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Boogie Ellis scored 23 points and Memphis beat Mississippi State 77-64 in the NIT championship game. The Tigers have a title in Penny Hardaway’s third season coaching his alma mater after just missing out on the NCAA Tournament. They also were NIT champs in 2002. Landers Nolley II opened the second half with a jumper and a 3-pointer that put 20-8 Memphis ahead to stay. The Tigers won 11 of their last 13 games, the only losses being one-possession setbacks six days apart against NCAA Elite Eight team Houston. Cameron Matthews scored 19 points to pace Mississippi State.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will lay out the first part of his multitrillion-dollar economic recovery package this week, focusing on rebuilding roads, bridges and other infrastructure, followed by a separate plan later in April addressing child and health…

NASCAR will try to run its first Cup Series race on dirt since 1970 on Monday after heavy rain swamped Bristol Motor Speedway. The converted track already was facing challenges before torrential overnight rain flooded the grounds surrounding the speedway. The Goodyear tire provided for the Cup cars doesn't seem suited for the dirt surface and NASCAR is worried about multiple tire failures when the event finally goes green. The muddy track currently is too thick to avoid caking driver windshields. But the dirt has taken on enough water that thick dust may not be a problem Monday.

Lewis Hamilton just managed to hold off Max Verstappen to win the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix and clinch the 96th F1 win of his career. The race was effectively decided when Verstappen overtook Hamilton but went too wide on a turn and off track limits. He was told by his team to give Hamilton the position back as he risked a time penalty. Verstappen still had a few laps to catch Hamilton and he almost did. He finished .74 seconds behind the Mercedes driver. Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas took third but was way behind the front two. Fernando Alonso failed to finish the race on his F1 comeback with Alpine.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki is declining to provide a specific date for when the media will get access to Border Patrol facilities temporarily holding thousands of migrant children seeking to live in the United States. But Psaki says the Biden administration is committed to transparency and “we’re working to get that done as soon as we can.” More than 16,000 unaccompanied children were in government custody as of Thursday, including about 5,000 in substandard Customs and Border Protection facilities. Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been calling on the administration to open the facilities to the cameras, asserting that the current policy is designed to keep the public from “fully realizing” what is happening at the border.

Mourners flocked to funerals of those killed in the deadliest day of a crackdown on protests of last month’s coup in Myanmar, as demonstrators returned to the streets Sunday to press their demands for a return to democracy. A day earlier, security forces killed at least 114 people, including several children under 16, according to local media. That shocking escalation that prompted the U.N. rapporteur to accuse the junta of committing “mass murder” and to criticize the international community for not doing enough to stop it. There were reports that the violence also continued Sunday. The Feb. 1 coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government reversed years of progress toward democracy after five decades of military rule. 

LONDON (AP) — Britain is taking another small step out of lockdown as it looks nervously at a new virus surge inundating its European neighbors. With U.K. coronavirus vaccination rates outstripping those of European Union nations, Prime Minister Boris Johnson…

A year after they became a global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, New York and New Jersey are back atop the list of U.S. states with the highest rates of infection. Even as the vaccination campaign has ramped up, the number of people getting infected in New Jersey has crept to by 37% in a little more than a month, to about 23,600 every seven days. About 50,000 people per week in New York are testing positive for the virus. The two states now rank No. 1 and 2 in new infections per capita among U.S. states. But the situation in New York and New Jersey mirrors a national trend that has seen case numbers inch up in recent days.

Sao Paulo city officials put out a call last month for 4,500 public school cleaning jobs, targeting Brazilian mothers affected by the raging pandemic. In just two days, over 90,000 women applied. The overwhelming response offers a glimpse at how women have been disproportionally sidelined by the crisis. Worldwide, as schools remain closed, many mothers juggle fewer work hours with homeschooling and household duties. Others put their careers on hold entirely, or were laid off. In Brazil, female participation in the workforce has fallen below 50% for the first time in at least a decade. And as the nation battles a brutal resurgence in COVID-19, economists say the health and economic crises are further delaying the return of women to the workforce.

For the second time in less than a week, a 21-year-old man used a gun purchased legally in the U.S. to massacre people. The mass shootings in Colorado and Georgia are giving new urgency to efforts to enact gun restrictions, even while showing how hard it can be to prevent a tragedy. Colorado has passed gun control laws in recent years, but the suspect in a grocery store shooting that killed 10 legally bought a gun despite an assault conviction and questions about his mental health. Democratic leaders are weighing calls for stronger action. But support for gun rights is strong in parts of Colorado, and Second Amendment advocates argue new restrictions aren't the answer.  

Even when the U.K. had just a few dozen confirmed cases of COVID-19, professor Sharon Peacock recognized that the country needed to expand its capacity to analyze the genetic makeup of the virus. The Cambridge University microbiologist set about bringing scientists together to work on genomic sequencing. That has made Britain a world leader in finding new variants that are more dangerous or resistant to vaccines. The work is part of a global effort, and scientists around the world are learning from Britain as they ramp up their work to respond to variants and stay ahead of COVID-19.

A delay in census data is scrambling plans in some states to redraw districts for the U.S. House and state legislatures. The Census Bureau has said redistricting data that was supposed to be provided to states by the end of March won't be ready until August or September. That's after the deadline to finish redistricting in some states. As a result, states such as Oklahoma and Oregon are considering ways to use other population estimates to begin redistricting state House and Senate seats. Officials in other states, including North Carolina and Texas, have proposed delaying their 2022 primary elections.

Nearly a year after sometimes violent protests for racial justice shook Minneapolis, an immigrant corridor is struggling to recover. Lake Street, the focus of so much violence during the protests that followed George Floyd's death in police custody, has been a beacon for immigrants for more than a century. Now, some stores remain boarded up, some have been closed permanently, and residents are worried about crime. Meanwhile, politicians are bickering about rebuilding funds. And even when Minnesota’s notorious winter surrendered recently to sunny, spring-like weather, the sidewalks in the most hard-hit neighborhoods remained quiet.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Since it opened in 1869, Egypt’s Suez Canal has been a source of national pride and a focus of international conflict. It is one of the world’s great maritime shortcuts, connecting the Red and…

Court challenges to Republican-led election restrictions in Georgia and elsewhere face an uncertain road in a legal system that has grown more conservative in recent years. National legislation favored by Democrats could counteract some state restrictions, but that too is no sure thing in a closely divided Congress. Groups opposed to Georgia’s sweeping overhaul of election laws filed suit in federal court in Atlanta on Thursday, a few hours after Gov. Brian Kemp signed the new law. They say restrictions on voting in person or by mail violate the constitutional rights of all Georgians and also disproportionately affect voters of color in violation of the seminal Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Times have changed since the 1990s. President Joe Biden is taking the opposite approach of the Clinton administration to help the economy. He's bulking up on debt to fuel growth, offering aid to the poor without work requirements and pulling back from globalization. It's an ambitious evolution that reflects the pandemic, changes in Democratic voters and the long-festering problems of inequality. But Biden is executing his plan with many of the same policymakers who served President Bill Clinton decades earlier. In that far different time, Clinton pushed balanced budgets, work requirements for welfare recipients and expanded global trade.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Celebrating Palm Sunday Mass for a second time in the pandemic without crowds of faithful, Pope Francis said while shock dominated the first year of the COVID-19 health emergency, now people are more weary, with the…

A year after the Czech Republic recorded its first death from the coronavirus, the central European nation paused this week to remember all the citizens who lost their lives in the pandemic. By the end of the day, the number had surpassed 25,000. Few imagined last March that the country of 10.7 million eventually would have one of the world’s highest per capita death tolls. But it’s not just grim statistics that have torn the fabric of Czech life. There’s always a personal story behind each life lost. And the deaths of some people affected entire communities. Jaromir Vytopil, the country’s longest-serving bookseller, was one of them.     

Michigan tries to keep the Big Ten alive in men's NCAA Tournament play when it hosts Florida State in an East Region semifinal Sunday. The top women's game of the day features Oregon and Louisville as both programs seek to extend their streaks of consecutive regional final appearances. No. 1 seeds in action include Michigan and Gonzaga in the men's draw and Stanford and South Carolina in the women's tournament.

Kawhi Leonard scored 28 points, Terance Mann added a season-high 23 and the Los Angeles Clippers defeated the Philadelphia 76ers 122-112 in their first game against former coach Doc Rivers. Rivers led the Clippers for seven seasons and directed them to six playoff appearances. He took the Philadelphia job less than a week after being fired by Los Angeles. Tobias Harris had 29 points for the Sixers, who had a six-game road winning streak snapped. Danny Green added 17 and Shake Milton 16.