SHEFFIELD, England (AP) — English snooker player Mark King was handed a five-year ban on Friday after being found guilty of match-fixing and providing inside information in the latest corruption scandal to blight the sport.
The punishment for the 50-year-old King, who reached a career-high ranking of No. 11 in 2003, related to a match against Joe Perry at the Welsh Open played on Feb. 13 last year that was flagged following suspicious betting patterns.
King was suspended by snooker’s world governing body a month later and an independent disciplinary commission has ruled that he fixed the result of the match, while giving information to others about that match for betting purposes. He had denied the charges.
His ban ends after March 17, 2028, and King was also ordered to pay more than 68,000 pounds ($86,000) in costs.
King’s suspension comes after Chinese players Liang Wenbo and Li Hang were handed lifetime bans from snooker last year for their role in a match-fixing scandal involving eight more of their countrymen.
“I have known Mark King since he was very young, he is a very experienced player who has enjoyed great success, and I am deeply saddened to read the finding in this case,” said Jason Ferguson, a former player who is now chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. “However, the integrity of this sport will always be our No. 1 priority.”
King had also been charged with fixing the outcome of a match against John Higgins played on Dec. 13, 2022, and for providing inside information on it. Those charges were dismissed.
The governing body said Perry and Higgins were not accused of any misconduct related to the case.
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
FILE- A Dec.2, 2019 file photo of snooker player Mark King issued on Friday Nov. 15, 2024. (Mike Egerton//PA via AP)
Rescue teams were searching Friday through rubble for missing people near the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon where an Israeli strike hit a civil defense center the night before, killing at least 13.
All those killed in the strike on the town of Douris near Baalbek were employees and volunteers of the emergency services agency, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense. Some other remains were also recovered and will require DNA testing, it said in a statement.
The General Directorate of Civil Defense expressed “deep regret over this direct attack on its members." Staffers “will continue to respond to relief calls and continue with its humanitarian mission, no matter how great the challenges and sacrifices are," it said.
Israel has accused Hezbollah of using ambulances and medical facilities to transport and store weapons. The Israeli military has not commented on the strike on the civil defense center in Baalbek.
Israel has been striking deeper inside Lebanon since September as it escalates the war against Hezbollah. After 13 months of war, more than 3,300 people have been killed and more than 14,400 wounded, Lebanon’s Health Ministry says.
The Israel-Hamas war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Lebanon’s Hezbollah group began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza.
Israel’s blistering 13-month war in Gaza has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to local health officials who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The fighting has left some 76 people dead in Israel, including 31 soldiers.
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JERUSALEM — Israeli authorities said blood supplies have been transported into Gaza in the latest move to ease the humanitarian suffering in the Palestinian territory.
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, said the blood supplies entered via Kerem Shalom crossing on Thursday and are expected to reach Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis in the coming days.
Throughout the 13 month conflict, hospitals in Gaza have been struggling to treat Palestinian casualties without basic medical supplies, including blood and bandages.
The announcement from COGAT comes as Israel faces mounting international pressure to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, particularly in the war-ravaged northern areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya where Israel has intensified its military operations against Hamas.
COGAT facilitated at least two aid deliveries to the far north during November after a month where virtually no supplies reached these areas.
BEIRUT — An Iranian official flew to Beirut on Friday to discuss the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah war with top Lebanese officials as Israel’s air force struck areas on the edge of the Lebanese capital.
The visit of Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, comes amid attempts led by the United States to end the 13-month war that broadened in September into southern and eastern Lebanon as well as Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Lebanese media reported that the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon has handed over a draft of a proposed deal to end the Israel-Hezbollah war to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
A Lebanese official confirmed that the U.S. ambassador to Beirut, Lisa Johnson, visited Berri but refused to say whether a draft was handed over. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media about the ongoing talks. The U.S. Embassy refused to either confirm or deny the reports.
Larijani flew in Friday from neighboring Syria where he held similar talks a day earlier with President Bashar Assad. Syria’s state news agency said Assad and Larijani discussed the “ongoing aggression on Palestine and Lebanon and the necessity of stopping it.”
Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.
BEIRUT — Rescue teams were searching for missing people through rubble near the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon where an Israeli strike hit a civil defense center the night before.
Thirteen bodies were recovered, all of them employees and volunteers of the emergency services agency, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense. Some other remains that will require DNA testing were also recovered, it said in a statement.
The General Directorate of Civil Defense expressed “deep regret over this direct attack on its members.” Staffers “will continue to respond to relief calls and continue with its humanitarian mission, no matter how great the challenges and sacrifices are,” it said.
Rafik Shehada, head of the union of municipalities in the Baalbek region, described the strike as “barbaric” and said that rescue teams were still searching for missing people who had been inside the center at the time and were presumed dead.
Human Rights Watch in a report issued in late October said that it had documented three incidents that it described as “apparent war crimes” in which Israeli forces struck medica “medical personnel, transports, and facilities.” At that time, it said that Israeli strikes had killed at least 163 health and rescue workers across Lebanon and damaged 158 ambulances and 55 hospitals during a year of conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Israel has accused Hezbollah of using ambulances and medical facilities to transport and store weapons. The Israeli military has not commented on the strike on the civil defense center near Baalbek.
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council’s 10 elected members have circulated a draft resolution demanding “an immediate, unconditional and permanent cease-fire” in Gaza.
The draft resolution, which was sent to the council’s five permanent members Thursday, reiterates the council’s demand “for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” seized during Hamas’ surprise attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel says about 100 are still being held, though not all are believed to be alive.
The council’s 10 elected members – Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Switzerland, Algeria, Guyana, South Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia – circulated the draft after they agreed to it.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, holds the key to whether the Security Council adopts the resolution. The four other permanent members – Russia, China, Britain and France -- are expected to support it or abstain.
The draft, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, also demands immediate access for Gaza’s civilian population to humanitarian aid and services essential for their survival.
It “underscores” that the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA “remains the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza.”
Israel’s parliament passed two laws last month banning UNRWA’s operations in the Palestinian territories, which take effect in 90 days.
The draft resolution would also express the council’s “deep alarm over the ongoing catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza including the lack of adequate healthcare services and the state of food insecurity creating a risk of famine notably in the north.”
For more Middle East news: https://apnews.com/hub/middle-east
Palestinians collect clean drinking water at a desalination plant that now operates round the clock in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, a resource they barely had any access to during the war, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Mourners react during eulogies for Israeli soldier Capt. Itay Marcovich, who was killed in action in Lebanon, during his funeral in Kokhav Yair, Israel, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Mourners react during eulogies for Israeli soldier Capt. Itay Marcovich, who was killed in action in Lebanon, during his funeral in Kokhav Yair, Israel, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Palestinians mourn their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of Maghazi in the Gaza Strip, during their funeral at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Civil defense workers extinguish a fire as smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Smoke rises from a building hit in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A bomb dropped from an Israeli jet prepares to hit a building in Tayouneh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Civil defense workers extinguish a fire as smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Residents check the site of an Israeli airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Residents check the site of an Israeli airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Residents check the site of an Israeli airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
