ISLAMABAD: Lionel Messi and Inter Miami reached the MLS Cup final for the first time on Saturday after a 5-1 thrashing of New York City FC in the Eastern Conference playoffs. A Tadeo Allende hat-trick and goals from Mateo Silvetti and Telasco Segovia ensured Miami advanced to Major League Soccer&#39;s championship game next Saturday. Miami will host the winner of the Western Conference final, which is being played between San Diego FC and Vancouver Whitecaps later on Saturday. &nbsp;

Football

A Tadeo Allende hat-trick and goals from Mateo Silvetti and Telasco Segovia ensured Miami advanced to Major League Soccer's championship game next Saturday.

Inter Miami, Messi beat New York 5-1 to reach first MLS Cup

ISLAMABAD: Oscar Piastri grabbed pole position for the penultimate race of the Formula One season when he edged team-mate and title rival Lando Norris as time expired in Saturday&#39;s qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix. Piastri had cut Norris&#39;s lead in the championship to 22 points by winning the sprint race earlier in the day. Red Bull&#39;s Max Verstappen, the only other driver who could win the title, qualified third. The defending champion is 25 points behind Norris. George Russell was fourth in a Mercedes. Norris took an early grip on the final qualifying session, which was then interrupted after Carlos Sainz came out of the pits with plastic wrapping around one of the tyres on his Williams and it peeled off on a corner. At the re-start, the drivers had enough time for a flying lap, but Norris abandoned after starting badly. &quot;I just had a bit of understeer and was going to go off so I had to abort,&quot; said Norris. &quot;Which was a shame, but it&#39;s the way that it is.&quot; Piastri made the most of his opening. &quot;That was mega,&quot; the Australian shouted into his radio. The fastest qualifier has won all three previous Qatar Grand Prix, although in 2024, Max Verstappen incurred a penalty in Q3, was demoted to second on the grid but won anyway. Norris said he believed he had a chance. &quot;You never know. The first couple of laps are always opportunities for everyone but after there I think it&#39;s probably going to be pretty straightforward for everyone too,&quot; he said. Piastri, who needs to finish ahead of Norris to take the title race to the wire, said he was looking forward to it. &quot;It will be a tough race. Hard work but incredibly fun,&quot; he said. Earlier, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton continued to struggle, posting the 18th fastest time in his Ferrari in the 20-car first qualifying session and failing to advance. It was his fifth straight early exit in qualifying.

Racing

Oscar Piastri claimed pole for the Qatar Grand Prix, edging Lando Norris. Max Verstappen qualified third, while Lewis Hamilton failed to advance, finishing 18th.

Title-chasing Piastri takes pole for Qatar Grand Prix

ISLAMABAD: Egypt is training hundreds of Palestinian police officers with an eye towards integrating them into a post-war security force in Gaza, a Palestinian official told AFP. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced the plan to train 5,000 officers for Gaza during talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in August.&nbsp;A first group of more than 500 officers were trained in Cairo in March and since September the two-month courses have resumed to welcome hundreds more people, the Palestinian official told AFP on condition of anonymity. He said all members of the force will be from the Gaza Strip and paid by the Palestinian Authority, which is based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. &quot;I&#39;m very happy with the training. We want a permanent end to war and aggression, and we&#39;re eager to serve our country and fellow citizens,&quot; said a 26-year-old Palestinian police officer. He told AFP he hoped the security force would be &quot;independent, loyal only to Palestine and not subject to external alliances or objectives&quot;. &quot;We received outstanding operational training, with modern equipment for border surveillance,&quot; said a Palestinian lieutenant who also requested anonymity for security reasons, as did everyone interviewed by AFP. Israel&#39;s war on Gaza has killed at least 70,100 people, according to figures from the territory&#39;s health ministry that the UN considers reliable. &#39;Protecting the dream&#39; The training also highlighted the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and stressed the importance of &quot;protecting the dream of creating&quot; a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state. A senior security official from the Palestinian Authority confirmed that its president Mahmud Abbas had instructed Interior Minister Ziad Hab al-Reeh to coordinate with Egypt on the training. During talks sponsored by Egypt late last year, the Palestinian movements &mdash; including the two main ones, Hamas and Abbas&#39;s Fatah &mdash; agreed to a force of around 10,000 police officers. Egypt would train half of them while the other 5,000 would come from the police force in Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since 2007. Under the agreement, the security force would be supervised by a committee of technocrats approved by the Palestinian movements. A senior Hamas official confirmed to AFP that the movement supported &quot;the details regarding security and management of the Gaza Strip&quot; agreed during the talks. The subject was also addressed in US President Donald Trump&#39;s peace plan, which led to last month&#39;s fragile Gaza ceasefire, and was later endorsed by a UN Security Council resolution. Europe plays a part The plan notably authorises the creation of an international force that would be responsible for securing border areas and demilitarizing Gaza. The European Union also wants to train up to 3,000 Palestinian police officers in the Gaza Strip under a scheme similar to one it already runs in the West Bank, an EU official told AFP. The EU has financed a police training mission in the West Bank since 2006, with a budget of around $15 million. But many details remain up in the air. A Hamas official questioned to AFP the possibility of an agreement with Israel on the precise details of a police force in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu&#39;s government opposes any role for Hamas or the Palestinian Authority in Gaza after the war ends. AFP journalists have regularly observed that Hamas maintains armed men in Gaza to ensure traffic flows and to mediate disputes between residents, effectively providing a form of law enforcement. Hamas has said it no longer wants to govern Gaza but added that it does not intend to disappear and remains a central part of Palestinian political life. On the thorny issue of disarmament, Hamas has said it is not opposed to handing over part of its arsenal, but only as part of a Palestinian political process.

Middle East

Egypt is training Palestinian police officers for a post-war Gaza security force, supported by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, with EU involvement in training plans.

Egypt trains hundreds of Palestinians for future Gaza police force

ISLAMABAD: The gang that abducted a group of young women in Nigeria&#39;s northeast state of Borno a week ago released the remaining 12 late Saturday, a local official told AFP. Their release comes as the country has experienced a surge in abductions of young people over the past two weeks. &quot;All the 12 were released,&quot; Abubakar Mazhinyi, president of the local Askira-Uba council, told AFP, adding that they had been taken to hospital. &quot;They [militants] spoke to the parents,&quot; he said. &quot;It was the parents that went to the bush.&quot; Last Saturday, 13 Muslim women and girls, aged between 16 and 23 were kidnapped near their farms in land near a nature reserve that has become a hideout for the militants. The gang freed one of them after she told them she was nursing a baby. No ransom was paid, with the militants releasing the women because the army was in pursuit, said Mazhinyi. Borno state is at the heart of Nigeria&#39;s conflict with the militants, which started 16 years ago with Boko Haram. It was the scene of the 2014 kidnapping of nearly 300 girls in Chibok. While the militant threat has diminished, both Boko Haram and rival breakaway Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) are still dangerous. The conflict there has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people and forced more than two million people to flee their homes, according to UN figures. The violence is not confined to the northeast of the country. Last week armed gangs seized more than 300 children from a Catholic school in the central-western Niger delta state. Although some managed to escape, more than 265 children and teachers are still being held. These abductions have been claimed by bandits rather than militants. Nigeria has a history of mass kidnappings, mostly carried out by criminal gangs looking for ransom payments and targeting vulnerable populations in poorly policed rural areas.

Africa

Their release comes as the country has experienced a surge in abductions of young people over the past two weeks.

Abductors free 12 young girls kidnapped in Nigeria

ISLAMABAD: British playwright Tom Stoppard, who won an Oscar for the screenplay of the 1998 film &quot;Shakespeare In Love&quot;, has died at the age of 88, United Agents announced on Saturday. Stoppard, who first made his name with &quot;Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead&quot; &mdash; an absurdist tragicomedy about two minor characters from Shakespeare&#39;s &quot;Hamlet&quot; <code id="isPasted">&mdash;&nbsp;</code>developed a distinctive style combining serious ideas with comedy. &quot;We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved client and friend, Tom Stoppard, has died peacefully at home in Dorset, surrounded by his family,&quot; the talent agency said. &quot;He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language.&quot; King Charles III and rock royalty Mick Jagger led the tributes on social media. &quot;Tom Stoppard was my favorite playwright,&quot; the Rolling Stones frontman posted on X. &quot;He leaves us with a majestic body of intellectual and amusing work. I will always miss him.&quot; In a statement released by Buckingham Palace, Charles said he and the queen were &quot;deeply saddened&quot; at news of the death of &quot;one of our greatest writers&quot;. He added: &quot;A dear friend who wore his genius lightly, he could, and did, turn his pen to any subject, challenging, moving and inspiring his audiences, borne from his own personal history.&quot; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; A string of awards In London, the Olivier Awards announced that West End theaters would dim their lights for two minutes at 7:00 pm on Tuesday in his memory. As well as his Oscar, Stoppard won three Oliviers and five Tonys, among the&nbsp;top awards in the theater world. Britain&#39;s National Theatre, which worked closely with Stoppard, staging many of his plays, paid tribute to &quot;his sharp intellect, inventive narrative structures, and a blend of highbrow humor with profound philosophical inquiries&quot;. London&#39;s Royal Court theater said his work &quot;probed the deepest human mysteries of truth, time, mortality and frailty while dazzling with wit, laughter and the buoyancy of the human spirit&quot;. His publisher, Faber Books, paid tribute to &quot;one of the most brilliant and feted playwrights of the last 60 years and one of the great intellects of our time&quot;. For Stoppard, Shakespeare proved to be a rich seam for him to mine. &quot;Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead&quot;, the play that first brought him success in theaters on both sides of the Atlantic, won a string of theatre awards. Then when he adapted it for cinema in 1990, in a version starring Tim Roth, Gary Oldman and Richard Dreyfuss, it picked up the Golden Lion -- the top prize -- at the Venice Film Festival. To non-theater-goers, Stoppard is best remembered for cinema work that included the &quot;Indiana Jones&quot; and &quot;Star Wars&quot; franchises and an Oscar in 1999 for &quot;Shakespeare in Love&quot;. Born in Czechoslovakia in 1937, he fled his home during the Nazi occupation and found refuge in Britain. After leaving school, Stoppard became a journalist before launching his career as a playwright.&nbsp; Over a six-decade career, he wrote for the theater, TV and radio, as well as film, winning multiple awards. In 1997 he was knighted for his services to literature.&nbsp; Stoppard was married three times and had four sons, one of whom, Ed Stoppard, is an actor.

Entertainment

Renowned British playwright Tom Stoppard, famous for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Shakespeare in Love, died at 88, leaving behind a legacy of intellectual wit and award-winning work.

Oscar-winning UK playwright Tom Stoppard dies aged 88

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: A race with no finish line, the Margalla Backyard Ultra 5th Edition, began today, Saturday, in Islamabad&rsquo;s F-9 Park. The last person standing will win the race.&nbsp;Organizers say the race has a unique format because runners are required to run till they cannot anymore. Each loop is 6.7 kilometers long, and runners must complete it within one hour.&nbsp;After every hour, they return to the starting point and restart. It is considered one of the ultimate tests of stamina, human grit, and endurance, organizers say.&nbsp;Men, women and children from all over Pakistan take part in the race.&nbsp;This year, 165 participants, including foreigners have joined the race.&nbsp;One of the participants, Sana Mujahid, told Pakistan TV Digital, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m recovering from an injury&hellip;the biggest challenge for me was the pain that started kicking in after a while. Honestly, these challenges are what make the journey worthwhile.&rdquo;&nbsp;First-time participant Sarah Rehman said that for her, this race was all about endurance. &ldquo;You repeat the same loop again and again, you need to stay mentally very strong.&rdquo;

Shorts

The Margalla Backyard Ultra launched in Islamabad, where 165 runners, including foreigners, tackle repeated 6.7-kilometer loops, testing stamina and mental strength until only one remains.

Margalla Backyard Ultra begins in Islamabad with relentless endurance challenge

Muhammad Imad Abbas

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan responded with counter-fire after Afghan border forces launched unprovoked artillery shelling into Kurram district on Saturday night, a local police official told Pakistan TV Digital.&nbsp;The official said the incident occurred at around 8:00 p.m., when Afghan forces &ldquo;fired 6&ndash;7 artillery rounds&rdquo; into Upper Kurram in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.&nbsp;Pakistani forces &ldquo;responded with heavy weaponry,&rdquo; he said, adding that &ldquo;relative calm had returned&rdquo; by the time authorities assessed the area. &ldquo;It was initiated from the Afghan side,&rdquo; the official confirmed.&nbsp;The exchange comes amid heightened tensions along the Pakistan&ndash;Afghanistan frontier. Earlier this week, Pakistan&rsquo;s Foreign Office said the security understanding reached in Qatar last month, meant to halt cross-border attacks, was no longer functioning.&nbsp;Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi told reporters during his Friday press briefing that the arrangement &ldquo;was never a conventional ceasefire,&rdquo; but a commitment that Afghan soil would not be used for attacks inside Pakistan.&nbsp;&ldquo;Interpreting it in that sense, the ceasefire is not holding,&rdquo; he said, citing recent assaults involving Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Fitna al-Khawarij (FAK), and Afghan nationals. He added that continued incidents, including an attack in Islamabad, had eroded Pakistan&rsquo;s confidence in the mechanism.&nbsp;Pakistan&rsquo;s military has also raised concerns over cross-border facilitation of militants. During a November 25 briefing, military spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said Afghan forces &ldquo;routinely open fire on Pakistani border posts&rdquo; to divert attention and enable militant infiltration.&nbsp;He noted that large stretches of the Afghan side lack functional governance, allowing hostile groups to exploit gaps between border posts.&nbsp;Chaudhry said the difficult terrain, divided tribal communities, and distance between Pakistani posts and the frontier further complicate border control. Despite fencing and surveillance, he added, the porous environment and limited law-enforcement presence on the Afghan side continue to create vulnerabilities exploited by militant elements.

Security

Afghan forces fired artillery into Upper Kurram Saturday night, prompting Pakistani retaliation, police said. Calm later returned amid ongoing concerns over cross-border attacks and militant infiltration.

Pakistan retaliates after Afghan forces fire unprovoked border shells: police

ISLAMABAD: Egypt&rsquo;s Foreign Minister Dr Badr Ahmed Mohamed Abdelatty arrived in Islamabad on an official visit, aimed at strengthening bilateral relations and expanding cooperation between the two countries on Saturday, Pakistan&#39;s Foreign Office said. According to foreign ministry, the visit underscores the &ldquo;historic brotherly ties between Pakistan and Egypt&rdquo; and will help place the relationship on a broader trajectory with a focus on political, economic, defense, cultural and people-to-people cooperation. During the visit, Egyptian foreign minister will hold a t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te meeting and delegation-level talks with his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar, where both sides will review the full range of bilateral relations and exchange views on regional and international developments, including the situation in Gaza. Both dignitaries is expected to reinforce Pakistan-Egypt cooperation and further advance the longstanding partnership between the two brotherly countries. Last month, Pakistan and Egypt agreed to deepen economic and security cooperation during a meeting between Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Cairo.&nbsp; The two countries also agreed to enhance cooperation in the maritime and industrial sectors to boost industrial activity and regional trade.

Foreign Affairs

Egyptian Foreign Minister Dr Badr Abdelatty arrived in Islamabad to strengthen Pakistan-Egypt ties. He will meet Pakistan's FM Ishaq Dar for talks on political, economic, defense and regional issues, including Gaza, building on recent agreements to deepen security and industrial cooperation.

Cairo, Islamabad seek 'strategic direction' as Egyptian FM lands in Pakistan

RAWALPINDI: Mohammad Nawaz and Shaheen Shah Afridi starred with the ball as Pakistan won the T20I tri-series with a thumping six-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the final on Saturday. Nawaz took 3-17 and Shaheen 3-18 as Sri Lanka were dismissed for a paltry 114 in 19.1 overs, before Pakistan romped home with eight balls to spare at Rawalpindi Stadium. Zimbabwe were the third team in the tri-series but lost three of their four matches to finish bottom. Sri Lanka were never in the hunt in the decider after posting a below-par total as Saim Ayub (36) and Sahibzada Farhan (23) gave Pakistan a solid 46-run opening partnership inside the first eight overs. Babar Azam hit 37 not out to ensure Pakistan did not derail despite losing skipper Salman Agha (14) and Fakhar Zaman (three) in quick succession. &quot;It was a great performance from us,&quot; said Agha. &quot;This has been a very good two months for us, we won against South Africa and now against Sri Lanka.&quot; Earlier, Sri Lanka, sent in to bat, lost nine wickets for a mere 30 runs after being well set on 84-1 in the 11th over. Opener Kamil Mishara hit a robust 47-ball 59, with the help of four sixes and two boundaries, to set a platform for a good total for the visitors. Mishara added 64 runs for the second wicket with Kusal Mendis, who scored 14, but once both departed in the space of three overs the innings fell apart. Nawaz dismissed Mendis, while Mishara holed out off Ayub, as the Pakistan bowlers relentlessly cranked up the pressure. None of the later Sri Lankan batters could reach double figures as Nawaz and Shaheen tore through the middle and lower order. &quot;We couldn&#39;t build on a good platform because Pakistan bowled very well,&quot; said Sri Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka. &quot;We need to fine-tune our game ahead of the next series and the World Cup.&quot; India and Sri Lanka co-host the Twenty20 World Cup in February-March next year.

Cricket

Mohammad Nawaz and Shaheen Shah Afridi took three wickets each as Pakistan bowled out Sri Lanka for 114 and chased the target comfortably, sealing the T20I tri-series title, with Zimbabwe finishing bottom.

Pakistan rout Sri Lanka to win T20I tri-series

GAZA CITY: The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on Saturday said more than 70,000 people have been killed since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted more than two years ago.&nbsp;The milestone comes as a fragile US-brokered ceasefire largely holds, but with both sides accusing the other of violating the terms of the deal.&nbsp;In a statement, Gaza&#39;s health ministry said the death toll from the war had risen to 70,100.&nbsp;The ministry said that since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, 354 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire.&nbsp;Two bodies arrived at hospitals in the Gaza Strip in the past 48 hours, the ministry said, one of which had been recovered from beneath the rubble.&nbsp;It noted that the spike from the last death toll was due to the fact that the data relating to 299 bodies had been processed and approved by the authorities.&nbsp;Despite the ceasefire, the Palestinian territory remains in a deep humanitarian crisis.&nbsp;The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas&#39;s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.&nbsp;On that day, militants abducted 251 people into Gaza.&nbsp;At the start of the latest ceasefire, militants were holding 20 living hostages and 28 bodies of deceased captives.&nbsp;Hamas has since released all the living hostages and returned the remains of 26 dead hostages.&nbsp;In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in its custody and returned the bodies of hundreds of dead Palestinians.

Gaza’s health ministry reports over 70,000 deaths since the Israel-Hamas war began, as a fragile ceasefire holds amid violations. Hostage and prisoner exchanges continue, but Gaza faces a severe humanitarian crisis despite reduced fighting.

Inter Miami, Messi beat New York 5-1 to reach first MLS Cup

Latest News

Title-chasing Piastri takes pole for Qatar Grand Prix

Egypt trains hundreds of Palestinians for future Gaza police force

Inter Miami, Messi beat New York 5-1 to reach first MLS Cup

Abductors free 12 young girls kidnapped in Nigeria

Oscar-winning UK playwright Tom Stoppard dies aged 88