Free trade talks between India, Eurasian countries to start this year: Russian official
Discussions on a free trade agreement between India and the Eurasian Economic Union countries are expected to start this year, Russian Trade Commissioner in India, Andrey Sobolev, said on Monday.
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Arab News
4 hours ago
- Arab News
Virat Kohli fulfils IPL dream as Bengaluru beat Punjab for first title
AHMEDABAD: Batting legend Virat Kohli top-scored for Royal Challengers Bengaluru as they beat Punjab Kings by six runs on Tuesday to win their first Indian Premier League T20 43 from 35 balls at the top of the order set up Bengaluru for an imposing total of 190-9 which was one big blow too many for a Punjab side that battled until the end, finishing on than 91,000 fans packed into the 132,000-capacity stadium in Ahmedabad, a sea of Bengaluru's red and Kohli's jersey number 18 dominating the stands as chants of 'Kohli, Kohli' rang celebrated noisily when Kohli and RCB clinched victory for the first time in the 18 years of the IPL, their three previous finals having all ended in 36-year-old Kohli, one of India's all-time greats in all formats of the game, collapsed on the ground after the win and then got up to be hugged by his teammates as the crowd celebrated their faltered in their chase after left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya took 2-17 from his four Singh hit a valiant 61 not out and finished with three sixes and a four off Australian fast bowler Josh Hazlewood who defended 29 runs in the final who took 3-21 against Punjab in last week's qualifier win after recovering from a shoulder injury, struck first to send back left-handed Priyansh Arya for 24 with Phil Salt taking a stunning catch at the substitute Prabhsimran Singh was the next to go off Pandya but the Bengaluru crowd went wild when Romario Shepherd had skipper Shreyas Iyer caught behind for stuck again to cut short Australian wicketkeeper-batter Josh Inglis' stay on 39 and Bengaluru seized momentum and Shashank's late blitz was not had the perfect start as 'King Kohli' dug in. Far from his fluent best, he only struck three fours during his innings but in the end it turned out to be lost opening partner Salt for 16 when New Zealand quick Kyle Jamieson struck in his first over to have the England batter caught in the deep off anchored the innings, sharing important partnerships with Mayank Agarwal, who made 24, and then skipper Rajat Patidar, who hit Punjab kept chipping away with wickets as leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal got Agarwal and Jamieson trapped the captain vigil ended when he mistimed a rising delivery from Afghanistan pace bowler Azmatullah Omarzai for a caught and bowled, the disappointment etched across his face mirrored by his took his third wicket to cut short Liam Livingstone's rampant 25 off 15 kept tumbling as wicketkeeper-batsman Jitesh Sharma fell for a 10-ball 24 and Romario Shepherd for 17 off nine quick Arshdeep Singh took three wickets including Shepherd in the 20th over and gave away just three had defeated Punjab in the first playoff to book their fourth 18th edition of the world's richest cricket league ended nine days late due to a pause because of the military conflict between India and Pakistan.
Al Arabiya
4 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
South Korea's center-left leader Lee wins presidency
South Korea's center-left leader Lee Jae-myung hailed voters' 'great decision' as he was declared the winner of a snap presidential election early Wednesday, capping months of political chaos. Six months to the day after ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol plunged the country into crisis with his disastrous declaration of martial law, official results from the National Election Commission showed Lee had defeated conservative rival Kim Moon-soo, who had earlier conceded the race. Voter turnout was the highest in nearly three decades. 'I will humbly accept the choice of the people. Congratulations to the elected candidate Lee Jae-myung,' Kim said as the last ballots were still being counted. Lee had earlier thanked voters for placing their trust in him, saying he would do his 'utmost to fulfil the great responsibility and mission entrusted to me, so as not to disappoint the expectations of our people.' In a nod to South Korea's growing partisan divide, exacerbated by the chaos after Yoon's martial law bid, Lee said those that did not support him remained 'fellow citizens' and promised to 'move forward with hope and make a fresh start from this moment on.' He also promised to 'pursue dialogue, communication, and cooperation' between Seoul and its arch-enemy Pyongyang, with which relations plunged to their lowest level in years under Yoon's hawkish approach. Lee will take office almost immediately, as soon as the commission validates the tally, likely early Wednesday. With 96.74 percent of the total ballots counted overnight it was mathematically impossible for Kim to catch him, the official figures showed. Lee will face a bulging in-tray, including global trade vicissitudes chafing the export-driven economy, some of the world's lowest birth rates and an emboldened North Korea rapidly expanding its arsenal. Voter turnout was 79.4 percent – the highest since 1997. An exit poll by the three major broadcasters had earlier projected a victory for Lee, prompting his supporters to break into cheers outside the National Assembly, as party officials watching from inside the parliament started a chant of 'Lee Jae-myung.' For weeks, major polls had put Lee well ahead of Kim – Yoon's labor minister – who struggled with party infighting and failed to convince a third party candidate to unify and avoid splitting the right-wing vote. After months of turmoil and a revolving door of lame-duck acting leaders, many South Koreans said they were eager for the country to move forward. The fallout from Yoon's martial law declaration, which has left South Korea effectively leaderless for the first months of US President Donald Trump's tumultuous second term, was the decisive factor in the election, experts said. The vote was 'largely viewed as a referendum on the previous administration,' Kang Joo-hyun, a political science professor at Sookmyung Women's University, told AFP. Yoon's impeachment over his martial law bid, which saw armed soldiers deployed to parliament, made him the second straight conservative president to be stripped of office after Park Geun-hye in 2017. 'Lee's victory signals that the Korean public rejects illiberal and undemocratic measures such as martial law,' Gi-Wook Shin, a sociology professor at Stanford University, told AFP. 'This moment will likely be remembered as a peculiar and consequential turning point in South Korea's political history.' But Lee's success is due as much to his rivals' failings as his own strengths, said Minseon Ku, a postdoctoral researcher at the William & Mary Global Research Institute. 'Lee has a criminal record and was involved in several political and personal scandals,' Ku said. His rise to the presidency is 'a reflection of the deep political turmoil South Korea has been experiencing'. South Korean presidents serve a single five-year term. Police issued the highest level of alert and deployed thousands of officers to ensure the election plus the upcoming inauguration Wednesday proceed smoothly. Lee – who survived an assassination attempt last year – has been campaigning in a bullet-proof vest and delivering speeches behind a glass protective shield.
Asharq Al-Awsat
6 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
No Way to Restart Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant at Present, IAEA Chief Says
Conditions for restarting Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant do not exist at present due to a lack of water for cooling and the absence of a stable power supply, the head of the UN's nuclear safety watchdog said on Tuesday. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told Reuters in an interview in Kyiv that water would have to be pumped from the Dnipro River for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is currently shut down, to restart. The facility, in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, was occupied by Russia in March 2022, shortly after it launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Grossi said the Russians had "never hidden the fact" that they want to restart the plant, but they would not be able to do so soon. "We are not in a situation of imminent restart of the plant. Far from that, it would take quite some time before that can be done," Grossi said. The IAEA chief added that the plant's machinery, which has not been operating for three years, would have to be thoroughly inspected before any restart. Ukraine has said that an attempt by Russian technicians to restart the plant would be dangerous because they are not certified to operate the Zaporizhzhia plant. Grossi said Russian nuclear staff were capable of conducting a restart, and that the issue of certification was a political rather than technical one. Ukraine has also protested at the IAEA's monitoring mission to the plant accessing it via Russian-occupied territory. Grossi said this was to protect the safety of his staff, and that at present he does not have the necessary guarantees from the Russian side to safely transit IAEA staff through the frontlines to Ukraine-controlled territory, as had been done several times before.
