MEMPHIS (AP) — FedEx has pledged $25 million over the next five years to be used in sponsorship deals with University of Memphis athletes. The program is a huge boost for the school’s name, image and likeness compensation efforts. The Memphis-based shipping giant says the program will initially focus on football, men’s and women’s basketball
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America has voted for Indio’s American Idol Star, Abi Carter, to make it into the shows Top 14. Last Monday, the show narrowed it down from 20 contestants to just 14. And on Sunday, singers will compete to make it into the top 10. “To be told that I made it into Americas Vote that was
Continue ReadingBy MARK STEVENSON Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president is in a rush to finish the big projects he promised before his term ends in September, and experts say officials are getting a bit sloppy amid all the haste. On Wednesday, legislators from the governing Morena party mistakenly submitted the wrong bill on
Continue ReadingBy Andrew Carey, Svitlana Vlasova, Victoria Butenko and Daria Tarasova-Markina, CNN Kyiv, Ukraine (CNN) — Ukraine’s air defenders say they notched up two significant firsts on Friday morning, taking down a Russian Tu22M3 strategic bomber and hitting two Kh-22 hypersonic cruise missiles in flight. News of the groundbreaking midair interceptions will come as a boost
Continue ReadingBy BRIAN MAHONEY and TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writers Preview capsules for the first round of the NBA playoffs, which start Saturday. ___ EASTERN CONFERENCE No. 1 BOSTON CELTICS (64-18) vs. No. 8 MIAMI HEAT (46-36) Season series: Celtics, 3-0. Story line: Here they go again, sort of. The Celtics and Heat met in the
Continue ReadingBy TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer There’s a 64-win team in Boston that ran away with the league’s best record. The defending champions in Denver, a group that won 57 games. A fearless young bunch in Oklahoma City, whose No. 1 seed was no fluke. A trio of Villanova alums in New York, who turned
Continue ReadingBy TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer There’s a 64-win team in Boston that ran away with the league’s best record. The defending champions in Denver, a group that won 57 games. A fearless young bunch in Oklahoma City, whose No. 1 seed was no fluke. A trio of Villanova alums in New York, who turned
Continue ReadingBy Alaa Elassar, CNN (CNN) — Parents in a Pennsylvania school district are petitioning to overturn a unanimous vote by the school board to cancel a talk from “30 Rock” actor Maulik Pancholy, over concerns about his “activism” and “lifestyle.” Pancholy, who is gay and a children’s book author, was scheduled to speak at Mountain View Middle School in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, on May 22. But
Continue ReadingBy JAN M. OLSEN Associated Press COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Firefighters in Copenhagen stabilizing the burned-out husk of Copenhagen’s historic Old Stock Exchange tried to use giant shears on a crane Friday to cut away dangling scaffolding, but suffered a setback when the implement fell into the debris. A large blaze broke out at the
Continue ReadingBy ANGELA CHARLTON and MASHA MACPHERSON Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Police said Friday they found no weapons on a man detained at the Iranian consulate in Paris after responding to a report of a suspicious man possibly carrying a grenade and explosives vest. A Paris police official told The Associated Press that officers were
Continue ReadingST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis man has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for causing a downtown accident that resulted in the amputation of the legs of a teenage volleyball player from Tennessee. Daniel Riley was convicted last month of second-degree assault, armed criminal action, fourth-degree assault and driving without a valid
Continue ReadingBy DARKO BANDIC Associated Press ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Croatia’s Constitutional Court has banned President Zoran Milanović from becoming prime minister in case his center-left party manages to garner a majority after this week’s highly contested parliamentary election. The ballot on Wednesday ended inconclusively. The governing center-right Croatian Democratic Union won the most votes but
Continue ReadingBy Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood and Alex Marquardt, CNN (CNN) — The US Treasury Department on Friday imposed sanctions on two organizations for fundraising on behalf of two violent Israeli extremists in the West Bank. The two groups – Mount Hebron Fund and Shlom Asiraich – established crowdfunding campaigns to raise thousands of dollars for
Continue ReadingARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate after a flight at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport was instructed to cross a runway where another flight was starting its takeoff, the agency said. A JetBlue flight was starting its takeoff roll on runway 4 at the airport in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington,
Continue ReadingBy ZEN SOO Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Apple says it has removed Meta’s WhatsApp messaging app and its Threads social media app from the App Store in China on Beijing’s orders. Apple said that the apps were removed from the store on Friday, after Chinese authorities cited national security concerns. The nature of
Continue ReadingDUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Officials say three people have died in the United Arab Emirates as a result of heavy flooding caused by record-setting rains this week. A statement by the Philippine’s Department of Migrant Workers said two women suffocated inside their vehicle during the flooding, while a man died when his vehicle
Continue ReadingBy Kevin Liptak and Shania Shelton, CNN (CNN) — The Biden administration on Friday adopted a tightlipped approach that reflected US officials’ desire to keep a level of distance from Israel’s decision to strike back against Iran in what appeared to be a limited retaliation for last weekend’s attack. Israel has not commented on the
Continue ReadingBy TRAVIS LOLLER and MICHAEL PHILLIS Associated Press John Maas spent years buying and outfitting a 17-foot aluminum boat called the Superskiff 1 so he could take customers fishing for sea trout and flounder in the Gulf of Mexico. But before the Mississippi captain could make his first charter trip in 2010, the BP Deepwater
Continue ReadingBy STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street’s latest losing week looks to be coming to a relatively quiet close on Friday. U.S. stocks are drifting in mixed trading after oil prices briefly surged overnight on worries about fighting in the Middle East. The S&P 500 was 0.5% lower in afternoon
Continue ReadingBy JEROME PUGMIRE AP Sports Writer PARIS (AP) — French athletes at the Paris Olympics will be offered better protection for their mental health with priority given to curbing online harassment and cyberbullying. France’s Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and Secretary of State for Digital Affairs Marina Ferrari are discussing ways to ensure mental health is
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