Author: i2wtc
BUENOS AIRES: Argentina’s national team unveiled a revamped 31-man squad on Monday, led by Lionel Messi, for the South American qualifiers against Venezuela and Ecuador for the 2026 World Cup. Alongside captain Messi, the squad features several young Argentine talents, including Manchester City striker Claudio Echeverri, Porto midfielder Alan Varela and recent Real Madrid signing Franco Mastantuono. Coach Lionel Scaloni also called up striker Jose Manuel Lopez from Brazilian club Palmeiras for the first time. Argentina will play Venezuela at the Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires on Sept 4, before traveling to Guayaquil to play Ecuador five days later. Having…
An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 departs Los Angeles International Airport en route to Puerto Vallarta on Sept. 19, 2024.Kevin Carter | Getty ImagesAlaska Airlines is getting into the industry’s race for high-end credit cards and creating a combined frequent flyer program, called Atmos, with Hawaiian Airlines, which it acquired last year.The $395-a-year Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite card, co-branded with Bank of America, is the carrier’s first premium credit card and includes perks like airport lounge passes, instant $50 vouchers for delays and discounted global companion fares.Under the new Atmos program, travelers will have a choice in how…
RAWALPINDI: Deprived of immediate relief measures, the victims of this year’s heaviest rainfall have been left entirely to their own devices by the Rawalpindi district administration. Owing to unusually heavy rainfall this year, the district administration has also announced that the flood season in Rawalpindi will officially conclude on September 1. Ordinarily, the season commences with the pre-monsoon rains on June 15 and lasts until August 15. Despite widespread devastation, the administration failed to provide financial assistance either to families severely affected by the floods or to those who lost loved ones, citing an acute financial crisis and the unavailability…
MUMBAI: Test skipper Shubman Gill was on Tuesday named in India’s T20 squad for next month’s Asia Cup cricket tournament after being left out of three previous series in the shortest format. Gill, 25, returned to the 15-man squad as deputy to skipper Suryakumar Yadav, thanks to the stellar role he played with the bat in the recent Test series against England. The top-order batsman scored 754 runs as India’s relatively young squad fought from behind to square the five-match series 2-2. The eight-nation Asia Cup will be the first major event in the build-up to next year’s T20 World…
A visitor poses for photos at the booth of the Chinese hit video game “Black Myth: Wukong” during the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)HANGZHOU, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) — Game Science, developer of the Chinese hit video game “Black Myth: Wukong,” released the first CG teaser trailer for the second title in its Black Myth series, “Black Myth: Zhong Kui,” on Wednesday.The trailer debuted as the show-closing highlight of the Gamescom 2025 opening ceremony in Cologne, Germany.Zhong Kui, the legendary demon-queller of Chinese folklore, steps into the spotlight as the…
ISLAMABAD: Meetings of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) subcommittees led by Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail have been scheduled for August 21 to prepare draft rules for the annual judicial performance evaluation of high court judges, as well as criteria for the selection of judges for constitutional benches. Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi had earlier formed two committees led by Justice Mandokhail. Other members include Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Awan, Senator Farooq H Naek (from treasury benches), Senator Ali Zafar (from opposition benches), and Pakistan Bar Council representative Ahsan Bhoon. The first committee was to draft…
A wild giant panda and her cub are pictured in the Giant Panda National Park in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, April 2024. (Xinhua)CHENGDU, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) — Deep in the misty mountains of southwest China’s Sichuan Province, the annual encounter count of 185 giant pandas in field monitoring signals a remarkable success in the country’s drive to establish the world’s largest national park system.The 3rd National Park Forum held in the provincial capital Chengdu revealed that sightings have risen from the previous count of 178, marking a remarkable turnaround for a species once considered globally endangered.China is systematically placing more…
BAR DALORI: Rescuers and residents resumed searching on Tuesday for survivors as the death toll from five days of torrential rain rose to almost 400, with authorities warning monsoon downpours would continue until the weekend. Torrential rains across Pakistan’s north have caused flooding and landslides that have swept away entire villages, leaving many residents trapped in the rubble and scores missing. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said 356 people were killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a mountainous province in Pakistan’s northwest bordering Afghanistan, since Thursday evening. Dozens more were killed in surrounding regions, taking the toll in the past five…
Iga Swiatek shrugged off lingering weariness to partner Casper Ruud to back-to-back victories in the revamped mixed doubles competition at the US Open on Tuesday. Swiatek — who on Monday had battled through a two-hour tussle with Jasmine Paolini to win the Cincinnati Open — looked full of energy as she and Ruud powered into Wednesday’s semi-finals. Swiatek and Ruud needed just 39 minutes to dispatch the US pairing of Madison Keys and Frances Tiafoe 4-1, 4-2 in their opening game at Arthur Ashe Stadium, and then reappeared roughly 20 minutes later to defeat Caty McNally and Lorenzo Musetti 5-3,…
ISLAMABAD: The federal government has begun consultations on a piece of legislation to grant ordinary citizens the right to appeal against trials in military courts, reliable sources revealed. On May 7, 2025, a seven-member constitutional bench of the Supreme Court, in a majority verdict, upheld the military trials of those accused in the May 9 cases and also restored the relevant provisions of the Pakistan Army Act, 1952 — provisions that had been voided by an SC bench in October 2023. The court ruling further stated that parliament must legislate within 45 days to ensure that ordinary citizens facing court-martial…