Israeli strikes kill at least 16 in Gaza, Palestinian officials say
GAZA (AP) – Palestinian health officials say Israeli strikes have killed at least 16 people in the Gaza Strip.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital received the bodies, including the remains of a woman and three children, after strikes overnight and into Thursday. An Associated Press reporter at the hospital counted the bodies.
The Israeli offensive launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack has killed over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the local Health Ministry, which does not say how many were militants or civilians.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to broker a cease-fire deal and hostage release but major gaps remain.
Gilma becomes a powerful Category 3 hurricane and is forecast to strengthen as it stays at sea
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Gilma strengthened into a powerful Category 3 hurricane Thursday in the eastern Pacific Ocean and was forecast to remain a powerful hurricane for the next couple of days while staying away from land.
The storm was located about 1,035 miles (1,666 kilometres) west-southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula of Mexico, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Maximum sustained winds were near 125 mph (201 kph).
More strengthening was possible Thursday, forecasters said. There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect. Gilma strengthened to tropical storm status on Sunday and has grown more powerful since then.
Gilma was moving west-northwest at 7 mph (11 kph). Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 35 miles (56 kilometres) from the centre and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 130 miles (209 kilometres).
Body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch is among those recovered from yacht wreckage, officials say
PORTICELLO, Sicily (AP) — The Italian coast guard said Thursday the body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch is among those recovered off the coast of Sicily from the wreckage of a super yacht whose builders had called unsinkable.
One woman remains missing. She has not been identified, but Hannah Lynch, Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, is reportedly unaccounted for. The family had been celebrating his recent acquittal on fraud charges with the people who defended him at trial in the United States.
Five others were recovered by rescue crews following Monday’s tragedy.
Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor’s Office investigators were collecting evidence for a criminal investigation, which they opened immediately after the tragedy despite no formal suspects having been publicly identified.
A hotel fire in South Korea killed at least 7 people and injured 12, officials say
BUCHEON, S. KOREA (AP) – A fire broke out at a hotel in the South Korean city of Bucheon on Thursday, killing at least seven people and injuring 12 others, officials said.
Kim In-jae, the director of Bucheon’s public health department, said at a briefing that three of the injured people were in serious condition. The injured were being treated at six nearby hospitals.
Lee Sang-don, an official with the Bucheon Fire Station, said the nine-story hotel had 23 guests when the fire broke out Thursday evening.
Lee said the fire, which began on the eighth floor, was extinguished as of Thursday night. The cause was being investigated, he said.
The victims were found scattered in halls and stairways, and the number could increase as emergency workers search the building, Lee said.
Indonesia cancels ratification of controversial election law changes as thousands protest
By: Dita Alangkara and Edna Tarigan
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian lawmakers cancelled plans to ratify controversial revisions to the country’s election laws, the deputy speaker of Parliament said, after thousands of protesters rallied in front of the parliament building.
If implemented, the changes could have further enhanced the political influence of outgoing President Joko Widodo.
Parliament met in an emergency session Thursday to overturn one decision made by Indonesia’s Constitutional Court on election procedures, while amending another. But the legislature cancelled the ratification after failing to achieve a quorum amid the protests outside.
Indonesian police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse thousands of protesters who attempted to storm the parliament building after they tore down a section of fence and threw rocks at police.
Man arrested over 1982 IRA bombing that killed 3 police officers in Northern Ireland
By: Brian Melley
LONDON (AP) — A 61-year-old man appeared in a Dublin court Thursday after being arrested in connection with an Irish Republican Army bombing that killed three Northern Ireland policemen in 1982.
Martin John McCauley was arrested Wednesday on an extradition warrant and will be prosecuted on murder charges in the deaths of Royal Ulster Constabulary Sgt. Sean Quinn and constables Allan McCloy and Paul Hamilton, said Iain Livingstone, head of Operation Kenova that investigated scores of murders, including dozens allegedly carried out by the IRA against informants.
Charging McCauley with murder would mark a rare prosecution at this time over the violence known as “the Troubles” that reigned for three decades in a conflict involving Irish republican and British loyalist militants and U.K. security forces that left 3,600 people dead, some 50,000 wounded and thousands bereaved.
At least 8 people drown after migrant boat overturns while crossing a river from Serbia to Bosnia
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — At least eight people drowned after a boat carrying migrants overturned while crossing the Drina river from Serbia to Bosnia, officials in the two Balkan countries said Thursday.
Serbian police received a call around 5 a.m. from their counterparts in Bosnia and a citizen who reported the accident, said Interior Minister Ivica Dacic.
Dacic said that 18 migrants, including three children, managed to cross into Bosnia, out of 25 people who were in the boat when it overturned.
Dacic said that out of 18 migrants who made it to shore, 16 are from Syria and two are from Egypt. They include 10 minors.
French destroyer rescues 29 mariners from oil tanker stricken in Red Sea attacks
By: Jon Gambrell
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A French destroyer rescued 29 mariners from an oil tanker that came under repeated attack in the Red Sea, officials said Thursday, while also destroying a bomb-carrying drone boat in the area.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels are suspected to have carried out the assault on the Sounion, now abandoned in the waterway. The attack, the most serious in the Red Sea in weeks, comes during a months-long campaign by Houthis targeting ships over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip that has disrupted a trade route through which $1 trillion in cargo typically passes each year.
The Sounion is now at anchor in the Red Sea and no longer drifting, the European Union’s Operation Aspides said.
