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Ireland Sevens international Terry Kennedy helped Chennai Bulls clinch India’s inaugural Rugby Premier League (RPL) title on Sunday as the sport took its first fledgling steps in a country obsessed by cricket. Kennedy scored two of Chennai’s seven tries as they concluded the six-team rugby sevens franchise league with a 41-0 thrashing of Delhi Redz in Mumbai.India’s Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra was among the many stars who graced the finale although the crowds were understandably no match for the hordes that turned up to watch Virat Kohli’s Bengaluru win the T20 Indian Premier League earlier this month. However, the RPL’s coverage on satellite television has given organisers hope that rugby could emerge as a major sport in India. “No matter how big a sport may be, there is always space if you work hard enough if you create a product that’s good enough,” Rugby India president Rahul Bose told AFP.”In that respect we are very happy and very secure in the knowledge that there is space for this game and it doesn’t have to come by eating away at anybody else’s space.”Just as the IPL focused on the shortest form of cricket, so the RPL has chosen to go for the shortest form of rugby, with the seven-a-side format in this tournament lasting 16 minutes — four quarters of four minutes each — and dispensing with the hard grunt of the 15-man game to showcase slick handling and blistering pace. Kennedy is not the only top Sevens player to have been drafted in to the RPL. His teammate Joseva Talacolo, who also scored a try in Sunday’s final, won silver with Fiji at last year’s Olympics in Paris while Scott Curry, whose Bengaluru Bravehearts finished fourth after losing the bronze medal match to Hyderabad Heroes, played 321 times for New Zealand’s All Blacks Sevens team. The American Perry Baker, now 39 and a two-time World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year, came out of retirement to play for Kalinga Black Tigers. According to Bose, this first iteration of the tournament has gone down well with the public.”What we have heard is that the game is easy to follow, very fast, very exciting and has got tremendous amount of likeability,” said Bose who is also a successful Bollywood actor. “Along with that, the athletic prowess of these men has come in for a lot of attention. We are happy with the connect we have made.”- ‘Bigger and better’ -The RPL is seen as a way for India to bolster their dreams of hosting the Olympics in 2036 – and given the continental qualifying system for the Olympics, India even has an eye on fielding a men’s or women’s team prior to that. But it is more than an ideal. The RPL, which blends Indian players with international stars, is run by GMR Sports which, as owner of the IPL team Delhi Capitals, knows a thing or two about franchise competitions in India.”The first season has gone very well for us,” Satyam Trivedi, chief executive officer of GMR, told AFP.”The sponsors are happy with what they see on the ground and on TV. “However this is just the beginning for us. We are looking at the first season as a showcase event and take a lot of learnings from here. “In every season this league will get bigger and better.”

Heavy rain and flash flooding across Pakistan have killed 45 people in just a few days since the start of the monsoon season, disaster management officials said Sunday.The highest toll was recorded in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that borders Afghanistan, where 10 children were among 21 killed.The disaster management authority said 14 of those victims died in the Swat Valley, where media reported a flash flood swept away families on a riverbank. In Pakistan’s most populous province of Punjab, along the frontier with India, 13 fatalities have been recorded since Wednesday. Eight of them were children who died when walls or roofs collapsed during heavy rain, while the adults were killed in flash floods.Eleven other deaths related to the monsoon downpours were recorded in Sindh and Balochistan provinces.The national meteorological service warned that the risk of heavy rain and possible flash floods will remain high until at least Saturday.Last month, at least 32 people were killed in severe storms in the South Asian nation, which experienced several extreme weather events in the spring, including strong hailstorms.Pakistan is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change, and its 240 million residents are facing extreme weather events with increasing frequency.

The world’s most advanced AI models are exhibiting troubling new behaviors – lying, scheming, and even threatening their creators to achieve their goals.In one particularly jarring example, under threat of being unplugged, Anthropic’s latest creation Claude 4 lashed back by blackmailing an engineer and threatened to reveal an extramarital affair.Meanwhile, ChatGPT-creator OpenAI’s o1 tried to download itself onto external servers and denied it when caught red-handed.These episodes highlight a sobering reality: more than two years after ChatGPT shook the world, AI researchers still don’t fully understand how their own creations work. Yet the race to deploy increasingly powerful models continues at breakneck speed.This deceptive behavior appears linked to the emergence of “reasoning” models -AI systems that work through problems step-by-step rather than generating instant responses.According to Simon Goldstein, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, these newer models are particularly prone to such troubling outbursts.”O1 was the first large model where we saw this kind of behavior,” explained Marius Hobbhahn, head of Apollo Research, which specializes in testing major AI systems.These models sometimes simulate “alignment” — appearing to follow instructions while secretly pursuing different objectives.- ‘Strategic kind of deception’ – For now, this deceptive behavior only emerges when researchers deliberately stress-test the models with extreme scenarios. But as Michael Chen from evaluation organization METR warned, “It’s an open question whether future, more capable models will have a tendency towards honesty or deception.”The concerning behavior goes far beyond typical AI “hallucinations” or simple mistakes. Hobbhahn insisted that despite constant pressure-testing by users, “what we’re observing is a real phenomenon. We’re not making anything up.”Users report that models are “lying to them and making up evidence,” according to Apollo Research’s co-founder. “This is not just hallucinations. There’s a very strategic kind of deception.”The challenge is compounded by limited research resources. While companies like Anthropic and OpenAI do engage external firms like Apollo to study their systems, researchers say more transparency is needed. As Chen noted, greater access “for AI safety research would enable better understanding and mitigation of deception.”Another handicap: the research world and non-profits “have orders of magnitude less compute resources than AI companies. This is very limiting,” noted Mantas Mazeika from the Center for AI Safety (CAIS).- No rules -Current regulations aren’t designed for these new problems. The European Union’s AI legislation focuses primarily on how humans use AI models, not on preventing the models themselves from misbehaving. In the United States, the Trump administration shows little interest in urgent AI regulation, and Congress may even prohibit states from creating their own AI rules.Goldstein believes the issue will become more prominent as AI agents – autonomous tools capable of performing complex human tasks – become widespread.”I don’t think there’s much awareness yet,” he said.All this is taking place in a context of fierce competition.Even companies that position themselves as safety-focused, like Amazon-backed Anthropic, are “constantly trying to beat OpenAI and release the newest model,” said Goldstein. This breakneck pace leaves little time for thorough safety testing and corrections.”Right now, capabilities are moving faster than understanding and safety,” Hobbhahn acknowledged, “but we’re still in a position where we could turn it around.”.Researchers are exploring various approaches to address these challenges. Some advocate for “interpretability” – an emerging field focused on understanding how AI models work internally, though experts like CAIS director Dan Hendrycks remain skeptical of this approach.Market forces may also provide some pressure for solutions. As Mazeika pointed out, AI’s deceptive behavior “could hinder adoption if it’s very prevalent, which creates a strong incentive for companies to solve it.”Goldstein suggested more radical approaches, including using the courts to hold AI companies accountable through lawsuits when their systems cause harm. He even proposed “holding AI agents legally responsible” for accidents or crimes – a concept that would fundamentally change how we think about AI accountability.

Sri Lanka completed a thumping innings and 78-run victory over Bangladesh before lunch on day four of the second Test in Colombo on Saturday, wrapping up the two-match series 1-0.Resuming the day on a precarious 115-6, the visitors still trailed by 97 runs and needed a minor miracle to avoid an innings defeat. Any hopes of a rearguard were dashed almost immediately.Left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya, under the pump after a wicketless outing in the first innings, struck gold with the fifth ball of the morning as Litton Das edged behind to wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis for 14. With that scalp, the last recognised batter was back in the hut and Bangladesh’s house of cards came tumbling down soon after, all out for 133.It was a clinical all-round performance by hosts Sri Lanka, who walked away with crucial World Test Championship points.None of the visiting batters managed to cross fifty in the match –- a far cry from the first Test in Galle, which ended in a draw when captain Najmul Hossain Shanto hit twin centuries. Bangladesh had won the toss on a docile Colombo pitch but squandered the advantage, bundled out for 247.Sri Lanka replied in commanding fashion, piling on 458 to take a hefty 211-run lead.The foundation was laid by a masterclass from opener Pathum Nissanka, who crafted a fluent 158 –- his second successive century in the series — while Dinesh Chandimal chipped in with a polished 93. The pair added 194 runs for the second wicket, putting the game firmly in Sri Lanka’s control.Bangladesh threatened briefly when the second new ball brought them three quick wickets, but Kusal steadied the ship with a counterattacking 84, ensuring the hosts didn’t let the momentum slip.Nissanka, who was declared man of the match, said he was “very pleased with the effort”.”It feels good to contribute. I am now the senior opener with Dimuth Karunaratne retired and I try to do my best for the team,” he said.Bangladesh captain Shanto called it a “very disappointing game”.”We played really well in Galle but we were not up to the mark here,” he said.”The way we batted in the first innings is when things went wrong for us. A total of 247 was not good on this pitch.”No harm with the decision to bat first. But the way we got out was very disappointing. One good thing was the way our bowlers kept fighting.”That will be one positive we will take from this series.”The two sides will now shift focus to the limited-overs leg of the tour, with three one-day internationals and three T20s.Brief scores:Bangladesh first innings: 247 all out in 79.3 overs (Shadman Islam 46, Mushfiqur Rahim 35, Sonal Dinusha 3-22, Asitha Fernando 3-51)Sri Lanka first innings: 458 all out in 116.5 overs (Pathum Nissanka 158, Dinesh Chandimal 93, Kusal Mendis 84, Taijul Islam 5-131)Bangladesh second innings: 133 all out in 44.2 overs (Mushfiqur Rahim 26, Prabath Jayasuriya 5-56)

Sri Lanka’s top court halted Friday a government move to acquire land in northern regions still reeling from the consequences 16 years after the end of a decades-long civil war.Sri Lanka’s north bore the brunt of the conflict in the 37-year-long Tamil separatist war, which was brought to a bloody conclusion in May 2009.Many among the Tamil minority lost their land title deeds during the years of displacement, and the area was also hit by the 2004 Asian tsunami.The Supreme Court order concerning nearly 6,000 acres (2,428 hectares) of land came a day after UN human rights chief Volker Turk ended a three-day visit, during which he urged the authorities to return private lands still occupied by troops.The UN estimates that at least 100,000 people died in the war, and that 40,000 of them from the Tamil minority were killed by troops in the final months of the conflict.Turk also asked Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of war crimes and punish the perpetrators.Successive Sri Lankan governments have refused internationally-backed investigations, and there has been no credible local accountability mechanism.Former Tamil legislator M.A. Sumanthiran, who petitioned the court, said it has stopped a land grab.”The government promised three months ago not to go ahead with acquiring these private lands, but never took any action,” Sumanthiran told AFP. “That is why I went to court.”Sumanthiran said security forces in the northern Jaffna peninsula still occupied about 3,000 acres.

Kusal Mendis struck a rapid 84 to put Sri Lanka in a commanding position on the third day of the second Test against Bangladesh at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo on Friday. The aggressive wicketkeeper-batsman clubbed his runs from 87 balls, striking eight fours and two sixes, as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 458, taking with an imposing first innings lead of 211.Visitors Bangladesh, who chose to bat first after winning the toss on Wednesday, were bowled out for a modest 247 in their first innings. Resuming on a strong overnight platform of 290-2, Sri Lanka wobbled before lunch, losing four wickets in the morning session, three of them to the second new ball.But Kusal Mendis dug in his heels steering Sri Lanka past the 450-run mark before running himself out, ninth wicket down, going for an unlikely second run. Left-arm spinner Taijul Islam wrapped up the innings four balls later to finish with 5-131, his 17th five-wicket haul in Test cricket.Bangladesh’s first breakthrough on the third day of the game came in just the sixth over of the day when Taijul Islam, handed the new ball, induced a loose drive from century-maker Pathum Nissanka, who chipped it tamely to short cover. It was a soft end for the in-form opener, who hit a sublime 158 after a career-best 187 in the first Test in Galle.Taijul followed up with the wicket of Dhananjaya de Silva leg before for seven and when Nahid Rana had Prabath Jayasuriya edging to Mehidy Hasan Miraz at third slip for 10, Sri Lanka had slipped to 335-5.Kamindu Mendis made 33 during a sixth wicket partnership of 49 with Kusal Mendis who rallied the tail to put Sri Lanka firmly in control. Brief scores:Bangladesh: 247 (Shadman Islam  46, Mushfiqur Rahim 35; Sonal Dinusha 3-22, Asitha Fernando 3-51) Sri Lanka: 458 (Pathum Nissanka 158, Dinesh Chandimal 93, Kasul Mendis 84; Taijul Islam 5-131, Nayeem Hasan 3-87) 

India has deported without trial to Bangladesh hundreds of people, officials from both sides said, drawing condemnation from activists and lawyers who call the recent expulsions illegal and based on ethnic profiling.New Delhi says the people deported are undocumented migrants.The Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has long taken a hardline stance on immigration — particularly those from neighbouring Muslim-majority Bangladesh — with top officials referring to them as “termites” and “infiltrators”.It has also sparked fear among India’s estimated 200 million Muslims, especially among speakers of Bengali, a widely spoken language in both eastern India and Bangladesh.”Muslims, particularly from the eastern part of the country, are terrified,” said veteran Indian rights activist Harsh Mander. “You have thrown millions into this existential fear.”Bangladesh, largely encircled by land by India, has seen relations with New Delhi turn icy since a mass uprising in 2024 toppled Dhaka’s government, a former friend of India.But India also ramped up operations against migrants after a wider security crackdown in the wake of an attack in the west — the April 22 killing of 26 people, mainly Hindu tourists, in Indian-administered Kashmir.New Delhi blamed that attack on Pakistan, claims Islamabad rejected, with arguments culminating in a four-day conflict that left more than 70 dead.Indian authorities launched an unprecedented countrywide security drive that has seen many thousands detained — and many of them eventually pushed across the border to Bangladesh at gunpoint.- ‘Do not dare’ -Rahima Begum, from India’s eastern Assam state, said police detained her for several days in late May before taking her to the Bangladesh frontier.She said she and her family had spent their life in India.”I have lived all my life here — my parents, my grandparents, they are all from here,” she said. “I don’t know why they would do this to me.”Indian police took Begum, along with five other people, all Muslims, and forced them into swampland in the dark.”They showed us a village in the distance and told us to crawl there,” she told AFP. “They said: ‘Do not dare to stand and walk, or we will shoot you.'”Bangladeshi locals who found the group then handed them to border police who “thrashed” them and ordered they return to India, Begum said.”As we approached the border, there was firing from the other side,” said the 50-year-old.”We thought: ‘This is the end. We are all going to die.'”She survived, and, a week after she was first picked up, she was dropped back home in Assam with a warning to keep quiet.- ‘Ideological hate campaign’ -Rights activists and lawyers criticised India’s drive as “lawless”. “You cannot deport people unless there is a country to accept them,” said New Delhi-based civil rights lawyer Sanjay Hegde.Indian law does not allow for people to be deported without due process, he added. Bangladesh has said India has pushed more than 1,600 people across its border since May.Indian media suggests the number could be as high as 2,500.The Bangladesh Border Guards said it has sent back 100 of those pushed across — because they were Indian citizens.India has been accused of forcibly deporting Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, with navy ships dropping them off the coast of the war-torn nation.Many of those targeted in the campaign are low-wage labourers in states governed by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to rights activists.Indian authorities did not respond to questions about the number of people detained and deported.But Assam state’s chief minister has said that more than 300 people have been deported to Bangladesh.Separately, Gujarat’s police chief said more than 6,500 people have been rounded up in the western state, home to both Modi and interior minister Amit Shah.Many of those were reported to be Bengali-speaking Indians and later released.”People of Muslim identity who happen to be Bengali speaking are being targeted as part of an ideological hate campaign,” said Mander, the activist. Nazimuddin Mondal, a 35-year-old mason, said he was picked up by police in the financial hub of Mumbai, flown on a military aircraft to the border state of Tripura and pushed into Bangladesh.He managed to cross back, and is now back in India’s West Bengal state, where he said he was born.”The Indian security forces beat us with batons when we insisted we were Indians,” said Mondal, adding he is now scared to even go out to seek work.”I showed them my government-issued ID, but they just would not listen.”

India has launched an investigation after an endangered tigress and her four cubs were found dead in a protected forest in the southern state of Karnataka, an official said Friday.State forest minister Eshwar Khandre said the “unnatural” deaths were “extremely tragic and distressing” and that an investigation team had been formed.Local media reports said forest officials suspected poisoning.The tigress had reportedly killed a cow days earlier, and poison may have been laced into the carcass, which her cubs also fed on, according to The Times of India.”If there has been any negligence, or if the tigers died due to any reason, I have ordered criminal action against those responsible,” Khandre said.Sustained conservation efforts have led to a steady rebound of the big cats’ numbers in India. According to the latest census, there are over 3,600 of them in the wild in India — 75 percent of the global tiger population. But shrinking habitats and expanding human settlements have also fuelled conflict. More than 600 people were killed in tiger attacks over the past decade, according to official figures.

Bangladesh’s caretaker leader has ordered all government institutions including ministry buildings and schools to install solar panels to ease chronic power problems in a country regularly hit by deadly heatwaves.The South Asian nation of 170 million people has set itself a target of generating 20 percent of its power from renewable energy by 2030 — a four-fold increase —  and rising to 30 percent by 2040, the government said in a statement. “Bangladesh is lagging far behind its neighbouring countries”, the statement issued by the office of interim leader Muhammad Yunus read.”Only 5.6 percent of our total requirement is currently met from renewable sources,” it added, noting that in neighbouring India, it is 24 percent and in Sri Lanka, nearly 40 percent.The government’s rooftop solar programme will see all government offices, schools, colleges and hospitals installed with panels immediately, the statement issued late Thursday said.The micro-finance pioneer said the panels would be installed and operated by private sector companies, unlike the largely failed push by since-ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina to install panels by using government power agencies.”The private sector will handle overall maintenance and keep the systems operational for their own business interests”, the statement said.”The government will only provide them with rooftop access”.The government has also initiated tender processes for 55 solar power plants with a total 5,238 megawatts capacity.Bangladesh relies heavily on importing cross-border power from neighbouring India, as well from Nepal, especially when demand soars during the blistering heat when consumers rely on energy-hungry air conditioners to keep cool.Dhaka also began construction of the Russia-backed nuclear plant at Rooppur in 2017.The much-delayed 2,400-megawatt project will be Bangladesh’s largest power station by generating capacity once fully operational.