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Australia beats Finland 2-0 to reach 2nd straight Davis Cup final

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

MALAGA, Spain (AP) — Alex de Miñaur and Alexei Popyrin put Australia back into the Davis Cup final for a second straight year after winning their singles matches in a 2-0 victory over Finland on Friday.Popyrin gave Australia a 1-0 lead in the semifinal match after beating Otto Virtanen 7-6 (5), 6-2. De Miñaur then finished off Finland by beating Emil Ruusuvuori 6-4, 6-3.Novak Djokovic’s Serbia will face Jannik Sinner’s Italy on Saturday in the other semifinal match on the indoor hard court at Martin Carpena arena in Malaga, Spain. Popyrin edged Virtanen in the first set, saving a set point when trailing 6-5 and forcing a tiebreaker that he clinched when his opponent slapped a forehand long.Virtanen was Finland’s hero in its upset of defending champion Canada on Tuesday, winning both his singles and doubles matches. But his serve let him down against Popyrin in the second set when his fifth double-fault cost him a break.De Miñaur converted five of 18 break chances against Ruusuvuori....

Dolphins rookie RB De’Von Achane and Jets veteran WR Allen Lazard inactive for Black Friday game

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Miami Dolphins rookie running back De’Von Achane was inactive for the game Friday against the New York Jets, who were sitting veteran wide receiver Allen Lazard.Achane was questionable for the NFL’s first game played on Black Friday after he aggravated the same knee injury last Sunday that caused him to miss the previous four games. Achane was limited at practice all week and Miami elevated running back Darrynton Evans to the active roster from the practice squad in case Achane couldn’t play.Lazard has struggled with drops the past few games and was a healthy scratch Friday. It has been a disappointing first season in New York for the 27-year-old Lazard, who signed a four-year, $44 million contract with the Jets in March after playing the last five years in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers. He has just 20 catches for 290 yards and two touchdowns this season.Wide receiver Randall Cobb, also a longtime teammate of Rodgers in Green Bay, was ac...

Person of interest detained after Thanksgiving Day house fire displaces 12 people in Montgomery Co.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

A fire that broke out in a home in Montgomery County, Maryland, Thursday night displaced 17 people — including five children — and a “person of interest” has been questioned by police, authorities said.Montgomery County Fire and Rescue spokesman Pete Piringer said that the fire broke out around 10 p.m. in the single-family located in the 2800 block Kingswell Drive off Judson Road in the Wheaton area. The fire was contained to the first floor and a sunroom.The home’s occupants were already outside the house by the time fire crews arrived. All told, 12 adults, five children and two cats were displaced by the blaze, Piringer said.Photos from the scene showed a brick rambler-style house covered in sootNo one was injured and the people who lived in the home were being tended to by the Red Cross.The cause of the fire is still under investigation. A person described as a “person of interest” in the fire was detained by police, then taken to the hospital and qu...

Corey Perry sits again as Blackhawks remain quiet about forward’s status

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Corey Perry is a healthy scratch for Chicago’s game against Toronto on Friday, and Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson is declining to provide any update on the forward’s status with the team.The 38-year-old Perry has four goals and five assists in 16 games in his first season with the team. He skated for almost 15 minutes during a 3-2 loss to Buffalo on Sunday, and then was a healthy scratch for Wednesday night’s 7-3 loss at Columbus.“He won’t be in the lineup today,” Richardson said before the matchup with the Maple Leafs, “and I’m unable to give any more information at this time.”Asked if Perry’s absence was his decision or coming from above him, Richardson responded: “That’s just going to be kept internal for now in the organization. Hopefully we’ll be able to give updates soon, but we can’t give a timeline on that.”Perry was acquired in a June trade with Tampa Bay. He then agreed to a $4 million, one-year contrac...

Returning Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri takes some of the credit for last season’s Serie A title

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

NAPLES, Italy (AP) — Walter Mazzarri believes he contributed to Napoli’s runaway title run last season because of the progress he made coaching the southern club a decade ago.Napoli’s Italian Cup triumph in 2012 under Mazzarri was its first trophy since the days when Diego Maradona played for the club. He also coached the team to a runner-up finish in Serie A a season later.Now Mazzarri is back in charge, having replaced the fired Rudi Garcia, and will make his debut at Atalanta on Saturday with Napoli in fourth place, 10 points behind leader Inter Milan.“We did a lot. All the progress that the club has made started with me,” Mazzarri said Friday in his first news conference since the coaching change was made at the start of the international break. “Then the club did a good job of always improving every year.”So much so that Mazzarri — who has also managed Sampdoria, Inter Milan, Watford, Torino and Cagliari — already maintains that this is the best team he’s ever coached.So can he...

Davis has 26 points, Martin adds 25, No. 19 Florida Atlantic beats No. 12 Texas A&M 96-89

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — Johnell Davis scored 26 points, Alijah Martin added 25 and No. 19 Florida Atlantic beat No. 12 Texas A&M 96-89 in a semifinal at the ESPN Events Invitational on Friday.Davis and Martin combined for 11 3-pointers as FAU (4-1) went 16 of 30 (53.3%) from behind the arc.Wade Taylor IV had 35 points for Texas A&M (5-1).Texas A&M played the second half without Henry Coleman III, who was hurt with three minutes left in the opening half and limped off the court. The forward led the Aggies with 24 points in a 89-77 win over Butler on Thursday.After trailing by 18 points, the Aggies got within 89-84 on Taylor’s 3-point play with 1:36 to go, but Texas A&M could get no closer.Jalen Gaffney hit a pair of long-range shots to key FAU’s 16-3 run to start the second half and take a 62-47 lead.Coleman had a pair of layups to spur a first half-ending 16-6 run that got Texas A&M within 46-44.Vladislav Goldin, a 7-foot-1 center who scored 19 points in Thu...

How major US stock indexes fared Friday, 11/24/2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

Stocks closed mixed Friday after a half-day trading session capped a holiday shortened week.The S&P 500 inched up 0.1% after wavering between small gains and losses much of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3% and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1%. The indexes notched their fourth straight winning week.Trading was muted as markets reopened following the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. Gains in health care, financial, energy and other sectors helped temper losses in technology and communication services stocks.On Friday:The S&P 500 rose 2.72 points, or 0.1%, to 4,559.34.The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 117.12 points, or 0.3%, to 35,390.15.The Nasdaq composite fell 15 points, or 0.1%, to 14,250.85.The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 11.96 points, or 0.7% to 1,807.50.For the week:The S&P 500 rose 45.32 points, or 1%.The Dow gained 442.87 points, or 1.3%.The Nasdaq is up 125.37 points, or 0.9%.The Russell 2000 rose 9.73 points, or 0.5%.For...

First group of Israelis and Palestinians freed under breakthrough Israel-Hamas truce

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

Jerusalem (CNN) — The first groups of Israelis and Palestinians have been released under a truce brokered between Israel and Hamas that brought a temporary halt to fighting in Gaza after weeks of conflict, officials said.The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed 13 Israeli hostages had returned to Israel on Friday, where they have undergone initial medical assessments.And Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, which helped broker the agreement, confirmed that the Palestinian prisoners released as part of the deal were on the way to the West Bank.The Red Cross, which transported the detainees on Friday from Gaza to the Rafah border with Egypt, said 24 hostages had been freed.Ten Thai citizens and one Filipino citizen have also been freed under a separate agreement.Among the Israelis freed are 5-year-old Emilia Aloni and Adina Moshe, who was seen being driven away on a motorbike after being abducted from her kibbutz during the October 7 Hamas attacks.“They’r...

Biden hails initial hostage release, says ‘we will not stop’ until all are brought home

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

(CNN) — President Joe Biden welcomed the initial release of hostages held in Gaza, calling Friday’s release of 13 Israelis a positive start toward the goal in the coming days of securing at least 50 women and children hostages, including three Americans.“It’s only a start, but so far, it’s gone well,” Biden told reporters in Nantucket Friday afternoon. He also noted the release of several Thai nationals who had also been kidnapped by Hamas.The three American citizens who fall into the category of women and children, including now-4-year-old Abigail Edan, were not part of this first release, but Biden renewed his commitment to seek their return.“We also will not stop until we get these hostages brought home and an answer to their whereabouts,” he said.Biden said he expects to soon get the names of those among the second wave of hostages who will be released Saturday, saying he was “hopeful it’s as we anticipate.” He said he did not know when the three Americans would be released...

Runaway bull on Phoenix freeway gets wrangled back without injury

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona state troopers say nobody was injured when a runaway bull was found wandering around a Phoenix freeway early Friday.Video footage from a traffic camera shows the dark, long-horned bull mulling around the highway as troopers try to herd it from the safety of their vehicles.Sgt. Kevin Watt told AZfamily.com that he came face to face with the animal, which was standing in the high-occupancy vehicle lane.Watt tried scaring the bull off the road.“I had my sirens going, everything I could to scare him off the roadway, but he seemed like he wanted to take me on,” Watt said.Troopers managed to wrangle the animal off the highway and back to the cattle enclosure it escaped from. They discovered the gap in the enclosure that allowed the bull to escape and fixed it.Authorities say they still don’t know who owns an enclosure so close to the freeway.