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Boys lacrosse year in review: SJP officially a dynasty

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 10:12:37 GMT

Entering the season, John Pynchon wasn’t exactly too sure what to make of his group.Sure, St. John’s Prep was coming off back-to-back Div. 1 boys lacrosse championships, and he knew there was potential. But the Eagles had lost so many key pieces he worried if a three-peat was truly possible.Turns out it was. St. John’s Prep (22-1) is now officially in the midst of a dynasty, having knocked off BC High to win the crown again.The latest title bout between the two Catholic Conference foes proved to be the most epic, as Johns Hopkins commit Jimmy Ayers (five goals, assist) and junior star Jake Vana (four goals, two assists) combined to rally the Eagles from a four-goal fourth quarter deficit to an unforgettable 16-14 victory. In doing so, St. John’s Prep avenged its lone MIAA loss of the season, and added another piece of hardware to the trophy case.Most pundits were saying that if there ever was a year for Reading to win the Div. 2 title, it was this one. The Rockets (22-1) delivered o...

Live Updates | Armed rebellion by Russian mercenary chief of Wagner Group

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 10:12:37 GMT

By The Associated PressThe latest on the armed rebellion declared by Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin:—Security in a number of Russian regions was tightened as authorities sought to thwart an armed rebellion spearheaded by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.There was tighter security particularly in areas between the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, where Prigozhin’s Wagner group appeared to control military headquarters, and Moscow.The governor of the Lipetsk region asked residents to stay at home and refrain from traveling. Governor Igor Artamonov said on Telegram that Wagner had entered the province but “the situation is under control.”In the neighboring Tambov region, mass events were canceled Saturday.Those events included high school graduation parties. Russia’s Education Ministry said such parties were being postponed until July 1 in Moscow, the region around the capital and “a number of other regions where additional anti-terrorist measures have been introduced.”In th...

Volleyball year in review: Needham writes chapter in record books

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 10:12:37 GMT

Preaching his famous “corner our performance” response throughout, what’s proved almost as rare as Needham’s 73-game win streak is head coach Dave Powell acknowledging it – let alone opening up about it to reporters.Yet, in the moments after the Rockets realized a third straight perfect season by beating Newton North in the Div. 1 state final at Worcester State, becoming just the third MIAA boys volleyball program to three-peat, he had much more to say in reflection of a challenging year.The picture that opposing coaches painted in the preseason suggested that this season – of all three since the pandemic – presented the best chance for a different team to raise the championship trophy. They said the Div. 1 state tournament was wide open for the first time since 2019, and they weren’t wrong.In turn, the target on Needham’s back was larger than ever. Constant updates of the growing historic mark served as a daily reminder of exactly what the Rockets tried not to focus on. Every set o...

Baseball/softball year in review: Taunton builds a juggernaut

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 10:12:37 GMT

Once again, Taunton is the rule of the roost.For the third time in four years Taunton captured the Div. 1 state championship as it rolled past BC High, St. John’s Shrewsbury, and Hockomock Kelley-Rex league rival Franklin to capture the title.The Tigers are just the fourth Div. 1 team since 1990 to win three state titles joining New Bedford, BC High, and Xaverian.While Taunton won the crown, Methuen stole a lot of hearts and minds as the No. 21 seeded Rangers defeated No. 12 Andover, No. 5 Xaverian, and No. 4 Central Catholic to reach the state semifinals. Matt Pappalardo asserted himself as one of the state’s best.Brendan Morrissey’s Milton crew won their second straight title, again defeating King Philip in the season finale. Owen McHugh and Scott Longo formed one of the premier 1-2 combinations in the state while Tommy Mitchell provided key relief in the postseason.Whitman-Hanson showed it may be primed for contention for the foreseeable future. The young Panthe...

One year later, the Supreme Court’s abortion decision is both scorned and praised

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 10:12:37 GMT

Activists and politicians are marking the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned a nationwide right to abortion by both bashing and celebrating it.Rallies on both sides were scheduled for Saturday in Washington and across the country.In a statement, President Joe Biden pledged to protect access and decried the court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The court’s conservative majority on June 24, 2022, overturned the Roe v. Wade decision, which had been in place for nearly a half-century.“States have imposed extreme and dangerous abortion bans that put the health and lives of women in jeopardy, force women to travel hundreds of miles for care, and threaten to criminalize doctors for providing the health care that their patients need and that they are trained to provide,” Biden said.Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel praised the ruling, which was made possible by former President Donald Trump&...

Indian Prime Minister Modi arrives in Egypt on a two-day visit to strengthen ties

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 10:12:37 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off a two-day visit to Egypt on Saturday, a trip that underscores the growing ties between the two countries.Modi’s flight landed at Cairo’s international airport Saturday afternoon, coming from a four-day trip to the United States where he held talks with President Joe Biden, delivered a speech to the U.S. Congress, and met with top American and Indian executives.It’s the first state visit to Egypt by an Indian prime minister since 1997. Modi was received by Egyptian Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly, and the two inspected an honor guard and listened to the national anthems. Modi took to Twitter to thank Madboubly for “the special gesture of welcoming me at the airport,” and added, “May India-Egypt ties flourish and benefit the people of our nations.”Modi is scheduled to hold talks with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Sunday. The two countries would also sign a set of memorandums aiming at solidifying their ties, accor...

Israeli military kills Palestinian gunman as settlers rampage through Palestinian town

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 10:12:37 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian assailant opened fire at an Israeli military checkpoint in the West Bank on Saturday before being shot and killed, Israeli police said. Elsewhere in the occupied territory, settlers rampaged through a Palestinian village, hurling stones, spraying bullets and setting fire to homes. The Palestinian gunman approached Israeli troops stationed at the Qalandiya checkpoint outside Jerusalem early in the morning, pulled out an M16 rifle and opened fire, the Israeli police said.Israeli security forces said they shot back, killing the suspected assailant. According to the Israeli rescue service, two security guards in their 20s were hospitalized with minor wounds — at least one from bullet fragments. There was no immediate word on the attacker’s identity.Later on Saturday, residents of the Palestinian village of Umm Safa said that some 50 Israeli settlers armed with rifles and flammable liquid stormed through the streets and tried to set fire to at least f...

Pakistan accuses Indian troops of killing 2 civilians in cross-border incident in Kashmir

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 10:12:37 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Indian troops fired without provocation across the Line of Control separating Indian and Pakistani Kashmir on Saturday, killing two civilians and injuring another, Pakistan’s military said. The Indian troops fired indiscriminately on a group of shepherds around noon killing one of them on the spot and critically wounding two others, the military said in a statement. It said one of the wounded later died at a hospital.The Indian army said in a tweet that a team of its soldiers and police intercepted three infiltrators from the Pakistani side in the Krishna Ghati sector. It said they “engaged” the infiltrators, who were seen “falling down” near the border. The Indian army said one Indian soldier suffered a gunshot wound.The conflicting details given by the two sides could not immediately be reconciled.The Pakistani military said it issued a strong protest with Indian officials and said Pakistan reserves the right to respond in a manner of its choosin...

Three San Antonio police officers are charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a woman

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 10:12:37 GMT

Three San Antonio police officers have been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a woman who was experiencing what the city’s police chief said was a “mental health crisis.” Sgt. Alfred Flores and Officers Eleazar Alejandro and Nathaniel Villalobos were suspended without pay and later arrested on murder warrants in the shooting death of Melissa Perez, 46, when she refused police orders to come out of her apartment, Police Chief William McManus said Friday.“The officers’ actions were not consistent with SAPD’s policy and training,” McManus said during a Friday night news conference.“They placed themselves in a situation where they used deadly force which was not reasonable given all the circumstances as we now understand them,” McManus said.One of the three charged officers opened fire, McManus said, after Perez first threw a glass candlestick at the officers then swung a hammer at them. All three officers then fired when Perez approached them again with the...

Prigozhin, the mercenary chief urging an uprising against Russia's generals, has long ties to Putin

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 10:12:37 GMT

Once a low-profile businessman who benefited from having President Vladimir Putin as a powerful patron, Yevgeny Prigozhin moved into the global spotlight with Russia’s war in Ukraine.As the leader of a mercenary force who depicts himself as fighting many of the Russian military’s toughest battles in Ukraine, the 62-year-old Prigozhin has now moved into his most dangerous role yet: preaching open rebellion against the leadership of the country's military.Prigozhin, owner of the Kremlin-allied Wagner Group, has escalated what have been months of scathing criticism of Russia’s conduct of the war by calling Friday for an armed uprising to oust the defense minister. Russian security services reacted immediately, opening a criminal investigation and urging Prigozhin’s arrest.In a sign of how seriously the Kremlin took Prigozhin’s threat, riot police and the National Guard scrambled to tighten security at key facilities in Moscow, including government agencies and transport infra...