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Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomes his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to Britain on Thursday where the pair will sign a recently announced UK-India trade deal.Modi will also meet King Charles III during his brief stay in Britain, his fourth visit since becoming India’s leader in 2014.Starmer and Modi are also likely to discuss last month’s Air India disaster in which 241 people died when a London-bound flight crashed after taking off from Ahmedabad in western India.The British leader is also facing calls to raise the case of a Scottish Sikh activist jailed in India seven years ago on terror charges.Starmer and Modi announced in May they had struck a free trade agreement that the British government says will eventually add £4.8 billion ($6.5 billion) a year to the UK economy.”Our landmark trade deal with India is a major win for Britain,” Starmer said in a statement late Wednesday.Starmer’s year-old government is struggling to fire up an economy weakened by years of stagnant growth and high inflation.The UK and India hope the accord will boost trade between the two countries by £25.5 billion, as well as bolstering the British economy and wages.Britain and India are the sixth and fifth largest global economies respectively, with a trade relationship worth around £41 billion and investment supporting more than 600,000 jobs across both countries.As he left India on Wednesday, Modi said the partnership had “achieved significant momentum in the last few years”.”We will have the opportunity to further enhance our economic partnership, aimed at fostering prosperity, growth and jobs creation in both countries,” he added.The accord will slash tariffs on imports of UK goods into India, including whisky, cosmetics and medical devices.In return, the UK will cut tariffs on clothes, footwear and food products including frozen prawns from India.- Air India crash -On June 12, some 169 Indian passengers and 52 British nationals were killed in the Air India crash, one of the deadliest plane disasters in terms of the number of British fatalities.A lawyer for 20 British families expects Starmer to raise claims that some of the remains of victims were wrongly identified.James Healy-Pratt told the Press Association that relatives of one victim found that the coffin contained “co-mingled” remains.A different family were told a coffin contained the body of someone else entirely, not their loved one, the agency reported on Wednesday.Another tricky topic of discussion could be that of blogger Jagtar Singh Johal, imprisoned in India since 2017 on accusations of being part of a terror plot against right-wing Hindu leaders.He has not been convicted of a crime and in March was cleared of one of the nine charges against him.His brother Gurpreet Singh Johal said in a statement the case “should be high on the agenda” when the two leaders meet.Starmer and Modi have met twice recently, at the G7 summit in Canada last month and at the G20 meeting in Brazil last year.

India suffered a potentially major setback when Rishabh Pant retired hurt on the first day of the fourth Test against England at Old Trafford on Wednesday before they reached stumps on 264-4.Left-arm spinner Liam Dawson had earlier marked his first Test in eight years with the key wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal after England captain Ben Stokes went against history by opting to bowl first.No team winning the toss and bowling first has ever won a Test at Old Trafford.But lively paceman Stokes led from the front with 2-47 in 14 overs as he again proved the pick of England’s attack this series.India, 2-1 down after three Tests, must win in Manchester if they are to keep alive their hopes of winning the five-match campaign.The tourists, however, will have to make history of their own as they have never managed to win in nine previous Tests at Old Trafford.India got through the first session without losing a wicket only for three batsmen to be dismissed before tea.The recalled Sai Sudharsan, dropped on 20, twice hooked fast bowler Jofra Archer for four in the evening session before Pant launched Brydon Carse for a superb straight six. But the aggressive Pant was hurt when attempting an audacious reverse sweep off a yorker-length delivery from paceman Chris Woakes.England appealed for lbw but a review revealed wicketkeeper Pant had got an inside edge before the ball deflected onto his right foot.Pant, who had made 37 off 48 balls, eventually limped into a buggy before being driven off the field, with India then 212-3.Soon afterwards Sudharsan fell for a well-made 61 when a top-edged swivel pull off a short ball from Stokes flew straight to Carse at long leg.Bad light ended play for the day at 1721 GMT, even though the floodlights were on and England were bowling spin at both ends.Jaiswal and fellow opener KL Rahul had previously defied difficult conditions and testing bowling from Woakes and Archer to take India to 78-0 at lunch.But Rahul had added just six more runs to his interval score of 40 when, trying to force Woakes off the back foot, he edged to Zak Crawley at third slip, leaving India 94-1.Jaiswal late-cut Carse for four to go to 49 before completing a 96-ball fifty.- Dawson glad to ‘do a job’ -Dawson, recalled after 21-year-old off-spinner Shoaib Bashir suffered a series-ending finger injury during England’s thrilling 22-run win in the third Test at Lord’s, did not bowl before lunch.But the 35-year-old, playing his first Test since 2017, needed just seven balls to strike on Wednesday when Jaiswal pushed forward defensively to a good-length delivery and edged to Harry Brook at first slip.”What you say today was what you get, not amazing but I do a job for the team,” the modest Dawson told Sky Sports after ending the day with 1-45 in 15 overs. He added: “I’m not getting any younger, so just try and enjoy it and take each day as it comes.”New batsman and India captain Shubman Gill, who had accused England of contravening “the spirit of cricket” with their time-wasting tactics during an ill-tempered match at Lord’s, was greeted with a chorus of boos from spectators as he walked out to the middle.But none of the ill-feeling between the teams in London was evident in Manchester on Wednesday. Gill’s brief stay ended when he was lbw for 12 playing no shot to opposing captain Stokes following a vociferous appeal from the all-rounder.He reviewed, but to no avail, with India now 140-3.His early exit means Gill has scored just 34 runs in his past three innings after scoring three hundreds in the first two Tests.India selected paceman Jasprit Bumrah again after previously announcing he would only play three Tests in the series.The policy was aimed at protecting the world’s top-ranked bowler following a back injury.Bumrah missed the second Test in Birmingham, which India won, but returned for the dramatic match at Lord’s.The fifth and final Test takes place at the Oval, starting on July 31.

Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul got India off to a solid start against England at Old Trafford on Wednesday in a must-win fourth Test for the tourists.India, invited to bat by England captain Ben Stokes, were 78-0 at lunch on the first day, with left-hander Jaiswal 36 not out and Rahul unbeaten on 40.Shubman Gill’s tourists, 2-1 down after three Tests, must win at Old Trafford if they are to keep alive their hopes of winning the five-match series.But India will have to make history as they have never managed to win in nine previous Tests at the Manchester ground.An overcast morning and green-tinged pitch encouraged Stokes to break with history by bowling first after the coin fell in his favour.No team winning the toss and bowling first has ever won a Test at Old Trafford.Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer subjected Jaiswal and Rahul to several testing overs early on.Jaiswal was fortunate when he edged the sixth ball of the day, from Woakes, through the slips for four.Woakes’ seven previous Tests at Old Trafford had yielded 35 wickets at just 17.37 apiece.But when the Warwickshire all-rounder dropped short, Rahul, fresh from a century in India’s 22-run defeat in the third Test at Lord’s, pulled him in front of square for a resounding boundary.And when Woakes over-pitched, Jaiswal off-drove him for four.Archer, after a miserly opening spell in which he conceded just seven runs in five overs, was replaced by Brydon Carse.The need for England to maintain an accurate line and length, despite the helpful conditions, was emphasised when Rahul square-cut a short and wide Carse delivery outside off stump for a stylish four.Stokes, player of the match at Lord’s and a renowned partnership-breaker, brought himself on in a bid to end India’s first-wicket stand.When Archer returned for a second spell, Jaiswal was hurried by a short ball which he inadvertently ramped for four as he sank to his knees when seemingly trying to evade the delivery.But there was no doubting Jaiswal’s intentions when he deliberately uppercut a short and wide Stokes delivery high over the cordon for six.Stokes persisted with an all-pace attack with spinner Liam Dawson, playing his first Test in eight years following an injury to Shoaib Bashir, not deployed before lunch.India selected paceman Jasprit Bumrah again even though they had previously announced he would only play three Tests in the series.The policy was aimed at protecting the world’s top-ranked bowler following a back injury.Bumrah missed the second Test in Birmingham, which India won, but returned for the dramatic match at Lord’s.The fifth and final Test takes place at the Oval, starting on July 31.India made three changes for the match at Old Trafford, with batsman Sai Sudharsan replacing Karun Nair, and Shardul Thakur and debutant Anshul Kamboj coming in for injured pacemen Nitish Kumar Reddy and Akash Deep.

India captain Shubman Gill accused England of ignoring the “spirit of cricket” after the hosts’ time-wasting tactics in the third Test at Lord’s sparked an angry flare-up between the teams.The tourists ought to have been able to bowl two overs late in the third day’s play of the third Test after being dismissed for 387 — exactly level with England’s first-innings total.Crawley, however, ensured there were only six deliveries from Jasprit Bumrah before stumps by twice withdrawing from his stance and then calling for the physio after the fifth ball appeared to make only minimal contact with his glove.Tempers flared as it became evident India would not be able to bowl another over before the close, with host broadcaster Sky Sports issuing an on-air apology after a stump microphone picked up Gill swearing angrily at Crawley.England went on to win a thrilling match by 22 runs to go 2-1 up in a five-match series.Gill, in his first campaign as India captain, addressed the issue on the eve of the fourth Test at Old Trafford.”A lot of people have been talking about it so let me just clear the air once and for all,” the 25-year-old Gill said on Tuesday.”The English batsmen on that day had seven minutes of play left, they were 90 seconds late to come to the crease, not 10, not 20, 90 seconds late. “Yes, most of the teams use this (delaying tactic), even if we were in this position we would have liked to play fewer overs but there’s a manner to do it. “If you get hit on your body, the physios are allowed to come on and that is something that is fair. But to be able to come 90 seconds late to the crease is not something that comes in the spirit of the game.”Gill admitted he was not proud of swearing at Crawley but said it took place in the context of rising tensions.”We had no intention of doing that whatsoever but you’re playing a game, you’re playing to win and there are a lot of emotions,” said the India skipper.”When you see there are things happening that should not happen, sometimes emotions come out of nowhere.”

Pakistan’s embattled football federation has appointed former Newcastle United cult hero Nolberto ‘Nobby’ Solano as coach of their national teams to try to improve their dreadful record of never qualifying for a major tournament.Solano, 50, who also played for Aston Villa and West Ham United in the English Premier League before retiring in 2012, was an assistant coach for his country Peru when they qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.”We have hired the services of Solano with a hope that he will bring more energy and zest to the national players and lift our standings at the international level,” the Pakistan Football Federation president, Mohsen Gilani, said in a statement.The cricket-obsessed nation has reached the second round of Asian qualifying for the FIFA World Cup only once.Pakistan are 201st of 210 teams the in FIFA world men’s team rankings, and have sought to improve standards by inducting players of Pakistan heritage based in the UK.Pakistan football has suffered badly from political parties fighting over control of the federation, which receives a large annual grant from world governing body FIFA.The federation was for 10 years run by a FIFA-appointed committee and earlier this year briefly suspended for political interference ahead of elections in May.FIFA in 2021 banned Pakistan from playing international matches for 15 months, also for political interference in the federation.Solano’s first task will be with the under-23s men’s team, who are due to face Cambodia, Iraq and Oman in September in qualifying for the U23 Asian Cup next year.Solano’s first matches in charge of the senior team will be a double-header against Afghanistan in 2027 Asian Cup qualifying in October.Pakistan kicked off their campaign with a 2-0 away defeat to Syria in March and a 1-0 loss to Myanmar in Yangon last month.

A landslide triggered by torrential monsoon rains swept away cars in mountainous northern Pakistan, killing at least five people, with more vehicles buried under the debris, officials said Tuesday.Flash floods, collapsed buildings and electrocutions have killed 221 people nationwide since the monsoon season arrived in late June with heavier rains that usual.More than eight vehicles were swept away on Monday when heavy rains triggered a landslide on a highway in Diamer district, Gilgit-Baltistan region.”One local resident and four tourists have died and among the deceased is an unidentified woman,” Atta-ur-Rehman Kakar, a senior official in Diamer, said in a video statement Tuesday. Nearly 100 homes have been destroyed in the floods, and rescue operations were ongoing, he added.The region is a popular tourist destination, marked by towering mountains, deep valleys and wide rivers.Faizullah Faraq, spokesperson for the regional government, said hundreds of visitors have been rescued.”Government teams cleared debris and escorted them off the mountain road, while local villagers provided emergency shelter and assistance,” Faraq added. Floods and landslides in the area have blocked major highways, damaged communication signals, four bridges, a hotel and a school.Washed out buses used by tourists were left abandoned on the side of the road after the destruction caused by the landslides. Rescued families holding babies and carrying rucksacks sat on rocks while rescue teams handed them food at the scene of a landslide.- Lacking disaster management -Nationwide, the death toll from monsoon-related incidents since June 26 includes 104 children, while more than 500 people have been injured, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Agency said Tuesday.A spokeswoman for the agency told AFP that the heavy rains usually start later in the monsoon season. “Such death tolls are usually seen in August, but this year the impact has been markedly different,” she said. Monsoon season brings South Asia 70 to 80 percent of its annual rainfall, and runs from late June until September in Pakistan.The annual rains are vital for agriculture and food security, and the livelihoods of millions of farmers, but also bring destruction. Sherry Rehman, the former climate change minister, pointed out “the absence of an effective, comprehensive disaster management system in the country”, in a statement released by her office.  In late June, at least 13 tourists were swept to their deaths while sheltering from flash floods on a raised river bank. In 2022, monsoon floods submerged a third of the country and killed 1,700 people.

Grief gave way to anger in Bangladesh on Tuesday, a day after a fighter jet crashed into a school, killing 31 people, mostly children, in the country’s deadliest aviation accident in decades.The pupils had just been let out of class when the Chinese-made F-7 BJI aircraft slammed into the private Milestone School and College in Dhaka on Monday. At least 31 people have died, up from the military’s earlier toll of 27.More than 170 people were injured in the crash, with 69 of them still undergoing treatment at various hospitals.”Ten patients are in very critical condition,” Sayedur Rahman, from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, told reporters.At a protest on the school campus, students accused the government of lying about the death toll and demanded a list of those injured.”There were hundreds of students in that academic building. We saw body parts strewn all over the ground. Where are they?” a 17-year-old student, who requested anonymity, told AFP. “When students and teachers asked this question to the military personnel, they roughed us up,” he said.Some of the students carried placards that read: “We want justice” and “Where are the bodies of our brothers and sisters?”Students also stormed the national secretariat in Dhaka, prompting police to use batons and stun grenades, local media reported.Press secretary Ahammed Foyez told AFP that the government had agreed to meet the student’s demands. “We believe the demands raised by the students are legitimate and should be fulfilled,” Foyez said. – Children’s trauma -Teacher Shahadat Hossain, whose son narrowly escaped the crash, was devastated to see the school bereft of its usual buzz.  “Along with the children, the school has lost its life,” he said. “There are two swings in front of the affected building. During lunch breaks and after school, children play there. Even yesterday, around the time the plane crashed, students were on those swings,” the 45-year-old told AFP.Around 7,000 pupils are enrolled at the school, including Abul Bashar’s sixth-grade son whose best friend was killed.”He came out just two or three minutes before the accident occurred,” said Bashar. “He couldn’t sleep through the night and forced me to bring him to school this morning,” the father added, while his son stood in silence. School authorities have retrieved bags, shoes and identity cards of children from the site. Air Force personnel said remnants of the fighter jet were removed on Monday night, but they were still scouring the site for evidence.”I don’t know how long it will take to return to normalcy, to relieve the children from this trauma,” teacher Hossain said.- ‘Profound pain’ -On Monday night, school authorities held prayers at the campus.Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus expressed “deep grief and sorrow” over the incident and declared a day of national mourning.”The loss suffered by the Air Force, the students, parents, teachers and staff of Milestone School and College, as well as others affected by this accident, is irreparable,” he said. “This is a moment of profound pain for the nation.”The military said the pilot, 27-year-old flight lieutenant Towkir Islam, was on a routine training mission when the jet “reportedly encountered a mechanical failure”.He tried to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas, but crashed into the two-storey school building.

Floodwaters driven by torrential rains ground life in the Philippine capital to a halt on Tuesday with tens of thousands evacuated from their homes and at least two people believed missing.Schools and government offices in Manila and the surrounding provinces were closed after a night of rain that saw the region’s Marikina River burst its banks.More than 23,000 people living along the river were evacuated overnight, sheltering in schools, village halls and covered courtyards.About 44,000 more were evacuated in the metropolitan area’s Quezon, Pasig and Caloocan cities.”Usually these people are from low-lying areas like beside creeks (feeding into the river),” according to Wilmer Tan of the Marikina rescue office, who said the river had reached 18 metres (59 feet) in height.An elderly woman and her driver were swept down a swollen creek as they attempted to cross a bridge in Caloocan, said John Paul Nietes, an emergency operations centre assistant supervisor.”Their car was recovered last night. The rescue operation is continuing, but as of today, they haven’t found either of them,” he said.”The car window was broken, so the hope is that they were able to escape.”Floodwaters were receding on Tuesday afternoon, though thousands of people remained unable to return to their homes.Ongoing monsoon rains have killed at least six people and left another six missing in the central and southern Philippines since Tropical Storm Wipha skirted the country on Friday, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.The Philippine’s national weather service is predicting rain to continue through the end of the week.At least 20 storms or typhoons strike or come near the Philippines each year, with the country’s poorest regions typically the hardest hit.Deadly and destructive storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer because of climate change.”This is hard, because if the rain will continue… the river will swell,” Manila street sweeper Avelina Lumangtad, 61, told AFP as she stood next to a flooded thoroughfare.”The floods are dangerous.”

A landslide triggered by torrential monsoon rains swept away cars in mountainous northern Pakistan, killing at least three people, with more vehicles buried under the debris, officials said Tuesday.Flash floods, collapsed buildings and electrocutions have killed 221 people since the monsoon season arrived in late June with heavier rains that usual.More than eight vehicles were swept away on Monday when heavy rains triggered a landslide on a highway in Diamer district, Gilgit-Baltistan region, a senior police officer told AFP.”Three dead bodies have been recovered and more than 15 are still missing,” said Abdul Hameed, the district police officer.He said at least 10 vehicles were buried under the debris and a rescue operation was underway.Faizullah Faraq, spokesperson for the regional government, confirmed the death toll to AFP.The region is a popular tourist destination, marked by towering mountains, deep valleys and wide rivers, and Faraq said hundreds of visitors were rescued.”Government teams cleared debris and escorted them off the mountain road, while local villagers provided emergency shelter and assistance,” Faraq added.Floods in the area have blocked major highways, damaged communication signals, 50 houses, four bridges, a hotel and a school.The rest of Pakistan has not been spared, with 221 killed nationwide in incidents related to the monsoon since June 26.The death toll includes “104 children and 40 women”, while more than 500 others have been injured, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Agency said Tuesday.A spokeswoman for the agency told AFP that the heavy rains usually start later in the monsoon season. “Such death tolls are usually seen in August, but this year the impact has been markedly different,” she said. Monsoon season brings South Asia 70 to 80 percent of its annual rainfall, and runs from late June until September in Pakistan.The annual rains are vital for agriculture and food security, and the livelihoods of millions of farmers, but also bring destruction. In late June, at least 13 tourists were swept to their deaths while sheltering from flash floods on a raised river bank. In 2022, monsoon floods submerged a third of the country and killed 1,700 people.