PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) — Pakistan ended its eight-match losing streak away from home in cricket tests with a resounding eight-wicket victory over the West Indies on Wednesday to level the series.
First innings century-maker Abdullah Shafique and Babar Azam, in his first series since being reappointed as captain, reappointed as captain, led Pakistan to 77-2 with unbeaten knocks of 24 runs each as the visitors achieved victory shortly after lunch on Day 4 of the second test.
Babar knocked off the target by hitting back-to-back sixes against left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican, whose six-wicket haul in the first innings had limited Pakistan’s lead to 43 runs.
West Indies won the first test by 90 runs at Tarouba. In the second test, spinners Sajid Khan and Ali Usman utilized favorable conditions on a wearing wicket of Queen’s Park Oval to ensure Pakistan remained unbeaten in a test series against the West Indies since 2000.
Pakistan lost the wickets of Imam-ul-Haq, brilliantly snapped up by Justin Greaves in the slips cordon for 9 in Jayden Seales’ first over Wednesday, and Azan Awais was bowled by Shamar Joseph for 18 before Shafique and Babar sealed the win inside four days.
Earlier, West Indies had set up a modest target of 75 runs after it got bowled out for 117 with off-break bowler Sajid (4-32) and left-arm spinner Usman (4-39) sharing eight wickets between them.
Opening batter Brandon King couldn’t bat in West Indies' second innings due to a back injury sustained on Day 3 when he ran out Babar with a spectacular direct throw from short cover.
Resuming on 106-3 — only 60 runs ahead — the resistance of West Indies’ tailenders ended quickly with Usman picking up the wickets of Kemar Roach and Joseph. Greaves, the last recognized batter, played on to seamer Mohammad Ali’s delivery back onto his stumps after adding just two runs to his total as he attempted a cross batted shot, but got a big inside edge.
Pakistan’s last test win away from home came against Sri Lanka in 2023 during Babar’s first tenure as captain, before Shan Masood led the side for nearly three years during which Pakistan lost 3-0 in Australia; 2-0 in South Africa; and 2-0 in Bangladesh.
Masood was eventually relieved of the captaincy after Pakistan’s dismal run in red-ball cricket, but the return of Babar as skipper saw Pakistan losing the first test at Tarouba last week for Pakistan’s eighth loss away from home in three years.
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FILE - Pakistan's Abdullah Shafique bats during the first day of the second test cricket match between Pakistan and South Africa in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Oct. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed, File)
The Trump administration said Wednesday it will shut down a Kentucky organ donation group accused of continuing plans for organ retrieval from some patients who unexpectedly showed signs of life.
While those surgeries were canceled, the cases made headlines several years ago, prompting a spike in people around the country revoking their organ donor registrations.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the nonprofit Network for Hope “a bad apple” and accused it of “persistent safety failures” in announcing the government was starting the process to decertify it.
Network for Hope is one of about 55 organ procurement organizations, or OPOs, that coordinate the recovery of organs from deceased donors and help match them to patients on the nation’s transplant list. In a statement, Network for Hope said it “strongly disagrees” with Kennedy’s decision and will appeal.
Among the allegations is that in 2021, Network for Hope’s predecessor organization pressured a local hospital to proceed with plans to withdraw life support and retrieve organs from a man despite signs that he was waking up from a drug overdose. The man survived and his sister joined Kennedy at a press briefing Wednesday, thanking him.
OPOs cannot declare if someone is dead — only a doctor at the hospital treating the person can do that. Only after that declaration can a donor agency assume responsibility for the deceased, looking for potential recipients and scheduling surgeons to come in to retrieve the organs. Most donations come from people declared brain-dead. But sometimes doctors say a patient has a nonsurvivable injury and the family decides to withdraw life support — and in certain circumstances, that also can allow for donation.
In its statement, Network for Hope said it complies with all federal organ policies. It said that over a year ago it implemented a “first-of-its-kind” new safeguard allowing anyone — including health professionals or family members — to call a pause in donation planning if there’s any concern the patient won’t be appropriate.
Kentucky recently passed a law mandating that pause and the federal Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network is working on new rules that also would require all the nation’s OPOs to implement it.
More than 100,000 people are on the U.S. transplant list, the vast majority seeking a kidney, and thousands will die waiting for a new organ. There were more than 49,000 transplants last year, a record despite a small drop in donations from the deceased — the first such dip in a decade.
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FILE - Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., listens during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, May 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
