India’s Pant says doctors considered leg amputation after car crash

By: Inter News on March 13, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

Star Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant says that doctors raised the prospect of amputating his leg after the serious car crash that threatened to end his cricket career.

The 26-year-old is set to play for the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League starting this month after a 14-month absence following the accident.

He is also in contention for the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and United States in June if all goes well on his comeback in the IPL.

Pant said his long layoff had taken a toll on him physically and mentally, but knows it could have been far worse.

“When my accident happened I felt something spiritual saved me,” Pant, who missed the last season of the IPL, told Wednesday’s Times of India.

“With the kind of accident I had, I only got my knee injured, but I can’t even imagine how much worse it could have been.

“Doctors even spoke to me about amputation.”

Pant crashed his Mercedes SUV north of New Delhi in December 2022, suffering multiple injuries when the car rammed into a crash barrier, flipped over and caught fire.

He was rushed to hospital before being airlifted to Mumbai for further treatment and surgery.

An intensive rehabilitation programme followed with the National Cricket Academy (NCA) as he recovered from a damaged ligament in his right knee, a hurt wrist and ankle, and abrasions to his back.

Pant said he had been “anxiously waiting” to be declared fit and had been distressed to sit out last year’s ODI World Cup at home.

“It was very upsetting. We discussed with the NCA team that we will take a shot at the World Cup. All of us tried 200 percent, but my knee couldn’t take the load,” he said.

Pant had also hoped to be fit for India’s 4-1 Test series win over England which concluded on the weekend, but said the cricket board had not wanted to rush him back into the gruelling format.

The swashbuckling player said the accident had changed his whole outlook.

“Gratitude towards life has increased a lot. You start appreciating small things about life.”

Pant has played for India 129 times across all three formats since making his international debut in 2017.

He was replaced as skipper of Delhi Capitals by David Warner last year.

Sammy keen to give roles to WI bowlers ahead of T20 World Cup

By: Inter News on March 13, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

KARACHI: West Indies have assembled a “dangerous” batting line-up and just need to assign specific roles for their bowlers to be fully prepared for this year’s T20 World Cup at home in June, head coach Daren Sammy said.

Cricket’s shortest format remains a strong suit for West Indies, who won both their T20 World Cup titles in 2012 and 2016 under Sammy’s captaincy.

They won T20 series against South Africa, India and England in 2023 and posted three successive 200-plus scores in Australia earlier this year despite losing the series 2-1.

“It sends a strong message to the world from our batting group that West Indies is a dangerous force,” Sammy said in a Cricket West Indies video interview.

“I’ve said it before to my guys. I said to them, ‘I’ve seen this team before, this type of power, the explosiveness’. It was a team that I captained before ...

“So to see it eight years since I left the game... man, it’s exciting times for us in the World Cup coming in June.”

Death-overs bowling remains an issue with the team, though, and Sammy said they were finalising the candidates for various bowling roles.

Fast bowler Shamar Joseph is in Sammy’s thinking for the World Cup after the 24-year-old’s headline-grabbing debut in a Test series Australia earlier this year.

Joseph’s exploits were widely celebrated across the region and winning the World Cup on home soil would help sustain that interest in the game, said Sammy.

“When West Indies do well, there’s a buzz,” he said.

“You saw Shamar Joseph’s exploits in Australia and how it created a buzz in the Caribbean. So for us, and for me as a coach, to lift the silverware, it will mean everything.”

Rovman Powell and his men will begin their World Cup campaign with a Group ‘C’ match against Papua New Guinea in Provi­dence, Guyana.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2024

India rejects China’s objections to Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh

By: Inter News on March 12, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

India on Tuesday rejected Chinese objections to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s weekend visit to Arunachal Pradesh, saying the northeastern border state has always been “an integral and inalienable part of India”.

The Indian foreign ministry’s comments came a day after Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Beijing was firmly opposed to Modi’s activities in the disputed region and has lodged a diplomatic protest with India.

Modi visited Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday to inaugurate infrastructure projects, including a tunnel that will provide all-weather connectivity to the strategically located border area of Tawang.

The tunnel is expected to ensure faster and smoother movement of troops in the frontier region.

China claims Arunachal Pradesh to be a part of southern Tibet. New Delhi rejects the claim, saying Arunachal Pradesh has always been a part of India.

“Indian leaders visit Arunachal Pradesh from time to time, as they visit other states of India. Objecting to such visits or India’s developmental projects does not stand to reason,” said Randhir Jaiswal, India’s foreign ministry spokesperson.

“Further, it will not change the reality that the state of Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India.”

The nuclear-armed neighbours share a 3,000-km (1,860-mile) frontier, much of it poorly demarcated.

At least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese troops were killed in 2020 in clashes elsewhere along their border in the western Himalayas.

Both militaries have fortified positions and deployed extra troops and equipment along the border since having been uneasy neighbours for decades after a bloody border war in 1962.

Last year, China ratcheted up tensions with India by giving Chinese names to 11 locations in Arunachal Pradesh.

English just ‘badly pronounced French’, claims academic

By: Inter News on March 11, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

PARIS: French linguist Bernard Cerquiglini would like to send a copy of his new book, “The English language doesn’t exist: it’s badly pronounced French”, to King Charles III.

Rather than aiming to make the monarch sputter into his morning tea, “it’s a book written from a humorous perspective, it’s deliberately in bad faith, arrogant, chauvinistic and so on,” Cerquiglini said.

Beneath the provocative title and humour, the prominent academic hopes to convey the cross-Channel linguistic tangle since the Norman conquest of 1066 — and how ridiculous French resistance to “anglicisms” can be.

“You can also see my book as an homage to the English language, which has been able to adopt so many words... Viking, Danish, French, it’s astonishing,” Cerquiglini said.

Norman French’s use by the new colonial aristocracy endowed English with words that at first glance might look homegrown, like “cabbage”, “lure” or “wage”, in the 150 years after William the Conqueror took the throne.

But Cerquiglini is most interested by the 13th and 14th centuries, when French — by then a second language used in trade, administration and law — bled freely into English because “a job, fortunes in land or cash, upholding a contract, liberty or even one’s life, could depend on mastering” the tongue.

Half of English’s borrowings from French took place from 1260-1400, producing words like “bachelor”, from the old French word “bachelier”, meaning a young noble not yet a knight.

“Travel” is related to the modern French word for labour, “travail”, while “clock” stems from the French “cloche”, a bell struck to sound the hours before mechanical timepieces were invented. By the time Shakespeare came to write his plays in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, around “40 per cent of the 15,000 words in his works are of French origin”, Cerquiglini notes.

‘Not an invasion’

These days the place of “Anglo-Saxon” words in modern French can stir defensiveness in Paris, often from the Academie Francaise, charged since 1635 with preserving the language in its “pure” form.

“Language in France is official, of the state, national. And so of course we have an academy” whose members enjoy “a ridiculous outfit, a sword, a palace by the Seine” river in Paris, Cerquiglini said.

In recent years the academy has railed against imports related to Covid-19, such as “cluster” or “testing”, as well as tech terms like “big data”.

Cerquiglini said the academy has scored some worthwhile wins, such as convincing the French-speaking world to use the native-sounding “logiciel” instead of the once-omnipresent “software”.

But he added: “This isn’t an invasion, these are French words that have gone for training in England and that are coming back to us.” Sometimes French alternatives can go too far, he points out, such as in the French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec, where some food stands offer a “chien chaud” — a very literal translation of “hot dog”. “That doesn’t whet my appetite, I have no desire to buy a ‘chien chaud’, that’s for sure,” Cerquiglini said.

Cerquiglini sees the rich cross-pollination between English and French as an example for La Francophonie, the loose modern association of French-speaking nations.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2024

India, European EFTA bloc sign $100bn free trade deal

By: Inter News on March 10, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

India and the four-member European trade bloc EFTA, including Norway and Switzerland, signed a $100-billion free trade agreement on Sunday to promote investment and exports, officials said.

The deal will see the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) — made up of non-European Union nations, including Iceland and Liechtenstein — invest $100 billion over 15 years in India, the world’s fifth largest economy, India’s Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said.

“The India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) marks a historic milestone in our growing partnership,” Goyal said after the signing in New Delhi.

The agreement “will pave the path for mutual growth and prosperity” by boosting exports, promoting investment and creating employment, he added.

The deal was signed after several rounds of negotiations spanning 16 years.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the trade agreement “symbolises our shared commitment to open, fair and equitable trade”, according to a statement read out at the signing ceremony.

Swiss Economy Minister Guy Parmelin said the deal “will allow us to make better use of our economic potential and create additional opportunities for both India and the EFTA states”.

“EFTA countries gain market access to a major growth market… India, in return, will attract more foreign investment from EFTA, which will ultimately translate into an increase in good jobs”, he added, speaking in New Delhi.

EFTA was established in 1960 to promote free trade and economic integration between its members. In 2021, it was the 10th largest trader in the world in terms of merchandise, and the eighth largest in services.

In recent years, India has signed trade agreements with Australia and the United Arab Emirates. A long-talked-about trade deal with Britain is also said to be in the final stages.

Asif Zardari sworn in as 14th president of Pakistan

By: Inter News on March 10, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari was sworn in as the 14th President of Pakistan on Sunday, officially taking over as the head of the state for a historic second time after winning a one-sided presidential election a day earlier.

Zardari had sec­ured 411 electoral votes on Saturday to defeat his opponent and chief of the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), Mehmood Khan Achakzai, who could only bag a total of 181 electoral votes, according to the Elec­tion Commission of Pakis­tan.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa administered the oath to Zardari today at the President’s House in Islamabad. They were flanked by newly elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and outgoing President Dr Arif Alvi.

Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Sahir Shamshad Mirza were also in attendance, while PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was seated next to them.

Many other political leaders, including former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, former federal ministers Sherry Rehman, Syed Naveed Qamar, Khursheed Ali Shah and Ishaq Dar, Sindh and Balochistan Chief Ministers Syed Murad Ali Shah and Sarfraz Bugti, Sindh and Punjab Governors Kamran Tessori and Baligur Rehman also attended the ceremony.

From Zardari’s family, his daughters Aseefa Bhutto Zardari and Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari, along with her husband and Zardari’s sister Faryal Talpur were also in attendance.

Zardari is the only individual to have been elected as head of the state for a second time and one of the four democratically elected presidents to have completed their five-year constitutional term.

Nominated as the joint candidate of the PML-N-led coalition government under a quid pro quo deal that saw PML-N president Shehbaz being elected as prime minister, Zardari will replace Dr Arif Alvi, who overstayed for five months in the absence of electoral college required to elect a new president after completing his five-year term in September 2023.

Roads inundated as heavy rains lash Gwadar, other parts of Balochistan

By: Inter News on March 10, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

Heavy rains lashed flood-ravaged Gwadar and other parts of Balochistan on Sunday, suspending normal life and traffic.

The showers, which began yesterday evening, left main roads and streets flooded with knee-high water and submerged low-lying areas in Gwadar and adjoining districts.

In Kech, heavy rains suspended traffic and blocked connecting roads.

According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, 21 millimetres of rainfall was recorded in Gwadar over the last 24 hours, 10mm in Turbat and 2mm in Ormara, Turbat and Jiwani.

The Met Office said rain and thunderstorms with isolated showers were forecast in Turbat, Kech, Gwadar, Jiwani, Pasni, Ormara, Panjgur, Kharan, Kalat, Khuzdar, Lasbela, and Awaran districts today.

It also warned of flash flooding in the local nullahs of Gwadar, Kech, Turbat and Panjgur, adding that snowfall may disrupt traffic in northern Balochistan till March 13.

The Met department further stated that Chagai, Noshki, Washuk, Mastung, Sibbi, Nasirabad, Zhob, Sherani, Barkhan, Musakhel, Kohlu, Jhal Magsi, Loralai, Ziarat, Quetta, Chaman, Pishin, Kila Abdullah and Kila Saifullah were likely to witness a similar weather, with snowfall on hills, till March 13.

Meanwhile, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) issued an alert in Balochistan.

Light rain in Karachi

Separately, light rain was reported in several parts of Karachi earlier in the day.

In a press release issued today, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the PDMA said a westerly wave was prevailing over Balochistan and adjoining Sindh.

“Rain-wind/thunderstorm likely to occur in Jamshoro, Dadu, Larkano, Kambar Shahdadkot, Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Kashmore, Sukkur, Ghotki, Naushahro Feroze and Shaheed Benazirabad districts today and March 12 night/March 13.

“Further, mainly cloudy and windy with chances of a few falls of drizzle/light rain are likely to occur today in Karachi division,” the PDMA said.

In light of the forecast, the department urged the authorities to take precautionary measures that include the availability of dewatering machines and the staff during rainfall, coordination with emergency services, establishment of helpline numbers and availability of uninterrupted power supply for hospitals.

Ensure removal of vulnerable billboards, falling trees, loose electric wires, electric poles etc, the PDMA said.

It also advised the public to stay indoors unless necessary, maintain a distance from power lines or electrical wires and avoid driving in heavy rain due to poor visibility.