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For millions of Hindu pilgrims at India’s millennia-old vast Kumbh Mela festival, the culmination of their journey is ritual bathing in the holy waters where sacred rivers meet.And for as long as anyone can remember, it has been generations of boatmen from the Nishad community who have provided the ferry service, rowing devotees to the holiest site at the confluence of rivers.”We bring the devotees to the holy place in our boat,” said 52-year-old boatman Chhote Lal Nishad, returning after taking six pilgrims out on the water at dawn in his narrow wooden boat.”We allow pilgrims to bathe with love and happiness and then return safely.”Nishad boatmen say they are the proud inheritors of an ancient profession, not only transporting pilgrims but narrating the significance of the waters and the religious history of the Kumbh Mela.With years of navigation experience, they often help rescue drowning bathers.Hindus believe that those who immerse themselves in the waters cleanse themselves of sin, breaking free from the cycle of rebirth and ultimately attaining salvation. Nishad boatmen row the pilgrims throughout the year, but trade surges during the Kumbh Mela, a six-week-long Hindu celebration of prayer and bathing, held every 12 years, which runs until February 26.Tens of millions of people are attending the festival in the north Indian city of Prayagraj.Viraj Nishad, 23, from the same community as Chhote Lal Nishad but no relation, is part of the new generation of rowers, carrying forward his father’s legacy.”It is because of us that devotees can visit the holy site and take a dip in the river,” he said with pride.- ‘Joy and experience’ -Normally, the boatmen take pilgrims to the heart of the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, where Hindus believe the mythical Saraswati river also flows.But the authorities have this year barred the boatmen from the busiest areas during the festival for safety reasons.”The river is the only support for the Nishad community,” said Chhote Lal Nishad, who has been rowing pilgrims since he was a boy. “If there is no river we will die of hunger.””I had great hopes that I would be able to earn some money for the children,” he added. “That hope is shattered.”Organisers say the scale of the Kumbh Mela is that of a temporary country, boasting that as many as 400 million pilgrims are expected to attend.Last month, at least 30 people were killed and many more injured after a surging crowd spilled out of a police cordon and trampled bystanders.The boatmen are still taking pilgrims to holy bathing sites, but slightly away from the confluence thronged with crowds.They remain busy despite the restriction for many pilgrims say they prefer the traditional boats rather than larger modern crafts.”The wooden boat moves slowly, and the joy and experience… is something which you cannot feel in modern boats,” said Ajeet Kaur Prajapati, 60, from the capital Delhi.”The pleasure of eating food cooked by your mother is the same pleasure as travelling in a wooden boat,” she said.

Growing up in the rugged northern reaches of Pakistan, Anita Karim honed her combat skills fighting with three older brothers who pulled no punches.The bruising experience prepared her for a career in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) — blending Thai kickboxing, Japanese judo and wrestling — and she is now the nation’s pre-eminent woman fighter.”The village where I come from, they support women fighters,” she told AFP. “But when I started MMA, they had no awareness of this sport.””They said it’s a men’s game exclusively and a woman cannot do that one,” the 28-year-old said.Eight years ago she won the right to enter the ring, swiftly becoming Pakistan’s first internationally competing woman MMA fighter and appearing in Asia’s biggest promotion, ONE Championship.”Now misogynistic comments and criticisms have stopped,” she said at her gym in the capital Islamabad, where she trains without heating in the octagonal “cage” where fighters face off.It is unusual for women to take up sport in deeply conservative Pakistan, where it is often forbidden by families.But Karim’s native Gilgit-Baltistan region — where female modesty codes are more relaxed — has become an incubator for women’s sport.In October, two sisters from the region, Maliha and Maneesha Ali, brought back gold and bronze from a taekwondo competition in Indonesia.- ‘Arm collector’ – Karim’s brother Uloomi, who became her coach after being on the receiving end of her blows, said support began at home.”When she showed the commitment, the dedication, we knew that she was going to make it,” said the 33-year-old, standing in their family-owned gym.”We knew that she could take it and we did not have any issues with her training with any guy.”Surprisingly timid outside the ring, Karim is at the head of a cohort of Pakistani female MMA fighters — five from Gilgit-Baltistan, according to the regional government.”She’s shy, but when she enters the cage, it’s completely different,” said Uloomi, who has also competed in the sport.Her speciality is the armlock, deployed with an agonising all-body grip, which aims to force an opponent to “tap out” in submission  before bones are broken or joints wrecked.In 2022 she was pictured atop a podium in Pakistan with two opponents wearing slings on their injured arms — a performance that earned her the nickname “the arm collector”.”They could have tapped to stop the fight, but they didn’t, so I went through with it,” she said.- ‘Part of the game’ – In her hometown, Karim originally trained in taekwondo and jiu-jitsu before discovering MMA at high school in Islamabad — to the consternation of her community back home.”A lot of people close to me criticised me, but that’s part of the game. Now they know how it works,” she said.The message emanating from her hometown now is one of pride.”The way she has made the name of Gilgit-Baltistan and all of Pakistan shine on the international level, serves as a lesson,” said the regional government’s sports chief Shah Muhammad.After losing on her professional debut in 2018, where the referee refused to let her fight unless she raised her leggings above the knee, she moved to Thailand to train at an MMA academy.She now earns a living from competition prizes, modest government grants and coaching at her Islamabad gym. When she returns after competitions, small crowds gather to greet her at the airport and she is followed by a fledgling community of female fighters.They too want to turn professional in a nation where only one in five women have jobs, according to United Nations figures.”Anita is a role model for us,” said Bushra Ahmed, a few years Karim’s junior and out of breath as she trains alongside her, another woman and a dozen men.Karim also wants to “give Pakistani women confidence and self-defence techniques”, with over 80 percent having been victims of public harassment, according to the UN.Recently she “hit a man who was harassing me in a market in Islamabad,” Karim said”He left with his face stained with blood.”

Joe Root will play a “crucial role” in India on his ODI return and as they build up to the Champions Trophy this month, England captain Jos Buttler said Wednesday.The visitors went down 4-1 in the preceding T20 series and now face India in three ODI matches starting with Thursday’s opener in Nagpur.The 34-year-old Root, a top-order batsman and England’s former Test captain, last played an ODI at the 2023 World Cup in India and will now take field as England named their XI on the eve of the match.”He’ll bat number three,” Buttler told reporters of Root, who was not involved in the T20 series.”He’s one of the great players of the game, so in all the formats here he’s obviously been a vital part of ODI cricket for England for a long time,” he added.”I’m excited to see him in this sort of phase of his career where he’s done in the Tests, where he’s not had the captaincy, sort of back with that cheeky smile on his face and really enjoying his cricket… he’s got a crucial role for us.”The India matches come ahead of the Champions Trophy, the premier one-day tournament after the World Cup.It starts on February 19 and is hosted by Pakistan and Dubai.”Obviously the Champions Trophy is just around the corner so it’s great to play against the top side,” Buttler said.England are known for their aggressive brand of cricket with coach Brendon McCullum and Test skipper Ben Stokes adopting an attacking “Bazball” strategy even in the five-day format.McCullum is coaching England for the first time in white-ball cricket and wants to bring the same fearless approach.”If I look back at that World Cup, the two teams in the final were playing a really positive and aggressive round of cricket,” Buttler said of the 2023 one-day final, in which Australia beat hosts India.Buttler weighed in on the future of 50-over cricket, which has taken a hit because of the popularity of the T20 format.”It’s certainly been pushed a little bit towards the margins in the recent years,” said Buttler.”But I still believe if you talk to guys about winning a World Cup, they’d probably say a 50-over World Cup ahead of a T20 World Cup.”England XI: Phil Salt (wk), Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (capt), Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood.

India skipper Rohit Sharma on Wednesday insisted his recent Test struggles were just part of the “ups and downs” of a long career as he looks to rediscover his form in three one-day internationals against England.The two teams will begin the ODI series on Thursday in Nagpur with an eye on the upcoming 50-over Champions Trophy.Rohit and former captain Virat Kohli, who both retired from T20 internationals following India’s World Cup win in the shortest format last year, join the ODI set-up after India beat the visitors 4-1 in the preceding T20 series.Rohit and Kohli have been short on runs in Tests, with the captain scoring just 31 in three matches when India lost 3-1 in Australia.”This is a different format, different time,” the 37-year-old Rohit told reporters.”As cricketers there will be ups and downs and I have faced a lot in my career. This is nothing new to me. We know everyday is a fresh day, every series is a fresh series.”It’s important that I focus on what is coming up and what lies ahead for me, look to try and start this series on a high.”Both Rohit and Kohli, 36, have come under fire for their poor form, while youngsters Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma and Shivam Dube sparkled during the T20 series.Rohit averaged less than 25 with the bat in 14 Tests in 2024 — his lowest ever average for a calendar year.He left himself out for the final Test against Australia in Sydney, sparking speculation he could retire from the five-day game.”How is this relevant that I talk about my future plans sitting here where there are three ODIs and a Champions Trophy coming in?” he said.”The reports are going on for a number of years but I am not here to clarify those reports. My focus is on these games, we will see what happens afterwards.”Kohli himself managed an average of just 24.52 last year as part of a wider slump in the five-day game since 2019.He made his first appearance in domestic first-class cricket since 2012 for Delhi in an attempt to regain form last week but was dismissed for just six in his only innings.- Bumrah sidelined -Meanwhile, India fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah is racing against time to be fit for the Champions Trophy starting February 19 after he missed the final day’s play of the Sydney Test in Australia in January due to a back injury.Rohit said an update on his recovery and return will be available once a report on his scans is received in about two days.Mohammed Shami will lead India’s pace attack in the ODIs after recovering from a heel injury and participating in domestic cricket and the recent T20 series with mixed returns.”He has not played cricket for a year-and-a-half. Don’t be quick to judge players,” Rohit said of Shami.”He has been playing cricket for the last 10-12 years and performed for the team. He bowled so well in the World Cup (2023). If he doesn’t get the results in some domestic matches as expected then it doesn’t make him a bad bowler.”

Australia are on guard for a spin trap when the second and final Test gets underway in Galle on Thursday despite an unassailable lead in the series.Steve Smith’s men blew the hosts out of the water in the opening contest, winning by an innings and 242 runs -– the heaviest defeat Sri Lanka has suffered in Test cricket. That game — also played in Galle — was on a good batting deck, but the pitch for the second Test looks a different beast altogether.”This looks like a very dry surface. Dare say it’s going to turn square,” Smith told reporters on Wednesday. “We’re not naming a team just yet. We’ll take a call in the morning once we have a better read on the conditions.”Despite already bagging the Warne-Murali Trophy and a place in the World Test Championship final secured, Smith has no intention of taking the foot off the pedal and wants a sweep.”I thought we played really well last week, controlling the game from the outset. We didn’t do that last time we were here, so it would be a great achievement to win 2-0,” he said.- ‘Failed to kick on’ -Sri Lanka are expected to shuffle the pack for the second Test after the last bruising innings loss. Opening batsman Pathum Nissanka is set to return, having recovered from a groin injury, and will replace Oshada Fernando.Off-spinner Ramesh Mendis is likely to come back into the XI in place of Nishan Peiris, whose 41 wicketless overs leaked 189 runs in the first Test.”Pathum has been declared fit and he will play. But we haven’t finalised our bowling combination yet,” Sri Lanka skipper Dhananjaya de Silva said.De Silva admitted that Sri Lanka let themselves down with the bat in the opener. “It wasn’t the typical Galle wicket last time around. It was a disappointing Test match because we should have batted much better than that,” he said. “Too many guys got starts but failed to kick on. We know where things went wrong, and we’re looking to correct those mistakes.”Sri Lanka will also be playing for one of their finest openers, Dimuth Karunaratne, who is set to retire after what will be his 100th Test appearance.”Dimuth has been a fabulous leader and an exceptional player,” de Silva said. “He has done some amazing things for the team and, without a doubt, ranks as the best opening batter Sri Lanka has ever produced. We want to give him a fitting farewell.”SquadsAustralia: Steve Smith (capt), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cooper Connolly, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Nathan McSweeney, Todd Murphy, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster.Sri Lanka: Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), Dimuth Karunaratne, Oshada Fernando, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews, Kamindu Mendis, Kusal Mendis (wk), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Prabath Jayasuriya, Jeffrey Vandersay, Nishan Peiris, Asitha Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Milan Rathnayake.

Health workers are braving freezing temperatures this week to administer polio vaccinations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir after cases surged nationwide last year.Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are the only countries where polio is endemic, and militants have for decades targeted vaccination teams and their security escorts.A police officer guarding polio vaccinators in the northwest was shot dead by militants on Monday, the first day of the annual campaign that is due to last a week.In Kashmir, health worker Manzoor Ahmad trudged up snowy mountains as temperatures dipped to minus six degrees Celsius (21 degrees Fahrenheit) to administer polio vaccinations in the region. “It is a mountainous, hard area… we arrive here for polio vaccination despite the three feet of snowfall,” Ahmad, who heads the polio campaign in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, told AFP.- Huge risk -Social worker Mehnaz, who goes by one name and has been helping the vaccinators since 2018, said the difficult climate poses a huge risk to the vaccination teams.”We have no monthly salary… we come here to give polio shots to the children despite the glaciers and avalanches,” she told AFP.”We risk our lives and leave our children at home.”The challenge is larger this year for the country with a population of 240 million, after it recorded at least 73 polio cases in 2024 — a sharp increase from just six cases the year before.Health workers aim to vaccinate approximately 1,700 children within a week in the town of Surgan, around 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.”Our target is to give polio shots to 750,000 children below the age of five. There are 4,000 polio teams that visit house-to-house,” Ahmad said.”There have been no polio cases in Kashmir for the last 24 years,” he added with pride.Polio can easily be prevented by an oral vaccine, but in the past some Islamic religious leaders have falsely claimed that the vaccine contains pork or alcohol, declaring it forbidden for Muslims to consume.

Myanmar’s junta failed in an attempt to auction Aung San Suu Kyi’s lakeside mansion on Wednesday, with no bids submitted for the former democracy leader’s home — the third time the sale has flopped.The two-storey Yangon house, on about 0.8 hectares (1.9 acres) of land, was put up for sale with a minimum price of $140 million following a lengthy legal wrangle over the property between the Nobel laureate and her brother.Suu Kyi, who spent years under house arrest at the mansion under a former junta, has been detained since the military seized power once again in February 2021.Around a dozen journalists, watched over by security personnel in plain clothes, attended the kerbside sale run by junta-appointed officials outside the colonial-era house on leafy University Avenue, a few doors from the US embassy.After calling for bids starting from 297 billion kyats — around $140 million at the official exchange rate — and getting no response, the auctioneer called off the sale, AFP reporters at the scene saw.”I announce the auction is not successful after calling for bids three times,” the auctioneer said.The sale is being run by junta-appointed officials on behalf of Suu Kyi’s estranged brother Aung San Oo, who won a court ruling granting him ownership of half of the property. Aung San Oo, who has lived outside Myanmar for decades, agreed the minimum sale price with the junta, which has run two previous unsuccessful auctions, in March and August last year.With Myanmar’s economy shattered by the civil war triggered by the military coup, it is unclear who in the country would be in a position to spend $140 million on a single, increasingly dilapidated property.Real estate agents say similar-sized properties in upmarket Yangon areas might fetch $1 million to $2 million. The house holds a special place in Myanmar history — Suu Kyi was confined within its crumbling walls for around 15 years after shooting to fame during huge demonstrations against the then-junta in 1988.Cut off from her husband and children in England, Suu Kyi spent time playing the piano, reading detective novels and meditating as her status as a democracy leader grew.Hundreds of people would regularly gather on the pavement outside to hear her talk about democracy and fighting military rule through non-violence.After her release in 2010 she continued living at the villa, receiving a string of foreign leaders — including then US president Barack Obama, journalists and diplomats.Suu Kyi, 79, is serving a 27-year prison sentence on charges ranging from corruption to not respecting Covid-19 pandemic restrictions — charges rights groups say are a junta sham designed to eliminate her politically.

Dimuth Karunaratne said he had fulfilled a childhood dream after the Sri Lanka opener announced that his 100th Test, against Australia starting Thursday, will be his last.The 36-year-old former skipper was a rock at the top of the Sri Lankan order for more than a decade, but has gone 25 innings without a century. The second Test against Australia in Galle will be his farewell to the five-day game. “As a kid my only dream was to play just one Test match,” Karunaratne, who has scored 7,172 runs in his 99 Tests, said on Wednesday.”Reaching 100 Tests is something truly special. But as you may have heard, this will also be my last.”You have to take stock of things and make a call at the right time. I’m at peace with my decision.”Renowned for his cool head and affable nature, Karunaratne also proved a shrewd leader.Taking over the captaincy at a turbulent time in 2019, he steadied the ship and led Sri Lanka to a historic series win in South Africa. To this day, Sri Lanka remain the only Asian team to conquer the Proteas in their own backyard.”You always set goals in life and the beauty of the game is that you chase your dreams, though you may not achieve all of them,” Karunaratne said. Karunaratne relinquished the captaincy in 2023, saying it was time for younger cricketers to lead, and said Wednesday it was again time to “pass the baton to the next generation”. “There are so many talented young players waiting in the wings,” he added.Karunaratne said he planned to travel to Australia after the series to study coaching. “Then I want to come back and contribute to Sri Lankan cricket as a coach,” he added.Sri Lanka trail the two-match series after losing the opener by an innings and 242 runs, their worst-ever Test defeat.

Wild monkeys egged on by YouTubers have been rampaging at Cambodia’s famed Angkor Wat complex, attacking tourists, wrecking temple stonework and damaging information boards, officials said Wednesday.The agency that runs the UNESCO-listed site warned visitors to steer clear of the growing gangs of “aggressive” macaques that live around the sprawling complex of ruins and have been biting tourists.The macaques are native to the lush forests that surround Angkor Wat, but Apsara National Authority said human interaction — particularly by people filming content to post online — had changed their behaviour.A small number of YouTubers regularly fed monkeys to create videos and this has “changed the monkeys’ natural behaviour from being wild animals to domestic ones that are aggressive, steal foods, and cause injuries among people”, it said in a statement.Some have reportedly even filmed themselves abusing macaques.Long Kosal, a spokesman for the Apsara National Authority, told AFP that as well as the danger posed to tourists, the agency was increasingly worried about the monkeys damaging the centuries-old stonework.”On top of biting visitors, they have been climbing up and pushing stones down, damaging temples,” he said, adding that the macaques had also damaged information boards.The agency has urged tourists to leave the monkeys alone while visiting the ruins, and said it is looking for “an appropriate solution” to the problem.Angkor Wat, built from the 9th to the 15th centuries, was the capital of the Khmer Empire and is Cambodia’s top tourist attraction, bringing in valuable revenue to a poor country.More than a million foreign tourists visited the park last year.Since it became a world heritage site in 1992, Angkor Wat and the surrounding jungle have benefited from increased legal and physical protections.There are hopes that wildlife sightings will also spark interest in local and foreign tourists and boost conservation education efforts.Last year, the agricultural ministry announced a plan to conduct a census of monkeys in public areas and to identify and relocate those posing a danger to humans.