Current Affairs

Australian all-rounder Shane Watson called it a day from all forms of International Cricket on Thursday. The 34-year old said that he felt that this was the “right time” to hang boots. Watson debuted for Australia exactly 14 years back in an One Day International against South Africa in Centurion. He topped the ICC all-rounder rankings in 2011. Veteran Australian all-rounder Shane Watson announced Thursday that he would retire from international cricket at the end of the ongoing World Twenty20 tournament in India. Watson, 34, shared his decision to call it quits with teammates in Mohali, where Australia take on Pakistan in a World T20 group match on Friday, Cricket Australia said. “It's been over the last week that it's really become clear that now really is the right time to retire from all international cricket,” Watson said in a statement issued by the national cricket body. He had retired from Test cricket at the end of last year's Ashes tour of England an...

BRUSSELS, a European capital so traumatised by its connections to last November’s Paris attacks, has itself come under attack in the most shocking of ways. European society, particularly at the very heart of the EU, prides itself on its openness and interconnectedness and its symbols of those core values that the attackers sought to undermine with mass-casualty terror attacks in a crowded airport and a busy subway station. Europe will surely rebound, but gaping holes in its defences have raised questions about how quickly it will recover. Not only are two of the suspected attackers, brothers Khalid and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, believed to be linked to the Paris attacks, including helping Salah Abdeslam evade capture, but were known previously to Belgian authorities because of their criminal record. Clearly, Belgium’s, and perhaps more generally much of Europe’s, internal defence, intelligence and law-enforcement apparatuses will need to be overhauled. Less clear is what can be do...