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The owner of India Premier League cricket champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru is considering selling the team, which could be worth “as much as $2 billion”.United Spirits Ltd, the Indian arm of global drinks giant Diageo, told the Mumbai Stock Exchange that it had begun a “strategic review of the investment” in Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).Praveen Someshwar, United Spirits CEO, said it “has been a valuable and strategic asset” but that it was “non-core to our alcobev business” in a letter dated Wednesday.”This step reinforces USL’s and Diageo’s commitment to continue reviewing its India enterprise portfolio,” he added, while keeping RCB’s “best interest in mind”.The review, expected to conclude in March next year, is of Royal Challengers Sports Pvt, the owner of both the men’s and women’s teams.RCB lifted the Indian Premier League title in June for the first time in the money-spinning annual men’s T20 cricket tournament which was founded in 2008.Bloomberg News reported soon after that the owners were “weighing possibilities including a sale of part or all of the club and may seek a valuation of as much as $2 billion”. A day after the final triumph in Ahmedabad, disaster struck RCB’s homecoming trophy parade when 11 fans were crushed to death and more than 50 others injured in a stampede outside the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru.Hundreds of thousands had gathered on the streets of the city to welcome home their hero Virat Kohli and his victorious teammates.Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it “absolutely heartrending” and Kohli said he was “at a loss for words” after the tragedy.

The streets were scrubbed clean and banners fluttered, welcoming Sikh pilgrims on Wednesday to the Pakistani city where the founder of their faith was born 556 years ago, now brimming with devotion and hope.Many have come from neighbouring India in the first major pilgrimage to cross into Pakistan since deadly clashes in May closed the land border between the nuclear-armed neighbours.”We were worried about what the environment would be like on the Pakistan side and how people would treat us,” 46-year-old Inderjit Kaur told AFP.”But it has been lovely. We were given a warm welcome.”Officials say around 40,000 worshippers gathered at the shrine to Sikhism founder Guru Nanak in Nankana Sahib to mark the anniversary of his birth in the city in 1469.Inside the shrine complex, marigold flowers adorned the walls and the air filled with religious hymns.Men and women prayed passionately, some performing ritual dips in a pond.”There is no fear here,” said Harjinder Pal Singh, 66, a retired banker from India.”The way we celebrate Guru Nanak’s birthday in Delhi, it is being celebrated with the same passion here.”Tensions, however, remain raw between Islamabad and New Delhi.The fighting in May — the worst bout of violence between the two countries since 1999 — killed more than 70 people in missile, drone and artillery exchanges.Yet inside the shrine, Sikhs from both sides embraced warmly, exchanged small gifts and snapped selfies together.At the main gate, young Muslims and Hindus danced alongside Sikh pilgrims to the beat of the dhol drum.”There is only a border that separates us, but there are no differences in our hearts,” Harjinder said.- ‘Beyond words’ -Outside the shrine, a 90-year-old Muslim man waited with his grandsons, scanning the crowds anxiously.Muhammad Bashir was looking for someone he had never met: Sharda Singh, a Sikh whose family fled Pakistan during partition in 1947.Both their fathers were close friends, and the two men had stayed in touch across the decades but never met again.When Singh finally emerged from the crowd, the two men locked eyes, rushed toward each other and embraced, both breaking down in tears.”I thought I would die without meeting you,” Bashir said, his voice shaking.”But at last you are here. Now I can die in peace.”Singh said he had dreamt of this moment for years.”It feels as if we have reunited after ages,” he told AFP.”The love we received here is beyond words. People care for each other deeply, but it is the governments that have differences.”- Petals and prayers -The devotees, many barefoot, waved saffron flags as they processed through the shrine, singing hymns and reciting poetry.Women volunteers chopped vegetables in giant communal kitchens as men stirred massive cauldrons of rice, chickpeas, lentils and sweets.The food is then served to everyone, regardless of their faith.As the procession spilled into the city streets, Muslims came out onto rooftops, showering the pilgrims below with rose petals.Above, an aircraft circled, releasing more petals that drifted down.”We are in love with the sacred soil of Pakistan,” said Giani Kuldeep Singh, an Indian pilgrim. “This is the land of our Guru. Our message is one of peace and brotherhood.”Sardar Muhammad Yousaf, the religious affairs minister in Muslim-majority Pakistan, told the crowd that “religion is individual, but humanity is shared.”The festival continues through November, including events in the border town of Kartarpur where Guru Nanak is buried.A corridor opened there in 2019 remains closed from the Indian side since May.

India’s poorest state Bihar goes to the polls on Thursday, and for many of its 130 million people, one issue overshadows all others: money.That’s what Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hopes to capitalise on, wooing voters with economic incentives in a bid to win full control.A win here, strategists say, could “energise” the BJP’s prospects in other key states heading into next year’s elections.Hindu-majority Bihar, the country’s third most populous state — roughly equal to Mexico — is a bellwether battleground.It remains the only state in the Hindi-speaking north where Modi’s Hindu nationalist party has never ruled alone.For housewife Rajkumari Devi, feeding her three children depends on the daily wage her husband earns as a labourer in the Muzaffarpur district.He takes home about 400 to 500 rupees (around $5) on the days he does find work.”There is no stability,” said the 28-year-old, outside her modest one-room home overlooking agricultural land. “There have been times when he has not had work for days — so we stretch the little money we have,” she added. “There is unemployment everywhere.”Bihar ranks worst in India on poverty indicators, according to the government’s NITI Aayog policy think tank, with a GDP per capita of 52,379 rupees, just ahead of a country like the Central African Republic.- Cash promises -But it has made progress over the past decade.The share of citizens living in “multidimensional poverty” — deprived in health, education and living standards — fell from just over a half in 2016, to about a third in 2021, according to the latest data released last year. In September, Modi announced investment projects worth $8 billion, including rail and road upgrades, new agricultural schemes and an airport terminal.He also unveiled an $844 million initiative to support women entrepreneurs, offering 7.5 million women cash transfers of 10,000 rupees each. The BJP, allied with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), faces a stiff challenge from the opposition.At a rally in the state capital Patna on Sunday, Modi urged voters to “bless the NDA”.A BJP victory in Bihar could, analysts say, boost its momentum in opposition-held states, such as neighbouring West Bengal, as well as Tamil Nadu in the south.”This is the election which will decide whether the BJP can form a government on its own,” said Pushpendra, a political analyst who uses only one name.A BJP win could “energise” the party elsewhere, he said.The election will be held in two phases, on November 6 and 11. Results are due on November 14.- ‘Jobless people’ – The BJP’s main rival is an opposition alliance led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress party.”Time to build new Bihar,” RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said last week, promising one government job per family, after touching down in a helicopter in Darbhanga district, where narrow lanes wind between mud and thatch-roof homes.Former BJP poll strategist Prashant Kishor has launched a party, Jan Suraaj, or “People’s Good Governance”.Supporters draped him in marigold garlands as he paraded through the crowd.”You only run or walk after a fall,” said supporter Mudassir, a 25-year-old student who goes by one name. “It’s alright if he doesn’t win big this time.”Pushpendra said that the result will hinge on which party voters believe will help their future, noting that to be “Bihari” has become a byword for “jobless people”.Vikash Kumar, 30, left Bihar a decade ago seeking work in other states, but still struggles to earn a steady income.”If companies could be established here, people here wouldn’t die of hunger,” the labourer said.”They will earn money, sit at home, live comfortably, and eat their meals.”

When Sri Lanka’s economy collapsed in 2022, politicians and officials were accused of brazenly stealing the island’s assets.Three years later, the tide appears to be turning against the once-untouchable elite, with several members of the former ruling Rajapaksa family and other powerful figures jailed or appearing in court.The government is pursuing some of the country’s most powerful individuals — with a former president, several ex-ministers and the heads of the police, prisons and immigration all appearing in court.Ranga Dissanayake, director-general of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), was granted sweeping powers in May to recover stolen assets — even without criminal convictions.There is no official data of state corruption losses, but activists estimate it to be billions of dollars over several decades. Sri Lanka’s GDP per capita income stood at $4,515 in 2024.”Corruption is the main reason for this economic crisis,” Dissanayake, who took up the post in January, told AFP.The International Monetary Fund calls for the “prioritising” of anti-graft measures, and says recruitment to CIABOC “should be accelerated”.- ‘Crossing the Rubicon’ -Tackling entrenched corruption was a key pledge of leftist President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who is not related to the CIABOC chief.”How can a file in the Criminal Investigation Department move up and down, or remain stuck for seven or eight years in a cupboard?” he asked during a speech marking anti-corruption day.CIABOC faces a backlog of tens of thousands of cases.”Power is meant to uphold justice,” the president added. “But instead, it is often used for injustice, personal gain and the accumulation of wealth.”Public anger over crippling shortages of food, fuel, and medicine sparked months of protests in 2022, toppling then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa.Gotabaya denies corruption allegations, but the Supreme Court in 2023 said he and his politician brothers “demonstrably contributed to the economic crisis”, and “violated the public trust reposed in them”.Gotabaya was replaced by Ranil Wickremesinghe, who secured a $2.9 billion IMF bailout to steady the economy.But Wickremesinghe was arrested in August on charges of using state funds for personal travel.”There are certain moments in politics or governance which are the moments of ‘crossing the Rubicon’ — that point of no return,” Saliya Pieris, former head of the Bar Association, wrote on Facebook.Sri Lanka ranked 121 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s 2024 Global Corruption Index — a stark reminder of the scale of the problem.”The politicians robbed the country,” said businessman Tissa Gamini, 68, adding there had been some change but not enough.”Ministers, members of parliament, they’re all the same — and government servants too.”Ishani Menaka, 37, said she struggled to feed and educate their five children during the crisis, while her husband quit the state railways after 20 years, and left for Romania, joining an exodus of Sri Lankans.”We could not manage,” Menaka said. “So he gave up his job and went abroad.”- ‘Economy collapsed’ -Sri Lanka’s police chief, accused of running a criminal network, was arrested and sacked earlier this year, while the prison commissioner was jailed for releasing convicts in exchange for cash.The immigration controller was sentenced to two years for contempt of court, and faces trial for an alleged multimillion-dollar visa fraud.The Rajapaksa clan is under pressure too.Former ministers Mahindananda Aluthgamage and Nalin Fernando received 20- and 25-year prison sentences respectively for misusing government funds to support ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s failed election bid.In August, Mahinda’s nephew Shashindra Rajapaksa was arrested for fraudulently claiming riot damage compensation.Money laundering investigations have also been revived against Mahinda’s sons, lawmaker Namal and ex-navy officer Yoshitha — who claims he was given a bag of gems by an aunt. Both deny wrongdoing.Television executive Weerasinghe Jayasundara, 57, recalled how “lives went back a few years” in 2022, when inflation hit nearly 70 percent.”We’re unable to get anything done — there was no transport, gas prices went up sharply, the economy collapsed,” Jayasundara said. “The main cause is corruption.”

Pakistan overcame a late South African fightback to win the first one-day international by two wickets in a tense last over finish in Faisalabad on Tuesday.  The home team were cruising towards victory at 241-4, chasing a 264-run target, until South Africa grabbed four wickets for just 22 runs to set up a tense finish at Iqbal Stadium.Pakistan entered the last over needing four runs with three wickets standing but lost Mohammad Nawaz off the third ball with the scores tied. Tail-ender Naseem Shah took a sharp single off the next ball to give Pakistan a 1-0 lead in the three-match series, with the final two matches on Thursday and Saturday, also in Faisalabad which was hosting its first international cricket in 17 years.”That always happens in cricket but we’ll try to make it not happen again,” said Pakistan captain Shaheen Shah Afridi.”It was a special occasion of cricket returning to Faisalabad so we are happy that we won.”Pakistan had bowled out South Africa for 263 in 49.1 overs despite half-centuries from openers Quinton de Kock and teenager Lhuan-dre Pretorius. “I think we were 20-30 runs short,” said Matthew Breetzke, who was leading the team for the first time. “We lost wickets in clusters but still there are a lot of positives.” Opener Fakhar Zaman, who scored 45 with two sixes and four boundaries, and Saim Ayub, whose 39 included four fours and a six, gave Pakistan a solid start of 87.A packed 16,000 crowd welcomed the return of international cricket to the Iqbal Stadium but were left disappointed when their favourite Babar Azam then fell for just seven.Salman Agha hit a 71-ball 62 and added 91 for the fourth wicket with Mohammad Rizwan, sacked as ODI skipper and replaced by Shaheen Shah Afridi last month, who scored 74-ball 55.Rizwan’s fall in the 39th over raised South Africa’s hopes.Before the match, South Africa’s aggressive batter Dewald Brevis was ruled out of the series with a shoulder injury, further depleting the side already missing key players who are either injured or being rested.De Kock capped his return to ODIs after a two-year gap with a knock of 63 and 19-year-old Pretorius scored 57 from 60 balls on his ODI debut in an opening stand of 98 after the tourists were sent in to bat.Pakistan slowed South Africa as spinner Ayub, who finished with 2-39, dismissed Pretorius and Tony de Zorzi for 18.Pace bowler Shah, who took 3-40, further jolted the visitors with the wickets of De Kock and George Linde.Breetzke revived the innings with 42 off 54 balls before he holed out to long-off as spinner Abrar Ahmed collected 3-53.South Africa lost their last six wickets for 61 runs giving Pakistan the chance to go one up.

Survivors of a powerful earthquake that turned homes in Afghanistan into rubble are now wondering where they can they find shelter from pouring rain and the coming winter cold.Others who made it through an even deadlier quake two months ago share their anxiety.This week’s 6.3-magnitude tremor that rattled the northern provinces of Samangan and Balkh killed at least 27 people, the Taliban authorities say.The epicentre was located in Samangan’s Kholm district, where a man named Gulabuddin is mourning his daughter-in-law.When disaster hit overnight Sunday into Monday, she did not manage to reach the ground level of the family home in time.Gulabuddin himself was hit in the head by a falling brick.”We lost all of our belongings,” he told AFP.”Winter is coming. We have children aged four and five. Where can we go? For two nights now we’ve been staying with relatives.”Rain has turned a dirt path in his village into a muddy puddle, surrounded by cracked and collapsed walls and roofs that caved in.Similar scenes emerged in areas of eastern Afghanistan that were struck by a shallow 6.0-magnitude earthquake in late August.That one killed more than 2,200 people, making it the deadliest in Afghanistan’s recent history.In the farming village of Mazar Dara, in the mountains of Kunar province, Bazarga Safay saw children swept away as this earlier quake hit.Two months later, she said she feared others would die of cold.- ‘Survive the cold’ -Safay, a 50-year-old farmer, lost two relatives in that earlier earthquake, and now shares a tent with 15 people, 12 of them children.”We were given a tent, but it’s not suitable for winter,” she said.Most residents prefer sleeping outside, in gardens or on terraces, fearful of spending the night in what remains of the village’s houses as aftershocks are a frequent occurrence.People will have to endure temperatures that will soon drop as low as -20C (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit) without warm blankets or proper winter clothes.”The earthquake happened in summer, and the organisations provided aid based on the needs at the time,” said Najibullah Hanafi, a Taliban information official in Kunar.”Now that winter is coming, they need clothes and things that can help them survive the cold.”Despite these dire conditions, international aid organizations have repeatedly warned that their work will be limited because major donors led by the US government have pulled funding.- Concrete solution? -At the foot of the mountain Mazar Dara sits on, camps have been set up.But the International Organization for Migration says a survey among survivors showed that 77 percent of respondents indicated they planned to stay put even in winter — either because they cannot afford to move or because they do not know where to go.The only solution for many of them is to rebuild their homes but make them better, even at the cost of replacing the traditional stone houses.Hanafi, the information officer, said the Taliban authorities were building dozens of new houses in Mazar Dara.Correspondents there, however, saw only one bulldozer clearing debris.”We need to rebuild right way, with concrete and bricks,” said farmer Sayid Wali Safay, 27.Another resident, Awal Jan, said: “We want to rebuild our house in the same place, but not in the same way. If we don’t want our house to collapse again, only concrete will work.”

Pakistan on Tuesday welcomed jubilant Sikh pilgrims from India, in the first major crossing since deadly clashes in May closed the land border between the nuclear-armed neighbours.More than 2,100 pilgrims were granted visas to attend a 10-day festival marking 556 years since the birth of Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh faith, Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi said last week. Islamabad and New Delhi engaged in the worst fighting since 1999 in May, with more than 70 people killed.The Wagah-Attari border — the only active land crossing between the two countries — was closed to general traffic following the violence.AFP journalists saw hundreds of pilgrims streaming their way through the border with their luggage in tow.They were received by Pakistani officials, who presented them with flowers and showered them with rose petals. Many wore garlands and chanted joyfully after crossing. “We have nothing to do with the war,” pilgrim Parvinder Kaur told AFP.”We often watched videos of the shrines and dreamed of coming here, and now, we are finally here for the first time.” Another said the welcome was overwhelming. “It doesn’t feel like we are in another country. It feels like we are among our own people,” said Valeti Singh. “We pray to God that when Pakistanis visit our side, we can reciprocate the same warmth and respect.”- ‘Pleasant memories’ -Nasir Mushtaq, a senior official at Pakistan’s religious affairs ministry, told AFP around 2,000 pilgrims crossed into Pakistan on Tuesday, the eve of Guru Nanak’s birthday.There was no immediate confirmation from Indian authorities.”We are welcoming all the Sikh pilgrims arriving from India with greater respect, honour and hospitality than ever before,” Mushtaq said.”We want to leave a lasting impression of love, peace and respect with our Sikh guests so they return to India and elsewhere with pleasant memories of Pakistan.”The pilgrims will gather on Wednesday at Nankana Sahib, Guru Nanak’s birthplace west of Lahore, and later visit other sacred sites in Pakistan, including Kartarpur, where the guru is buried.Pakistan’s High Commission had said last week its decision was consistent with efforts to promote “inter-religious and inter-cultural harmony and understanding”.The Kartarpur Corridor, a visa-free route that opened in 2019 allowing Indian Sikhs to visit the temple without crossing the main border, remains closed since the conflict.Four days of clashes broke out in May after New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing a deadly attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir, claims Pakistan denied.Sikhism is a monotheistic religion born in the 15th century in Punjab, a region spanning parts of what is now India and Pakistan.The frontier between the two countries was a colonial creation drawn at the violent end of British rule in 1947, which sliced the subcontinent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. While most Sikhs migrated to India during partition, some of their most revered places of worship ended up in Pakistan, including the shrines in Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur.

Days of ferocious snowstorms and an avalanche in Nepal’s treacherous Himalayan peaks have killed nine people, including five Italian climbers, officials said Tuesday.The deaths occurred in two separate accidents since Friday.On Monday, an avalanche hit a group of 12 people at the base camp of 5,630-metre (18,471-foot) Yalung Ri peak, in central Nepal near the border with China.Seven people died in that disaster, including three Italians, two Nepalis, a German and a French climber, Phurba Tenjing Sherpa, from expedition organiser Dreamers Destination, told AFP.Sherpa, whose company had arranged the expedition for some of the group, said he had “seen all the seven bodies”. The rest of the group were rescued and airlifted to the capital Kathmandu on Tuesday morning, said senior police officer Gyan Kumar Mahato, from Dolakha district.Those rescued included two French climbers and two Nepalis, who were recovering in hospital.Survivors recounted to AFP how “slabs” of ice smashed into the group as they clung on the mountain, burying some under the snow.- ‘Crashing down’ -“Suddenly we heard a loud noise, and the slabs came crashing down, and we were caught in them,” French climber Didier Armand Berton, 61, told AFP from hospital, where he was recovering from broken ribs.”I think we were saved because we were the group highest on the summit, and the others below couldn’t escape. We jumped over a large rock face, four to five meters high,” he added.He described how the survivors managed to rescue a guide, trapped under the snow, “by digging with an ice axe”.French climber Christian Manfredi, 69, died after he was hit on the head by a rock. “I was under the snow, but not a lot. Just a little. But Christian died because of the rock (which hit) his head,” his wife Isabelle Thaon said from her hospital bed. Thaon, 54, said the avalanche felt like “a wave of snow”. “I swim a lot. And I think this is why I am alive,” Thaon said.In an earlier incident in western Nepal, two Italian climbers died while attempting to scale the 6,887-metre (22,595-foot) Panbari mountain.The men had been out of contact since Friday. Italy’s foreign ministry named them on Tuesday as Alessandro Caputo and Stefano Farronato.”Their deaths were confirmed this morning by local authorities,” the statement read. “The compatriots had been caught in heavy snowfall at Camp 1 (5,000 metres above sea level).”Home to eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks, including Mount Everest, Nepal welcomes hundreds of climbers and trekkers every year.Autumn season is the second most popular time for Himalayan expeditions, despite shorter, colder days, snowy terrain and a narrow summit window compared to the busy spring.Last week, Cyclone Montha triggered heavy rain and snowfall across Nepal, leaving trekkers and tourists stranded on popular Himalayan trekking routes.According to the Himalayan Database, an expedition archive, at least 1,093 people have died on peaks since 1950, with avalanches killing almost a third of them.

Pakistan on Tuesday welcomed dozens of Sikh pilgrims from India, AFP journalists saw, in the first major crossing since deadly clashes in May closed the land border between the nuclear-armed neighbours.More than 2,100 pilgrims were granted visas to attend a 10-day festival marking 556th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh faith, Pakistan’s High Commission (embassy) in New Delhi said last week.Tensions remain high between Islamabad and New Delhi after the worst fighting since 1999 took place in May, with more than 70 people killed in missile, drone and artillery exchanges.The Wagah-Attari border — the only active land crossing between the two countries — was closed to general traffic following the violence.Pilgrims queued up on the Indian side of the border on Tuesday morning, some carrying their luggage on their heads, as the Indian Border Security Force looked on.AFP journalists on the Pakistani side of the Wagah-Attari border saw dozens of them entering Pakistan.They were received by Pakistani officials who presented them with flowers and showered them with rose petals.Indian media reported around 1,700 were due to cross into Pakistan, although there was no immediate official confirmation from Indian authorities.The pilgrims will gather on Wednesday at Nankana Sahib, Guru Nanak’s birthplace about 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of Lahore by road, and later visit other sacred sites in Pakistan, including Kartarpur, where the guru is buried.Pakistan’s High Commission had said last week its decision was consistent with efforts to promote “inter-religious and inter-cultural harmony and understanding”.Indian newspapers reported Saturday that the government would allow “selected” groups to travel to Pakistan.The Kartarpur Corridor, a visa-free route that opened in 2019 that allows Indian Sikhs to visit the temple without crossing the main border, remains closed since the conflict.The four-day clashes between the arch-rivals broke out in May after New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing an attack targeting tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22, claims Pakistan denied.Sikhism is a monotheistic religion born in the 15th century in Punjab, a region spanning parts of what is now India and Pakistan.The frontier between the two countries was a colonial creation drawn at the violent end of British rule in 1947, which sliced the subcontinent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.While most Sikhs migrated to India during partition, some of their most revered places of worship ended up in Pakistan, including the shrines in Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur.

Recent raids on one of Myanmar’s most notorious internet scam hubs sparked a recruitment rush as fleeing workers scrambled to enlist at nearby fraud factories, experts and insiders told AFP.Online scam hubs have mushroomed across Southeast Asia, draining unsuspecting victims of billions of dollars annually in elaborate romance and crypto cons.Many workers are trafficked into the internet sweatshops, analysts say, but others go willingly to secure attractive salaries.Late October raids roiled Myanmar fraud factory KK Park, sending more than 1,500 people fleeing over the border to Thailand — but many stayed behind to pursue new opportunities in the black market.A Chinese voluntary scam worker told AFP that a few hundred people who left KK Park arrived at his own compound three kilometres (two miles) away on October 23 — lured by monthly salaries of up to $1,400. The man spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, but shared with AFP a live location on a messaging app showing he was in Myanmar, near the Thai border. “Some people will be picked up by unscrupulous bosses, while others will be picked up by good companies,” he said. “It all depends on your luck.”Jason Tower, senior expert at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, told AFP many KK Park scammers have simply been “re-recruited” by other gangs.”There are some people looking for a new location to engage in scamming from,” he said. “They might see this as a job.”- ‘Our chance to escape’ -Webs of anonymous crypto payments and chronic under-reporting by embarrassed victims make losses to scam centres hard to quantify. But victims in Southeast and East Asia alone were conned out of up to $37 billion in 2023, according to a UN report, which said global losses were likely “much larger”.War-torn Myanmar’s loosely governed border regions have proven particularly fertile ground for the hubs.The embattled junta — which seized power in a 2021 coup — has been accused of turning a blind eye to scam centres enriching its domestic militia allies.But it has also faced pressure to curb the black market by its international backer China, galled at hubs recruiting as well as targeting its citizens.Last month, the junta said its troops had occupied around 200 buildings in KK Park and found more than 2,000 scammers.Analysts say the raid was likely limited and heavily choreographed — designed to vent pressure to take action without too badly denting profits.But it nonetheless prompted an exodus of 1,500 people from 28 nationalities into Thailand, according to provincial Thai authorities.Among them were around 500 Indian nationals and around 200 Filipinos.Authorities face the daunting task of discerning trafficking victims from willing scammers.Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, one Filipino man described fleeing KK Park on October 22 with around 30 compatriots as a pro-junta militia arrived to aid the crackdown.”Everyone ran outside,” he said. “This was our chance to escape.”Grabbing what few possessions he could, the man fled the compound he says he was trafficked into and crossed by boat to western Thailand.- Sold for scamming -With one expert estimating around 20,000 people had been working in KK Park — the vast majority believed to be Chinese nationals — those who fled to Thailand likely made up less than 10 percent.But those who stayed behind are not necessarily willing participants.After the KK Park exodus, the Chinese scammer at the nearby compound told AFP local armed groups scrambled to cash in — with unemployed scammers “sold” to other operations for up to $70,000.Whether they are willing workers being headhunted or human trafficking victims is unclear.The scammer who spoke to AFP reported hearing “booms every evening” after the raids, but dismissed it as “all for show” rather than a meaningful crackdown by Myanmar authorities.And with the continuing flow of scam workers — willing or coerced — rights advocates say the problem can only be solved by targeting the Chinese bosses running the show.”(They) must be arrested, prosecuted, and have all their assets seized,” Jay Kritiya from the Civil Society Network for Human Trafficking Victims Assistance told AFP.”That’s the real crackdown.”