Live: Russia at risk of debt default after US payment license expires

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Live news updates: The United States pushed Russia closer to the brink of a historic debt default on Wednesday by not extending its license to pay bondholders, as Washington ramps up pressure following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The US Treasury Department said on its website late on Tuesday it would let lapse a license which expired at 12:01 a.m. ET (0401 GMT) on Wednesday and allowed Russia to make interest and maturity payments on its sovereign debt to U.S. persons.

That waiver has allowed Russia to keep up government debt payments, but its expiry now appears to make a default inevitable on at least some its $40 billion of international bonds--Russia's first major external one for more than a century, said Reuters.

A court in Delhi gave life imprisonment to Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik after finding him guilty of funding terrorists.
 

The National Investigation Agency had demanded death for Malik, who had pleaded guilty to all the charges including those under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).  Malik, during court hearings, said that if Indian Intelligence can prove that he had been involved in any terrorist activity or violence in 28 years, then he would retire from politics, and will also accept the hanging.