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These are the key developments on day 1,118 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.Here is the roundup of key events on Tuesday, March 18. Fighting One person was injured and a fire broke out in an oil refinery in Russia’s Astrakhan following a Ukrainian drone attack, the region’s governor, Igor Babushkin, said. Moscow’s Ministry of Defence said its forces destroyed 72 Ukrainian drones over various Russian regions overnight, including 36 over the Kursk area. Russian troops also seized the village of Stepove in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, the ministry said. The Ukrainian Air Force said its air defence units shot down 90…

New Zealand men’s openers went on a six-hitting blitz on Tuesday to thrash Pakistan by five wickets and go 2-0 up in their Twenty20 series. The home side reached 137-5 with 11 balls to spare in Dunedin to take control of the five-match series after Pakistan posted 135-9 off 15 overs in a rain-reduced second match. New Zealand’s highlight was a ferocious opening stand between Tim Seifert and Finn Allen in which seven of the first eight scoring shots were sixes. Remarkably, Seifert played out a maiden off Shaheen Shah Afridi’s opening over before Allen cleared the small University Oval…

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya is hosting the Dutch king and queen as allegations of human rights abuses are mounting in the East African country, with Kenyans writing hundreds of emails and petitioning the royals to cancel their visit.Kenya’s government has been accused of arresting and detaining critics, especially after the June anti-government protests, during which demonstrators stormed parliament and torched a section of the building because they were angry over new taxes passed by legislators.Along with cracking down on demonstrators and curbing free speech, the country also saw state-linked abductions of young men for social media posts deemed offensive…

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya is hosting the Dutch king and queen as allegations of human rights abuses are mounting in the East African country, with Kenyans writing hundreds of emails and petitioning the royals to cancel their visit.Kenya’s government has been accused of arresting and detaining critics, especially after the June anti-government protests, during which demonstrators stormed parliament and torched a section of the building because they were angry over new taxes passed by legislators.Along with cracking down on demonstrators and curbing free speech, the country also saw state-linked abductions of young men for social media posts deemed offensive…

ALLOW this to be an emotional tribute to the memory of Syed Abid Ali, cricket hero of one’s childhood when cricket was played as a gentleman’s game. Abid Ali, who passed away at 83 in California last week, played cricket as an all-rounder and had all the attributes of the fine gentleman that he was. Making his Test debut against Australia in Brisbane, Abid Ali revealed his bowling prowess. In his first-ever Test match, he claimed six wickets for 55 runs, a remarkable feat that announced his arrival on the international stage. In the same Australia series, enthusiasts recall, he…

A Columbia University student says the subject of bedbugs never arose after he was arrested and flown to a Louisiana detention center by authorities who now say bedbugs helped force the long journey that made him fear he was being immediately deported for his role in campus protests against Israel.Mahmoud Khalil said in a declaration filed in Manhattan federal court Monday that while he was held overnight at a detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, “I did not hear anyone mention bedbugs.” Khalil made the statement in an exhibit attached to court papers in which his lawyers asked that he…

MIRRA Andreeva of Russia poses with the championship trophy after winning the women’s final of the Indian Wells Open.—Reuters INDIAN WELLS: Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva came back to beat world number one Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday, making the 17-year-old the tournament’s youngest champion since Serena Williams in 1999. The 11th-ranked Andreeva improved to 19-3 this season — the most wins by a woman on tour — and collected her second Masters 1000 title of 2025. The other came at Dubai in February, which earned her a top-10 ranking for the first time.…

LAHORE: Former Paki­stan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has expressed his concerns over the country’s constant decline cricket and attributed it to the mistakes at the administrative level. Speaking to reporters in Lahore, Inzamam said Pakistan had been undergoing a rapid decline since the last two years. “We are not working in the right direction and making the wrong calls in many areas,” he said. The former chief selector warned that the team would continue to spiral downwards if there is no planning and execution. He blamed frequent changes in the team’s management, coaches, and players for the chaotic situation. “I would think…

US president says files contain ‘a lot of reading’ about assassination that has fuelled conspiracy theories for decades.United States President Donald Trump has said his administration will on Tuesday release approximately 80,000 pages of files about the assassination of John F Kennedy, whose killing has fuelled conspiracy theories for more than six decades. Speaking at the Kennedy Center on Monday, Trump said the release will contain “a lot of reading” about the assassination of the 35th US president, who was killed in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. “I don’t believe we are going to redact anything. I said, ‘just…

Users on social media have discovered a controversial use case for Google’s new Gemini AI model: removing watermarks from images, including from images published by Getty Images and other well-known stock media outfits. Last week, Google expanded access to its Gemini 2.0 Flash model’s image generation feature, which lets the model natively generate and edit image content. It’s a powerful capability, by all accounts. But it also appears to have few guardrails. Gemini 2.0 Flash will uncomplainingly create images depicting celebrities and copyrighted characters, and — as alluded to earlier — remove watermarks from existing photos. New skill unlocked: Gemini…