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Sony PlayStation’s online services came back online on Saturday, the Japanese group said, after a 24-hour outage frustrated gamers around the world. PlayStation Network “has been restored. You should be able to access online features without any problems now,” said a statement on X around midnight GMT Sunday, 24 hours after a message acknowledged users were experiencing “difficulty launching games, apps or network features.” “Sorry for the inconvenience!” the post added, without providing further details on the reasons for the outage. The network’s failure prevented many owners of Sony consoles including the PS4 and the PS5 from playing multiplayer games such as the hugely popular “Fortnite” and “Call of Duty.”  The specialized site DownDetector.com had reported that users’ difficulties peaked sharply around 7:00 pm US Eastern time on Friday (midnight GMT Saturday), before falling steadily, but not quite returning to normal levels. Players expressed impatience and anger on social media during the outage. One user said on X that it was “criminal” to have a PlayStation outage on a Friday evening, but another quipped more equably that it was time for him to reintroduce himself to the woman he married five years ago. 

Glenn Phillips cracked a maiden century and Mitchell Santner grabbed three wickets to help New Zealand overpower Pakistan by 78 runs in the opening match of a tri-nations series in Lahore on Saturday.Phillips hit 106 not out from 74 balls, with seven sixes and six boundaries to help the tourists post an impressive 330-6 in 50 overs before Santner’s 3-41 helped dismiss Pakistan for 252 in 47.5 overs.South Africa are the third team in the series, a warm-up event for the Champions Trophy from February 19 to March 9 in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.Phillips also added the prized wicket of Pakistan opener Fakhar Zaman who top-scored with a 69-ball 84 including four sixes and seven boundaries.Fakhar and Babar Azam, promoted to open the innings, had given Pakistan a solid start of 52 before Michael Bracewell broke through with the wicket of Azam who made just ten.Santner then exploited the slow Gaddafi Stadium pitch, dismissing Kamran Ghulam (18), skipper Mohammad Rizwan (three) and Khushdil Shah (15) to put Pakistan on the back foot.Salman Agha (40) and Tayyab Tahir (30) added 53 for the fifth wicket but that wasn’t enough in a tough chase.Pacer Matt Henry took 3-53 and Bracewell 2-41. Earlier, Phillips built on the good work by Daryl Mitchell (81) and Kane Williamson (58) after New Zealand chose to bat. Phillips added a quickfire 54 off just 47 balls with Bracewell for the sixth wicket. Bracewell scored 31 from 23 balls, with three sixes.New Zealand plundered 123 runs in the last 10 overs, including 84 from the final five.Phillips smashed a boundary and two sixes off pace bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi to reach his hundred off 72 balls, taking 25 in the 50th over.Shaheen ended up with expensive figures of 3-88 from his 10 overs, although he gave Pakistan an early breakthrough by removing opener Will Young for four with the fourth ball of the match.Spinner Abrar Ahmed had opener Rachin Ravindra caught and bowled for 25 but Williamson and Mitchell then added 95 off 112 balls to rebuild the innings.Williamson hit seven boundaries in his 46th half century, his first one-day international since November 2023, before edging Shaheen to wicketkeeper Rizwan.Mitchell appeared well set for a hundred but miscued a shot off Abrar in the 38th over to be caught after hitting four sixes and two boundaries.Pakistan was hit hard when pace bowler Haris Rauf walked off in the 37th over after suffering a side strain, having bowled 6.2 overs that included the wicket of Tom Latham for nought. Brief Scores:New Zealand 330-6 in 50 overs (G. Phillips 106 not out, D. Mitchell 81, K. Williamson 58; Shaheen Shah Afridi 3-88, Abrar Ahmed 2-41) v Pakistan 252 in 47.5 overs (Fakhar Zaman 84, Salman Agha 40; M. Santner 3-41)Result: New Zealand won by 78 runs Toss: New ZealandNext match: New Zealand vs South Africa, Lahore on Monday

India’s Hindu-nationalist ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated a landslide victory Saturday in key elections in the capital province Delhi, with the former chief minister suffering a crushing defeat.”Development has won, good governance has won,” Modi said after the city’s ex-leader — a key opposition figurehead to the premier — was confirmed as having lost his seat.Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in government in the national parliament but has not controlled the local legislature in the capital Delhi since 1998, so it is a symbolic and strategically important victory.”We will leave no stone unturned in ensuring the overall development of Delhi and making the lives of residents better,” Modi said in a post on social media.Arvind Kejriwal lost his seat to Modi’s BJP, reflecting wider damaging losses by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).Kejriwal’s AAP had governed the sprawling megacity of more than 30 million people for most of the past decade.”We accept the verdict and congratulate the BJP,” Kejriwal said in a video statement.Chanting BJP supporters danced for joy outside its New Delhi headquarters as vote results from Wednesday’s election were counted, waving flags and posters of Modi.Counting is in the last stages and the BJP has already secured a stunning two-thirds of the 70-seat assembly, having won 47 seats, according to the election commission. It is tipped to win at least one more seat. BJP’s Parvesh Sahib Singh, who is widely tipped to be the capital’s next chief minister, defeated Kejriwal.  “Delhi has chosen development,” Singh said in his victory statement. Singh, 47, comes from a family of politicians, and his father served as Delhi’s chief minister in the early 1990s. A former national lawmaker, Singh courted controversy in 2022 when he appeared to call for a “total boycott” of Muslims, although he did not explicitly refer to the community by name.”Our victory is a sign of the people’s faith in Prime Minister Modi’s vision of progress,” interior minister and BJP stalwart Amit Shah said in a statement.”The Delhi mandate shows that people can’t be misled with lies every time.”- ‘Very strong position’ -Kejriwal, who rode to power as an anti-corruption crusader a decade ago, spent several months behind bars last year over accusations his party took kickbacks in exchange for liquor licences, along with several fellow party leaders.He has denied wrongdoing and characterised the charges as a political witch hunt by Modi’s government.He was one of the key pillars of an opposition bloc formed ahead of India’s general elections last year, when the BJP suffered significant losses despite holding on to power. Kejriwal’s defeat in his Delhi stronghold puts the BJP “back in a very strong position”, said Rahul Verma of the Centre for Policy Research think tank in New Delhi.”Now it seems what happened in the general elections was a temporary lapse,” Verma said. “And it has put AAP in a difficult position going ahead.”Despite hectic weeks-long campaigning, little was said about Delhi’s crippling air pollution crisis, which smothers the city for months in hazardous fumes.New Delhi is regularly ranked the worst capital in the world for choking smog, which often surges as much as 60 times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum.Years of piecemeal government initiatives have failed to measurably address the problem, with the smog blamed for thousands of premature deaths annually and particularly affecting the health of children and the elderly.

Glenn Phillips cracked a maiden century to lift New Zealand to 330-6 against Pakistan in the tri-series opener in Lahore on Saturday.Phillips hit 106 not out from 74 balls, with seven sixes and six boundaries, after New Zealand won the toss and batted.He was ably supported by Daryl Mitchell with 81 and Kane Williamson (58).Phillips added a quickfire 54 off just 47 balls with Michael Bracewell for the sixth wicket. Bracewell scored 31 from 23 balls, with three sixes.New Zealand plundered 123 runs in the last 10 overs, including 84 from the final five.Phillips smashed a boundary and two sixes off pace bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi to reach his hundred off 72 balls, taking 25 in the 50th over.Shaheen ended up with expensive figures of 3-88 from his 10 overs, although he gave Pakistan an early breakthrough by removing opener Will Young for four with the fourth ball of the match.Spinner Abrar Ahmed had opener Rachin Ravindra caught and bowled for 25 but Williamson and Mitchell then added 95 off 112 balls to rebuild the innings.Williamson hit seven boundaries in his 46th half century, his first one-day international since November 2023, before edging Shaheen to wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan.Mitchell appeared well set for a hundred but miscued a shot off Abrar in the 38th over to be caught after hitting four sixes and two boundaries.Pakistan was hit hard when pace bowler Haris Rauf walked off in the 37th over after suffering a side strain, having bowled 6.2 overs that included the wicket of Tom Latham for nought. 

Australia are two wickets away from ending Sri Lanka’s second innings in the second Test Saturday, with the hosts reeling at 211-8 at stumps on day three in Galle.With Sri Lanka leading by only 54 runs, Steve Smith’s side will be eager to mop up the tail early Sunday and seal a 2-0 sweep.Angelo Mathews was the linchpin of Sri Lanka’s innings, holding things together as wickets tumbled at the other end.But just 15 minutes before the close of play, he swept Nathan Lyon straight to square leg, where Beau Webster pocketed a sharp chance.The 37-year-old warhorse had dug deep for a fighting half-century, but Sri Lanka needed a marathon knock, not his well-compiled 76.Mathews finds himself in the crosshairs, with just one fifty in his last eight innings.Ahead of this Test, the selectors had made it clear -– unless he starts churning out big runs, his spot in the next cycle of the World Test Championship was not fixed.His sixth-wicket partnership with Kusal Mendis worth 70 runs was a lifeline for Sri Lanka, preventing an innings implosion and ensuring the game stretched into a fourth day.There was an unusual moment in the afternoon session when a delivery from Lyon drifted down the leg-side.It clipped the helmet placed behind the wicketkeeper for a close-in fielder, and triggered an automatic five-run penalty for Sri Lanka, a rare bonus in a match where runs were hard to come by.With the picturesque Galle Fort providing a natural grandstand, hundreds of Australian supporters perched themselves atop the historic ramparts to enjoy a commanding performance from their side.The fans celebrated as off-spinner Lyon became only the third Australian to claim 550 Test wickets, joining the exalted company of Shane Warne (708) and Glenn McGrath (563). Lyon was well-supported by Matthew Kuhnemann, sharing seven wickets between them.Earlier, Alex Carey turned entertainer-in-chief with a swashbuckling 156 -– his career-best knock, peppered with 15 boundaries and two towering sixes. While Smith (131) also took another big hundred –- his second of the series -– it was Carey who made batting look easy.With Sri Lanka on the ropes and Australia poised for the knockout punch, day four promises high drama.The visitors have already put the Warne-Murali Trophy beyond Sri Lanka’s reach, having taken an unassailable 1-0 lead with a crushing victory in the first Test.That innings and 242-run humiliation stands as Sri Lanka’s worst defeat in Test history.

Sri Lanka were reeling at 98-4 at tea on day three in Galle on Saturday and staring at their second loss in the two-Test series against a dominant Australia.The hosts still require a further 60 runs to avoid an innings defeat, with survival looking improbable.With the picturesque Galle Fort providing a natural grandstand, hundreds of Australian supporters perched themselves atop the historic ramparts to enjoy a commanding performance from their side.The fans celebrated as off-spinner Nathan Lyon became only the third Australian to claim 550 Test wickets, joining the exalted company of Shane Warne (708) and Glenn McGrath (563).Fittingly, Lyon’s Test career began at Galle in 2011 and he celebrated the milestone in style, tightening the screws on Sri Lanka.Despite Australia losing seven wickets in the morning session to be bowled out for 414, their first-innings lead of 157 put them well ahead.Alex Carey turned entertainer-in-chief with a swashbuckling 156 -– his career-best knock and the highest score by an Australian wicketkeeper in Asia.Prabath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka’s spin spearhead, claimed his 11th five-wicket haul, but it was only a consolation with the visitors remaining firmly in control.Sri Lanka’s reply got off to a shaky start, with left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann making early inroads.Dimuth Karunaratne, playing in his final Test innings, walked off to a standing ovation after he fell to Kuhnemann for 14, with even the Australian players acknowledging his stellar career.The veteran opener, who became only the seventh Sri Lankan to play 100 Tests, bows out as the nation’s fourth-highest run-scorer and their most prolific opener.Lyon’s landmark wicket was straight out of a coaching manual.With long-off and long-on left vacant, he dangled the carrot for Dinesh Chandimal, who attempted an ambitious lofted shot.But the former captain failed to get the required elevation and the ball nestled safely in the hands of mid-off — a classic trap, perfectly executed.Kamindu Mendis, recently named ICC Emerging Player of the Year, endured a series to forget, failing to reach fifty after four innings.His poor run continued when he chipped a simple catch to mid-off, handing Lyon his second wicket of the innings.The visitors have already put the Warne-Murali Trophy beyond Sri Lanka’s reach, having taken an unassailable 1-0 lead with a crushing victory in the first Test.That innings and 242-run humiliation stands as Sri Lanka’s worst defeat in Test history.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Saturday that “development had won” with his Hindu nationalist party tipped to win back control of the capital province Delhi in local elections.”Development has won, good governance has won,” Modi said, with counting still underway but with the city’s former chief minister — a key opposition leader to the prime minister — confirmed having lost his seat.Arvind Kejriwal lost his seat to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to election commission results, reflecting expected wider losses by his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — which has governed the sprawling megacity of more than 30 million people for most of the past decade.”We accept the verdict and congratulate the BJP,” Kejriwal said in a video statement.Modi’s BJP is in government in the national parliament, but has not controlled the local legislature in the capital Delhi since 1998, and a win would be a symbolic and strategically important victory.”We will leave no stone unturned in ensuring the overall development of Delhi and making the lives of residents better,” Modi said in a post on social media.Chanting BJP supporters danced in joy outside its New Delhi headquarters as vote results from the election on Wednesday were counted, waving flags and posters of Modi.Counting continues — the BJP were only marginally ahead of AAP with just over a third of seats declared — but the election commission say Modi’s party is leading in more than two-thirds of the 70-seat assembly.”Our victory is a sign of the people’s faith in Prime Minister Modi’s vision of progress,” interior minister and BJP stalwart Amit Shah said in a statement.”The Delhi mandate shows that people can’t be misled with lies every time.”- ‘Very strong position’ -Kejriwal, who rode to power as an anti-corruption crusader a decade ago, spent several months behind bars last year on accusations his party took kickbacks in exchange for liquor licences, along with several fellow party leaders. Kejriwal has denied wrongdoing and characterised the charges as a political witch hunt by Modi’s government. He was one of the key pillars of an opposition block formed ahead of India’s general elections last year, when the BJP suffered significant losses despite holding on to power. Kejriwal’s defeat in his stronghold puts the BJP “back in a very strong position”, said Rahul Verma, of the Centre for Policy Research think-tank in New Delhi.”Now it seems what happened in general elections was a temporary lapse,” Verma added. “And it has put AAP in a difficult position going ahead.”Despite hectic weeks-long campaigning, little was said about the capital’s crippling air pollution crisis, which smothers the city for months in hazardous fumes.New Delhi is regularly ranked the worst capital in the world for choking smog, which often surges as much as 60 times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum.Years of piecemeal government initiatives have failed to measurably address the problem, with the smog blamed for thousands of premature deaths annually and particularly impacting the health of children and the elderly.

A key Indian opposition leader and the former chief minister of the capital province Delhi lost his seat in local elections Saturday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party tipped for victory.Arvind Kejriwal lost his seat to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to election commission results, reflecting expected wider losses by his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — which has governed the sprawling megacity of more than 30 million people for most of the past decade.Modi’s BJP is in government in the national parliament, but has not controlled the local legislature in the capital New Delhi since 1998, and a win would be a symbolic and strategically important victory.Chanting BJP supporters danced in joy outside its New Delhi headquarters as vote results from the election on Wednesday were counted, waving flags and posters of Modi.Counting continues — with the AAP and BJP level on nine declared seats — but the election commission say Modi’s party is leading in more than two-thirds of the 70-seat assembly.”Our victory is a sign of the people’s faith in Prime Minister Modi’s vision of progress,” interior minister and BJP stalwart Amit Shah said in a statement.”The Delhi mandate shows that people can’t be misled with lies every time.”Kejriwal, who rode to power as an anti-corruption crusader a decade ago, spent several months behind bars last year on accusations his party took kickbacks in exchange for liquor licences, along with several fellow party leaders. Kejriwal has denied wrongdoing and characterised the charges as a political witch hunt by Modi’s government. He was one of the key pillars of an opposition block formed ahead of India’s general elections last year, when the BJP suffered significant losses despite holding on to power. Kejriwal’s defeat in his stronghold puts the BJP “back in a very strong position”, said Rahul Verma, of the Centre for Policy Research think-tank in New Delhi.”Now it seems what happened in general elections was a temporary lapse,” Verma added. “And it has put AAP in a difficult position going ahead.” 

Steve Smith and Alex Carey powered Australia to a formidable 414 all out Saturday in their first innings of the second Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. Their record-breaking 259-run partnership handed the visitors a commanding 157-run first-innings lead, as they were bowled out just seven minutes before lunch on day three.The Australian captain and his wicketkeeper put on the highest fourth-wicket stand by a visiting pair on Sri Lankan soil.They edged past the 258-run alliance between Michael Hussey and Shaun Marsh at Pallekele in 2011 by just one run.Smith was the bedrock of the innings, anchoring one end with solid strokes, while Carey provided the fireworks.The left-hander played with fearless intent, sweeping and reverse-sweeping the Sri Lankan spinners behind square.His career-best innings of 156 eclipsed Adam Gilchrist’s highest score for an Australian wicketkeeper in Asia, surpassing the swashbuckling left-hander’s 144 in Kandy (2004) and 144 in Fatullah (2006).With Sri Lanka taking the second new ball in the morning, their spinners found fresh bite from the deck, extracting more turn and bounce.The marathon stand was finally snapped when Smith feathered one behind, and two balls later, Prabath Jayasuriya sent Josh Inglis packing for a duck.Carey, who had tormented the bowlers with his audacious stroke play, perished attempting yet another sweep off Jayasuriya –- this time misjudging it and losing his stumps.Jayasuriya continued his run, bagging his 11th five-wicket haul in Test cricket when he rattled Mitchell Starc.Sri Lanka, who were earlier bowled out for 257, must now try to set Australia a challenging chase.But the visitors have already put the Warne-Murali Trophy beyond Sri Lanka’s reach, having taken an unassailable 1-0 lead with a crushing victory in the first Test.The innings and 242-run humiliation stands as Sri Lanka’s worst defeat in Test history.

Air traffic is booming in India, even though only a tiny fraction of its people fly each year, and manufacturers are seeking lucrative deals at the flagship Aero India exhibition from Monday.The International Air Transport Association (IATA) will also hold its annual general meeting in June in New Delhi, the capital of the world’s fifth-largest economy, another clear sign of India’s market punch.The sustained growth of its economy and middle class have made India and its 1.4 billion people the third-largest air market in the world, after the United States and China.”India is the rising star of global aerospace,” said Remi Maillard, Airbus India and South Asia chief. “It is the fastest-growing commercial aviation market in the world — and it will remain so for the next 20 years.”Airbus rival Boeing, which will also take part in the five-day Aero India show in Bengaluru for global aero vendors organised by the defence ministry, is equally enthusiastic. “It’s the most dynamic market on the planet — and certainly the most exciting,” Boeing India head Salil Gupte told AFP.India’s civil aviation ministry boasts of “soaring skies” in a sector “experiencing a meteoric rise”.That growth should lead to an increase in traffic in South Asia, mainly in India, of more than seven percent per year until 2043, according to Boeing’s forecasts.”Per capita air travel remains low in India at a mere 0.12, compared to 0.46 in China”, Maillard said, calling it a “telling comment on the potential of the Indian aviation market”.Railways remain hugely popular but travelling by trains crisscrossing a country about three-quarters the area of the European Union is often slow and chaotic.Boeing estimates that it would take around two percent of the 18 million daily train users — compared with 430,000 air passengers — to switch to flying for the air market to double.- ‘Slippers’ -Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made the development of the air sector a priority since coming to power in 2014.Modi, who has said he wants to “bring air travel to the common people”, began a plan in 2016 to boost air links between small towns and the country’s megacities.”A common man who travels in slippers should also be seen in the aircraft — this is my dream,” Modi was quoted as saying by the aviation ministry.The number of airports has more than doubled in the past decade — from 74 in 2014 to 157 in 2024, according to ministry figures. The government is pouring in millions of dollars and is promising to increase the numbers to between 350 and 400 by 2047, the centenary of India’s independence.At the same time, the government has opened programmes to train some 30,000 pilots and at least as many mechanics over the next 20 years.Airbus and Boeing are key partners in that, with an emphasis on promoting women.- ‘Revolution’ -The major manufacturers say the next leap in the airline sector in India will be international.”The kind of revolution we have seen in the Indian domestic market in the last few years is now happening in the long-haul market,” said Airbus’s Maillard, adding the company was “leveraging India’s locational advantage, demographic dividend and economic growth”.Gupte said Boeing was expecting more orders for large aircraft capable of long-haul flights, which he believes will make up 15 percent of India’s total fleet within the next 20 years.Boeing forecasts that the Indian market will need at least 2,835 new aircraft by this deadline — three-quarters for market growth, and the rest as replacement.For Airbus, India made up nearly a 10th of its global commercial aircraft delivered last year — 766 commercial aircraft in total to 86 customers in 2204, with 72 going to Indian carriers.Boeing, which was shaken by scandals related to the production quality of its aircraft, and slowed down by a strike, has not released figures for 2024.Neither aircraft manufacturer wanted to detail its ambitions for the Aero India show.However, India’s order basket is overflowing.Air India, after a giant 2023 contract for 470 aircraft — 250 Airbus, 220 Boeing — ordered 100 more Airbus planes last year.India’s largest carrier, low-cost airline IndiGo, is also not satisfied at having placed the largest order in volume in the history of civil aviation — 500 from Airbus in 2023.It ordered 30 more last year.