'Free' McIlroy launches his Masters repeat bid

A woman will command Australia's army for the first time since its founding 125 years ago, Defence Minister Richard Marles said Monday as he unveiled the "deeply historic" appointment.

Lieutenant general Susan Coyle was named Australia's Chief of Army following a three-decade career during which she has served in the Solomon Islands, Afghanistan and the Middle East.

"Her achievement means that she will be the first woman to command a service in Australian history," Marles told reporters. 

"And it is a deeply historic moment. As Susan said to me, you cannot be what you cannot see." 

Australia's army is in the throes of a major transformation, equipping itself with long-range firepower, drones and other modern combat tools.  

Coyle stressed her experience in areas such as cyber-warfare. 

"This breadth of experience provides a strong foundation for the responsibilities of command and the trust placed in me," she said.

sft/oho/tc

Iranian authorities executed at least 1,639 people in 2025, the highest number since 1989, two NGOs said Monday, warning it risked using capital punishment even more extensively after protests in January and the war against Israel and the US.

The number of executions represented an increase of 68 percent on the 975 people Iran put to death in 2024, and also included 48 women who were hanged, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) said in their joint annual report.

If the Islamic republic "survives the current crisis, there is a serious risk that executions will be used even more extensively as a tool of oppression and repression", the report said.

IHR -- which requires two sources to confirm an execution, the majority of which are not reported in Iranian official media -- said that the figure represented an "absolute minimum" for the number of hangings in 2025.

The figure amounted to an average of more than four executions per day.

The report said the number of executions was by far the highest since IHR began tracking it in 2008, and was the most reported since 1989, in the earlier years of the Islamic revolution.

The NGOs also warned that "hundreds of detained protesters remain at risk of death sentences and execution" after being charged with capital crimes over January 2026 protests against the authorities -- quashed by a crackdown that rights groups say left thousands dead and tens of thousands arrested.

"By creating fear through an average of four to five executions per day in 2025, authorities tried to prevent new protests and prolong their crumbling rule," said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

- 'Creating fear' -

Even during the war against Israel and the United States that began on February 28, Iran has hanged seven people in connection with the January protests: six convicted of membership in the banned opposition group People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), and one dual Iranian-Swedish citizen charged with spying for Israel.

Raphael Chenuil-Hazan, executive director of ECPM, said: "The death penalty in Iran is used as a political tool of oppression and repression, with ethnic minorities and other marginalised groups disproportionately represented among those executed."

The report noted that the Kurdish minority in the west and the Baluch in southeast -- both of whom largely adhere to the Sunni strain of Islam rather than the Shia branch dominant in Iran -- are particularly targeted.

Almost half of those executed were convicted of drug-related offences, the report said. 

At least 48 women were executed, the highest number recorded in more than 20 years and a 55 percent increase from 2024, when 31 women were hanged, according to the NGOs.

Of these, 21 women were executed for the murder of their husbands or fiances, the report said. Rights groups have said women executed for killing spouses or relatives were often in abusive relationships.

Almost all hangings were carried out inside prisons, but public hangings more than tripled to 11 in 2025, the report said.

Iran's penal code allows for other methods of capital punishment, but in recent years all known executions have been carried out by hanging. 

Rights groups including Amnesty International say Iran carries out the most executions of any nation worldwide per capita, and the most of any country other than China, for which no reliable data is available.

sjw/smw/ceg

US President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday that he is "not a big fan" of Pope Leo XIV, after the global leader of Catholics made a plea for peace.

"I'm not a big fan of Pope Leo. He's a very liberal person, and he's a man that doesn't believe in stopping crime," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

He accused the pontiff of "toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon."

On Saturday, the 70-year-old American pope publicly implored leaders to end the violence, telling worshippers at St. Peter's Basilica: "Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!"

Trump reiterated his comments to reporters with a post on Truth Social saying: "I don't want a Pope who think it's OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon."

Washington and the Vatican have recently denied reports of a rift.

On Friday, a Vatican official denied reports that a top Pentagon official gave the church's envoy to the United States a "bitter lecture" over Pope Leo's criticisms of the Trump administration.

The story in the Free Press -- which the Pentagon had already dismissed as "distorted" -- reported that Cardinal Christophe Pierre was summoned in January to the Pentagon, where he was given a dressing-down by US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby.

The military official reportedly told the cardinal that the United States "has the military power to do whatever it wants -- and that the Church had better take its side."

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement "the account presented by certain media outlets regarding this meeting does not correspond to the truth in any way."

While both parties insist the meeting was cordial, the Holy See and the White House have openly been at odds over the Trump administration's hardline mass deportation campaign -- which the pope called "inhuman" -- and the use of military force in the Middle East and Venezuela. 

When Trump made genocidal threats against Iran Tuesday -- saying "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again" -- the pontiff slammed the "truly unacceptable" statement and urged parties to "come back to the table" for negotiations. 

Earlier this month, Pope Leo hailed the news of a ceasefire between the United States and Iran as a "sign of real hope."

But peace talks between the United States and Iran, held in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, ended abruptly Saturday with US Vice President JD Vance telling reporters after a marathon-session of talks that Washington has delivered its "final and best offer."

sla/cms

Cooper Flagg's spectacular rookie NBA season ended in injury Sunday as he left the court with an ankle sprain during the Dallas Mavericks' win against the Chicago Bulls.

The 19-year-old forward who was the top pick in last year's NBA Draft departed during the second quarter of the Mavericks' final game, having played less than 10 minutes and scored 10 points.

"Cooper Flagg (left ankle sprain) will not return to tonight's game against the Chicago Bulls," said the Mavericks' social media account.

It was a bitter end to a regular season that was disappointing for the Mavericks, who failed to reach the playoffs, but full of personal records for Flagg.

Drafted first overall after a single college season at Duke University, Flagg this month became the first teenager to score 50 in an NBA game, during a loss to Orlando.

He also joined Michael Jordan as the only rookies to post multiple games of 45 or more points in their debut seasons.

Flagg is the favorite to win NBA Rookie of the Year, having scored 1,463 points with 462 rebounds and 315 assists.

His top competition comes from Charlotte Hornets star rookie Kon Knueppel -- a college roommate and teammate of Flagg.

amz/bb

Oil prices surged and stocks sank Monday after US-Iran peace talks fell apart and Donald Trump announced a blockade of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, adding to fears of energy supplies from the Middle East.

Negotiations in Islamabad at the weekend fell apart with the US delegation -- led by Vice President JD Vance -- blaming Iran's refusal to give up its nuclear programme and Tehran hitting out at "maximalism, shifting goalposts, and blockade".

The news dealt a blow to hopes for an end to the six-week conflict, which has sent crude prices soaring, pushing inflation up and sending shivers through the global economy.

Oil prices -- which tumbled last week after the United States and Iran agreed to a ceasefire -- jumped around eight percent Monday, with both contracts topping $100 a barrel.

Equities fell across Asia, with Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul off at least one percent, while Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, Taipei and Jakarta were also down.

In a lengthy social media post, US President Donald Trump said his goal was to clear the strait of mines and reopen it to all shipping.

But he said that Iran must not be allowed to profit from controlling the waterway -- through which a fifth of global oil and gas usually passes.

"Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

"Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!"

He said the blockade would only apply to vessels travelling to or from Iranian ports.

The US military said Sunday it will blockade all Iranian Gulf ports on Monday at 1400 GMT, effectively seizing control of maritime traffic.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said its security forces had full control over the strait and warned enemies would be trapped in a "deadly vortex" in case of any "wrong move".

Iran's navy chief Shahram Irani called Trump's threat "ridiculous and funny", according to state TV.

After the talks -- the highest-level meeting between the two sides since the 1979 Islamic revolution -- Vance said Washington had made Tehran its "final and best offer," adding: "We'll see if the Iranians accept it."

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the rivals had been "inches away" from a deal, writing on X that "Iran engaged with US in good faith to end war".

But he added "we encountered maximalism, shifting goalposts, and blockade".

Nicole Grajewski, an assistant professor at the Center for International Research at Sciences Po in Paris, warned that a US blockade was "not a minor coercive signal" but would rather be considered an effective resumption of the war.

Fawad Razaqzada, a market analyst at Forex.com, said: "The fundamental issue remains trust — or rather, the lack of it — between two long-standing adversaries who still appear some distance from common ground."

Investors are also keeping an eye on attempts to resolve the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, as Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he was pushing to ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

"We will continue to work to stop this war, to ensure the Israeli withdrawal from all our lands, the return of all the prisoners, to rebuild our destroyed villages and towns, and the safe return of the displaced," Salam said.

The prospect of the Middle East crisis continuing for the foreseeable future ramped up inflation fears and weighed on gold amid expectations interest rates would be kept elevated.

Data Friday highlighted the impact of the conflict on prices, with the US consumer price index spiking at 3.3 percent in March, its highest since May last year.

- Key figures at around 0230 GMT -

West Texas Intermediate: UP 8.0 percent at $104.33 a barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 6.9 percent at $101.73 a barrel

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.0 percent at 56,357.40 (break)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.0 percent at 25,627.75

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,981.08

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1686 from $1.1728 on Friday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3401 from $1.3463

Dollar/yen: UP at 159.67 yen from 159.19 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 87.20 pence from 87.11 pence

dan-cms

Doc Rivers is departing as head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks after the NBA team concluded its lackluster regular season Sunday, US media reported.

The 64-year-old indicated as much himself after the Bucks concluded a 32-50 losing season.

"I can tell you we're all on the same page," Rivers told a post-game press conference of his future with the team. "We've talked about it, and we want it out pretty quick.

"I just want them to do it, it's better. But I think you guys pretty much know."

The Bucks did not immediately respond to AFP request for comment, but ESPN reported that Rivers was out as coach but could still move to an advisory role with the club.

Rivers himself hinted earlier this month that he might be contemplating retirement, mentioning how much he missed spending time with his grandchildren when asked about his coaching future.

Rivers's stellar resume includes an NBA title with the Boston Celtics in 2008.

Milwaukee won the NBA championship as recently as 2021, when Greek-Nigerian star Giannis Antetokounmpo earned a second consecutive Most Valuable Player Award.

Having failed to build on that success, the Bucks brought in Rivers in 2024 amid predictions his arrival could propel Milwaukee back to the top of the NBA.

But after two exits in the first round of the playoffs, the Bucks missed out on post-season basketball entirely this time.

Antetokounmpo struggled with injuries and was linked with a mid-season trade before publicly complaining that the team had not allowed him to play. 

There were also reports that Rivers had fallen out with several key players.

"I've personally have enjoyed the challenge. It didn't go the way I wanted it to go, obviously," said Rivers.

"I always say I could do a better job. We could have had better health. We could have had all kinds of things."

"I'm not a big guy at looking back. All you can do is look forward.

"We did a lot of things to improve a lot of the young guys. Unfortunately, that was the road that kind of presented itself for us, and we did that."

Rivers was named NBA Coach of the Year in 2000 after his first league campaign while with Orlando.

Over 27 seasons he has won more than 1,190 games -- the sixth-most by a head coach in NBA history.

Rivers was selected for induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame this year. 

amz/bb

(The Center Square) - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the Democratic Party the party of the rich and the press "liars" during an hour-long speech at this weekend's California Republican Convention.

Cruz also discussed some of the national Republican Party’s priorities, which include fighting for parental rights, pushing back on transgender ideology and curbing illegal immigration.

“We have seen illegal border crossings drop more than 99%,” Cruz told a ballroom audience of prominent Republicans on Saturday night at the Sheraton San Diego Resort. “What does it mean when illegal border crossings drop 99%? We’ve seen the murder rate across America drop 20%. That’s real results.”

That figure doesn’t affect the issue of drug abuse enough, however, Cruz said at the dinner.

“In 2025, that number dropped to 71,000,” Cruz said about deaths from drug overdoses. “That number is still too high, but there are 36,000 Americans who are still alive today because President Trump was re-elected in 2024 and we have a Republican Senate and a House standing up and securing the border and keeping us safe.”

Cruz also spoke about providing tax cuts to families, increasing national general fund budget allocations to the U.S. military and cutting taxes on tips for workers who hold jobs in which tips are part of their wages.

“We passed new tax cuts, like no tax on tips,” Cruz said. “We passed no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. April 15 is coming up, and all across the country now, people are getting tax refunds.”

Cruz also spoke about school choice and savings accounts for children created under last year’s federal budget resolution, House Resolution 1 - the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Those savings accounts are known as the “Trump Accounts,” Cruz said.

The Toronto Raptors rolled past the Brooklyn Nets 136-101 and landed the Eastern Conference fifth seed on Sunday as the final pieces of the NBA post-season puzzle fell into place on the last day of the regular season.

RJ Barrett scored 26 points, Brandon Ingram added 25 and Scottie Barnes delivered a triple-double of 18 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists to help the 2019 champion Raptors return to the playoffs for the first time since 2022.

"That was our aspiration for the year," Barnes said. "It's a big relief."

The Raptors came into Sunday at sixth in the East and rose to fifth with the victory along with defeats for the Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks.

Toronto will open the playoffs against fourth-seeded Cleveland, who beat the Washington Wizards 130-117.

The Miami Heat warmed up for the play-in tournament with a 143-117 victory over the Atlanta Hawks.

Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 26 points off the bench and Bam Adebayo scored 25 points with 10 rebounds for the Heat, who finished 10th in the East and will face the Charlotte Hornets, who secured the ninth seed with a 110-96 victory over the third-seeded New York Knicks.

The Hawks slipped from fifth to sixth, still avoiding the play-in that will see the seventh- through 10th-placed teams battle for the last two playoff berths in each conference.

With the playoffs beckoning, Hawks coach Quinn Snyder rested a host of players including Nickeil Alexander-Walker, CJ McCollum and Jalen Johnson, and the Raptors edged in front of them on head-to-head tiebreaker.

Every team was in action and 10 seedings were still in play on Sunday, but coaches still opted to rest dozens of players in preparation for the post-season.

Second-seeded Boston held out eight regulars, including Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

Baylor Scheirman scored a career-high 30 points to lead the Celtics to a 113-108 victory over Orlando that saw the Magic finish with the eighth seed in the East to book a road play-in road game against the Philadelphia 76ers, who beat the Milwaukee Bucks 126-106.

Eastern conference top seeds Detroit polished off the regular season with a 133-121 victory over the Indiana Pacers.

Paul Reed scored 26 points and Tobias Harris added 24 for the Pistons, who put up 81 points in the first half.

Detroit notched their third straight win and totaled 60 for the season for the first time since the 2005-06 campaign.

In the Western Conference, the Denver Nuggets vied to cement the third seed when they took on the San Antonio Spurs.

The Los Angeles Lakers had a chance to seize the third seed with a victory over the Utah Jazz and a Nuggets defeat.

bb/amz

Winning back-to-back Masters titles has Rory McIlroy yearning for even more major success.

A year after winning his first Masters completed a career Grand Slam and ended a 10-year major win drought, the 36-year-old from Northern Ireland feels like there is more to come following his sixth major triumph.

"I'm not putting a number on it but I certainly don't want to stop here," McIlroy said of his major win total.

McIlroy matched Nick Faldo with six career major triumphs, one shy of the European record set by Britain's Harry Vardon from 1896 to 1914. Let the debate begin over Europe's all-time top golfer.

"There's obviously going to be that conversation, and that debate is going to be hard, but it's a cool conversation to be a part of," McIlroy said.

"It took me 10 years to win my fifth major and then my sixth one has come pretty soon after it."

One reason McIlroy's confidence is boosted is a different feel after this Masters win compared to last year, when victory and the Slam felt like long-sought accomplishments.

"I felt like the Grand Slam was the destination and I realized it wasn't," McIlroy said. "I just won my sixth major and I feel like I'm in a really good spot with my game and my body.

"I feel like this win is just a part of the journey. I still have things I want to achieve, but I still want to enjoy it as well."

"I've waited so long to win the Masters, and all of a sudden I win two in a row, so I still want to enjoy it.

"I've got a couple of weeks off before I go back to play competitive golf, but I don't think I'll go through that lull of motivation or the sort of things I was feeling last year post winning this tournament."

While McIlroy struggled after last year's victory over the magnitude and enormity of the achievement, this one came as more of a relief after woeful tee shots saw him squander a Masters record six-stroke 36-hole lead.

"Just absolutely delighted to be able to get it done," McIlroy said. "Having a six-shot lead going into the weekend, it would have been a bitter pill to swallow if I wasn't able to get myself over the finish line."

Victory came after his tee shot at 18 soared way right over trees. He curled an approach into a greenside bunker and salvaged bogey for a one-stroke victory over top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, who had a bogey-free weekend while McIlroy played the last 36 holes at level par.

"Walking off the 18th tee not knowing where my ball was, I think that was the moment of greatest stress," McIlroy said. "It could be anywhere."

- 'It's amazing' -

There was no emotional drop to his knees or crying after this win as there had been a year ago.

"I was just like 'I can't believe I've just done it again,'" he said. "More joy. Not as emotional, but just, 'wow, it's amazing. I can't believe I did it again.'"

The celebration, however, will be as great as last year's.

"We lose a lot more in golf than we win, so I think when the winning comes around, you have to celebrate it to the fullest," McIlroy said.

Second-ranked McIlroy sees a method for future majors in this week's success.

"It's a good blueprint," he said. "I'm not going to take three weeks off before every major, but to get to the major venues early, do your preparation, actually play. Go out there with one ball, shoot a score, and try to do it that way.

"I did a little bit of that leading up to here, and I think that's certainly a good way to prepare going into the next majors."

McIlroy did learn a key lesson.

"I thought it was so difficult to win last year because of trying to win the Masters and the Grand Slam," McIlroy said. "This year I realized it's just really difficult to win the Masters."

js/amz

The battered wooden trunk had been in the family for a century -- shifted from attic to barn to garage as it was handed down through the generations. No one knew a cinematic treasure was inside.

That was until retired high school teacher Bill McFarland's curiosity got the better of him. 

For the past 20 years, McFarland, 76, had been the keeper of the trunk, which originally belonged to his late great-grandfather who showed silent movies to audiences in rural Pennsylvania at the turn of the 20th century.

"It was just this trunk of films that seemed too good to throw away. But I had no idea what they were or how to show them," McFarland told AFP. 

He offered them to museums and even tried to sell them through an antique store, whose owner soon told him to take them away after learning vintage nitrate film reels were highly combustible and could explode.

Then last summer, McFarland drove from his home in the northern state of Michigan to the US Library of Congress’ National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper in the southern state of Virginia.

He was in for a surprise -- a pleasant one.

- Pioneering short film -

Spliced in the middle of one of the 10 reels was a lost short film by Georges Melies, a French cinema pioneer -- the first to experiment with fictional narratives and special effects at the very dawn of moving pictures.

The 45-second film, "Gugusse and the Automaton," was made in 1897 -- just two years after the Lumiere Brothers staged the world's first public screening of a movie in Paris.

Melies, a theatrical showman and magician, attended that screening and was inspired to make films of his own. He is most famous for "A Trip to the Moon" (1902) with its iconic scene of a rocket landing in the eye of the man in the Moon.

By a decade later, his filmmaking had fallen out of vogue as the center of the movie world shifted from Europe to America.

Melies ended up as a toy seller in Paris’ Gare Montparnasse train station -- a story that was dramatized in Martin Scorsese’s 2011 film, "Hugo." But his legacy endured.

"He was one of the first filmmakers," said George Willeman, leader of the congressional library's nitrate film vault, who said the recovered reel was likely a third-generation copy of the Melies original. "And one of the first to experience film piracy."

- Copy's miraculous survival -

In retrospect, piracy was a salvation for film historians as it means that Melies' work lives on.

Reputedly, he destroyed hundreds of his own negatives, and the celluloid was melted down -- and some of it used as raw material to make soldiers' boots during World War I.

While "Gugusse and the Automaton" was known to be in Melies' back catalogue, no one had seen it until McFarland delivered it to the library in his Toyota sedan last September.

It features a magician -- played by Melies -- cranking up an automaton that grows in size and then beats the magician on the head with a stick. The magician retaliates by bashing the automaton with a sledgehammer until it disappears, shrinking through a surprisingly slick series of jump cuts.

"These single frame cuts are really precise for a movie this old, and the gags are timeless," said Jason Evans Groth, curator of the library's moving image section, who recounted McFarland popping the trunk of his car with the film reels inside when he arrived in Culpeper.

The film's discovery has taken McFarland on another journey -- learning about the life of his great-grandfather William DeLyle Frisbee.

- 'Ticking time bomb' -

Born in 1860 in the rural northwest of Pennsylvania, Frisbee was a stocky, mustached man with many strings to his bow. 

He grew potatoes, kept bees, made maple syrup and taught school three months each year. In his downtime he would travel by horse and buggy across Pennsylvania and neighboring states with what he called his "exhibition": a new-fangled Edison phonograph, a magic lantern slide projector and later on, movies. 

Well-thumbed pocket diaries describe Frisbee's travels. "Gave the exhibition at Garland, $5 receipts, rough crowd," reads one entry, referring to a community in northwestern Pennsylvania.

"I can only imagine Saturday night, they might have been liquored up a little bit," observed McFarland. "I wonder if there were disappointed customers, or if they were just rowdy? Maybe they were excited at seeing these pictures."

A century on, and the archivists at the Library of Congress were excited too.

An alarmed McFarland watched specialists whisk the precious reels to a refrigerated vault, already home to tens of thousands of films from the golden age of Hollywood -- and specially designed to prevent a nitrate-fueled fire.

"It finally really registered that I had been...carrying a ticking time bomb," McFarland said.

Library film preservation specialists spent a week restoring the film reel frame-by-frame and digitizing it. The reel was shrunken through age and frayed, but otherwise in remarkable condition for something stashed in sun-heated attics for years.

It’s now a piece of cinema history, viewable on the library’s website.

msp/sms