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A suspected suicide bomber targeted a schoolbus in southwestern Pakistan killing at least four children and two adults on Wednesday, in an attack the government accused India of backing.The bus driver and his assistant were among those killed in the attack in Khuzdar district of Balochistan province, on the way to a school that caters to the children of army personnel and civilians living in the area.Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif accused arch-rival India of backing the militants that carried out the attack, coming almost two weeks after the two sides settled a ceasefire to end their most serious conflict in decades.”Terrorists operating under Indian patronage attacking innocent children on a school bus is clear evidence of their hostility,” his statement added.The military also said in a statement that the attack was “planned and orchestrated” by India.The nuclear-armed neighbours regularly trade accusations that the other supports militant groups operating in their territory.The four-day conflict earlier this month was sparked by an attack on tourists in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir that India accused Pakistan of backing, for which it took revenge. Pakistan denied any involvement in the attack.New Delhi’s foreign affairs ministry said in a statement that “India rejects the baseless allegations”, adding that it was “second nature” for Pakistan to blame India. – ‘Probe suggests suicide bombing’ -No group has yet claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s bombing.Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister of Balochistan province said four children, the bus driver and his assistant were killed.”A bus carrying children of the APS (Army Public School) was targeted with a bomb, the nature of which is still being determined,” Yasir Iqbal Dashti, a senior local government official in Khuzdar district, told AFP.”The initial probe suggests it was a suicide bombing,” he added.A senior police official confirmed the death toll to AFP on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak to the media, adding that more than two dozen people were wounded.The military earlier put the death toll at five, including three children, in a statement to media.Images shared on social media showed the shattered remains of a school bus and a pile of school bags nearby.The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is the most active militant group in the region where there has been a sharp rise in attacks, mostly targeting security forces or people from outside the region. In March, dozens of militants and off-duty security force members died when the BLA took control of a train with hundreds of passengers on board.In 2014, the Army Public School in Peshawar in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was attacked by Pakistan Taliban gunmen who killed more than 150 people — mostly students.The horrific attack sparked a massive crackdown against militancy that had thrived for years in the border regions.

Pakistan dropped stars Shaheen Shah Afridi, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan on Wednesday as they named a new-look squad for three home Twenty20 internationals against Bangladesh.Former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson will take charge for the first time after being appointed last week, replacing Aaqib Javed.Salman Ali Agha will captain Pakistan as they look towards next year’s Twenty20 World Cup, to be hosted by India and Sri Lanka.Fast bowler Shaheen had played in Pakistan’s last T20 series in New Zealand in March, but batsmen Azam and Rizwan were omitted for the second consecutive T20 series after being criticised for slow scoring.”The squad has been selected based on players’ performances in the ongoing Pakistan Super League, which concludes on May 25,” the Pakistan Cricket Board said in a statement.Shaheen has taken 12 wickets for Lahore Qalandars in 10 PSL matches at an economy rate of 8.20.Opener Sahibzada Farhan earned a recall after topping the PSL batting charts with 394 runs. Batsmen Saim Ayub and Fakhar Zaman return after missing the New Zealand tour with injuries.Fast bowler Hasan Ali is back after being sidelined with multiple injuries since May last year.The PCB said that the matches, which have been affected by a 10-day delay to the PSL caused by the deadly India-Pakistan conflict, will be held in Lahore on May 28, 30 and June 1.Pakistan squad: Salman Ali Agha (captain), Shadab Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hassan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Wasim, Mohammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub

India’s Asiatic lion population has increased by over a third to 891, according to a five-yearly census released on Wednesday, boosting efforts to conserve the vulnerable species.The Asiatic lion — which historically once roamed from the Middle East to India — is now reduced to an isolated population in a wildlife sanctuary in India’s western state of Gujarat.”The Asiatic lion population, which was 304 in 1995, has increased steadily over the past three decades,” Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel told reporters. “In 2020 it was 674, which has now increased to 891.”The majestic big cats are slightly smaller than their African cousins, and have a fold of skin along their bellies.Hunting and human encroachment caused the population to plunge to just 20 by 1913, and the lions are now found only in Gujarat’s sprawling Gir wildlife sanctuary, where they roam dry deciduous forests and open grasslands.Following years of concerted government efforts, the lion population is steadily rising.The latest counting exercise, spread over four days, covered over 35,000 square kilometres (13,513 square miles) across 11 districts in the state.Priyavrat Gadhvi, a former member of the state wildlife board, said the increase indicated a successful conservation programme.”Another important factor here is the political will and support of the local people living near the forest areas,” Gadhvi said. “They together have helped in conservation of the species.”But while numbers are rising, the conservation organisation WWF warns that the Asiatic lion faces a “threat of genetic inbreeding arising from a single population in one place”.Lions are a source of pride for India, particularly in Gujarat’s Saurashtra region, where man and beast coexist.A cattle-rearing tribe lives among the animals in the sanctuary, and it is not uncommon to see a pride of lions crossing a highway in the region as motorists wait and watch. Lions are also a major tourist attraction, along with leopards, panthers and other big cats found in the sanctuary.Around 550,000 people visit the wildlife park each year, riding in open-top jeeps as they try to spot the predators prowling.Since the Asiatic lion currently exists as a single subpopulation, it is vulnerable to extinction from events such as an epidemic or a large forest fire.

A British team of veteran ex-special forces soldiers summited Everest on Wednesday, expedition organisers said, in a bid to fly from London, climb the highest peak and return home within seven days.Four men including government minister Alistair Carns left London on Friday pre-acclimatised to the low oxygen at high altitudes — including using xenon gas, a method that raised eyebrows in the mountaineering community.The men, who slept in special low-oxygen tents before departure from Britain, are raising funds for veterans’ charities.”All four of them, along with a photographer and five Sherpa team reached the summit this morning at 7:10 am,” expedition organiser Lukas Furtenbach, of Austria-based Furtenbach Adventures, told AFP.The team, which also includes Garth Miller, Anthony Stazicker and Kevin Godlington, are now descending from the 8,849-metre (29,000-foot) peak.”They will descend to the base camp by evening and weather permitting will be back home within seven days,” Furtenbach said.The team is raising money for children whose parents were killed in conflict.”I’ve seen, on multiple operations in Afghanistan, individuals who haven’t returned,” Carns, 45, who carried out five tours of Afghanistan, said before his departure.Carns, a colonel in the Royal Marine Reserves, is the most highly decorated British lawmaker since World War II.- ‘Climb higher faster’ -The men are not the fastest to ascend Everest — that record is held by Nepali climber Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa, who climbed from base camp to the summit in 10 hours and 56 minutes in 2003.But expedition leader Miller, a commercial airline pilot, said it was a “new way of climbing 8,000-metre peaks”.Speaking before the ascent, he said they used “the latest sports science” to hone their physical preparation to allow them to “climb higher faster”.For decades the dream of reaching the summit of Mount Everest has required at least two months on the mountain doing a series of acclimatisation rotations.But the team took a different route, heading directly to Everest’s base camp on Saturday by helicopter, straight after arriving from London.Areas above 8,000 metres are known as the “death zone” because thin air and low oxygen levels heighten the risk of altitude sickness.They pre-acclimatised at home using hypoxic tents and special training techniques, before being administered xenon gas two weeks before departure.The World Anti-Doping Agency banned the use of xenon in 2014, saying it could illegally enhance the performance of athletes.- Criticism -Furtenbach said xenon allows faster climbs and decreases the risk of altitude sickness.”I was looking for new ways of acclimatising,” Furtenbach told AFP.Inhaling the gas prompts the production of the hormone erythropoietin (EPO) in the body, which encourages the formation of oxygen-carrying red blood cells to improve performance.”You can say that xenon inhalation mimics the effects of a classical rotation to high altitude,” said Michael Fries, a German doctor who works with Furtenbach.In January the medical commission at the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation -– the umbrella group for mountaineering organisations -– cautioned against using xenon.”There is no evidence that breathing in xenon improves performance in the mountains and inappropriate use can be dangerous,” it said.It also comes at a financial cost, with the climb costing an estimated $170,000 per person, according to Furtenbach, several times higher than the slower expeditions. Some have been critical of the use of xenon.”Mostly I view it as a stunt,” said Adrian Ballinger, who runs US-based Alpenglow Expeditions, a company that has worked to develop accelerated acclimatisation methods.”To me, those things take away from what makes climbing Mount Everest unique, which is the unknown outcome and the fact that each person on the mountain is pushed to their emotional, physical and mental limits.”Furtenbach, who has tested the gas on mountain climbs since 2020, said he hoped that the expedition would help normalise xenon to become “part of a standard safety protocol for high-altitude mountaineering”.

Pakistan dropped stars Shaheen Shah Afridi, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan on Wednesday as they named a new-look squad for three home Twenty20 internationals against Bangladesh.Former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson will take charge for the first time after being appointed last week, replacing Aaqib Javed.Salman Ali Agha will captain Pakistan as they look towards next year’s Twenty20 World Cup, to be hosted by India and Sri Lanka.Fast bowler Shaheen had played in Pakistan’s last T20 series in New Zealand in March, but batsmen Azam and Rizwan were omitted for the second consecutive T20 series after being criticised for slow scoring.”The squad has been selected based on players’ performances in the ongoing Pakistan Super League, which concludes on May 25,” the Pakistan Cricket Board said in a statement.Shaheen has taken 12 wickets for Lahore Qalandars in 10 PSL matches at an economy rate of 8.20.Opener Sahibzada Farhan earned a recall after topping the PSL batting charts with 394 runs. Batsmen Saim Ayub and Fakhar Zaman return after missing the New Zealand tour with injuries.Fast bowler Hasan Ali is back after being sidelined with multiple injuries since May last year.The PCB said that the series match schedule, which has been affected by a 10-day delay to the PSL caused by the deadly India-Pakistan conflict, will be announced soon with all three matches to be held in Lahore. Pakistan squad: Salman Ali Agha (captain), Shadab Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hassan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Wasim, Mohammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub

A team of doctors and vets in Pakistan has developed a novel treatment for a pair of elephants suffering from tuberculosis that involves feeding them at least 400 pills a day.The jumbo effort by staff at the Karachi Safari Park involves administering the tablets — the same as those used to treat TB in humans — hidden inside food ranging from apples and bananas, to Pakistani sweetsThe amount of medication is adjusted to account for the weight of the 4,000-kilogram (8,800-pound) elephants.But it has taken Madhubala and Malika several weeks to settle into the treatment after spitting out the first few doses they tasted of the bitter medicine, and crankily charging their keepers “Giving treatment for TB to elephants is always challenging. Each day we use different methods,” said Buddhika Bandara, a veterinary surgeon from Sri Lanka who flew in to oversee the treatment.”The animals showed some stress in the beginning, but gradually they adapted to the procedure,” said Bandara, who has helped more than a dozen elephants recover from the illness in Sri Lanka.Mahout Ali Baloch wakes early daily to stew rice and lentils, mixed with plenty of sugar cane molasses, and rolls the concoction into dozens of balls pierced with the tablets.”I know the pills are bitter,” the 22-year-old said, watching the elephants splashing under a hose to keep cool.- From humans to elephants -Four African elephants — captured very young in the wild in Tanzania — arrived in Karachi in 2009.Noor Jehan died in 2023 at the age of 17, and another, Sonia, followed at the end of 2024. An autopsy showed she had contracted tuberculosis, which is endemic in Pakistan.Tests carried out on Madhubala and Malika also came back positive, and the city council — which owns the safari park — assembled a team to care for the pachyderms.Bandara said it is not uncommon for elephants to contract the contagious illness from humans, but that Sonia — and now Madhubala and Malika — had shown no symptoms.”It was surprising for me that elephants have TB,” said Naseem Salahuddin, head of the Infectious Disease Department at the Indus Hospital and Health Network, who was enrolled to monitor staff.”This is an interesting case for me and my students — everyone wants to know about the procedure and its progress,” she told AFP.The team of four mahouts wear face masks and scrubs when feeding the elephants to avoid contracting a disease that infects more than 500,000 humans a year.Karachi Safari Park has long been criticised for the mistreatment of captive animals — including an elephant evacuated after a campaign by American singer Cher — but is hopeful its last two elephants will overcome the illness with a year-long treatment plan.

Teenage sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi hit a half-century as Rajasthan Royals ended their IPL season with a consolation six-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings on Tuesday.The 14-year-old Suryavanshi, who made waves after he struck a record 35-ball century last month, hit 57 off 33 balls as Rajasthan chased down 188 with 17 balls to spare in New Delhi.Suryavanshi, who announced himself on the IPL stage in emphatic style by launching his first ball in the competition for six, set up the chase in his knock laced with four fours and fours sixes.”I don’t have words for Vaibhav, he can hit a slower ball over cover,” Rajasthan skipper Sanju Samson said. “Today when the middle overs were going on, he was going with his job very smartly. He has game awareness at such a young age.”Dhruv Jurel sealed the win with his unbeaten 31 off 12 balls.Both teams had already bowed out of the play-off race but Rajasthan stay above bottom-placed Chennai in the 10-team table with four wins in 14 matches.Five-time champions Chennai, led by 43-year-old M.S. Dhoni, have one more match to go in the league phase.Leaders Gujarat Titans, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings have all qualified for the playoffs. Five-time winners Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals are competing for the final play-off spot.Chennai had their chances including when veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin struck in the space of five balls to send back Samson (41) and Suryavanshi.Jurel soon eased the pressure with boundaries in the next over and despite the loss of another wicket in Riyan Parag, Rajasthan raced to victory.Jurel hit the winning six with Shimron Hetmyer at the other end on 12.Yashasvi Jaiswal contributed with 36 off 19 balls in a brisk opening stand of 37 with Suryavanshi.- Impressive Mhatre -Chennai recovered to reach 187-8 after they slipped to 78-5 inside eight overs, batting first on a hot and humid evening in the Indian capital.”If you look at the amount of runs we had put on the board, it was very good,” said Dhoni. “But you got to see the wickets column as it puts pressure on the lower-middle order that you might not bat 20 overs.”Teenage opener Ayush Mhatre lifted the team after two early wickets with his 20-ball 43 before his dismissal triggered a mini-collapse.The 17-year-old Mhatre, who has impressed in his debut year with a top score of 94, hit eight fours and one six before falling to medium-pace bowler Tushar Deshpande.Sri Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga took down Ashwin and seam bowler Yudhvir Singh struck for the third time to remove Ravindra Jadeja as Chennai lost half their side in 7.4 overs.South African batter Dewald Brevis made 42 and rebuilt the innings in a 59-run stand with Shivam Dube (39).Rajasthan’s bowlers pulled things back in the end as they gave away just 17 runs from the last three overs.Seam bowler Akash Madhwal returned figures of 3-29 to be named player of the match.The IPL resumed last Saturday after being paused due to a deadly conflict between India and Pakistan, forcing a revised schedule with the final now on June 3 in Ahmedabad.

Rising temperatures in Pakistan’s most populous province have forced the provincial government to close all private and public schools for summer vacations early, officials said on Tuesday.Punjab province’s education minister Rana Sikander Hayat said summer vacations will now start from May 28 instead of June 1.Class times have also been changed, with all educational institutes instructed to close two hours early at 11:30 am “due to a constant heatwave”, a notification issued by the education department said.Pakistan, one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of global warming, has been experiencing unusually high temperatures after a particularly dry winter.Temperatures soared to near-record highs for the month of April, reaching as high as 46.5 degrees Celsius (115.7 degrees Fahrenheit) in parts of Punjab.An alert issued on Monday by the national meteorological agency forecast that northern parts of the province, currently in the grip of a heatwave, will see daytime temperatures rise “5 to 7C above normal”.An Education Department representative told AFP the early closures were announced because of the weather.”We had to move up the summer vacation schedule because of these heatwaves,” the representative said.Schools in the province that serve tens of millions of children also closed for a week in May last year because of excessive heat, and for several weeks in November because of high levels of toxic smog that blanketed several cities.

Thousands of drivers from ride-hailing and food delivery apps protested in Indonesia on Tuesday, demanding a 10-percent cap on commission fees.Hundreds of drivers gathered in the streets of the capital Jakarta, driving their motorbikes and waving flags.Thousands more in Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya drove to the offices of ride-hailing apps GoJek and Grab, before rallying in front of the governor’s office, an AFP journalist saw.”Many of our friends got into accidents on the road, died on the road because they have to chase their income,” Raden Igun Wicaksono, chairman of the driver’s union Garda Indonesia, told AFP.”It’s about lives, not about business calculation.”Drivers are also demanding the end of discounted fare programmes and calling on lawmakers to meet with the drivers’ association and app companies.Motorbike and scooter drivers who form the backbone of Indonesia’s sprawling gig economy earn up to 150,000 rupiah ($10) a day, but costs including app commissions and fuel eat into their income.Gojek — which alongside Singapore’s Grab is among Asia’s most valuable start-ups — said it was committed to “supporting the long-term welfare of our driver partners”.But lowering its 20-percent commission fee, which complied with regulations, was “not a viable solution”, according to Ade Mulya, head of public policy for Gojek’s parent company GoTo.”Reducing the commission to 10 percent is not a viable solution, as the current 20 percent commission from customer trip fares is essential to fund initiatives that directly support the sustainability of the ecosystem and driver income,” Ade said.Tirza Munusamy, Grab Indonesia’s head of public affairs, said the company’s commission structure was “necessary” to maintain the quality of service.”If this commission structure were to be significantly reduced, the impact would go beyond service quality — it would threaten the sustainability of an ecosystem that supports millions of people,” Tirza said, adding that Grab was open for dialogue to ensure policies remain relevant for drivers.

Just over a week after a ceasefire with India was struck, Pakistan’s foreign minister is visiting his country’s largest arms supplier, China, with the performance of the weapons they supplied a matter of burning interest for analysts and governments alike.The most striking claim from four days of fighting earlier this month was Islamabad’s contention its Chinese-supplied jets had shot down six Indian aircraft — including three French-made Rafale fighters — with some observers seeing this as a symbol of Beijing’s rising military might.Experts who spoke to AFP cautioned that a lack of confirmed information and the limited scope of fighting made it difficult to draw solid conclusions about the Chinese equipment’s prowess.Still, “this was a rare opportunity for the international community to gauge Chinese military hardware on the battlefield against Western (Indian) hardware”, said Lyle Morris from the Asia Society Policy Institute.  While China pours hundreds of billions of dollars into defence spending each year, it lags far behind the United States as an arms exporter.China’s drones are used in counter-terrorism operations, and its weapons have been deployed by Saudi Arabia in Yemen and against rebel forces in African countries, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) senior researcher Siemon Wezeman told AFP.”But this is the first time since the 1980s that a state has used large numbers of Chinese weapons of many types in action against another state,” said Wezeman, referencing the Iran-Iraq war when they were used on both sides.- ‘Primary option’ -Pakistan accounts for around 63 percent of China’s arms exports, according to SIPRI.In the recent fighting, Pakistan used the J10-C Vigorous Dragon and JF-17 Thunder planes, armed with air-to-air missiles.It was the first time the J10-C has been used in active combat, said the Stimson Center’s Yun Sun.Islamabad’s air defences also used Chinese kit — including the HQ-9P long-range surface-to-air missile system — and deployed Chinese radar as well as armed and reconnaissance drones.”This was the first sustained fight where the bulk of Pakistan’s forces used Chinese weapons and, basically, relied on them as their primary option,” said Bilal Khan, founder of the Toronto-based Quwa Defence News & Analysis Group. India has not officially confirmed any of its aircraft were lost, although a senior security source told AFP three jets had crashed on home soil without giving the make or cause.Rafale maker Dassault has also not commented.The Rafale is considered one of Europe’s most high-tech jets, while the J10-C “is not even China’s most advanced”, said James Char from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.But if Pakistan’s claims are true, “this should not be surprising… considering that the Rafale is a multirole fighter, whereas the J-10C was built for aerial combat and is also equipped with a stronger radar,” Char said.The Chinese air-defence systems, however, “do not appear to have been as effective as the Pakistan Air Force would have hoped”, said Quwa’s Khan, after India said it had neutralised one near the eastern border city of Lahore.If true, said SIPRI’s Wezeman, that “would be a bigger success and more than balance the loss of some aircraft in the process”.- ‘Significant reorientation’ -In the days after the dogfight reports, J10-C maker Chengdu Aircraft Company’s stock soared over forty percent.”We most likely will see more orders going to Chinese contractors,” said the Stimson Center’s Sun.However, “it will take time and significant reorientation by Chinese arms manufacturers for the country to be a big arms exporter”, said Jennifer Kavanagh from the US think tank Defense Priorities.She noted that China “cannot mass-produce certain key inputs, including aircraft engines”.Wezeman said he thought the stock markets “overreacted”, as “we still have to see how well all the weapons used worked and if it really means much”.Even if more data emerges, the conflict still does not reveal much about the Chinese military’s own capabilities, the analysts said.China’s own systems and weapons are much more advanced than what it exports.And while having high-tech hardware is important, “much more important is how those weapons are used”, said Kavanagh.Brian Hart of CSIS said he would caution against “reading too much” into recent developments.”I don’t think you can make direct comparisons to how these Chinese-made systems would fare in different environments against more advanced adversaries like the United States,” he explained.”Since the number of data points is small and since we don’t know much about the proficiency and training of the personnel on either side, it is hard to draw definitive conclusions,” said Kavanagh.