Rohit plays down injury scare after India rout Ireland in T20 World Cup

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli run between the wickets in the T20 World Cup encounter with Ireland, Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, Westbury, New York, June 5, 2024. (AP Photo)

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Updated 07 June 2024

AFP

June 05, 2024 18:33

Rohit plays down injury scare after India rout Ireland in T20 World Cup

India only required 97 to win after a dominant display by their bowling attack, with left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh striking twice in the third over
Rohit punished Ireland with a 37-ball innings, including four fours and three well-struck sixes as he shared a stand of 54 with Rishabh Pant

Updated 07 June 2024

AFP

June 05, 2024 18:33

NEW YORK: India captain Rohit Sharma allayed fears about an arm injury after making 52 before retiring hurt as his side thrashed Ireland by eight wickets in the teams’ T20 World Cup opener in New York on Wednesday.
India only required 97 to win after a dominant display by their bowling attack, with left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh striking twice in the third over to reduce Ireland to 9-2 after Rohit won the toss.
All-rounder Hardik Pandya took two wickets in two balls on his way to 3-27 and Jasprit Bumrah, the player of the match, 2-6.
“Just a little sore,” said Rohit at the presentation ceremony. “New ground, new venue, wanted to see what’s it like to play on. I don’t think the pitch settled down, there was enough there for the bowlers.”
Ireland, all out for just 96, needed to hold every chance to have any hope of a shock upset.
But Rohit had made just two when, off the last ball of the first over of India’s chase, he edged Mark Adair through the hands of Andrew Balbirnie at second slip.
Adair dismissed Virat Kohli for just one, when the star batsman sliced to deep third man, but the damage had been done as India launched their bid to win a first major title since their 2013 Champions Trophy triumph with a commanding Group A victory.
Rohit punished Ireland with a 37-ball innings, including four fours and three well-struck sixes as he shared a stand of 54 with Rishabh Pant.
The wicketkeeper, returning to international cricket after a horror car crash in December 2022, finished on 36 not out and ended the match with a typically flamboyant reverse-scooped six off Barry McCarthy as India won with nearly eight overs left.
Rohit was not there alongside him, however, having been previously struck on the arm by Josh Little, although he struck the next two balls from the paceman for resounding sixes.
Victory was all but secured for India, the inaugural 2007 T20 World Cup champions, when they dismissed Ireland cheaply as a drop-in pitch of variable bounce at a Long Island ground built specially for the tournament again proved tough to bat on.
India’s joy, however, would have been tempered by the thought they too could be batting first on a similar surface when they return to the ground on Sunday to play arch-rivals Pakistan in the showpiece match of the group phase.
“I don’t know what to expect against Pakistan, we will prepare like the conditions are going to be like that,” said Rohit.
Bumrah, however, had few qualms, with the fast bowler saying: “Coming from India, when you see the ball seaming around (here), I would never complain when there’s help for the bowlers.”
Only four Ireland batsmen reached double figures, Gareth Delany top-scoring with 26 before he was run out as the innings ended in the 16th over.
“A tough one,” said Ireland captain Paul Stirling. “The toss played a really important part in overcast conditions and then the pitch offered all sorts.
“We weren’t quite up to that challenge and India bowled really well to put us under pressure.”

They once lived the 'gangster life.' Now they tackle food insecurity in Kenya's slums

Updated 3 min 40 sec ago

May 17, 2025 05:57

They once lived the 'gangster life.' Now they tackle food insecurity in Kenya's slums

Updated 3 min 40 sec ago

May 17, 2025 05:57

MATHARE: Joseph Kariaga and his friends once lived the “gangster life” in Nairobi’s Mathare slum, snatching phones, mugging people and battling police. But when Kariaga's brother was shot dead by police, the young men took stock.
“We said, 'We cannot live like this. We are going to lose our lives.’ Many of our friends had died,” said Kariaga, now 27. “I reflected on my life. I had to change.”
Now the men are farmers with a social mission. Nearly a dozen of them founded Vision Bearerz in 2017 to steer youth away from crime and address food insecurity in one of Kenya’s poorest communities.
Despite challenges, Vision Bearerz makes a modest but meaningful community impact, including feeding over 150 children at lunches each week. Some residents praise the group and call the men role models.
Amid cuts to foreign funding by the United States and others, experts say local organizations like this may be the future of aid.
Vision Bearerz works on an urban farm tucked away in the muddy streets and corrugated-metal homes that make up Mathare, one of Africa's most populous slums. Estimates say about a half-million people live in this neighborhood of less than two square kilometers.
Some 2 million people, or 60% of Nairobi’s population, live in informal settlements, according to CFK Africa, a non-governmental organization that runs health and poverty reduction programs in such neighborhoods and is familiar with Vision Bearerz' work.
Lack of infrastructure is a key challenge in these communities, which are growing amid sub-Saharan Africa’s rapid urbanization and booming youth population, said Jeffrey Okoro, the group’s executive director.
Poverty pushes youth into crime, Okoro added.
“Most folks in slums such as Mathare are not able to earn enough to buy a decent meal, and kids who are under 5 are twice as likely to be malnourished,” he said. “One of the other major challenges affecting young people is gangs, and the promise of making a quick buck.”
The farmers of Vision Bearerz know this well.
“When you are born from this land, there is not much you have inherited, so you have to make it yourself,” said Ben Njoki, 28, whose face tattoos are reminders of a gang-affiliated past. “You have to use violence.”
In 2017, not long after Kariaga’s brother was killed, Njoki and other young men made a plan to change. More than a dozen people they grew up with had been killed, and they realized they would follow if they did not find an alternative to crime, said Moses Nyoike, 32, the chair of Vision Bearerz.
To keep busy, the group began collecting garbage and would split profits from trading vegetables, buying produce in another county and reselling it locally. They noticed a gap in the supply of vegetables to Mathare, and with permission from authorities they cleaned up a garbage dump and began planting.
Polluted soil, and water rationing, made it a tough start. Then, inspired by a TikTok account that showcased farming in a Colombian slum, Vision Bearerz tried their hand at hydroponics. With the help of an NGO that supports community enterprises, Growth4Change, they were able to get materials and training in urban farming methods.
Today, Vision Bearerz grows vegetables, raises pigs and farms tilapia in a small pond. They sell a portion of what they produce, with revenue also coming from running a car wash and public toilet.
With the earnings, the group buys maize flour to make ugali, a dough-like staple food, and beans, which supplement produce from their farm in weekly lunches for children.
Vision Bearerz also runs outreach programs to warn against drug use and crime, and has sessions where women teach girls about feminine health.
“The life I was living was a lie. It didn’t add up to anything. We just lost people. Now, we are winning people in the community,” Njoki said.
Davis Gichere, 28, another founding member, called the work therapeutic.
Challenges remain. Joining Vision Bearerz requires a pledge to leave crime behind, and there have been instances of recidivism, with at least one member arrested. Lingering criminal reputations have led to police harassment in the past, and finding money to buy food for Saturday feedings is a weekly struggle.
Funding cuts across the development space, including the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development, make the prospect of new financing dim.
At least one other group in Nairobi’s Kibera slum, Human Needs Project, does similar work of urging youth away from crime and addressing food insecurity through urban farming.
It's a model that can be scaled up or copied elsewhere, said Okoro of CFK Africa.
“The future of development is locally led organizations," he said, noting they are best suited to understanding the needs of their communities.
Kariaga still feels the pain of his brother’s death, but is proud of his new job.
“Farming can change the world,” he said, a silver-capped tooth glinting in the sun.
___

Clashes between India and Pakistan upend lives in a Kashmiri village

Updated 31 min 35 sec ago

May 17, 2025 08:54

Clashes between India and Pakistan upend lives in a Kashmiri village

Following May 10 truce, residents of Gingal returned to assess the damage
Those with intact or livable houses sheltered neighbors who had lost theirs

Updated 31 min 35 sec ago

May 17, 2025 08:54

GINGAL: Mohammad Younis Khan was among 40 residents seeking shelter in a cowshed when shelling began in Gingal, a scenic mountain village in north Kashmir on the Indian-administered side of the de facto border with Pakistan. Men, women and children sought refuge in the 3-meter-by-4.2 meter (10-feet-by-14 feet) space, which they felt offered greater safety than their brick and cement homes.

Huddled together, they heard the swoosh and thunder of the projectiles being fired from both sides of the border. When they heard a very loud sound from just outside the shelter, they held their breath and expected the worst. But the projectile had landed on soft earth and detonated a couple of feet below the ground sparing them.

Younis, who could tell the outgoing projectiles from the incoming ones by the sound they made, described the impact outside “as if a lightning bolt had struck the ground.” They all feared that India and Pakistan were at war and they would not survive the night.

“We were so scared that we didn’t dare go out to a water tap just four feet away from the door even when the children were crying of thirst,” Younis told The Associated Press.

Mohammad Shafi and four family members were having dinner in their kitchen when they heard explosions and ran outside. They had just managed to reach the road when they saw a blast damage the kitchen they had been dining in. They ran down a slope and hid among trees.

It was the night of May 8, and the shelling had intensified from the previous evening. Nasreena Begum rushed out, leaving her special-needs son behind as he was too heavy to be carried. She was tormented but was relieved to find him safe at home the following morning.

Most residents left Gingal for the town of Baramulla about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south, where some saw their homes destroyed on TV or social media.

Naseer Ahmad, a Jammu & Kashmir police officer posted in south Kashmir, learned via Facebook that shelling damaged his Paranpillan home, instantly recognizable by the surprisingly intact large walnut tree beside it.

Following the May 10 ceasefire, residents of Gingal returned to assess the damage, finding their homes riddled with shrapnel. Those with intact or livable houses sheltered neighbors who had lost theirs.

About 160 kilometers (100 miles) south, the usually bustling tourist spot of Pahalgam is now quiet, its residents facing a different challenge. It was here when, on April 22, militants killed 26 tourists in the worst assault in years targeting civilians in the restive region.

Pahalgam, usually lively with May holidaymakers, is now deserted. Businesses are shuttered and tourist attractions within a 30-kilometer (18-mile) radius of the assault site are closed to locals and visitors alike.

Back in Gingal, Younis prays for peace.

“Where will we go if the clashes continue? Drones can reach anywhere,” he said. “Those who want war have never experienced it.”

Topics: India Pakistan Ties

Arab League summit kicks off in Baghdad with Gaza at the top of the agenda

Updated 46 min 51 sec ago

May 17, 2025 05:27

Arab League summit kicks off in Baghdad with Gaza at the top of the agenda

Updated 46 min 51 sec ago

May 17, 2025 05:27

BAGHDAD: Regional leaders were to meet in Baghdad on Saturday at the annual summit of the Arab League, with the war in Gaza expected to once again loom large.
In March, at an emergency summit in Cairo, Arab leaders endorsed a proposed plan for reconstruction of the Gaza Strip without displacing its roughly 2 million residents.
Saturday’s summit comes two months after after Israel ended a ceasefire reached with the Hamas militant group in January. In recent days, Israel has launched widespread attacks in Gaza and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed a further escalation of force to pursue his aim of destroying Hamas.
The Baghdad meeting was upstaged by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tour in the region earlier in the week. Trump’s visit did not usher in a deal for a new ceasefire in Gaza as many had hoped, but he grabbed headlines by meeting with new Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa — who had once fought against U.S. forces in Iraq — and promising to remove U.S. sanctions imposed on Syria.
Al-Sharaa was not attending the summit in Baghdad, where Syria’s delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani. Iraqi Shiite militias and political factions are wary of al-Sharaa’s past as a Sunni militant and had pushed back against his invitation to the summit.
Formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, al-Sharaa joined the ranks of al-Qaida insurgents battling U.S. forces in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to oust Saddam Hussein and still faces a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges in Iraq.
During Syria’s conflict that began in March 2011, several Iraqi Shiite militias fought alongside the forces of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, making al-Sharaa today a particularly sensitive figure for them.
Iraq, which has strong — and sometimes conflicting — ties with both the United States and Iran, has sought to strike a difficult balance between them and to position itself as a regional mediator.
An Iraqi political official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said that Iran’s Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani had paid a visit to Baghdad prior to the summit and “conveyed messages of support for the Iranian-American negotiations” for a nuclear deal and a demand for the lifting of crippling sanctions on Iran.

Topics: Arab League Baghdad

In Spain, a homelessness crisis unfolds in Madrid's airport

Updated 59 min 42 sec ago

May 17, 2025 05:18

In Spain, a homelessness crisis unfolds in Madrid's airport

Updated 59 min 42 sec ago

May 17, 2025 05:18

MADRID: Every morning at 6 a.m., Teresa sets out in search of work, a shower and a bit of exercise before she returns home. For around six months, that has been Terminal 4 of Madrid’s international airport.
Teresa, 54, who didn’t want her full name to be used because of safety concerns, is one of the estimated hundreds of homeless people sleeping in the Spanish capital’s airport amid a growing housing crisis in Spain, where rental costs have risen especially fast in cities like Madrid, the country's capital, and Barcelona.
She and others sleeping at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport — the third-busiest airport in Europe in 2023, according to Eurostat — described a situation where for months, authorities have neither helped them find other living arrangements nor have they kicked them out from the corners of the airport that they have occupied with sleeping bags unfurled on the floor as well as blankets, shopping carts and bags.
Soon, things could change.
Limits on entry
Spain’s airport operator AENA this week said that it would start limiting who can enter Madrid’s airport during low-travel hours by asking visitors to show their boarding passes. AENA said that the policy would take effect in the next few days, but didn't specify exactly when. It said that exceptions would be made for airport workers and anyone accompanying a traveler.
Teresa, a Spanish-Ecuadorian who said she has lived in Spain for a quarter-century, told The Associated Press on Thursday that she hadn't heard of the new policy. She and her husband would be forced to sleep outside on park benches and other public spaces if they aren’t allowed back in.
“We can’t make demands. We’re squatters,” Teresa said, using a controversial term common in Spain. “Squatters in what is private property. We are aware of that. We want help from authorities, but not a single one has come here.”
Political blame game
For months, a political blame game between officials at different levels of government has meant that the homeless encampments in the airport have largely gone unaddressed. In recent weeks, videos on social media and news reports of the airport's homeless population put a spotlight on the issue.
Madrid’s city council on Thursday said that it had asked Spain’s national government to take charge and come up with a plan to rehabilitate every homeless individual sleeping in the airport. Spanish airports are overseen by AENA, a state-owned publicly listed company. A city council spokesperson said that Madrid's city government had recently called for a meeting with officials from AENA, the regional government of Madrid and several national ministries that declined.
“Without them, there is no possible solution,” said Lucía Martín, a spokesperson for Madrid’s city council division of social policies, family and equality. She said that the national ministries of transport, interior, inclusion, social rights and health declined to participate in a working group.
A day earlier, AENA accused Madrid’s city authorities of providing inadequate help and said that the city government's statements about the unfolding situation confirmed its “dereliction of duty” and abandonment of the airport’s homeless individuals.
“It's like a dog chasing its tail,” said Marta Cecilia Cárdenas of the long list of authorities she was told could help her. Cárdenas, a 58-year-old homeless woman originally from Colombia, said that she had spent several months sleeping in Madrid's airport.
Exact numbers are unknown
It’s not known how many people are sleeping in Madrid’s airport, through which 66 million travelers transited last year. Spain’s El País newspaper reported that a recent count taken by a charity group identified roughly 400 homeless people in the airport, many of whom, like Teresa, had previously lived in Madrid and were employed in some capacity.
AP wasn't able to confirm that number. Madrid city council officials, meanwhile, said that the Spanish capital's social service teams had helped 94 individuals in April with ties to the city, 12 of whom were rehabilitated into municipal shelters, addiction treatment centers or independent living.
Word of mouth
Teresa said she had heard about sleeping in the airport by word of mouth. Before she lost her job, she said she lived in an apartment in Madrid’s Leganés neighborhood, earning a living taking care of older people.
She currently earns 400 euros ($450) per month, working under the table caring for an older woman. With the earnings, Teresa said she maintains a storage unit in the neighborhood that she used to live in. Though the work is sporadic, she said it was still enough to also cover fees for the gym in which she showers daily, pay for transportation, and purchase food.
Over the last decade, the average rent in Spain has almost doubled, according to real estate website Idealista, with steeper increases in Madrid and Barcelona. Spain also has a smaller public housing stock than many other European Union countries.
Hope for the future
Teresa said that she hopes to find a job soon and leave the airport, whatever authorities may force her to do in the coming days and weeks. She and her husband keep to themselves, avoiding others sleeping in the brightly-lit hallway dotted with sleeping bags who were battling mental health problems, addiction and other issues, she said.
“You end up adjusting to it a bit, accepting it even, but never getting used to it,” Teresa said over the constant din of airline announcements. “I hope to God that it gets better, because this is not life.”

Topics: Spain Madrid

Gunmen kill four paramilitary troops in attack on security post in Pakistan’s southwest

Updated 17 May 2025

Saadullah Akhtar

May 17, 2025 08:16

Gunmen kill four paramilitary troops in attack on security post in Pakistan’s southwest

No group immediately claims responsibility for the assault in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district
Local official says security forces have surrounded the area and a hunt is on for the assailants

Updated 17 May 2025

Saadullah Akhtar

May 17, 2025 08:16

QUETTA: Unidentified gunmen targeted a security check post and killed four members of the Levies paramilitary force in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Saturday.

The attack targeted the Samand post located some 20 kilometers from Khuzdar city in wee hours of Saturday, according to Deputy Commissioner Yasir Iqbal Dashti. Four Levies men were killed as a result of an intense exchange of gunfire.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the assault but suspicion is likely to fall on Baloch separatists who have intensified their attacks in the province over the last one year.

“The attackers managed to flee by taking advantage of the dark and the bodies of the slain troops were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital Khuzdar,” Dashti told Arab News.

“Security forces have surrounded the area and a hunt for the attackers is underway.”

Balochistan, Pakistan’s most impoverished province, has been the site of a decades-old insurgency, where separatist militants often target security forces, police, foreigners and ethnic Punjabi commuters and workers, who they see as “outsiders,” by wresting control of highways and remote towns.

In Jan., dozens of fighters of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group launched a brazen attack on Khuzdar’s Zehri town and seized control of its main market for hours. The militants had set government buildings ablaze and snatched Levies’ vehicles and weapons.

This month, gunmen killed three people, including two barbers from the eastern Punjab province, and set a police vehicle ablaze in Balochistan’s Lasbela district, officials said.

The separatists accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources, such as gold and copper, and accuse foreigners and people from other province of backing the Pakistani state. Successive Pakistani governments have denied the allegations and said they only worked for the uplift of the region and its people.

Topics: Balochistan Attacks

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They once lived the 'gangster life.' Now they tackle food insecurity in Kenya's slums

They once lived the 'gangster life.' Now they tackle food insecurity in Kenya's slums

Clashes between India and Pakistan upend lives in a Kashmiri village

Clashes between India and Pakistan upend lives in a Kashmiri village

Arab League summit kicks off in Baghdad with Gaza at the top of the agenda

Arab League summit kicks off in Baghdad with Gaza at the top of the agenda

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Gunmen kill four paramilitary troops in attack on security post in Pakistan’s southwest

Gunmen kill four paramilitary troops in attack on security post in Pakistan’s southwest

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Rohit plays down injury scare after India rout Ireland in T20 World Cup

Rohit plays down injury scare after India rout Ireland in T20 World Cup

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They once lived the 'gangster life.' Now they tackle food insecurity in Kenya's slums

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In Spain, a homelessness crisis unfolds in Madrid's airport

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