MANCHESTER: Cristiano Ronaldo completed his return to Manchester United on Tuesday after 12 years, saying the club always had “a special place in my heart.” United announced last Friday that they had struck an agreement with Juventus to sign the five-time Ballon d’Or winner and he has completed his medical examination and signed the two-year contract, with the option to …

LONDON: Joe Root admits he faces a ‘balancing act’ as England’s captain tries to avoid burning out his in-form bowling attack in the fourth Test against India. There are concerns over the workloads of pace bowlers James Anderson and Ollie Robinson after both played key roles in the third Test win at Headingley. Anderson and Robinson will likely start Thursday’s …

HONG KONG: Chinese football has struggled over the last two decades to build on their only World Cup appearance to date, but coach Li Tie is adamant his China team will be able to secure a place in Qatar in 2022. China will be appearing in the final phase of the Asia’s World Cup qualifiers for just the second time …

Congratulations are in order! Bismah Maroof — the captain of Pakistan women’s national cricket team — recently announced the birth of her baby daughter on social media. Many athletes and journalists posted their congratulations to the new mom, expressing happiness at the announcement of the news. Maroof posted the happy news of her daughter’s arrival on Twitter on August 30. …

TOKYO: After a dramatic evacuation from Taliban-held Kabul and a secret operation to fly him to Tokyo, Afghan Paralympian Hossain Rasouli beat the odds on Tuesday to compete in the long jump. It was not the event he had been expecting to contest, after qualifying for the 100m T47, but then just about everything in his world was turned upside …

ISLAMABAD: A Pakis­tan Petroleum Limited-led consortium of four public sector exploration and production (E&P) entities has secured a major exploration opening — Offshore Block 5 — in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, involving an investment of about $400 million. The “consortium has be­en awarded Offshore Block 5 in Abu Dhabi’s second competitive exploration block bid round. Offshore Block 5 …

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan on Tuesday allowed overseas Pakistanis to directly invest into the shares of companies in Pakistan and units of funds through the rupee-based Roshan Digital Accounts (RDA). Overseas Pakistanis have been allowed investment in Pakistani companies as well as funds operated by a private fund management company licensed by the Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan. …

KARACHI: The country’s average per day oil and gas production dropped 10 per cent and 2pc, respectively, in the week ending Aug 18-24 to 69,878 barrels and 3,337 million cubic feet from 77,730bopd and 3,406mmcfd over the preceding week Aug 11-17. An analyst at Arif Habib Ltd (AHL) attributed the decline in oil production to annual turnaround (ATA) of Nashpa …

ISLAMABAD: The newly appointed chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Dr Ashfaq Ahmad, on Tuesday unveiled a roadmap for restructuring tax machinery and declared robust growth of 45 per cent in revenue collection in the second month of the current fiscal. The revenue collection in August rose to Rs434 billion, an increase of 45pc from last year’s figure …

ISLAMABAD: Making a new record, state-run Pakistan State Oil (PSO) on Tuesday awarded a liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo to commodity trader Vitol at 24.5456pc of Brent (about $17.86 per mmBtu) – the most expensive so far – for delivery on Sept 26-27. “PSO has decided to award the below mentioned cargo for supply of LNG,” PSO announced on its …