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For Chicago Cubs to get to the next level offensively, power production from Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki must continue

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:10:53 GMT

The way pitchers have attacked Ian Happ follows a similar approach.When the switch-hitting Happ bats from the left side, which has accounted for 73% of his plate appearances this year, right-handers like to test him with elevated fastballs. It’s a formula Chicago Cubs hitting coach Dustin Kelly has seen righties take with slugger Cody Bellinger.Focusing on being on time for fastballs has helped Happ be able to handle the pitch and be able to take advantage of mistakes in the zone.“Over the long haul, he knows that his swing is going to play out the way that it’s going to,” Kelly told the Tribune on Tuesday. “You can maybe look at the average and look at some of those things and see that it’s down, but if you look at some of the underlying numbers of the OPS and the slugging is starting to come back that those numbers, along with the walks, that he’s putting together a really good season.”Kelly credited Happ for small adjustments heR...

Boston ICE agents catch Brazilian illegal immigrant wanted for 11 murders

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:10:53 GMT

One of the world’s most wanted illegal immigrants who escaped a 275-year prison sentence in his native Brazil has been busted by Boston ICE agents.Antonio Jose De Abreu Vidal Filho, 29, was caught in Rye, N.H., on Monday, immigration officials tell the Herald.An Interpol Red Notice lists him as being wanted for murder, attempted murder, physical torture and mental torture. A Red Notice is a worldwide alert for a fugitive.The former Brazilian military police officer was sentenced for 11 murders after defecting, Brazilian newspaper El Globo reported. He had already in the U.S. with his family when a jury found him guilty of 11 murders, the paper wrote.He was one of four military police officers sentenced to more than 1,000 years in prison, collectively, for what was called the “Curio Massacre” in Brazil. An appeal was expected, the defendants’ lawyers said.The paper said the 11 murders were in retaliation for the death of a Brazilian police officer, but some of the v...

Bank of Ireland glitch allowed customers to withdraw money they didn’t have

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:10:53 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Some Bank of Ireland customers were able to withdraw money they did not have Tuesday and early Wednesday after an hours-long technical glitch that also halted many of the bank’s online services.The outage allowed some customers to transfer and withdraw funds “above their normal limits,” the Bank of Ireland said. Customers could withdraw up to €500 ($546) with their Bank of Ireland card, the bank confirmed to The Associated Press Wednesday. They could also transfer funds from their Bank of Ireland account to a different account and withdraw up to €1,000 ($1,091), the bank said.As word spread on social media, images and video footage appeared to show people lining up at ATMs in hopes of receiving the “free money.” As more people appeared to arrive at ATMs in large numbers on Tuesday, images of police standing on guard close by began to appear on social media. An Garda Síochána, Ireland’s national police, said it was “aware of an unusual volume of activity at some...

Akram criticizes Pakistan Cricket Board for leaving Imran Khan out of Independence Day video

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:10:53 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Pakistan Cricket Board has received severe backlash for leaving World Cup-winning captain and former prime minister Imran Khan out of a video it released on the country’s Independence Day, with former captain Wasim Akram urging the board to delete it and apologize.In the video released Aug. 14 on X, formerly known as Twitter, to show Pakistan’s cricketing achievements, stars such as Akram, Javed Miandad and Salim Malik were seen celebrating the 1992 World Cup win. Khan, who led the team to the title by beating England in the final, was left out, however.“After long flights and hours of transit before reaching Sri Lanka, I got the shock of my life when I watched PCB’s short clip on the history of Pakistan cricket minus the great Imran Khan,” Akram wrote on his X account on Wednesday. “Political differences apart but Imran Khan is an icon of world cricket and developed Pakistan into a strong unit in his time and gave us a pathway… PCB should dele...

A family outing at a popular waterfall turns grim as mother drowns trying to rescue son

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:10:53 GMT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A mother drowned trying to rescue her 10-year-old son as he was pulled by the current at a popular waterfall, New Hampshire authorities said. An older son who jumped in to help became lodged in boulders and was rescued by his father.Melissa Bagley, 44, was part of a family of six from Lynn, Massachusetts, visiting Franconia Falls in the White Mountain National Forest along with a friend Tuesday afternoon, authorities said. The falls are several miles off the scenic Kancamagus Highway.A child slipped and fell into a pool and could not escape the fast, circulating current, Sgt. Heidi Murphy, of the state Fish and Game Department, said in a news release. Bagley “jumped into the river to help her child and began to immediately have trouble,” she said.Two other children jumped in to help their brother and mother. They were able to get the child out of the water, but an 18-year-old brother who was trying to help became lodged in boulders, Murphy said. The father searc...

Energy sector helps boost S&P/TSX composite, U.S. stock markets mixed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:10:53 GMT

TORONTO — Strength in the energy sector helped lead Canada’s main stock index higher in late-morning trading after falling nearly 400 points on Tuesday on broad-based weakness.The S&P/TSX composite index was up 44.14 points at 19,943.93.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 102.85 points at 35,049.24. The S&P 500 index was up 4.36 points at 4,442.22, while the Nasdaq composite was down 19.74 points at 13,611.31.The Canadian dollar traded for 74.01 cents US compared with 74.17 cents US on Tuesday.The September crude contract was down seven cents at US$80.92 per barrel and the September natural gas contract was down eight cents at US$2.58 per mmBTU.The December gold contract was down 10 cents at US$1,935.10 an ounce and the September copper contract was down less than a penny at US$3.66 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 16, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)The Canadian Press

Saudi Arabia says it executes American citizen convicted of killing his father

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:10:53 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia on Wednesday executed an American citizen who had been convicted of killing his father. The Interior Ministry identified the executed man as Bishoy Sharif Naji Naseef and said he beat and then strangled his Egyptian father to death. It also said Naseef used narcotics, mutilated his father’s body after his slaying and attempted to kill another person before his arrest. The statement did not identify how Naseef was executed. However, Saudi Arabia typically beheads those sentenced to death. A lawyer for Naseef could not be immediately identified. It wasn’t known if Naseef had a home address in the United States. The U.S. State Department did not immediately return a request for comment. Saudi Arabia ranks among the world’s top executioners behind China and Iran in 2022, according to statistics from Amnesty International. Though executions slowed during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, they’ve surged in recen...

China appears to be building an airstrip on a disputed South China Sea island

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:10:53 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China appears to be constructing an airstrip on a disputed South China Sea island that is also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan, according to satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press.The work on Triton island in the Paracel group mirrors construction on seven human-made islands in the Spratly group to the east which have been equipped with airstrips, docks and military systems, although it currently appears to be somewhat more modest in scale.China claims virtually the entire South China Sea as its own, denying the claims of others and defying an international ruling invalidating its assertion.Satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the AP show construction on the airstrip first visible in early August. The runway, as currently laid out, would be more than 600 meters (2,000 feet) in length, long enough to accommodate turboprop aircraft and drones, but not fighter jets or bombers.Also visible are large numbers of vehicle tracks running across much of th...

Bolt was missing on police helicopter that crashed in South Carolina, report says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:10:53 GMT

A police helicopter that crashed at a South Carolina airport was missing a bolt that should have been removed and reinstalled during maintenance about six weeks earlier, federal officials said in a report.A second bolt on the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office helicopter also was loose and the pilot, who survived, told investigators he felt like his foot controls to move the aircraft’s tail rotors weren’t working, according to the preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.“It felt as if the pedals were not attached,” the pilot said.The tail rotor is key to keeping the helicopter stable and steering it. About 35 minutes into the Aug. 1 flight from Sumter to Charleston, the pilot reported the helicopter wanted to keep pulling to the right, according to the report.The pilot declared an emergency and tried to land at the Charleston International Airport. Surveillance video from the airport showed as the helicopter hovered about 20 feet (6 m...

Stock market today: Wall Street is holding relatively steady a day after latest tumble for August

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:10:53 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is drifting Wednesday, and stocks are mixed a day after their latest tumble in what’s been a messy August.The S&P 500 rose 0.1% higher in morning trading to claw back a bit of its prior day’s loss of 1.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 95 points, or 0.3%, at 35,041, as of 10:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite is virtually unchanged.Retailers Target and TJX, the company behind T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, were pushing upward on the market. Target rallied 4.1%, and TJX rose 3.8% after both reported stronger profit for the spring than analysts expected.They were working to offset a drop of 3.9% for Brinker International, which runs Chili’s restaurants. It also reported stronger profit than expected, but its revenue fell short of forecasts.Wall Street has generally been retrenching this month on several concerns, including worries that torrid gains made this year through July were overdone and that interest rates may stay high...