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BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Friday that the country faces a few “crucial weeks” as the number of coronavirus infections rise, and that the government has decided to pause its plans to gradually ease restrictions.…

Patrick Ewing and Georgetown are back in the NCAA Tournament. The 7-footer who helped the Hoyas win one national championship and reach two other finals in the 1980s is now coaching at his alma mater. Georgetown is a No. 12 seed and will play No. 5 Colorado in the East Region on Saturday. This is Ewing's fourth season and he is embracing carrying on the legacy of his coach at Georgetown, John Thompson. Ewing's team entered last week's Big East Tournament with a losing record but won the title to earn a trip to the NCAAs for the first time since 2015. 

The billions of dollars the NFL will be getting from broadcast partners over the next dozen years might seem like Monopoly money to fans. Then again, without that lifeblood, the NFL likely wouldn’t dominate as America’s most popular sport. The NFL negotiated 11-season deals — the league has an opt out after seven years — that will bring in $113 billion beginning in 2023. The contracts include a streaming service receiving pretty much equal treatment as Amazon Prime Video will be the home of “Thursday Night Football.”

Countries across Europe are resuming vaccinations with the AstraZeneca shot, as leaders sought to reassure their populations it is safe following brief suspensions that cast doubt on a vaccine that is critical to ending the coronavirus pandemic. France’s prime minister rolled up his sleeve to get the shot Friday and Britain’s planned to, as did a handful of other senior politicians across the continent. Inoculation drives in Europe have repeatedly stumbled and several countries are now reimposing lockdowns as infections rise in many places. The suspensions came after reports of blood clots in some recipients of the vaccine. On Thursday, the European Medicines Agency said that the vaccine doesn’t increase the overall incidence of blood clots.

Two more journalists have been detained in Myanmar, part of the junta’s intensifying efforts to choke off information about resistance to last month’s coup. Mizzima News reported that one of its former reporters and a journalist from the BBC’s Burmese-language service were detained by men who appeared to be plainclothes security agents. Than Htike Aung and Aung Thura were taken outside a court in the capital of Naypyitaw. The journalists were there to cover legal proceedings against Win Htein, a detained senior official from the National League for Democracy, the party that ran the country before the takeover. The coup reversed years of slow progress toward democracy after five decades of military rule. 

PARIS (AP) — When nurse Anaelle Aeschliman started her 12-hour night shift caring for unconscious patients with COVID-19, the French prime minister was announcing new restrictions to combat the resurgent coronavirus epidemic in Paris. She was not impressed. The 26-year-old…

While recovering from the coronavirus, Brian Stokes Mitchell began belting “The Impossible Dream” outside his Manhattan window every evening. That beloved show tune could be an appropriate theme as workers in live theater wait to return. Mitchell has a double reason to dream. In addition to being a Tony Award-winning performer, Mitchell as serves as chairman of the national human services organization The Actors Fund. He calls the past 138 years of the fund “a dress rehearsal” for these desperate times. Mitchell think it may be five years before Broadway recovers.

Parents of former Oregon State volleyball players urged the school’s trustees to consider president F. King Alexander’s handling of abuse allegations in that program while they’re discussing his future because of unrelated cases while he was at LSU. An independent investigation at that school found a “serious institutional failure” in LSU’s handling of abuse cases during Alexander’s tenure there, which ended in 2019. The volleyball parents pointed out that the board didn’t have to look that far back to get a glimpse into how Alexander handles such cases. 

One of the eight people killed by a gunman who opened fire at three massage businesses in the Atlanta area was a single mother who worked tirelessly to support two sons. Hyun Jung Grant also loved music and dancing. Authorities on Friday named Grant as one of the victims. Her 22-year-old son Randy Park says he learned the moonwalk dance move as a child watching his mother do it while vacuuming. He says she worked almost daily at one of the massage businesses to support him and his younger brother. 

Last year, it was March sadness as the NCAA college basketball tournament got canceled days before it was supposed to start, because of the coronavirus. This year it's March gladness, particularly for college hoops fans who like to bet on the big dance. Fans flocked to casinos and tracks around the country, and many more used their phones to bet online in what is the biggest gambling event of the year in terms of sports betting, exceeding even the Super Bowl. Jonathan Price of Staten Island, New York, went to Atlantic City's Borgata casino to watch and bet after last year's washout. “We're owed a March,” he says.

A new migrant camp in Tijuana, Mexico, shows how confusion has undercut the message from U.S. President Joe Biden that it's not the time to come to the United States. Badly misinformed, some 1,500 migrants who set up tents across the border from San Diego harbor false hope that Biden will open entry briefly and without notice. Or they think he may announce a plan that will put them first in line to claim asylum, though he hasn’t said anything to support that theory. Biden has promised to create "a humane asylum system” but hasn't detailed the new approach or said when it will be unveiled, creating an information void. 

Florida will have to contend with Virginia Tech without sophomore forward Omar Payne. The 6-foot-10 Payne is being held out of the seventh-seeded Gators’ first-round matchup with the 10th-seeded Hokies. The school says the decision was made by head coach Mike White. Payne is averaging 3.7 points and 3.2 rebounds in about 16 minutes a game this season for Florida. The Gators had issues with Virginia Tech’s size in the first half. The Hokies dominated in the paint for stretches while building a 33-27 lead.

The Minneapolis police department is reviewing use of force by its officers after their attempt to clear out a homeless encampment led to a violent clash between officers and civilians who tried to stop them. Police say five people were arrested and five officers sustained minor injuries Thursday. A fight broke out between officers and civilians who shoved back and forth. The group MNUprising shared a video on Twitter that appeared to show an officer trying to restrain a person by kneeling on that person’s neck or upper back. The clash came as a jury is being seated for the murder trial of a former Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee against George Floyd's neck for about nine minutes last May.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra hasn't played live for fans since the coronavirus pandemic hit a year ago, but it's returning to the stage in July for the outdoor Tanglewood festival. The event, one of the nation's premier summer music festivals, was canceled in 2020 for the first time since World War II. The acclaimed orchestra says it will perform a six-week run at the outdoor venue in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts — about half as long as the usual festival. Symphony music director Andris Nelsons says he hopes Tanglewood's revival will help spread the healing power of music.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — AstraZeneca's vaccine against COVID-19 was cleared Friday for use in Indonesia after the drug regulator declared it safe and clerics in the world’s most populous Muslim nation approved it for emergency use. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy…

Maine-based retailer L.L. Bean saw the best sales in nearly a decade during pandemic. Officials say the Freeport-based retailer started its fiscal year with store closings and worries about survival but the company weathered the turbulent times to revenue growth of 5%. That’s the best showing since 2011. Analyst say L.L. benefited from two of the hottest retail segments during the pandemic — comfort items like slippers, pajamas and loungewear, and outdoor gear like hiking boots, fishing gear and canoes. CEO Steve Smith said the company’s board awarded a cash bonus of 10% of workers’ salary and an additional 401(k) contribution equal to 8% of salary.

The two big, busy federal courthouses in Manhattan took the adage that justice delayed is justice denied to heart when the coronavirus hit. Now, over 100 jury trials are scheduled, all protected by a safety system so extensive that no document will change hands without being sprayed with disinfectant. Everyone wears double masks, except for witnesses who sit with their faces exposed in a plexiglass booth mere feet from a judge and jury. Four jury trials are going on now simultaneously in specially fitted courtrooms. A court official says there has been no traceable spread of the coronavirus in two courthouses during 16 jury trials since the fall.