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I'm VOA's Joe Ramsey with your worldwide news update.
Air raid sirens sounded over Tel Aviv late Monday amid incoming rockets as Israel marked the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Israel's military said five projectile launches were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory. It said some were intercepted and the rest fell in open areas. Hamas militants' surprise cross-border attack last year killed about 1,200 people. Another 250 were taken hostage. Around 100 remain in captivity, with many of them feared dead. Israel responded by waging a war against the Hamas militants in Gaza, where the fighting has killed over 41,000 people and displaced around 1.9 million. Israel marked the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attack on Monday, but its conflicts in the Middle East show no signs of ending. AP correspondent Josef Federman has more from Jerusalem. Israel spent most of the past year battling Hamas militants in an offensive in Gaza, but over the past few weeks it's turned its attention toward Hezbollah in Lebanon. In fact, over the past week or so it has begun sending ground troops into Lebanon against Hezbollah. That operation only appears to be growing by the day. At the same time, Israeli leaders are vowing to strike Iran. That would be a response to Iran's massive missile barrage about a week ago. So there is no sign of this war ending. If anything, it only is expanding and widening across the region. AP correspondent Josef Federman. Lebanon's Health Ministry said Monday an Israeli strike in the country's south part of a wider bombardment killed at least 10 firefighters. Hezbollah said it fired new barrages despite its recent losses. This is VOA News. Floridians are scrambling to prepare for a major hurricane for the second time in two weeks. Reuters correspondent Angela Johnston reports. Milton strengthened to a Category 5 storm on Monday and could produce life-threatening storm surge in some spots along the Florida coast. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the back-to-back storms posed a serious threat to an already hard-hit state. "That creates a huge hazard if you have a major hurricane hit in that area this week." Hurricane Helene was a Category 4 storm when it slammed into Florida on September 26. It killed more than 200 people across six states in the U.S. Southeast. The National Hurricane Center said Milton is expected to make landfall late on Wednesday as a Category 3 storm. Reuters correspondent Angela Johnston. Two U.S. scientists won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine on Monday. Reuters correspondent Jillian Kitchener reports. Gary Ruvkun was at his home in Newton, Massachusetts when he got the call informing him that he was one of two American scientists who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine. "If you get a call from somebody in Sweden, answer it." Co-winner Victor Ambros said he was informed by his son, who received the call from the Nobel Committee by mistake. The pair won for their discovery of microRNA and its crucial role in how multicellular organisms grow and live. Vice Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physiology Olle Kämpe described the discovery's significance. "MicroRNAs are important for our understanding of embryological development, normal cell physiology, and diseases such as cancer." Their work helped explain how cells specialize and develop into different types, such as muscle and nerve cells. Ambros is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, while Ruvkun is a professor at Harvard Medical School and also affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Reuters correspondent Jillian Kitchener. Tunisia's President Kais Saied has won re-election in a landslide victory after a campaign season that saw his opponents jailed alongside journalists, activists, and attorneys. The North African country's Independent High Authority for Elections said on Monday evening Saied had won more than 90 percent of the vote, a reflection of how his supporters participated in Sunday's race while the majority of his detractors chose to boycott. His closest challenger won 7 percent of the vote after sitting in prison for much of the campaign season. That wraps up this update, but the world and news never stop. For additional updates, visit our website. I'm Joe Ramsey, VOA News. |