July 4th shootings kill at least 8, wound more than 36
U.S. (AP) – Shootings around the Fourth of July killed at least eight people, including a 10-year-old girl in Cleveland, while police were investigating other gun violence across the country that injured nearly three dozen people.
No arrests were made in any of the shootings, police said.
The Fourth of July historically is one of the nation’s deadliest days of the year. A flurry of shootings around the Fourth of July a year ago left more than a dozen people dead and over 60 wounded. And a year before that, a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade left seven people dead near Chicago.
Violence and mass shootings often increase in the summer months, with more people gathering for social events, teens out of school and hotter temperatures.
Hurricane Beryl slams into Mexico as a Category 2 storm; 11 dead across the Caribbean
By: Martín Silva And John Myers Jr.
TULUM, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Beryl roared ashore on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula near the resort town of Tulum as a Category 2 storm early Friday, whipping trees and knocking out power after leaving a trail of destruction that killed at least 11 people across the Caribbean.
Beryl was expected to rapidly weaken to a tropical storm as it crosses over the peninsula before reemerging into the Gulf of Mexico and likely regaining hurricane strength, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Once in the warm waters of the Gulf, Beryl is forecast to head toward northern Mexico near the Texas border, an area soaked by Tropical Storm Alberto just a couple of weeks ago.
Beryl spread destruction in Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Barbados this week after becoming the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic. Three people have been reported dead in Grenada, three in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, three in Venezuela and two in Jamaica, officials said.
After landfall in Mexico, Beryl’s maximum wind speeds had decreased to 100 mph (160 kph), but Tulum will continue to see “large and destructive waves,” the hurricane centre said.
7 Palestinians killed in West Bank by Israeli raid and airstrike in the Jenin area
JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian authorities say seven people were killed Friday during an Israeli military operation in the area of the West Bank city of Jenin, where the Israeli military said it had been carrying out “counterterrorism activity” that included an airstrike.
The military said Israeli soldiers had “encircled a building where terrorists have barricaded themselves in” and the soldiers had exchanged fire with those inside, while an airstrike had “struck several armed terrorists” in the area.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said a total of seven people had been killed, but did not specify whether they died in the exchange of fire or the airstrike. The Islamic Jihad militant group named four of the dead as its members.
The clashes in Jenin, a known militant stronghold where the army frequently operates, came a day after an Israeli anti-settlement monitoring group said the government plans to build nearly 5,300 new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Roadside bomb in Pakistan hits rickshaw, kills 3, wounds 7
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A roadside bomb planted on a bridge struck a rickshaw in northwest Pakistan on Friday, killing at least three people and wounding seven others, officials said.
The attack happened in Mardan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police official Sabir Khan said. He said police transported the wounded people to a hospital.
He said a police vehicle crossing the bridge was the target, but the bomb hit a speeding rickshaw, causing civilian casualties. Khan said police were investigating to determine who was behind the attack.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and other government officials denounced the bombing.
Pakistan has blamed some attacks on the Islamic State group and some breakaway factions of the TTP, which insists it only targets security forces.
Rail cars with hazardous material derail and catch fire in North Dakota
By: Jim Salter
NORTH DAKOTA (AP) – Rail cars carrying hazardous material derailed and burst into flames Friday in a remote area of North Dakota, but officials said no one was hurt and the threat to those living nearby appeared to be minimal.
Twenty-nine cars of a CPKC train derailed around 3:45 a.m. in an area surrounded by farmland that’s about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Fargo, said Andrew Kirking, emergency management director for Foster County.
The cars were carrying anhydrous ammonia, sulfur and methanol, said Bill Suess, spill investigation program manager for the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality. The ammonia was the biggest risk, but wind was carrying the smoke away from the nearby town of Bordulac, which has about 20 residents.
Shark attacks reported at Texas’ South Padre Island; 2 people bitten, at least 1 severely
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas (AP) — Shark attacks disrupted Fourth of July celebrations Thursday at South Padre Island as two people were taken to the hospital with bites, at least one of them severe, authorities said.
Police were called for the attack on the man who was severely bitten around 11 a.m., according to Nikki Soto, the South Padre Island city secretary. He was initially treated at the beach by firefighters and police.
The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department said later in a statement that two people were bitten and two more “encountered” the shark but were not seriously hurt. One of the bite victims was taken to a hospital in Brownsville, and the other was “flown out for further treatment.”
Based on witness reports and images on social media, Game Warden Capt. Chris Dowdy said, authorities believe a single shark about 6 feet (about 1.8 meters) long was responsible.
Beach patrol, firefighters and police were patrolling the shore and flying drones after the attacks, Soto said.
Tornado kills one, injures 79 in China’s Shandong province
BEIJING (AP) — A tornado swept through China’s eastern province of Shandong on Friday, killing one person and injuring scores of others, officials said.
Authorities said 79 people were taken to hospitals with injuries of varying degrees in Dongming county.
The tornado swept through the town, uprooting trees and tearing off store signs, according to videos on state media. Large amounts of debris swirled in the air.
Officials are assessing the extent of the damage, state media said.
The China Meteorological Administration issued a tornado warning for parts of Shandong and neighbouring Jiangsu province on Friday.
Tornadoes are usually recorded in southern and coastal provinces such as Guangdong and Jiangsu, according to China Weather News, run by the China Meteorological Administration.
