- China unveils fresh stimulus to boost economy
- Hamas weakened, not crushed a year into war with Israel
- Israeli economy struggles under weight of Gaza war
- Israelis united in trauma, divided by war after October 7
- New York Liberty riding WNBA boom into playoffs
- Union says new Boeing pay offer 'missed the mark'
- Environmental groups urge EU 'high risk' label for Sarawak
- Argentina seeks Maduro's arrest for crimes against humanity
- Morales issues Bolivian president 24-hour ultimatum to shake up cabinet
- Armenia and Azerbaijan see progress, but peace treaty seems distant
- World leaders gather at UN as Mideast tensions explode
- Biden's UN goodbye aims to 'Trump-proof' legacy
- Singapore ex-minister set for high-profile corruption trial
- Man Utd, Spurs eye respite from domestic woes in Europa League
- Guatemala picks Supreme Court judges with focus on anti-graft fight
- Jill Biden announces $500 million for women's health research
- Injured All Blacks centre Jordie Barrett out of Australia Test
- 'Lead the future': youth challenge world leaders at UN
- Goosebumps and stars as Paris Fashion Week kicks off
- Boeing boosts pay offer in effort to end strike
- Global markets inch higher on hopes of further rate cuts
- Amazon forest loses area the size of Germany and France, fueling fires
- 'Curious' Dupont eyes position change after claiming Top 14 award
- Man Utd stadium regeneration could add £7.3bn to British economy
- At COP16, Colombia seeks to lead by example on biodiversity
- Dupont caps off Olympic gold season with Top 14 player award
- Leeds to expand Elland Road to 53,000 capacity
- Mysterious 18th century diamond necklace set for auction
- World's oceans near critical acidification level: report
- California sues oil giant Exxon over plastic recycling 'myth'
- As wars rage, UN's critics say global body is failing its mission
- Amazon forest has lost an area the size of Germany and France
- Nadal, Alcaraz and Sinner in Davis Cup finals teams
- Telegram's Durov announces new crackdown on illegal content
- African players in Europe: Ice-cool Jackson strikes twice
- Man City's Rodri 'out for season' after ACL injury: reports
- Venezuelan court issues arrest warrant for Argentina's Milei
- Arsenal not yet a match for Man City-Liverpool rivalry, says Silva
- Iran's new president calls Israel warmonger as he seeks talks with West
- Berlin warns UniCredit against Commerzbank takeover attempt
- Black Eyed Peas star harnesses AI for novel radio product
- England cricket captain Knight reprimanded over 'blackface' photo
- Barca goalkeeper Ter Stegen set to miss season after knee operation
- 'I lived a lie', tearful witness tells French mass rape trial
- 274 dead in Israeli strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon
- Gunman revealed Trump plot months before golf course arrest: DOJ
- Trial opens in Italy student murder case that opened eyes to femicide
- Iran president accuses Israel of seeking conflict, says opposes war
- Swedish battery maker Northvolt to slash 1,600 jobs, quarter of staff
- Joshua says boxing career 'far from over' after Dubois defeat
India hopes for Pakistan reset after Sharif election
India hopes that Pakistan's new prime minister will herald a diplomatic thaw between the two nuclear-armed foes after years of tensions, analysts say.
The pragmatic and business-friendly Shehbaz Sharif faces daunting challenges as leader -- among them relations with a neighbour his country has fought three wars against in the past 75 years.
But he hails from an elite political family seen in India as conciliatory towards New Delhi and willing to settle disputes with dialogue instead of denunciation -- unlike his immediate predecessor.
"He is not someone who will go to the extreme of antagonising India," Ajay Darshan Behera, a professor of international studies at New Delhi's Jamia Milia Islamia university, told AFP.
Unusually for a senior Pakistani politician, Sharif has actually visited India, in 2013 as chief minister for Punjab -- a state that was split between them in the bloody 1947 partition of the sub-continent.
Sharif visited his family's ancestral village on the Indian side of the frontier and met with then-prime minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, along with other officials.
And for his part, his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi has attended a Sharif family wedding.
The Hindu nationalist leader made a surprise trip to Pakistan in 2015, a year after taking office, when he was hosted by Sharif's elder brother Nawaz, himself prime minister at the time.
Both siblings have usually had "cordial relationships" with Indian leaders, said Imtiaz Gul of the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad.
"This is a good entry point basically for India to resume dialogue," he added.
Modi's trip was followed by several rounds of trust-building talks aimed at repairing relations that had sunk to a low ebb after the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, which India accused Pakistan of sponsoring.
But that came to an abrupt halt the following year with renewed conflict in Kashmir, a territory hotly disputed by both countries.
A series of tit-for-tat air raids were then staged over the region's frontier in 2019, with brinkmanship and radio silence between the two governments heightening fears of another all-out war.
During Prime Minister Imran Khan's government, diplomatic relations were downgraded and direct trade was suspended after a dispute over India's attempt to entrench its grip over the part of Kashmir it controls.
Khan was also critical of Modi and called for international action to stop what he claimed was a "genocide of Muslims" in the disputed region.
- 'Peace and stability' -
With Khan's weekend ouster, Delhi-based political analyst Sujit Dutta said the changing of the guard left Sharif the opportunity to move past the rancour of recent years, adding that any overture would be "seen very positively" by India.
"We need a new relationship with Pakistan based on basic diplomatic norms of peaceful co-existence and peaceful resolution of disputes through dialogue," Dutta told AFP.
"That will surely help Pakistan and certainly India too."
Modi congratulated Sharif on Twitter after the latter's election win and reiterated his desire for "peace and stability" in the region.
Sharif also offered an olive branch of his own, telling parliament Monday that Pakistan wanted a "better relationship with India".
But he also cautioned that no lasting peace would be possible without a resolution to Kashmir's status.
"I would suggest Prime Minister Modi let us resolve the Kashmir issue and divert all our energies to bring prosperity in our countries," he said.
- 'They don't have much choice' -
As prime minister, Sharif will have to contend with crippling debt, galloping inflation and a feeble currency that have kept Pakistan's economy stagnant for the past three years.
The dire fiscal outlook will impress upon Sharif the importance of resuming the commercial links with India cut off by Khan's government, said Behera of Jamia university.
"There is imminent economic sense in improving trade ties with India," he said.
"Pakistan is going through a very difficult time. They don't have much choice."
But for India's government, decades of entrenched mistrust and hostility have also raised the spectre of unforeseen troubles.
"While the broad signs are positive, the relationship with Pakistan is very unpredictable and it takes just one terror attack... to change the discourse," the Indian Express newspaper quoted an unnamed senior government official as saying.
"We will wait and watch every move closely."
P.Anderson--BTB