The Taliban’s acting defence minister on Sunday said Pakistan had allowed American drones to use its airspace to access Afghanistan, a charge Pakistan has recently denied following a U.S. air strike in Kabul.
Acting Minister of Defence Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob told reporters at a news conference in Kabul that American drones have been entering Afghanistan via Pakistan.
“According to our information the drones are entering through Pakistan to Afghanistan, they use Pakistan’s airspace, we ask Pakistan, don’t use your airspace against us,” he said.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Pakistani authorities have denied involvement in or advanced knowledge of a drone strike the United States said it carried out in Kabul in July that killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Yaqoob’s comments could exacerbate tension between the neighbouring nations at a time when the Afghan Taliban is mediating talks between Pakistan and a Pakistani Taliban militant group.
Afghanistan also relies heavily on trade with Pakistan as the country experiences an economic crisis.
The Taliban said it is investigating the July air strike and that it has not found the Al Qaeda leader’s body.
Team India head coach Rahul Dravid has tested negative for COVID-19 and has joined the team in Dubai, said Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday.
VVS Laxman, who was with the team in absence of Rahul Dravid, has returned to Bengaluru where he will oversee India A programme.
New Zealand A will tour India for three four-day matches and as many one-day games in September.
Earlier this week, Dravid had tested positive with “mild symptoms” for the virus in a routine test conducted ahead of the team’s departure to the UAE for Asia Cup 2022.
After Dravid tested positive for Covid, the Board of Control for Cricket in India on Wednesday named VVS Laxman as the interim head coach for Team India (Senior Men) for the important Asia Cup.
India will take on Pakistan today evening in the ongoing Asia Cup 2022 and revenge will be on the mind of players after suffering a humiliating defeat the last time these two Asian giants collided on the cricket pitch.
Indian cricket star Virat Kohli is all set to play his 100th T20I match when he takes to the field against Pakistan in the much-anticipated Asia Cup 2022 campaign opener today, becoming the first Indian to play a century of matches in all formats of the sport at international level.
Ever since his T20I debut against Zimbabwe back in 2010, he has been one of India’s most reliable batters in the shortest format of the game and has enviable numbers and some records to his name.
On his debut T20I match, Virat had scored an unbeaten 26 off 21 balls and formed a 64-run stand which helped India win the match by six wickets.
Ever since then, his stature has grown massively in international cricket, including T20Is. Since then, he has represented India in 99 T20I matches, across which he has scored 3,308 runs at an average of 50.12. Virat’s individual best performance in this format is 94*.
His strike rate in this format is 137.66. 30 half-centuries have come out of his bat in this format and he is yet to score a century here.
He is the third-highest run scorer in T20I cricket, following Rohit Sharma (3,487) and New Zealand’s Martin Guptill (3,497) and his country’s second highest-run scorer.
Virat has second most fifty-plus scores in T20Is, with 30. At first is his skipper Rohit Sharma who has 31 fifty-plus scores, including four centuries. He is the fourth-fastest batter to reach 1,000 runs in T20I cricket (27 innings) and the second fastest to reach 2,000 runs (56 innings) and 2,500 runs (68 innings).
Virat has won the second highest number of ‘Player of the Match’ awards in T20Is, with 12, following Afghanistan’s Mohammed Nabi (13).
He also has the most number of ‘Player of the Series’ awards in T20I format, with total of seven such awards. Virat is a man of big occassions. He has performed really well for India in ICC T20 World Cup events.
In his debut ICC T20 World Cup in 2012, he played in five matches and scored 185 runs at an average of 46.25. He scored two half-centuries in the tournament with the best of 78*.
He was among the top-ten run scorers in the tournament. In the next two editions in 2014 and 2016, he performed brilliantly with the bat and became only player to be crowned the ‘Man of the Tournament’ twice in T20 World Cup history.
In the 2014 edition, he scored 319 runs in six games at an average of 106.33. Four half-centuries came out of his bat, with best score being 77. India lost to Sri Lanka in final of this tournament.
In the next tournament in 2016, Virat scored 273 runs at an average of 136.50. Three half-centuries came out of his bat in five games, with his best individual score being 89*.
The whole of 2016 was Virat’s peak, including in T20Is. In 15 T20Is that year, he scored 641 runs in 13 innings at an average of 106.43. Seven half-centuries came out of his bat with best of 90*. This is his most successful year in T20Is.
However, T20 World Cup 2021 was a disappointment as not only was team India knocked out in group stages, Kohli could score only 68 runs in three innings at an average of 34.00 and struck one half-century.
As a captain, Virat has a great record in T20Is. Between 2017-2021, this star batter has led his side 50 teams as captain. Out of these 50 games, he has won 30, lost 16. Two matches have ended in a tie while two failed to produce a result. His win percentage as a captain in this format is an impressive 64.58.
However, he could not win T20 World Cup for India as a skipper. This time around, challenges will be plenty for Virat when he takes to the field. Not only his team has to avenge its loss to Pakistan in T20 World Cup 2021, but he also has to regain his best form.
The star batter has gone more than 1,000 days without an international ton. Since his last international century in November 2019, Kohli has played a total of 27 T20Is since his final international ton, he has scored 858 runs in this format at an average of 42.90. His best score in this format is 94*.
He has hit eight half-centuries in this format since his last ton. In all formats combined, he has featured in 68 international matches since his last international ton, and scored 2,554 runs across all formats in 82 innings at an average of 34.05. He has hit 24 half-centuries across all formats. 2022 in particular has been very tough for Virat.
This year, Virat has played only four T20Is for his side, across which he has scored 81 runs at a subpar average of 20.25. His best score in the format this year is 52. Across all formats this year, he has represented India in 16 matches and across 19 innings, he had been able to score only 476 runs at a sub-par average of 25.05. Only four half-centuries have come off his bat, with the best score of 79.
Today, all eyes will be glued to the TVs, with the fans hoping that India not only avenges their previous loss to Pakistan, but Virat also scores big.
Ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi, a 120-feet high replica of Ayodhya’s Ram Temple is being constructed in Thane’s Dhamankar Naka area in Bhiwandi.
Earlier, the first look of the Chinchpokli Chintamani idol of Lord Ganesh was unveiled in Mumbai amid a huge crowd.
Meanwhile, preparations for Lord Ganesh’s clay idols are in full swing in Assam’s Dibrugarh ahead of the festival.
Some visuals also came from Odisha where markets of Bhubaneswar have become vibrant with Lord Ganesh’s idols.
Preparations are in full swing in Bhubaneswar to celebrate the Ganesh Chaturthi festival with pomp and grandeur after two years of restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
After a long wait, people rushed to shops to purchase Lord Ganesha idols to celebrate the festival. Pandals are also going to be decorated ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi.
Ganesh Chaturthi, is a 10-day festival that will begin on 31 August and conclude on September 10, on the fourth day of the Hindu lunisolar calendar month Bhadrapada.
The UK defence ministry said in a regular update on the war that it was not clear if this would be achieved by recruiting more volunteers or by increasing conscription. Either way it would likely not have a big impact on the war in Ukraine given “Russia has lost tens of thousands of troops; very few new contract servicemen are being recruited; and conscripts are technically not obliged to serve outside of Russian territory,” the ministry said on Twitter
(4/4) This is because Russia has lost tens of thousands of troops; very few new contract servicemen are being recruited; and conscripts are technically not obliged to serve outside of Russian territory.
A two-year-old girl was killed after a gas cylinder exploded while inflating a balloon which her grandfather was buying for her in Maharashtra’s Amravati district, a police official said on Sunday.
The incident took place on Saturday evening at Shindi village in Achalpur taluka, about 150 km from Nagpur, when the child had gone with her grandfather to the Tanha Pola festival, celebrated to acknowledge the importance of bulls and oxen in agriculture and farming activities, the official told PTI.
They were purchasing a balloon when the gas cylinder used for inflating it exploded, he said.
The child was seriously injured as a part of the cylinder hit her leg, the official said. She succumbed to the injuries while undergoing treatment in a hospital, he said.
The Achalpur police have registered case and are conducting an investigation into it, he added.
South Indian producer Antony Perumbavoor, has officially confirmed actor Mohanlal’s ‘Drishyam 3’ at a recent award function.
Soon as the producer announced the third instalment of the thriller film, excitement among the fans could be seen on social media.
Fans started sharing Antony’s clip from the award night where he officially confirms ‘Drishyam 3’.
Take a look at how the netizens are reacting to the news:
Helmed by Jeetu Joseph, ‘Drishyam’ was released in the year 2013, and starred south actors Mohanlal, Meena Durairaj, and Ansiba Hassan in the roles and received positive feedback from the audience and the critics as well. After the film’s grand success, the makers announced the sequel for the thriller Malayalam film and ‘Drishyam 2: The Resumption’ premiered exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in 2021 and received a tremendous response from the audience.
Now the makers have officially confirmed the third instalment of ‘Drishyam’ which will showcase the story of Geroge Kutty and his family, hiding a murder from the police.
‘Drishyam’ was remade in Hindi in 2015 with the same title starring actors Ajay Devgn, Tabu and Shriya Saran in the lead roles and was declared a hit.
Apart from Hindi, the film was also remade in Kannada, Tamil and Telugu.
The official Hindi remake of ‘Drishyam 2’ is currently under making and the film is all se to hit the theatres on November 18, 2022.
Water levels of Yamuna and Betwa rivers in the Hamirpur district of Uttar Pradesh have risen, causing a flood-like situation in the area.
“Hamirpur is in the middle of the Yamuna and Betwa rivers. Yamuna river’s water levels have risen more than that of last year, “Hamirpur DM Chandra Bhushan said.
He further said, “Our workers are present in 20 villages as 8,000 to 9,000 people have been affected by flood and they have been shifted to higher altitude. The rest 3,000 people have been shifted to shelter campus arranged by us.”
“The water of Ganga and Yamuna is still rising slowly in Prayagraj. Dharma roads in low-lying areas are flooded. The Baluaghat and Shivkuti localities are filled with the water of Yamuna on one side and Ganga on the other, a flood victim said.
India recorded as many as 9,436 new cases of Coronavirus in the last 24 hours, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday.
India’s active caseload stands at 86,591, which accounts for a total of 0.19 per cent of total cases.
The recovery rate currently is at 98.62 per cent. As many as 9,999 recoveries were made in the last 24 hours, thereby taking the total recoveries to 4,37,93,787.
On the COVID-19 vaccination front, the government data informed that over 211.66 crore vaccine doses had been administered under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.
The Union Government is committed to accelerating the pace and expanding the scope of COVID-19 vaccination throughout the country. The nationwide COVID-19 vaccination started on January 16, 2021.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 vaccination for the age group 12-14 years was started on 16 March 2022. So far, more than 4.02 Cr (4,02,51,855) adolescents have been administered the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Similarly, the COVID-19 precaution dose administration for the age group 18-59 years also started from 10 April 2022 onwards.
The new phase of universalization of COVID-19 vaccination commenced on June 21, 2021. The vaccination drive has been ramped up through the availability of more vaccines, and advanced visibility of vaccine availability to States and Union Territories (UTs) for enabling better planning by them and streamlining of the vaccine supply chain.
As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, the Government of India has been supporting the States and UTs by providing them with COVID-19 vaccines free of cost.
In the new phase of the universalization of the COVID-19 vaccination drive, the Union Government will procure and supply (free of cost) 75 per cent of the vaccines being produced by the vaccine manufacturers in the country to States and UTs.
The top investigation agency of Pakistan revealed that an amount of over PKR 787 million was deposited and then withdrawn from an undeclared account, allegedly maintained by the former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) with a now-defunct bank.
The development comes after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) unearthed three hidden PTI accounts which were used to funnel huge amounts into Pakistan from abroad.
According to Pakistan’s local media outlet, these accounts were used for transferring funds from the Wootton Cricket Club.
Imran Khan’s party PTI is under the scanner in foreign funding controversy, a document obtained by the FIA from the defunct bank, reveals that the PTI had officially authorized four individuals to operate the account, Dawn reported.
The list of names includes Fariduddin Ahmed, who came to prominence after the release of the Pandora Papers regarding the offshore holdings and potential tax evasion by bigwigs, released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in October of last year, the Dawn reported.
In the disclosures, it emerged that two offshore companies, namely Hawk Field Limited and Lock Gate Investment, were registered in the name of Ahmed. Documents showed his address in Pakistan as 2-Zaman Park, Lahore; the residence of PTI chairman Imran Khan.
At the time, Imran Khan’s close aid Shahbaz Gill had denied Khan’s association with Ahmed, claiming that neither the PTI chief knew the man personally, nor had he ever met him.
Later, Ahmed also denied any link between Khan and his offshore companies but said that both he and Imran Khan had a shared Burki heritage, Dawn reported.
