MELBOURNE: Daniil Medvedev faced a hostile crowd and a full array of Nick Kyrgios outbursts and tricks, and still remained calm for long enough to reach the third round at the Australian Open. The 115th-ranked Kyrgios worked up the crowd, hit tweeners and drop shots, mixed up the pace of his groundstrokes and tossed in an under-arm serve in a bid to ruffle the second-ranked Russian. Medvedev kept his composure, taking a quick trip to the locker room after losing the third set and recovering to win 7-6 (7-1), 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 Thursday on a rowdy Rod Laver Arena. In…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
SHANGHAI: Strict Covid-19 testing requirements for the Beijing Winter Olympics could see more athletes from high-risk Omicron regions banned from participating, but the system in place will be as flexible as possible, an Olympic medical adviser said. Experts have warned that China’s strict “zero-Covid” strategy, as well as its more sensitive testing protocols, could see more athletes excluded from the Games scheduled to take place between Feb 4 and Feb 20 — especially from regions that have seen a spike in the highly infectious Omicron variant. “Some people might not make it, but we are trying to put in place…
Cricket is the one thing that unites Pakistanis and ever since the Pakistan cricket team almost made it to the T20 World Cup finals last year, people have been more hyped than ever. On Jan 21, the ICC released its 2021 Men’s ODI Team of the Year as part of the ICC Awards and it had netizens celebrating the two Pakistani cricketers who made it to the team. “Power-hitters, terrific all-rounders, fiery pacers. The 2021 ICC Men’s ODI Team of the Year has all the bases covered,” ICC captioned the post on Twitter with the list attached. Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman’s names are…
LAHORE: Mohammad Rizwan, the winner of PCB’s most valuable cricketer of 2021 award, has welcomed the statements of Australian cricketers, former players and broadcasters looking forward to touring Pakistan. Australia are scheduled to play three Tests, three ODIs and a T20 International in March-April. All three Tests are part of the ICC World Test Championship, while the three ODIs are part of ICC World Cup Super League. This will be their first tour to Pakistan in 24 years. Rizwan, 29, said his energy is already bouncing off the walls to face a competitive side like Australia at home. “I can…
India and Pakistan will lock horns in a blockbuster T20 World Cup group clash for the second year running after the fixtures for the October-November 2022 tournament in Australia were announced on Friday. The arch-rivals will lock horns at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on October 23, a day after Australia begin their title defence against New Zealand in Sydney — a repeat of the 2021 final in Dubai where Aaron Finch’s team won their maiden crown. The 16-nation tournament will begin on October 16 with Sri Lanka facing Namibia in Geelong — one of seven venues as Australia hosts…
LAHORE: A Chinese company has asked the government to immediately resolve the issue related to adoption of one per cent fixed tax by the Government of Azad Jammu & Kashmir on the offshore procurement contract of the 1,124-megawatt Kohala Hydropower Project and imposition of 17 per cent sales tax on all imports as proposed in the Finance (Supplementary) Bill 2021. An official source says the government should immediately take up and resolve this issue since it is a major hurdle in the way of launching construction of mega hydropower project agreed to be completed under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).…
ISLAMABAD: The country’s oil refineries have warned the government of a looming shutdown of their operations in a couple of weeks due to high and yet rising stocks of furnace oil. Informed sources said the refineries have reported to the government that the oil industry was currently holding about 400,000 tonnes of furnace oil. In addition, 300,000-tonne stocks were lying unutilised at various power plants. On the other hand, the Power Division had placed a requirement of furnace oil for February at just 45,000 tonnes for the power sector. The sources said the Petroleum Division had advised the Pak-Arab Refinery…
KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) declined by more than half a billion dollars within a week mainly on account of international debt servicing, data released by the central bank showed on Thursday. Reserves of the SBP dropped by $562 million to $17.03bn in the week ending on Jan 14. The central bank uses its foreign exchange reserves for the servicing of international debt, which has been increasing rapidly for the last three years. The SBP said the latest week-on-week drop of $562m in reserves is because of external debt and other payments. Reserves of…
LAHORE: Federal Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has said that sustainable export-led growth was the only way to put the country in the right direction. Addressing members of the Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) at its head office in Faisalabad on Thursday, he said the government was making all-out efforts to increase the country’s exports. “Our real target is to achieve sustainable growth in exports, as it is the only recipe to cope with the economic miseries of Pakistan,” he said. The minister assured the exporters he would talk to the finance ministry and the…
BEIJING: Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian brushed away media reports that suggest the Chinese contractor has demobilised from the Dasu dam project site. At his regular briefing at International Press Centre (IPC) on Thursday, Mr Zhao said he was unaware of any preconditions put forward by the contractor for resuming work on the dam site. “I’m not aware of the situation you mentioned. As far as I know, the Dasu hydropower project has resumed,” he said. A terrorist attack on the dam site last July took the lives of 10 Chinese and four Pakistani nationals while injuring 28 others.…
