MILAN: Ferran Torres put Spain into the Nations League final with a brace in a 2-1 win that ended European champions Italy’s world record unbeaten run at 37 matches in front of their own fans at the San Siro stadium. Italy, trailing by two goals at the break, had to play the entire second half with 10 men after captain …

ISLAMABAD: Three weeks after calling off their tour of Pakistan due to security concerns, New Zealand are willing to reschedule the series and Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ramiz Raja said on Thursday that there will be more information regarding that in a weeks’ time. Ramiz was briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination, which met here with Senator Mian …

LONDON: England all-rounder Ben Stokes could miss the Ashes series in Australia after undergoing another operation on his injured finger, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced on Thursday. The 30-year-old has not played since July, when it was announced he was taking a break to focus on his mental wellbeing and to rest his left index finger. “Ben …

LAHORE: Southern Punjab really mean business in the second leg of the Nation T20 Cup in Lahore where they are back in the semi-final race. Barely 18 hours after chalking up their first win in the competition luck has at last started to side with them as they sealed the Punjab derby against the superior Central side on Thursday. While …

A blast tore through a mosque in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Kunduz on Friday, a Taliban official said, causing multiple deaths. “This afternoon, an explosion took place in a mosque of our Shia compatriots … as a result of which a number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter, adding that a special …

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) welcomed the diminishing trend in global energy prices on Thursday as its benchmark index closed at 44,586 points, up 212.81 points or 0.48 per cent, from a day ago. According to Topline Securities, the stock market opened on a positive note as Russia announced its willingness to stabilise the global energy market by exporting …

BOSTON: Russia accounted for most state-sponsored hacking detected by Microsoft over the past year, with a 58pc share, mostly targeting government agencies and think tanks in the United States, followed by Ukraine, Britain and European Nato members, the company said. The devastating effectiveness of the long-undetected SolarWinds hack it mainly breached information technology businesses including Microsoft also boosted Russian state-backed …

WASHINGTON: The CIA said on Thursday it will create a top-level working group on China as part of a broad US government effort focused on countering Beijing’s influence. The group will become one of fewer than a dozen mission centres operated by the CIA, with weekly director-level meetings intended to drive the agency’s strategy towards China. The CIA also announced …

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Thursday emphasised the need for regular engagement with the United States as US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman reached here for talks on bilateral ties and Afghanistan situation. Foreign Office spokesman Asim Iftikhar, at the weekly media briefing, said: “Close and regular engagement between Pakistan and the United States has always been mutually beneficial …

BRUSSELS: As desperate Afghans resort to selling their belongings to buy food, officials are preparing to fly in cash for the needy while avoiding financing the Taliban government, according to people familiar with the confidential plans. Planning for the cash airlifts is going ahead against the background of a rapidly collapsing economy where money is short, although diplomats are still …