KARACHI: Pakistan have their eyes set on direct qualification to the 2025 ICC Women’s World Cup as their road to the showpiece begins with the a three-match One-day International series against Sri Lanka here at the Southend Club on Wednesday. The series marks the start of the new cycle of the ICC Women’s Championship, a World Cup qualification cycle involving …

Rafael Nadal edged a late-night classic against old rival Novak Djokovic in the early hours of Wednesday in four sets to reach his 15th French Open semi-final. The 13-time Roland Garros champion won the pair’s 59th career meeting 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) after a four-hour-and-12-minute quarter-final on a raucous Court Philippe Chatrier. Nadal sealed his eighth victory in 10 …

LAHORE: After snapping supplies to the market for almost a week, the industry on Tuesday increased urea prices by Rs80 per 50kg bag — from the current Rs1,768 per bag to Rs1,850 — citing inflationary pressure and high gas costs. The industry was seeking an increase of Rs150 per 50kg bag while one of the manufacturers was insisting on a …

KARACHI: The private sector borrowing from banks has gone up by over 200 per cent from July to May 20 of the current fiscal year, reflecting that the higher economic activities remained intact despite the change of government in Islamabad. During the last one month, from April 20 to May 20, the private sector borrowed Rs179 billion, more than the …

ISLAMABAD: While grilling the power companies for extensive loadshedding and non-utilisation of efficient plants, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Tuesday finalised Rs3.99 per unit additional fuel cost adjustment (FCA) for ex-Wapda distribution companies (Discos) with a financial burden of Rs51 billion during the current billing month. Separately, the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on Tuesday reduced …

KARACHI: The government on Tuesday shocked consumers by pushing up ghee and cooking oil rates by an unprecedented Rs208 and Rs213 to an all-time high of Rs555 per kg and Rs605 per litre, respectively, even though “these rates still do not exist in the retail markets.” An official in the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) in Karachi confirmed to Dawn that …

Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose to a nearly two-and-a-half-year-high at 13.76 per cent in May, on the back of increasing transport and food prices, according to data shared by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Wednesday. Inflation accelerated from 13.37pc year-on-year (YoY) in April, marking a 0.44pc month-on-month (MoM) rise in May. This is the highest …

PARIS: French diplomats will go on strike for the first time in 20 years on Thursday in protest against a perceived lack of recognition and reforms pushed by the president that they say could damage France’s global standing. The action won support from 500 foreign ministry civil servants in a newspaper opinion piece and has seen widespread backing from senior …

BEIRUT: Lebanese lawmakers re-elected Nabih Berri as parliament speaker on Tuesday for a seventh consecutive term, cementing his reputation as an immovable centerpiece of the country’s political landscape. Berri’s candidacy went largely unchallenged but the 84-year-old clinched only the bare minimum number of votes needed for a win — one of his lowest counts since he first rose to the …

KYIV/THE HAGUE: Russian forces have taken partial control of a key industrial city in eastern Ukraine, a regional governor said on Tuesday, hours after European Union leaders struck a deal to ban more than two-thirds of Moscow’s oil imports. Severodonetsk is one of several urban hubs that lie on Russia’s path to capturing the Donbas’s Lugansk region, where Moscow has …