LONDON: Chelsea and Liverpool had to settle for a 1-1 draw to start their Prem­ier League season on Sunday as Tottenham Hotspur also drew 2-2 at Brentford as they began life without Harry Kane. After a week of battling to land the signing of Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder Moises Caicedo for a Premier League record transfer fee, both Chelsea …

ROME: Roberto Mancini has resigned as head coach of the Italian national team, the country’s football federation (FIGC) said on Sunday. Mancini took charge of the team in 2018 after they failed to qualify for the World Cup, having previously not missed a World Cup finals since 1958. Following the retirements of veterans Andrea Barzagli, Daniele De Rossi and captain …

AUCKLAND: Sweden will feed off the hurt of numerous near-misses when they face Spain in the semi-finals of the Women’s World Cup on Tuesday in Auckland. Sweden beat Japan 2-1 on Friday to reach their third semi-final in the last four World Cups, and their fifth overall, but they have never gone on to win the tournament. Peter Gerhardsson’s side …

In FY23, the private sector’s net borrowings from commercial banks stood at Rs211 billion — just 5.5 per cent of the government’s net borrowings that totalled Rs3.84 trillion. During four weeks of FY24 (July 1-July 28, 2003), the private sector did not borrow anything from banks on a net basis; it rather retired about Rs173bn bank credit. On the contrary, …

Over the last few years, Pakistan has been under the increasing threat of food insecurity. Several international organisations anticipate that the situation is likely to intensify in the near future, as perceived food shortage in the country and lack of affordability have coincided with the worldwide economic slowdown, rising global food prices, record high inflation in the country, and reduction …

KARACHI: The Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) has said that it would again process Russian crude “when available at favourable commercial terms”, denying the impression that it has suspended the use of Russian crude oil because of processing issues. In a release on Sunday, the refinery insisted that Russian crude was successfully processed and the “spot deal was technically and commercially …

ISLAMABAD: The Inter­national Finance Corporation (IFC), a commercial arm of the World Bank, has alerted the Pakistan authorities about a series of key challenges that could hamper the successful outsourcing of the country’s three major international airports. The IFC is the transaction adviser on outsourcing of Pakis­tan’s three international airports — Islam­abad, Lahore and Karachi — and has been studying …

TEHRAN: A shooting at a shrine in Iran’s south killed at least four people, less than a year after a similar attack on the same site. “Four people have been killed so far following a terrorist attack by two armed men on the holy shrine of Shah Cheragh” in Shiraz, the capital of Fars province, official news agency IRNA reported. One of …

GUAYAQUIL: Ecuador transferred a powerful gang leader, accused of threatening a presidential candidate before he was slain, to a maximum security prison via a massive military and police operation on Saturday. At dawn, around 4,000 heavily armed agents entered a prison in Guayaquil, south-western Ecuador, where Jose Adolfo Macias, the head of a powerful gang, has been held since 2011. …