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Odds stacked against Vietnam in Women’s World Cup in opening match against United States

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:22:54 GMT

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Huynh Nhu started playing soccer with a coconut-like fruit for a ball as a child. Now a member of Vietnam’s national team, she will captain her squad in a daunting opening match against the United States in the Women’s World Cup.The match will mark a milestone for Vietnam soccer, which is making its World Cup debut. A Vietnamese national team has never played in the men’s or women’s tournament.Just making the field was an accomplishment. But now Vietnam, the 32nd-ranked women’s team in the world, faces the two-time defending tournament champions in its debut. On paper, it seems like an incredible mismatch. Even so, Vietnamese coach Mai Duc Chung is determined to show what Vietnam can do on the global stage.“We came here not just for tourism. We are here to play,” Mai said Friday. “The U.S. is a very, very strong team. It is like a mountain, but it doesn’t mean that we will give up. We will have very suitable tactics so that we can...

Troubled Zambia looking to shake up Women’s World Cup in debut

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:22:54 GMT

HAMILTON, New Zealand (AP) — Zambia’s coach is under investigation for sexual assault, its star player got banned from a key African tournament and at 77th the team is lowest ranked of any at the Women’s World Cup.And yet the Copper Queens are coming off a surprise win over Germany and know how to score. Heading into its opener Saturday against Japan, Zambia doesn’t see itself as a lost cause but as a team with more than a chance.“As far as I’m concerned, we cannot consider ourselves as underdogs,” Zambia coach Bruce Mwape said. “Others will look at us as underdogs, not ourselves. “We regard ourselves as a big team that can challenge any other team in the world.”Scoring nine goals in their last four matches, the Copper Queens have drawn attention with their performances. And just ahead of its first World Cup appearance, Zambia won its final tune-up friendly against the second-ranked team in the world, Germany.The team captain, 23-year-old Barbra Banda, sealed a 3-2 victory with a pa...

Canada held to a 0-0 draw by Nigeria in Women’s World Cup after a rare Sinclair miss

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:22:54 GMT

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Olympic champion Canada was held to a 0-0 draw by Nigeria in its Women’s World Cup opener after Nigerian goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie made several key saves, including one on a penalty from Christine Sinclair. It was a crucial miss for Sinclair, the 40-year-old Canadian who is the leading all-time scorer in international soccer, men or women, with 190 goals. Aiming to be the oldest player to score at the Women’s World Cup, she also missed a chance in the 9th minute when she was unmarked at the edge of the box but misfired.Nnadozie, who plays in France for Paris FC, was voted Player of the Match.KEY MOMENTSSinclair lined up for the shot in the 50th after a earning the penalty via a video review. After making a diving one-handed save, Nnadozie pointed at her head.Sinclair exited the game in the 71st and did not speak with reporters immediately after the game.Nnadozie also denied a shot from inside the box by Evelyne Viens in the 65th. At the end of th...

Cambodian leader’s son, a West Point grad, set to take reins of power — but will he bring change?

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:22:54 GMT

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Hun Sen has been Cambodia’s autocratic prime minister for nearly four decades, during which the opposition has been stifled and the country has grown increasingly close to China.With his Cambodian People’s Party virtually guaranteed another landslide victory in this Sunday’s election, it’s hard to imagine dramatic change on the horizon. But the 70-year-old former communist Khmer Rouge fighter and Asia’s longest-serving leader says he is ready to hand the premiership to his oldest son, Hun Manet, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point who heads the country’s army.Tens of thousands of supporters packed a central square in the capital before daybreak on Friday to hear the 45-year-old’s 7 a.m. kick-off to the CPP’s final day of campaigning before the vote. With a warm smile and soft tone, a stark contrast to his father’s stern look and military-like cadence, Hun Manet said the CPP had brought peace, stability and p...

Muere a los 59 años el legendario hacker Kevin Mitnick

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:22:54 GMT

(CNN) — Kevin Mitnick, uno de los hackers más famosos en la historia de la ciberseguridad, murió el domingo después de una batalla de más de un año contra el cáncer de páncreas, dijo su familia en un obituario publicado. Tenía 59 años.Las correrías de Mitnick eran legendarias, y varias películas se inspiraron en él. La primera, “WarGames”, protagonizada por Matthew Broderick, se basó en parte en las acusaciones de que Mitnick consiguió piratear los sistemas informáticos del Mando Estadounidense de Defensa Aeroespacial cuando era adolescente. Él negó haberlo hecho.Mitnick fue detenido por robar un millón de dólares en software propiedad de Digital Equipment Corporation en 1988. Fue condenado a un año de prisión y tres de libertad condicional, pero en 1995 se emitió una nueva orden de detención por violar esa libertad condicional. Mitnick se dio a la fuga e irrumpió en los sistemas informáticos de múltiples empresas, compañías de telefonía móvil e instituciones educa...

Alabama executes man for the 2001 beating death of a woman, resuming lethal injections after review

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:22:54 GMT

ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — Alabama executed a man on Friday for the 2001 beating death of a woman as the state resumed lethal injections after two failed executions prompted the state to conduct an internal review. James Barber, 64, was pronounced dead at 1:56 a.m. after receiving a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison. Barber was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2001 beating death of 75-year-old Dorothy Epps. Prosecutors said Barber, a handyman, confessed to killing Epps with a claw hammer and fleeing with her purse. Jurors voted 11-1 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed.Before he was put to death, Barber told his family he loved them and apologized to Epps’ family.“I want to tell the Epps’ family I love them. I’m sorry for what happened,” Barber said. “No words would fit how I feel.”Barber said he wanted to tell the governor “and the people in this room that I forgive you for what you are about to do.”It was the first execution ...

Spain’s conservatives put trust in Feijóo, the boring guy who wins every election by a landslide

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:22:54 GMT

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the conservative politician who polls suggest is poised to become Spain’s next prime minister, likes to recall that at heart, he is just a mild-mannered “village boy” from the country’s rural northwest. A humble, forthright, even boring guy, as he likes to describe himself. The conservative Popular Party candidate for Sunday’s general election is mostly unknown outside Spain, but he has been the country’s most solid regional leader so far this century and has never lost an election. Feijóo was a political steamroller during the 13 years in which he governed Spain’s northwestern Galicia region, the homeland of 20th-century dictator Francisco Franco and of former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who ran Spain from 2011-2018 as PP’s leader.Feijóo took power as Galicia’s regional president in 2009 and accumulated four absolute majorities until 2022, when he resigned to head for Madrid with the mission to save his party f...

2 men killed in New Zealand shooting were co-workers of gunman, who had violent past

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:22:54 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The two men who were killed at a New Zealand construction site were in their 40s and had worked alongside the gunman before he went on his rampage, police said Friday. Court records also detailed the gunman’s violent past. New Zealanders were still in shock at Thursday’s shooting, which closed part of downtown hours before the opening game of the Women’s World Cup soccer tournament, which was held under increased security.The gunman stormed the high-rise building in the early morning, opening fire on terrified workers before dying after a police shootout. An officer who was shot and wounded remained hospitalized in stable condition Friday. Three civilians also remained hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, while two more had been released from hospital, authorities said.Police told The Associated Press they had yet to formally identify the gunman but were not disputing reports it was Matu Reid, 24, who was serving a home detention sentence b...

‘Lioness’ on the loose? More experts join police in second-day search for elusive animal

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:22:54 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Experts on animal tracks joined the hunt Friday for an elusive and potentially dangerous animal — suspected to be a lioness — spotted on the edge of Berlin as the search stretched into a second day, authorities said.Police used helicopters, drones and infrared cameras to search for the animal, with a vet and hunters also part of the effort. They were first alerted to the animal in Kleinmachnow, just outside Berlin’s city limits, around midnight on Wednesday when people reported what appeared to be a big cat chasing a wild boar.The informants also provided a video. Based on that and a subsequent sighting of their own, the police concluded that the animal was apparently a lioness. But it proved elusive in the flat, wooded area on the boundary between Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg.Kleinmachnow Mayor Michael Grubert told local public broadcaster rbb late Thursday that authorities would try to comb the forest on Friday with “professional animal track...

Muslim-majority nations express outrage and plan street protests over Quran desecration in Sweden

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 01:22:54 GMT

BAGHDAD (AP) — Muslim-majority nations expressed outrage Friday at the desecration of a copy of the Quran in Sweden. Some prepared for street demonstrations following midday prayers to show their anger. In Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, protesters planned demonstrations after Swedish police permitted a protest Thursday in which an Iraqi Christian living in Stockholm kicked and stood on a Quran, Islam’s holy book, outside of the Iraqi Embassy. Hours before that, demonstrators in Baghdad broke into the Swedish Embassy and lit a fire to show their anger at his threats to burn the book.Iraqi Prime Minister Shia al-Sudani has ordered the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador from Iraq and the withdrawal of the Iraqi charge d’affaires from Sweden. But that may not be enough to calm those angered, and another protest in Baghdad is planned for Friday afternoon.In neighboring Iran, demonstrators also planned to take to the streets. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has written a ...