Northern Iowa produced the biggest surprise of the NCAA basketball tournament's first two rounds by beating Kansas, the team widely expected to win the competition, 69-67 on Saturday.
Kansas's elimination came just hours after Saint Mary's, a team with five Australians in its squad, stunned the South second seeds Villanova 75-68.
Kentucky, the tournament favourite after Kansas's loss, had a much easier time. The top East team beat Wake Forest 90-60.
Ninth-seeded Northern Iowa used tough defence and a key three-pointer by Ali Farokhmanesh to become the first team to defeat a top seed in the tournament's second round in six years.
Farokhmanesh, the son of a former Iranian national team volleyball player, launched his game-deciding three-pointer with 35 seconds left and Northern Iowa holding a one-point lead.
"He was wide open," teammate Johnny Moran said. "I don't know if coach really wanted him to shoot when he was in that position, but if you know Ali, you know that shot is going up at the end of the game."
It was the fourth three-pointer of the game for Farokhmanesh, who had a team-high 16 points.
"That was a dagger, and it was a big-time play by a really good player," said Bill Self, the Kansas coach.
Although they were the underdog, Northern Iowa led for almost the entire game and Kansas utilised a full-court press in the closing minutes to pull within a point before Farokhmanesh made his shot.
The victory over Villanova by Saint Mary's was almost as improbable as Northern Iowa's. The San Francisco area team, seeded 10th in the South, roared to their second successive upset behind Omar Samhan's 32 points. Saint Mary's had beaten the higher-seeded Richmond 80-71 on Thursday.
* With agencies
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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- Carbon sink: Seagrass sequesters carbon up to 35X faster than tropical rainforests
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Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
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Moral education needed in a 'rapidly changing world'
Moral education lessons for young people is needed in a rapidly changing world, the head of the programme said.
Alanood Al Kaabi, head of programmes at the Education Affairs Office of the Crown Price Court - Abu Dhabi, said: "The Crown Price Court is fully behind this initiative and have already seen the curriculum succeed in empowering young people and providing them with the necessary tools to succeed in building the future of the nation at all levels.
"Moral education touches on every aspect and subject that children engage in.
"It is not just limited to science or maths but it is involved in all subjects and it is helping children to adapt to integral moral practises.
"The moral education programme has been designed to develop children holistically in a world being rapidly transformed by technology and globalisation."
