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A ceasefire along the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan was holding on Thursday, officials on both sides said, after dozens of troops and civilians were killed in cross-border clashes.In Spin Boldak, a focal point of recent clashes on the Afghan side, an AFP journalist saw shops reopening and residents returning to homes they had fled during the fighting. The 48-hour ceasefire was aimed at allowing time to “find a positive solution… through constructive dialogue”, according to Islamabad.Pakistan is facing a resurgence of attacks against its security forces on its western border with Afghanistan, led by the Pakistani Taliban and its affiliates.Forty civilians were killed and 170 others wounded on Wednesday, according to Spin Boldak’s director of public health Karimullah Zubair Agha.The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) earlier reported at least 18 civilians killed and more than 350 wounded in the violence.”Our houses were bombed, a child was wounded. I heard the plane myself,” Abdul Zahir, a 46-year-old resident, told AFP. “It’s terrifying.”Hundreds of residents and Taliban officials attended the funeral of seven members of the same family in Spin Boldak, an AFP journalist saw.Islamabad accuses Kabul of offering safe haven to militants who plan their frequent assaults from Afghan soil — a charge the Taliban government denies.Pakistani officials on the northern and southern border with Afghanistan told AFP on Thursday that “no violence was reported overnight, and the ceasefire remains in effect”.A senior security official in Peshawar told AFP: “Additional paramilitary troops have been deployed to counter potential… militant activity that could jeopardise the ceasefire.”Shortly before the truce was announced, blasts were reported in the capital Kabul and the southern province of Kandahar province, where the Afghan Taliban’s shadowy supreme leader lives.UN rights chief Volker Turk welcomed the ceasefire and appealed to “both parties to prevent any further harm to civilians & commit to a lasting ceasefire”.- ‘Precision strikes’ -The first explosions that struck Afghanistan last week, which the Taliban blamed on Islamabad, hit while Afghanistan’s top diplomat was on an unprecedented visit to India — Pakistan’s eastern neighbour and rival.Taliban authorities then launched an offensive at the border, prompting Islamabad to vow a strong response of its own.Exchanges of fire from Saturday killed dozens of people, with renewed violence from Wednesday also causing civilian casualties, according to Kabul.The Taliban government officially blamed Wednesday’s blasts in the Afghan capital on an explosion of an oil tanker and a generator.However, Pakistani security sources said the military targeted an armed group with “precision strikes” in Kabul, as well as hitting Afghan Taliban bases in Kandahar.There were blackouts overnight and into Thursday morning in some areas of Kabul, caused by electricity cables damaged in the explosions, AFP journalists in the city said. AFP journalists saw municipal workers carrying out repairs in a Kabul neighbourhood on Thursday morning, where the road was charred and apartment windows had been blown out.At least five people were killed and 35 wounded in Wednesday’s explosions in Kabul, an Italian NGO that runs a hospital in the city said.”We started receiving ambulances filled with wounded people, and we learned that there had been explosions a few kilometres away from our hospital,” Dejan Panic, EMERGENCY’s country director in Afghanistan, said in a statement.The casualties suffered shrapnel wounds, blunt force trauma and burns, with 10 in critical condition, the NGO said. 

An Afghan man deemed psychologically ill faced a German court on Thursday over a deadly knife attack on a group of toddlers that his defence lawyer labelled the “deed of a madman”. The stabbings nine months ago in a park in the southern city of Aschaffenburg killed a two-year-old boy and a 41-year-old man who tried to protect the children, and left three others wounded.Prosecutors acknowledged that the 28-year-old who set upon the daycare group with a kitchen knife on January 22 was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.The attack, which came just a month before German national elections, inflamed an already heated debate on migration.The suspect, who was arrested near the scene of the stabbing, has been only partially named as Enamullah O., in line with usual practice by the German judiciary.Facing the court in handcuffs and foot shackles, he appeared groggy and subdued, wearing an open white shirt with a dark jacket.He mostly stared at the table and yawned frequently, which his lawyer said was due to medication he has been taking.Prosecutors are seeking to have him permanently confined to a psychiatric facility. They previously said there was no indication the suspect acted out of extremist or terrorist motivation.Five toddlers from a kindergarten class were in a public park, accompanied by two teachers, when the assailant attacked them with a kitchen knife.He also injured a two-year-old Syrian girl, one of the teachers as well as a 72-year-old man who had also tried to protect the children.- Fits of delusion -Defence lawyer Juergen Vongries told the court that O. was experiencing fits of delusion and had only vague memories of voices he heard at the time of the crime.His client had expressed regret, but could offer no explanation for why he attacked the children.A few minutes before the attack, he had allegedly watched a YouTube video with the Turkish title “Motivating Combat Music”, prosecutor Juergen Buntschuh said while reading the indictment.The two-year-old boy was stabbed five times, and the man slain by the attacker was stabbed four times, he said.Buntschuh said the attacker’s delusions and severe mental impairment meant he was not able to fully recognise the horrific nature of his actions.Not long after the attack, German media reported that the authorities had tried and failed in 2023 to deport the man to Bulgaria — the first EU country he had arrived in.In August 2024, he allegedly threatened a fellow resident at an accommodation for asylum seekers in the nearby town of Alzenau with a butcher’s knife and caused her minor injuries.The Aschaffenburg stabbings, which followed a string of other bloody attacks in Germany, provoked intense political reactions.Friedrich Merz, the leader of the centre-right Christian Democrats who went on to become chancellor, promised a “fundamental” overhaul of asylum rules and strict border controls if elected.About a week later, Merz, then the opposition leader, relied on support from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) to/ach  pass a non-binding resolution through parliament demanding stricter immigration and refugee policies.Merz’s decision to rely on far-right support broke a longstanding taboo in post-World War II German politics, prompting fierce criticism and mass street protests.

The last surviving member of the first mountaineering expedition to successfully reach the summit of Mount Everest died in Kathmandu on Thursday, aged 92, his family said. Kanchha Sherpa was a teenager when he accompanied the historic 1953 team led by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, who became the first mountaineers to reach the peak of the world’s highest mountain.The cause of Kanchha Sherpa’s death early on Thursday morning was not clear.”He had been unwell for a few days,” his grandson, Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa, told AFP.Born in 1933, Kanchha Sherpa was 19 when he joined the expedition as a porter despite no prior mountaineering experience.He undertook the arduous trek, lasting more than two weeks, to Mount Everest’s Base Camp, carrying food, tents and equipment, before climbing to an altitude of more than 8,000 metres (26,200 feet) close to the peak.”He was a living legend and an inspiration for all in mountaineering and those working in the industry,” said Fur Gelje Sherpa, the president of Nepal’s mountaineering association. “We’ve lost our guardian.”Kanchha Sherpa worked in the Himalayan mountains for two more decades after the expedition until his wife asked him to stop the dangerous journeys after many of his friends died assisting other climbing treks, his family said.

Nepal have appealed to FIFA to overturn their 2-0 defeat to Malaysia in 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers in March this year, claiming that their opponents fielded an ineligible player.Last month, the world governing body FIFA banned seven Malaysian foreign-born players for a year and fined the FA of Malaysia (FAM) $440,000, saying they had submitted forged ancestry documents.One of the seven, Hector Hevel, scored Malaysia’s opening goal in the match played in Johor, Malaysia.”We have reached out regarding an ineligible player in the match. Thus the result has to be overturned,” Indra Man Tuladhar, CEO of All Nepal Football Association, told AFP. FIFA accused the FAM of submitting doctored or false documents that said the seven players had Malaysian ancestry, making them eligible to represent the country. FAM denied knowingly doing anything wrong.FIFA said an investigation showed that none of the players actually had a parent or grandparent born in the Southeast Asian nation.The seven banned players had all played in Malaysia’s 4-0 Asian Cup qualifying win against Vietnam in June.Nepal are currently at the bottom of Asian Cup qualifying Group F with no points from four games. Malaysia are top on 12 points, Vietnam are second on nine points with Laos third on three.

Pollution levels in India’s capital shaped Natasha Uppal and her husband’s decision on parenthood — either raise their child away from the city, or stay put and remain childless.New Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area, home to more than 30 million people, consistently tops world rankings for air pollution.Uppal, who grew up in the city, often considered leaving — especially on days spent indoors with air purifiers humming, or when she battled severe migraines.The turning point came when the couple decided to try for a baby.”When we thought about what we can curate for our child in Delhi,” she told AFP, “the air just became such a blocker for so many of those things.”In 2022, they relocated to Bengaluru and, days later, she discovered she was pregnant.They are among a small but growing number of families leaving Delhi because of health risks linked to air pollution.Uppal, the 36-year-old founder of maternal health support group Matrescence India, said leaving was the “best decision”.Air pollution in Bengaluru can still sometimes hit three times World Health Organization (WHO) limits.But that is far below Delhi’s months-long haze — and means her son “is in and out of the house as many times as he likes”.Clean air is “something that is a basic human right”, she said. “Everyone should be able to take (it) for granted.”- 3.8 million deaths -Each winter, Delhi is blanketed in acrid smog, a toxic mix of crop-burning, factory emissions and choking traffic.Levels of PM2.5 — cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream — have surged to as much as 60 times WHO limits.Despite pledges of reform, measures such as partial vehicle bans or water trucks spraying mist have done little to clear the air.This year, authorities promise cloud-seeding trials to cut pollution.A study in The Lancet Planetary Health last year estimated 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were linked to air pollution.The UN children’s agency warns that polluted air puts children at heightened risk of acute respiratory infections.For Vidushi Malhotra, 36, the breaking point came in 2020 as her two-year-old son fell ill repeatedly.”We had three air purifiers running continuously, and then I needed more,” she said.A year later, Malhotra, her husband and son moved to Goa. She urged friends to follow, starting what she calls a “mini-movement”. A few did.”I have to keep going back and see my loved ones go through this,” she added. “That really makes me sad.”- Nebulisers, inhalers -Others, like Delhi resident Roli Shrivastava, remain but live in constant anxiety.The 34-year-old keeps inhalers for her smoke allegies and nebulisers ready for her toddler, whose cough worsens each winter.”The doctor told us winter will be difficult,” she said. “He just told us, ‘When your kid starts coughing at night, don’t even call me — just start nebulising.'”As winter nears, Shrivastava is preparing for another season indoors — restricting outdoor play for her son, running air purifiers and checking air quality daily. When the family visits relatives in the southern city of Chennai, her son’s health improves “drastically”.”His nose stops running, his cough goes away,” she said.Shrivastava and her husband, who both work with a global advocacy group, say they would have left Delhi long ago if not for the “jobs we love and the opportunities”.Relocation, she admits, is never far from their minds.”I don’t think at the rate it’s going, Delhi is a good place to raise kids — when it comes to air pollution at least.”

A prominent US scholar of India who was arrested after allegations of retaining classified documents and meeting Chinese officials is denying the charges against him, his lawyers said Wednesday.Ashley Tellis, 64, who held senior positions under former president George W. Bush and remained an unpaid advisor to the State Department, was arrested Saturday and faces up to 10 years in prison.”Ashley J. Tellis is a widely respected scholar and senior policy advisor,” his lawyers, Deborah Curtis and John Nassikas, said in a statement.”We will be vigorously contesting the allegations brought against him, specifically any insinuation of his operating on behalf of a foreign adversary,” they said.A criminal affidavit made public Tuesday said that Tellis went into the State Department late on September 25 and appeared to print from a secret document on US Air Force techniques.It alleged that Tellis met repeatedly with Chinese officials at a restaurant in the Washington suburb of Fairfax, Virginia, and that at one dinner he appeared to leave a manila envelope.The charges announced by the Justice Department relate to improper handling of documents rather than the meetings, with an FBI special agent saying a search found more than 1,000 pages of top-secret or secret documents in his house.Tellis has been a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a leading Washington think tank, which said Wednesday that he has been put on administrative leave.Tellis, a naturalized American originally from India, helped negotiate the Bush administration’s civil nuclear cooperation deal with India, a landmark step to closer relations between the world’s two largest democracies.But Tellis in recent years has emerged as a leading contrarian in Washington about India, saying that New Delhi’s interests were not aligned on a host of issues including Ukraine.

A 48-hour ceasefire between Afghanistan and Pakistan took hold late Wednesday, officials on both sides said, after dozens of troops and civilians were killed in fresh cross-border skirmishes earlier in the day.The truce began at 6:00 pm Islamabad time (1300 GMT), shortly after being announced by both countries, each asserting the other had requested it to end the surge in violence.According to Pakistan, the ceasefire was expected to last 48 hours.”During this period, both sides will sincerely strive to find a positive solution to this complex but resolvable issue through constructive dialogue,” the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.In Kabul, Afghanistan’s Taliban government said it had ordered the Afghan army to respect the truce, “unless it is violated” by the opposing side, a spokesman said on X.The temporary ceasefire followed a week of violence between the two neighbours.The Taliban had launched an offensive along parts of its southern border with Pakistan, prompting Islamabad to vow a strong response of its own.Islamabad has accused Afghanistan of harbouring militant groups led by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) on its soil, a claim Kabul denies.With both countries on edge, plumes of black smoke were seen rising above Kabul after two blasts Wednesday evening, AFP reporters said.Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said an oil tanker and a generator had exploded, sparking fires, although he did not explicitly link the blasts to the clashes with Pakistan.At least five people were killed and 35 wounded in Wednesday explosions in Kabul, an Italian NGO which runs a hospital in the Afghan capital said, before the truce entered into effect.”We started receiving ambulances filled with wounded people, and we learned that there had been explosions a few kilometres away from our hospital,” Dejan Panic, EMERGENCY’s country director in Afghanistan, said in a statement.Ambulances raced through Kabul where shattered glass from damaged buildings littered the streets, AFP saw. Taliban forces also cordoned off some city streets.- Surge in attacks -Pakistan’s military earlier accused the Afghan Taliban of attacking two major border posts in the southwest and northwest.It said both assaults were repelled, with about 20 Taliban fighters killed in attacks launched early Wednesday near Spin Boldak on the Afghan side of the frontier in southern Kandahar province.”Unfortunately the attack was orchestrated through divided villages in the area, with no regard for the civil population,” the military said in a statement.It also said about 30 more people were thought to have been killed in overnight clashes along Pakistan’s northwest border.The Afghan Taliban said 15 civilians were killed and dozens wounded in the clashes near Spin Boldak and that “two to three” of its fighters were also killed.Taliban spokesman Mujahid said in an earlier statement that 100 civilians were also wounded around Spin Boldak, adding that calm had returned after Pakistani soldiers were killed and weapons seized.Pakistan’s military said these were “outrageous and blatant lies”.Pakistan did not give a toll for its losses in the latest clashes but said last week 23 of its troops had been killed in the opening skirmishes.Sadiq, a resident of Spin Boldak who gave only his first name, said fighting broke out just before dawn.”Houses were fired upon, including my cousin’s. His son and wife were killed, and four of his children were wounded,” he told AFP.All businesses in the area were closed and many residents have fled.In Chaman on the Pakistani side of the border, one resident described the pre-dawn clashes as “total chaos”.”Our children and women were terrified and began screaming,” Raaz Muhammad, 51, said by phone.In a separate incident, a senior security official in Peshawar in Pakistan’s northwest said seven frontier troops died in an attack on a checkpoint.The relatively new Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen armed group claimed responsibility.The Taliban government said it had launched the offensive in “retaliation for air strikes carried out by the Pakistani army on Kabul”.Islamabad then vowed a forceful response Sunday, and dozens of casualties were reported on both sides.In Khost province, Afghan journalist Abdul Ghafoor Abid with state-run television RTA was killed Sunday by Pakistani fire while covering the cross-border fighting, a Taliban official said.

The Indian city of Ahmedabad is in prime position to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games, the Executive Board of Commonwealth Sport announced on Wednesday.The choice of Ahmedabad, also known as Amdavad, will be put forward to the full Commonwealth Sport membership, with a final decision to be taken at the Commonwealth Sport General Assembly in Glasgow on November 26.”The Executive Board of Commonwealth Sport has today confirmed that it will recommend Amdavad, India, as the proposed host city for the 2030 Centenary Commonwealth Games,” the Executive Board said in a statement.Ahmedabad is the key city in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, home to a 130,000-seater arena which is the world’s biggest cricket stadium. The venue is named after the premier.India has its eyes on a bigger prize, having submitted a formal letter of intent last year to the International Olympic Committee to host the 2036 Summer Olympics.Ahmedabad got the nod over the Nigerian capital Abuja.India’s Home Minister Amit Shah described the announcement as “a day of immense joy and pride for India”.”Heartiest congratulations to every citizen of India on Commonwealth Association’s approval of India’s bid to host the Commonwealth Games 2030 in Ahmedabad.”  The future existence of the Commonwealth Games was in doubt last year when the movement struggled to find a replacement host for 2026 after the Australian state of Victoria withdrew for cost reasons.The Scottish city of Glasgow stepped in and will stage a slimmed-down version of the multi-sport format, meaning Britain will have hosted two editions in a row, after Birmingham in 2022.The 2030 Games will mark the centenary of the inaugural event held in Hamilton, Canada, in 1930. 

Left-arm spinner Noman Ali was South Africa’s chief tormentor as Pakistan won a gripping first Test by 93 runs in Lahore on Wednesday.Set a daunting 277-run target for victory, the visitors and World Test champions were bowled out for 183 in the afternoon session on day four.Man of the match Noman finished with 4-79 and 10-191 in the match for his third haul of ten wickets or more in Tests.With the weary Gaddafi Stadium pitch taking sharp turn and low bounce, the 39-year-old exploited the conditions well despite a stubborn 73-run stand between Dewald Brevis and Ryan Rickelton in the morning. In all, spinners from both sides took 34 wickets, with just six going to fast bowlers.South African left-armer Senuran Muthusamy took 11-174 in the match.Pakistan made 378 in their first innings, with South Africa scoring 269 in reply.On a deteriorating surface, the hosts collapsed in their second-innings 167 but it proved enough.”We won the Test match and it’s gone exactly to plan,” said Shan Masood, who now has four wins in 13 Tests as captain, with nine losses.On Wednesday, with the tourists 137-6 at lunch the writing was very much on the wall, then Sajid Khan dismissed Muthusamy for six soon after the break.Pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi dismissed Kyle Verreynne (19), Prenelan Subrayen (eight) and Kagiso Rabada (nought) to finish with 4-33.The victory gives Pakistan an ideal start to the World Test Championship (WTC), having come last in the previous edition.The second and final Test starts in Rawalpindi from Monday.”The spinners came into play, reverse swing helped the bowlers do their job today and the batters did well enough, but we still have a lot of challenges in the middle order,” said Masood.”We lost 11-37 over the course of two innings, which is not good, we must overcome that.”- South Africa proud in defeat -The defeat broke South Africa’s sequence of ten straight Test wins, culminating in the WTC title in June this year when they beat Australia at Lord’s.Skipper Aiden Markram said the first-innings deficit of 109 was crucial. “They (Pakistan) had a really good partnership in the first innings when we had them five wickets down,” he said Markram of a Mohammad Rizwan-Salman Agha stand of 163 runs for the sixth wicket.”We probably could have scored a few more runs in the first innings but I am proud of the way we fought.”But we need to clean up our game and come back better in the next match.”Brevis took the fight to the Pakistan spinners in the morning and had reached an aggressive career-best 54, with six fours and two sixes, when Noman bowled him with a sharply turning delivery.Pakistan had struck in the first over of the day through fast bowler Shaheen, who trapped Tony de Zorzi for 16 without any addition to the overnight total of 51-2.Tristan Stubbs struggled to cope with the sharp turn and was on two when a premeditated reverse sweep off Noman safely landed in Salman Agha’s hands.Brevis reached his second Test half-century with a six off Noman before becoming the spinner’s fourth victim.Opener Rickleton’s dogged resistance was broken by Sajid just before lunch for a gritty 45.

Dozens of troops and civilians were killed in a fresh round of border skirmishes between Pakistan and Afghanistan on Wednesday, officials on both sides of the frontier said, as clashes entered their second week.Violence between the two neighbours has flared since explosions in Afghanistan last week, including two in the capital Kabul, that were blamed on Pakistan.The Taliban government in Kabul launched an offensive along parts of its southern border in retaliation, prompting Islamabad to vow a strong response of its own.Islamabad has accused Afghanistan of harbouring militant groups led by the Pakistani Taliban Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) on its soil, a claim Kabul denies.In the latest violence, Pakistan’s military accused the Afghan Taliban of attacking two major border posts in the southwest and northwest.It said both assaults were repelled, with about 20 Taliban fighters killed in attacks launched near Spin Boldak on the Afghan side of the frontier in southern Kandahar province early on Wednesday.”Unfortunately the attack was orchestrated through divided villages in the area, with no regard for the civil population,” the military said in a statement.It also said about 30 more were thought to have been killed in overnight clashes along Pakistan’s northwest border.The Afghan Taliban said 15 civilians were killed and dozens wounded in the clashes near Spin Boldak and that “two to three” of its fighters were also killed.Ali Mohammad Haqmal, an Afghan spokesman for the information department in the Spin Boldak region, said civilians were killed by mortar fire.Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid accused Pakistani forces of “once again” carrying out attacks “with light and heavy weapons” in the district.Mujahid said in a statement that 100 civilians were also wounded, adding that calm had returned to the area after Pakistani soldiers were killed and posts and weapons seized.The Pakistan military said these were “outrageous and blatant lies”.Pakistan did not give a toll for its losses in the latest clashes but said last week 23 of its troops had been killed in the opening skirmishes.- Surge in attacks -Sadiq, a resident of Spin Boldak who gave only his first name, said fighting broke out at around 4:00 am (2330 GMT Tuesday).”Houses were fired upon, including my cousin’s. His son and wife were killed, and four of his children were wounded,” he told AFP.All businesses in the area were closed and many residents have fled, an AFP correspondent reported.In Chaman on the Pakistani side of the border, one resident described the pre-dawn clashes as “total chaos”.”Our children and women were terrified and began screaming… we had no idea what was happening,” Raaz Muhammad, 51, told AFP by phone.In a separate incident to the border clashes, a senior security official in Peshawar in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkwha province said seven frontier troops had been killed in an attack on a checkpoint.The relatively new Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen armed group claimed responsibility for the attack.Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told parliament last week that several attempts to convince the Afghan Taliban to stop supporting the TTP had failed.Islamabad accuses the TTP — which was combat-trained in Afghanistan and claims to share the ideology of the Taliban there — of killing hundreds of Pakistani soldiers since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.Last week’s explosions in Afghanistan took place while the Taliban’s top diplomat was making an unprecedented visit to Pakistan’s arch-rival India. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blasts.Clashes erupted on Saturday evening when Kabul launched an operation in at least five provinces along the border.The Taliban government said it attacked Pakistani security forces in “retaliation for air strikes carried out by the Pakistani army on Kabul”.Islamabad then vowed a forceful response on Sunday, and dozens of casualties were reported on both sides.str-ash-mak-la-zz/pbt