PARIS: Novak Djokovic moved effortlessly into the French Open fourth round for the 12th successive year on Saturday, setting up an intriguing duel against Italian teenager Lorenzo Musetti as Elina Svitolina crashed out, leaving just three of the women’s top 10 seeds in the tournament. World number one Djokovic, the champion in Paris in 2016 and chasing a 19th Grand …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan organisers view the remainder of the country’s premier limited-overs league being staged in the United Arab Emirates as a perfect rehearsal for the International Cricket Council (ICC) in case the Twenty20 World Cup has to be moved out of India because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Pakistan Cricket Board chief executive Wasim Khan said the PSL is an ideal …

ISLAMABAD: The ministry of commerce on Saturday announced that it has approved 10 products for registration as Geographical Indications (GI). The products include Chaunsa and Sindhri mangoes, Kinnow, Hunza Ruby, Swat Emerald, Kashmiri Tourmalin, Skardu Topaz and Aquamarine, Peridot Stone and Peridot Valley. GI will serve as the potential economic tool to promote and enhance national and international trade by …

KARACHI: The month of May proved to be a good one for all cement manufacturers as local sales jumped 41 per cent in spite of the long Eid-ul-Fitr holidays and price increase by manufacturers in the North region. Following a Rs10 per 50kg bag jump on May 29, the Northern region cement makers further raised price by Rs5 on June …

PAKISTAN’S provincial water disputes — particularly between Sindh and Punjab — remain unresolved even three decades after signing of the Water Apportionment Accord to share waters of the Indus river basin. The accord is based on the historical use of water by the provinces and was expected to resolve the simmering disputes between them, once and for all. It didn’t, …

KARACHI: Once again the cotton cultivation area has dropped sharply in both the cotton-producing provinces, creating fear of a major decline in production, which has pushed up the initial cotton trading price to an 11-year high. Cotton traders and ginners are sure that the country would not achieve the target of 10.5 million bales set for this season which has …

ISLAMABAD: The Eco­n­o­mic Advisory Council’s (EAC) subgroup on agriculture has proposed a block allocation of Rs41.25 billion in budget for 2021-22 for int­erventions under the Agric­ulture Transformation Plan to reduce input cost of farm produce and revive cotton production in order to minimise reliance on imports. The council’s sub-committee on information technology has also submitted a string of proposals to …

UNITED NATIONS: Famine is imminent in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region and in the country’s north, the UN humanitarian chief said, warning there’s a risk that hundreds of thousands of people or more will die. Mark Lowcock said the economy has been destroyed along with businesses, crops and farms and there are no banking or telecommunications services. We are hearing of …

Last month’s Israeli violence in Palestine triggered “uncomfortable conversations” between business partners in Israel and the United Arab Emirates just months after the countries normalised ties, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem told AFP. But the conversations were “open” and “everybody was very moderate and understanding”, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum said. Speaking on the sidelines of a bilateral investment conference in Dubai, Hassan-Nahoum, co-founder of the UAE-Israel …

Singer Joe Jonas is lavishing praise on his ex-girlfriend and pop icon Taylor Swift after she released the re-recorded versions of her earlier albums from scratch. Chatting with Buzzfeed reporter Ehis Osifo, the Jonas Brother member said that if he was given the option, he would re-record the band’s first album. “If you could re-record any song from the Jonas …