GREEN MAG

Bryce Hopkins had 23 points and 10 rebounds and Oziyah Sellers added 12 points as 17th-ranked St. John's held off Marquette 76-70 in a Big East matchup Wednesday in Milwaukee, extending its winning streak to 12 games.

St. John's (21-5, 14-1 Big East) moved atop the conference, a half-game in front of No. 5 UConn, which was upset by Creighton 91-84 on Wednesday. The Red Storm have not lost since a 77-71 setback against Providence on Jan. 3.

Nigel James Jr. scored 25 points and Royce Parham put up 13 for Marquette (9-18, 4-12 Big East), which has lost four of its past five games.

Joson Sanon's 3-pointer put St. John's up 67-61 with 6:37 remaining, but neither team scored again until Zuby Ejiofor hit a free throw with 4:10 left to make it 68-61.

Sanon's free throw put St. John's up 71-63 with just under three minutes left. Adrian Stevens hit a 3-pointer and Tre Norman sank the second of two free throws to pull Marquette within 71-67 with 44 seconds remaining.

James converted a three-point play to make it 72-70 with 27.5 seconds left. Ejiofor's two free throws pushed the lead to 74-70 with 21.1 seconds remaining.

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Marquette's Chase Ross missed a baseline runner and Hopkins added a pair of free throws.

Marquette erased a nine-point halftime deficit with an 11-point run to open the second half. Ross' 3-pointer from the top put the Golden Eagles in front 46-44 as St. John's missed its first five shots after the break.

James scored on consecutive drives to put Marquette in front 56-50 with just under 12 minutes remaining.

St. John's responded with a nine-point run, going in front 59-56 on Hopkins' 3-pointer.

St. John's closed the first half with a 10-4 run for a 44-35 halftime lead. The Red Storm shot 54.8% in the first half, hitting seven of their final eight shots.

For the game, the Red Storm outshot the Golden Eagles 44.8% to 42.6%.

--Field Level Media

TRUCKEE, Calif. (AP) — After days of increasingly brutal conditions in California's Sierra Nevada, a group of 15 backcountry skiers set out for home. But as they left remote huts at thousands of feet of elevation and trekked back toward the trailhead, they were slammed by atreacherous avalanchethat left eight dead and one missing.

California Avalanche

With avalanche warnings in effect through early Thursday, officials were still waiting for thepowerful stormto clear so they could recover the bodies of the victims of Tuesday's avalanche, the nation's deadliest in nearly half a century. Officials have not yet released the names.

The ski group involved has deep ties to the alpine recreation community in Lake Tahoe, including the elite Sugar Bowl Academy, which issued a statement late Wednesday mourning the loss of victims with "strong connections to Sugar Bowl, Donner Summit and the backcountry community."

It did not say how the skiers, said to range in age from 30 to 55, were connected to the school, which offers alpine and backcountry ski instruction and academics for young athletes.

"We are an incredibly close and connected community," Sugar Bowl Academy executive director Stephen McMahon was quoted as saying in the statement. "This tragedy has affected each and every one of us."

Four in the group were guides fromBlackbird Mountain Guides, which offers mountaineering and backcountry ski trips as well as safety courses across the West and internationally. One of them was among the six survivors.

The three-day tour, which began Sunday, was for intermediate to expert skiers, according to the company's website.

The tour company said in a statement Wednesday night that it has launched an investigation and paused field operations at least through the weekend while it prioritizes supporting the victims' families.

The company guides who led the group were trained or certified in backcountry skiing and were also instructors with the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education.

While in the field, they "are in communication with senior guides at our base, to discuss conditions and routing based upon conditions," founder Zeb Blais said in the statement.

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"We don't have all the answers yet, and it may be some time before we do," the company said. "In the meantime, please keep those impacted in your hearts."

Mayor Max Perrey of Marin County's Mill Valley, a small city about 14 miles (22 kilometers) north of San Francisco, confirmed that some in the group were women from his city. He was not able to provide additional details but told The Associated Press via email that more information would be released later.

The Sierra Avalanche Center issued an avalanche watch Sunday morning, and that was elevated to a warning by 5 a.m. Tuesday, indicating that avalanches were expected. It is not clear whether the guides would have known about the change before they began their return trek.

Authorities described a harrowing scene as the survivors scoured the snow for the missing and waited six hours for help to arrive in blizzard conditions. They found three of the bodies, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said.

The skiers all had beacons that can send signals to rescuers, and at least one guide was able to send text messages. But it was not clear whether they were wearing avalanche bags, which are inflatable devices that can keep skiers near the surface, sheriff's Capt. Russell "Rusty" Greene said.

One of those rescued remained hospitalized Wednesday, Moon said.

Three to 6 feet (91 centimeters to 1.8 meters) of snow has fallen in the area since Sunday. The area was also hit by subfreezing temperatures and gale force winds.

The avalanche isthe deadliest in the U.S. since 1981, when 11 climbers were killed on Mount Rainier in Washington state, and the second deadly avalanche near Castle Peak this year, after asnowmobiler was buriedJanuary. Each winter the slides kill 25 to 30 in the country, according to the National Avalanche Center.

The area near Donner Summit, where the ski trip took place, is one of the snowiest places in the Western Hemisphere and until just a few years ago was closed to the public. The summit is named for the infamous Donner Party, a group of pioneers who resorted to cannibalism after getting trapped there in the winter of 1846-1847.

Watson reported from San Diego, and Golden from Seattle. Associated Press writers John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and Trân Nguyễn in Sacramento contributed.

Graham Ike scored 22 points on 10-of-17 shooting to help No. 11 Gonzaga roll to an 80-59 victory over host San Francisco in West Coast Conference play on Wednesday night.

Mario Saint-Supery had 14 points and six assists and Emmanuel Innocenti registered 12 points, eight rebounds and four steals as the Bulldogs (26-2, 14-1 WCC) defeated the Dons for the 35th consecutive time.

Jalen Warley added 11 points for Gonzaga in a contest played at the Chase Center, home of the Golden State Warriors. Ike has scored 20 or more points in each of his past eight games.

Tyrone Riley IV scored 16 points and Mookie Cook added 12 for San Francisco (15-14, 7-9). Legend Smiley had 10 for the Dons, who have lost six of their past eight games.

San Francisco's most recent victory over Gonzaga came in 2012, a 66-65 home triumph.

The Dons shot 35.7% from the field, including 5 of 24 (20.8%) from 3-point range, and trailed by as many as 24 points.

Gonzaga knocked down 54.8% of its attempts and made 5 of 17 (29.4%) from behind the arc.

The Dons trailed 48-38 after a 3-pointer by Cook with 16:13 left in the game.

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Adam Miller scored the next five Gonzaga points and Saint-Supery added a trey to increase the lead to 18 with 14:14 to play.

Just past the midway point of the second half, Innocenti buried a 3-pointer to make it 64-43.

Ike later drilled a 3-pointer and followed with a hook shot to make it 78-56 with 1:36 left as the Zags closed it out.

Ike scored 13 first-half points to help the Bulldogs lead 41-29 at the break.

Just seven-plus minutes into the game, Gonzaga led by eight before the Dons ripped off nine straight points. Riley capped the surge with a trey to give San Francisco a 17-14 advantage with 8:34 left in the half.

The Dons led 19-18 after a basket by Smiley with 6:40 remaining before the Bulldogs scored the next nine. Ike had two baskets during the spurt and Saint-Supery ended it with a 3-pointer to give Gonzaga a 27-19 lead with 5:01 left.

Davis Fogle's three-point play gave the Bulldogs a 14-point edge with 6.6 seconds to go until intermission.

--Field Level Media

By Sabine Siebold and Mike Stone

BERLIN/WASHINGTON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Germany is considering ordering more U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets, two sources told Reuters, a move that would deepen Berlin's reliance ‌on American military technology as its joint next-generation fighter program with France falters.

One source said ‌Berlin was in talks that could lead to the purchase of more than 35 additional jets. A second source did not ​specify the number. Both sources cautioned the outcome was still uncertain.

In 2022, Germany purchased 35 of the aircraft, which are due to begin delivery later this year.

The potential acquisition of more Lockheed Martin stealth fighters, at a cost of more than $80 million each, comes as Germany and France are deadlocked on their Future ‌Combat Air System (FCAS) program.

The 100-billion-euro-project, launched ⁠in 2017 to replace France's Rafales and Eurofighters from 2040, has been stalled by industrial rivalries.

Insiders expect Germany and France to abandon the development of a joint ⁠fighter jet but continue cooperation on drones and the so-called combat cloud, the digital backbone linking manned and unmanned platforms within the FCAS system.

Purchasing more F-35 jets would buy Germany time to figure out a solution for ​the ​development of a sixth-generation fighter jet and finding a ​partner for such a project.

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Germany's Defence Ministry ‌did not immediately comment while a Pentagon spokesperson referred questions to Germany.

A spokesperson for defence contractor Lockheed Martin said the company was focused on building F-35s already ordered by Germany.

Expansion of Germany's F-35 fleet would mark a significant strategic shift toward deeper military integration with the United States and away from European defence autonomy, a priority for fellow European Union member France.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz questioned on Wednesday whether developing ‌a manned sixth-generation jet, as FCAS has sought to do, ​still made sense for his country's air force.

"Will we still ​need a manned fighter jet in 20 ​years' time? Do we still need it, given that we will have to ‌develop it at great expense?" Merz said on ​the Machtwechsel podcast published on ​Wednesday.

The F-35 aircraft will succeed the Tornado jets in their role of carrying U.S. nuclear bombs stored in Germany in the event of a conflict.

The F-35 is the only Western fighter ​jet certified to carry the ‌most modern B61 nuclear bombs.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said last week the fate of ​FCAS would become clear within days.

(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington and Sabine Siebold ​in Berlin; Editing by Chris Sanders and Cynthia Osterman)

GENEVA (AP) — A "campaign of destruction" in October by Sudanese rebels against non-Arab communities in and neara city in Sudan's western region of Darfurshows "hallmarks of genocide," U.N.-backed human rights experts reported Thursday, a dramatic finding in the country's devastating war.

UN Sudan Genocide

The Rapid Support Forces carried out mass killings and other atrocities inel-Fasherafter an 18-month siege during which they imposed conditions "calculated to bring about the physical destruction" of non-Arab communities, in particular the Zaghawa and the Fur communities, the independent fact-finding mission on Sudan reported.

U.N. officials say several thousand civilians were killed in the RSF takeover of el-Fasher, the Sudanese army's only remaining stronghold in the Darfur.Only 40% of the city's 260,000 residents managed to fleethe onslaught alive, thousands of whom were wounded, the officials said. The fate of the rest remains unknown.

Sudanplunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital Khartoum and spread to other regions including Darfur.

The devastating warhas killed more than 40,000 people, according to U.N. figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher.

The RSF and their allied Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, overran el-Fasher on Oct. 26 and rampaged through the city. The offensive was marked by widespread atrocities that included mass killings and summary executions, sexual violence, torture, and abductions for ransom, according to the U.N. Human Rights Office.

They killed more than 6,000 peoplebetween Oct. 25 and Oct. 27 in the city, the office said. Ahead of the attack, the rebels ran riot in the Abu Shouk displacement camp, just outside of the city, and killed at least 300 people in two days, it said.

The RSF did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment. The group's commander, Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, has previously acknowledged abuses by his fighters, but disputed the scale of atrocities.

At least 3 criteria for genocide were met, team says

An international convention known colloquially as the "Genocide Convention" — adopted in 1948, three years after the end of World War II and the Holocaust — sets out five criteria to assess whether genocide has taken place.

They are: killing members of a group; causing its members serious bodily or mental harm; imposing measures aimed to prevent births in the group; deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to bring about the "physical destruction" of the group; and forcibly transferring its children to another group.

The fact-finding team, which doesn't have final say on the matter, said it found at least three of those five were met in the actions of the RSF. Under the convention, a genocide determination could be made even if only one of the five were met.

The RSF acts in el-Fasher included killing members of a protected ethnic group; causing serious bodily and mental harm; and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction in whole or in part — all core elements of the crime of genocide under international law, according to the fact-finding team.

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The report cited a systematic pattern of ethnically targeted killings, sexual violence and destruction and public statements explicitly calling for the elimination of non-Arab communities.

'Not random' excesses of war, chair says

Team chair Mohamed Chande Othman, a former chief justice of Tanzania, said the RSF operation were not "random excesses of war" but pointed to a planned and organized operation that bore the characteristics of genocide.

El-Fasher's residents were "physically exhausted, malnourished, and in part unable to flee, leaving them defenseless against the extreme violence that followed," the team's report said. "Thousands of persons, particularly the Zaghawa, were killed, raped or disappeared during three days of absolute horror."

The fact-finding mission pointed to mass killings, widespread rape, sexual violence, torture and cruel treatment, arbitrary detention, extortion, and enforced disappearances during RSF's takeover of el-Fasher in late October.

The report documented cases of survivors quoting its fighters as saying things like: "Is there anyone Zaghawa among you? If we find Zaghawa, we will kill them all" and "We want to eliminate anything black from Darfur."

The report pointed to "selective targeting" of Zaghawa and Fur women and girls, "while women perceived as Arab were often spared."

A call for accountability

The fact-finding team was created in 2023 by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, the U.N.'s leading human rights body, which has 47 member countries drawn from membership in the world body.

The team called for accountability for perpetrators and warned that protection of civilians is needed "more than ever" because the conflict is expanding to other regions in Sudan.

Over the course of the conflict, the warring parties were accused of violating international law. But most of the atrocities were blamed on the RSF: The Biden administration, in one of its last decisions, said it committedgenocidein Darfur.

The RSF has been supported bythe United Arab Emiratesover the course of the war, according to U.N. experts and rights groups. The UAE has denied the allegations.

The RSF grew out of the Janjaweed militias, who became notorious for atrocities in the early 2000s in a ruthless campaign against people identifying as East or Central African in Darfur. That campaign killed some 300,000 people and drove 2.7 million from their homes.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.