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India and Canada on Monday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi.The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations.”Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust, and positivity,” Modi said.Ties effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi of orchestrating a deadly campaign against Sikh activists in Canada, accusations India rejected.Carney’s visit — his first to India since taking office last year — is not only aimed to reset strained ties, but also to push efforts to diversify trade beyond the United States.”There has been more engagement between the Canadian and Indian governments in the last year than there has been in more than two decades combined,” Carney said in New Delhi, in a speech alongside Modi.”This is not merely the renewal of a relationship. It is the expansion of a valued partnership with new ambition, focus, and foresight, a partnership between two confident countries charting our own course for the future.”- ‘New opportunities’ -Energy-hungry India — the world’s most populous country with 1.4 billion people — has ambitious plans to expand nuclear power capacity from its current eight to 100 gigawatts by 2047.”In civil nuclear energy, we have struck a landmark deal for long-term uranium supply,” Modi said, adding the countries would also work together on small modular reactors and advanced reactors.Carney said they had agreed the launch of a “strategic energy partnership with significant potential” including CAN$2.6 billion ($1.9 billion) uranium supply agreement “supporting India’s nuclear ambitions”.Carney added that Canada was “well positioned to contribute, as a reliable supplier” of liquefied natural gas (LNG), from its west coast. “As India seeks access to critical minerals for its manufacturing, its clean-tech, and its nuclear plants, Canada’s resource base and world-leading companies position it as a strategic partner,” he said.The two countries agreed last year to resume negotiations on a proposed free-trade deal, the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.”Our target is to reach $50 billion in bilateral trade,” Modi said. “This is why we have decided to finalise a comprehensive economic partnership soon,” he added, saying it “will open new opportunities to invest and create jobs in both countries”.- Defence deal -Carney said he wanted to reach a deal on the “ambitious agreement” by the end of the year to “reduce barriers and increase certainty”, also said the nations were renewing security cooperation through a “new defence partnership”.Canadian pension and wealth funds have already invested $73 billion in India.Before Carney took office last year, Ottawa accused Modi’s government of direct involvement in the 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a naturalised Canadian citizen who was part of a fringe group that advocated for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.Khalistan militants have been blamed for the assassination of an Indian prime minister and the bombing of a passenger jet.India has repeatedly dismissed the Canadian allegations, which sent relations into freefall, with both nations expelling a string of top diplomats in 2024.Ties improved after Carney took office in March 2025, and envoys have since been restored.After India, Carney will travel to Australia and Japan — part of a wider push to broaden Canada’s economic partnerships.Carney has made reducing Canada’s heavy reliance on the US economy a centrepiece of his foreign economic policy.In 2024, before US President Donald Trump returned to office and upended global trade with a flurry of tariffs, more than 75 percent of Canadian exports went to the United States. Two-way trade that year exceeded $900 billion.So far Trump has broadly adhered to the North American free-trade agreement he signed during his first term, and about 85 percent of US-Canada trade remains tariff-free.But at the same time, Trump has also imposed painful industry-specific tariffs, and there are fears that if he scraps the broader trade deal, the Canadian economy will be hit hard.burs-pjm/mtp

The death toll from Pakistan’s violent weekend protests over the killing of Iran’s supreme leader has reached at least 25, according to an AFP tally on Monday.Demonstrations erupted in several major cities in Pakistan, including the southern megacity of Karachi where some protesters attempted to storm American diplomatic buildings.An AFP journalist witnessed hundreds of pro-Iranian protesters trying to enter the United States consulate, prompting clashes with police.At least 10 deaths were reported and over 70 were injured, the office of the Karachi police surgeon said, while a hospital toll seen by AFP listed nine people as having died from gunshot wounds.In Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, at least 13 people were killed in clashes between protesters and police, officials said.Seven people were killed in Gilgit, a rescue official said, while six others died in Skardu, a doctor told AFP on Monday.Authorities have imposed a late-night curfew, which will remain in place until Wednesday in Gilgit and Skardu, where the army has been deployed on the streets.Two more people were killed as thousands of people gathered in the streets of the capital, Islamabad, many holding photos of the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. AFP journalists saw police firing tear gas to disperse crowds near the diplomatic enclave housing the US embassy on Sunday afternoon.- ‘Grief and sorrow’ -Israel and the United States launched their military operations on Iran early Saturday, quickly killing the long-ruling supreme leader and prompting outrage in neighbouring Pakistan.Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has close ties with both the United States and Iran, said on Sunday evening that the killing of Khamenei was a “violation” of international law.”It is an age old convention that the Heads of State/Government should not be targeted,” Sharif wrote on X.The “people of Pakistan join the people of Iran in their hour of grief and sorrow and extend the most sincere condolences on the martyrdom” of Khamenei, he added.At Sunday’s Karachi protest, people chanted slogans against the United States, Israel and their allies.”We don’t need anything in Pakistan that is linked with the US,” a protester, Sabir Hussain, told AFP.Earlier a crowd of young people climbed over the main gate and gained access to the driveway of the consular building, smashing some windows.Police fired tear gas at the protesters, who dispersed, the AFP journalist saw.The embassies of the United States and Britain both urged citizens in Pakistan to be cautious in the country.strs-zz/je/ane

India on Monday hailed Sanju Samson as a “game-changer” after the opener’s batting masterclass in Kolkata took the defending champions into the T20 World Cup semi-finals.Samson’s unbeaten 97 led India’s chase of 196 against the West Indies in the last Super Eights match to set up a semi-final against England in Mumbai on Thursday.Samson paced …

‘Superman Sanju’ toast of India after T20 World Cup heroics Read More »

Bangladesh’s national football team face daunting odds at their first-ever Women’s Asian Cup, but have already scored a major victory by qualifying.In the South Asian nation of 170 million, social stigma, family expectations, poverty and religious hardliners have long relegated women and girls to sports sidelines. The first women’s football league matches took place in 2011, …

Bangladesh tackle gender barriers to reach Women’s Asian Cup Read More »

Nepal votes in key elections on Thursday, six months after youth-led anti-corruption protests toppled the government, killed at least 77 people and left parliament in flames.It was the country’s worst violence since a decade-long civil war ended in a 2006 peace deal that abolished the monarchy and brought Maoist insurgents into government.Protests stemmed from public …

Nepal’s rocky road to elections: five key dates Read More »

Nepal votes Thursday in the first elections since deadly youth-led anti-corruption protests toppled the government in September 2025.Key figures contesting for power include a former prime minister seeking a return to power, a rapper-turned-mayor bidding for the youth vote, and the newly elected leader of the Nepali Congress party.Here are three of the most closely watched candidates in the March 5 parliamentary polls — all central figures in an election that analysts say is unlikely to deliver an outright majority for any single party.- Gagan Thapa, 49 -Gagan Thapa presents himself as the face of generational change, arguing that the country can no longer be run by what he calls an “old age” club of revolving veteran leaders.Thapa led an internal revolt in January to be elected as head of the Nepali Congress, the country’s oldest and historically dominant party, which had been the largest member of the ousted coalition government.Born in 1976, Thapa was drawn into politics as a teenager during the 1990 pro-democracy movement against the then absolute monarchy.He rose through student activism, linked to the Nepali Congress, and became a prominent figure in the 2006 mass uprising that forced the king to abdicate.Jailed several times for street protests, he then entered parliament as one of its youngest members. He has since served multiple terms, and been health minister.”I am the right mix of energy and experience — the right mix which can deliver,” Thapa told AFP, pledging governance reform and job creation, while promising to work across party lines.- K.P. Sharma Oli, 74 – Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli is one of Nepal’s most seasoned and polarising political figures.A veteran Marxist leader who has served four times as prime minister, he was ousted in September’s protests at his rule.Leader of the Communist Party of Nepal–Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), Oli has spent nearly six decades in politics.He was drawn into underground communist activism as a teenager and was arrested in 1973 for campaigning against the monarchy. He spent 14 years in prison, including four in solitary confinement.He later rose through party ranks to become prime minister in 2015, returning to office multiple times in Nepal’s turbulent parliamentary landscape.Critics accuse him of an authoritarian streak and intolerance of dissent, while supporters credit him with strong leadership and nationalist resolve, particularly in navigating relations with India and China.Oli denies ordering security forces to fire on protesters during last year’s unrest, in which at least 77 people were killed and crowds torched parliament.Oli told AFP he blames “infiltrators” for the violence.Despite his dramatic fall, he won re-election as party chief in December and is seeking a comeback, framing the vote as a “competition between those who burn the country and those who build it”.- Balendra Shah, 35 – Balendra Shah, widely known as “Balen”, has emerged as a symbol of youth-driven political change, after backing the protests that forced the government from power.Born in Kathmandu in 1990, he was a schoolboy during Nepal’s decade-long Maoist civil war.A former underground hip-hop artist whose songs railed against corruption and inequality, the 35-year-old civil engineer first shot to national prominence through music.He translated that online popularity into a shock political victory in 2022, when he was elected Kathmandu’s first independent mayor.Shah built a reputation as a blunt and often confrontational reformer, launching campaigns against tax evasion, traffic congestion and waste mismanagement.In December, Shah joined the centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), positioning himself for national leadership.He has taken the unusual step of challenging former prime minister Oli in his home constituency, telling AFP that it shows he is “not taking the easy way out”.Advocating a liberal economic system with social justice, including free education and healthcare for the poor, Shah says Gen Z’s core demand is good governance — and insists music will remain part of his identity, even if he becomes prime minister.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will seek to reset strained ties and push efforts to diversify trade beyond the United States when he meets his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Monday.The talks in New Delhi are expected to cover trade and investment, clean energy, defence, critical minerals and artificial intelligence, officials from both sides have said.A major focus will be reviving negotiations for a long-discussed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.Speaking to business leaders in Mumbai on Saturday, Carney said the planned deal, which he was looking to seal by the end of the year, could double bilateral trade by 2030.”This visit marks the end of a challenging period, and more importantly, the beginning of a new, more ambitious partnership between two confident and complementary nations,” he said.Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi of orchestrating a deadly campaign against Sikh activists in Canada.India’s foreign ministry said Carney’s visit marked a “significant step” in strengthening relations.India is seeking to attract more overseas investments and says Canadian pension and wealth funds have already invested $73 billion.Energy-hungry India — the world’s most populous country, with 1.4 billion people — hopes Canada can support its ambitious plan to expand nuclear power capacity.- ‘Strategic partner’ -“We can be India’s strategic partner in critical minerals for India’s manufacturing, clean tech, and nuclear industries,” Carney said.”And India can help us double our grid with clean power by 2040.”Before Carney took office last year, Ottawa accused Modi’s government of direct involvement in the 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a naturalised Canadian citizen who was part of a fringe group that advocated for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.Khalistan militants have been blamed for the assassination of an Indian prime minister and the bombing of a passenger jet.Former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government further alleged India had directed a broader campaign of intimidation against Sikh activists across Canada.India has repeatedly dismissed the allegations, which sent relations into freefall, with both nations expelling a string of top diplomats in 2024.Strategic analyst and author Brahma Chellaney said Carney’s trip was “intended to close one of the most acrimonious diplomatic chapters between two major democracies in recent memory”.”For two pluralistic democracies navigating an uncertain century, this may prove to be the most sustainable foundation of all,” he said on X.Ties between New Delhi and Ottawa improved after Carney took office in March 2025, and envoys have since been restored.- ‘Enormous opportunities’ -“Building true strategic autonomy requires diversification, not isolation,” Carney said.”It creates enormous opportunities for India and Canada to work together, to limit risks, to increase prosperity, and to build sovereignty.”Carney has made reducing Canada’s heavy reliance on the US economy a centrepiece of his foreign economic policy.In 2024, before US President Donald Trump returned to office and upended global trade with a flurry of tariffs, more than 75 percent of Canadian exports went to the United States. Two-way trade that year exceeded $900 billion.So far Trump has broadly adhered to the North American free-trade agreement he signed during his first term, and about 85 percent of US-Canada trade remains tariff-free.But at the same time, Trump has also imposed painful industry-specific tariffs, and there are fears that if he scraps the broader trade deal, the Canadian economy will be hit hard.Carney is trying to boost commerce with Europe and Asia as a strategy to backstop Canada’s economy, should free trade with Washington collapse.After India, Carney will travel to Australia and Japan — part of a wider push to broaden Canada’s economic partnerships.burs-abh/mjw

At least 17 people were killed Sunday across Pakistan as protesters outraged over the death of Iran’s supreme leader took to the streets, with some attempting to storm US diplomatic buildings.In the Pakistani megacity of Karachi, an AFP journalist witnessed hundreds of pro-Iranian protesters trying to enter the US consulate, prompting clashes with police.At least 10 people had died and over 70 were injured as of Sunday evening, the office of the Karachi police surgeon said.Earlier, a hospital toll seen by AFP listed nine people as having died from gunshot wounds.In the northern city of Gilgit, at least seven people were killed and many more injured in clashes with police, rescue official Zaheer Shah told AFP by phone.Thousands gathered in the streets of the capital Islamabad, many holding photos of late Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, with AFP witnessing police deploy tear gas to disperse crowds near the US embassy.Israel and the United States launched their mass aerial campaign on Iran early Saturday, quickly killing the long-ruling supreme leader and prompting outrage in neighouring Pakistan.Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has close ties with both the United States and Iran, said on Sunday evening that the killing of Khamenei was a “violation” of international law.”It is an age old convention that the Heads of State/Government should not be targeted,” Sharif wrote on X.The “people of Pakistan join the people of Iran in their hour of grief and sorrow and extend the most sincere condolences on the martyrdom” of Khamenei, he added.At Sunday’s Karachi protest, people chanted slogans against the United States, Israel and their allies.”We don’t need anything in Pakistan that is linked with the US,” a protester, Sabir Hussain, told AFP.Earlier a crowd of young people climbed over the main gate and gained access to the driveway of the consular building, smashing some windows.Police fired tear gas at the protesters, who dispersed, the AFP journalist saw.The embassies of the United States and Britain both urged citizens in Pakistan to be cautious in the country.- American ‘stooges’ -Around 4,000 people took to the streets in the capital Islamabad, where AFP journalists heard overhead gunfire, believed to be to disperse the crowd, and saw tear gas even before the planned start of a rally at 3:00 pm.Zahra Mumtaz, a 52-year-old housewife from nearby Rawalpindi, said: “Our leader has been martyred, and we are not even allowed to protest.””The least the government could do is let us express our grief,” she told AFP, crying.”Our leaders are nothing but stooges of the Americans… The Americans and Israelis will have to pay for this.”In the northern city of Skardu, protesters stormed and set fire to a United Nations office, causing black smoke to rise from the building, an AFP reporter saw.At least three nearby vehicles were completely burned.Thousands of people also took to the streets in the eastern city of Lahore.Since the launch of the US-Israeli operations, Prime Minister Sharif has announced several calls with other regional leaders — whose countries have been targeted by Iranian retaliatory attacks — and urged restraint.His statements have notably called the attacks on Iran an Israeli operation — excluding mention of the major US involvement.

Explosions were heard in the Afghan capital Kabul Sunday, AFP journalists said, with the Taliban government saying they were responding to aerial Pakistan attacks.A spokesman for Afghanistan’s defence ministry said that “air defence strikes were carried out against Pakistani aircraft in Kabul”.Months of cross-border clashes have flared again since Thursday, when Afghanistan launched an offensive along the frontier, with Pakistani forces hitting back on the border and from the skies.The renewed violence came after Afghan residents and officials said troops from both countries had been battling along the border, with the fighting coming alongside multiple strikes including the former US air base at Bagram.Earlier, residents in multiple areas bordering Pakistan told AFP of fighting, while the Afghan government said three people were killed overnight in drone strikes and shelling.North of the capital Kabul, air strikes “hit Bagram air base”, according to a resident who AFP is not naming for security reasons.A second resident said “it was very strong, which shook the area. There was smoke and fire coming out north of the airport”, describing the dawn raid as “very terrifying”.The provincial spokesman, Fazl ul Rahim Maskin Yar, said Pakistani jets “attempted to bomb” the base, but there were no casualties or damage.Pakistan acknowledged bombing key cities Friday including Kabul and Kandahar, which is home to Afghanistan’s supreme leader, but has not commented on Sunday’s strikes.The presence of security forces was boosted in central Kabul on Sunday evening, with increased checks on cars, an AFP journalist said.Late Sunday evening, Afghan officials claimed to have retaliated with strikes on multiple bases in Pakistan that caused “significant damage”, including in the major city of Rawalpindi, though there were no immediate Pakistani reports of such attacks.”Any further violations of our airspace or acts of aggression by hostile Pakistani elements will be met with a swift, decisive, and proportionate response,” the Afghan Ministry of Defence posted on X, with a video of a drone flying into the distance.- Border clashes -Before dawn, AFP journalists in the capital heard an explosion followed by successive gunfire, with Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid saying anti-aircraft fire was being shot at Pakistani planes.Drones were also heard by an AFP journalist in the border province of Khost, while in Jalalabad city — between Kabul and the border — an AFP photographer saw a jet.The Afghan government’s deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, said Pakistani fire had killed 36 civilians across multiple provinces since Thursday, which Islamabad has not commented on.In Kunar’s provincial capital Asadabad, an 18-year-old said his brother had been killed, a few months after getting married.”When the fighting started, we told him to come with us and leave the area, but he said: ‘I will stay and look after the house,'” said Sajid, who only gave one name.”He was martyred near the mosque while trying to leave,” he told AFP.Multiple residents in Afghanistan’s Khost and Nangarhar provinces told AFP the two sides were engaged in sporadic clashes on Sunday afternoon.- ‘Stop the war’ -On Saturday, AFP spoke to Khost residents who had fled their homes near the frontier.”We demand from the international community and the whole world to put pressure on Pakistan to stop the war,” said 46-year-old displaced resident Javed, who only gave one name.Diplomatic efforts have failed to secure a truce, with Saudi Arabia and Qatar among those engaged in efforts to halt the fighting.Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to act against militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government rejects.Many attacks have been claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group that has stepped up assaults in Pakistan since 2021, the year the Taliban authorities returned to power in Kabul.This week’s escalation marked the first time that Pakistan has focused its air strikes on Afghan government facilities, analysts noted, a stark change from previous operations that it said targeted militants.Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said 46 locations across Afghanistan had been hit by air strikes since its operation began.Pakistan has killed 415 Afghan soldiers, the minister said.Islamabad said earlier 12 of its soldiers had been killed. Fitrat, Afghanistan’s deputy spokesman, said more than 80 Pakistani soldiers were killed and 27 military posts captured.The Afghan government earlier put the death toll among its troops at 13.Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.The violence of recent days is the worst since October fighting killed more than 70 people on both sides, with land borders between the neighbours largely shut since.Several rounds of negotiations between Pakistan and Afghanistan last year followed a ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey.

Sanju Samson’s sparkling unbeaten 97 kept alive India’s dream of retaining the T20 World Cup at home as they knocked out the West Indies with a five-wicket win in Kolkata on Sunday to set up a semi-final against England.Samson hit 12 fours and four sixes in his superb 50-ball knock in the winner-takes-all final Super Eights match to thrill a capacity 67,000 fans at a pulsating Eden Gardens.After the West Indies smacked 70 off the last five overs to score 195-4 after being asked to bat, India lost two early wickets but were always up with the required rate.Samson, opening for the second match in succession, led the way.When India slipped to 41-2 he was joined by captain Suryakumar Yadav (18) and the pair added 58 for the third wicket.Tilak Varma was next to join Samson and scored 27 off 15 before departing in the 15th over with the score 141-4 and India still needing 55.Samson stood firm and though Hardik Pandya fell for 17 India reached the target with four balls to spare to spark celebrations and fireworks.Jason Holder and Rovman Powell earlier put on an unbroken stand of 76 for the fifth wicket to help the West Indies set the defending champions a target of 196 to stay alive. The West Indies sprang a surprise at the top of the order, promoting Test captain Roston Chase to open alongside T20 skipper Shai Hope. That enabled them to bring in an extra spinner, Akeal Hosein, with regular opener Brandon King left out.In their defeat to South Africa last week the West Indies slumped to 83-7 but the new-look opening partnership was more assured.Spinner Varun Chakravarthy got the first breakthrough, bowling Hope for a sluggish 32.Shimron Hetmyer raced to 27 off 12 balls before falling to the faintest of edges off Jasprit Bumrah to make it 102-2.After Chase fell for 40 and Sherfane Rutherford followed, Powell and Holder launched their brutal late assault.Powell finished on 34 not out from 19 balls with two sixes and three fours while Holder was unbeaten on 37 off 22 balls with three sixes and two fours.It could have been better for India but they dropped three regulation catches in a sloppy fielding display, including Chase when he had made just 15.South Africa, the only unbeaten side in the tournament, beat Zimbabwe by five wickets earlier on Sunday and will face New Zealand in Kolkata in the first semi-final on Wednesday.The final is in Ahmedabad next Sunday.