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beirut — There is a "very real" risk that a miscalculation along Lebanon's southern border could trigger a wider conflict between Hezbollah and the Israeli military, two United Nations officials in Lebanon warned Saturday.  The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the head of U.N. peacekeeping forces in Lebanon, Aroldo Lazaro, said they were "deeply concerned" about the recent escalation along Lebanon's border.  Iran-backed Hezbollah last week launched the largest volleys of rockets and drones yet in the eight months it has been exchanging fire with the Israeli military, in parallel with the Gaza war.  "The danger of miscalculation leading to a sudden and wider conflict is very real," the two officials said in a written statement Saturday.  The United States and France are working on a negotiated settlement to the hostilities along Lebanon's southern border. Hezbollah says it will not halt fire unless Israel's military offensive in Gaza stops. 

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Accra, Ghana — Exasperated Ghanaians already grappling with frequent, unplanned power outages are steeling themselves for more misery after electricity distributors announced increased disruption to the grid in the coming weeks.  The blackouts — known as "dumsor" in Ghana's Akan language — are making it harder to run businesses already struggling due to the country's economic crisis — the worst in a decade.   On Thursday, the Ghana Grid Company and the Electricity Company of Ghana, which distribute power throughout the West African country of 33 million people, said there would be three weeks of load management because of maintenance work by a gas supplier in Nigeria.  Nigeria provides Ghana with a percentage of the gas it needs to fire its power-generating plants.  The announcement came a day after WAPCo, the operator of the pipeline importing gas from Nigeria, also warned there would be a drop in the quantity of gas available because of maintenance work in Nigeria.    The news has exasperated Ghanaians already dealing with frequent power cuts.  "The current unannounced power cuts are already making it very hard to keep my poultry frozen," Judith Esi Baidoo, a 50-year-old frozen poultry vendor in Accra, told AFP.  She added: "Now, with this three-week load management plan, I fear my entire stock will spoil. I don't know how my business can survive this."  The erratic power supply is tipped to become a key topic in the campaign for December's presidential election.  Timothy Oddoye, who repairs mobile phones in the Accra suburb of Kokomlemle, said, "The government had failed us. They've had years to fix these problems, yet we are still suffering from the same issues.  "How can we grow our businesses when we can't even rely on basic electricity?"  Despite being one of the African countries where electrification is most advanced, Ghana continues to experience chronic power shortages.   Domestic electricity production — generated by power plants that are in many cases old and poorly maintained — has struggled to expand in line with rising demand.  According to International Energy Agency figures, Ghana generates 34 percent of its electricity from hydropower and 63 percent from gas.   The country produces both oil and gas but still needs to import gas from Nigeria via the 678-kilometer (420-mile) West African Gas Pipeline through Benin and Togo.  "The reliance on gas, especially from external suppliers, leaves us vulnerable," said Ben Boakye, executive director of the Africa Center for Energy Policy.  "The government must prioritize investments in renewable energy and upgrade our existing hydro and thermal plants to ensure [a] consistent power supply."  Public frustration at the power cuts erupted on June 8, when hundreds of Ghanaians, led by prominent celebrities, took to the streets of Accra to protest the erratic supply under the slogan #DumsorMustStop.   These power cuts are even more disturbing for Ghanaians as the country emerges from an economic crisis that saw inflation soar to 54 percent in December 2022.  It fell back to 25 percent in April 2023, but the population still suffers. 

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abuja, nigeria — Nigeria's annual inflation rose to a 28-year high of 33.95% in May, official data showed Saturday, worsening hardships that have fueled public anger against President Bola Tinubu's economic reforms. It was the 18th straight month that inflation has risen, up from 33.69% a month earlier. Price pressures have been spurred by Tinubu's reforms, chiefly slashing petrol and electricity subsidies and devaluing the naira currency twice within a year. Labor unions, which suspended a strike called to demand a new minimum wage, have argued that the reforms hurt the poor and have left millions grappling with the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades. Data published by the National Bureau of Statistics showed food and non-alcoholic beverages continued to be the biggest contributor to inflation in May. Food inflation, which accounts for the bulk of Nigeria's inflation basket, rose to 40.66% from 40.53% the previous month. High food prices and a weaker naira are the main drivers of inflation in Nigeria, analysts say. The central bank raised interest rates in May for the third time this year in response to the continued rise in inflation. Governor Olayemi Cardoso of the Central Bank of Nigeria has indicated that rates will stay high for as long as necessary to bring inflation down.

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Caracas, Venezuela — A Venezuelan presidential candidate said Saturday that three opposition activists were detained arbitrarily ahead of July elections in a campaign marred by allegations of political persecution.  "They have been missing since yesterday. ... It is an unjust and arbitrary detention," said Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), the largest opposition coalition in Venezuela.  "It is not known at this moment where and how they are," Gonzalez Urrutia said of the three at a campaign event in Caracas.  The three missing people are Juan Iriarte, coordinator of opposition party Vente, and two activists of the Popular Will party, Luis Lopez and Jean Carlos Rivas.  Vente said on X, formerly Twitter, that they worked with opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and had helped organize campaign activity in Maiquetia, a port city in central Venezuela.  "It is a forced disappearance," Machado, who has been banned from standing in the July 28 election by courts loyal to President Nicolas Maduro, told reporters Saturday.  The opposition has for months alleged political persecution of its leaders and supporters through arrests, judicial procedures and obstacles to competing in elections.  Venezuela's government has not commented on the three detentions but regularly accuses the opposition of plotting against Maduro, who is looking to secure a third term in power.  At least 13 of Machado's activists have now been detained since January, while six others with arrest warrants have taken refuge in the Argentine embassy.   To date, there are 278 political prisoners in Venezuela, according to a count by NGO Foro Penal. 

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BUTEMBO, Democratic Republic of Congo — At least seven people have been killed in unrest in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province, local officials said on Saturday, after people took to the streets to protest a surge in  deadly attacks by suspected Islamist rebels.  The Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel group affiliated to the Islamic State group, are alleged to have killed more than 40 people in an attack on Mayikengo village this week and more than 80 in attacks on other villages in the eastern province the previous week.  The insecurity has fueled public frustration, leading to the killing of two soldiers and their driver in Lubero territory by a crowd who torched their vehicle overnight on Friday, local official Julio Mabanga told Reuters.  On Saturday, further clashes in the area between security forces and local residents led to the deaths of another three people: a civilian, a soldier, and an agent of the ANR national intelligence service, Mabanga said.  A similar protest broke out in the city of Butembo on Saturday, with hundreds of youths taking to the streets, wielding sticks, chanting and singing songs to denounce the widespread insecurity, according to a Reuters reporter.  "I'm here at this roundabout, barricading the road. We sympathize with our killed compatriots," said Daniel Sivanzire Paluku, one of the protesters, who said they needed to block the roads to monitor who was coming and going.  Butembo Mayor Mowa Baeki Telly confirmed one civilian was killed during clashes between security forces and protesters in the city.   The ADF originates in neighboring Uganda but is now based in mineral-rich eastern Congo. It has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and mounts frequent attacks, further destabilizing a region where many militant groups compete for influence and resources.  It has not been possible to reach the ADF for comment on the attacks.  The U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which follows militant websites, said on Friday the Islamic State had published communiques from its so-called Central Africa Province division claiming responsibility for the killing of 51 people in attacks in North Kivu this week. It has also claimed to have beheaded more than 60 people in a single attack in the province on June 7.  

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SYDNEY — Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived in Australia on Saturday, saying relations were "back on track" as he started the first visit by a Chinese premier to the major trading partner in seven years. Australia is "uniquely positioned to connect the West and the East" and stands as "an important force of economic globalization and world multipolarity," Li said at Adelaide's airport, according to a statement from the Chinese embassy. Bilateral relations are "back on track after a period of twists and turns," Li said. Australia is the biggest supplier of iron ore to China, which has been an investor in Australian mining projects, although some recent Chinese investment in critical minerals has been blocked by Australia on national interest grounds. China imposed trade restrictions on a raft of Australian agricultural and mineral products in 2020 during a diplomatic dispute that has now largely eased. During his four-day visit, Li will also visit the capital, Canberra, and mining state Western Australia. "A more mature, stable and fruitful comprehensive strategic partnership will be a treasure shared by the people of both countries," Li said. He is expected to visit a pair of pandas on loan from China to Adelaide's zoo on Sunday. A lunch with wine exporters, until recently shut out of the Chinese market. Li arrived from New Zealand, where he highlighted Chinese demand for New Zealand's agricultural products. China is the biggest trading partner of Australia and New Zealand. Canberra and Wellington are seeking to balance trade with regional security concerns over China's ambitions in the Pacific Islands. In New Zealand, Li visited major dairy exporter Fonterra on Saturday after signing agreements with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on trade and climate change, with human rights and foreign interference also on the agenda.

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haitian leaders have ousted Frantz Elbe, the beleaguered director of Haiti’s National Police, following months of criticism that he wasn’t doing enough to protect officers under assault by gangs. A government official not authorized to speak to the media told The Associated Press on Saturday that former Haitian police chief Normil Rameau will again take the helm of an underfunded and ill-equipped department that a United Nations report notes has only around 4,000 officers on duty at a time in a country of more than 11 million inhabitants. Rameau was dismissed from the post nearly four years ago under a different administration. More than 2,500 people have been killed or injured across Haiti in the first three months of the year as gang violence continues to surge. Among those killed are nearly two dozen police officers, overwhelmed by gangs that control 80% of Port-au-Prince and are better-equipped and have more powerful weapons. The most recent killings targeted three officers from a newly formed anti-gang tactical unit who were on patrol in an armored vehicle. A fourth remains missing. Rameau’s appointment comes as a newly selected prime minister and Cabinet take the reins of Haiti’s government with a transitional presidential council at their side. Rameau previously served as police director-general under slain former President Jovenel Moïse, who appointed him in August 2019. Prior to that, he oversaw the detective division. He was ousted as police chief in November 2020 after Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe accused him of being incompetent and not producing results at a time when gangs were seizing control of more territory. Neither Rameau nor Elbe immediately returned messages for comment. Haiti’s police unions have repeatedly called for Elbe’s resignation and arrest, noting that gangs have raided and burned at least 30 police stations and substations in recent months as part of a series of attacks that began on February 29 that targeted critical state infrastructure and led to the eventual resignation of former Prime Minister Ariel Henry. On Wednesday, a police union known as SPNH-17 held a news conference to condemn the state of the department and deplore the deaths of the officers. “Look at these young men, hacked to death,” spokesman Garry Jean-Baptiste said as he pointed to rows of pictures behind him that depicted officers killed on duty. The union also issued a statement the day Haiti celebrated the creation of its police department. “Haiti’s National Police is 29 years old, but it still can’t walk. … It hasn’t grown because corruption and incompetence [have] held it hostage,” it said. Meanwhile, a police union known as SYNAPOHA called on newly installed Prime Minister Garry Conille this week to make strengthening the department a priority. Conille went along on a patrol with police on June 2, donning a flak jacket and helmet as he entered an armored vehicle. SNPH-17 said at the time that the prime minister would notice during the patrol that the country had no leadership and that criminals had too much control. “The prime minister must see the need to have another team at the top,” the union said. Elbe was appointed head of Haiti’s National Police in October 2021, replacing Leon Charles. Last year, under Elbe, at least 36 officers were killed in gang-related violence from January to mid-August, according to a U.N. report. The international community has provided training and other resources to help boost Haiti’s National Police, which also is awaiting the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from Kenya.

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida — Although more rain could trigger additional isolated Florida flooding, forecasters say the strong, persistent storms that dumped up to 50 centimeters (20 inches) in southern parts of the state appear to have passed. Some neighborhood streets in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale areas still have standing water, although it is rapidly receding, officials said. “The worst flooding risk was the last three days,” said Sammy Hadi, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami. “The heaviest rainfall has concluded.” The no-name storm system pushed across Florida from the Gulf of Mexico at roughly the same time as the early June start of hurricane season, which this year is forecast to be among the most active in recent memory amid concerns that climate change is increasing storm intensity. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held a media briefing in Hollywood, south of Fort Lauderdale, and said while more rain was coming, it’s likely to be more typical of South Florida afternoon showers this time of year. “We are going to get some more rain today, maybe throughout the balance of the weekend. Hopefully it’s not approaching the levels that it was, but we have a lot of resources staged here, and we’ll be able to offer the state’s assistance,” he said. DeSantis said the state has deployed about 100 pumps in addition to what cities and counties are using to try to clear water from streets. Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said while flooding was extensive, there were no reports of destroyed homes and very few of severely damaged homes. No deaths or serious injuries have been reported. “We don’t think there’s going to be enough damage to necessarily qualify for a federal disaster declaration,” DeSantis said. But he added the storms may have affected enough business to qualify for Small Business Administration assistance. The downpours hit Tuesday and continued into Wednesday, delaying flights at two of the state’s largest airports and leaving vehicles waterlogged and stalled in some of the region’s lowest-lying streets. The main problem was hundreds of vehicles that were stranded on streets as people were unable to navigate the flood waters. “Looked like the beginning of a zombie movie,” said Ted Rico, a tow truck driver who spent much of Wednesday night and Thursday morning helping to clear the streets of stalled vehicles. “There’s cars littered everywhere, on top of sidewalks, in the median, in the middle of the street, no lights on. Just craziness, you know. Abandoned cars everywhere.”

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LONDON — Britain put on a display of birthday pageantry Saturday for King Charles III, a military parade that marked the Princess of Wales’ first public appearance since her cancer diagnosis early this year. The annual event was also a show of stability by the monarchy after months in which the king and Kate, wife of heir to the throne Prince William, have been sidelined by cancer treatment. In a symbolic display of unity, Charles, Queen Camilla, William, Kate and their children were joined by other members of the royal family on a Buckingham Palace balcony at the end of the King’s Birthday Parade. The family waved to the gathered crowd as they watched a flyby of military aircraft to cap ceremonies marking the monarch’s official birthday. It was the first time Kate has appeared in public since December. She disclosed in March that she was undergoing chemotherapy for an unspecified form of cancer. “I am making good progress, but as anyone going through chemotherapy will know, there are good days and bad days,” Kate said in a statement released Friday, adding that she faces “a few more months” of treatment. Kate said she is “not out of the woods yet” and officials stress that Saturday’s engagement does not herald a full return to public life. Huge crowds turn out each June to watch the birthday parade, also known as Trooping the Color, which begins with a procession involving horses, musicians and hundreds of soldiers in ceremonial uniform from Buckingham Palace. The first public sight of the 42-year-old princess came when she traveled in a horse-drawn carriage from the palace down the grand avenue known as the Mall with her children, George, 10, Charlotte, 9, and 6-year-old Louis. Bystanders cheered as they caught a glimpse of Kate, dressed in a white dress by designer Jenny Packham and wide-brimmed Philip Treacy hat. She watched the ceremony with the children from the window of a building overlooking the Horse Guards Parade, a ceremonial parade ground in central London. Louis yawned broadly at one point in proceedings but mostly watched intently. Prince William, in military dress uniform, rode on horseback for the ceremony, in which troops parade past the king with their regimental flag, or “color.” The display of precision marching and martial music stems from the days when a regiment’s flag was an essential rallying point in the fog of battle. Charles, who also is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer, traveled in a carriage with Queen Camilla, rather than on horseback as he did last year. The king inspected the troops from a dais on the parade ground, saluting as elite regiments of Foot Guards marched past. Five regiments take it in turns to parade their color, and this year it was the turn of a company of the Irish Guards, which has Kate as its honorary colonel. The troops in scarlet tunics and bearskin hats were led onto the parade ground by their mascot, an Irish wolfhound named Seamus. Charles, 75, disclosed his cancer in February, and has recently eased back into public duties. He attended commemorations last week for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe on June 6, 1944. In one of the many quirks of British royal convention, Saturday is not the king’s real birthday — that’s in November. Like his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, before him, Charles has an official birthday on the second Saturday in June. The date was chosen because the weather is generally good, although early sunshine on Saturday gave way to a blustery, rainy day in London.

ISLAMABAD — Rescuers in northern Pakistan have retrieved the body of one of the two Japanese climbers who had gone missing earlier in the week while attempting to scale a 7,027-meter (23,054-foot) mountain. Waliullah Falahi, a senior area administrator, confirmed to VOA Saturday that Pakistani army helicopters are assisting “high-altitude porters” in the search for the second Japanese national. He identified the deceased climber as Ryuseki Hiraoka. Expedition organizers said Hiraoka and his partner, Atsushi Taguchi, were trying to summit Spantik mountain, also known as the Golden Peak, in the Karakoram range without the help of porters before they disappeared Wednesday. Hiraoka and Taguchi are reported to be experienced climbers. Hiraoka is a well-known Japanese mountain guide who has summited Mount Everest five times and climbed several other 8,000-meter mountains and many peaks in the Andes and the Pamirs. The men were last seen Monday, and the alarm was raised by fellow climbers who had expected to cross paths with them the following day. A military helicopter spotted the climbers Thursday, but the search was suspended due to poor weather conditions. Japanese climbers from another expedition were also reportedly assisting in the rescue efforts. Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan region is home to five of the world's 14 peaks above 8,000 meters, including K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, at 8,611 meters (28,251 feet) above sea level. Eight others are in Nepal, including Mount Everest, the world’s highest, and one is along the Nepalese border with the Tibetan region of China. Thousands of foreigners travel to Gilgit-Baltistan during the summer climbing season, from early June to late August.

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OBBURGEN, Switzerland — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday predicted “history being made” at the Swiss-hosted conference that aims to plot out the first steps toward peace in Ukraine even though experts and critics expect little substance or few big breakthroughs because Russia is not attending. The presidents of Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Kenya and Somalia joined dozens of Western heads of state and government and other leaders and high-level envoys at the meeting, in hopes that Russia — which is waging war on Ukraine — could join in one day. In a brief statement to reporters alongside Swiss President Viola Amherd, Zelenskyy already sought to cast the gathering as a success, saying, “We have succeeded in bringing back to the world the idea that joint efforts can stop war and establish a just peace. I believe that we will witness history being made here at the summit.” Swiss officials hosting the conference say more than 50 heads of state and government will join the gathering at the Burgenstock resort overlooking Lake Lucerne. Some 100 delegations, including European bodies and the United Nations, will be on hand. Who will show up — and who will not — has become one of the key stakes of a meeting that critics say will be useless without the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and is pushing ahead with the war. As U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris arrived at the venue, shuttle buses rumbled along a mountain road that snaked up to the site — at times with traffic jams — with police along the route checking journalists' IDs and helicopters ferrying in VIPs buzzed overhead. Meanwhile, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have dispatched their foreign ministers while key developing countries such as Brazil, an observer at the event, India and South Africa will be represented at lower levels. China, which backs Russia, is joining scores of countries that are sitting out the conference, many of whom have more pressing issues than the bloodiest conflict in far-away Europe since World War II. Beijing says any peace process needs to have the participation of both Russia and Ukraine and has floated its own ideas for peace. Last month, China and Brazil agreed to six “common understandings” on a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, asking other countries to endorse them and play a role in promoting peace talks. The six points include an agreement to “support an international peace conference held at a proper time that is recognized by both Russia and Ukraine, with equal participation of all parties as well as fair discussion of all peace plans.” Zelenskyy has recently led a diplomatic push to draw in participants to the Swiss summit. Russian troops who now control nearly a quarter of Ukrainian land in the east and south have made some territorial gains in recent months. When talk of a Swiss-hosted peace initiative began last summer, Ukrainian forces had recently regained large swaths of territory, notably near the cities of southern Kherson and northern Kharkiv. Against the battlefield backdrop and diplomatic strategizing, summit organizers have presented three agenda items: nuclear safety, such as at the Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia power plant; humanitarian assistance and exchange of prisoners of war; and global food security — which has been disrupted at times due to impeded shipments through the Black Sea. That to-do list, encapsulating some of the least controversial issues, is well short of proposals and hopes laid out by Zelenskyy in a 10-point peace formula in late 2022. The plan includes ambitious calls, including the withdrawal of Russian troops from all occupied Ukrainian territory, the cessation of hostilities and restoring Ukraine’s state borders with Russia, including Crimea. Putin’s government, meanwhile, wants any peace deal to be built around a draft agreement negotiated in the early phases of the war that included provisions for Ukraine’s neutral status and limits on its armed forces, while delaying talks about Russia-occupied areas. Ukraine’s push over the years to join the NATO military alliance has rankled Moscow. Ukraine is unable to negotiate from a position of strength, analysts say. “The situation on the battlefield has changed dramatically,” said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, saying that although Russia "can't achieve its maximalist objectives quickly through military means, but it’s gaining momentum and pushing Ukraine really hard.” “So, a lot of countries that are coming to the summit would question whether the Zelenskyy peace formula still has legs,” he told reporters in a call Wednesday. With much of the world’s focus recently on the war in Gaza and national elections, Ukraine’s backers want to return focus to Russia’s breach of international law and a restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. On Friday, Putin called the conference “just another ploy to divert everyone’s attention.” The International Crisis Group, an advisory firm that works to end conflict, wrote this week that “absent a major surprise on the Burgenstock," the event is “unlikely to deliver much of consequence.” “Nonetheless, the Swiss summit is a chance for Ukraine and its allies to underline what the U.N. General Assembly recognized in 2022 and repeated in its February 2023 resolution on a just peace in Ukraine: Russia’s all-out aggression is a blatant violation of international law,” it said. Experts say they'll be looking at the wording of any outcome document and plans for the way forward. Swiss officials, aware of Russia's reticence about the conference, have repeatedly said they hope Russia can join the process one day, as do Ukrainian officials.