Section: Pakistan Today (Pakistan)
Klopp grateful Zidane showdown is confined to touchline
Liverpool are relishing the prospect of facing Real Madrid in Saturday’s Champions League final but manager Juergen Klopp is glad that his duel with counterpart Zinedine Zidane does not have to extend beyond the touchline. Real are targeting a third successive European club title under former French international Zidane, while Klopp is...
Simona Halep beats Maria Sharapova to reach final
ROME: Simona Halep profited from a miserable day on serve for Maria Sharapova to reach the Italian Open final with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 defeat of the five-time Grand Slam winner on Saturday. The Romanian world number one will bid for the title on Sunday against Elina Svitolina in a repeat of last year´s final won by the Ukrainian. Svitolina booked her...
Sharapova edges Ostapenko, to play Halep in Rome semis
ROME: Former world number one Maria Sharapova stepped up her French Open preparations with a battling 6-7(6) 6-4 7-5 win over reigning Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko in the Italian Open quarter-finals on Friday. Sharapova, 31, will play top seed and world number one Simona Halep in the semis after the Romanian crushed Caroline Garcia 6-2...
After four years of Western sanctions, Russia digs in for long haul
MOSCOW: Russians have been living under Western sanctions for four years now, and they have undeniably survived. But the debate now unfolding in Russia’s parliament, and its expert community at large, seems to be no longer about how to manage the temporary burden of sanctions. Rather, it seems to be about how to adjust to permanent life...
Putin: Russia to press ahead with military modernisation
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin says Russia will maintain a high tempo of modernising its military arsenals this year. Speaking Thursday at a meeting with the top military brass in the southern Russian city of Sochi, Putin said the Russian air forces would receive 160 new aircraft this year and the army is to get 500 new armored vehicles and...
Slovak president says EU countries ignoring Russian interference
BRATISLAVA: European countries are ignoring evidence of Russian interference in their politics and the destabilizing effect on the region of policies that will make Europe more reliant on Russian energy, Slovakia’s President Andrej Kiska said on Thursday. Kiska, who is not a member of any political party, is a pro-Western voice in NATO and...
Salah scores again as his boots displayed at British Museum
LONDON: Mohamed Salah fever has swept Britain since his arrival with Liverpool’s goal machine earning two players awards and now a pair of his boots are to sit alongside Egyptian artefacts at the British Museum. The 25-year-old Egyptian — who set a new Premier League scoring record last season with 32 — will have his boots on display in...
Russia, China tighten ties with Iran
ASTANA: Russia and China moved Thursday to extend their economic influence in Iran, while Europeans are finding it harder to ignore efforts by Washington to isolate Tehran economically. In one of the most concrete moves yet against renewed US efforts to choke off Iran economically, a Russian-led trade bloc signed an interim trade deal with Iran...
Cumberbatch Cold War thriller becomes one of Cannes big sellers
A Cold War spy thriller starring Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch has been one of the big sellers at the Cannes film festival, reports said Thursday. Ironbark is based on the story of British spy and businessman Greville Wynne, who handled the double agent Oleg Penkovsky, a Russian military intelligence officer who tipped off Britain and the US...
Rebels dig new line of trenches in Ukraine
YASYNUVATA: A dozen volunteers dug a new line of trenches in the pro-Russian separatist east of Ukraine to keep out Kiev’s tanks. “We are preparing reserve positions in the event of a possible offensive by Kiev,” says 49-year-old Oleg. The trench-digging project was launched a month ago by a separatist battalion called Vostok, or east. In...
