MANCHESTER: Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick has almost a full squad to choose from for Monday’s Premier League clash at Newcastle after a Covid-19 outbreak saw their last two matches postponed. Only the injured Paul Pogba is unavailable to the interim manager for the Red Devils first game in 16 days. United’s games against Brentford … Read more
PARIS: Olympic tennis champion Belinda Bencic and Tunisian Ons Jabeur have tested positive for Covid-19 after competing in the Abu Dhabi exhibition, both confirmed on Tuesday, a day after Rafael Nadal announced he had also tested positive. Former men’s world number one Nadal’s Spanish coach Carlos Moya, 45, also announced on Tuesday he had tested positive on … Read more
MILAN: Juventus took advantage of Atalanta’s goalless draw at Genoa with a 2-0 win over Cagliari which inched them closer to Serie A’s Champions League places, as Salernitana’s trip to Udinese became the season’s first coronavirus-related casualty. Moise Kean’s header five minutes before the break and Federico Bernardeschi’s precision finish after a break-away late on … Read more
LONDON: Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson fears player welfare is too low down the list of football’s priorities as the English game continues to grapple with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Premier League announced on Monday its intention to continue with the scheduled matches over the traditionally busy Christmas and New Year period, despite … Read more
LONDON: Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard said fear of Covid-19 is so heightened that one of his players was reluctant to get out of his car. An outbreak at Villa saw their match against Burnley last Saturday postponed at short notice, with Gerrard warning Wednesday that it will be a “nightmare” if the Midlands club … Read more
PARIS: Two Paris Saint-Germain players have tested positive for Covid-19 and a third is in isolation, the club said Wednesday a few hours before a Ligue 1 match at Lorient. They are one of several Ligue 1 clubs to reveal positive tests, though not at the same level as England, where a raft of matches … Read more
MELBOURNE: Australian Open chief Craig Tiley said Wednesday he was confident that Rafael Nadal will play in Melbourne despite testing positive for Covid-19, as fresh doubts emerged over Novak Djokovic. Spanish star Nadal said on Monday that he tested positive after returning home from an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi and was experiencing “some unpleasant moments”. … Read more
TOKYO: Tokyo Olympics organisers revised the estimated cost of the Covid-postponed Games downwards on Wednesday, but the figure was still around double the budget proposed in the city’s original 2013 bid. Despite losing out on ticket sales due to a near-total ban on spectators, organisers said they had saved cash by simplifying events and avoiding the … Read more
ROME: Salernitana cast doubt on Tuesday’s Serie A game at Udinese when they announced Covid-19 cases had prevented their squad leaving as planned for northeastern Italy. The Salerno club said they had heeded the advice of local health officials and had informed the Italian league. Read More: Police arrest three Parisian fans for cup violence … Read more
PARIS: Tottenham Hotspur’s European campaign for this season is over after UEFA awarded Rennes a 3-0 victory in their final Europa Conference League group match on Monday. Spurs were unable to fulfil the December 9 fixture due to a swathe of Covid-19 cases in the squad. As a result they finish third in the group … Read more
MANCHESTER: Premier League chiefs will meet on Monday to discuss a potential festive “firebreaker” as a result of the escalating coronavirus crisis, with managers voicing fears over player safety and fairness. Just four of the scheduled 10 games took place this weekend due to a number of call-offs caused by outbreaks that left clubs unable … Read more
ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Monday said people above 30 would be able to get a booster jab from January 1, 2022. The NCOC announced after its meeting in Islamabad. The meeting decided that strict measures would be taken for the implementation of mandatory vaccination. Read more: NCOC announces winter vacations … Read more
Liverpool shrugged off a coronavirus outbreak to keep their Premier League title challenge on track with a 3-1 win over Newcastle that was lit up by Trent Alexander-Arnold’s wonder goal. The Reds lost Virgil van Dijk and Fabinho to coronavirus before the kick-off as a surge of infections across Britain threatens to bring the season … Read more
BEIJING: China’s central bank cut a benchmark interest rate on Monday for the first time in nearly two years in a bid to kick-start growth in the world’s number two economy, as it creaks under the impact of a real estate crisis and coronavirus flare-ups. The People’s Bank of China said in a statement that it … Read more
LONDON: Covid-hit Chelsea were held to a goalless draw by Wolves on Sunday after the Premier League rejected their request to postpone the game as Manchester City put struggling Newcastle to the sword. Just four games were left on the schedule this weekend out of the original 10 as Britain’s worsening coronavirus crisis took its … Read more
PARIS: The coronavirus is once again disrupting global sport, forcing the cancellation of English Premier League matches and the scrapping of a one-day cricket series. AFP Sport looks at the state of play around the world as authorities scramble to cope with the surging pandemic. Football Five of the 10 Premier League matches scheduled for … Read more
According to authorities within the Sindh Health Department, a second case of the Omicron form of coronavirus has been recorded in Karachi. The 35-year-old afflicted man arrived in Karachi from the United Kingdom and tested positive for coronavirus during random testing. Omicron infection was later confirmed in the infected person using genome sequencing. However, the … Read more
JOHANNESBURG, Dec 17, 2021 (AFP) – Infection rates are soaring across South Africa as a result of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, but fewer people have died or required hospital treatment compared to previous waves of Covid, health officials said Friday. On Wednesday, South Africa recorded the highest number of infections the nation has ever seen in … Read more
KARACHI: There has been a significant increase in the tyre prices due to higher cost of production/import emanating from depreciating rupee, increase in regulatory duty by 10 per cent to 25 per cent and an increase in the Customs valuation, the predetermined value on which the taxes are imposed. Moreover, lesser inflows of smuggled goods … Read more
KARACHI: Five more members of the West Indies cricket squad — including three players — have tested positive for Covid, officials said Thursday, leaving the rest of their Pakistan tour hanging in the balance. Four members of the touring party tested positive on Saturday, bringing the total to nine since they arrived last week for a Twenty20 … Read more
LIVERPOOL: Premier League fans will be subject to vaccine passport checks to enter stadiums from Wednesday, but fears are rising over how long the English top-flight can continue in front of capacity crowds as the Omicron variant sweeps across Britain. Tottenham’s trip to Brighton and Manchester United’s visit to Brentford have been postponed due to … Read more
LOS ANGELES: The NFL reported 37 positive Covid-19 tests across the league on Monday, ESPN reported, the largest single-day number of positive cases since the pandemic began. Los Angeles Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey and tight end Tyler Higbee were among dozens of players who returned positive test results, ruling them out of Monday’s crucial game against the … Read more
LONDON: Manchester United’s match at Brentford on Tuesday was postponed as the English Premier League reported a record number of Covid-19 cases, with the virus threatening to disrupt the busy Christmas fixture list. It came hours after the Old Trafford club closed their Carrington training complex because of several players and staff members testing positive for coronavirus. … Read more
RIYADH: The US-based oil field service company, Halliburton, is in talks with Exxon Mobil about the sale of a stake in the huge West Qurna-1 oil field in southern Iraq. Iraq will step in to buy the stake, if the talks with Halliburton fail, but it wants a US partner for Exxon’s stake, Bloomberg reported, citing the … Read more
KARACHI: High-flying Pakistan start as favourites against a Covid-hit West Indies team in the first of three Twenty20 internationals in Karachi on Monday. Already missing a number of top players including skipper Kieron Pollard, the West Indies were dealt an additional blow when left-arm pacer Sheldon Cottrell, and all-rounders Roston Chase and Kyle Mayers, tested … Read more
TOKYO: Business confidence among major Japanese nonmanufacturers recovered to pre-pandemic levels in December, enhanced by the lifting of the COVID-19 state of emergency. However, the improvement of sentiment among manufacturers was dragged by parts shortages and surging raw materials costs, local media reported Monday. According to the quarterly “Tankan” survey, the key confidence index for … Read more
ST. JOHN’S: Three West Indies cricket players and a member of the team staff have tested positive for coronavirus on arriving in Pakistan and will miss the upcoming limited-overs series, Cricket West Indies (CWI) said on Saturday. Left-arm pacer Sheldon Cottrell, all-rounders Roston Chase and Kyle Mayers and a non-coaching staff member “returned positive tests in Karachi and will … Read more
DHAKA: Bangladesh has detected its first cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said Saturday. The Omicron variant was detected in two female cricketers of the Bangladesh Cricket Team, the health minister said, adding the cricketers returned to the country recently from Zimbabwe. They are now in institutional isolation at a … Read more
