Ireland kept the Six Nations championship alive for a few hours at least with a Triple Crown-clinching 26-5 victory over Scotland in Dublin, meaning France must beat England in Paris later on Saturday to win their first championship in 12 years.

While Ireland were not at their very best, a first clean sweep of their “home nation” rivals in four years looked rarely in doubt after first half tries from front rows Dan Sheehan and Cian Healy and a third on the hour from Josh van der Flier.

Replacement scrumhalf Conor Murray’s last-gasp bonus point try removed another title-winning option from the equation, that of a rare bonus-point draw for the French, leaving just a Grand Slam-securing victory on the table.

“I think for the first time ever we’re cheering for England tonight,” captain Johnny Sexton said with a wide smile in a pitchside interview.

“I don’t think it was perfect by any means, we did just enough but exactly what we wanted to do. Five points, puts us in the hunt, puts the pressure on France.”

With nothing to lose, fourth placed Scotland came flying out of the blocks and provided a few early reminders of just how dangerous they can be with ball in hand. Still, it was Ireland’s more controlled attack that struck first.

Man of the match Sheehan, who is Leinster’s joint-top try scorer this season with seven tries in eight appearances, most of them off the bench, made it two in seven for Ireland when he finished off a period of persistent Irish dominance.

Ireland relentlessly went after more scoreboard pressure – as they so often do once they get in front – and another wave of forward play yielded a second try for the front row, this time for Healy on his 116th Ireland appearance.

Scotland’s efforts were rewarded five minutes from the break when prop Pierre Schoeman powered over for his first international try and only the fourth Ireland had conceded all tournament.

Blair Kinghorn, in for regular flyhalf Finn Russell, missed the easy conversion and captain Stuart Hogg coughed up an even better chance to cut the 14-5 deficit early in the second half when he opted to go for the corner rather than pass inside, only to be stopped by a superb tackle from opposite number Hugo Keenan.

Ireland had plenty of possession with little to show for it until Van der Flier, one of the most consistent performers in Andy Farrell’s ever improving side, accelerated over to make it a much more comfortable 16 point lead with 20 minutes to go.

The extra point looked like it was slipping away until Scotland were reduced to 14 men before the last play of the game when winger James Lowe was powered on by his forwards and popped a basketball pass back inside for Murray to score.

His team mates celebrated as if it was the game-winning try and began to dream of potentially wilder scenes later on.

SOURCE: REUTERS

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

The post Ireland beat Scots to keep Six Nations title race alive appeared first on EUNews24.

Chelsea continued to make light of their off-pitch turmoil with another impressive display on it as they reached the FA Cup semi-finals with a 2-0 victory at Middlesbrough on Saturday.

First-half goals by Romelu Lukaku and Hakim Ziyech knocked the stuffing out of second-tier Middlesbrough who had eliminated Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in previous rounds.

Lukaku tapped in Mason Mount’s low cross after 15 minutes before Ziyech fired home 16 minutes later.

Middlesbrough were given raucous support inside the Riverside Stadium but never really looked capable of troubling the visitors who were always in control.

Chelsea, the object of several buyout bids, are operating under a special licence from the British government after Russian owner Roman Abramovich was hit with sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Only a few hundred Chelsea fans were inside the stadium – a consequence of restrictions on them selling tickets – but they could at least celebrate their team reaching the semis for the fifth time in six seasons.

Since Abramovich announced that he was putting the European champions up for sale on March 2 after 19 trophy-laden years, it has been very much business as usual on the pitch.

They have won all six fixtures since, the latest win coming the day after a deadline for bids to buy the club.

Despite the distractions, manager Thomas Tuchel has remained focused on winning games, and the performance of his players on Saturday was clinical.

“We were very focused and very serious. We showed the quality at decisive moments,” the German said.

“The effort was huge and we never let them get a foot into the door after the two early goals. It was a deserved win.”

“Nothing we can do will change the situation and we accept that it’s not in our hands, but what is in our hands is setting an example and staying focused.”

Chelsea had attracted criticism in midweek for asking for the match to be played without fans to ensure “sporting integrity” in light of them not being able to sell tickets.

They later retracted that request and the Riverside was rocking before kickoff.

But when Mount was allowed to advance down the left and then delivered a slide rule cross to allow Lukaku to tap home, the odds always looked stacked against Boro.

When Ziyech’s shot then flew past Middlesbrough keeper Joe Lumley the hosts had a mountain to climb.

Chelsea could have added to their lead with Lukaku denied by a goalline clearance and Lumley doing well to keep out Timo Werner’s late effort, while Boro rarely had a sniff of a chance.

It was Boro’s first home defeat in 10 games in all competitions, and their focus will now return to trying to make the promotion play-offs.

For Chelsea, they are still chasing silverware on two fronts after reaching the Champions League quarter-finals in midweek.

“We really have that winning mentality within the group. Any competition, any game, we want to win, and we want to keep that going,” Mount said. “It’s been a tough couple of weeks but for us, as a team, we’re just focused and ready to play.”

SOURCE: REUTERS

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

The post Chelsea stroll past Middlesbrough into FA Cup semis appeared first on EUNews24.

The Biden administration on Friday said it would resume plans for oil and gas development on federal lands following a court ruling this week that temporarily restored a measure meant to factor the cost of global warming into federal decision-making.

The development is the latest in a string of stops and starts to the federal oil and gas leasing program since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. Biden pledged during his presidential campaign to halt federal drilling auctions, but that effort has been stymied by a court challenge from Republican-led states.

Just a month ago, the Interior Department said it would delay upcoming federal oil and gas lease sales because a Louisiana federal judge blocked the administration from using its “social cost of carbon” value to factor the risks of climate change into decisions on permitting, investment and regulatory issues.

Then earlier this week, a federal appeals court allowed the government to continue, temporarily, using the value of around $50 per ton of greenhouse gases emitted. The White House had reverted back to an Obama-era value, which is far higher than the roughly $10 a ton imposed by the Trump administration, early last year.

“With this ruling, the department continues its planning for responsible oil and gas development on America’s public lands and waters,” Interior spokesperson Melissa Schwartz said in an emailed statement.

She declined to say whether the administration would resume oil and gas leasing auctions in the near term.

Before the February ruling, Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had been preparing to hold lease sales in several Western states. The environmental analyses for those sales had relied on the social cost of carbon imposed by Biden.

An industry group, the Western Energy Alliance, said the sales should now proceed.

“We have heard directly from BLM that the district court ruling caused them to stop progress because they would have had to change the analysis, but now that’s not the case, they can move forward,” Kathleen Sgamma, President of the Alliance, said in an email.

SOURCE: REUTERS

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

The post Biden administration plans to resume plans for federal oil and gas development appeared first on EUNews24.

Russians trying to enter the United States at the Mexican border are frustrated they are not getting in like Ukrainians are, despite leaving their homeland over the invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. officials have let dozens of Ukrainians through this week but Russians remain in limbo, prompting some to camp on the pavement alongside a barbed wire border fence, defying warnings from Mexican authorities to leave.

Irina Zolkina, a math teacher who left Moscow with her four children and her daughter’s boyfriend, burst into tears when a U.S. border agent on Thursday took one look at her stack of Russian passports and shook his head, saying they would have to wait – soon after officials ushered in six Ukrainian men.

“There are so many years of fear that we’re living in … it’s awful inside Russia too,” she told Reuters in the Mexican border city of Tijuana opposite San Diego, California.

Zolkina showed Reuters a BBC video of her arrest for attending an anti-war protest on Feb. 24, the day Russia invaded Ukraine in what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” that Western allies have denounced.

She was released a few hours later and left Russia with her children the following week, she said, passing through Tashkent and Istanbul before reaching the Mexican beach resort of Cancun – a common jumping-off point for Russians heading to the U.S. border.

Over 3 million Ukrainians have become refugees, according to the United Nations, most of them in countries bordering Ukraine. Thousands of Russians have also left their country, according to media reports.

Some Ukrainians crossing in Tijuana have been granted permission to stay in the United States for a year.

When asked on Thursday about Ukrainians and Russians at the border, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the government was helping people fleeing Ukraine, and that other programs were being considered to expand humanitarian aid.

The U.S.-Mexico border has been closed to most asylum seekers under a coronavirus pandemic policy.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, asked about current policy towards Russians, said the agency makes exceptions to the order on a case-by-case basis for “particularly vulnerable individuals.”

‘UNFAIR’

A couple of dozen other Russians have for several days wrapped themselves in thick blankets to sleep feet from the border wall, hoping U.S. officials will hear their pleas for protection.

“It’s unfair that we can’t get in,” said Mark, 32, a restaurant manager who came from Moscow with his wife, flying to Mexico via Turkey and Germany in early March.

Both were arrested for three days last year after protesting in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said Mark, who asked to withhold his last name. He said going back to Russia was not an option after new legislation that imposes up to 15 years in jail for actions found to discredit Russia’s army.

“This is our decision to be here and wait on the floor,” Mark said, seated on a blanket while watching hundreds of tourists and U.S. citizens enter San Diego. “If we leave this place, everyone will forget about this problem immediately.”

Between October 2021 and January, U.S. government data showed border officials encountered about 6,400 Russians, some of whom said they were dissidents and are now in the United States.The Russian Embassy said in a statement then that it had contacted U.S. authorities about those citizens.

In Tijuana last week, Mexican officials handed out flyers in Russian listing nearby migrant shelters and a letter saying Russians can request asylum but should not camp at the busy border.

Staying there ran “the risk of the United States deciding to close the crossing for internal security reasons,” said the letter signed by Tijuana migration director Enrique Lucero.

Mexico’s migration institute did not respond to a request for comment.

For now, the Russians are staying put.

Mikhail Shliachkov, 35, seated on a cot under a parasol to take cover from the glaring sun, said he resolved to go to Mexico with his wife the day after the invasion, fearing he would be called up to fight close relatives in Ukraine.

“I don’t want to kill my brothers, you know?” he said, showing a photo of his birth certificate that states his mother was born in Ukraine.

As the Russians wait, U.S. border officials have also turned away asylum seekers from Nigeria, Colombia, Honduras and Mexico, sparking complaints of unfair treatment.

“There’s an element of racism by U.S. authorities,” said Kevin Salgado, 19, a Mexican from the violent state of Michoacan, where he said his father and 16-year-old brother, both members of a community police, were killed.

“Why are they letting the Ukrainians pass? … Can someone explain to us?”

SOURCE: REUTERS

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

The post Stuck at Mexico border, anti-war Russians sweat their futures as Ukrainians enter U.S. appeared first on EUNews24.

 U.S. Republican Representative Don Young, who was first elected to Congress in 1973 and was its longest-serving current member, died on Friday, his office said in a statement.

The 88-year-old congressman died while traveling home to Alaska, his office said.

“Don Young’s legacy as a fighter for the state will live on, as will his fundamental goodness and honor. We will miss him dearly,” the statement said.

His office did not give the cause of death. The Anchorage Daily News reported that Young lost consciousness on a flight from Los Angeles to Seattle and could not be resuscitated. The newspaper report cited Jack Ferguson, who had served as Young’s chief of staff.

Young was Alaska’s only member in the House of Representatives. The longest-serving member of the current U.S. Congress, according to his website, he represented Alaska for 25 terms and last year he filed to enter this November’s election.

“I’m incredibly saddened to hear of the passing of Don Young,” U.S. Representative Steve Scalise, the No. 2 Republican in the House, said in a statement.

“He was a passionate champion of his home state of Alaska, but he was also a mentor who, as the Dean of the House, had more institutional knowledge of Congress than anyone I know,” Scalise said.

U.S. Representative Dean Phillips, a Democrat from Minnesota, said on Twitter: “His fiercely independent voice for Alaska and one of a kind wit and character will be missed.”

Young was born in California in 1933 and moved to Alaska in 1959, shortly after statehood.

In Congress, he was known for directing billions of dollars of federal money to Alaska, the largest state in the country but with one of the smallest populations.

In late 2020, Young was diagnosed with COVID-19 after he had earlier ridiculed the disease as a “beer virus.”

SOURCE: REUTERS

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

The post Longest-serving U.S. congressman, Alaska’s Don Young, dies at 88 appeared first on EUNews24.

Nagpur: A 42-year-old man accused of molestation allegedly attempted suicide by consuming shampoo inside the lock-up of a police station in Maharashtra’s Nagpur city, police said on Saturday.

The incident took place at New Kamptee police station on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday, an official said.

Sushil Jhabbulal Yadav, a resident of Kamptee, was arrested by the police on Thursday on the charges of molestation under the IPC and Schedules Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, he said.

The accused on Friday midnight allegedly started shouting in the police lock-up that he had consumed shampoo and the police will be held responsible for his death, the official said.

Sushil Jhabbulal Yadav was immediately rushed to a hospital, where his condition is said to be normal, he said.

An offence under relevant sections of the IPC has been registered against the accused, who has been remanded to judicial custody, the official added.

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

The post Molestation Accused Attempts Suicide In Lock-Up: Maharashtra Police appeared first on EUNews24.

Chandigarh: Four persons have been arrested in connection with the murder of International kabaddi player Sandeep Singh earlier this week, Punjab Police said on Saturday.

Police has also registered cases against three foreign nationals who are believed to be the key conspirators in the case.

“In less than a week after International Kabaddi Player Sandeep Singh alias Sandeep Nangal Ambia was killed, Punjab Police have solved the murder case with the arrest of four accused involved in conspiring crime. Three foreign-based persons identified as main conspirators were also booked,” said Punjab Police in a Twitter post.

The kabaddi player was shot dead in Jalandhar on March 14.

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

The post 4 Arrested In Murder Of International Kabaddi Player “Sandeep Singh” In Punjab appeared first on EUNews24.

New Delhi: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a “very serious issue which is shaking the roots of international order”, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Saturday in New Delhi, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi standing next to him.

“No permission should be given by one side to change the status quo in world order by use of force,” said Mr Kishida with PM Modi next to him at their joint press conference. He added that Tokyo will continue to support Ukraine.

The two leaders were meeting to strengthen security amid the Ukraine crisis and improve economic ties between the two nations.

“Both India and Japan want a peaceful solution to the current crisis and to ensure an open and free Indo Pacific,” Mr Kishida said.

A separate Indian readout pointedly “underlined that the Quad must remain focused on its core objective of promoting peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region”.

Unlike fellow members of the Quad alliance – Japan, Australia and the United States – India has abstained in three UN votes condemning Moscow’s actions, calling only for a halt to the violence.

Russia has praised India’s “independent and balanced” position after New Delhi abstained on the UN resolution that deplored Moscow’s “aggression” against Ukraine.

Russia continues to be India’s biggest arms supplier. New Delhi and Moscow were close throughout the Cold War, a relationship that endures to this day.

Mr Kishida, accompanied by a high-level delegation, arrived in Delhi this afternoon for the 14th India-Japan Annual Summit.

Japan aims to invest $42 billion over the next five years in India, PM Modi said after the bilateral meeting with his counterpart. The two sides inked six agreements providing for the expansion of bilateral cooperation in a range of areas, besides firming a separate clean energy partnership.

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

The post “No One Should Be Allowed…”: Japan PM On Ukraine, PM Modi By His Side appeared first on EUNews24.

Bengaluru: Authorities including those from Customs Intelligence Unit (CIU) on Saturday said they have seized Ephedrine, weighing 46.799 kg, and having a street price of about ₹ 9.23 crores, under the provisions of the NDPS Act.

Ephedrine was hidden in kitchen utensils consignment.

Based on specific intelligence, the officers of CIU and Special Intelligence and Investigation Branch (SIIB), Bengaluru Airport and Air Cargo Commissionerate, intercepted a shipment in the export shed that was attempted to be exported to Australia by a Chennai based exporter, an official release said.

The goods were declared as assorted kitchen utensils, it said, examination of the shipment revealed the concealment of a white crystalline substance in the cavity of some of the utensils.

Officials are further investigating the case.

(This story has been published from a syndicated feed.)

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

The post Ephedrine Drug Worth ₹ 9.23 Crore Hidden In Kitchen Utensils Shipment Seized appeared first on EUNews24.

Beijing: The U.S. destroyer Ralph Johnson’s sail-through of the Taiwan Strait on March 17 was a “provocative” act by the United States and sent the wrong signals to pro-Taiwan independence forces, the Chinese military said on Saturday.

Such an act was “very dangerous”, a Chinese military spokesperson said in a statement, adding that troops were organised to monitor the Ralph Johnson’s passage.

China says Taiwan is the most sensitive and important issue in its relations with the United States. Washington has no formal diplomatic relations with Taipei, but is Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier.

Chinese President Xi Jinping told his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden on Friday that the Taiwan issue needs to be handled properly to avoid a negative impact on Sino-U.S. relations.

(This story has been published from a syndicated feed.)

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

The post China Says US Destroyer’s Passage Through Taiwan Strait “Provocative” appeared first on EUNews24.