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South Korea to face Japan in Asian Games soccer final, with military exemptions on the line

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:56:44 GMT

South Korea’s under-24 players are preparing for the biggest game of their careers on Saturday, but standing between Asian Games gold and military exemption is traditional foe Japan.The Asian Games, being staged in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, a year later than scheduled due to China’s strict pandemic lockdown policies in 2022, has brought the two rivals together in the final for the second successive tournament.“We absolutely have to win that match. No questions asked,” South Korea coach Hwang Sun-hong said. “We will pour everything we have into winning that match.”All male gold medal winners at the Asian Games are, by South Korean law, granted exemptions from the 18 to 21 months of military service that all able-bodied men must start by the time they turn 28. Olympic medals are also enough.At the 2018 Asian Games, Son Heung-min led the team to gold, defeating Japan in the final, earning him the right to stay at English Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur, a year before he would...

Tyler Lennox, Carver seize opportunity

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:56:44 GMT

CARVER – One might yawn and miss the Town of Carver on a trip down Route 58 from Plymouth to Wareham along the Southeastern corridor of Massachusetts.But quarterback Tyler Lennox is slowly putting the tiny town and his Crusaders on the map this season in Div. 8.With only two winning seasons in the past 20 years, Lennox has Carver (4-0) positioned for a postseason run this time as they face Cohasset (2-2) in their home and South Shore League opener Friday night.Lennox was anointed a starter midway through his sophomore season and has shattered most school passing and touchdown records four games into his senior season.Coming into this week, Lennox has 4,561 yards in his career with 48 passing touchdowns and 53 total end zone trips. Lennox is just getting started this season with 12 touchdowns, two more on the ground, on only two interceptions on the season.Lennox still has three quarters of the season left after surpassing all the Carver passing records held since 1991 by Jared Helms...

Friday high school football preview

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:56:44 GMT

Since losing to St. John’s Prep in the 2019 Div. 1 state championship contest, Catholic Memorial has had its way with in-state competition.Only one team has managed to stay with single digits and that’s the team the Knights will be facing tonight. Xaverian came oh-to-close to beating Catholic Memorial in the Covid spring year (23-19), the last year, the Hawks took the eventual Catholic Conference champions to the wire before succumbing, 41-34.“It’s a good rivalry, it was that way when coach (Mike) Milo and I were at Everett playing Xaverian,” Catholic Memorial coach John DiBiaso said. “We have a lot of respect for Xaverian, back when Charlie Stevenson was coaching and now with Al Fornaro. We always seem to have real good games with them.”Catholic Memorial has battled some injuries, but the depth carried them against St. Francis (NY). With star running back Mekhi Dodd out with an injury, Chris Sanchez and Lasean Sharp both stepped up, each rushing for more than 100 ...

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in Oslo. The laureate is picked from more than 350 nominees

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:56:44 GMT

OSLO, Norway (AP) — The winner of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize is being announced Friday, chosen by a panel of experts in Norway from a list of just over 350 nominations.Last year’s prize was won by human rights activists from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, in what was seen as a strong rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart and ally.The prize can be awarded to individuals or organizations. Other previous winners include Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Aung San Suu Kyi and the United Nations. Unlike the other Nobel prizes that are selected and announced in Stockholm, founder Alfred Nobel decreed that the peace prize be decided and awarded in Oslo by the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee.The independent panel is appointed by the Norwegian parliament.This year, the committee received 351 nominations — 259 for individuals and 92 for organizations. People who can make nominations include former Nobel Peace Prize winners, me...

Icy flood that killed 31 in India’s northeast had been feared for years

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:56:44 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Hundreds of rescuers dug through slushy debris and fast-flowing, icy water Friday in a search for survivors after a glacial lake overflowed and burst through a dam in India’s Himalayan north, a disaster that many had warned was possible for years.The flood began in the early hours of Wednesday, when water overflowed a high mountain lake with enough force to break through the concrete of a major hydroelectric dam downstream. It then poured into the valley below, where it killed at least 31 people. One hundred are still missing, officials said, while thousands of people have had to flee their homes.It wasn’t clear what triggered the flood. Experts pointed to intense rain, and a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck nearby Nepal on Tuesday afternoon, as possible contributors.The deadly flood was the latest to hit northeast India in a year of unusually heavy monsoon rains. Nearly 50 people died in flash floods and landslides in August in nearby Himachal Prade...

A Russian missile attack in eastern Ukraine kills a 10-year-old boy, a day after a rocket killed 51

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:56:44 GMT

KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile strike killed a 10-year-old boy and injured two dozen other people Friday in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, officials said, a day after a strike in the same region killed at least 51 civilians in one of the deadliest attacks in the war in months.Associated Press reporters saw emergency crews pulling the boy’s body from the rubble of a building after the early morning attack. He was wearing pajamas with a Spiderman design.The explosion left a crater in a city street, just meters (feet) away from an apartment building. Debris and rubble littered the street. Surrounding buildings were blackened by the blast, which shattered windows and damaged parked cars.Yevhen Shevchenko, a resident of a nearby nine-story building, said he was in bed when the attack occurred. “There was a blast wave, a powerful explosion. It blew out the windows and doors in the apartment,” he said.The Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office said the boy was killed ...

Russian lawmakers will consider rescinding ratification of global nuclear test ban, speaker says

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:56:44 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian lawmakers will consider revoking the ratification of a global nuclear test ban, the parliament speaker said Friday.The statement from Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house, the State Duma, followed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning that Moscow could consider rescinding the ratification of the international pact banning nuclear tests since the United States has never ratified it.There are widespread concerns that Russia could move to resume nuclear tests to try to discourage the West from continuing to offer military support to Ukraine. Many Russian hawks have spoken in favor of resuming the tests.Volodin reaffirmed Moscow’s claim that Western military support for Ukraine means the U.S. and its allies are engaged in the conflict.“Washington and Brussels have unleashed a war against our country,” Volodin said. “Today’s challenges require new decisions.”He said that senior lawmakers will discuss recalling the 2000 ratification of the nu...

In the news today: Statistics Canada to release September jobs data

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:56:44 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…Statistics Canada to release September jobs data this morningCanadians will get an updated picture of the jobs market when Statistics Canada releases its Labour Force Survey for September later this morning. The jobs market surprised to the upside in August as employers added 40,000 positions in the month, double the consensus expectation among economists. The jobless held steady at 5.5 per cent, ending a three-month streak of rising unemployment.—Here’s what else we’re watching …Canadians likely to spend more on Thanksgiving dinner this yearAfter more than a year of high food inflation, families gathering this weekend to gobble Thanksgiving dinner may feeling the pinch after their grocery shopping.Statistics Canada reported last month that prices for food purchased from stores rose 6.9 per cent in August, down from an 8.5 per cent incre...

Stricter state laws are chipping away at sex education in K-12 schools

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:56:44 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A dozen state or county agencies have parted ways with tens of thousands of dollars in federal grants meant to help monitor teenagers’ sexual behaviors and try to lower rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.The withdrawals reflect a shift in many states that is further complicating and polarizing sex education in K-12 schools as some Republican-led legislatures more strictly regulate when and what students learn about their bodies. The new laws are part of a broad push to fortify “ parents’ rights ” and strike LGBTQ+ content from the classroom, core themes that have flooded the campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.Experts are concerned students won’t reliably learn about adolescence, safe sexual activity or relationship violence, topics they say are especially important since sexually transmitted diseases rose after the pandemic and access to abortion is increasingly restricted.Anne-Marie Amies Oelschlager, a pediatric ...

3 bears are captured after sneaking into a tatami factory as northern Japan faces a growing problem

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:56:44 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Three bears that snuck into a tatami mat factory in northern Japan and holed up inside for nearly a day have been captured, according to town officials.A patrolling town official spotted the bears, believed to be a parent and two cubs, as they walked into a tatami factory Wednesday morning in Misato, a town in Akita prefecture, where there’s been a growing number of reported bear attacks in or near residential areas.An owner of the tatami factory said he saw the bears walking outside but never thought they would come inside. Town officials and police officers rushed to the site, each wearing a helmet and carrying a shield, and kept watch. Local hunters used fire crackers to try to scare the intruders out, without success. They later set up a pair of cages at the entrance of the tatami factory and waited overnight.On Thursday morning, the bears were trapped in cages, two cubs in one and the adult in another. Television footage showed the cages being taken out of th...