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Nepal flew flags at half-mast during a national day of mourning Wednesday for the 73 people killed during youth-led anti-corruption protests that toppled the government.An interim government, which took over after two days of protests last week, declared the day of mourning “in honour of those who lost their lives during the protests”, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement.Protests began on September 8, sparked by a short-lived ban on social media, but fuelled by anger at corruption and long-standing economic woes.At least 19 people were killed in a crackdown on the first day.Anger over the deaths escalated, triggering an outpouring of rage nationwide, with government offices, a Hilton Hotel and other buildings set on fire.”The changes we are witnessing today would not be possible without the courage and sacrifice of those who gave their lives during the protests,” Hami Nepal, a key organisation in the protests, posted on social media.Prime Minister Sushila Karki, a 73-year-old former chief justice, has been tasked with restoring order and addressing protester demands for a corruption-free future ahead of elections in six months.Karki has declared the victims martyrs, promising state honours at their cremations.Candlelit vigils will be held.Shopkeeper Pooja Shrestha, 22, said that the day of mourning would bring people together.”Everyone is sad about what happened, the loss of lives — all young people like us,” she said.”Things have improved now, and we hope the new government will bring the changes we need.”A fifth of people in Nepal aged 15-24 are unemployed, according to the World Bank, with GDP per capita just $1,447.- ‘Intense’ -Streets have been back to bustling business since the protests, but were quieter on Wednesday because it was declared a public holiday.But Lokesh Tamang, 17, sitting in a gift shop in Kathmandu, kept the store open hoping for business after it was closed for days during the unrest.He recalled the “intense” violence and mourned the “sad” deaths of the protesters.”We hope that it doesn’t get as bad as it did last week ever again,” he said.Police spokesman Binod Kharel said Wednesday that the death toll from the protests had risen to 73, including police officers and prisoners as they staged a mass breakout.More than a third of the 13,500 prisoners who escaped from two dozen jails during the protests have been recaptured or surrendered themselves, he added.”So far about 5,000 prisoners who had absconded have returned to the prisons, many voluntarily,” Kharel said.

India’s ban on online gambling has shuttered a billion-dollar industry serving hundreds of millions of people and torpedoed the sponsorship of the national cricket team.But players say those determined to bet will find a way to access overseas and unregulated websites while fans of fantasy sport apps can still play, although for prizes and not cash.Adarsh Sharma, an advertising professional who regularly played fantasy sports games, said offshore sites will “see a sudden boom” as Indian gamblers look for a fix.”A habit once formed cannot be broken easily,” he said. “It is an addiction and people will find ways to gamble.”India’s parliament last month passed a sweeping law banning online gambling after government figures showed companies had stripped $2.3 billion annually from 450 million people.Officials said the rapid spread of the platforms caused widespread financial distress, addiction and suicide, while also being linked to fraud, money laundering and financing terrorism.The law has been challenged in court by a top online card games platform.The ban impacts websites and apps for card games and fantasy sports — including India’s wildly popular fantasy cricket — with offenders now facing up to five years in prison.India’s online gamblers will have to use virtual private networks (VPNs) to trick overseas websites into thinking they are not in the country, and also use proxy credit cards for placing a bet.The whole process may seem too cumbersome for an average internet user, but gamblers know how to dodge the rules.”We have done this before and will do it again,” one fan told AFP, asking not to be named. “We will go back to our old ways of making money.”- ‘Love of cricket’ -Technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the law separates still-legal eSports “from betting, gambling and fantasy money games that exploit users with false promises of profit”.Dream11 — which boasts of being the world’s largest fantasy sports platform, with 260 million users — posted notices that “cash games and contests have been discontinued”.It now offers prizes such as cars, phones and fridges instead.Dream11 also pulled out of a $43 million deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), with its logo no longer splashed on the jerseys of the Indian players.Jamshed Noor, a butcher in the capital Delhi, said his top win had been 600 rupees (about $7), a day’s wage for a labourer.”We play it for the love of cricket,” said Noor. “Money was definitely an attraction, but I still play, despite money being off the table now.”The law will also shake up the wider sporting industry, including the hugely lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket competition.”Fantasy platforms are the most aggressive advertisers in IPL and world cricket,” Karan Taurani from Elara Capital said, adding that they would now likely explore the overseas market.Santosh N, of D and P Advisory, estimated that fantasy sports and crypto platforms accounted for up to 40 percent of the advertisement IPL broadcasters earned this year.”The fantasy guys will obviously reduce their ad spends because their business model is at stake — or actually destroyed due to the ban,” Santosh told AFP.That will impact the revenue of the broadcasters, meaning less cash for the league.”When the time comes for the BCCI to renew media rights in 2027, it could very well see a lower renewal premium because broadcasters can’t afford to pay that much anymore,” he said.

Nepal flew flags at half-mast during a national day of mourning Wednesday for the 73 people killed during youth-led anti-corruption protests that toppled the government.An interim government, which took over after two days of protests last week, declared the day of mourning “in honour of those who lost their lives during the protests”, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement.Protests began on September 8, sparked by a short-lived ban on social media, but fuelled by anger at corruption and long-standing economic woes.At least 19 people were killed in a crackdown on the first day.Anger over the deaths escalated, triggering an outpouring of rage nationwide, with government offices, a Hilton Hotel and other buildings set on fire.”The changes we are witnessing today would not be possible without the courage and sacrifice of those who gave their lives during the protests,” Hami Nepal, a key organisation in the protests, posted on social media.Prime Minister Sushila Karki, a 73-year-old former chief justice, has been tasked with restoring order and addressing protester demands for a corruption-free future ahead of elections in six months.Karki has declared the victims martyrs, promising state honours at their cremations.Shopkeeper Pooja Shrestha, 22, said that the day of mourning would bring people together.”Everyone is sad about what happened, the loss of lives — all young people like us,” she said.”Things have improved now, and we hope the new government will bring the changes we need.”A fifth of people in Nepal aged 15-24 are unemployed, according to the World Bank, with GDP per capita just $1,447.Police spokesman Binod Kharel said Wednesday that the number killed during protests had risen to 73, including police officers and prisoners as they staged a mass breakout.More than a third of the 13,500 prisoners who escaped from two dozen jails during the protests have been recaptured or surrendered themselves, he added.”So far about 5,000 prisoners who had absconded have returned to the prisons, many voluntarily,” Kharel said.

Maoist rebels in India are suspending their armed struggle and are ready for talks, they said in a statement, though authorities said Wednesday they were still verifying its authenticity.New Delhi has launched an all-out offensive to crush the decades-long conflict, vowing to wipe out the Maoist rebellion by March 2026, with recent fighting concentrated in the battleground state of Chhattisgarh.The rebels have offered to engage in talks before, including in February when they called for a ceasefire — an offer rejected by authorities.In a statement issued Tuesday to reporters — via intermediaries who have handled Maoist proclaimations before — the Communist Party of India (Maoist) said it would suspend its fight.”We are ready to start dialogue”, the letter read, adding they had decided “to suspend armed struggle”.The rebels rarely issue statements directly via email or messaging apps, as they fear being tracked by the security forces.Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma said authorities were still examining the statement, which was dated August 15.”Only after the authenticity of the letter is verified, a decision will be taken,” Sharma told reporters.The Maoist statement said they had shifted their position due to the “changed world order and national situation, and because of the continuous appeals” from New Delhi.India is waging an intense campaign against the last remnants of the Naxalite rebellion, named after the village in the Himalayan foothills where the Maoist-inspired insurgency began nearly six decades ago.More than 12,000 rebels, soldiers and civilians have been killed since a handful of villagers rose against their feudal landlords in 1967.The rebel spokesman, Abhay, who uses only one name, said in the statement the group was “committed” to peace initiatives.In recent months, the government has repeatedly warned it intends to stamp out the Maoists. On Monday, security forces killed a senior commander, who had a bounty on his head of about $113,000.The group’s chief, Nambala Keshav Rao, known as Basavaraju, was killed in May along with 26 guerrillas during a firefight with government troops.At its peak in the mid-2000s, the movement counted 15,000 to 20,000 fighters and controlled nearly a third of India, but the rebellion has been dramatically weakened in recent years.

Sri Lanka will ban four species of predatory ornamental fish including Piranhas that have escaped into rivers and lakes, devastating native species and threatening fragile freshwater ecosystems, the fisheries minister said Wednesday.”We want to protect our inland water bodies from invasive species,” Ramalingam Chandrasekar said, adding it was aimed at protecting the livelihoods of fishermen on the island nation.The import, sale and transportation of Redline Snakehead, Knife Fish, Alligator Gar and Piranha, imported from Southeast Asia, will be banned from Saturday, the minister said in a statement.Snakeheads, which can grow to over three feet (one metre), were rapidly multiplying in a lake in the northwestern part of the island, threatening the native species.Officials believe they may have been released into the Deduru Oya lake by owners who could no longer care for them.The fisheries ministry has organised a competition for anglers to catch Snakeheads, coinciding with the ban on Saturday.Sri Lankans are not used to consuming Snakehead fish which is a voracious predator, eating smaller native fish and amphibians and disrupting the ecological balance. Pet owners rearing the four species have been asked to notify the authorities and hand them over so the fish can be confined to state-run aquariums. 

Decked out with fake crystal chandeliers and velvet sofas, cosmetic surgery clinics in Afghanistan’s capital are a world away from the austerity of Taliban rule, where Botox, lip filler, and hair transplants reign.Despite the Taliban authorities’ strict theocratic rule and prevailing conservatism and poverty in Afghanistan, the 20 or so clinics in Kabul have flourished since the end of decades of war in the country.Foreign doctors, especially from Turkey, travel to Kabul to train Afghans, who equally undertake internships in Istanbul, while equipment is imported from Asia or Europe.In the waiting rooms, the clientele is often well-off and includes men with thinning hair. But the majority are women, sometimes heavily made up and always covered from head to toe, more rarely in an all-enveloping burqa.At 25, Silsila Hamidi decided to get a second facelift, convinced her skin had suffered from the stress of being a woman in Afghanistan.”Even if others can’t see us, we see ourselves: looking beautiful in the mirror gives us energy,” said Hamidi, before she went under the knife to lift the upper part of her face, which “was starting to sag”.Skirting details, the medical school graduate said her skin suffers from the “many pressures” faced by Afghan women.Under Taliban government restrictions, women’s access to work has been severely constrained. They can no longer travel long distances without a male guardian, must not raise their voices outside the home and are banned from universities, parks and gyms. – Salons banned, but not Botox – While surgical cosmetic interventions may be booming, hair salons and beauty parlours catering to women have been banned.”If they were open… our skin wouldn’t be in this state, we wouldn’t need surgery,” said Hamidi, who, at 23, had work done on the lower part of her face.The Taliban authorities, who ordinarily forbid altering physical characteristics in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law, did not reply for multiple requests for comment on cosmetic surgery.Those in the sector said it is allowed as it is considered medicine. The government does not interfere with their work, clinic workers told AFP, but morality police check that gender segregation is respected: a male nurse for a male patient, a female nurse for a female patient.Some claim that even Taliban members are clients. “Here, having no hair or beard is considered a sign of weakness,” said Sajed Zadran, deputy director of the Negin Asia clinic, which boasts state of-the-art Chinese-made equipment.Since the Taliban ordered men to grow their beards at least the length of a fist, transplants have become fashionable, said Bilal Khan, co-director of the EuroAsia clinic, which is about to open a second facility.And because not all clients are wealthy, some “borrow money to have hair before their wedding”, Khan added.In the four-storey villa transformed into a clinic, the methods are the same as those used abroad and pose “no risk”, said Abdul Nassim Sadiqi, a dermatologist. At his clinic, it costs $43-87 for Botox and $260-509 for hair implants. – Instagram effect -The sums are a fortune for many Afghans — nearly half of whom live in poverty, according to the World Bank — but a boon for those like Mohammed Shoaib Yarzada, an Afghan restaurateur based in London.Put off by the thousands of pounds (dollars) required in Britain for the same operation, he took advantage of his first visit to Afghanistan in 14 years to have his scalp replenished.”When I enter the clinic, it’s as if I am abroad, in Europe,” he said. To attract new customers, each clinic floods its social media pages with promises of beauty: smoothed skin, plump lips and abundant hair.Afghanistan, like the West, is not exempt from the sway of social media influencers, said Lucky Khaan, 29, co-director of Negin Asia, which registers dozens of new patients every day.”Many patients come without real problems but want to have surgery because they have seen trends on Instagram,” said Khaan, a Russian doctor of Afghan origin, whose face is wrinkle-free.While according to the UN, 10 million Afghans suffer from hunger and one in three lacks access to basic medical care, some, “who lack money for food, prefer to invest in their beauty”, added the surgeon. 

Protests that toppled Nepal’s government last week echo uprisings across parts of Asia, where angry, unemployed young people are rising against entrenched elites.From Sri Lanka’s 2022 economic revolt to Bangladesh’s student-led 2024 uprising, Nepal’s turmoil reflects a generational rebellion by tech-savvy jobless youths mobilised through social media.All share a “youth bulge” population — where the young vastly outnumber older generations — with disenchanted protesters comparing their bleak prospects to the opulent lifestyles of longstanding ruling classes.- Nepal -Youth demonstrations began September 8 under the “Gen Z” banner — referring to those under age 28 — initially sparked by a social media ban but fuelled by frustration with the economy and corruption.In Nepal, a fifth of people aged 15-24 are unemployed, with GDP per capita at just $1,447 — underscoring the economic desperation driving protests.Protesters borrowed imagery from Indonesia, waving a pirate flag from Japanese anime series “One Piece” — a symbol adopted by anti-establishment youth movements in Jakarta.Clashes escalated after deadly police crackdowns, forcing the veteran prime minister KP Sharma Oli to quit as parliament and government buildings were torched.”There have been uprisings in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh,” said 23-year-old protester Amrita Ban. “We exist within this geopolitical sphere, so it is obvious there will be an effect.”Youth activist Nimesh Shrestha pointed to TikTok videos showing the lavish lifestyles of politicians’ children.”That made many realise the scale of corruption,” he said.Thousands later used group-chat app Discord to name 73-year-old former chief justice Sushila Karki as their choice of leader — now interim prime minister until March 2026 elections.- Bangladesh -In Dhaka, where student-led protests toppled prime minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024, parallels with Nepal were quickly drawn.Bangladesh’s protests were sparked by government job quota reforms, but anger was rooted in “severe unemployment, discrimination, and nepotism,” said Umama Fatema, who took part in the demonstrations.”Students — mostly Gen Z in both countries — led the revolutions,” she said. “In Bangladesh, political parties had long been protesting against Hasina’s rule and joined the students. In Nepal, Gen Z was entirely opposed to the political parties.”- Sri Lanka -Sri Lanka’s 2022 protests forced president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign after an economic crash.The “hashtag generation” toppled Rajapaksa without mass casualties, though politicians’ homes were torched.Former minister Dayasiri Jayasekara said Nepal’s violence showed how much worse things could have become.”What happened in Nepal and Bangladesh showed that we too could have gone down a path of death and destruction,” he told AFP.Rajapaksa’s successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said Nepali authorities could have acted sooner.”Everyone was focused on day-to-day politics… without finding solutions to the acute problems. That caused great frustration among the younger generation.”- Indonesia -Deadly August protests over unemployment and lawmakers’ perks offered lessons for the region.”Jobs are obvious challenges, both in Nepal and Indonesia,” said Human Rights Watch’s Andreas Harsono.Amnesty International Indonesia’s Usman Hamid told AFP that economic despair was the common thread. “With increasing frustration, they have no choice but to push back against a system they believe has failed.”- East Timor -The generational fury reached East Timor as well, with university students rallying in the capital Dili on September 15 and 16 against government plans to buy SUVs for dozens of lawmakers in a nation that ranks among Southeast Asia’s poorest.The demonstrators burned tyres, a government vehicle near the parliament building and hurled rocks towards police officers, who responded with tear gas.Undeterred, the protesters vow the rallies will continue until the plan is scrapped altogether.But President Jose Ramos-Horta told reporters Tuesday that there would be “no tolerance” for violence.- India -Events in Nepal caused jitters among some in India, with opposition politicians calling it a warning.Youth unemployment still hovers around 10 percent despite being the world’s fastest-growing major economy.Opposition Congress party politician Shashi Tharoor called Nepal’s unrest a “blaring siren for New Delhi, a reminder of the fragility in our immediate neighbourhood.”In Mumbai, Shiv Sena lawmaker Sanjay Raut reposted images of Kathmandu’s protests, saying: “This can happen in any country. Be cautious.”burs-pjm/abs/mtp

An Afghan man was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for a jihadist stabbing spree in Germany last year that killed a police officer and left five people wounded.The 26-year-old, only partially named as Sulaiman A. and found to be a supporter of the Islamic State group, committed the knife attack in May 2024 in the western city of Mannheim.The court convicted him of murder, attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm and judged his crimes to be especially grave, which virtually rules out early release.Sulaiman A. used a large hunting knife in the attack which targeted a rally by Pax Europa, a group that campaigns against radical Islam.He initially attacked a speaker and other demonstrators, then stabbed a police officer who rushed in to help before being shot and wounded by police himself. The critically wounded police officer, 29-year-old Rouven L., died two days later of his injuries.Many Germans were especially shocked as a video of the attack circulating online showed the officer being repeatedly stabbed in the back of the head.- ‘Greatest possible harm’ -Presiding Judge Herbert Anderer said that the attacker wanted to cause “the greatest possible harm in the form of as many deaths as possible”.He also wanted to kill police officers as representatives of the German state and planned to die a “martyr’s death” and “to enter paradise”, the judge said.Sulaiman A. arrived in Germany in 2013 aged just 14, together with his brother but without their parents.They were denied asylum but, as unaccompanied minors, granted stays of deportation and permanent residency, and initially placed in care facilities, media reports said.During the trial, the defendant confessed to the crime and, in his final statement, apologised to the relatives of the slain police officer. He claimed to have been manipulated through social media and radicalised following Israel’s war in Gaza sparked by the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.The judge turned to the police officer’s family and told them: “Your son stood for the rule of law — as horrible as it is, he died for it.”- String of attacks -The stabbing was one of several bloody attacks that have inflamed a heated debate about the influx of several million refugees and migrants to Germany over the past decade.Fears about immigration and public safety have fuelled the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) which won its best-ever result of over 20 percent in February’s general election.The election winners, the conservative CDU/CSU alliance of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, have made a tougher migration policy one of their top priorities.Merz’s government has tightened border controls and announced plans to regularly deport criminals to countries of origin previously considered unsafe, including Taliban-run Afghanistan. Last week, a Syrian man was sentenced to life in prison for another high-profile Islamist knife attack, which left three people dead in the western city of Solingen last year.Last month, an Afghan man identified only as Farhad N. was charged over a car-ramming attack in February in Munich that killed a two-year-old girl and her mother, with prosecutors saying he also acted out of Islamist motivations.The deadliest recent attack occurred in Magdeburg in December, when a rented SUV driven at high speed into a crowded Christmas market killed six people and injured hundreds more.A Saudi psychiatrist, Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen, faces six charges of murder and 338 charges of attempted murder in the attack, which authorities believe was committed with a more complex motive.In January, then interior minister Nancy Faeser described Abdulmohsen as “massively Islamophobic and close to right-wing extremist ideologies” and influenced by “incoherent conspiracy theories”.

Nepal is assessing the multi-million dollar damage from last week’s violent protests, when parliament, government offices and a newly opened Hilton Hotel were set ablaze.At least 72 people were killed in two days of anti-corruption protests, with scores more badly injured, according to official figures.”So much has been destroyed,” police spokesman Binod Ghimire told AFP, adding that it would take time to calculate the full extent of the damage, including outside the capital.Nepal’s new interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki, speaking as she began work on Sunday, described the “widespread loss of lives and property”.At the Supreme Court, officials are working under tents outside the charred building, alongside rows of burned-out vehicles, trying to salvage water-soaked documents.AFP photographers who visited the gutted parliament building said entire halls had been reduced to blackened ruins by fires that burned uncontrolled for hours on September 9.The Hotel Association of Nepal reported more than 20 hotels damaged, including the Hilton fire. Others were looted.Losses were estimated at 25 billion Nepali rupees ($177 million), with more than 2,000 workers affected. Damage to the Hilton alone was put as high as $56 million.Tourism is a key employer, the country’s fourth largest, providing jobs to more than 371,000 people, according to government figures, with more than a million visitors every year.Fire also ripped through Singha Durbar, the sprawling palace that housed the prime minister’s office and ministries.The historic building is in ruins, its white pillars streaked black.As well as government offices, police stations were attacked, and courts were burned.”All our records, evidence, files of the Supreme Court have been all destroyed,” Karki said. “Extremely important bodies of the state were targeted and attacked.”- ‘Time and resources’ -More than 12,500 prisoners who escaped during the chaos remain on the run, presenting a major security challenge.Protesters targeted symbols of the ruling elite or the wealthy. They torched the homes of politicians, car showrooms, and private offices.Even media outlets were stormed and set ablaze.The Kantipur Media Group’s building was badly damaged, although the broadcaster has returned to air from a makeshift studio and its newspaper has resumed online.Durga Khanal, 45, from the Department of Roads, said her office had been badly damaged.”I support the change they are striving for, but I cannot agree with the destruction of physical infrastructure,” she said.New minister Kulman Ghising, who has the energy, infrastructure, transport and urban development portfolios, has ordered a rapid damage assessment and a reconstruction roadmap within a week.Nepal’s chambers of commerce and industry federation said it was still collating information.”No type of infrastructure has been spared. The government, private sector, media have all endured losses,” economist Chandra Mani Adhikari told AFP.”It will take a lot of time and resources to recover and rebuild everything.”

Indian sport is battling to shake off its reputation for being one of the world’s worst doping offenders as the country pushes an ambitious bid to host the 2036 Olympics.The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has raised concerns about the number of Indian competitors taking performance-enhancing drugs and so too has the country’s best-known athlete.The 2021 Olympic javelin champion Neeraj Chopra made a blunt admission earlier this year.”Doping is a big problem in India among our athletes,” he told local media, saying they instead should “eat well, rest well and work hard”.The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) last month formed a new anti-doping panel after the IOC flagged India’s poor record.The government has passed a new national anti-doping bill aiming to tighten enforcement, expand testing facilities and “ensure the highest standards of integrity” in sports.”Obviously the IOC would want to make sure that in awarding the Games to a country, the host has a robust doping policy and governance,” Michael Payne, former IOC marketing director, told AFP.The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) lists India among the worst offenders among nations submitting more than 1,000 samples.India’s national anti-doping agency, NADA, insists the figures reflect more aggressive testing in the nation of 1.4 billion people.From 5,606 samples collected in 2023, 213 came back positive.The synthetic steroid stanozolol is the most widely used banned substance taken by Indian athletes, experts say.                                      – Careers at stake -Despite its vast population India has won only 10 Olympic golds in its history. Experts say desperation to add to that and escape poverty is one reason why some Indian athletes are prepared to risk doping.Success in sports can be a ticket to coveted government jobs, often with the police or armed forces.That provides life-long financial security after their sporting careers end.”Athletes know that they can be punished but still put their careers at stake,” lawyer Saurabh Mishra, who has defended athletes in doping scandals, said.”(They know that) getting a medal will help them clinch a government job.”Athletics leads India’s doping violations, followed by wrestling, where 19 athletes were recently banned.In July under-23 wrestling champion and Paris Olympics quarter-finalist Reetika Hooda tested positive and was provisionally suspended.Mishra said some athletes are victims of ignorance, consuming banned substances through supplements or medicines, but others take risks knowingly.Sometimes they are encouraged by their coaches to dope.Sports medicine expert Saranjeet Singh, who has written extensively on doping in India, said a recent surge in violations was only partly due to stricter testing.”They cannot achieve the level of performance that they want at international level and use banned drugs for a short cut,” Singh told AFP.- Bigger hurdles -India now faces a race to prove its credibility, as it competes with the likes of Indonesia, Turkey, Chile and Qatar for the 2036 Games.The former IOC marketing director Payne noted that many past Olympic hosts had chequered doping histories.While doping is an issue, India’s greater obstacle to staging an Olympics lies elsewhere, he said.”The bigger issue is confidence in the overall operational delivery capabilities of the host, and there India has a lot of work to do,” Payne said.He was referring to the corruption-riddled 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, memories of which still linger. “That is the biggest hurdle facing India’s bid,” Payne said.