Saturday, 13 December 2025

Author: AFP

Tite blasts ‘absurd’ state of surface

PORTO ALEGRE: Fuming Brazil coach Tite raged at the state of the Gremio Arena pitch after the Copa America hosts squeezed past dogged Paraguay on penalties to reach the semi-finals. Brazil played more than 40 minutes with a numerical advantage following the sending off of Fabian Balbuena but couldn’t find

Sweden all out to beat Germany

PARIS: Stina Blackstenius ended one drought in the women’s World Cup last 16 and now she, and Sweden, need to end another on Saturday and beat Germany at a major tournament for the first time in almost three decades. “We are tired of hearing about this damn German ghost,” said

France’s Mombaerts gets Melbourne City job

MELBOURNE: Experienced Frenchman Erick Mombaerts, who had stints at Paris Saint-Germain and Toulouse, has been appointed head coach of Melbourne City in Australia’s A-League. City’s cross-town rivals Melbourne Victory also unveiled a new coach Friday in German Marco Kurtz, who won a Bundesliga title as a player with Borussia Dortmund.

F1 teams reject plan to revert to 2018 tyres

SPIELBERG: A plan to revert to 2018 tyres to enliven the racing failed to gain approval at a meeting of Formula One teams yesterday. The teams met tyre suppliers Pirelli, representatives of the sport’s organisers and ruling body and several drivers ahead of this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix. The meeting

Lost ‘US$170 million Caravaggio’ snapped up before French auction

A painting thought to be a “lost masterpiece” by Italian painter Caravaggio has been bought two days before it was due to go under the hammer in France. “Judith and Holofernes”, which was found under an old mattress in the attic of a house in the French city of Toulouse, was

H&M shares fly off the shelves on quarterly results

STOCKHOLM: Shares in Hennes and Mauritz surged on Thursday, boosted by quarterly results pointing to a budding recovery in the Swedish fashion retailer’s earnings. About an hour into trading on the Stockholm stock exchange they stood 9.4 percent higher at 158.84 kronor. H&M, which has been lagging in a relentless

Kingfisher poaches Carrefour’s Asia boss as new CEO

LONDON: British group Kingfisher, Europe’s biggest home-improvements retailer, on Thursday announced it has appointed the head of Carrefour’s Asia operations, as its chief executive. Frenchman Thierry Garnier will take the reins from Veronique Laury in the autumn and will be based in London, Kingfisher said in a brief statement. Laury,

Hong Kong tycoon, 22, drops $117 million on luxury home

HONG KONG: The 22-year-old son of a business tycoon has dropped US$117 million on a luxury home in Hong Kong, the latest purchase to highlight the huge wealth gap in a city currently rocked by political protests. The crammed financial hub regularly tops various rankings of cities with the least

Chinese baguette king’s dream goes stale

Chinese conglomerate Reward, whose CEO had ambitious plans to open 1,500 bakeries in China using flour produced on swathes of French land that he snapped up, has gone bankrupt according to court documents. Beijing’s Chaoyang District Court on May 13 accepted an application to go into receivership filed by Hu’s

G20 urged to raise plight with China

HONG KONG: Hong Kong protesters marched to major consulates on Wednesday as they called on G20 nations to confront fellow member China at an upcoming summit in Japan over sliding freedoms in the financial hub. The semi-autonomous city has been shaken by huge demonstrations this month with protesters demanding the