mean a pause in the war,” Zelensky said during a visit to Estonia.

“A pause would play into Russia’s hands,” he said. “It might crush us afterward.”

PAKISTAN: A magnitude 6.4 earthquake rattled much of Pakistan and parts of neighbouring Afghanistan today, Pakistani officials and the United States Geological Survey said.

The epicentre of the quake was in the Hindu Kush mountain range in Afghanistan, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

There were no immediate reports of damage in either country.

AFGHANISTAN: A grenade explosion in Afghanistan’s capital killed two people and wounded 12 in a Shi’ite neighbourhood of Kabul today, a police spokesman said. It was the second deadly blast in the Dasht-e-Barchi area in less than a week.

The explosion occurred outside a commercial centre in mid-afternoon. No-one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan has repeatedly targeted Dasht-e-Barchi.

CHINA: Auto exports surged 63.7 per cent in 2023 while domestic sales, boosted by year-end incentives, rose 4.2 per cent, an industry association said yesterday.

Chinese auto makers have expanded into electric vehicles as government subsidies transformed China into the world’s largest electric vehicle market.

Auto sales in China totalled 21.9 million cars last year while exports jumped to 4.1 million, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reported.