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South Florida dentist charged in murder-for-hire case says he was a victim of extortion, not a killer

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:15 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A South Florida dentist on trial in a murder-for-hire case involving his ex-brother-in-law claimed Thursday that he was a victim of extortion by the killers, but wasn’t actually involved in the plot to kill the prominent Florida State University professor.Charles Adelson, whose sister Wendi was in a bitter custody battle with professor Dan Markel when Markel was shot in his car outside his Tallahassee home in 2014, testified in his own defense. He said his ex-girlfriend told him an ex-boyfriend committed the crime and now wanted Adelson to pay more than $300,000 or he would be killed, too.“I’m not going to be part of paying for a murder. This is insane,” Adelson said he told his ex-girlfriend, Katherine Magbanua. “She’s like, ‘Look. If you don’t pay in 48 hours, they will kill you.’ I said, ‘Katy, I feel like I’m being extorted.”Previously, Dan and Wendi Markel had divorced and were granted shared custody of their two children. ...

Messi’s Ballon d’Or will be celebrated by Inter Miami in exhibition vs. NYCFC on Nov. 10

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:15 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Lionel Messi and Inter Miami will play an exhibition match on Nov. 10 to celebrate him winning his eighth Ballon d’Or.The team will play fellow Major League Soccer club New York City FC. Both teams missed the MLS playoffs, which started last month.The trophy — which Messi received in Paris on Monday — will be presented to the crowd before the match, with that ceremony also set to include remarks by MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Inter Miami co-owner Jorge Mas, the team said.And there will be no shortage of themes built around the number 8, commemorating the record times Messi has won the Ballon d’Or — presented annually to the world’s top player. The team is saying it will “celebr8” Messi’s trophy by playing the extra game, and a special drink priced at $8.88. There will be gold fireworks and a gold carpet entrance as well, the team said, another nod to the gold trophy.Messi returned to South Florida early Tuesday after the Ballo...

EU’s diplomatic arm slams Russia over North Korea weapon deals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:15 GMT

Russia is breaking UN rules by accepting arms from North Korea to use in its “illegal, unprovoked and unjustified” war on Ukraine, the EU’s External Action Service (EEAS) said Friday.In a statement slamming Moscow for continued military cooperation with Pyongyang — as reported by POLITICO — the bloc’s foreign affairs wing said it “strongly condemns any such arms transfers,” adding that Russia was “violating its own co-authored UN Security Council resolutions.”The UN resolutions are targeted at limiting military cooperation with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program, but in September the country’s secretive leader Kim Jong Un met Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s Far East for talks. Since then, the two sides have apparently ramped up military cooperation. On Wednesday, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service briefed lawmakers at a closed-door parliamentary session that North Korea had ...

Overnight shooting in Lowell leaves two adults wounded

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:15 GMT

Police in Lowell say two people are expected to survive after a shooting on Twelfth Street left both victims wounded.A spokesperson for the Lowell Police Department said that both Lowell PD and state police were investigating an incident that “resulted in two adults suffering from gunshot wounds” Thursday night.The official stated that both victims were expected to recover, and that the shooting was considered an isolated incident with no threat posed to the public.No additional details on what led up to the shooting were released.

Baltimore-area 2023-24 men’s college basketball preview: Coppin State starting fresh under coach Larry Stewart

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:15 GMT

Greg Spurlock met new Coppin State men’s basketball coach Larry Stewart at his introductory conference May 5 inside the university’s Talon Center. The junior guard had an inkling of Stewart’s personality even before they met.“A lot of people told me before that we would end up liking him and that what you see is what you get,” Spurlock said. “They were right.”What Spurlock and some of his teammates have discovered is a 55-year-old NBA veteran and well-traveled Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference assistant coach who is comfortable in his own skin and doesn’t feel a pressing need to go nuclear at the simplest mistake.Said redshirt junior forward Justin Winston: “I wouldn’t say he’s a yeller. He’s kind of laidback, but he expects you to go hard every game. I feel like he’s good for all the guys. He’s a player’s coach because he understands, he’s been in our shoes.”That doesn’t mean t...

Confidence? Ravens WR Rashod Bateman says he never lost it even as others wondered when he might break out.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:15 GMT

Rashod Bateman cut in to dispute the premise of the question.“As you’re trying to build your season, as you’re trying to build that confidence that you’ve talked about,” the query began.“I’m sorry,” the soft-spoken Ravens wide receiver interjected. “But I haven’t talked about building confidence. Other people have, but not me.”Bateman was not being combative. He wanted to illustrate the discrepancy between the way others portray him and the way he views himself as he attempts to break out midway through his third season with the team.He heard the expressions of concern from coaches and teammates as he worked back from the Lisfranc foot surgery that cut short his second season. He has talked about the personal anguish he felt after he lost his 68-year-old grandmother to lung cancer and his teenage cousin died by suicide a few weeks later.But that does not mean Bateman ever lost belief in his ability to snatch a footbal...

Column: Can the Chicago White Sox follow the Texas Rangers’ World Series blueprint?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:15 GMT

The Chicago White Sox were on their way to a 101-loss season in mid-September when manager Pedro Grifol told reporters he was confident they would contend in 2024.It seemed like a bit of a stretch, so I asked Grifol why he thought that would be a realistic possibility.“Why wouldn’t we?” he asked. “Why wouldn’t we be able to?”The Sox’s record suggested it would not be a quick fix, I replied, and history tells us it takes time to turn around a team that has played as poorly as the 2023 Sox.But Grifol countered he had read something that contradicted my theory.“There is a pretty good percentage of teams that can turn it around in one year,” he said. “And so obviously it depends on what we do this offseason. I’m pretty confident that we can.”Grifol didn’t have the report handy, but no matter. Now he doesn’t have to bother looking for examples of a one-year turnaround.The Texas Rangers proved him right We...

Myanmar’s army chief vows counterattacks on armed groups that captured northeastern border towns

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:15 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — The leader of Myanmar ’s army-installed government said the military will carry out counterattacks against a powerful alliance of ethnic armed groups that has seized towns near the Chinese border in the country’s northeastern and northern regions, state-run media reported Friday.The Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper quoted Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing as saying he told his Cabinet members that combined forces of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army attacked military outposts and government offices in the northern part of Shan state.Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson for the ruling military council, acknowledged to state MRTV television on Thursday that the army had ceded control of the towns of Chinshwehaw, Pang Hseng and Hpawng Hseng on the border with China. Chinshwehaw is a major point for cross-border trade. “At this time, there are places that the government, administrative and security organizations have had...

A Russian singer who condemned the war in Ukraine is back home. The Orthodox Church wants an apology

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:15 GMT

The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday called for an apology from Alla Pugacheva, the country’s most renowned pop singer who returned home this week, over her criticism of Russia’s war in Ukraine.The 74-year-old Pugacheva, for decades hugely popular in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, left the country for Israel along with her husband several weeks after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.In September 2022, she sparked widespread attention by both supporters and opponents of the conflict by saying that Russian soldiers were dying for “illusory goals” and that the country had become “a pariah.” She also provocatively suggested that authorities should name her a “foreign agent” — a status already applied to her husband Maxim Galkin, an actor and comedian.Although Russia enacted a law after the start of the war in Ukraine that calls for prison terms or fines for denigrating the armed forces, Pugacheva hasn’t been charged...

Magna beats expectations with profit boost as light vehicle production ramps up

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:15 GMT

Magna International Inc. is reporting a jump in profits and revenues for its third quarter, beating analyst expectations.The auto parts manufacturer, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says net income leaped 36 per cent to US$394 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30 from US$289 million in the same period last year.Magna says sales rose 15 per cent to US$10.69 billion last quarter from US$9.27 billion the year before.On an adjusted basis, diluted earnings jumped to US$1.46 per share from US$1.10 per share.The one-third increase far exceeded analyst expectations of US$1.32 per share, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.The Aurora, Ont.-based company says its profit growth stems from the launch of new programs over the past year, higher light vehicle production across the globe and price increases to cover rising production costs.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:MG)The Canadian Press