BEIJING: An outcry over the whereabouts of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai escalated on Friday as the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) said it was prepared to pull its tournaments out of China over the issue, prompting an influential Chinese state media editor to criticise the organisation for using a “coercive tone”. Former doubles world number one Peng has not been …

ISLAMABAD: At a time when unemployment is rife among the youth, the Pakistan Cricket Board has 23 over-age employees who are all contractual. The matter came to light after Senator Irfan Siddiqui posed a question to Federal Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination Dr Fehmida Mirza, asking her about the number of employees over the age of 60 as well their salaries …

Pakistan recovered from a top-order collapse to beat Bangladesh by four wickets in the first Twenty20 international of their three-match series in Dhaka on Friday. The visitors restricted Bangladesh to a measly 127-7 as the hosts won the toss and elected to bat first at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. Fast bowler Hasan Ali picked up 3-22 and right-arm medium pacer …

Pat Cummins shaped up as the frontrunner Saturday to take over from disgraced former Australia Test skipper Tim Paine, with the likes of Mark Taylor, Dennis Lillie, and Steve Waugh all singing his praises. The 28-year-old, who has served as vice-captain in both Test and white-ball formats since 2019, is widely seen as being in a two-way race with Steve …

ISLAMABAD: The government is considering complete deregulation of profit margins of petroleum dealers and oil marketing companies (OMCs) with upper caps and initial increase of 15-20 per cent. This is based on the advice of state-owned Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (Pide) but a final decision is expected to be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCOE) or the …

RANCHI: India cruised to a second straight victory over World Cup runners-up New Zealand on Friday, giving new coach Rahul Dravid and new T20 captain Rohit Sharma their first series win. Set 154 in front of a packed crowd in Ranchi, India crossed the line in the 18th over having lost only three wickets, avenging their eight-wicket hammering by the …

KARACHI: The benchmark index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange remained mostly in the green zone on Friday as investors hailed growth in the large-scale manufacturing sector, which expanded 5.15 per cent in July-September on an annual basis. According to Arif Habib Ltd, the second half saw profit-booking following the announcement of a current account deficit of $1.7 billion in October …

ISLAMABAD: Inflation measured through the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) posted an increase of 1.07 per cent for the week ended on November 18 driven by a sharp rise in the prices of essential food items, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on Friday. The PBS data showed that this is the sixth consecutive week where inflation …

ISLAMABAD: Remittances in Pakistan are likely to remain flat at the presently high levels in 2022 as the one-off effect of government incentives to attract them fades, says a new World Bank report. The latest issue of ‘Migration and Development Brief’ says Pakistan had another year of record remittances with growth at 26 per cent, and levels reaching $33 billion …

QUETTA: Opposition and treasury benches in the Balochistan Assembly on Friday expre­ssed concern over the disappearance of two university students and asked the authorities to get them recovered immediately. On the first day of the winter session, presided over by Deputy Speaker Sardar Babar Khan Musakhail, former chief minister Nawab Aslam Raisani took up the issue on a point of …