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Virat Kohli can fulfil his dream of finally winning the Indian Premier League when the playoffs begin this week, desperate to banish the “heartbreak” of losing the final as captain nine years ago.Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bengaluru face table-toppers Punjab Kings on Thursday in Mullanpur after securing second place by chasing 228 to beat Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday. The winners go straight into the final in Ahmedabad on June 3.But even if Bengaluru lose that encounter, they will have another chance to reach the final against the winners of Friday’s “eliminator” between Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians. The 36-year-old Kohli recently retired from Tests having already walked away from T20 internationals after India’s World Cup triumph last year.But the hunger to lift the IPL trophy still burns bright for the two-time World Cup winner, who played a leading part in India’s 50-over Champions Trophy victory earlier this year.”I had two heartbreaks in my life in 2016,” Kohli told Indian broadcaster JioStar. “First was the World T20 and then the IPL final.”Affectionately known as “King Kohli”, he has scored more runs than anyone in IPL history and is the only player to have spent all 18 seasons of the league with one team since its inception in 2008.He has been on the losing side in the final three times, in 2009, 2011 and 2016, but fans believe that it is an omen that Kohli wears number 18 on his shirt — and that it will be 18th time lucky this year.He has been in vintage form as he pursues his goal: his 54 on Tuesday that set up victory against Lucknow was his eighth half-century of a season in which he has made 602 runs at an average of 60.20.- Hazlewood return -A delay to the season caused by the conflict with Pakistan means some overseas players will be missing from the playoffs including Gujarat’s Jos Buttler, who has international commitments with England.But Australia pace bowler Josh Hazlewood returned to the Bengaluru squad on Sunday and is expected to play on Thursday, having left when the IPL was suspended on May 9.There had been doubts over his return because of a shoulder niggle and the playoffs clashing with preparations for Australia’s World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s on June 11.Punjab will be without left-arm quick bowler Marco Jansen, who has left to join South Africa’s training camp ahead of the Test showpiece.”Every team’s missing players,” Punjab head coach Ricky Ponting said. “We’d like to think we’ve got good depth, and be able to cover for Marco, despite it being a big miss.”Five-time champions Mumbai, led by Hardik Pandya, seem to have been the worst hit by the extended schedule overlapping with the international calendar.They have lost England’s Will Jacks and the South African duo of Ryan Rickelton and Corbin Bosch for their eliminator against Gujarat.The Titans, IPL champions on their debut in 2022, have a formidable batting line-up even without Buttler.Skipper Shubman Gill, who has taken over from the retired Rohit Sharma as Test captain, and fellow opener Sai Sudharsan are the top two on this season’s batting charts, with 679 and 649 runs respectively.Gill will take charge of India for the first time when they embark on a five-Test tour of England, starting at Headingley, Leeds, on June 20.

At least 10 people were killed and 43 injured as strong winds and thunderstorms triggered flash floods and destroyed homes in central and northern parts of Pakistan, officials said Wednesday.Four women and a man died in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and three in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the State Disaster Management Authority said, while other officials said two died in Punjab.”One person is still missing,” Haroon Rasheed, a senior government official in Pakistan administered Kashmir told AFP, adding that 12 houses and a mosque were destroyed in one village.Storms on Saturday killed at least 14 people and injured over 100 more across the country, which is grappling with increasingly frequent extreme weather events blamed on climate change.Stormy weather is expected to continue in northern and central parts of the country until Saturday, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.Soaring temperatures in April and May are becoming more common in Pakistan, which usually sees summer begin in early June.Temperatures reached near-record levels in April — as high as 46.5 Celsius (116 Fahrenheit) in parts of Punjab.Schools in Punjab and southwestern Balochistan provinces have closed early for summer vacations because of the heat.strs-sam/stm/fox

Skipper Jitesh Sharma hammered an unbeaten 85 and Virat Kohli hit 54 as Royal Challengers Bengaluru stormed into qualifier 1 of the IPL playoffs with a six-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday.Bengaluru chased down 228 to go second in the 10-team table in the last league match of this season and set up a meeting with table-toppers Punjab Kings on Thursday.The result pushed Gujarat Titans into third spot. They will face Mumbai Indians in the eliminator on Friday.The winners of qualifier 1 go straight to the final on June 3 but the losers have a second chance of joining them as they will face the winner of the eliminator in qualifier 2 to decide who will head to Ahmedabad. Lucknow skipper Rishabh Pant signed off with an unbeaten 118 off 61 balls in his team’s 227-3, but Bengaluru knocked off the target with eight balls to spare.Kohli set up the chase with his 30-ball knock and after his departure stand-in-skipper Jitesh put on an unbeaten stand of 107 with Mayank Agarwal, who hit 41, to trump Lucknow, who were already out of the playoffs.”I will not be able to express my thoughts, I can’t believe I played that knock,” said player of the match Jitesh. “When Virat bhai (brother) was out, I was just thinking of taking it deep.”The 36-year-old Kohli, who earlier this month announced his Test retirement alongside Rohit Sharma, went past 9,000 runs for Bengaluru — the most by a batsman for one team in men’s T20 cricket. The next is Rohit’s 6,060 for Mumbai.- Pant in vain  -Kohli put on 61 with opening partner Phil Salt, who made 30, but the chase wobbled after Lucknow hit back with wickets, New Zealand quick Will O’Rourke taking two in two balls.O’Rourke sent back regular skipper and impact substitute Rajat Patidar, for 14, and next ball had Liam Livingstone, leg before for a golden duck.Jitesh turned things around with his first IPL fifty. He hit eight fours and six sixes, including the winning hit over the fence, in his 33-ball knock.Earlier Pant, who struggled for runs after being brought by Lucknow for a record $3.21 million in the auction, saved his best for last as he hit his season-best score.But it was not enough and he said, “Eventually you’ve got to play 40 overs of good cricket. Twenty overs aren’t going to save you.”Wicketkeeper-batsman Pant, a swashbuckling left-hander, reached his 100 in 54 balls and celebrated with a somersault. He had scored only 151 runs from 12 previous innings and averaged just 13.72.Pant led the charge in a 152-run second-wicket stand with Mitchell Marsh, who hit 67 off 37 balls, after the captain promoted himself to number three in the batting order.Pant, who hit 11 fours and eight sixes in his 61-ball knock, went past his previous best of 63 this season but Bengaluru and Kohli had the last laugh as they hunt for their first IPL title.

Between jabs at Donald Trump’s US trade tariffs and criticism of Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea, French President Emmanuel Macron warned Vietnamese students Tuesday that “on the impulse of a superpower, everything can change”.Macron was in Vietnam as part of a six-day Southeast Asian tour, as he tries to pitch his offer of a “third way” between the United States and China to a region caught up in a confrontation between the two.He left Hanoi and arrived in Indonesia on Tuesday evening, the next stop on his trip which also includes Singapore.Earlier he spoke to a group of around 150 students at the University of Science and Technology in Hanoi, who listened through translation headsets.”The conflict between China and the United States of America is a geopolitical fact that casts the shadow of risk of a much larger conflict in this important region,” he told them.China would do well to remember that “freedom of navigation, maritime freedom is important for the South China Sea”, he said, adding that what is happening there “worries everyone”.Macron quickly moved on to a swipe at the United States, which he described as “imposing tariffs according to the side of the bed on which he woke up”, before presenting France as a reliable alternative.His address came a day after he visited a Hanoi war memorial to those who fought against French colonial occupation, which ended in 1954 following a bloody uprising by Vietnamese pro-independence forces.Vietnam has been careful to follow a balancing act between China and the United States.It shares concerns about Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the contested waterway, but it has close economic ties with its giant neighbour.Communist-run Vietnam has also been threatened with a hefty 46 percent tariff by US President Donald Trump as part of his global trade blitz.France’s “Indo-Pacific strategy” could offer a “path of freedom” and “sovereignty”, Macron told the students.More than 100 other students who were unable to fit into the university hall where he spoke tuned in via video link from a side room, often clapping as he spoke.Some seemed convinced, seeing an opportunity in France to avoid the chaos that many international students in the United States are enduring after Trump attempted to block Harvard University from enrolling foreigners.”Given the context in the US where visa issues for international students are quite risky, I will prioritise studying in France because it is more stable,” 21-year-old Nguyen Quang Bach told AFP.Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh, 21, who chatted to Macron ahead of the speech, called the president “friendly and approachable”.During the speech, Macron also urged the students, a few of whom spoke French, not to fall into the “world of fools” that prevails on social media, where people are free to criticise with short messages “those whose thoughts you do not understand”.”I do not believe all words are equal. I think there are people who know (things) and people who know less,” he said.

Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah was admitted to a hospital in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday due to fatigue, though his office insisted the world’s longest-serving monarch was in “good health”. The sultan is in Kuala Lumpur with other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders, who on Tuesday met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and dignitaries from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).A Malaysian government source told AFP the sultan “was hospitalised in between the ASEAN-GCC and ASEAN-GCC-China summit” for fatigue.A statement from the Brunei prime minister’s office — a position held by the sultan — said he was in “good health”.”He has been feeling tired and on the advice of the host’s health experts, has decided to rest for a few days at the National Heart Institute,” it said.Asked earlier at a news conference whether the sultan had been hospitalised, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said: “Well he’s feeling a bit tired, so he’s resting at the (National Heart Institute).”The hospital is the designated one for VIPs during the ASEAN summit, AFP’s source said.The National Heart Institute said it could not comment.- Busy schedule -The 78-year-old sultan touched down in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, according to footage from Malaysia’s national news agency.He was the last leader to arrive at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) on Monday morning for the 46th ASEAN summit, but appeared in good spirits, smiling and stopping for a prolonged chat before heading into the venue with Anwar.The busy schedule saw the leaders address US tariffs, the Myanmar conflict, and East Timor’s application to join the bloc among other topics.After a quick costume change into matching traditional batik shirts, the leaders returned to the KLCC for a lavish gala dinner, joined by Premier Li and dignitaries from the GCC — a regional bloc made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.Tuesday saw ASEAN meet first with the GCC in the morning, before the two blocs were joined by China at 3pm local time (0700 GMT).Footage taken by AFP around midday showed the sultan walking briskly but looking weary, surrounded by his entourage.Sultan Hassanal ascended the throne in 1967.He is one of the richest people on the planet, and comes from a family that has ruled Brunei, a small Muslim nation perched on the north of the tropical island of Borneo, for more than 600 years.His decades ruling Brunei have seen the country gain full independence from Britain and living standards soar to among the highest globally.But his reign has also been marked by controversies including the introduction of tough Islamic laws legislating penalties such as severing of limbs and death by stoning.

India’s defence minister approved on Tuesday a programme to develop an advanced fighter jet prototype, the latest push to boost local arms production, nearly three weeks after a conflict with arch-rival Pakistan.India, one of the world’s largest arms importers, has made the modernisation of its forces a top priority in the face of tensions with nuclear-armed Pakistan and China.Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved the prototype of a 5th generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), the ministry said in a statement, calling it a “significant push towards enhancing India’s indigenous defence capabilities”.India’s Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) — a government agency under the Ministry of Defence responsible for aircraft design —  is “set to execute the programme through industry partnership”, it added.”This is an important step…which will be a major milestone towards aatmanirbharta (“self-reliance”) in the aerospace sector”.India’s arms purchases have steadily risen to account for nearly 10 percent of all imports globally in 2019-23, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said last year.The world’s most populous nation has deepened defence cooperation with Western countries in recent years, including the Quad alliance with the United States, Japan and Australia, as it slowly shifts away from its longstanding reliance on Russian military hardware.India signed in April a multi-billion-dollar deal to purchase 26 Rafale fighter jets from France’s Dassault Aviation, adding to 36 already acquired, and replacing Russian MiG-29K jets.But Singh has also promised at least $100 billion in fresh domestic military hardware contracts by 2033 to spur local arms production. – Warships, missiles, planes -This decade India has opened an expansive new helicopter factory, launched its first homemade aircraft carrier, warships and submarines, and conducted a successful long-range hypersonic missile test.New Delhi eyes threats from multiple nations, especially Islamabad.India and Pakistan were engaged in a four-day conflict this month, their worst standoff since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10.More than 70 people were killed in missile, drone and artillery fire on both sides.Pakistan claimed its Chinese-supplied jets had shot down six Indian aircraft — including three French-made Rafale fighters.India has not officially confirmed any of its aircraft were lost, although a senior security source told AFP three jets had crashed on home soil without giving the make or cause.The fighting was triggered by an April 22 attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing — a charge Pakistan denies.India is also wary of northern neighbour China, especially since a deadly 2020 clash between their troops.

The world’s poorest nations face a “tidal wave of debt” as repayments to China hit record highs in 2025, an Australian think-tank warned in a new report Tuesday.China’s Belt and Road Initiative lending spree of the 2010s has paid for shipping ports, railways, roads and more from the deserts of Africa to the tropical South Pacific. But new lending is drying up, according to Australia’s Lowy Institute, and is now outweighed by the debts that developing countries must pay back. “Developing countries are grappling with a tidal wave of debt repayments and interest costs to China,” researcher Riley Duke said. “Now, and for the rest of this decade, China will be more debt collector than banker to the developing world.”Beijing’s foreign ministry said it was “not aware of the specifics” of the report but that “China’s investment and financing cooperation with developing countries abides by international conventions”.Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said “a small number of countries” sought to blame Beijing for miring developing nations in debt but that “falsehoods cannot cover up the truth”.The Lowy Institute sifted through World Bank data to calculate developing nations’ repayment obligations. It found that the poorest 75 countries were set to make “record high debt repayments” to China in 2025 of a combined US$22 billion. “As a result, China’s net lending position has shifted rapidly,” Duke said. “Moving from being a net provider of financing — where it lent more than it received in repayments — to a net drain, with repayments now exceeding loan disbursements.” Paying off debts was starting to jeopardise spending on hospitals, schools, and climate change, the Lowy report found. “Pressure from Chinese state lending, along with surging repayments to a range of international private creditors, is putting enormous financial strain on developing economies.”The report also raised questions about whether China could seek to parlay these debts for “geopolitical leverage”, especially after the United States slashed foreign aid. While Chinese lending was falling almost across the board, the report said there were two areas that seemed to be bucking the trend. The first was in nations such as Honduras and Solomon Islands, which received massive new loans after switching diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China. The other was in countries such as Indonesia or Brazil, where China has signed new loan deals to secure battery metals or other critical minerals.

Bangladesh’s top court on Tuesday overturned a conviction against a key leader of the country’s main Islamist party, who had been on death row since being sentenced under the regime ousted last year.A.T.M. Azharul Islam, from the Jamaat-e-Islami party, and who has been in custody since 2012, was acquitted of crimes against humanity by the Supreme Court, which ordered his release.Islam, who was born in 1952, was among six senior political leaders convicted during the tenure of Sheikh Hasina, whose 15-year-long autocratic rule as prime minister ended in August 2024 when a student-led revolt forced her to flee.Political parties, including Jamaat-e-Islami, are readying for hugely anticipated elections which the interim government has vowed will take place by June 2026 at the latest.Islam’s lawyer Shishir Monir said he was “fortunate” because the five other senior political leaders who had been convicted — four from Jamaat-e-Islami, and another from the key Bangladesh National Party (BNP) — had already been hanged.”He got justice because he is alive”, Monir told reporters. “The appellate division failed to review the evidence in other cases for crimes against humanity”.Islam had been sentenced to death in 2014 for rape, murder and genocide during Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war from Pakistan.Jamaat-e-Islami supported Islamabad during the war, a role that still sparks anger among many Bangladeshis today.- ‘Seek your pardon’ -They were rivals of Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of the Awami League — who would become Bangladesh’s founding figure.Hasina banned Jamaat-e-Islami during her tenure and cracked down on its leaders.Islam appealed in 2015, but the court upheld the verdict in 2019, and he filed a review petition in 2020.Hasina, 77, fled to India last year as crowds stormed her palace, and she remains there in self-imposed exile — with her Awami League party itself now banned.She has defied Dhaka’s extradition request to face charges of crimes against humanity related to the crackdown that killed at least 1,400 protesters in her failed bid to claw onto power.With Hasina gone, Islam appealed his conviction again, filing an appeal on February 27.On Tuesday, the full bench, led by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, acquitted him.Supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami celebrated. Leader Shafiqur Rahman told reporters that the party was also remembering those who had been hanged.”They were the victims of judicial killings,” he said.”If they were alive today, they could have led the country in the right direction. People will always remember their contributions to the nation”.As political parties jostle for power, rivals of Jamaat-e-Islami have also questioned its historical role in supporting Pakistan during the 1971 war.”We, as individuals or as a party, are not beyond making mistakes”, Rahman said, without specifying further what he referred to, and declining to take questions.”We seek your pardon, if we have done anything wrong”.

A 55-year-old Nepali climber dubbed “Everest Man” reached the peak of the world’s highest mountain for a record 31st time on Tuesday, more than three decades after his first summit.”Massive congratulations to the legendary Kami Rita Sherpa on his 31st successful ascent of Everest, the highest number of ascents by anyone in history,” expedition organiser Seven Summit Treks said.”Kami Rita Sherpa needs no introduction. He is not just a national climbing hero, but a global symbol of Everest itself,” it added.Sherpa first stood on the top of Mount Everest in 1994 when working for a commercial expedition.He has climbed Everest almost every year since, guiding clients.Sherpa, speaking a year ago after he had climbed the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) peak for the 29th and 30th times, said that he was “just working” and did not plan on setting records.”I am glad for the record, but records are eventually broken,” he told AFP in May 2024. “I am more happy that my climbs help Nepal be recognised in the world.”Seven Summit Treks said he completed the climb on Tuesday as the leader of an Indian army team, adding that he “not only reached the summit himself, but also led and guided the last remaining members of the team to the top”.- ‘To the next height’ -Another Nepali climber, Tashi Gyalzen Sherpa, 29, returned to the capital Kathmandu on Tuesday after he made a record-breaking four summits of Everest in just 15 days, completing the last on May 23, according to 8K Expeditions. “I feel proud, it was a very difficult task but I made it a success,” Gyalzen Sherpa told AFP after landing in Kathmandu, where his family and mountaineering fans welcomed him. “Earlier, many pioneers have scaled the Everest many times, but not four times in one season.”The records come as the spring climbing season nears its end.More than 500 climbers and their guides have already reached the summit of Everest since the route opened, taking advantage of brief spells of good weather, according to Nepal’s tourism department.The season has so far recorded the fewest number of deaths on Everest in recent years. Two climbers, a Filipino and an Indian, have died on its high camps.Nepal has issued more than 1,100 permits for mountaineers this season, including 458 for Everest, earning more than $5 million in royalties.The country is home to eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks and welcomes hundreds of adventurers each spring, when temperatures are warmer and winds typically calmer.Earlier this month British climber Kenton Cool, 51, successfully climbed Everest for the 19th time, extending his own record for the most summits by a non-Nepali.Tourist ministry official Himal Gautam, director of its mountaineering and adventure section, said Kami Rita Sherpa’s achievement reflected on the country’s wider efforts.”Kami Rita Sherpa’s record ascent has helped to take Nepal’s mountaineering sector to the next height,” Gautam said.A climbing boom has made mountaineering a lucrative business since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa made the first ascent in 1953. Last year more than 800 climbers made it to the peak of Everest, including 74 from the northern Tibet side. 

India’s coastguard raced on Monday to contain an oil spill from a container ship with hazardous cargo that sank off the southern coast a day earlier, Kerala’s state government said.The Liberian-flagged MSC ELSA 3, listed as a 184-metre (603-foot) freight ship, went down off the coast of Kerala on Sunday, with all 24 crew members rescued.It was carrying 640 containers, including 13 with hazardous cargo and 12 containing calcium carbide, a chemical used for fertiliser production and steelmaking. The vessel also contained some 370 tonnes of fuel and oil.”The Coast Guard is taking action to prevent the spread of oil using two ships,” Kerala’s government said in a statement.”The work of spraying dust to destroy the oil is in progress using a Dornier aircraft”.India’s defence ministry said the ship sank “due to flooding” some 38 nautical miles southwest of Kochi, raising concerns for the “sensitive marine ecosystem along Kerala’s coast”.The government has put coastal areas on high alert and warned people not to touch or approach any containers —  some of which have already washed up along the coast.The ship was sailing between the Indian ports of Vizhinjam and Kochi when it ran into trouble on Saturday and issued a distress call.