Imam-ul-Haq says Pakistan will go all out against Bangladesh on Friday even if they have no realistic chance of reaching the World Cup semi-finals.
Victory for New Zealand against England on Wednesday would leave the door open for Pakistan to seal a place in the last four if they win their final group match.
But a win for the tournament hosts would all but end the 1992 champions' chances of reaching the last four -- England would be out of reach on 12 points while New Zealand have a far-superior net run rate to Pakistan so would likely progress even if the two teams finished level on 11 points.
Imam said there was no despondency in the Pakistan camp despite the difficult situation.
"We are not thinking on the lines of not reaching semi-finals," said Imam.
"Our plan is to play the semi-final with an all-out effort and at the end if that doesn't happen then we have to play positive cricket and end on a high."
Pakistan won just one of their first five World Cup matches but bounced back ..

Imam-ul-Haq vows no World Cup let-up from Pakistan

PTI Automatic

The all-star duo of former world number ones Andy Murray and Serena Williams will play German Andreas Mies and Alexa Guarachi of Chile in the first round of the mixed doubles at Wimbledon.
Mies, 28, comes fresh from creating a major surprise partnering Kevin Krawietz to win the French Open title beating home hopes Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin in straight sets.
American-born Guarachi, who is also 28, has a more modest record though she won the Swiss Open doubles final last year and reached the Istanbul Cup final this season.
Murray, who is easing his way back into the sport following a radical hip resurfacing, announced he was joining forces with Williams in an all-star partnership on Tuesday.
"It'll be great," Murray told STV.
"I'm just happy to be fit and healthy again.
"With what's happened the last year or so, you never know what's round the corner, so it's a great opportunity.
"I'll look forward to it."
The 32-year-old, who won two of his three Grand Slam singles titles at ...

Murray and Williams learn first round Wimbledon opponents

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed into law a bill on the suspension of a crucial arms control treaty signed by US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty that limited medium-range missiles was concluded by Russia and the United States in 1987.
Moscow suspended participation in the INF treaty in March after US President Donald Trump's White House announced it would ditch the agreement for alleged Russian violations of the terms.
On Wednesday, Putin formalised the suspension by signing the bill which says the decision to resume the agreement is to be made by the Russian president.
The INF deal resolved a crisis over Soviet nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles targeting Western capitals, but put no restrictions on other major military actors such as China.
Together with another key arms control agreement known as New START, the INF was considered a cornerstone of global security.
The agreement, which .

Putin formally suspends INF treaty

Vodafone on Wednesday launched its 5G service in the UK, but without smartphones from controversial Chinese technology giant Huawei.
By sidelining Huawei phones, Vodafone has mirrored action by EE, the first UK provider to roll out the technology that offers almost instantaneous data transfer with its own launch at the end of May.
"5G will transform the way we live and work," Vodafone UK Chief Executive Officer Nick Jeffery said Wednesday.
"Our customers are streaming over 50 percent more content today than they did last year, and with 5G the demand for data is only set to increase."
Vodafone has launched in seven UK citiess, including London and Birmingham, but will not be offering the service on the Huawei Mate 20 X 5G smartphone, as is the case with EE.
Huawei faces pushback in some Western markets over fears that Beijing could spy on communications and gain access to critical infrastructure if allowed to develop foreign 5G networks.
The Chinese company flatly denies what it ...

Vodafone joins EE in offering 5G in Britain

A son of the ruler of Sharjah was buried in the emirate Wednesday, as a three-day mourning period began after his unexpected death in London.
Sheikh Khalid bin Sultan al-Qasimi was reported to be 39.
His father, Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed al-Qasimi, and other Emirati officials took part in the funeral procession as flags flew at half-mast.
The government of Sharjah, one of seven emirates making up the UAE, said Tuesday that Sheikh Khalid died in London a day earlier, without elaborating further.
London's Metropolitan Police said it was investigating an "unexplained death" in Knightsbridge on Monday but declined to reveal names.
A "sudden death" was reported at a residential property and a "man in his late 30s was found deceased", said a police statement.
The police also said a post-mortem examination carried out Tuesday was inconclusive, adding they await the results of further tests. No arrests were made.  Sheikh Khalid was the founder and creative director of a fashion brand, ...

Sharjah ruler's son buried after death in London

Hong Kong authorities on Wednesday vowed to hunt down the protesters who ransacked parliament in an unprecedented challenge to the Beijing-backed government, as the city grapples with its biggest political crisis in decades.
The semi-autonomous city has been shaken by massive anti-government demonstrations since last month, sparked by a law that would have allowed extraditions to the mainland.
The anger spilled over on Monday as groups of mostly young, hardline protesters -- who have demanded the resignation of the city's leader Carrie Lam and the cancellation of the bill -- stormed Hong Kong's Legislative Council.
They used a makeshift battering ram to smash their way in, and then sprayed graffiti on the walls of its main chamber and defaced the city's seal.
Investigators continued to gather evidence from the damaged building on Wednesday, the police department said in a statement posted on its social media accounts, adding that it will "bring the culprits to justice for any unlawful 

Hong Kong govt vows action over parliament ransacking

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Wednesday she had raised "concerns" over protecting Hong Kong's autonomy with China's rulers after another round of pro-democracy protests in the former UK colony.
"I have raised my concerns directly with Chinese leaders," May told British MPs at the weekly questions in parliament session.
"It's vital that Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy and the rights and freedoms set down in the Sino-British joint declaration are respected," she added, referring to the agreement governing its 1997 handover.
May said she was "shocked" by the violent protests at Hong Kong's legislative council building Monday, but noted that hundreds of thousands of people had protested "peacefully and lawfully".
Her comments came just hours after Beijing said it had lodged an official protest with London after British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned of "serious consequences" if it breached the Sino-British declaration.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Hunt, ...

UK PM May raises 'concerns' over Hong Kong with China

The European Parliament on Wednesday elected an Italian social democrat as its new president, filling the final top EU job a day after Brussels named two women to key posts for the first time.
Italy's David Sassoli, a 63-year-old former journalist, won the absolute majority of ballots he needed at the second round of voting, seeing off German Green Ska Keller, far-left Spaniard Sira Rego and Czech conservative Jan Zahradil.
The new MEPs elected in May's European polls took office on Tuesday during a brief inaugural session before voting by secret ballot to choose Sassoli as successor to Antonio Tajani, a conservative from Italy.
The 751-seat parliament -- based in Strasbourg, France -- is more fragmented than ever after the May election saw solid gains by the liberals and Greens as well as the far right and eurosceptics.
The vote for president completes the roster of the EU's five most important jobs, with the others settled on Tuesday at the end of three days of negotiation among the 

European Parliament chooses new president, completing top EU jobs

Police have launched an investigation after "unprecedented" crowd trouble at the World Cup match between Pakistan and Afghanistan at Headingley, during which a number of arrests were made.
West Yorkshire Police said they received reports of people climbing over a wall, assaulting staff on a gate and a fan going on to the pitch at Saturday's game in Leeds.
Videos shared on social media show a fight between fans outside the ground, with a metal barrier being brandished and kicks, punches and shouting.
Police said mobile phone footage showed people being assaulted, and appealed for anyone who was a victim or witness of an attack, or who has original footage of the incidents, to contact them.
Superintendent Chris Bowen said police in Leeds recognised the need for a "full and comprehensive criminal investigation".
"While these were isolated incidents, involving a relative minority of people attending the event, the scenes that were witnessed were completely unprecedented at a cricket ...

Police probe crowd trouble at Cricket World Cup

Tourism in Sri Lanka suffered a huge blow after the Easter bombings that killed 258 people including 45 foreigners, but official figures Wednesday showed a modest recovery.
The industry, which before the April attacks had expected a record number of foreign holidaymakers in 2019 on the back of rave reviews in international travel magazines, saw arrivals plummet in May.
The number of tourists dived to just 37,800 in May, down from 166,975 in the previous month, and 129,500 a year earlier, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority figures showed.
But the figures also showed an uptick since, with some 63,000 visitors arriving in June, a 66-percent increase compared to May, but still way below the June 2018 figure of 146,828.
Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said last week that the damage to tourism from the April 21 attacks was less than intially feared.
Even in the aftermath of the attacks, domestic tourists filled hotels which were able to retain staff and remain in ...

Sri Lanka tourism limps back after bombings, figures show

French police on Wednesday raided the headquarters of Renault while probing a lavish wedding party thrown by ex-CEO Carlos Ghosn at Versailles Palace, the French carmaker and legal sources said.
Officers in charge of investigating corruption and financial crimes searched Renault's headquarters in the western Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, a source close to the investigation said.
A Renault spokesman confirmed the search was under way and said the company was "fully cooperating with the authorities".
Ghosn, the big-spending former chief of both Renault and its Japanese partner Nissan who is awaiting trial in Japan on charges of financial misconduct, hired the entire Palace of Versailles when he got married in October 2016.
He is suspected of wrongly obtaining use of the sumptuous home of 17th century "Sun King" Louis XIV in exchange for a sponsorship deal between the state-owned palace and Renault.
Versailles waived the usual 50,000-euro rental fee for the Marie ...

French police raid Renault HQ over Ghosn wedding probe

Covering some 3,500 kilometres (220 miles) over the polar ice sheets in only 76 days, an arctic fox has reached Canada after setting off from Norway in an unprecedented feat of endurance.
The journey is not only a testament to the fox's stamina but also highlights the important role ice sheets serve for the migration of Arctic wildlife and the threat global warming poses to the ecological balance.
Arnaud Tarroux, one of the researchers behind the study recording the fox's trek published by the Norwegian Polar Institute, warned that "less ice... will mean less opportunities for this type of migration".
The arctic fox was equipped with a satellite tracker in July 2017 and set off from the island of Spitsbergen in the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago, about 1,000 kilometres from the North Pole, on March 26 2018.
On July 1, 76 days after leaving Norway, the fox reached Ellesmere Island, one of Canada's northernmost communities, completing a journey of 3,506 kilometres.
"This species is even 

Fox crosses Arctic to reach Canada from Norway in record time

Italian social democrat MEP David Sassoli won a vote on Wednesday to become the new president of the European Parliament, completing the roster of top EU jobs.
The 63-year-old former journalist won 345 votes on the second round of voting, an absolute majority of ballots cast by MEPs in Strasbourg, the outgoing president Antonio Tajani announced.

Italian social democrat elected new European Parliament president

A prominent Myanmar journalist accused of defaming a hardline nationalist monk dubbed the "Buddhist Bin Laden" has had the case against him dropped, his lawyer said.
Myanmar Now editor Swe Win had been on trial for two years after posting an article on Facebook criticising the preacher abbot Wirathu.
The monk is notorious for spewing Islamophobic vitriol, in particular against the Rohingya minority, and is now himself on-the-run from the law.
His supporters in 2017 pressed charges against the journalist under the country's telecommunications law, often used against reporters and activists.
But the court dismissed the case Tuesday, Swe Win's lawyer Ywut Nu Aung told AFP.
"All charges were completely dropped," she said, explaining that four prosecution witnesses had contravened court orders to turn up more than 20 times.
The article posted by Swe Win quoted an abbot calling for Wirathu to be expelled from monkhood for publicly praising the killers of a respected Muslim lawyer.
Ko Ni, a .

Myanmar court drops case against journalist

China on Wednesday warned Canada not to be "naive" and believe that US pressure could help resolve thorny issues plaguing relations between Ottawa and Beijing.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday he was "confident" US President Donald Trump had brought up the cases of Canadians detained in China during weekend talks with President Xi Jinping at the G20 in Japan.
"Don't be naive and mistakenly think that mustering a certain so-called ally to put pressure on China will have an impact," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular press briefing.
Ottawa "should not naively think its so-called ally will really exert itself on Canada's behalf", he said.
"At most the (Americans) will move their lips a bit, because in reality this is an issue between China and Canada," Geng said at a regular press briefing.
Relations deteriorated between China and Canada following the December arrest in Vancouver of Meng Wanzhou, a top executive at Chinese telecom giant Huawei, who 

China warns 'naive' Canada not to count on the US

Israel's opposition Labour party has chosen veteran politician and trade unionist Amir Peretz as the leader to revive the party's fortunes after a humiliating showing in an April general election.
Labour, which dominated Israeli politics in the decades after the country's 1948 founding, won only six of the 120 seats in parliament in the April 9 vote.
Party members picked Peretz, 67, by 47 per cent to 27 over his 34-year-old rival Stav Shaffir in a primary on Tuesday.
He will have a first test of his ability to win back disenchanted left-of-centre voters when Israel returns to the polls for another general election on September 17.
Parliament voted in May to call the new poll after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to turn his alliance of right-wing and religious parties into a majority coalition.
Peretz already served as Labour leader between 2005 and 2007 when he led the party into government as a junior partner to the centrist Kadima party of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
He ...

Israel's Labour taps veteran to try to revive fortunes

A South Korean general was sacked Wednesday for a lapse in border security after a fishing boat from North Korea managed to cross the intensely monitored sea between the countries and dock undetected.
The military failed to identify the small wooden boat -- carrying four North Koreans -- until a civilian alerted the police after it arrived at a port roughly 160 miles east of Seoul on June 15.
Two of the passengers defected to the South, while the other two chose to return to North Korea.
General Lee Jin-sung was fired after an investigation found the military had failed to pick up the vessel, Defence Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said at a press conference.
"As a failure in security operations is a serious mistake that cannot be accepted in any circumstances, we have decided to strictly censure those involved," he said.
"I'd like to express an apology as the defence chief," he added. "Under no circumstances is failed military surveillance acceptable." The sacking was confirmed by the ...

South Korean general sacked for failing to detect boat from North

Cuddles at feeding time are one of many techniques vets in Thailand are using to raise an orphaned baby dugong named Mariam, and which have helped spread interest in ocean conservation in the process.
Found stranded on a beach in May at six months old, the ocean mammal has been receiving daily care from park officials, local conservation groups, and veterinarians at Phuket Marine Biological Centre.
Her star took off after photos showing her being cradled by the vets went viral on social media, and the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) has posted frequent updates on her condition.
Vet Pathompong Kongjit told AFP that Mariam -- who now lives in the waters around Ko Libong island of Trang province -- has become a symbol of the dire need for a clean-up in Thailand's plastic-choked seas.
"Mariam has ignited the interest among Thai people to care about marine animals, Thai seas and nature in general," he said.
But so far, her biggest challenge is feeding herself, as she has .

Thailand's orphaned baby dugong becomes conservation star

Nineteen members of the G20, without the United States, agreed Saturday to the "irreversibility" of the Paris climate deal and pledged its full implementation, after two days of talks.
The language in the final statement after the summit in Japan's Osaka mirrors that agreed during last year's G20, but was hard-won after objections from the United States.

19 G20 members, without US, recommit to Paris climate deal

US President Donald Trump said trade negotiations with China were "back on track" after "excellent" talks Saturday with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in which Washington reportedly agreed to hold off on new tariffs.
The crunch talks on the damaging trade war between the world's top two economies came on the sidelines of a meeting of the G20 in Japan's Osaka, with all eyes on whether the pair would agree a truce.
"We had a very good meeting with President Xi of China," Trump said after the talks. "I would say excellent." "We are right back on track," he added without confirming any details of any agreement.
Both sides were expected to issue official formal statements later, but Chinese state media said Washington had committed not to impose any new tariffs on Beijing's exports and that the two sides had agreed to restart trade and economic talks.
The outcome was likely to be seen as a win, with experts cautioning ahead of the meeting that a full agreement was unlikely but a truce .

'Back on track': Trump, Xi agree to resume trade talks

Turkey's purchase of a major Russian missile defence system is "a problem", US President Donald Trump told his Turkish counterpart in a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 on Saturday.
Washington has made clear it opposes the purchase of the Russian S-400 system, giving Turkey until July 31 to give up the deal, which it considers incompatible with Ankara's participation in the F-35 fighter jet programme.
And Trump reiterated the position in talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Japan's Osaka where the G20 summit is being held.
"It's a problem, there's no question about it," Trump said.
"It's not good. It's not good."
But he added that Turkey "has been a friend of ours... We're a big trading partner. We're going to be much bigger." Washington has said that if by July 31 Turkey does not give up on the S-400 system, Ankara would be blocked from purchasing F-35 fighter jets and Turkish pilots currently training in the US would be expelled.
The purchase has raised eyebrows among ...

AFP

AFP

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