After more than a decade of being overlooked by national selectors, batsman Fawad Alam was made part of Pakistan’s national Test squad that was announced on Saturday for the upcoming Test matches against Bangladesh. The batsman, who has a 40-plus batting average in both Tests and ODIs, was also included in the squad for the Test series against Sri Lanka last year, …

PARIS: England skipper Owen Farrell says the lost Rugby World Cup final is well behind him as he and his team warily eye a France side “capable of unlocking a game”. Farrell was captain in Japan last year when England beat New Zealand in the semi-finals but went down to South Africa in the final. oach Eddie Jones said the …

Head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq on Saturday named the 16-man squad for the Test series against Bangladesh which is to take place in Pakistan later this month, reported Geo News. Two changes have been made to the side that featured in the Test series against Sri Lanka. Kashif Bhatti and Usman Shinwari have been replaced by Bilal Asif and Faheem Ashraf. …

TOKYO: A Japanese government panel on Friday roughly accepted a draft proposal for releasing into the sea massive amounts of radioactive water now being stored at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant. The economy and industry ministry’s draft proposal said releasing the water gradually into the sea was the safer, more feasible method, though evaporation was also a proven method. The …

British health officials said on Friday two people had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, in the country’s first confirmed cases since the deadly outbreak emerged in China and began to spread globally this month. “We can confirm that two patients in England, who are members of the same family, have tested positive for coronavirus,” Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer …

CANBERRA: The Australian capital region declared a state of emergency on Friday because of an out-of-control forest fire burning erratically to its south. It’s the first fire emergency for the Australian Capital Territory area since 2003 when wildfires killed four people and destroyed almost 500 homes in a single day. The threat is posed by a blaze on Canberra’s southern …

WASHINGTON: The number of US troops injured by an Iranian missile strike in Iraq this month has risen to 64, according to new figures released by the Pentagon. US President Donald Trump had initially said no Americans were hurt by the missiles fired on a base housing US soldiers in the country’s west on Jan 8. Democrats later accused Trump of trying …

SHANGHAI: The United States, Japan and other countries tightened travel curbs to virus-hit China on Friday while businesses struggled with supply problems from an epidemic that has infected nearly 10,000 people and been declared a global emergency. Russia, Britain and Italy all reported their first cases, with Rome declaring its own national emergency as it sought to reconstruct the itinerary …

British newspaper Mail on Sunday agreed to pay £180,000 to a former minicab licensing officer in the United Kingdom three years after publishing an article that falsely implicated him of facilitating a paedophile ring that was run by taxi drivers in Rochdale, The Guardian reported. In 2016, a UK court sentenced 10 men for committing sexual offences against a teenage girl in Rochdale. The …

Taylor Swift  recently opened up on her future plans, prospects and on  love in her Netflix documentary, Miss Americana. Since the moment it dropped, fans have been swooning over the star and her cameos. During a heart-to-heart session with one of her friends Abigail Anderson, Taylor revealed her plans for the future as she approaches the ripe age of 30. She …