The world’s most powerful space telescope on Saturday blasted off into orbit, headed to an outpost 1.5 million kilometres (930,000 miles) from Earth. The James Webb Space Telescope, some three decades and billions of dollars in the making, left Earth enclosed in its Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou Space Centre in French Guiana. It is expected to take a month …

ANKARA: Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) imposed an 8 million lira ($751,314) fine on the local unit of cryptocurrency exchange Binance over violations found during liability inspections, the Anadolu news agency said on Saturday. The fine imposed on BN Teknoloji was the first of its kind after the authority took on responsibilities to oversee crypto asset service providers in …

ISLAMABAD: The COVID-19 has claimed two more lives in Pakistan during the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 28,907. According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 358 more people were infected with the coronavirus. A total of 52,050 samples were tested in the past 24 hours, out of which 358 turned out to be positive, …

MELBOURNE: Embattled England made four changes on Saturday for the crunch Boxing Day Test in a bid to keep the Ashes alive, while Australia handed experienced seamer Scott Boland a surprise debut. Joe Root’s team must win at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of an expected 70,000 fans to stay in the hunt after heavy defeats in the first …

CENTURION: Virat Kohli bruised from being fired as India’s One-day International captain bids to rebound by leading his country to an historic triumph in South Africa in a three-match Test series which starts at the SuperSport Park in Centurion on Sunday. South Africa is the only regular Test-playing nation where India have yet to win a series. “We have worked …

KARACHI: It was only the second over and defending champions Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were reeling in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy final. Northern pacer Waqas Ahmed was getting early afternoon swing at the National Stadium on Saturday and uprooted Fakhar Zaman’s off-stump with a delivery that swung back into the left-hander. The very next ball, Sahibzada Farhan was trapped lbw with a delivery …

LAHORE: Fast bowler Zeeshan Zemeer’s five-wicket haul backed by a fine 81-run knock by Mohammad Shehzad steered Pakistan to a nail-biting two-wicket victory over arch-rivals India in their group ‘A’ match of the U-19 Asia Cup in Dubai on Saturday. Chasing 238 for victory, Pakistan achieved their target off the very last ball when Ahmed Khan drove Indian pacer Ravi …

Sports in Pakistan had been in a state of disrepair for years but it showed more than a few signs of life in 2021 — and not just in cricket either. During the outgoing year, national athletes did not make too many additions to the trophy cabinet but they came quite close and certainly did better than what was expected …

HONG KONG: China’s plan to tighten scrutiny over mainland companies’ overseas share sales is likely to ease the regulatory uncertainty that roiled financial markets this year and stalled offshore listings, bankers and analysts said. But the securities regulator’s new filing-based system, designed to rein in once freewheeling Chinese listings in the US market and elsewhere, leaves open questions about rule …