Rock strikes, kills Israeli soldier on raid
JERUSALEM -- An Israeli soldier was killed early Tuesday during a West Bank arrest raid when a rock thrown off a rooftop struck him in the head, the military said.
The military often carries out predawn raids in search of wanted militants in the West Bank, occasionally encountering resistance, but the killing of a soldier is rare and this marked the first military casualty of the year.
The military said 21-year-old Staff Sgt. Amit Ben-Yigal was on routine "operational activity" near the West Bank city of Jenin when a large rock was thrown off a rooftop and struck him on the head. A search was on for the attacker.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said the troops had completed their mission and were leaving the village of Yaabed when the soldier was struck. He said the soldier was wearing a helmet and was quickly evacuated for medical treatment but later died.
Dozens of soldiers attended the funeral. Many mourners wore masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus, as Ben-Yigal was laid to rest with military honors in his hometown of Beer Yaakov, in central Israel.
"Until this morning at 6:30 I was a happy man, satisfied with himself and his way. At 6:30 this morning I turned into a miserable person," said the soldier's father, Baruch Ben-Yigal.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent condolences to the family and vowed that "Israel's long arm would reach the terrorist" behind the attack.
Italians round up 91 crime-ring suspects
ROME -- Italian police have arrested 91 suspected mobsters in an investigation of money-laundering and extortion in a bid to thwart Sicily's Cosa Nostra from exploiting economic woes triggered by the pandemic.
Hundreds of police officers fanned out early Tuesday through Palermo, the alleged crime clans' power base, as well as in several regions in northern Italy.
Investigators contend mobsters were laundering extortion and drug-trafficking revenue and were preparing to use ill-gained cash to buy struggling businesses that have been shuttered during the coronavirus containment lockdown.
While loan-sharking is still an activity of organized crime in Italy, increasingly mobsters have sought to buy up hotels, restaurants, pharmacies, car dealerships and other businesses for years now.
The crime clans targeted in Tuesday's raids had moved some of their crime bosses into Milan years ago.
India logs drop in CO2, first in 40 years
India's carbon dioxide emissions fell for the first time in four decades as a combination of economic weakness and competition from renewable power limited consumption of fossil fuels.
Emissions likely dropped by 1.4% in the year ended March, thanks to slowing demand for coal and oil over the previous 12 months, Lauri Myllyvirta and Sunil Dahiy, analysts at the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, said in a report Tuesday. Carbon dioxide releases plunged 15% in March and 30% in April from a year earlier, as a countrywide coronavirus lockdown further eroded fuel demand, the report said.
The pandemic could influence long-term energy planning in a country that's the world's third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide and heavily reliant on coal to drive its economic growth.
With declining prices of clean energy, a shift in the country's energy mix is already emerging. India's coal-fired generation fleet had an average utilization of 56% in the 12 months through March, the lowest in at least 15 years, power ministry data show.
6 soldiers, rebels die in Yemen fighting
SANAA, Yemen -- Fierce clashes broke out in Yemen's southern province of Abyan between Saudi-backed government troops and separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates, with at least six fighters from both sides killed in the past 24 hours, officials and residents said Tuesday.
The fighting between the two sides -- allies in the Saudi-led coalition that for years has battled Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels based in the north -- has added another layer to the complex civil war in the Arab world's most impoverished country.
The fighting takes place as weeks of tensions mount after the secessionist Southern Transitional Council last month declared self-rule over the key port city of Aden to assert control over southern Yemen. The fighting could further undermine a Saudi Arabia-brokered peace deal between the government side and the separatists.
The clashes broke out as government forces advanced toward Zinjibar, the Abyan provincial capital, and the separatists called in reinforcements to defend the city, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk to reporters. Residents, who would not give their names, fearing reprisal, said government forces were shelling separatists' positions.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 05/13/2020