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LAHORE: It was a quiet Sunday, the buzz of the Champions Trophy conspicuous by its absence in Lahore. The last-four lineup had been confirmed; the stage reached at which any tournament across any sport builds towards its crescendo. Any excitement, if there was any, was discreet, unnoticeable. India’s takeover of the first International Cricket Council tournament in Pakistan in nearly three decades was complete. Pakistan was left picking the pieces, it now has to start afresh in its bid to inject enthusiasm back into the tournament. On Sunday, none of the semi-finalist teams were in the country. They were all…

DUBAI: New Zealand go into their Champions Trophy semi-final against South Africa in Lahore on Wednesday buoyed by beating the Proteas at the same venue in a tri-series last month. The Black Caps lost to India in their final Group ‘A’ match on Sunday in Dubai but Tom Latham said it would have no bearing on the encounter for a place in the final. More relevant is that New Zealand chased down 305 against South Africa in Lahore after Kane Williamson scored 133 and also beat hosts Pakistan in the tri-series. “We’re fortunate that we had a tri-series in Pakistan…

BARCELONA: Barcelona returned to the top of the La Liga table and wrested back control of the title race with a comfortable 4-0 home victory over 10-man Real Sociedad on Sunday. Barcelona’s sixth straight league win moved them into first place with 57 points from 26 games, one ahead of Atletico Madrid. Defending champions Real Madrid are third with 54 points after a 2-1 defeat at Real Betis on Saturday. “We’re happy about the way we played. It was important to win today, to go first in the table. We’re happy and we feel that we’re working really well,” said…

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — At a classical orchestra, a conductor’s raised hands often means the start of a performance. Tracing shapes in the air could point to how each beat must come. And one’s free fingers can often signal a shift in dynamics.Subtle hand signs likewise coordinate the hundreds of pounding drummers in each of the glitzy Carnival parades in Rio de Janeiro.The roughly 70,000 spectators filling the bleachers each of the three nights of parades will be eager to see flamboyant costumes, towering floats and jaw-dropping dancers passing by. But for many samba fanatics, drums are the beating…

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Officials rushed to reschedule Mardi Gras celebrations and warned revelers against brining umbrellas and tents as powerful storms with a threat of tornadoes were expected to strike Louisiana and other parts of the South on Tuesday.New Orleans moved up its two biggest Mardi Gras Day parades and cut down their routes to try to avoid the potentially destructive weather. Police were also expected to keep the hundreds of participants and dozens of floats moving quickly so they finished before winds were predicted to pick up, according to New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick.The alarming forecast was…

DECATUR, Ga. (AP) — Outside Beacon Hill Middle School in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur, like along hundreds of roadsides across Georgia, the unblinking eye of a camera tickets drivers who speed through a school zone.Supporters say cameras slow down drivers and provide constant enforcement that understaffed police departments can’t equal. But some state lawmakers want to ban them, saying the cameras are more about generating money for local governments and camera companies, and that some use them deceptively.More than 20 states and the District of Columbia allow automated traffic cameras to issue speeding tickets, but more than 10 other…

Thought Pokémon was a tough benchmark for AI? One group of researchers argues that Super Mario Bros. is even tougher. Hao AI Lab, a research org at the University of California San Diego, on Friday threw AI into live Super Mario Bros. games. Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 performed the best, followed by Claude 3.5. Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro and OpenAI’s GPT-4o struggled. It wasn’t quite the same version of Super Mario Bros. as the original 1985 release, to be clear. The game ran in an emulator and integrated with a framework, GamingAgent, to give the AIs control over Mario. Image Credits:Hao…

Google Gemini users can now access the AI chatbot directly from the iPhone’s lock screen, thanks to an update released on Monday first spotted by 9to5Google. Users can now call up Gemini Live, Google’s relatively real-time voice feature for its AI chatbot, before they unlock their phone by adding a Gemini widget to their lock screen. Talk with Gemini Live from the iphone’s lock screen.Image Credits:Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch As Apple’s version of an AI-enabled Siri reportedly faces delays until 2027, competitors in the AI space are stepping in to supply iPhone users with AI assistants of their own. These…

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Cat lovers in Indian-controlled Kashmir were thrown into a tizzy. Panic spread and local veterinarians saw a surge in pet owners coming in with their cats — all because of posts that went viral on social media.It began with a warning in January from veterinarians in the disputed Himalayan region, where the cat population has soared over the past years, partly because of stray cats roaming free and pet stores bringing in ever more costly breeds to keep up with local demand. The vets said there’s been an uptick in infections among the feline population due…

There’s lots of scrutiny involving China obtaining advanced Nvidia chips despite strict U.S. export controls, with Chinese merchants already reportedly ordering Nvidia’s powerful Blackwell GPUs. On Thursday, Singaporean police arrested three men for allegedly smuggling Nvidia chips, Channel News Asia reported. The men, two Singaporeans and one Chinese citizen, were charged with fraud over a supply of servers. Singapore is investigating whether the servers — made by Dell and Supermicro — contained restricted Nvidia chips and were diverted somewhere other than their official destination of Malaysia, Bloomberg reported. Nvidia’s latest annual report shows that it does sell to Singapore. The…