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Nepal’s former king Gyanendra Shah was welcomed back to Kathmandu on Sunday by thousands of supporters who have been staging pro-monarchy demonstrations in the Himalayan republic. The Hindu-majority nation became a secular republic in 2008 after parliament abolished the monarchy as part of a peace deal that ended a decade-long civil war in which more than 16,000 people were killed.However, support for the restoration of the monarchy and a Hindu state has grown amid dissatisfaction over political instability, corruption and slow economic development.Shah’s supporters cheered and waved Nepal’s flag, chanting “Come king, save the nation” as he greeted them at the Kathmandu airport gate.The former king had been touring the country in recent weeks and returned to the capital from Pokhara in central Nepal.”The country faces instability, prices are high, people are jobless, and there is a lack of education and healthcare facilities,” said Rajindra Kunwar, 43, a teacher who had joined the crowd.”The poor are dying of hunger. The law applies to the public, but not to politicians. That’s why we need the king back,” he said. Shah, 77, has largely refrained from commenting on Nepal’s fractious politics and calls for the monarchy’s restoration, although he has made several recent public appearances with supporters. “It is now time. If we wish to save our nation and maintain national unity, I call on all countrymen to support us for Nepal’s prosperity and progress,” the former king said in a statement on the eve of national Democracy Day commemorations last month.Political analyst Lok Raj Baral told AFP that he did not see any possibility of the monarchy being restored because the institution had been “a source of instability”.   “For some disgruntled groups, it has become a retreat due to incompetence of politicians who have grown increasingly self-centred. This frustration has manifested in such gatherings and demonstrations,” he said.Shah was crowned in 2001 after his elder brother king Birendra Bir Bikram Shah and his family were killed in a palace massacre that wiped out most of the royal family.His coronation took place as a Maoist insurgency was raging in far-flung corners of Nepal.Shah suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament in 2005, triggering a democratic movement in which the Maoists sided with Nepal’s political establishment to orchestrate huge street protests.Parliament voted in 2008 to abolish Nepal’s 240-year-old Hindu monarchy.

Half-centuries from Daryl Mitchell and Michael Bracewell steered New Zealand to 251-7 after India’s spinners called the shots in the final of the Champions Trophy on Sunday.The Black Caps won the toss and elected to bat first in Dubai after they suffered an early blow when fast bowler Matt Henry missed out due to a shoulder injury.India came in unchanged from their win over Australia in the semi-final and their four spinners kept the opposition on the backfoot for a large part of the 50 overs.Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav took two wickets each on a sluggish pitch that has aided the slow bowlers in the 50-over tournament played in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.India have played all their matches in Dubai after they refused to tour hosts Pakistan due to political tensions and have been unbeaten at the venue in four matches.Mitchell made 63 and put on key stands, before the left-handed Bracewell smashed an unbeaten 53 off 40 balls to boost the total. New Zealand openers started cautiously before previous-match hero Rachin Ravindra took on the bowling attack.The left-handed Ravindra, fresh from a century in the semi-final against South Africa in Lahore, smashed pace bowler Mohammed Shami for a six and two fours.Wrist spinner Chakravarthy struck first to send back Will Young, out lbw for 15, but the runs came quickly, albeit with some help from sloppy fielding.Ravindra survived two reprieves when Shami failed to take a return catch and Shreyas Iyer dropped a tough chance in the deep.But Kuldeep bowled Ravindra, for 37, on his first ball of the match with a googly from the left-arm wrist spinner.Kuldeep then got a largely Indian crowd — a sea of blue — on their feet when he had senior batsman Kane Williamson caught and bowled for 11.Williamson, also fresh from a ton in the previous win, had looked good in his brief stay of 14 balls.Mitchell and wicketkeeper-batsman Tom Latham attempted to rebuild as the pair took the team past 100, but soon Ravindra Jadeja struck with his left-arm spin.Jadeja trapped the left-handed Latham lbw for 14 as New Zealand slipped to 108-4.Mitchell, who survived a dropped catch by skipper Rohit Sharma on 38, stood firm and with Glenn Phillips, who made 34, put on 57 runs.Phillips was bowled by Chakravarthy off a fast googly.Mitchell put on another stand with Bracewell before he fell to Shami caught out at extra cover.Bracewell finished with a flourish with three fours and two sixes.India need 252 to win a record third Champions Trophy after winning the 2002 and 2013 editions.Australia also have also won two Champions Trophies, in 2006 and 2009.

A Pakistani man has been charged with murder after allegedly shooting the administrator of a community WhatsApp group who removed him from the chat, police said Saturday.Mushtaq Ahmed was shot dead on Thursday evening in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province that borders Afghanistan, which has a history of bloody sectarian violence.A man named only as Ashfaq has been charged with his murder, according to police documents seen by AFP and a local police official.Mushtaq allegedly kicked Ashfaq out of the WhatsApp group following an argument, according to a statement by Mushtaq’s brother seen by AFP. He said that both parties had arranged to meet and reconcile but alleges that Ashfaq turned up with a gun and opened fire, killing his brother.Ashfaq was angry “in reaction to removal from WhatsApp group,” according to his statement.The availability of firearms, the influence of tribal customs, and sometimes weak law enforcement contribute to the frequency of such incidents.

India playing all their Champions Trophy matches in Dubai was a pre-tournament decision and the talk of unfair advantage is baseless, the team’s batting coach said on Friday.Rohit Sharma’s team face New Zealand in the title clash on Sunday at the Dubai International Stadium, where India have been unbeaten in four matches.India refused to tour hosts Pakistan in the eight-nation tournament due to political tensions and were given Dubai as their venue in the United Arab Emirates.”The draw that happened, it happened before,” batting coach Sitanshu Kotak told reporters. “After India winning four matches, if people feel that there is an advantage, then I don’t know what to say about it.”The tournament’s tangled schedule, with teams flying in and out of the UAE from Pakistan while India have stayed put, has been hugely controversial.South Africa batsman David Miller said “it was not an ideal situation” for his team to fly in to Dubai to wait on India’s semi-final opponent and then fly back to Lahore in less than 24 hours.Even nominal hosts Pakistan had to jump on a jet and fly to Dubai to play India, rather than face them on home soil. The pitches have been vastly different in the two countries.Pakistan tracks produced big totals, in contrast to the slow and turning decks of the Dubai stadium.”End of the day, I think in a game, you have to play good cricket every day when you turn up,” the 52-year-old Kotak said. “So the only thing they (critics) may say is that we play here. But that is how the draw is.””So nothing else can happen in that. It is not that after coming here, they changed something and we got an advantage,” he added.India have been the team to beat after they topped Group A, which had New Zealand, Pakistan and Bangladesh.They then beat Australia in the first semi-final.New Zealand, led by Mitchell Santner, lost the last group game to India by 44 runs before they beat South Africa in the second semi-final in Lahore.Kotak said the previous result between the two teams will have no bearing on their mindset going into the final.”That depends how the New Zealand team thinks, but I think we should not think that,” said Kotak.”We should just try and turn up and play a good game of cricket because there is no use thinking about the last match.”New Zealand head coach Gary Stead said they are not too worried about India’s advantage.”I mean, look, the decision around that’s out of our hands,” said Stead. “So, it’s not something we worry about too much. India have got to play all their games here in Dubai. But as you said, we have had a game here and we’ll learn very quickly from that experience there as well.””And if we’re good enough to beat India on Sunday, then I’m sure we’ll be very, very happy,” he added.

Bangladeshi students who overthrew autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina last year have formed a new political party to finish the work that began with her ouster, the group’s leader told AFP.Nahid Islam, 27, was one of the most visible faces of the youth-led protest campaign Students Against Discrimination, which brought down the curtain on Hasina’s iron-fisted rule after 15 years.The sociology graduate resigned last week from the interim administration that replaced her to lead the new National Citizens Party (NCP), arguing that Bangladesh’s political establishment lacked the will for far-reaching reforms.”They were not even interested in the reforms for which young people sacrificed their lives,” Nahid told AFP.”Because we have an obligation to implement what we pledged during the mass uprising and its aftermath, we decided to form a political party,” he said.More than 800 people were killed in last year’s uprising, and Nahid was briefly detained alongside other student leaders in an unsuccessful effort to force them to call off the protests. After Hasina’s toppling, he accepted an invitation to join an interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, 84.Nahid’s decision to helm the NCP necessitated his departure from an administration expected to act as a politically neutral umpire while preparing Bangladesh for fresh elections.Polls are due by March next year and are widely expected to be won by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), one of the country’s oldest political forces.Nahid said that even if he and his comrades could not form the next government, they had inaugurated a political force set to be influential for decades to come.”Nobody knew that there would be an uprising, but it happened,” he said. “I sincerely hope and I believe that we are going to win this time. But this election is not the end of the world… Our target is to sustain this energy for another 50 or 100 or more years.”- ‘Believe in inclusivity’ -The NCP is at loggerheads with its main rival over when the next national election should be staged, with the BNP arguing that fresh polls should be staged as soon as possible to empower a government with a public mandate. “We are often accused of conspiring to delay the election, but that is not true,” Nahid said. But he added that it was “not possible” to stage an election while the country still faced issues maintaining law and order after Hasina’s ouster. His party are also campaigning for a simultaneous vote to establish a citizens’ assembly, to be tasked with root and branch reform of Bangladesh’s constitution aimed at ensuring a lasting democracy. The NCP has sought to position itself as a big tent party, open to all people seeking to bring forward the spirit of last year’s political tumult. But ructions within the party have already spilt over into public view since its founding last month. A gay rights activist was removed from the party’s leadership committee days after it was formed following demands from right-wing groups in the Muslim-majority country. “We believe in inclusivity, but there are certain boundaries set by religious and cultural norms,” Nahid said, adding that the party still had an admirable record on diversity.”We have brought women to the forefront and included representatives from all castes and creeds,” he said. “We will strive to ensure that all citizens can enjoy their rights.”

Sri Lanka signed a deal with Japan Friday to restructure $2.5 billion in loans, marking the first agreement with bilateral creditors who had pledged debt relief to the cash-strapped nation last year.Japan said it was granting concessions on a 369.45 billion yen ($2.5 billion) loan under a comprehensive debt treatment plan, which the International Monetary Fund considers essential for Sri Lanka’s economic recovery.”The development of Sri Lanka, which is located at a strategic point in the Indian Ocean, is essential for the stability and prosperity of the entire Indo-Pacific region,” the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement.”Japan intends to further contribute to the sustainable development of Sri Lanka.”Colombo’s finance ministry said Tokyo had played a “pivotal role” in helping Sri Lanka restructure its debt.”Its leadership, commitment, and constructive engagement have been instrumental in helping Sri Lanka navigate the challenges of economic recovery,” the ministry said in a statement.Sri Lanka announced last June that it had reached an understanding with all its bilateral lenders to delay repayments until 2028.Formal agreements were delayed due to protracted negotiations, making Friday’s deal with Japan the first with an official creditor of the South Asian nation.China remains Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral lender, accounting for $4.66 billion of the $10.58 billion borrowed from other nations. Japan is the second-largest lender, with just over $2.5 billion in loans.The government of leftist President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, which came to power in September, had hoped to finalise debt deals before the end of last year.The island nation defaulted on its $46 billion external debt in April 2022 after running out of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports, such as food and fuel.Its economy has since recovered following an IMF rescue package and the implementation of austerity measures aimed at repairing the government’s ruined finances.In November, Dissanayake announced that Sri Lanka would honour a deal secured by his predecessor to restructure $12.55 billion in international sovereign bonds, a key condition for maintaining the $2.9 billion, four-year IMF bailout loan.A majority of private creditors to the South Asian nation agreed in September to a 27 percent haircut on their loans.As part of the agreement reached in September and ratified by the new administration, bondholders will also take an 11 percent haircut on overdue interest payments.Sri Lanka secured its IMF bailout in 2023 after doubling taxes, withdrawing energy subsidies, and raising the prices of essential goods to shore up state revenue.The new government has vowed to keep up the reforms in line with the IMF bailout. 

Thousands of sanitation workers were toiling on Friday to clean up 20,000 tonnes of waste left behind by hundreds of millions of Hindu devotees after India’s Kumbh Mela mega-festival.The massive sanitation drive has been underway since the six-week gala drew to a close last week in the northern city of Prayagraj.Hundreds of millions of people visited the city during the festival according to government figures, with mounds of discarded clothing, plastic bottles and other waste now littering the grounds. “We have deployed 15,000 workers to clear up some 20,000 tonnes of waste generated from the festival,” Prayagraj municipal commissioner Chandra Mohan Garg told AFP.The Kumbh Mela is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar, staged every 12 years at the holy confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers.It is rooted in Hindu mythology, a battle between deities and demons for control of a pitcher containing the nectar of immortality.Workers were also busy dismantling a temporary infrastructure, that includes 150,000 portable toilets.In several places, open areas were used as makeshift toilets, posing a challenge to the army of sanitary staff. “The dedication towards cleanliness… will continue to inspire efforts to keep Prayagraj, and its sacred rivers, clean for generations to come,” the government said in a statement this week.The Kumbh Mela was also a testament to the “collective spirit of maintaining a cleaner and more sustainable environment”, it added.

India play New Zealand in the Champions Trophy final in Dubai on Sunday in what could be a last hurrah for veteran stars Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.The 36-year-old Kohli and skipper Rohit, 37, came into the 50-over tournament with speculation swirling over when they will retire following lean patches in Test cricket.Mainstays of a formidable India side for more than 15 years, the duo retired from T20 internationals after winning the World Cup last year.This weekend could be the end for them in ODIs, with the next 50-over World Cup not until 2027.”I am sure Rohit will lead India to a title. He will have another ICC trophy soon,” former seam bowler Praveen Kumar told The Times of India.”I will only say that Virat and Rohit, give us one more ICC trophy before you retire,” he added.India go into the final at Dubai International Cricket Stadium as favourites and with their confidence sky-high.They have won all four of their matches at the eight-nation tournament, including beating New Zealand by 44 runs in the group phase, although both teams had already reached the semi-finals by then.Rohit’s side have played all their games in Dubai after refusing to visit Champions Trophy hosts Pakistan because of political tensions.Rohit and Kohli came into the competition under pressure.Master batsman Kohli silenced his critics with an unbeaten 100 against arch-rivals Pakistan, then hit a match-winning 84 against world champions Australia in the semi-finals.Rohit’s highest score has been 41 in their opening win over Bangladesh but the opener has been lauded for handing the team quick starts to build totals on at a venue where batting is tough.India, who are looking to win the Champions Trophy for a record third time, also boast a world-class spin attack.They unleashed four spinners in beating New Zealand with Varun Chakravarthy returning figures of 5-42 to help bowl out the Black Caps for 205 in their chase of 250.India were unchanged against Australia as the spin-heavy selection came up trumps again, albeit on a Dubai pitch that turned a little less that time around.- Henry injury doubt -In front of them lies a New Zealand team hoping to win the tournament for the second time, having done so in 2000 in what was the second edition of a competition likened to a mini World Cup.The Black Caps powered into the final by beating South Africa by 50 runs in Lahore.But the victory came at a price with an injury to pace bowler Matt Henry after he landed on his shoulder awkwardly while taking a catch.Henry, who took 5-42 against India in the group phase, is in a race to be fit for Sunday.”Still a little bit unknown at this stage,” head coach Gary Stead said.”He’s obviously pretty sore just from landing on the point of his shoulder. Hopeful he will be okay.”Batsman Rachin Ravindra hammered 108 in New Zealand’s Champions Trophy record total of 362 against South Africa at the batting-friendly Gaddafi Stadium.Ravindra put together 164 runs with veteran batsman Kane Williamson, who hit 102.The left-handed Ravindra, who also bowls left-arm spin, has amassed 226 from three matches after he returned from a nasty hit to his forehead in a tri-series match in Pakistan.The Wellington-born Ravindra is of Indian origin with his parents hailing from Bengaluru.”We don’t quite know how the Dubai pitch is like,” said Ravindra.”I think we pride ourselves in adapting and playing the situation in front of us, so will see what happens in the next couple of days and hope it’s a good cricket wicket.”India might be favourites and will have much of the crowd at the 25,000-capacity Dubai stadium roaring them on, but recent history is actually with New Zealand.They registered a surprise 3-0 Test whitewash in India in October and November last year.The Black Caps also hold a clear advantage over India with nine wins, six losses and one no-result at global white-ball tournaments.

China’s foreign minister on Friday vowed Beijing would “firmly counter” US pressure, after Donald Trump heaped tariffs on Chinese goods and torched off a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.Trump imposed more blanket tariffs on Chinese imports this week, following a similar move last month — levies expected to hit hundreds of billions of dollars in total trade.The mercurial magnate has overturned the international order since returning to office in January, from pushing Ukraine to seek a peace deal with Russia to floating a widely condemned plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza.At a press conference on the sidelines of a key political meeting, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi framed Beijing as a bulwark of stability in an unstable world.He warned the “law of the jungle” could take hold if nations were to pursue purely their own interests.Wang touted Beijing’s cooperation with the United States in the fight against the fentanyl epidemic, in which Washington has accused China of being complicit in justifying its tariffs.Washington should not “repay kindness with resentment, let alone impose tariffs without reason”, he said.”There are around 190 countries in the world,” Wang said.”Imagine if every country emphasised their own priority and believed in strength and status, the world would fall back into the law of the jungle.”He said the policy currently implemented by Washington was “not how a responsible major country behaves”.The Chinese top diplomat was speaking on the sidelines of the “Two Sessions” political meetings in Beijing, so far clouded by a new administration in the United States that is overturning the international order.He told the attending press that good China-US economic and trade ties benefitted all parties.”If you choose to cooperate, you can achieve mutually beneficial and win-win results,” he added.”If you use only pressure, China will firmly counter.””China and the United States will both exist on this planet for a long time, so they must coexist peacefully,” Wang stressed.- ‘No winners’ in war -The veteran diplomat, however, appeared to side with Trump’s push for peace talks to end the conflict in Ukraine.He also called for negotiations between all parties — warning “conflict has no winners, and peace has no losers”.Beijing, he stressed, “welcomes and supports all efforts dedicated to peace”.And he urged all parties to seek a “comprehensive and lasting ceasefire in Gaza and increase humanitarian assistance”.Beijing has vowed to fight a trade war with the United States “to the end” as tariffs from Washington buffeted the global economy and threatened to hit Beijing’s lagging growth.The country’s leaders set an ambitious annual growth target of around five percent this week, vowing to make domestic demand its main economic driver as the escalating trade confrontation with the United States hit exports.They also raised the country’s military budget by 7.2 percent as Beijing’s armed forces undergo rapid modernisation and eye deepening strategic competition with the United States.- Taiwan, South China Sea -Among key flashpoints in the past year have been the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims.Wang on Friday said the island’s return to Beijing’s control remained the “shared hope of all Chinese people, the general trend of the time, and a righteous cause”.”Using Taiwan to control China is just like trying to stop a car with the arm of a mantis,” he said.And he touched on another key flashpoint, the South China Sea — which Beijing claims almost in its entirety despite an international arbitration ruling that declared its stance baseless.Wang accused the Philippines, with which Chinese ships have repeatedly clashed in the disputed waters, of provoking confrontation. “For every Philippine maritime operation, it is the forces outside of the region that write the script and the Western media that undertake the live broadcast,” he said.”The same old theatre is being used to discredit China,” he said.

Indian football legend Sunil Chhetri will return to the national team aged 40 in an unexpected reversal of his decision to hang up his boots last year. The former captain, the fourth-highest men’s international goalscorer of all time, played his last match for India in June 2024 in a World Cup qualifier.Chhetri said last year that “instinct” told him the match against Kuwait should be his last and he bowed out in front of nearly 59,000 fans in Kolkata. But on Thursday, India head coach Manolo Marquez announced the return of India’s most-capped player for the March international window.India are out of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup and are now targeting the Asian Cup in 2027.”The qualification for the Asian Cup is very crucial for us. Given the importance of the tournament and the matches ahead, I discussed with Sunil Chhetri about making a comeback to strengthen the national team,” Marquez said in a statement from the All India Football Federation.”He agreed, and so we have included him in the squad.”India play a friendly against Maldives on March 19, in preparation for an Asian Cup qualifier against Bangladesh on March 25.Football has struggled to find its feet among the 1.4 billion people of India, where the sport is dwarfed by the nation’s longstanding cricket obsession. Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter once called India a “sleeping giant” of football.Chhetri is a sporting icon in cricket-mad India.The diminutive striker, who is 1.7 metres (5ft 7in) tall, made his debut against fierce rivals Pakistan in 2005 and scored India’s only goal.Chhetri had two brief but unsuccessful spells in Portugal and the United States, but has spent most of his career in India.In 2009 he was offered a contract by London club Queens Park Rangers, in England’s second tier, but he could not get a work permit.