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AL AHSA (Saudi Arabia): When Stephen Constantine was appointed Pakistan’s head coach almost 18 months ago, he was clear in his mind that the target for his side should be realistically aiming to qualify for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup. A historic victory over Cambodia paved the way for Pakistan’s place in the third round of the Asian Cup qualifiers for the first time with Constantine and his charges opening their campaign in Group ‘E’ against much-fancied Syria on Tuesday. The group winner gets a spot at the tournament in Saudi Arabia with Myanmar and Afghanistan the other teams in…

Scammers are always looking at ways to separate you from your money and they are using the tax season to try and trick taxpayers into falling for various fraud schemes.With millions of Americans sharing personal and financial information, tax season is a prime time for scammers to steal not just your refund but also your identity, experts say.”Anybody can be a victim,” said Jennifer Hessing, who works as a fraud analytics director at Wells Fargo.Hessing said she experienced having someone file a tax return in her name with stolen personal information. The Internal Revenue Service caught the fraudulent filing, and…

Barbados-based Tabit Insurance has secured a $40m insurance facility, capitalised entirely in bitcoin. This enables real-time verification of funds by regulators and auditors, the company press release said, with the capitalisation of the facility in bitcoin touted as an “industry first”. Tabit also said that all insurance policies and premiums will remain denominated in US dollars, though the capital is held in bitcoin. Commenting on the benefits of the development, Tabit co-founder William Shihara said: “Our approach to capital allocation underscores our confidence in providing a steady hand to our partners. By combining traditional balance sheet strength with carefully chosen…

Former Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal regained consciousness and was speaking to family members after suffering a major heart attack during a domestic match, cricket officials told AFP on Tuesday. The 36-year-old was leading Mohammedan Sporting Club in a match of the 50-over Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League when he was rushed to a nearby hospital after severe chest pain on Monday. “He is now better. He talked to his family members and also walked briefly at the hospital,” club official Tariqul Islam said. Mohammedan physiotherapist Enamul Haque said Tamim was in a stable condition and would likely be transferred to…

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) longstanding legal battle against the crypto industry has officially ended. On March 19, 2025, Ripple announced that the SEC had dropped its four-year-old lawsuit against the company. Originally filed on former SEC Chair Jay Clayton’s last day in office, the lawsuit alleged that Ripple had unlawfully raised $1.3 billion through the sale of its XRP token without registering it as a security, as quoted on CNBC. Crypto firms, including Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, Binance and OpenSea have also seen lawsuits and investigations either dropped, resolved, or placed on hold. With this victory, Ripple, along with…

KARACHI: The base payment for women dome­stic cricketers announced by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) earlier this month is even less than the minimum wage set for unskilled workers in the country. Earlier in March, the PCB had announced women’s domestic contracts for 90 players for the season 2024-25 — including 18 U-19, 62 emerging category and 10 capped players. “It is the second consecutive iteration of the women’s domestic contracts after the first ever such contracts were conferred upon 79 players in the year 2023-24,” a PCB press release stated. “In addition to the domestic contracts, the emerging and…

Rain Secures $24.5 Million Funding To Enhance Crypto Visa Card Offerings Rain, a startup focused on issuing Visa debit and credit cards that facilitate the use of stablecoins, has successfully raised $24.5 million in a recent funding round. The investment was led by Norwest Venture Partners, with additional contributions from notable investors including Galaxy Digital, Coinbase Ventures, and CompoSecure. The company aims to simplify the spending of stablecoins, addressing the growing demand for seamless transactions in everyday purchases. Rain’s announcement highlighted the increasing adoption of stablecoins, which are being used for various purposes such as remittances, cross-border payments, and dollar-based…

On March 24, Michael Saylor announced that his company Strategy (previously MicroStrategy) had bought an additional 6,911 BTC for $584.1 million, bringing the firm’s total above 500,000 Bitcoin—a historic milestone. This means Strategy currently controls 2.4% of the entire Bitcoin supply, the largest stake ever held by a publicly traded firm. MSTR, Strategy’s stock, trades at $328.35 per share at press time. According to TipRanks, Gautam Chhughani from Bernstein is bullish on Strategy, forecasting that it could soar to $600 within three months. Despite the massive purchase of Bitcoin, whale transaction activity has plummeted since its peak in Q4 2024.…

World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture backed by President Donald Trump, has launched a USD-pegged stablecoin. A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency that attempts to maintain a stable value by being pegged to a relatively stable asset such as a fiat currency or a commodity. Called USD1, the stablecoin has been launched on both the Ethereum chain and Binance’s BNB Chain. The project’s smart contract was deployed on both chains 20 days ago. On March 24, Binance’s founder and former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao welcomed the stablecoin project on the BNB chain. Notably, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee approved…

Illustration: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images) Leading cryptocurrencies gained, with some of the biggest crypto stocks following suit as the broader market rose on Monday after reports that the Trump administration may narrow the scope of its impending April 2 tariffs. Bitcoin was up 2.7% to $88,418.31, Ether was up about 4.2% to $2,088.88, and Ripple’s XRP was up more than 1.1% to $2.47 as of around 11:15 a.m. New York time. “Cryptocurrencies are experiencing a strong day, with Bitcoin showing positive performance,” Nansen analyst Nicolai Søndergaard told Quartz. “Given the correlation between token performance and the valuation of crypto-related companies,…