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RYDER CUP ’23: The reachable par-4 16th is the highlight on a course designed for drama

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

GUIDONIA MONTECELIO, Italy (AP) — Rory McIlroy’s chances of winning the Italian Open a year ago at the Marco Simone course that will host this week’s Ryder Cup vanished when his tee shot on the reachable par-4 16th splashed into the pond right of the green.That came two days after Europe captain Luke Donald made a novice’s error by hitting the wrong ball upon landing in the thick rough, earning himself a two-stroke penalty and a triple bogey.A year earlier, Tommy Fleetwood’s bogey on the same hole meant that he ended up finishing one stroke behind the winner, Nicolai Hojgaard.If there’s one hole on the course outside Rome that is destined to be decisive in this year’s competition between the United States and Europe, it’s No. 16 — as long as contests make it that far in the match-play format.Bob McIntyre and Adrian Meronk, the last two Italian Open champions, both birdied 16 in their final rounds.“Dave (Sampson) of European Golf Design made a course fit for drama,” Marco Simone supe...

WTOP Book Report: Memoir recounts mother’s journey raising transgender daughter, twin brother

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

toggle audio on and off change volume download audio Author Kate Brookes speaks with WTOP's Terik King $(function () { $('.wtop-audio-container .fa-play').on('click', function(){ var audio_filename = $('div.wtop-audio-file').data("mp3-url"); ga('send', 'event', 'Audio', 'play', audio_filename); }); }); Imagine you’re in your early 40s, and after struggling through two years and seven rounds of fertility treatments, you become the mother of twin sons. But one of your children — from day one — is different from the other. Author Kate Bro...

Why fall, not winter, is the country’s most dangerous driving season

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

Earlier sunsets, wet leaves and daring deer are a couple of reasons why the most dangerous driving season in the country is about to rev up.Most drivers believe winter comes with the most accidents and collisions. But according to Patrick Olsen, editor-in-chief at Carfax, it’s actually fall.“Our data scientists looked at millions of crash information from 2022,” he said. “For most of the country, fall is the most dangerous time of year.”Researchers discovered almost 75% of the nation sees a spike in accidents in autumn, including Maryland, Virginia and D.C. Olsen said dark roads earlier in the day is one of three reasons for the uptick in wrecks.“Drivers are twice as likely to have an accident in the dark as they are in the daylight,” he told WTOP.Nationwide, car accidents occur about evenly between daytime and night, but drivers only travel about 25% in the dark, Olsen said.The second reason: more deer near busy roads as mating season kicks...

Kosovo says policeman killed in attack blamed on Serbia

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

One policeman was killed and another injured in an attack in northern Kosovo Sunday morning, which Kosovo’s leaders blamed on Serbia.Prime Minister Albin Kurti said the officers were targeted in a shooting early Sunday in the village of Banjska. “The attackers are professionals wearing masks and heavily armed,” he said in a Facebook statement.Kurti and Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani described the shooting as a terrorist attack, and blamed neighboring Serbia for seeking to destabilize their country.“Organized crime, which is politically, financially and logistically supported from Belgrade, is attacking our state,” Kurti said.Kosovo police said that two trucks without license plates had blocked off the bridge leading to the village in the early hours of Sunday. Upon arrival, police units had been targeted with an “arsenal of firearms,” including hand grenades, it said.Reuters reported that NATO troops, the EU police force EULEX and Kosovo police w...

‘Ethnic cleansing’ looms in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia leader warns

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

KORNIDZOR, Armenia — Tens of thousands of Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh could be forced to flee after Azerbaijan effectively conquered the breakaway region in a lightning offensive last week, Armenia’s leader said, with preparations for a mass evacuation under way amid growing fears of ethnic cleansing.Despite assurances from Russian peacekeepers on the ground, “the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh still face the danger of ethnic cleansing,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan warned in a televised address on Sunday.“If the needs of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh are not met [so that they are able to stay] in their homes, and effective mechanisms of protection against ethnic cleansing not put in place, then the likelihood is increasing that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh will see expulsion from their homeland as the only way out,” he predicted.At the same time, Pashinyan said Armenia would welcome its “brothers” from the exclave — insid...

Field hockey notebook: Andover among at least 28 programs with new head coach

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

Bridget Morris was sitting at her work desk in May when she received a call from Andover field hockey head coach Maureen Noone. As one of her assistants, it was a frequent occurrence.But this time, as soon as Noone started speaking, Morris thought Noone was politely giving her the boot from the program.“She basically called and (said), ‘I’m calling because I want to talk to you about being a head coach,’ ” Morris said. “She kept talking, and my head just kind of went radio static. I was like, ‘Oh my God, where does she want me to go coach?’ And then I started listening to what she was saying, and I (asked), ‘Do you mean at Andover?’ ”Indeed, she was suggesting a promotion.After 25 years of building the Golden Warriors from the bottom of the Merrimack Valley Conference to become five-time Div. 1 state champions, Noone made the decision amid a full-time move to Maine to retire and pass the torch.Two aspects of the job she talked so positively about in recent years was the quality of c...

Pakistan recalls an injectable medicine causing eye infection, sight loss and orders a probe

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s health minister said Sunday that an injectable medicine that was causing a severe eye infection and sight loss in diabetic patients in the province of Punjab has been recalled and an investigation ordered while police are looking for the suppliers. Federal Health Minister Nadeem Jan said in Islamabad that a case has been lodged against the two absconding suppliers of locally manufactured injection Avastin. The Punjab government has formed a five-member committee of experts to look into the matter and report in three days.In a televised news conference along with Jan, provincial Health Minister Jamal Nasir said diabetic patients in Lahore, Kasur and other districts were administered Avastin injections to address retinal damage. However, the injections led to severe infections, ultimately resulting in the loss of sight of a dozen patients.Jan said that the government would prosecute those responsible while providing those affected with medical assista...

High-speed rail was touted as a game-changer in Britain. Costs are making the government think twice

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The British government confirmed Sunday it may scrap a big chunk of an overdue and over-budget high-speed rail line once touted as a way to attract jobs and investment to northern England.British media reported that an announcement is expected this week that the line will end in Birmingham – 100 miles (160 kilometers) from London — rather than further north in Manchester.The Conservative government insists no final decision has been made about the embattled High Speed 2 project. But Cabinet minister Grant Shapps said it was “proper and responsible” to reconsider a project whose costs have ballooned because of high inflation driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.“We’ve seen very, very high global inflation in a way that no government could have predicted,” said Shapps, a former transportation secretary who now serves as the U.K.’s defense minister.“It would be irresponsible to simply spend money, carry on as if nothing had changed,” he told ...

Death toll in a Taiwanese golf ball factory fire rises to 10. Four of the victims were firefighters

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Search teams found the bodies of the last three missing people on Sunday at the site of a golf ball factory fire in southern Taiwan, bringing the death toll to 10, according to Taiwanese media reports.Launch Technologies, the operator of the plant, is a major global supplier of golf balls.Four of the victims were firefighters. Taiwan’s Central News Agency, quoting a Pingtung County fire official, said an explosion caused part of the building to collapse about 6:10 p.m. on Friday, trapping firefighters and workers under rubble, A second explosion followed 20 minutes later.Two bodies were found Sunday morning and the final one was recovered in the afternoon. About 100 people were injured in the blaze at Pingtung Technology Industrial Park. The fire was not extinguished until the next day. The cause remained unclear.Taiwan is a major manufacturer of golf balls with factories supplying major brands including Callaway, TaylorMade, Bridgestone, Mizuno and Wilson, acc...

The death toll from a truck bomb at a checkpoint in Somalia rises to 21

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — The death toll from a bombing attack at a government checkpoint in central Somalia has reached 21, authorities said Sunday. The number of wounded in Saturday’s truck bombing in Beledweyne stood at 52, said Abdifatah Mohamed Yusuf, director general of the Hirshabelle ministry of humanitarian and disaster management. He told The Associated Press that 17 of those critically wounded were airlifted to the capital, Mogadishu, for treatment.There has been no immediate claim of responsibility. East Africa’s al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabab often carries out such attacks in Somalia.Beledweyne has been the staging point for the Somali government’s ongoing military offensive against the extremists, who control parts of central and southern Somalia.___AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africaOmar Faruk, The Associated Press