Italy’s coast guard searches for dozens of migrants missing after their ship capsized
MILAN (AP) — Italy’s coast guard was searching by sea and from the air on Thursday for dozens of people missing when a boat capsized and partially sank earlier this week in the perilous central Mediterranean, officials said.
The partially submerged boat was still in view, but the commander of the search operation said that no bodies were in sight. The boat capsized about 195 kilometres (120 miles) off the Calabrian coast.
A fishing boat was the first to respond on Monday after the boat capsized and rescued 12 people, one of whom later died. Italy’s coast guard has recovered six bodies, and survivors say more than 60 people are missing. They include more than 20 children.
Survivors reported that the boat motor had caught fire, causing it to capsize off the Italian coast about eight days after departing from Turkey with about 75 people from Iran, Syria and Iraq on board, according to the UN refugee agency and other UN organizations.
A spokeswoman for Doctors Without Borders said that the survivors have suffered both psychological and physical trauma, and “remained very confused.”
Ship attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in fatal assault sinks in Red Sea in their second sinking
By: Jon Gambrell
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A bulk carrier sank days after an attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who are believed to have killed one mariner on board, authorities said early Wednesday. It was the second ship sunk in the rebels’ campaign targeting Red Sea shipping.
The sinking of the Tutor marks what appears to be a new escalation by the Iranian-backed Houthis in their campaign of attacks on ships in the vital maritime corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
The attack comes despite a months-long U.S.-led campaign in the region that has seen the Navy face its most-intense maritime fighting since World War II, with near-daily attacks targeting commercial vessels and warship.
The Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned-and-operated Tutor sank in the Red Sea, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said in a warning to sailors in the region.
“Military authorities report maritime debris and oil sighted in the last reported location,” the UKMTO said. “The vessel is believed to have sunk.”
The Houthis, quoting foreign reports in media outlets they control, acknowledged the sinking. The U.S. military did not acknowledge the sinking, nor did it respond to requests for comment.
Ukraine launches a national sexual assault registry for victims of Russian forces
By: Derek Gatopoulos
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Authorities in Ukraine have created a national registry to document cases of sexual violence allegedly committed by Russian forces, a senior prosecutor told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Viktoriia Litvinova, the country’s deputy prosecutor general, said that the registry was created out of a pilot project that had already resulted in the convictions of five people in absentia. She declined to comment on details of the cases.
“We used to have to visit territories where hostilities are taking place ourselves,” she said. “But now people – individuals who have experienced sexual abuse – are seeking us out for information.”
Litvinova said 303 cases of conflict-related sexual violence had been registered since the start of the full-scale invasion in early 2022, with 112 involving male and 191 involving female victims. Some of the victims have suffered from multiple assaults, she said.
The initiative was announced on the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence, and has received assistance from UN agencies and several Western governments.
Early blast of heat and humidity leaves millions sweltering across the U.S.
By: John Seewer And Patrick Orsagos
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A blast of heat and humidity in the Midwest and Northeast days before the official start of summer put a wet blanket on outdoor activities from festivals to sports camps as officials urged people to take precautions.
Cities that opened cooling centres this week advised that Wednesday’s Juneteenth holiday means some public libraries, senior centres and pools where residents could beat the heat will be closed.
The dangerous temperatures were expected to peak in the eastern Great Lakes and New England on Wednesday and Thursday, and in the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic on Friday and Saturday, the National Weather Service said. Heat index readings were expected to reach 100 to 105 degrees (37.7 C to 40.5 C) in many locations.
Tropical Storm Alberto forms in southwest Gulf, 1st named storm of the hurricane season
MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Alberto formed on Wednesday in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, the first named storm of what is forecast to be a busy hurricane season.
Alberto was located 185 miles (about 300 kilometres) east of Tampico, Mexico and 295 miles (about 480 kilometres) south-southeast of Brownsville, Texas. It had top sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. A tropical storm is defined by sustained winds of between 39 and 73 mph (62 and 117 kph), and above that the system becomes a hurricane.
The storm was moving west at 9 mph (15 kph). Tropical storm warnings were in effect from the Texas coast at San Luis Pass southward to the mouth of the Rio Grande and from the northeastern coast of Mexico south of the mouth of the Rio Grande to Tecolutla. Some slight strengthening is forecast for Wednesday before the centre of Alberto reaches land on Thursday, the centre said.
“Rapid weakening is expected once the centre moves inland, and Alberto is likely to dissipate over Mexico” on Thursday, the centre said.
The storm is expected to produce rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches (about 13 to 25 centimetres) across northeast Mexico into South Texas. Maximum totals around 20 inches (51 centimetres) are possible across the higher terrain of the Mexican states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas. Flash flooding is likely, and mudslides are possible in some areas, the centre said.
The Philippine vice president resigns from posts in Marcos’ Cabinet as alliance flounders
By: Jim Gomez
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte resigned Wednesday from her posts of education secretary and head of an anti-insurgency body, as her whirlwind alliance with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. unraveled over key differences, including efforts to arrest a religious leader accused of child abuses and Manila’s handling of escalating territorial disputes with Beijing.
Duterte’s resignation from Marcos’ Cabinet was accepted by the president and would take effect July 19, Communications Secretary Cheloy Garafil said in a statement, and added she would remain the vice president.
Duterte, 46, did not cite any reason for her resignation, Garafil said, but there have been open political hostilities between her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, and Marcos.
She ran as the vice-presidential running mate of Marcos, the son and namesake of an ousted dictator, under a hastily forged unity ticket and won with huge margins in 2022. The alliance of the scions of two authoritarian leaders combined the voting power of their families’ political strongholds but compounded worries of human rights activists. The alliance, however, rapidly faced political headwinds.
Hundreds died during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia amid intense heat, officials say
By: Samy Magdy
MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Hundreds of people died during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as the faithful faced intense high temperatures at Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom, officials said Wednesday as people tried to claim their loved ones’ bodies.
Saudi Arabia has not commented on the death toll amid the heat during the pilgrimage, required of every able Muslim once in their life, nor offered any causes for those who died. However, hundreds of people had lined up at the Emergency Complex in Al-Muaisem neighbourhood in Mecca, trying to get information about their missing family members.
One list circulating online suggested at least 550 people died during the five-day Hajj. A medic who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss information not released publicly by the government said that the names listed appeared genuine. That medic and another official who also spoke on condition of anonymity said they believed at least 600 bodies were at the facility.
Deaths aren’t uncommon at the Hajj, which has drawn at times over 2 million people to Saudi Arabia. There have been stampedes and epidemics through the pilgrimage’s history.
2 French boys are accused of raping a 12-year-old Jewish girl in an act of antisemitism
PARIS (AP) — Two adolescent boys in a Paris suburb have been given preliminary charges of raping a 12-year-old girl and religion-motivated violence, French authorities said Wednesday. A Jewish leader said the girl is Jewish.
The attack elicited widespread shock and concern, notably after a surge in antisemitic acts in France since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
The girl reported a rape in the town of Courbevoie on Saturday, and three boys, aged 12 and 13, were detained, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.
It said two of the boys were given multiple preliminary charges on Tuesday, including aggravated gang rape on a minor younger than 15, violence and public insult motivated by religion, death threats, attempted extortion and unlawfully recording or broadcasting sexual images.
The prosecutor’s office did not specify the girl’s religion or release her identity, according to policies for the protection of victims, as is standard practice for hate crimes in France.
Later, lawyer and Jewish leader Elie Korchia said in an interview with French broadcaster BFM that the girl is Jewish and that Palestine was mentioned during the attack. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the girl was “raped because she’s Jewish”, identifying it as an antisemitic attack.
