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Pink offers to pay bikini fine for Norway beach handball team

AFP

US pop star Pink has offered to pay a “sexist” fine levied on Norway’s women’s beach handball team after they refused to wear bikini bottoms during a during a game in the Euro 2021 tournament.

The European Handball Federation (EHF) ordered the team to cough up 1,500 euros ($1,768) after they wore shorts instead of the regulation swimwear in their bronze-medal match loss to Spain in Varna, Bulgaria.

Pink, a three-time Grammy Award winner, said on Twitter she would cover the fine, berating the organization and encouraging the players to carry on covering up.

“I’m VERY proud of the Norwegian female beach handball team FOR PROTESTING THE VERY SEXIST RULES ABOUT THEIR “uniform”” the “Get the Party Started” singer tweeted.

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“The European handball federation SHOULD BE FINED FOR SEXISM. Good on ya, ladies. I’ll be happy to pay your fines for you. Keep it up.”

Norwegian sports officials had already voiced their unhappiness with the ruling.

“In 2021, it shouldn’t even be an issue,” said Eirik Sordahl, president of the Norwegian Volleyball Federation.

Clothing has long been a bone of contention in beach sports, with some women players finding bikini bottoms degrading or impractical.

The Norwegian team thanked supporters on social media, after an international outcry at the fine.

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And the EHF, ackowledging the angry reaction to its decision, said it had donated the fine to “a major international sports foundation which supports equality for women and girls in sports.”

While bikinis have not been compulsory for beach volleyball players since 2012, International Handball Federation rules state “female athletes must wear bikini bottoms” and that these must have “a close fit”, be “cut on an upward angle toward the top of the leg” and a side depth of no more than 10 centimeters.

Male players wear shorts.

“It’s completely ridiculous,” Norway’s Minister for Culture and Sports, Abid Raja, tweeted after last Monday’s ruling. “What a change of attitude is needed in the macho and conservative international world of sport.”

Ahead of the tournament, Norway asked the EHF for permission to play in shorts, but were told that breaches of the rules were punishable by fines.

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They complied, until their last match.

“The EHF is committed to bring this topic forward in the interest of its member federations. However, it must also be said that a change of the rules can only happen at IHF level,” EHF spokesman Andrew Barringer said.

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FBI Most Wanted Fugitive Arrested in Mexico and Deported to U.S.

Authorities in Mexico announced Thursday that Samuel Ramírez Jr., a U.S. citizen accused of murdering two women and listed among the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, was arrested in the northern state of Sinaloa.

Ramírez Jr., 33, was detained Tuesday in Culiacán just 1 hour and 13 minutes after being added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Ten Most Wanted list, the agency said in a statement.

The suspect, who was born in California, has already been deported to the U.S. state of Washington, where he faces charges related to the fatal shooting of two women at a bar in Federal Way in May 2023.

A court issued an arrest warrant for Ramírez in November last year, and the FBI initially offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to his capture, later increasing the amount to up to $1 million.

“To protect individuals’ privacy and ensure continued cooperation from the public, the FBI does not confirm the identity of those who provide information,” the agency said in its statement.

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UN experts warn Nicaragua runs vast transnational network to monitor exiled dissidents

Nicaragua maintains an “extensive” transnational network to monitor and intimidate opposition figures living in exile, affecting “hundreds of thousands” of people, the United Nations Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua warned on Tuesday.

In a statement, the experts said their report “details an extensive transnational architecture of surveillance and intelligence used to monitor, intimidate and attack the hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans living abroad.”

The report, which will be presented on March 16 to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, states that the structure maintained by the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo includes the army, the police, migration authorities and diplomatic missions.

According to the statement, “the government has arbitrarily stripped 452 Nicaraguans of their nationality, left thousands more exiled in a situation of de facto statelessness, and prevented many from returning to Nicaragua.”

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Trump: ‘We Think It’s True’ Amid Claims Iran’s Supreme Leader Was Killed

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he believes multiple reports claiming the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during the U.S. and Israeli offensive against the Islamic Republic are likely true, though he stopped short of confirming the news.

“We have a feeling that the information is correct,” he said, according to NBC News. “I don’t want to say anything definitive until I see it, but we think that’s the case. And many of their leaders have disappeared,” he added.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there were “many indications” that Khamenei had died in an attack on his residential compound.