MONTEVIDEO: Charismatic veteran coach Marcelo Bielsa is on the brink of guiding a third team to World Cup qualification as Uruguay take on Peru on Thursday needing only a draw to secure their ticket to next year’s North American extravaganza. Paraguay, who host Ecuador, also need only a draw to qualify, while Colombia can book … Read more

RIYADH: Saudi Aramco and Iraq’s state oil company SOMO have stopped selling crude oil to India’s Nayara Energy in the aftermath of sanctions imposed in July by the European Union on the Russian-backed refiner, three sources familiar with the matter said. The halting of supply from the two Gulf exporters means Nayara, majority-owned by Russian … Read more

JALALABAD: A fresh 5.2-magnitude earthquake hit the east of Afghanistan on Tuesday, jolting a region still struggling with the aftermath of a powerful quake at the weekend that killed 1,400 people. The epicentre of the tremor was close to where a magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit late Sunday night, devastating remote areas in mountainous provinces near … Read more

BULGARIA: Every year, hundreds of Chinese tourists flock to the Bulgarian mountain village of Momchilovtsi for a festival celebrating the local yoghurt, which is renowned for its health benefits and has become a hit among consumers in China. The Chinese visitors mingle with locals in the village in the Rhodope Mountains near the Greek border. … Read more

KAMPALA: Uganda’s half-marathon world record holder Jacob Kiplimo and double Olympic champion Joshua Cheptegei will miss this month’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo due to personal reasons, the country’s athletics federation said late on Tuesday. Kiplimo, 24, became the first person to run the half-marathon in under 57 minutes when he set a stunning world … Read more