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Clashes near the key Torkham border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan resumed Friday, AFP journalists said, as the neighbours engaged in deadly fighting.Violence overnight hit a camp for Afghans who had just crossed from Pakistan, with several people wounded.After a lull in fighting, an AFP journalist on the Afghan side heard incoming shellfire from around 9:30 am (0500 GMT), before cross-border clashes resumed.He saw Afghan soldiers heading towards the frontier, before being told to leave the area by the security forces.A second AFP journalist said gunfire could be heard in the distance. The Torkham crossing has remained open for Afghans returning en masse from Pakistan, despite the land border being largely shut since fighting between the neighbours in October. The Omari camp that accommodates returnees near the crossing was hit by a mortar shell overnight, a Nangarhar provincial official said.”Unfortunately seven of our refugees have been wounded, and the condition of one woman is serious,” said Qureshi Badlun, Nangarhar’s information chief.Gander Khan, a 65-year-old returnee, described how “children, women, and old people were running”.”I saw blood, it wounded two or three children, and two or three women,” he told AFP, standing in front of rows of tents.Zarghon, a 44-year-old returnee who only gave one name, said two or three children went missing in the panic.”Some have left their papers, and just escaped. They didn’t even take their money, they didn’t take their aid which they received. Because of fear, everyone left,” he told AFP.In the provincial capital Jalalabad, an AFP photographer saw several women who were wounded in Omari camp receiving treatment.Afghan forces launched a border offensive against Pakistani troops late Thursday, in what the Taliban authorities said was retaliation for deadly Pakistani air strikes days earlier.The outbreak of cross-border fighting was followed by Pakistan launching air strikes on the Afghan capital, Kabul, and the key city of Kandahar, which were heard by AFP journalists.strs-rsc/fox

Pakistan bombed major cities in Afghanistan including the capital Kabul on Friday, with Islamabad’s defence minister declaring the neighbours at “open war” following months of tit-for-tat clashes.AFP reporters in Kabul and Kandahar heard blasts and jets overhead until dawn, as Pakistan launched air strikes on the Afghan capital and the southern power base of the Taliban authorities.Near the key Torkham border crossing between the two countries, an AFP journalist heard shelling from around 9:30 am (0500 GMT) on Friday, and a camp accommodating Afghans returning en masse from Pakistan was hit by the fighting overnight.”Children, women, and old people were running,” Gander Khan, a 65-year-old returnee, told AFP in front of rows of tents at the Omari camp.Pakistan’s latest operation came after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops on Thursday night over earlier air strikes by Islamabad.Relations between the neighbours have plunged in recent months, with land border crossings largely shut since deadly fighting in October that killed more than 70 people on both sides.Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to act against militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government denies.Most of the attacks have been claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group that has stepped up assaults in Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.”Afghan Taliban defence targets were targeted in Kabul, Paktia (province) and Kandahar,” Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar posted on X, while defence minister Khawaja Asif declared an “all-out confrontation” with the Taliban government.”Our patience has reached its limit. Now it is open war between us and you,” he posted.- Delicate ceasefire broken -The overnight strikes mark a “significant and dangerous escalation from earlier clashes”, South Asia expert Michael Kugelman said on X.”Pakistan appears to have expanded its targeting beyond TTP to the Taliban regime itself,” he said.Several rounds of negotiations between Islamabad and Kabul followed an initial ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey, but the efforts have failed to produce a lasting agreement.After repeated breaches of the initial truce, Saudi Arabia intervened this month, mediating the release of three Pakistani soldiers captured by Afghanistan in October.Saudi’s Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, spoke on Friday with his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar, according to a statement published by Riyadh.And Iran, which shares an eastern border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, on Friday offered to help “facilitate dialogue” to resolve the conflict.Both Afghan and Pakistani militaries said they killed dozens of soldiers in the latest round of border violence, which followed multiple strikes by Islamabad on Afghanistan and clashes along the frontier in recent months.Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country’s armed forces can “have the full capability to crush any aggressive ambitions”.- Jets overhead -In the Afghan capital AFP journalists heard jets and multiple loud blasts, followed by gunfire, over a period of several hours.An AFP reporter in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, where Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is based, said he heard jets overhead.Streets in Kabul were quiet after daybreak, in keeping with a Friday during Ramadan in the Muslim-majority nation, with authorities not notably increasing the presence of security forces or checkpoints.The Taliban government confirmed the Pakistani air strikes, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid saying there were no casualties.Hours earlier, Mujahid announced “large-scale offensive operations” at the border “in response to repeated violations by the Pakistani military”.The Afghan defence ministry reported eight of its soldiers had been killed in the land offensive.At the camp for returnees near Torkham, multiple civilians were wounded in a Pakistani strike, an Afghan official reported.”A mortar shell has hit the camp and unfortunately seven of our refugees have been wounded, and the condition of one woman is serious,” said Qureshi Badlun, the information chief in Nangarhar province.While the border has largely been closed since October, Afghan returnees have been allowed to cross.- Months of border violence -Mujahid, the Taliban government spokesman, told AFP that several Pakistani soldiers had been “caught alive”, a claim denied by the prime minister’s office in Islamabad.The military operation follows Pakistani strikes on Nangarhar and Paktika provinces overnight into Sunday, which the UN mission in Afghanistan said killed at least 13 civilians. Both sides also reported cross-border fire on Tuesday, but without casualties.Besides military operations, there has been a series of deadly suicide blasts in Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent months. They included an attack on a Shiite mosque in Islamabad that killed at least 40 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group.The militant group’s regional chapter, Islamic State-Khorasan, also claimed a deadly suicide bombing at a restaurant in Kabul last month.burs-je/mjw

Nepali student leader-turned-politician Gagan Thapa has sought to rejuvenate his party’s stale image, campaigning on generational change ahead of the Himalayan nation’s first elections since a deadly youth-led uprising.”We need energy for Nepal’s change,” the 49-year-old aspiring prime minister told AFP, saying his candidacy represented a break from decades of rule by a tight-knit and ageing elite.The country of 30 million people will head to the polls on Thursday, following a wave of protests in September in which 77 people were killed, and parliament and hundreds of other buildings were torched.The protests toppled Marxist leader KP Sharma Oli’s government, in which Thapa’s centrist Nepali Congress party had the biggest share of seats.Thapa’s home and party office were among the buildings set alight during the two days of violence last year.He has since led an internal revolt and was elected party leader in January, ending the decade-long grip of former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, 79, who had defied calls for reform.Thapa, a former health minister, said he offered “the right mix of energy and experience.””We had to change the leadership of major parties,” he said, including Congress — the country’s oldest and one of the three dominant political powers that have given Nepal nearly all its prime ministers in recent history.”For decades, two to three old-aged men were running it like a club, dominating and slowly limiting our democracy by power sharing with each other,” Thapa said.”That devastated our governance.”- ‘Work together’-Thapa was drawn into politics as a teenager in the 1980s, when leftist and communist parties led a popular movement against absolute monarchy, giving rise to multi-party democracy since 1990.As civil war reshaped the country in 1996-2006, pitting Maoist guerrillas against the monarchy, he rose through the ranks of pro-democracy student groups linked to the Nepali Congress.”The sense of gratification I felt when we rallied around an agenda and got results made me feel like this is what I want,” Thapa said of his start as a student activist.”People have problems — pick them up and solve them. That gravitated me towards politics.”In 2006, when a popular uprising forced the king to abdicate, Thapa was already a prominent figure in the pro-democracy movement and had been jailed several times for his role in street protests.Two years later he entered parliament as one of its youngest members, and has since won re-election three times from a Kathmandu constituency.But this time, Thapa has chosen to run from Sarlahi, mainly a farming district southeast of the capital, on the plains bordering India.”A large proportion of Nepal’s population live here, and they have long felt excluded,” he said.”If I represent this region, it helps my party electorally. But in the long term, it gives me the foundation to lead all of Nepal.”His party’s manifesto prioritises political and economic reform, pledging to create 1.2 million jobs in five years.Analysts expect no single party to win an outright majority in parliament, likely leading to a coalition government.”We will have to work together,” Thapa said. “If I get a chance to be in a leadership role, I believe in teamwork. We can fulfil the demands made during the Gen Z protest only through teamwork.”

As dengue surges globally, an Indian vaccine candidate has entered the final stage of testing, raising hopes for one of the world’s first single-dose shots against the deadly mosquito-borne disease.Dengue, which causes severe flu-like symptoms and debilitating body aches, has exploded globally, fuelled by rising temperatures and densely populated cities. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that almost half the world’s population is now at risk, with 100–400 million infections every year. India alone has recorded over one million cases and at least 1,500 deaths since 2021.Hoping to stem the global epidemic, Panacea Biotec has begun final Phase III trials of its vaccine, DengiAll, which has been pursuing for nearly 15 years. More than 10,000 volunteers across the country are enrolled in the study, overseen by the Indian Council of Medical Research, with the vaccine on track for rollout as early as next year if the trial results are favourable.”We will try to get this vaccine out there as soon as possible,” Syed Khalid Ali, chief scientific officer of Panacea, told AFP in New Delhi.Doctor Ekta Gupta, professor of clinical virology at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences in New Delhi, said dengue was now considered hyperendemic in India, with all four virus serotypes circulating simultaneously.”This vaccine is very much needed right now to control the occurrence of these cases, or at least prevent the severity.”- Climate change -Monsoon outbreaks regularly push Indian hospitals to their limits, crowding urban wards and leaving rural regions grappling with late diagnoses and poor access to care.Higher temperatures and changing rainfall patterns create ideal conditions for Aedes mosquitoes — the vectors of dengue — to reproduce and spread the virus.Children are particularly vulnerable to the more severe form, called dengue hemorrhagic fever, as they are more likely to suffer low platelet counts and shock.Participants in Phase III trials, which started in 2024, were randomly assigned to receive either the vaccine or a placebo, with the results expected later this year.Vaccines against all four dengue serotypes have long posed a scientific challenge. Immunity to one strain does not protect against others, and secondary infections can be more severe. Most existing candidates require multiple doses.If approved, DengiAll would become one of the world’s first single-dose dengue vaccines, following Brazil’s approval of a similar shot last year.It would also be the first such vaccine available in India, where no dengue shot is currently licensed for public use.”We will be the second (single-dose) vaccine to come out… But in India and several lower-middle-income countries, we will be the first ones to roll out the dengue vaccine,” Ali said.The candidate is based on a tetravalent strain originally developed by the US National Institutes of Health. – ‘Hope for future’ -Panacea is the most advanced of three Indian firms licensed to use the strain, having developed its own formulation and secured a process patent.Inside the company’s research labs, doctor Priyanka Priyadarsiny, head of biological R&D, said vaccine development involves several steps, from proof-of-concept studies to regulatory checks. “We are extremely cautious about purity, safety and adverse effects,” she said. “Only after meeting regulatory specifications can a product be considered safe for public use.”At present, the WHO recommends only one dengue vaccine, Qdenga, produced by Japan’s Takeda for children aged six to 16 in high-transmission settings. Qdenga, which requires two doses administered three months apart, is not currently available in India.Ali said DengiAll could be given to people aged one to 60 and is expected to offer long-term protection.In India, final approval would come from the Drug Controller General of India, while WHO prequalification would be required for large-scale international use.Experts say a successful Indian-made vaccine could be key to affordability and mass rollout in lower-income countries. Virologist and Oxford University fellow Shahid Jameel — who is not connected with the trial warned dengue incidence could rise by 50–75 percent by 2050 under current climate change trends.Still, he cautioned that only Phase III results would determine whether a candidate meets the criteria for a safe and effective dengue vaccine.”Phase III testing and follow-up are needed to show if the above conditions are met,” he told AFP. “Only then can we have a useful dengue vaccine. It is still early days, but there is hope for the future.”

Pakistan bombed major cities in Afghanistan including the capital Kabul on Friday, with Islamabad’s defence minister declaring the neighbours at “open war” following months of tit-for-tat clashes.Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops on Thursday night in what the Taliban government said was retaliation for earlier deadly air strikes, while AFP journalists in Kabul and Kandahar heard blasts and jets overhead.Relations between the neighbours have plunged in recent months, with land border crossings largely shut since deadly fighting in October that killed more than 70 people on both sides.Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to act against militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government denies. Several rounds of negotiations followed an initial ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey, but the efforts have failed to produce a lasting agreement.Both militaries said they killed dozens of soldiers in the latest round of border violence, which followed multiple Pakistani strikes on Afghanistan and clashes along the frontier in recent months.”Afghan Taliban defence targets were targeted in Kabul, Paktia (province) and Kandahar,” Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar posted on X, while defence minister Khawaja Asif declared an “all-out confrontation” with the Taliban government.”Our patience has reached its limit. Now it is open war between us and you,” he posted on the social media platform. – Jets overhead -In the Afghan capital AFP journalists heard jets and multiple loud blasts, followed by gunfire, over a period of more than two hours.An AFP reporter in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, where Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is based, said he heard jets overhead. The Taliban government confirmed the Pakistani air strikes, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid saying there were no casualties. Hours earlier, Mujahid announced “large-scale offensive operations” at the border “in response to repeated violations by the Pakistani military”.The Afghan defence ministry reported eight of its soldiers had been killed in the land offensive.An Afghan official reported multiple civilians wounded near the Torkham border crossing, at a camp for people returning from Pakistan. “A mortar shell has hit the camp and unfortunately seven of our refugees have been wounded, and the condition of one woman is serious,” said Qureshi Badlun, the information chief in Nangarhar province.While the border has largely been closed since October, Afghan returnees have been allowed to cross. – Months of border violence -Mujahid, the Taliban government spokesman, told AFP that several Pakistani soldiers had been “caught alive”, a claim denied by the prime minister’s office in Islamabad.The military operation follows Pakistani strikes on Nangarhar and Paktika provinces overnight into Sunday, which the UN mission in Afghanistan said killed at least 13 civilians. The Taliban government said at least 18 people were killed and denied Pakistan’s announcement that the military operation left more than 80 militants dead.  Both sides also reported cross-border fire on Tuesday, but without casualties. After repeated breaches of the initial ceasefire, Saudi Arabia intervened this month, mediating the release of three Pakistani soldiers captured by Afghanistan in October.burs-je/hmn

Defending champions India thrashed Zimbabwe by 72 runs in their Super Eights T20 World Cup match on Thursday, a result that guaranteed South Africa a place in the semi-finals.India posted a mammoth 256-4 and then restricted Zimbabwe to 184-6 in Chennai to make their clash with West Indies in Kolkata on Sunday a winner-takes-all decider for the last semi-final berth.South Africa hammered the West Indies by nine wickets earlier in Ahmedabad.At Chennai’s M.A. Chidambaram stadium, opener Abhishek Sharma blasted 55 and Hardik Pandya an unbeaten 50 as India piled up the second highest total in the history of the tournament after being invited to bat first.”I think we wanted to leave everything behind. We didn’t think too much about what we did in the league stage or in the last game in Ahmedabad,” said India captain Suryakumar Yadav.”With contributions from the top order right down to number seven, I think there was hardly anything missing in our performance.He said they had not thought about what is now a knockout match against the West Indies on Sunday.”Once we reach Kolkata, we’ll sit down and plan properly for that game,” Suryakumar said. “For now, it’s about taking a day off, travelling, and relaxing.”Zimbabwe, who stunned Australia and Sri Lanka to reach the Super Eights, were never in the chase despite a brisk start as the asking rate kept rising.Opener Brian Bennett was not out 97, the highest individual score by a Zimbabwean in T20 World Cup history, as his side exited the semi-final reckoning with a game still to play.India’s left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh took 3-24 from his four overs.- ‘Willing to improve’ -“We are also a work in progress,” said Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza.”We have a lot of youngsters, most of them are playing their first World Cup, first time ever in India for us. “Not that I want to use that as an excuse, but certainly the lessons from the last game, from a batting point of view, I thought we took them really well. “And you can see how quickly these boys are willing to improve and they showed up today.” Zimbabwe’s bowlers conceded 510 runs in 40 overs in two Super Eights matches after West Indies posted 254-6 against the tournament’s surprise packages on Monday.Raza won the toss and opted to field for the second match running, and again saw his bowlers flogged to all parts.Left-handed Abhishek, who had struggled with three ducks in four innings in this tournament, hit four fours and four sixes to return to form.Pandya and left-handed Tilak Varma, who hit a 16-ball 44, put on an unbeaten stand of 84 at the end, but India came up just short of the T20 World Cup record score of 260-6 made by Sri Lanka against Kenya in 2007.Wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson returned to the team to break the left-handed opening combination of Abhishek and Ishan Kishan and handed India a flying start.Samson fell for 24 off Blessing Muzarabani but Abhishek kept up the charge, reaching his fifty off 26 balls in a 72-run stand with Kishan (38).Abhishek fell to Tinotenda Maposa, caught at long-on, but his knock laid the platform for a big total. Skipper Suryakumar hit 33 off 13 balls.Pandya finished with a flourish with two sixes off Brad Evans to get to 50 on the final ball of the innings.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was flying to Asia on Thursday for a three-country tour with a first stop in India, where he hopes to double trade to offset the damage of his country’s fracturing relations with the United States.Carney’s India visit marks the latest effort to reset bilateral ties that effectively collapsed after Ottawa accused New Delhi of orchestrating a deadly campaign against Sikh activists on Canadian territory.For Carney, the trip that includes stops in Australia and Japan is part of a broad effort to pivot the Canadian economy away from excessive reliance on its southern neighbor.In 2024, before US President Donald Trump returned to office and upended global trade through a flurry of tariffs, more than 75 percent of Canadian exports went to the United States. Two-way trade that year exceeded $900 billion.So far Trump broadly adhered to the North American free trade agreement he signed during his first term and about 85 percent of US-Canada trade remains tariff-free. But at the same time, he also imposed painful industry-specific tariffs and there are fears that if he scraps the broader trade deal, the Canadian economy will be hit hard.Carney has made boosting commerce with Europe and Asia cornerstones of his strategy to backstop Canada’s economy, should free trade with Washington collapse.University of Toronto public policy expert Drew Fagan said Carney was wise to pursue other markets, calling for a strategy that seeks to do “more elsewhere, when there’s an opportunity.”The prime minister has said he wants to more than double two-way trade with India by 2030, eyeing a target of Can$70 billion ($51 billion) by 2030.Fagan cautioned that progress with countries like India cannot mitigate the damage of a US rupture.”It’s not a solution. It’s not a replacement and it never will be,” Fagan told AFP.- Transnational repression -Carney left Ottawa on Thursday morning en route to Mumbai. He is expected to meet with business groups in the Indian city over the weekend before heading to New Delhi for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a meeting that will be closely watched. Before Carney took office last year, Ottawa accused Modi’s government of direct involvement in the 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a naturalized Canadian citizen who advocated for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.Former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government further charged India with directing a campaign of intimidation against Sikh activists across Canada.India has denied those allegations.Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand was asked Monday if Canadian concerns about transnational repression would feature at the New Delhi talks.”Yes, that is always at the forefront of our minds,” Anand told reporters in Ottawa.Carney’s hopes for trade growth with Australia and Japan are more modest, but his office said cooperation over critical mineral supply chains will be a priority.Advanced economies have made a push to deepen critical mineral cooperation, especially in the processing of rare earth elements essential to power many high-tech products.China currently has dominant control of rare earth supply chains, a concern that Canada highlighted throughout its just-concluded G7 presidency.

Pressure is mounting on Sri Lanka’s captain, coach and the selection panel to step down after the co-hosts’ feeble exit from the T20 World Cup with a match to spare.A second Super Eights defeat, where Sri Lanka never threatened to get near their 169 target against New Zealand ended their hopes of reaching the semi-finals.It also provoked unprecedented booing from the 35,000-strong crowd in Colombo and calls for heads to roll.The group win over Australia had hopes high for a run to at least the semi-finals, but it is now a distant memory after Sri Lanka’s batting was exposed time and again on turning pitches.Sri Lanka head coach Sanath Jayasuriya had already informed the board that he would step down after the World Cup.Now captain Dasun Shanaka and the selectors seem likely to follow or be axed after an embarrassing campaign.”We have one more game in the competition and we will address what went wrong during the World Cup after that game and take the necessary steps,” a Sri Lanka Cricket spokesperson told AFP.Former captain Marvan Atapattu was scathing about Sri Lanka’s preparations.”Most teams have moved on with the times playing T20 cricket, but we have stagnated and made little progress,”  Atapattu told AFP.”You need to identify your core players and stick with them. “In Sri Lanka’s case, they had no idea what their team was going to be even a week before the tournament.”It doesn’t work that way in international sport.”Sri Lanka lost three front-line bowlers to injury in the first week of the tournament, with fingers being pointed at the amount of lucrative franchise cricket being played.”When your players are involved in league cricket all over the world, there is a good chance that they break down just before a crucial campaign and that’s what happened to Sri Lanka,” Atapattu added.

Nepal votes next week for the first time since deadly anti-corruption protests toppled the government, but analysts say any winner will likely maintain the delicate diplomatic balance between its two giant neighbours, India and China.The landlocked Himalayan nation of 30 million people will elect a new government on March 5, six months after youth-led demonstrations brought down the administration of Marxist leader KP Sharma Oli.Who will win is an open question, but Nepali journalist Sudheer Sharma said it will likely be “very difficult” for any single party to secure a majority, meaning longstanding political dynamics may continue.”Nepal’s relation with India or China depends on what type of coalition it will be and who will be the dominant power,” said Sharma.”The fundamentals of the relationship will not change, but some approaches might.”Younger candidates are campaigning on promises to overhaul a stagnant economy and remove an ageing political elite, while veteran politicians emphasise stability and security if returned to power.Key investors and trading partners Beijing and New Delhi are watching closely, but analysts suggested that the new government will likely continue Kathmandu’s pragmatic balancing act between the two powers, who compete for influence.Nepal’s largest trading partner is India, accounting for 63 percent of imports, or $8.6 billion, followed by China at 13 percent, or $1.8 billion, according to World Bank figures.- ‘Regular relationship’ -India has long considered Hindu-majority Nepal as a traditional ally, with open borders along the plains.”Some issues are there, some problems are there, but the regular relationship should be stable,” journalist Sharma said.Retired Indian diplomat Rakesh Sood described New Delhi’s ties with Nepal as “extensive”, encompassing trade, tourism and hydropower.Nepal is integrated with cross-border infrastructure in both directions: power lines from hydropower dams feed electricity to India, while China connects through its Belt and Road Initiative over the Himalayas via Tibet, and makes investments in airports and railways.For nearly two decades, Nepal’s political landscape was dominated by veteran leaders — many of them former Maoist insurgents — who took turns in power since the end of a 10-year civil war in 2006.Last September’s unrest erupted as youth protests against a brief social media ban, but was fuelled by far wider anger at economic stagnation and corruption.Over two days, 77 people were killed, scores were injured, and hundreds of buildings were set on fire.Oli, 74, forced out by the uprising, is seeking a return to power for a potential fifth term as prime minister.He had a fractious relationship with New Delhi — after taking office in 2024, he chose China for his first trip abroad, rather than the customary visit to India.”In Nepal, the then leftist-led government had an uncomfortable relationship with India — and that was overthrown,” Sharma added.- ‘Balance ties’ -A new cohort of first-time candidates has emerged from the loosely organised Gen Z movement that helped drive the protests, young Nepalis seeking economic reform. “Nepal’s leadership, even if at times seemingly inclined to lean toward one power or the other, aims to balance ties with India and China,” South Asia expert Michael Kugelman told AFP.”It’s hard to imagine that changing, even if there is a new influx of younger people in politics.”He suggested the status quo will likely remain, with China “comfortable with any type of political dynamic” in Kathmandu, including one with a younger profile, as long as it remains open to Beijing.”A government with youth leaders would likely not take positions on relations with India and China that diverge much with the previous government,” Kugelman said, suggesting that Nepali youth are “generally not hostile to China — even if some would prefer less Chinese influence”.Both India and China have pumped in hundreds of millions of dollars in investments into Nepal, and both are backing voting preparations, with New Delhi sending vehicles to aid the Election Commission.Kugelman said change may come if a new generation of politicians sweeps into power on an anti-corruption ticket and shakes up old practices of opaque funding for mega-projects.”Young people in Nepal won’t support Chinese or Indian actions that aim to shape Nepal’s politics or put vast amounts of money in the hands of the government in ways that aren’t transparent,” he said.

Sparks fly and metal groans in a cavernous workshop on the outskirts of Islamabad, where Pakistani artist Ehtisham Jadoon fuses discarded car parts into colossal pieces inspired by “Transformers” movies and dinosaurs.The 35-year-old sculptor’s studio brims with cogs, chains, hubcaps and engine parts as his hulking creations — a lion with a mane of twisted steel, a giant Tyrannosaurus rex and a towering Optimus Prime — take shape.”I have always been fascinated by metal objects,” Jadoon told AFP after assembling the 14-foot (4-metre) “Transformers” character, his biggest creation yet.”When I see metals in scrap, I imagine forms in which it could be utilised.”It took Jadoon and his team months of welding and warping to fashion his Optimus Prime, with over 90 percent of its parts sourced from discarded vehicle pieces.The arms are forged from motorbike springs and gears, its shoulders are curve from car rims, the spine is moulded from a fuel tank and its knees are pieced together with chains and suspension parts.Even its piercing eyes are crafted from vehicle bearings, completing a sculpture that is both intricate and awesome.”Whenever I see an object, I visualise a form,” Jadoon said.”I could imagine a block transforming into a shape, so I simply solve the puzzle and bring it to life.”- ‘Waste becomes valuable’ -Jadoon, a former martial artist who once worked in the steel fabrication business, has never formally studied art. He designs his gargantuan models spontaneously while working.He told AFP he has to visit a doctor almost every week due to sparks affecting his eyes and burns on his hands and arms, yet he insists this is the only work in which he can channel the energy of his training as a fighter.Jadoon’s work primarily focuses on crafting giants, beasts and powerful forms, which he describes as a reflection of aggression.”Setting the anatomy and proportions requires visualisation from multiple angles and repeated adjustments,” he said.Every week, Jadoon tours scrapyards in Islamabad, sifting through tons of discarded metal in search of pieces that fit into his imagination and then become sculptures.”What is waste to us became something valuable in his hands,” scrapyard owner Bostan Khan told AFP.”It’s incredible to witness.”