ISLAMABAD: For a fixture that nobody particularly wants to play and even fewer particularly want to watch, England and France contrived something that will be remembered long after the World Cup final has faded from view. The third-place play-off, that unloved coda to the tournament, produced 10 goals, two contrasting halves and a finish so breathless that both benches seemed almost relieved when the referee finally blew for time.
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Sir Garry Sobers, the greatest all-rounder cricket has known, dies aged 89
Sir Garfield Sobers, the West Indies cricketer acclaimed across the sport as the finest all-rounder the game has produced, has died at his home in Barbados. He was 89, his death coming just 11 days before what would have been his 90th birthday.
Security forces kill 24 militants in intelligence-led raids near Afghan border
ISLAMABAD: Security forces have killed 24 militants in a wave of gun battles in the northwestern district of Bannu over the past 24 hours, the military said on Friday, as authorities pressed a widening offensive against a resurgent insurgency near the Afghan border.
Gilgit-Baltistan assembly in Himalayan territory unanimously demands provincial status
GILGIT: The regional legislature representing Gilgit and Baltistan, one of the most remote and politically ambiguous corners of South Asia, voted unanimously on Thursday to press Pakistan’s federal government for a provincial status, reviving a demand that officials say has simmered among residents for three-quarters of a century.
ICC clears path for extra India-Pakistan clash in shake-up of 2027 World Cup
LAHORE: The International Cricket Council has torn up the format for next year’s men’s 50-over World Cup, introducing a change that could hand cricket’s most commercially valuable fixture — India against Pakistan — an additional airing.
Pakistan’s farms are shrinking, and its aquifers are paying the price
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s farmland is fracturing into smaller and smaller pieces, and the water that irrigates it is slipping out of state hands entirely, according to the country’s newly released Agricultural Census, a survey that offers the most complete statistical picture yet of a rural economy in the middle of an unplanned transformation.
Karachi HIV cases linked to children’s hospital rise to 120, officials say
KARACHI: The number of people found to be infected with HIV in connection with a children’s hospital in Karachi has climbed to 120, provincial officials said Tuesday, as a public health investigation that began nine months ago continues to widen across working-class neighbourhoods in the city’s industrial quarter.
Pakistan narrows mobile internet gender gap to 8 percent – but ownership divide remains widest globally
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has recorded the fastest reduction in its mobile internet gender gap of any country tracked globally, according to the government, narrowing the divide between men’s and women’s usage from 38 percent in 2024 to 8 percent this year.
Pakistan in talks with Netflix, weighing its own streaming platform, minister says
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s government is negotiating with Netflix and other global streaming services to secure greater visibility for the country’s films and television dramas, while separately developing a state-backed digital platform to carry Pakistani content abroad, a senior minister said, reviving a long-running debate over why a domestic entertainment industry with a vast international following has landed so few original commissions from the world’s dominant streaming companies.
Pakistan defends Eurobond pricing after lawmaker challenges bank selection
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s finance ministry rejected allegations of irregularities in the country’s recent sovereign bond sales, pushing back against a lawmaker’s claim that officials passed over a more favourable Citigroup Inc. offer in favour of banks selected without competitive bidding.