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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.

Quentin Grimes scored 14 points to help Houston beat Syracuse 62-46 in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Justin Gotham added 13 points and 10 rebounds for the second-seeded Cougars, who reached their first regional final in 37 years. They'll face No. 12 seed Oregon State for the Midwest Region title and a trip to the Final Four. The Cougars also got a strong all-around effort from DeJon Jarreau, who flirted with a triple-double and led the defensive effort on Buddy Boeheim. The son of Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim finished with 12 points after averaging 28 in his past four games for 11th-seeded Syracuse.

High rates of COVID-19 throughout New York have left the majority of its nursing homes closed for most indoor visits despite relaxed guidance meant to help open them up for visitors. A little more than half of New York nursing homes were ineligible for indoor visits in mid-March. New York updated its visitation rules Thursday in a way that will now allow visits to resume under certain conditions, even if a resident has recently tested positive. But that relaxed standard might not clear the way for visitation in many homes having trouble keeping the virus out.

Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are absent from the Miami Open. That leaves Stefanos Tsitsipas among those with the best chance to take advantage, and he looked the part in the third round, beating Damir Dzumhur 6-1, 6-4. Seeded second, Tsitsipas says the tournament is a “first test” to see how it is playing without the big three in men's tournament. No. 4-seeded Andrey Rublev swept Tennys Sandgren 6-1, 6-2. Rublev failed to convert three match points in the final game and then had to sit for a one-hour rain delay before closing out the victory.

Memphis is going to its first NIT championship game since winning the title in 2002. Landers Nolley II scored a career-high 27 points with seven of the Tigers' season-high 14 made 3-pointers in a 90-67 semifinal win over Colorado State. Nolley scored 24 of his points after halftime. DeAndre Williams finished with 21 points for Memphis, and Lester Quinones had 18 with four 3s. David Roddy had 18 points and Isaiah Stevens 17 for Colorado State, which still gets to play again in the NIT consolation game. The Tigers face Mississippi State in the title game.

Davonte Davis hit a short jumper with 2.9 seconds left, and Arkansas advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time in 26 years with a 72-70 win over Oral Roberts in the South Region semifinals. The Muss Bus grinded its gears through the first half into the second, bad shots and even worse defense putting the Razorbacks in a 12-point hole against the 15th-seeded Golden Eagles. Eric Musselman’s Razorbacks got their Pig Sooie swagger back, turning defensive stops into early-offense opportunities and offensive rebounds into points. It came down to one final shot and Davis made it, sending Arkansas to the Elite Eight for the first time since the Nolan Richardson “40 Minutes of Hell” days.

Top-seeded Baylor overcame some frigid outside shooting to move into the Elite Eight, getting 16 points from Adam Flagler in a 62-51 victory over Villanova and its versatile defense. The Bears came in as the nation’s leading 3-point team, shooting 41.5%. But they made only 3 of 19 against fifth-seeded Villanova’s mix of 2-3 zone and man. Davion Mitchell, a 46% shooter from 3 this season, went 0 for 3 in a 14-point night. Baylor started the season 18-0 and won its first-ever Big 12 regular-season title. Baylor will Arkansas on Monday with a trip to the Final Four at stake.

Portugal and Belgium were left frustrated by draws in their World Cup qualifying matches. Ireland was left in shock. Cristiano Ronaldo stormed off after he failed to score as Portugal was held 2-2 by Serbia though TV replays indicated he did put the ball over the line. There was no video review available. Romelu Lukaku salvaged a 1-1 draw for top-ranked Belgium in the Czech Republic. The night's star underdogs were Luxembourg in a shock 1-0 win over Ireland. French referee Stéphanie Frappart made more history as the first woman to officiate a men’s World Cup qualifier as the Netherlands beat Latvia 2-0.

Everything is going Vincent Viola’s way these days. He owns the Florida Panthers, and they’re well on their way to the Stanley Cup playoffs. And he also owns Known Agenda, who is now well on his way to the Kentucky Derby. Known Agenda ran away from the field in the Florida Derby on Saturday, and might keep on going all the way to Churchill Downs to start the Triple Crown season. Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. guided Known Agenda to the win in the Grade 1, $750,000 race at Gulfstream Park, picking up 100 Kentucky Derby standings points — which will be more than enough to qualify him for that race in five weeks.

NASCAR made a flurry of procedural changes ahead of its first Cup race on dirt since 1970. Bristol Motor Speedway converted its facility into a dirt track in an experiment on a revamped 2021 schedule. It marks the first dirt race for the top series since 1970 and NASCAR is concerned it could be a disaster. The stock cars proved too heavy for the dirt and tire wear dipped to dangerous levels during practices. NASCAR the day before the race said it was making pro-active moves to save Sunday's show. 

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Los Angeles and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area on Saturday, the latest in a series of rallies in response what many said has become a troubling surge of anti-Asian sentiments. Prosecutors in Seattle and San Francisco have charged men with hate crimes in separate incidents that authorities say targeted people of Asian descent. In Seattle, authorities say 51-year-old Christopher Hamner screamed profanities and threw things at cars in two incidents last week targeting women and children of Asian heritage. In San Francisco, 53-year-old Victor Humberto Brown faces hate crime charges and felony assault after police say he used an anti-Asian slur and punched an Asian American man multiple times at a bus stop.

The drummer for Grammy Award-winning rock band Alabama Shakes is in custody on child abuse charges. News outlets report 35-year-old Steven William Johnson was arrested Wednesday after being indicted on charges of willful torture, willful abuse and cruelly beating or otherwise willfully maltreating a child under the age of 18. He's being held on $21,500 bond at the Limestone County Jail. It was unknown if Johnson has an attorney who could comment on the charges. An arraignment date is set for April 7. The Athens, Alabama-based band has been on hiatus since 2018, when lead singer Brittany Howard decided to focus on her solo project.

Ethan Thompson scored 20 points, including a pair of clinching foul shots with 35 seconds left, and No. 12 seed Oregon State beat eighth-seeded Loyola Chicago 65-58 in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. The Beavers are headed for their first Elite Eight since 1982 and will play second-seeded Houston or No. 10 seed Syracuse on Monday night for a spot in the Beavers’ first Final Four since 1963. All-American forward Cameron Krutwig led the Ramblers with 14 points while Lucas Williamson and Braden Norris added 10 apiece. The Ramblers shot 33% from the field against Oregon State's relentless defense.

The chairman of the NCAA’s Board of Governors has given President Mark Emmert a vote of confidence. Georgetown President Jack DeGioia says the board is satisfied with how Emmert has addressed inequities in the women’s and men’s basketball tournaments. The differences have prompted sharp criticism, including some from players and coaches at the women's event in Texas. DeGioia says Emmert has the full backing of the board. He also says Emmert has shown great leadership during the controversy. Emmert’s contract runs through October 2023 and has an option for 2024.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Police in the capital of Belarus arrested more than 100 people who assembled for a protest march Saturday to call for the resignation of the country's authoritarian president. The planned event in Minsk indicated that supporters…

Christyn Williams scored 27 points and Paige Bueckers added 18 to lead No. 1 UConn to a 92-72 win over fifth-seeded Iowa in the Sweet 16 of the women’s basketball tournament. There was a lot of hype surrounding this game in San Antonio featuring two extremely talented freshmen in Bueckers and Iowa’s Caitlyn Clark. The friends had taken the women’s basketball world by storm this season. Bueckers also had nine rebounds and eight assists. Clark, in a huge part because of the defense from Williams who shadowed her on almost every possession. finished the game with 21 points _ below her nearly 27-point a game average. The game marked the return of UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who missed the opening two rounds because of the coronavirus.

Howard Schnellenberger is being remembered for reviving football at Miami and Louisville and starting the program at Florida Atlantic during a coaching career that spanned a half century. Schnellenberger died Saturday in South Florida. He had a career record below .500, but when it came to building, he was a winner. He led the Miami Hurricanes to the first of their five national championships in 1983, and coached Louisville to a Fiesta Bowl win over Alabama to cap the 1990 season. And as an assistant at Alabama, he recruited Joe Namath. Howard Schnellenberger was 87.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to stop operating two mass vaccination sites in California next month, just days before the state makes everyone 16 and older eligible for a shot. The two sites in Oakland and Los Angeles opened in February for eight-week pilot programs that will conclude April 11. The sites will give out the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the final two weeks to ensure people don't need to schedule a second appointment elsewhere. State and county officials say they would have liked the program to continue but it was just a small part of the overall vaccine infrastructure.