India’s journey at the 2025 Champions Trophy will begin on Thursday with the 2013 winners set to take on Bangladesh at the Dubai International Stadium. Ahead of their first game Indian skipper Rohit Sharma revealed India’s "secret to success" depends on their top order firing on full cylinders.

Although India’s campaign at the 2023 ICC World Cup ended in heartbreak, the host nation had completely dominated all opposition on their way to the final in Ahmedabad and much of that success relied on their heavy firing top order.

Virat Kohli and Rohit were the two highest scorers at the tournament with 765 and 597 runs respectively and Shreyas Iyer, with 530 runs in the tournament, perfectly complemented the Indian top order.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump could meet as early as this month, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

"The Western media write a lot, our media write a lot ... Maybe, or maybe not," said Peskov when asked whether Putin and Trump could meet before the end of February.

The meeting would require some preparation from the Russian foreign ministry, he said.

Russian and US officials held talks on Tuesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks with the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.

A new, unidentified illness has been reported in the northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which is buffeted by multiple public health and humanitarian crises, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday.

Two clusters of cases and deaths related to the unidentified disease were reported in two health zones of the DRC's Equateur Province, the WHO said in a report.

By February 15, the WHO said, 431 cases and 45 deaths had been reported.

The first cluster of cases and deaths were reported in January in Boloko Village, in Bolomba Health Zone. Preliminary investigations traced the outbreak's origin to three community deaths among children under five years old, who died after developing a fever, headache, diarrhea, and fatigue, which later progressed to hemorrhage.

Their respective teams may not have ideal buildup to the Champions Trophy 2025 but Eoin Morgan and Shane Watson are hopeful that England and Australia would do well in the event while picking India as the top favourite.

England, under a new coach in Brandon McCullum, were hammered by India in both the T20I and ODI series while Australia have been besieged by injuries losing four top players -- Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh and Mitchell Starc -- to injuries while Marcus Stoinis has announced a sudden retirement from the national team.

Australia also lost 0-2 to Sri Lanka in the ODI series preceding the Champions Trophy.

A lawyer of the Secunderabad City Civil & Criminal Court collapsed and died on Wednesday, in the second such incident in the city in two days.

B. Venkata Ramana, collapsed in the premises of the Indian Bank's Marredpally Branch. He is reported to have sustained severe head injuries and died on the spot.

The 58-year-old had come to the bank to pay a challan when he suddenly collapsed and succumbed. It is suspected that the lawyer suffered cardiac arrest.

This is the second such incident in the city in as many days.

India won their second match in the FIH Hockey Pro League 2024-25 (Men) season on Wednesday after beating World Champions Germany 1-0 at the Kalinga Hockey Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

Gurjant Singh scored the only goal of the match as India climbed to seventh in the standings.

It was a good response from India after they had succumbed to a 4-1 loss to Germany on Tuesday. The Indian defence, marshalled by Captain Harmanpreet Singh, put in a solid display to secure an important win.

After a bright start, India took the lead four minutes into the match as Gurjant Singh scored in back-to-back matches.

In a series of tragic events, several people lost their lives in road accidents in Madhya Pradesh at different locations, an official said on Wednesday.

A speeding bus collided with a tractor-trolley in the Kailaras police station area of Morena, leaving two dead and eight others seriously injured.

The accident occurred near Sant Nagar on the national highway as several people were returning home on a tractor on Wednesday.

A passenger bus coming from Sabalgarh town rammed into a tractor, causing chaos on the road. Passers-by promptly informed the police and helped rescue the passengers. Fortunately, all bus passengers emerged unscathed.

The injured individuals were taken to the government-run Kailaras hospital.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab President and Cabinet Minister Aman Arora, along with his family, took a holy dip at the ongoing Mahakumbh in Prayagraj on Wednesday and performed prayers to Ganga.

Aman Arora was accompanied by Punjab Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan and Sangrur MP Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, who also took a dip at the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers.

Speaking to the media after the holy bath, Aman Arora said, “I felt immense joy after taking a dip at Mahakumbh. It is a matter of great fortune for us as such a Mahakumbh will not come again in our lifetime.”

This time’s Mahakumbh is a rare occurrence, happening after 144 years, as Mahakumbh takes place after 12 Kumbhs, and a Kumbh occurs once every 12 years. Arora said, “I am elated to receive the blessings of Mother Ganga. I prayed to Mother Ganga for the peace, progress, and happiness of the people of the nation and Punjab.”

Another body of a labourer trapped inside the coal mine in Assam’s Umrangso was recovered on Wednesday, said Minister Kaushik Rai.

Rai told reporters that the body of another labourer was taken out from the coal mine on Wednesday by the rescue force.

“There were nine labourers trapped inside the mine. Earlier, the bodies of four labourers were rescued by the Army team and disaster response forces,” the minister said.

A total of nine labourers have been trapped while five have been rescued so far after they got trapped inside the mine in Umrangso locality in Assam’s Dima Hasao district in January.

In yet another incident of health workers being attacked in Pakistan, unknown gunmen killed a police officer while he was providing security to the polio vaccination team in Damadola, Mamund, Bajaur district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

As per Bajaur police officials, gunmen on motorbikes attacked the polio vaccination team which was engaged in a door-to-door vaccination campaign to give polio drops to children. The police official deployed to guard the polio team was shot dead by the attackers who later fled the scene. Police officials confirmed that the policeman died on the spot.

Bajaur district, a restive region bordering Afghanistan, has been one of the strongholds of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and a battlefield between the militant groups and the Pakistani security forces. The area has been known for being sensitive, critical and unwelcoming towards polio eradication campaigns with polio workers, security forces and their supporters being regularly targetted and killed by militants.