Alberto, season’s first named tropical storm, dumps rain on Texas and Mexico; 3 dead
By: Alfredo Peña And Mariana Martínez Barba
TAMPICO, Mexico (AP) — Tropical Storm Alberto formed Wednesday in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, the first named storm of what is forecast to be a busy hurricane season. Authorities in Mexico reported three deaths from its rains.
Alberto, which is bringing strong winds, heavy rainfall and some flooding along the coasts of Texas and Mexico, is expected to make landfall in northern Mexico early Thursday.
Civil protection authorities in the northern state of Nuevo Leon said one man died in the La Silla river in the city of Monterrey, the state capital. They also said that two minors died from electric shocks in the municipality of Allende. Local media reported that the minors were riding a bicycle in the rain.
The National Hurricane Center said late Wednesday that Alberto was located about 135 miles (220 kilometres) east of Tampico, Mexico, and about 320 miles (510 kilometres) south-southeast of Brownsville, Texas, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph). The storm was moving west at 9 miles per hour.
The centre of the storm was expected to reach the northeastern coast of Mexico south of the mouth of the Rio Grande by Thursday morning.
Cruise ship rescues 68 migrants and finds 5 bodies in a boat adrift in the Atlantic Ocean
MADRID (AP) — A cruise ship rescued 68 migrants and found five bodies in a wooden dinghy that was drifting off the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, Spain’s maritime rescue agency said Thursday.
It said an oil tanker traveling from northwestern Spain to Brazil spotted the drifting boat on Wednesday afternoon about 815 kilometers (506 miles) south of Tenerife, one of the seven islands in the Canaries archipelago.
Spanish authorities diverted the Insignia, a cruise ship, to rescue the migrants. The Insignia crew also recovered three of the five bodies on the dinghy. The remains of two people were left at sea because of bad weather hampering their recovery.
It is unusual for cruise ships to make rescues of migrants on the Atlantic route, but the dinghy “was a long way out and they could be in danger,” said a maritime rescue’s spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity under departmental rules.
The Marshall Islands-flagged Insignia had left Mindelo, a port city in Cape Verde, on Tuesday. Its operator, Miami-based Oceania Cruises, did not immediately comment on the rescue.
Extreme heat in India kills more than 100 people in the past three and a half months
By: Sibi Arasu And Krutika Pathi
NEW DELHI (AP) — A months-long heat wave across swathes of India has killed more than 100 people and led to over 40,000 suspected cases of heat stroke in the past three and a half months, according to data from India’s Health Ministry.
Between March 1 and June 18, 110 people in India died after suffering heat strokes, according to Health Ministry data provided to The Associated Press. Officials from India’s Health Ministry and its subsidiary body, the National Centre for Disease Control, which compiled the figures, declined to comment.
The highest number of deaths — 36 — were reported in Uttar Pradesh state, followed by other northern states including Rajasthan, Bihar and Odisha, which has borne the brunt of the extreme weather. The data also showed that of the 40,272 cases of suspected heat stroke during this period, 457 were reported on Tuesday.
The capital, New Delhi, has also been gripped by extreme heat even as brief rains and winds on Thursday morning cooled temperatures after the city suffered its hottest night in over five decades earlier this week. The country’s weather department expects some respite from the heat over the next few days, but said extreme weather could continue after that.
Russia hammers Ukraine’s power grid again; Kyiv’s drones target more enemy oil depots
By: Illia Novikov
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia resumed its aerial pounding of Ukraine’s power grid and Kyiv’s forces again targeted Russian oil facilities with cross-border drone strikes, seeking to curb each other’s ability to fight in a war that is now in its third year, officials said Thursday.
With no major changes reported along the 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) front line, where a recent push by the Kremlin’s forces in eastern and northeastern Ukraine has made only incremental gains, both sides in the war have taken aim at distant infrastructure targets.
In its seventh major attack on Ukrainian power plants since Moscow intensified energy infrastructure attacks three months ago, Russia fired nine missiles and 27 Shahed drones at energy facilities and critical infrastructure in central and eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said. Air defences intercepted all the drones and five cruise missiles, it said.
The attack hit power structures in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and Vinnytsia regions of Ukraine, causing “extensive damage,” according to national power company Ukrenergo. Seven workers were injured, it said.
The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group warns archenemy Israel against wider war
By: Kareem Chehayeb And Abby Sewell
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s Hezbollah has new weapons and intelligence capabilities that could help it target more critical positions deeper inside Israel in case of an all-out war, the militant group’s leader warned on Wednesday.
Hassan Nasrallah’s comments came as the months-long cross-border conflict simmering between Hezbollah and Israel appears to be reaching a boiling point, and a day after a top U.S. envoy met Lebanese officials in his latest attempt to ease tensions.
“We now have new weapons. But I won’t say what they are,” he said in a televised address commemorating a top Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon last week. “When the decision is made, they will be seen on the front lines.”
Hezbollah has used locally made explosive drones for the first time since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in October, as well as surface-to-air missiles to chase off Israeli jets.
It’s hard to find treatment for snakebites in Kenya. Thousands die every year
By: Zelipha Kirobi
MWINGI, Kenya (AP) — Esther Kangali felt a sharp pain while on her mother’s farm in eastern Kenya. She looked down and saw a large snake coiling around her left leg. She screamed, and her mother came running.
Kangali was rushed to a nearby health centre, but it lacked antivenin to treat the snake’s bite. A referral hospital had none as well. Two days later, she reached a hospital in the capital, Nairobi, where her leg was amputated due to delayed treatment.
The 32-year-old mother of five knows it could have been avoided if clinics in areas where snakebites are common are stocked with antivenin.
Kitui County, where the Kangalis have their farm, has Kenya’s second highest number of snakebite victims, according to the health ministry, which last year put annual cases at 20,000.
Overall in Kenya, about 4,000 snakebite victims die every year while 7,000 others experience paralysis or other health complications, according to the local Institute of Primate Research.
Residents fear the problem is growing. As the forests around them shrink due to logging and agricultural expansion, and as climate patterns become increasingly unpredictable, snakes are turning up around homes more frequently.
South Korea will consider supplying arms to Ukraine after Russia and North Korea sign strategic pact
By: Kim Tong-hyung
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea said Thursday that it would consider sending arms to Ukraine, a major policy change suggested after Russia and North Korea rattled the region and beyond by signing a pact to come to each other’s defence in the event of war.
The comments from a senior presidential official came hours after North Korea’s state media released the details of the agreement, which observers said could mark the strongest connection between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War. It comes at a time when Russia faces growing isolation over its war in Ukraine and both countries face escalating standoffs with the West.
According to the text of the deal published by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, if either country gets invaded and is pushed into a state of war, the other must deploy “all means at its disposal without delay” to provide “military and other assistance.” But the agreement also says that such actions must be in accordance with the laws of both countries and Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which recognizes a UN member state’s right to self-defence.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the pact at a summit Wednesday in Pyongyang. Both described it as a major upgrade of bilateral relations, covering security, trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian ties.
Illegally brewed liquor kills at least 34 with dozens hospitalized in southern India
NEW DELHI (AP) — At least 34 people have died and dozens hospitalized after drinking illegally brewed liquor in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, local media reported on Thursday.
The state’s chief minister M K Stalin said the 34 died after consuming liquor that was tainted with methanol, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
The incident occurred in the state’s Kallakurichi district, where more than 100 people are being treated in various hospitals, top district official M S Prasanth said. He added that the number of those who are in critical condition keeps changing, suggesting that the death toll could rise.
Ambulances, doctors and specialists from nearby areas were deployed to the district.
Government officials earlier said several people who were vomiting and had stomach pain were admitted to hospitals Wednesday, triggering a police investigation.
Defendant in Vatican trial takes case to UN, accuses pope of violating his rights with surveillance
By: Nicole Winfield
NEW YORK (AP) — One of the defendants in the Vatican’s big financial trial has filed a formal complaint with the United Nations, alleging that Pope Francis violated his human rights by authorizing wide-ranging surveillance during the investigation.
A lawyer for Raffaele Mincione, a London-based financier, submitted a complaint last week to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights via a special procedure that allows individuals or groups to provide the UN with information about alleged rights violations in countries or institutions.
The Vatican on Thursday rejected the claim, saying the investigation followed all relevant laws and international agreements and that no surveillance was ordered for Mincione.
The filing marks the latest and highest-profile complaint about the Vatican trial, highlighting the peculiarity of the Vatican’s criminal justice system and its seeming incompatibility with European and democratic norms. The Vatican is an absolute monarchy where the pope wields supreme legislative, executive and judicial power.
