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Four police personnel and at least 88 militants have been killed in clashes in two Afghan provinces, authorities said Thursday. 

In eastern Paktia province, 51 Taliban militants were killed and several others wounded during a clash and ensuing airstrike in Band-e-Michalgho area of Ahmad Abad district at wee hours of Thursday, provincial police spokesman, Sardar Wali Tabasam told Xinhua. 

The clashes occurred after dozens of militants stormed security checkpoints in the area and four policemen were also killed and six others wounded during the clashes. 

In northern Jawzjan province, 28 Islamic State (IS) militants and nine militants of Taliban group were killed and 16 IS militants and 11 Taliban wounded after the two groups of militants clashed in Darzab district on Wednesday, the Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement. 

The two rival armed groups often fight over expanding territory in parts of the conflict-hit Afghanistan. Xinhua

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Speaking on July 11, Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa reiterated the government commitment to remove transport cartels. “There is a conspiracy to restore transport cartels but the government won’t allow that,” he thun­dered. On the same day, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli instructed Minister for Transport Raghubir Mahaseth to take every possible measure to once and for all end the reign of these cartels. Yet there are reasons to doubt their sincerity.

When the Oli government had first announced the cancellation of registration of transport cartels three months ago, we were enthused. The ramshackle buses they ran inconvenienced passengers. Often, the aging buses were deadly. In the fiscal 2016-17, there were an average of 28 road accidents, and six deaths, in the country every single day, partly because these cartels would not allow other businessmen to operate new, safer buses on the routes they controlled.

But the anti-cartel drive soon ran into roadblocks. The Director General of the Department of Trans­port Rup Narayan Bhattari, who was spearheading the drive, was suspiciously transferred to the Ministry of Transport, on direct orders of Minister Mahaseth. Also, Home Minister Thapa and Transport Minister Mahaseth clearly don’t see eye to eye on the issue. Instead of cooperating to make the lives of Nepalis eas­ier, the ministers of this powerful government seem to be working at cross purposes.

There are vested interests in the ruling Nepal Com­munist Party (NCP) that would like to see the contin­uation of the transport cartels, and they seem to have an upper hand now. After initially announcing that the registration of all cartels would be cancelled from the new fiscal that starts next week, the government now says there is not enough time for all erstwhile cartels to register as private companies. This is disingenuous.

Had the government been serious, it could have forced the transport cartels to register as private com­panies in the past three months. But it chose to do nothing in this time and it would now have us believe there is not enough time. What is actually happening is that vested interests in the NCP have been allowed to prevail. The prime minister seems either uninterested or unable to take on these cartels, thereby adding to the growing suspicion that he is all talk and no action. Nepalis are starting to lose their trust in the govern­ment they so enthusiastically elected not long ago.

The district of Bhaktapur in Kathmandu valley is one of the most concentrated human settlements in South Asia, packing in over 12,000 residents every square kilometer. And the population continues to swell, as the area absorbs more and more people lured by land prices that are comparably cheaper to what they would have to fork out inside the ring road. More people means more buildings and less open space. With the building codes lax, the human set­tlements in Bhaktapur had been getting progressively closer to the catchment areas of its three main rivers: Hanumante, Khasyangkhusung and Manohara. As a result, whenever there is a heavy rainfall, at least some areas in Bhaktapur are badly inundated by overflow­ing rivers. But the flooding on July 12 was the worst in years. Three members of the same family perished in Changu­narayan municipality when their tin hut was swept away in floods following 12 hours of non-stop rainfall. Temporary camps of earthquake victims at Jagati and Barahisthan were submerged; the landless squatters’ settlement at Jadibuti completely inundated. Similarly, settlements at Radhe Radhe and the Kamerotar land pooling project in Madhyapur Thimi were under water. Thousands of people were trapped inside their own watery homes.

This monsoon has already taken a heavy toll. Nearly 300 people have died in floods and landslides in the past three months, according to Home Ministry. “We have been unable to reduce damages despite our many programs to reduce the risk of natural disasters,” says Kedar Neupane, the chief of the ministry’s disaster management unit.

It is not clear better forecasting could have prevented the latest Bhaktapur inundation either. There was no cloudburst, nor was one predicted. Nor were there any blockades in the three main rivers, which are otherwise fast turning into dumping grounds. The culprit rather was the sheer volume of water that fell.

The only way to mitigate future damages will be to keep the settlements at a safe distance from the main water arteries. But any such effort will be met with tough resistance, espe­cially by the squatters and those displaced by recent earth­quakes. There are in fact no easy fixes. More effective would be progressive tightening of the building codes, building resettlement homes for the landless—the Dhurmus-Suntali foundation has already shown the way on cheap mass-scale housing—and greater awareness on the ever-present dangers of living so close to the unruly rivers.

 China has cracked down on online football gambling during the World Cup, arresting more than 540 suspected of participating in schemes involving more than $1.5 billion, state media said. 

The suspects were "associated with more than 20 gangs", and their servers, computers, mobile phones and bank cards were confiscated, police in China's southern province of Guangdong told the official Xinhua news agency. 

Some 70 mobile apps and websites as well as 250 online chat groups have also been shuttered, Xinhua said Wednesday without providing further detail. In May, police honed in on an online gambling platform which accepted bitcoin and had grown to 330,000 members in just eight months. 

Authorities arrested six of its key organizers, froze assets of over 5 million yuan ($750,000), and confiscated virtual currency worth over $1.5 million, Xinhua said, without giving specific dates of the raid. 
Although all gambling is technically illegal in China, it is permitted in the country's hundreds of thousands of "lottery shops". 

These are run by China's Sports Administration, with part of the proceeds ploughed back into sport ranging from financing stadiums to training the next generation of Chinese athletes. 

However, the government remains vigilant and dozens of unauthorised "lottery ticket" apps, which enable punters to place a bet with a single click, were closed down in the first week of the World Cup. AFP

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British Prime Minister Theresa May will pledge to send 440 extra troops to Afghanistan during the NATO summit in Brussels on Wednesday as US President Donald Trump urges allies to contribute more. 

The extra troops will be from the Welsh Guards regiment, with around half deploying in August and a second contingent to follow in February. 

"In committing additional troops to the Train Advise Assist operation in Afghanistan we have underlined once again that when NATO calls the UK is among the first to answer," May is expected to say at the summit. 
The troops will help "bring the stability and security that the Afghan people deserve," she is expected to say. 
The extra deployment will take the total number of British troops in the country to around 1,100. 

The last UK combat troops left Afghanistan in 2014 after being involved in the conflict since 2001.NATO countries have a total of 16,000 personnel in Afghanistan to support Afghan forces, including 13,000 US troops. 

NATO asked Britain to deploy more forces last year and Trump has repeatedly called on NATO allies to increase their defence spending.Britain is one of just five NATO members to meet the target of spending at least 2.0 percent of GDP on defence. 

"The alliance can rely on the UK to lead by example, not just in meeting the 2.0 percent pledge but by contributing our cutting edge capabilities to operations around the world," May will say. AFP

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With only five contestants remaining, the popular dance show Boogie Woogie, on its 23^rd episode, is welcoming celebrities from the Nepali movie industry to perform and support the contestants. Popular faces like Swastima khadka, Barsha Raut, Ayushman Desraj Joshi, Aanchal Sharma and Vinay Shrestha will showcase their amazing talents.

Nepali movie legend Sunil Thapa will be the guest judge, in addition to Priyanka Karki, Dilip Rayamajhi and Kabiraj Gahatraj who have been judging the show right from the start. The winner of the contest will get Rs 2.5 million, while the second and third place contestants will get Rs 0.6 million and Rs 0.4 million respectively.

Boogie Woogie is Nepal’s first franchise dance reality show. Saroj Moktan, Kabita Nepali, Pragati Pun, Rabin Bhujel and Shristi Maharjan are the remaining contestants who will be performing on different Nepali numbers with diverse themes and costumes. The show airs every Thursday and Friday at 8 pm on AP1 HD TV. Voting lines will be open from Thursday 8pm till noon Friday.

A heatwave in Quebec in eastern Canada has now been blamed for 70 deaths, officials said Monday. Thirty-four of the fatalities were recorded in Montreal, the provincial health ministry told AFP. Previously, the toll was 54 dead. 

The heatwave has hit eastern Canada since early July but only Quebec has recorded a rise in deaths linked to the scorching temperatures. In 2010 around 100 people in the Montreal area died because of stifling heat.

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More than two dozen pro-government fighters were killed in northwestern Syria overnight in a joint attack by rebel and Islamist forces, a monitor said on Tuesday. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the surprise offensive late Monday targeted a pair of villages and observation points in the coastal province and regime stronghold of Latakia, near the Turkish border. 
"At least 27 regime forces and allied fighters, including eight officers, were killed in fierce clashes and shelling in the village of Al-Ateira," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. 

"They took Al-Ateira and kicked out regime forces from several observation points after killing or wounding them." Another 40 government loyalists were wounded and six rebels were killed, he said.The death toll made the attack the bloodiest opposition assault on the area in three years, according to the Observatory. 

Al-Ateira lies about two kilometres (just over a mile) south of the Turkish border. The Britain-based Observatory said the opposition fighters included local rebels from Latakia as well as more hardline forces. 
Latakia is a stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is home to the Hmeimim airbase, where Russian troops and warplanes have been based since 2015

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But forces opposed to Assad have repeatedly attacked the province since the uprising broke out in March 2011. They hold a northeastern sliver of territory bordering the neighbouring province of Idlib.That area falls under a de-escalation deal agreed last year between Russia, fellow regime backer Iran, and rebel ally Turkey. 

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