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What to know as Prince Harry prepares for court fight with British tabloid publisher

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PHOTO FILE – Britain’s Prince Harry leaves the Royal Courts Of Justice in London, Thursday, March 30, 2023. The Duke of Sussex is scheduled to testify in the High Court after his lawyer presents opening statements Monday, June 5, 2023 in his case alleging phone hacking. It’s the first of Harry’s several legal cases against the media to go to trial and one of three alleging tabloid publishers unlawfully snooped on him. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

By BRIAN MELLEY (AP)

LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry is going where other British royals haven’t for over a century: to a courtroom witness stand.

The Duke of Sussex is set to testify in the first of his five pending legal cases largely centered around battles with British tabloids. Opening statements are scheduled Monday in his case.

Harry said in court documents that the royal family had assiduously avoided the courts to prevent testifying about matters that might be embarrassing.

His frustration and anger at the press, however, impelled him to buck convention by suing newspaper owners — allegedly against the wishes of his father, now King Charles III.

If Harry testifies as scheduled Tuesday in his lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mirror, he’ll be the first member of the royal family to do so since the late 19th century, when Queen Victoria’s eldest son, Prince Albert Edward, testified twice in court.

The man who would go on to become King Edward VII testified in the divorce proceedings of a woman he was accused of having an affair with (he denied it) and in a slander case involving a man who cheated at cards. Edward VII was the great-grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II, Harry’s grandmother.

A look at Prince Harry’s legal battles:

HARRY’S HISTORY WITH PHONE HACKING AND PAPARAZZI
The Daily Mirror case is one of three Harry has brought alleging phone hacking and other invasions of his privacy, dating back to when he was a boy.

In court documents, he described his relationship with the press as “uneasy” in court documents, but it runs much deeper than that. The prince blames paparazzi for causing the car crash that killed his mother, the late Princess Diana.

He also cites harassment and intrusion by the British Press and “vicious, persistent attacks” on his wife, Meghan, including racist articles, as the reason the couple left royal life and fled to the U.S. in 2020. Reforming the news media has become one of his life’s missions.

News that British journalists hacked phones for scoops first emerged in 2006 with the arrest of a private investigator and the royals reporter at the now-defunct News of the World. The two were jailed, and the reporter apologized for hacking phones used by aides of Harry, his older brother, Prince William, and their father.

A full-blown hacking scandal erupted five years later when it was revealed that the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid eavesdropped on voicemails on the phone of a slain girl, forcing the paper to close and launching a public inquiry.

Since that time, other newspapers have been accused of illegal intrusions that extended to tapping phones, bugging homes and using deception to obtain phone, bank and medical records.

WHO IS HARRY SUING?
The duke is taking on three of Britain’s best-known tabloid publishers.

In addition to Mirror Group Newspapers, he is suing Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and Associated Newspapers Ltd., which owns the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.

The claims are similar: that journalists and people they employed listened to phone messages and committed other unlawful acts to snoop on Harry and invade his privacy.

In a sign of how much the cases matter to him, Harry attended several days of hearings in March in the case against the Mail publisher.

Several celebrities with similar allegations have also filed claims being heard alongside Harry’s, including Hugh Grant in the News Group case, and Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley in the Associated Newspapers case.

Associated Newspapers “vigorously denies” the claims. News Group has apologized for News of the World’s hacking but The Sun does not accept liability or admit to any of the allegations, according to spokespeople.
Both publishers argued during High Court hearings this spring that the lawsuits should be thrown out because Harry and the others failed to bring them within a six-year time limit.

The lawyer representing Harry and other claimants said they should be granted an exception because the publishers lied and concealed evidence that prevented them from learning of the covert acts in time to meet the deadlines.

WHAT’S THE CURRENT TRIAL ABOUT?
At the outset of the proceedings, Mirror Group appeared to fall on its sword, acknowledging instances when its newspapers unlawfully gathered information. It apologized in court papers and said Harry and two of the other three claimants in the case were due compensation.

But the admission involving Harry — the hiring of a private eye to dig up unspecified dirt for an article about his nightclubbing — wasn’t among the nearly 150 articles between 1995 and 2011 for which he claimed Mirror Group reporters used phone hacking and other illegal methods to gather material. The trial is focusing on 33 of those stories.

Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne, said unlawful acts by reporters and editors at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People were “widespread and habitual” and carried out on “an industrial scale.” He pointed the finger at management, in particular TV personality Piers Morgan, a former Daily Mirror editor.
Morgan has publicly denied involvement in phone hacking, as has Mirror Group in its court submissions.

Mirror lawyer Andrew Green said a substantial proportion of the articles at issue involved a “breathtaking level of triviality” and that with the exception of a few instances of unlawful information gathering, the company’s reporters had used public records and sources to legally obtain information.

The trial is a test case involving four claimants, including two members of Britain’s longest-running soap opera, “Coronation Street.” But the verdict could determine the outcome of hacking claims also made against Mirror Group by the estate of the late singer George Michael, former Girls Aloud member Cheryl and former soccer player Ian Wright.

The case is broken into two parts: a generic case that lasted nearly three weeks in which Harry’s lawyer laid out evidence of alleged skullduggery at the newspapers; the second part, starting Monday, with the four claimants testifying about specific acts targeting them.

WHAT ARE THE OTHER LAWSUITS ABOUT?
Harry’s fear and loathing of the press intersects with two active cases that center around the government’s decision to stop protecting him after he abandoned royal duties.

Harry argued his security is compromised when he visits the U.K., saying that aggressive paparazzi chased him after a charity event in 2021. He sued the British government for withdrawing his security detail.

With that lawsuit pending, he unsuccessfully tried to challenge the government’s subsequent rejection of his offer to pay for his own police protection.

A judge is weighing whether Harry’s libel suit against Associated Newspapers for reporting that he tried to hide his legal efforts to get the British government to provide security should go to trial.

“How Prince Harry tried to keep his legal fight with the government over police bodyguards a secret… then — just minutes after the story broke — his PR machine tried to put a positive spin on the dispute,” the Mail on Sunday wrote in its headline.

In past cases, Meghan won an invasion of privacy case in 2021 against the Mail on Sunday for printing a private letter she wrote to her father. That led to a 1-pound settlement for violating her privacy and an undisclosed sum for copyright infringement.

The couple has also settled lawsuits against photo agencies for flying a drone over their California home and a helicopter over a home where they were living in England.

All contents © copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved

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International

Doubles player Miyu Kato of Japan disqualified for accidentally hitting a ball girl

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PHOTO FILE – Miyu Kato, of Japan, right, serves behind her partner Aldila Sutjiadi, of Indonesia, as they play against Beatriz Haddad Maia, of Brazil, and Laura Siegemund, of Germany, in a doubles semifinal match at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament Friday, March 17, 2023, in Indian Wells, Calif. French Open doubles player Miyu Kato and her partner Aldila Sutjiadi have been forced to forfeit a match when Kato accidentally hit a ball girl in the neck with a ball after a point during their match against Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo on Sunday, June 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)

By HOWARD FENDRICH (AP Tennis Writer)

PARIS (AP) — French Open doubles player Miyu Kato and her partner were forced to forfeit a match when Kato accidentally hit a ball girl in the neck with a ball after a point on Sunday.

In the second set on Court 14 at Roland Garros, Kato took a swing with her racket and the ball flew toward the ball kid, who was not looking in the player’s direction while heading off the court.

At first, chair umpire Alexandre Juge only issued a warning to Kato. But after tournament referee Remy Azemar and Grand Slam supervisor Wayne McEwen went to Court 14 to look into what happened, Kato and her partner, Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia, were disqualified.

That made Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain the winners of the match.

“It’s just a bad situation for everyone,” Bouzkova said. “But it’s kind of something that, I guess, is taken by the rules, as it is, even though it’s very unfortunate for them. … At the end of the day, it was the referee’s decision.”

Bouzkova said she did not see the ball hit the ball girl, but “she was crying for like 15 minutes.”
She said one of the officials said the ball “has to do some kind of harm to the person affected” and that “at first, (Juge) didn’t see that.”

Bouzkova said she and Sorribes Tormo told Juge “to look into it more and ask our opponents what they think happened.”

During Coco Gauff’s 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-1 singles victory over Mirra Andreeva on Saturday, Andreev swatted a ball into the Court Suzanne Lenglen stands after dropping a point in the first set. Andreev was given a warning by the chair umpire for unsportsmanlike conduct but no further penalty.

“I heard about that. Didn’t see it,” Bouzkova said. “I guess it just depends on the circumstances and the given situation as it happens. … It is difficult, for sure.

In the quarterfinals, Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo will face Ellen Perez of Australia and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States.

AP tennis: https: https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

All contents © copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved

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International

Slow start to New York’s legal pot market leaves farmers holding the bag

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By MICHAEL HILL Associated Press

ARGYLE, N.Y. (AP) — Seth Jacobs has about 100 bins packed with marijuana flower sitting in storage at his upstate New York farm.

And that’s a problem. There aren’t enough places to sell it.

The 700 pounds (318 kilograms) of pungent flower was harvested last year as part of New York’s first crop of legally grown pot for recreational use. He also has roughly 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of distillate.

Months later, there are only a dozen licensed dispensaries statewide to sell what Jacobs and more than 200 other farmers produced.

Now, another growing season is underway and farmers still sitting on much of last year’s harvest are in a financial bind.

“We are really under the gun here. We’re all losing money,” Jacobs recently said at his farm on rolling land near the Vermont border. “Even the most entrepreneurial and ambitious amongst us just can’t move much product in this environment.”

New York pot farmers aren’t the only ones struggling with difficult economic conditions. Marijuana growers in western states have also complained that low prices, tough competition from the black market, high state taxes and federal banking and exporting restrictions have made it tough for legal growers to make money.

But the farmers’ plight in New York is directly tied to the bumpy launch of the state’s recreational pot market.

State leaders had always planned to gear up the market in stages, giving a chance for a diverse set of participants to get a toe-hold. The state’s process for licensing new dispensaries, however, has moved at a far slower pace than expected.

Last fall, Gov. Kathy Hochul foresaw 20 new shops opening every month or so to start this year. Instead, one store was open by the start of the year, with 11 more opened since.

Unlicensed shops rushed in to fill the void, especially in New York City, but those outlets aren’t a legal market for the state’s farmers. Federal law prohibits the New York farmers from transporting their crop across state lines.

That means limited shelf space to sell the 300,000 pounds (136,000 kilograms) of cannabis grown in the state last year, much of the product meant to be processed for items like gummies and vapes.

Statewide, there is estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars worth of unsold cannabis, about 80% in the form of cannabis oil, according to the Cannabis Association of New York, a trade group. There are concerns the smokable flower will eventually become too old to sell.

Jacobs keep his bins of buds at Slack Hollow Organics in secure, temperature controlled units. More valuable still is the distillate at various processors he’s waiting to sell. Elsewhere in rural New York, Brittany Carbone, co-founder of Tricolla Farms, said the stock they’re sitting on includes 1,500 packs of pre-rolled joints and about 2,000 packs of edibles.

“What we really need to see is more retailers get open, and that’s going to actually give us the sustainable solution,” Carbone said.

The lack of sales is a particular problem for small farmers who stretched themselves thin financially to produce last year’s crop and now need capital for their second year.

Jacobs, whose brand is Bud & Boro, said he won’t grow plants for distillate this year because of the backlog. Carbone said they are planting on less than the acre they’re legally allowed and are holding off on infrastructure investments, like hoop houses to help with growing.

In New York, many critics blame missteps by state officials in their well-intentioned effort to open the market to a diverse array of entrepreneurs. That meant reserving the first legal pot harvests for struggling hemp farmers. And people with past marijuana convictions were given the chance to open some of the first dispensaries.

Critics say the process has been cumbersome for dispensary applicants. And there have been issues with a planned $200 million fund to help “social equity” dispensary licensees with the costly task of setting up shops.

The fund was supposed to consist of up to $150 million in private investment. But state Dormitory Authority spokesperson Jeffrey Gordon declined to say whether any private money had been invested yet, saying in an email only that “work to raise private capital is ongoing.”

Gordon noted New York’s “complex and unprecedented” effort to create a new statewide enterprise from scratch, which included evaluating 10,000 commercial properties for dispensary locations and arranging for banking, training and other services for the licensees.

The retail rollout also was hobbled by a federal judge’s ruling in November that temporarily barred New York from issuing dispensary licenses in parts of the state, including Brooklyn and Buffalo. The injunction was later narrowed to the Finger Lakes region before a settlement was reached this week.

The Office of Cannabis Management has taken recent steps to boost demand, including the provisional approval last month of 50 new dispensary licenses. And plans are in the works for that would allow groups of growers to join with retail licensees to sell their cannabis at places other than stores, like at a farmers’ market or a festival.

“We know these cultivators are worried about how to sell last year’s harvest as they decide whether to plant a cannabis crop in 2023, and we will continue to support them as more adult-use dispensaries open to sell their products,” cannabis office spokesman Aaron Ghitelman said in an email.

On a separate track, Hochul and the Legislature approved a new law giving regulators broader power to seize weed from the illicit shops competing with the legal shops.

Though frustrated, farmers like Jacobs and Carbone are hanging on. Carbone has gotten her farm’s brand, TONIC, into six dispensaries. Jacobs has received some intermittent payments and hopes the farmers market policy being devised will give him a new avenue to sell his marijuana.

“This all will get worked out,” Jacobs said. “And I want to be there when it does.”

All contents © copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved

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International

Jacinda Ardern given top honor for her service during shooting, pandemic

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By NICK PERRY Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday received one of New Zealand’s highest honors for her service leading the country through a mass shooting and pandemic.

Ardern was made a Dame Grand Companion, the second-highest honor in New Zealand, as part of King Charles III’s Birthday Honors. It means people will now call her Dame Jacinda. Royal honorees are typically chosen twice a year in New Zealand by the prime minister and signed off by Charles, the British king who is also recognized as New Zealand’s king.

Ardern was just 37 when she became prime minister in 2017, and was seen as a global icon of the left.
She shocked New Zealanders in January when she said she was stepping down as leader after more than five years because she no longer had “enough in the tank” to do it justice.

She was facing mounting political pressures at home, including for her handling of COVID-19, which was initially widely lauded but later criticized by those opposed to mandates and rules.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, who succeeded Ardern, said she was being recognized for her service during “some of the greatest challenges our country has faced in modern times.”

“Leading New Zealand’s response to the 2019 terrorist attacks and to the COVID-19 pandemic represented periods of intense challenge for our 40th prime minister, during which time I saw firsthand that her commitment to New Zealand remained absolute,” Hipkins said in a statement.

Fifty-one Muslim worshippers were killed during Friday prayers in the 2019 attack at two Christchurch mosques by a white supremacist gunman.

Within weeks of the attack, Ardern led major changes to New Zealand’s gun laws by banning assault weapons. More than 50,000 guns were handed over to police during a subsequent buyback scheme.

Ardern said she was in two minds about whether to accept the award because much of what she was being recognized for were experiences that were collective to all New Zealanders.

“So for me this is about my family, my colleagues and all those who supported me to do that incredibly rewarding job,” she told 1News.

Ardern will be temporarily joining Harvard University later this year after she was appointed to dual fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School. She has also taken on an unpaid role combatting online extremism.

Also recognized in the King’s Birthday Honors list was rugby coach Wayne Smith, who helped lead both men’s and women’s rugby teams representing New Zealand to World Cup victories.

In keeping with tradition, Britain’s Queen Camilla was given the top award by being appointed to the Order of New Zealand.

All contents © copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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International

Blinken says no cease-fire until Ukraine gains upper hand in war

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PHOTO FILE: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers his speech at the Helsinki City Hall, Finland Friday, June 2, 2023. (Emmi Korhonen/Lehtikuva via AP)

By SUSIE BLANN and MATTHEW LEE (Associated Press)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday the United States won’t support peace talks in the war in Ukraine until Kyiv holds the upper hand, possibly after a Ukrainian counteroffensive that appears to be taking shape.

Blinken said heeding calls from Russia and others, including China, for a ceasefire and negotiations to end the war now would result in a “Potemkin peace” that wouldn’t secure Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity or enhance European security.

“Potemkin Village” was a tactic Russia’s 18th century government minister Grigory Potemkin used to build brightly painted village fronts to create an illusion of prosperity for Russia’s empress.

In a speech in Finland, which recently joined NATO and shares a long border with Russia, Blinken repeated the U.S. view that “a cease-fire that simply freezes current lines in place” and allows Russian President Vladimir Putin “to consolidate control over the territory he has seized, and rest, rearm, and re-attack — that is not a just and lasting peace.” Allowing Moscow to keep the one-fifth of Ukrainian territory it’s occupied would send the wrong message to Russia and to “other would-be aggressors around the world,” according to Blinken.

Blinken’s position is similar to that of Ukrainian officials, including his statement that Russia must pay for a share of Ukraine’s reconstruction and be held accountable for the full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.

Ukrainian officials have given confusing signals about whether a counteroffensive is coming or already underway. Some have suggested it will not be a barrage of simultaneous attacks across the entire front line, rather a series of more targeted, limited strikes, first to weaken Russia’s supply lines and infrastructure, then broaden and intensify.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy weighed in again on Friday.

“This is not a movie,” he told reporters in Kyiv. “It is hard to say how you’ll see the counteroffensive. The main point here is for Russia to see it. And not just see but feel it. Especially, we speak about the troops that have occupied our territories. De-occupation of our territories – this is the result of our counteroffensive. When you see this, you’ll understand that it has started.”

Zelenskyy has said his goal is to drive Russian troops out of the four territories it has partially occupied and illegally annexed last fall, as well as from the Crimean Peninsula the Kremlin illegally seized in 2014.

Putin has said two of his goals in invading Ukraine were to improve Russia’s security and prevent Ukraine from joining NATO but the Kyiv government has applied to join the alliance, and Sweden is hoping to be accepted as a member in July. That would leave Russia surrounded by NATO countries in the Baltic Sea.

Blinken described the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a catastrophic strategic failure for Moscow that had strengthened, not weakened, NATO, the European Union and Ukraine. Russia has become more isolated, he said, shackled to China as a junior partner in a relationship that Beijing has increasingly come to resent, and no longer able to use energy as a political tool in countries it once counted as its own or satellites.

For its part, Russia wants any talks to address Ukraine’s request to join NATO.

“Naturally, this (issue) will be one of the main irritants and potential problems for many, many years to come,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

Blinken said Washington was ready to support peace efforts by other countries, including those by China and Brazil but that any peace agreement must uphold the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.

China, which says it is neutral and wants to serve as a mediator but has supported Moscow politically, on Friday urged countries to stop sending weapons to Ukraine. The United States is a leading Western ally and supplier of arms to Kyiv.

In Kyiv, in Moscow’s sixth air attack in six days, Ukrainian air defenses late Thursday and early Friday intercepted all 15 cruise missiles and 21 attack drones targeted at the capital, Ukraine’s chief of staff, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said. The Ukrainian capital was simultaneously attacked from different directions by Iranian-made Shahed drones and cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea region, senior Kyiv official Serhii Popko wrote on Telegram.

A 68-year-old man and an 11-year-old child were wounded in the attack, in which falling debris damaged private houses, outbuildings and cars, according to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office.

Moscow’s recent focus on aerial attacks in Kyiv could backfire, however, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank. The air campaign aims to “degrade Ukrainian counteroffensive capabilities, but … the Russian prioritization of Kyiv is likely further limiting the campaign’s ability to meaningfully constrain potential Ukrainian counteroffensive actions,” it said.

Elsewhere, several explosions occurred in the Azov Sea port of Berdyansk Friday in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, one of the four provinces Russia illegally annexed. Russian-appointed officials blamed Ukrainian rocket attacks and said nine people were wounded. Videos posted on social media appear to show a rising column of smoke in the port area. Ukrainian officials acknowledged their forces were responsible and claimed Russian ships were evacuating the port.

The Moscow-appointed governor of Ukraine’s occupied Donetsk province, Denis Pushilin, claimed Friday that Ukrainian strikes had killed three people and wounded four, including a 3-year-old-girl.

Border regions of Russia once again came under fire from Ukraine in what could be a Ukrainian strategy to disperse Russian forces before a counteroffensive. “Russian commanders now face an acute dilemma of whether to (strengthen) defenses in Russia’s border regions or reinforce their lines in occupied Ukraine,” the U.K. Ministry of Defense said.

In the cross-border attacks Friday:
—Two women died in Ukrainian shelling of Russia’s Belgorod region, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Gladkov reported two people were wounded in attacks that hit cars in the village of Maslova Pristan, 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the Ukrainian border. The Freedom of Russia Legion, one of the groups that has claimed responsibility for prior attacks on Belgorod, blamed the Russian military for the deaths. The group alleged that the Russian army had mistakenly believed one of the cars belonged to the paramilitary group. According to the Freedom of Russia legion, the incident occurred near a different village than Gladkov cited, Novaya Tavolzhanka.
—Air defense systems shot down several Ukrainian drones in Russia’s southern Kursk region, Gov. Roman Starovoit reported.
—In Russia’s Bryansk region, Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said Ukrainian forces shelled two villages, with no reported casualties.
—Two drones also attacked energy facilities in Russia’s western Smolensk region, which borders Belarus, officials said.

Matthew Lee reported from Oslo, Norway. Karl Ritter contributed from Stockholm and Andrew Katell from New York.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Tropical Storm Mawar intensifies in Japan

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PHOTO FILE: People make their way in a strong rain in Kochi, southern Japan Friday, June 2, 2023. A weakened Tropical Storm Mawar brought heavy rains to Japan’s main southern islands Friday after passing the Okinawan archipelago and causing injuries to several people. (Kyodo News via AP)

By JOHNSON LAI and HIROYUKI KOMAE (Associated Press)

NAHA, Japan (AP) — Heavy rains intensified by Tropical Storm Mawar fell on Japan’s main archipelago Friday, halting trains and triggering floods and mudslides in central and western regions where residents were urged to use caution or evacuate.

Up to 25 centimeters (10 inches) of rain was forecast in parts of western and central Japan through Saturday evening. More than 1.27 million residents in vulnerable areas, including in Mie, Wakayama, Aichi and Shizuoka prefectures in central Japan, were warned of possible flooding and mudslides and advised to go to evacuation centers as of Friday afternoon, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

Television videos showed swollen rivers in residential areas of Wakayama city, including one where brown water rose as high as the bottom of a bridge. There were reports of two people swept away by the swollen rivers, NHK public television said.

In Tokyo, the few pedestrians on the rainy streets clutched umbrellas as winds blew tree branches. Roads were flooded in the city’s western district of Setegaya. Afternoon classes were canceled at some schools, and ferry operations in Tokyo Bay were halted for the rest of Friday.

Heavy rain and mudslide warnings were also issued in the nearby city of Yokohama, where a number of evacuation centers were opened. A mudslide in a residential area blocked part of a street in Kawasaki city.
In the central city of Toyohashi, fire and disaster authorities received more than 200 reports of flooding, NHK said.

Shinkansen super-express trains were suspended between Tokyo and Shin Osaka in western Japan due to heavy rain, according to Central Japan Railway Co. Flights and ferries in southern Japan were also canceled due to continuing strong winds. More than 17,500 homes in seven of the nine prefectures served by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings lost power.

Mawar remained well offshore in the Pacific Ocean, but its winds were strong enough as it passed Okinawa to cause injuries. An older woman who fell had a serious head injury in Nishihara city, while the injuries to seven other people were slight.

The tropical storm had sustained winds of up to 82 kph (51 mph) Friday afternoon and was blowing east-northeast at 25 kph (15 mph), the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It was near Amami-Oshima Island, about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) southwest of Tokyo.

The warm and damp air from the tropical storm was intensifying seasonal rains, and a band of heavy rain was hovering over the islands, the meteorological agency said.

Mawar largely skirted Taiwan and the Philippines earlier this week. It sent waves crashing into Taiwan’s east coast and brought heavy rains to the northern Philippines, though no major damage was reported.

Mawar was the strongest typhoon to hit Guam in more than two decades. As of Wednesday, only 28% of power had been restored and about half the water system was operational, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

There have been long lines for gas, and officials estimate it will be four to six weeks before power is fully restored. FEMA did not yet know exactly how many homes were destroyed.

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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Sport

Afghanistan bowls first in 1st ODI against Sri Lanka

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Afghanistan_Sri Lanka_ODI Series_Cricket

HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka — Afghanistan won the toss in the series-opening one-day cricket international and decided to bowl first against Sri Lanka on Friday despite the absence of Rashid Khan.
The star legspinner was ruled out with a lower-back injury but is expected to be back in action for the last game of the three-match series.

Sri Lanka also had injury concerns, with legspinner Wanindu Hasaranga ruled out because of a foot problem.
As expected, Sri Lanka handed an ODI debut to fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana after his breakout performances in the Indian Premier League and also gave legspinner Dushan Hemantha his first ODI cap.
Sri Lanka is using the series against Afghanistan to prepare the World Cup qualifying tournament after failing to secure an automatic spot based on its ICC ranking.

Lineups:
Sri Lanka: Dasun Shanaka (captain), Kusal Mendis, Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Dushan Hemantha, Matheesha Pathirana, Lahiru Kumara, Kasun Rajitha
Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Rahmat Shah, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazal Haq Farooqi, Farid Ahmad Malik.

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