NEW YORK: Brace yourself. The greatest rivalry in world cricket is all set to resume on Sunday, this time on an unfamiliar territory for the first time — the United States. When Rohit Sharma-led India face Babar Azam and his men in their Group A match at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York, tens of millions of …

Pakistan will be seeking redemption as the Green Shirts face India later today during the ongoing T20 World Cup. Although both countries are cricket powerhouses, head-to-head matches are rare between the nations. The two sides do not meet outside of official competitions of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the last Test match between them was in 2007.     …

SWABI: Tobacco growers are worried about the financial impact as both federal and provincial governments prepare to extract more taxes from the “lucrative crop”. For the first time ever, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has imposed a Provincial Excise Duty (PED) on tobacco crops through a newly passed law. Unmanufactured tobacco will be levied Rs50 per kg under the Provincial Excise …

KARACHI: Exchange companies sold a record $450 million to the banks in May, helping the country build the reserves required to meet the twin deficits. With the highest-ever remittances of $3.24 billion in May, inflows via exchange companies were also the highest in the current fiscal year. Some exchange companies estimate that around $4bn would be sold to banks during …

SWAT: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has vowed not to let the federal government impose any new tax on the province as long as he is in power. The CM made these remarks while addressing a gathering of the grand opposition alliance Tehreek-i-Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan in Mingora, Swat. In a fiery speech, the CM said the decisions of individuals are “destroying …

ISLAMABAD: Ahead of the newly constituted National Economic Council (NEC) meeting on Monday, Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur has sent a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif requesting the inclusion of 91 ongoing projects in the federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2024-25. The estimated throw-forward cost for these projects is Rs1.327 trillion. Many of the dropped projects …

LONDON: In a historic first, Israr Kakar, a student from Baloc­hi­stan, has been elected as president of the Oxford Union. He is the third Pakistani and first from Balochistan to hold this prestigious position. The Oxford Union, founded in 1823, is one of the oldest and most esteemed debating societies in the world. Mr Kakar hails from a small village …

ISLAMABAD: The D-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation, an alliance of developing nations of Turkiye, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran, Nigeria and Indonesia, on Saturday demanded full Palestinian membership of the United Nations and greater international pressure on Israel for ceasefire amid the Gaza war. Calling for an immediate ceasefire, foreign ministers from the group at an extraordinary meeting in Istanbul asked the United States …

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that security forces had cleared hundreds of thousands of unregistered pilgrims from Makkah ahead of Haj which begins next week. Crowd management is a major concern during the annual pilgrimage, which drew over 1.8m people last year, according to official figures. Those turned away in recent days from the holy city, include 153,998 foreigners …

WASHINGTON: William Anders, the former US astronaut who took the historic “Earthrise” photo from space over 55 years ago, died in a plane crash on Friday at the age of 90, his family said. Anders had been piloting a small plane which crashed off the coast of Washington state on Friday morning, his son told US media. Anders was alone …