Israel carries out rare strike on Beirut that it says killed Hezbollah commander

By: Bassem Mroue And Tia Goldenberg

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel on Tuesday carried out a rare strike on Beirut, which it said killed a top Hezbollah commander who was allegedly behind a weekend rocket attack that killed 12 young people in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. The strike in the Lebanese capital killed at least one woman and two children and wounded dozens of people.

Hezbollah did not immediately confirm the commander’s death. The strike came amid escalating hostilities with the Lebanese militant group. An Israeli official said the target was Fouad Shukur, a top Hezbollah military commander whom the U.S. blames for planning and launching the deadly 1983 Marine bombing in the Lebanese capital.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the details of the strike with the media. Shukur is also suspected in other strikes that killed Israeli civilians.

Though Hezbollah issued a rare denial of involvement in the rocket attack Saturday in the town of Majdal Shams, Israel is holding the militant group responsible. 

Lebanon’s public health ministry said Tuesday’s strike in a southern suburb of Beirut wounded 74 people, some of them seriously. 

Russia launches its biggest drone barrage against Ukraine in 7 months. No injuries are reported

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces shot down all 89 Shahed drones launched by Russia in a nighttime attack on the country, Ukraine’s air force said Wednesday, in what was one of the largest drone barrages this year.

No damage or injuries were immediately reported in the bombardment, which mostly targeted the region of Kyiv, the capital.

Russia used the same number of Shahed drones in a Jan. 1 attack, an air force statement said.

Both Ukraine and Russia have relied extensively on explosive drones during the war and have scrambled to come up with more countermeasures.

The Russian drones are being shot down by Ukraine’s Soviet-era aircraft, according to Anatolii Khrapchynskyi, an aviation expert in Kyiv.

He said that tactic will likely also be used when U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets are delivered in coming weeks by Kyiv’s European partners.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces said they struck more military targets on Russian soil overnight.

Rescuers search through mud and debris as deaths rise to 166 in landslides in southern India

By: Ashok Sharma

NEW DELHI (AP) — More than a thousand rescue workers searched through mud and debris for a second day Wednesday after multiple landslides set off by torrential rains killed at least 166 people in southern India, police said.

Torrents of mud and water had swept through tea estates and villages and rescuers were pulling out people stuck under mud and debris as light to heavy rain hampered their efforts.

P.M Manoj, a spokesman for the state’s top elected official, said 187 people were unaccounted for. Seventy-seven bodies have been identified so far and most of them were handed over to relatives, he added.

More than 5,500 people have been rescued, said Vijayan, thanks to the efforts of some 1,167 rescue workers, including fire officers and soldiers, as well as members of the coast guard and the National Disaster Response Force.

Severe storms in the Southeast U.S. leave 1 dead and cause widespread power outages

CANTON, Ga. (AP) — A weather system that produced severe thunderstorms late into the night in the Southeast left one man dead in Georgia, caused damage in a South Carolina town and left hundreds of thousands of electricity customers without power for a time.

The 27-year-old man was found dead after a tree fell Tuesday on his moving car on a residential road in the suburban county northwest of Atlanta, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office said. No passengers were inside.

Power outages in southeastern Tennessee and northern Georgia had declined to about 30,000 by Wednesday morning, down from more than 200,000 in Georgia alone. Wednesday’s remaining outages were most concentrated around the town of Ellijay in the north Georgia mountains.

The severe weather came as thunderstorms and torrential rain brought another wave of violent floods Tuesday that caved in roads, crushed vehicles, pushed homes off their foundations and led to dramatic boat rescues in northeastern Vermont, nearly three weeks after flooding from Hurricane Beryl.

Storm disrupts high-speed trains from Paris, leaving travellers stranded during Olympics

PARIS (AP) — A storm Wednesday interrupted all high-speed train traffic connecting Paris to the southeast of the country as well as Switzerland in both directions, France’s rail company said, leaving thousands of travellers stranded amid the Olympics and departures for summer vacation. 

The SNCF said all the fast trains leaving from and arriving at the Gare de Lyon train station in the French capital were immobilized due to a tree that fell on the tracks and was hit by a train in Burgundy, southeast of the French capital. Regular-speed trains use separate tracks and haven’t been affected.

Authorities cut the power off the track and a logging operation has already started to remove the tree and repair the electrical system, the SNCF said, adding that all passengers on that line were being brought back to a station in order to help people find alternative travel modes, the company added. 

This comes after France’s train traffic was severely disrupted last week after acts of sabotage ahead of the Olympic Games opening ceremony. High-speed train services had been fully restored earlier this week.

National weather agency Meteo France warned about a risk of “locally strong” thunderstorms, including heavy rains and wind, in most French regions on Wednesday.

Croatia reports its toughest day for firefighters as Balkan nations battle wildfires in a heat wave

By: Darko Bandic and Konstantin Testorides

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Balkan countries on Wednesday battled wildfires stoked by high temperatures, winds and a weeks-long drought, as firefighters in Croatia cited their toughest day so far this season and North Macedonia suggested it might seek help from NATO.

Croatia’s Firefighters’ Association said the demanding 24-hour period included responding to more than 100 fires with over 1,000 firefighters and 20 firefighting planes. In North Macedonia, some 66 wildfires erupted over the past 24 hours. 

The most serious incident in Croatia overnight was near the southern coastal town of Tucepi, where one firefighter was injured. A strong wind blowing through the night made it difficult to combat the raging blaze, stretching for several kilometres.

Large wildfires in parts of North Macedonia this week destroyed and damaged homes, forced evacuations and claimed the life of an elderly resident in a village some 60 kilometres (40 miles) east of the capital Skopje.