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Japan’s Hataoka finds her sweet spot with another Arkansas victory

AFP

Japan’s Nasa Hataoka followed up a pair of aces with a hot start in Sunday’s final round to capture the NW Arkansas Championship for the second time.

Hataoka kept the accelerator down, draining three birdies in her first four holes Sunday in a closing round of four-under 67 for a 16-under 197 total.

The 22-year-old Hataoka clinched her fifth career LPGA Tour title to go with her first in 2018 which came at the same tournament.

“My first win being here and of course the two holes-in-one, it kind of feels like it’s my power spot,” said Hataoka.

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The co-leader heading into Sunday’s final round, Hataoka rolled in two hole-in-ones in as many days during her opening two rounds of the 54-hole event at the Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers, Arkansas.

Hataoka aced the 175-yard par-three No. 6 on Saturday with a five iron, one day after she aced the par-three No. 11 in a second straight round of 65.

She became just the fifth player in LPGA Tour history to make two aces in one tournament and the first since her Japanese compatriot Ayako Uehara at the 2016 Women’s Open.

Minjee Lee, who started the final round tied with Hataoka for the lead, shot a 68 to grab a share of second place with South Korea’s Ji Eun-Hee, who had a 67.

Major champions Yuka Saso, of the Philippines, and American Danielle Kang placed fourth at 14-under overall, two shots adrift of Hataoka.

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Hataoka stormed out of the gate, making birdie on her first two holes. After a par at the third hole she birdied the par-four No. 4.

She made another birdie on the par-five seventh and then rolled in her fifth and final birdie on No. 11. Her only blemish was a bogey on the par-four 13th after blasting her approach shot over the green.

“It was pretty tight, very stressful because the other players were so close to me. It was pretty stressful for me, yeah,” said Hataoka, who also won the LPGA Marathon Classic in July.

Stacy Lewis and world No. 2 Ko Jin-Young ended in a tie for sixth at 12 under. Eight players tied for eighth at 11 under, including 2017 Arkansas champion Ryu So-Yeon, who shot a blistering 62 in final round.

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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.