Death toll from extreme weather in Afghanistan increases to 110

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The death toll from extreme weather that has triggeredwidespread flooding and landslidesin many parts of Afghanistan has increased to at least 110, authorities said Monday, with another seven people missing and more heavy rain forecast.

Afghanistan Floods

Storms and heavy rainfallbegan across Afghanistan about 12 days ago, affecting most of the country’s 34 provinces. Over the past 24 hours alone, 11 people have died and six have been injured, the Disaster Management Authority said. Seven people were reported missing in separate incidents, all believed to have been carried away by floodwater.

Overall, the flooding, landslides and lighting strikes have killed 110 people and injured 160 in the past 12 days, the authority said, while 958 homes have been completely destroyed and another 4,155 have suffered partial damage.

The Defense Ministry said Monday that it had used a helicopter to airlift two people to safety after they became stranded by floodwater in the western province of Herat.

More than 325 kilometers (200 miles) of roads have been destroyed, while businesses, agricultural land, irrigation canals and fresh-water wells have also been damaged, affecting 6,122 families, the authority said. It said the figures are preliminary.

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Authorities issued weather warnings for Tuesday for nearly the entire country, warning people to stay away from rivers and areas prone to flooding.

Earlier this year, heavy snowfall and flash floodsleft dozens of people deadacross the country.

Two major highways have been closed for days due to landslides and floods, forcing travelers to take long, circuitous routes to reach their destinations. The Kabul to Jalalabad highway — the main route linking the capital to the Pakistani border and eastern Afghan provinces — has been shut since last Thursday, while the road from Jalalabad, the main city in eastern Afghanistan, heading northeast to Kunar and Nuristan provinces has been closed since Sunday by falling rocks.

Snow and heavy rain often trigger flash floods that kill scores, or even hundreds, of people at a time in Afghanistan. In 2024,more than 300 people diedin springtime flash floods.

Associated Press writer Elena Becatoros in Kabul, Afghanistan contributed to this report.

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Death toll from extreme weather in Afghanistan increases to 110

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The death toll from extreme weather that has triggeredwidespread flooding and landslidesin many parts of Afgh...

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FBI on scene of ICE-involved shooting in Patterson, California

The FBI is at the scene of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement-involved shooting that happened in Patterson, California, on Tuesday near the I-5, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said in a statement.

According to Lyons, ICE officers were attempting to arrest a man they claimed was an 18th Street gang member when he “weaponized his vehicle” and attempted to run over an officer.

ICE arrests newlywed wife of Army soldier at military base

Lyons claimed that the suspect is wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection with a murder.

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“Following their training, our officers fired defensive shots to protect themselves, their fellow agents and the public,” Lyons said.

The motorist was taken to a local hospital, Lyons said. The individual's condition is unclear.

Inspectors find dozens of safety violations at largest ICE detention center

Earlier Tuesday, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement saying they were assisting with the shooting and had closed the on and off ramps in the area.

Patterson is an agricultural city in California's San Joaquin Valley.

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FBI on scene of ICE-involved shooting in Patterson, California

The FBI is at the scene of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement-involved shooting that happened in Patterson, California, on Tuesday ...

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Wegmans pulls jasmine white rice product off shelves. Here's why.

Wegmans has pulled a rice product off shelves thatwas recalleddue to the possible presence of "foreign material."

Two-pound bags of Lundberg Organic Jasmine White Rice are the focus of an ongoing recall, according to anApril 4 noticefrom the regional supermarket chain.

The affected product was sold and later pulled from the shelves at Wegman stores across the country. Wegmans said it did not initiate the recall, telling USA TODAY on April 7 that the product has been recalled nationwide, not just in Wegmans stores.

Wegmans referred all inquiries to Lundberg Family Farms, a Richvale, California-based manufacturer.

Lundberg Family Farms confirmed to USA TODAY that it issued a voluntary Class II recall of approximately 4,500 cases of 2-pound Regenerative Organic Certified White Jasmine Rice pouches "due to the possible presence of foreign material" out of an abundance of caution.

Recall database:Search food, toys and more

According to Lundberg Family Farms, no illnesses have been reported from consumption of the affected product. The recall, which is isolated to a single production run, has been reported to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.

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Here's what to know about the ongoing recall, including what to do if you have the affected product.

Rice recall: Affected product, remedy

While all of the recalled products have been removed from Wegmans shelves, affected products may still be stored away in your pantry.

Though the risk of serious illness or injury from products that form part of a Class II recall is "remote," consumers with the recalled product may still experience "temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences,"according to the FDA.

Here are all of the relevant product details needed to determine if you have the recalled rice pouch:

• Number of units affected: 4,500 cases of 2-pound Regenerative Organic Certified White Jasmine Rice pouches

• Product name: Lundberg Organic Jasmine White Rice

• Universal product code: 073416- 040281

• Best by dates: 2/1/2027, 2/2/2027

• Lot codes: 260201, 260202

Wegmans customers who currently have the recalled product can return it for a full refund.

Customers with additional questions or concerns about the ongoing recall may contact Wegmans Food Markets by phone at 855-934-3663 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET daily.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Jasmine white rice sold at Wegmans has been recalled. Here's why.

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Wegmans pulls jasmine white rice product off shelves. Here's why.

Wegmans has pulled a rice product off shelves thatwas recalleddue to the possible presence of "foreign material." Two-p...

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After Gaza devastation, Israeli attacks on Lebanon's health care system feel familiar for many

SIDON, Lebanon (AP) — Two years ago, Dr. Mohammed Ziara watched IsraelravageGaza's health care system,shellinghospitals, strikingambulancesandforcing patients to evacuate.

APTOPIX Lebanon Israel Iran War

Now Ziara — along with other medical workers, human rights groups and many civilians — warns that the same scenario is unfolding in Lebanon.

Israel ispushing deepinto the southern part of the country in its campaign against the Iran-backed groupHezbollah, a powerful militant force andpolitical partythat long has exercised de facto control over much of Lebanon’sShiite community.

To describe its strategy in this war, the Israeli military invokes thedevastationit wrought in Gaza after the Hamas-ledOct. 7, 2023, attacks. Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets over Beirut last month warning that after “great success in Gaza, a new reality is coming to Lebanon, too.”

“I've lived this before,” Ziara, a burn surgeon from Gaza City, told The Associated Press on Thursday at the government hospital in the Lebanese port city of Sidon. “I cannot go back to Gaza now,” Ziara said. “But I can be here, in Lebanon.”

As it didwith Hamasin Gaza, Israel accusesHezbollahof hiding in and operating from civilian areas, and using hospitals and ambulances for military purposes. Israel has increasingly targeted first responders and medical centers, forcing several hospitals to evacuate.

“I was besieged in a hospital,” Ziara said of his work in Gaza. “I lost my brother in an airstrike. I feel what these people feel.”

An Israeli offensive threatens a health system, again

Since the war between Israel and Hezbollahreignited on March 2, Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 54 health professionals as of Sunday, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Israel has carried out 152 attacks against emergency medical workers and ambulances, and forced the closure of six hospitals and 49 health clinics through attacks or threats, the ministry says.

In Sidon, Ziara and his team from U.K.-based nonprofit Interburns have set up the Lebanese public health system's first specialized burn unit — a critical resource in thiscrisis-stricken countrywhere the war between Israel and Hezbollah has already killed 1,461 people and wounded 4,430, according to the ministry. Israel claims to have killed hundreds of Hezbollah operatives in the latest bombardment andground invasion.

The Israeli military argues that Hezbollah’s use of medical facilities makes them legitimate military targetsunder international law. It does not offer evidence to support its claims.

Hezbollah denies conducting militant activities within civilian sites. Although the group's presence in residential areas is well-documented, there has been no independent verification of its use of hospitals for military purposes.

Interburns, which trains local medics in burn care around the world, began building up the unit at Sidon Government Hospital during the2024 Israel-Hezbollah war. Lebanese authorities asked the team to return when the war reignited last month.

As the first city just north of Israel’sevacuation zonethat covers nearly all southern Lebanon, Sidon takes more wounded people every day.

The rising toll of rescue work

Kamal Fakih, 27, hates when people ask him what happened on March 17.

It’s not that it pains him to recall the Israeli airstrike. It’s that he doesn’t remember anything at all. He regained consciousness a day later at the hospital in Sidon, his body burned and lacerated by shrapnel.

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Once stabilized, Fakih tried to connect with the paramedic who pulled him and his friend Hassan from the burning rubble, hoping to hear his account and thank him for saving their lives. But by the time Fakih got his contact, Muhammad Tafili was already dead, killed with a fellow paramedic in an Israeli airstrike on ambulances in the southeastern village of Kfar Tebnit on March 28, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

That same day, Israeli attacks killed seven other medics across four additional villages, the World Health Organization said. Among the dead was a medic targeted while responding to an Israeli airstrike thatkilled three journalistsworking for pro-Hezbollah TV channels. Footage of the incident shows two strikes in quick succession — the first hitting journalists in their car, the second crashing into paramedics as they rushed to the rescue.

Israel's military accused the two medics, and two of the three journalists killed, of being Hezbollah operatives. Its claim alarmed watchdogs that witnessed itssimilar justificationsfor killing more than 260journalistsand 1,700health workersin Gaza, according to the United Nations humanitarian agency.

Although Lebanesemedical workersandjournalistswere killed during the2024 warwith Hezbollah, “this time is different,” said Ramzi Kaiss, the Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch.

He pointed to a startling promise by Israeli Defense MinisterIsrael Katzlast week that, to protect itsborder townsfrom Hezbollah rockets, Israel would flatten all the houses in southern Lebanon “in accordance with the model used in Rafah and Beit Hanoun in Gaza” — two cities that Israel almostentirely razedin its offensive against Hamas in the enclave.

“There’s a new kind of brazenness in declaring an intent to commit unlawful attacks,” Kaiss said. “It appears impunity has emboldened the Israeli military.”

Hospitals in the line of fire

Sweeping Israelievacuation ordersin recent weeks have sent over 1 million Lebaneseflocking north. As the south came under heavy bombardment, clinics shuttered or suspended operations. Nabih Berri Hospital was swamped by an influx of casualties. To make room, it evacuated dozens of patients.

Such transfers involve coordination with the Lebanese army, health ministry and U.N.peacekeeping force— a game of telephone, doctors say, that creates potentially life-threatening delays. Admitting patients isn’t easy either; the Sidon burn unit must discharge a patient to free up a bed.

But the referrals keep coming, straining ahealth systemalready crippled byeconomic collapse.

“The health system is on its knees,” Ziara said, as the hospital was plunged into darkness until backup generators kicked in 10 minutes later, a result of Lebanon’s long-runningelectricity crisis. “Now front-line hospitals are lacking staff and supplies. They're overwhelmed.”

Civilians search for answers

Lebanese civilians say that Israeli bombs can come without warning and hit indiscriminately, leading to a growing feeling that Palestinians in Gaza know well — that nowhere is safe.

Mohammad Qubaisi, 53, said his neighborhood of Zuqaq al-Blat incentral Beiruthad not received Israeli evacuation guidance before March 18, when Israeli munitions slammed into his seventh-floor apartment.

Carrying his wife from the smoldering ruins, he shouted for his sons. His eldest, Adam, called to him. But he couldn’t hear Jad.

Qubaisi ran back into the skin-searing steam to search for his 15-year-old. When he woke up at the hospital hours later, his face raw with second-degree burns, he knew his son was gone.

The Israeli military said it was targeting Hezbollah. Qubaisi pushed back.

“These are civilian buildings, not military targets. They hit us and we still don’t know why,” he said from the Sidon hospital. “We were sleeping safely in our home, and look what happened to us.”

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After Gaza devastation, Israeli attacks on Lebanon's health care system feel familiar for many

SIDON, Lebanon (AP) — Two years ago, Dr. Mohammed Ziara watched IsraelravageGaza's health care system,shellinghospitals, strikingam...

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Iran rejects latest ceasefire proposal as Trump's deadline approaches

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) —Iranon Monday rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end tothe war, whilePresident Donald Trumpappeared to widen his threat from civilian targets to the whole Islamic Republic and his ultimatum ticked closer.

“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump told a news conference at the White House. He has called his Tuesday 8 p.m. deadline for Iran to make a deal final.

The U.S. stepped up threats against Iran to open theStrait of Hormuzor face a barrage of attacks on civilian targets. “Today will be the largest volume of strikes since day one,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. “Tomorrow, even more than today.”

Asked about accusations of war crimes if the U.S. widens attacks against Iran's bridges and power plants, Trump responded, “No, not at all.” Asked why Iranians would want him to carry out the threat, he said citizens are “willing to suffer...in order to have freedom.”

Israel piled on pressure byattacking a major gas fieldthat is Iran’s biggest source of domestic energy.

Tehran conveyed its 10-point response through Pakistan, a key mediator, including proposals on reconstruction and the lifting of sanctions, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said.

“We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again," Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press. He said Iran no longer trusts the Trump administration after theU.S. bombed the Islamic Republictwice during previous rounds of talks.

And yet a regional official involved in talks said efforts had not collapsed. “We are still talking to both sides,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.

Iranian and Omani officials were working on a mechanism for administrating the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped in peacetime. Iran’s grip on it has shaken theworld economy. Tehran has refused to let U.S. and Israeli vessels through after they started the war on Feb. 28.

Israel strikes massive gas field

Israel struck a key petrochemical plantin the South Pars natural gas field and killed two paramilitary Revolutionary Guard commanders, including its intelligence chief.

The gas field attack aimed at eliminating a major source of revenue forIran, Israel said. The field, the world’s largest, is shared with Qatar. It is critical to electricity production for Iran's 93 million population, but the strike appeared to be separate from Trump’s threats.

An earlier Israeli attack on the field in March prompted Iran to target energy infrastructure in other Middle East countries, a major escalation.

Trumphas warned Iran that the U.S. could set the country “back to the stone ages," including targeting power plants and bridges.

Earlier Monday, Trump addressed an Easter event on the White House lawn and suggested that future attacks could go further. "If I had my choice, what would I like to do? Take the oil,” he said, suggesting it could be done easily, but “unfortunately the American people would like to see us come home.”

Asked if Tuesday at 8 p.m. Washington time was his final deadline, Trump replied simply, “Yeah."

Proposal had called for a 45-day ceasefire

Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators had sent Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff a proposal calling for the ceasefire and the strait's reopening, two Mideast officials told the AP. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private negotiations.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei earlier told journalists that “negotiations are entirely incompatible with ultimatums, crimes and threats ofwar crimes.”

Former Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayatir urged Arab countries to discourage Trump from striking power plants, warning the entire region would go “dark” if that happens.

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“Any attack on civilian infrastructure is a violation of international law and a very clear one,” United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric later told journalists.

Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose to $109 in early Monday spot trading, about 50% higher than when the war started, then wavered. U.S. stocks mostlyheld steady.

Israel threatens to ‘hunt’ Iranian officials

Explosions boomed in Tehran, and low-flying jets could be heard for hours.

The head of intelligence for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi, was killed, according to Iranian state media and Israel’s defense minister. Israel said it also killed the leader of the Revolutionary Guard’s undercover unit in its expeditionary Quds Force, Asghar Bakeri.

“We will continue to hunt them down one by one,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said of top officials.

New Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who still has not been seen or heard in public, issued a rare statement expressing condolences over the death of the Revolutionary Guard’s intelligence chief.

Israeli strikes have killed dozens of top Iranian leaders, including Khamenei’s father.

Israel’s military also said it struck three Tehran airports overnight — Bahram, Mehrabad and Azmayesh — hitting dozens of helicopters and aircraft it said belonged to the Iranian Air Force.

A Tehran resident said “constantly there is the sound of bombs, air defenses, drones," speaking on condition of anonymity for her safety. Another resident said he takes sleeping pills to get through nightly bombardments, and said people worry about power, gas and water cuts. “Stop this war,” he said.

Separately, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia activated air defenses to intercept Iranian missiles and drones. Tehran has kept up pressure on Gulf neighbors.

In Israel, Iranian missiles hit the northern city of Haifa, where four people from one family were found dead in the rubble of a residential building.

Airstrikes kill more than 25 across Iran

Smoke rose near Tehran’s Azadi Square after an airstrike hit the grounds of the Sharif University of Technology. Multiple countries have sanctioned the university for its work with the military, particularly on Iran’s ballistic missile program.

Authorities and Iranian state media reported at least 29 people killed across the country by strikes.

In Lebanon, where Israel has launched air attacks and a ground invasion that it says target the Iran-linked Hezbollah militia, an airstrike hit an apartment in Ain Saadeh, a predominately Christian town east of Beirut. It killed an official in the Lebanese Forces, a Christian political party strongly opposed to Hezbollah, his wife and another woman.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.

More than 1,400 peoplehave been killedinLebanonand more than 1 million peoplehave been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S.service membershave been killed.

Weissert reported from Washington and Magdy from Cairo. Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Isabel DeBre in Ain Saadeh, Lebanon, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo and Josh Boak and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this story.

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Iran rejects latest ceasefire proposal as Trump's deadline approaches

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) —Iranon Monday rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end tothe war, whilePresident Donal...

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