PARIS: Novak Djokovic extended his record of weeks as world number one to 379 in the latest ATP rankings released on Monday, although Carlos Alcaraz remains in hot pursuit. The 35-year-old winner of 22 Grand Slam titles edged ahead of Steffi Graf’s all-time record last week despite losing in the Dubai semi-finals to Daniil Medvedev. The Russian ended Djokovic’s 20-match …

RAWALPINDI: The stands were empty and the atmosphere was dull here at the Pindi Cricket Stadium on Monday. After all, much wasn’t expected from the fixture featuring Quetta Gladiators and Karachi Kings — the bottom-two teams of the HBL Pakistan Super League — vying for survival.After the Kings had dragged themselves to a fighting total of 164-6, the Gladi­ators’ chase …

RAWALPINDI: A representative of the International Cricket Council on Monday “appreciated” the security arrangements put in place by the Rawalpindi police to protect the cricketers participating in the Pakistan Super League matches being held at the cricket stadium in the garrison city. ICC official David Snare also held a meeting with City Police Officer Syed Khalid Mahmood Hamdani and reviewed …

LONDON: Britain’s Conservative government is expected to present on Tuesday (today) a new bill providing for the detention and swift deportation of asylum seekers who illegally enter the country via small boats, according to media reports. Despite Brexit-related promises to tighten control of its borders, Britain has seen a considerable uptick in such arrivals, logging a record 45,000 last year, …

Global progress on women’s rights is “vanishing before our eyes,” UN boss Antonio Guterres warned on Monday, saying the increasingly distant goal of gender equality will take another three centuries to achieve. “Gender equality is growing more distant. On the current track, UN Women puts it 300 years away,” the United Nations secretary-general said in a General Assembly speech ahead …

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday reserved its verdict on PTI chairman Imran Khan’s plea seeking the cancellation of non-bailable arrest warrants issued last week by a district and sessions court in the Toshakhana reference over his persistent absences. Earlier, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq — who is hearing the case — had given Imran’s legal team 30 minutes …

The United States should change its “distorted” attitude towards China or “conflict and confrontation” will follow, China’s foreign minister said on Tuesday, while defending its stance on the war in Ukraine and defending its close ties with Russia. The US had been engaging in suppression and containment of China rather than engaging in fair, rule-based competition, Foreign Minister Qin Gang …

ISLAMABAD: A Lahore-based lawyer, who recently moved a reference against a Supreme Court judge, on Monday regretted that the judge concerned was not only heading a bench but also included in a bench presided over by the chief justice of Pakistan instead of facing the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) proceedings. In a two-page letter to CJP Umar Ata Bandial, Advocate Mian Dawood …

KYIV: Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said his representative had been denied access to the headquarters of Russia’s military command in Ukraine on Mon­day, in a further deepening of his rift with the defence establishment. Prigozhin said the incident came the day after he urgently requested ammunition supplies from the commander of what Russia calls its “Special Military Operation” (SMO). …