COMPIGNE: Defending champion Mathieu van der Poel goes into Sunday’s muddy, cobbled Paris-Roubaix bike race sceptical over new safety measures in a week when several of the sport’s biggest stars were hospitalised. Miles of mud and millions of cobbles have lent the race the name of ‘the Hell of the North’ and a reputation of the most gruelling one-day race …

LONDON: Manchester City pulled level with Liverpool at the top of the Premier League on Saturday after beating Crystal Palace 4-2 as Everton secured a vital 1-0 win against Burnley in their bid to avoid relegation. City’s Kevin De Bruyne netted twice and top-scorer Erling Haaland hit his 19th league goal of the season, with Rico Lewis also on the …

SUZUKA: Formula One world champion Max Verst­appen took pole position for a third straight year at the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday, with Sergio Perez qualifying a close second to ensure a Red Bull front-row lockout. Verstappen set the pace with a lap of one minute 28.197 seconds — 0.066 seconds clear of Perez — becoming the first driver to …

LAHORE: While terming Pakistan Cricket Board’s step of removing Shaheen Shah Afridi as captain to bring back Babar Azam a hasty decision, former PCB chief Zaka Ashraf has criticised the composition of the national selection committee announced recently. “Shaheen should have been given some more time, at least one year, so that his performance [as skipper] could be analysed before …

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam said on Sunday that the “highly successful” training camp at the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul had strengthened unity among the players and made them “better, fitter and mentally tougher athletes”. He made the remarks in a press release shared by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Sunday. Earlier, the PCB said the camp — organised in collaboration …

OUAGADOUGOU: In the suburbs of Burkina Faso’s capital Ouag­adougou, lucrative strawberry farming is supplanting traditional crops like cabbage and lettuce and has become a top export to neighbouring countries. Prized as “red gold” in the Sahel, strawberry crops brought in some two billion CFA francs ($3.3 million) from 2019 to 2020, according to agricultural support programme PAPEA. In their January …

ISLAMABAD: The Karachi Gateway Terminal Multipurpose Limited (KGTML) has informed the Ministry of Ports and Shipping that it has successfully achieved the berthing of seven wheat bulk-carrier vessels across berths 11-17 on the East Wharf of Karachi Port. In a letter to the ministry, KGTML has stated that this achievement has been made possible through the introduction of efficient operational …

KARACHI: Private sector participation in the economy is now lower than what it was in FY23, which saw a negative growth. The State Bank’s latest data shows the private sector has lost confidence in the banking system as it could hardly borrow Rs35 billion in the first nine months of FY 24. The amount for the same period in FY …

KARACHI: Gold rates hit an all-time high of Rs245,100 per tola (24K) on Saturday, breaking the previous record of Rs 242,700 on Sept 2 last year. A member of the All Sindh Saraf and Jewellers Association (ASSJA) said the gold rate rose by Rs4,900 per tola on the back of a $44 per ounce jump in the international market to …