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BANGUI — Armed rebels Sunday attacked a Chinese-run gold mining town and killed at least four people in Central African Republic, authorities said.  Maxime Balalu, a local government spokesperson, told The Associated Press that the Coalition of Patriots for Change, an alliance of rebel groups aligned with former President Francois Bozize, had carried out the attack in Gaga, a village roughly 125 miles (200 kilometers) from the capital, Bangui.  He said the death toll might rise and included several individuals who worked at the nearby mine. Several others were injured in the attack, Balalu said.  Central African Republic has been in conflict since 2013, when predominantly Muslim rebels seized power and forced President Francois Bozize from office. Mostly Christian militias fought back.  A 2019 peace deal only lessened the fighting, and six of the 14 armed groups that signed later left the agreement. The Coalition of Patriots for Change was founded in 2020 in the aftermath of the agreement.  The country remains one of the poorest in the world despite its vast mineral wealth of gold and diamonds among others. Rebel groups have operated with impunity across the embattled country over the past decade, thwarting mining exploration by foreign companies.  Many of those now operating in the country are Chinese-run and have faced security challenges. Last year, nine Chinese nationals were killed at another gold mine in Central African Republic during an attack that the government blamed on the same rebel alliance. In 2020, two Chinese nationals died when residents led an uprising against a Chinese-operated mine in Sosso Nakombo. 

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WARSAW — A fire broke out Sunday morning in a vast shopping center housing 1,400 shops and service outlets in the Bialoleka district in Poland's capital. The fire brigade said more than 80% of The Marywilska 44 shopping complex was on fire, and 50 teams, including chemical and environmental rescue specialists, were carrying out rescue operations. A police spokesperson told the news agency PAP there were no injuries reported. Authorities also sent a text message warning Warsaw residents about the fire and telling them to stay home with the windows closed. Footage aired by private broadcaster TVN24 showed thick black smoke rising over the area. Mirbud, an industrial construction company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, owns the shopping center. Shopping centers and large shops are usually closed on Sunday due to a ban on trade imposed by the previous government which had close ties to the Catholic church, viewing it as a day of worship. Such outlets are exempt from the ban only about half a dozen Sundays a year, to allow people to shop ahead of Christmas, Easter and other events.

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TAPACHULA, Mexico — A strong earthquake shook the border of Mexico and Guatemala early Sunday, driving frightened residents into the streets.  The temblor struck just before 6 a.m. near the Mexican border town of Suchiate, where a river by the same name divides the two countries. The epicenter was just off the Pacific coast, 10 miles (16 kilometers) west-southwest of Brisas Barra de Suchiate where the river empties into the sea.  The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, according to the U.S. Geological Survey and a depth of 47 miles (75 kilometers).  In Mexico, there were no immediate reports of damage, but more mountainous, remote parts of the border are prone to landslides.  Across the border Guatemala's national disaster prevention agency shared photos of small landslides onto highways in the Quetzaltenango region and large cracks in walls in a hospital in San Marcos on its social media accounts, but there were no reports of deaths.  In Tapachula, near the border, civil defense brigades were moving through the city looking for signs of damage.   Didier Solares, an official with Suchiate's Civil Defense agency, said so far, they had not found damage.  “Luckily, everything is good,” Solares said. “We are talking with companies, to the [rural areas] via radio and there's nothing, there's no damage thank God,” he said.  The early morning quake still gave people a fright.  In the mountainous and picturesque colonial city of San Cristobal, the shaking was strong.  “Here we got up because we have the seismic alert service,” said resident Joaquin Morales. “The alert woke me up because it comes 30 seconds before [the quake].”  In Tuxtla Chico, a town near Tapachula, María Guzmán, a teacher said: “It was horrible, it felt strong. It was a real scare.” 

PADANG, Indonesia — Heavy rains and torrents of cold lava and mud flowing down a volcano's slopes on Indonesia's Sumatra island triggered flash floods that killed at least 37 people and more than a dozen others were missing, officials said Sunday. Monsoon rains and a major mudslide from a cold lava flow on Mount Marapi caused a river to breach its banks and tear through mountainside villages in four districts in West Sumatra province just before midnight on Saturday. The floods swept away people and submerged more than 100 houses and buildings, National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said. Cold lava, also known as lahar, is a mixture of volcanic material and pebbles that flow down a volcano's slopes in the rain. By Sunday afternoon, rescuers had pulled out 19 bodies in the worst-hit village of Canduang in Agam district and recovered nine other bodies in the neighboring district of Tanah Datar, the National Search and Rescue Agency said in a statement. The agency said that eight bodies were pulled from mud during deadly flash floods that also hit Padang Pariaman, and one body was found in the city of Padang Panjang. It said rescuers are searching for 18 people who are reportedly missing. Flash floods on Saturday night also caused main roads around the Anai Valley Waterfall area in Tanah Datar district to be blocked by mud, cutting off access to other cities, Padang Panjang Police Chief Kartyana Putra said Sunday. Videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed roads that were transformed into murky brown rivers. The disaster came just two months after heavy rains triggered flash floods and a landslide in West Sumatra's Pesisir Selatan and Padang Pariaman districts, killing at least 21 people and leaving five others missing. The 2,885-meter Mount Marapi erupted late last year killing 23 climbers who were caught by a surprise weekend eruption. The volcano has stayed at the third highest of four alert levels since 2011, indicating above-normal volcanic activity under which climbers and villagers must stay more than 3 kilometers from the peak, according to Indonesia's Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation. Marapi is known for sudden eruptions that are difficult to predict because the source is shallow and near the peak, and its eruptions aren't caused by a deep movement of magma, which sets off tremors that register on seismic monitors. Marapi has been active since an eruption in January 2023 that caused no casualties. It is among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia. The country is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

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Washington — The first living patient to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has died two months after the procedure, the US hospital that carried it out said. "Mass General is deeply saddened at the sudden passing of Mr. Rick Slayman. We have no indication that it was the result of his recent transplant," the Boston hospital said in a statement issued late Saturday. In a world first, surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital in March successfully transplanted the genetically edited pig kidney into Slayman, who was 62 years old at the time and suffering from end-stage kidney disease. "Slayman will forever be seen as a beacon of hope to countless transplant patients worldwide and we are deeply grateful for his trust and willingness to advance the field of xenotransplantation," the hospital statement said. Organ shortages are a chronic problem around the world and Mass General said in March that there were more than 1,400 patients on its waiting list for a kidney transplant. The pig kidney used for the transplant was provided by a Massachusetts biotech company called eGenesis and had been modified to remove harmful pig genes and add certain human genes, according to the hospital. Slayman, who suffered from Type 2 diabetes and hypertension, had received a transplanted human kidney in 2018, but it began to fail five years later. When the hospital announced the successful transplant in March, Slayman said he had agreed to the procedure "not only as a way to help (him), but a way to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive." In a statement posted on Mass General's website, his family said while they were "deeply saddened about the sudden passing of our beloved Rick" they took "great comfort knowing he inspired so many." The family said they were "comforted by the optimism he provided patients desperately waiting for a transplant". More than 89,000 patients were on the national kidney waiting list as of March this year, according to a US health department website. On average, 17 people die each day while waiting for an organ transplant. Slayman's family also thanked the doctors "who truly did everything they could to help give Rick a second chance. Their enormous efforts leading the xenotransplant gave our family seven more weeks with Rick, and our memories made during that time will remain in our minds and hearts." "After his transplant, Rick said that one of the reasons he underwent this procedure was to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive," the family added. "His legacy will be one that inspires patients, researchers, and health care professionals." The transplantation of organs from one species to another is a growing field known as xenotransplantation. About a month after Slayman's procedure, surgeons at NYU Langone Health in New York carried out a similar transplant on Lisa Pisano, who had suffered heart failure and end-stage kidney disease. Pig kidneys had been transplanted previously into brain-dead patients, but Slayman was the first living person to receive one. Genetically modified pig hearts were transplanted in 2023 into two patients at the University of Maryland, but both lived less than two months. Mass General said Slayman's transplant had been carried out under a policy known as "compassionate use" that allows patients with "serious or life-threatening conditions" to access experimental therapies not yet approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

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Islamabad, Pakistan — Afghan officials said Sunday that the death toll from Friday’s flash floods in the northern Baghlan province had risen to at least 315, with more than 1,600 people injured. The refugee ministry announced the latest casualties through social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. It said more than 2,600 homes had been "completely and partially destroyed" in the province since the calamity hit following heavy seasonal rains. The ministry stressed that it was reporting preliminary assessments from its Baghlan office, saying the financial and human losses could increase. The United Nations World Food Program said Sunday on X that most of the affected areas in the province are "inaccessible by trucks," and it is using "every alternative," including donkeys, "to get food to the survivors who lost everything."  The International Organization for Migration supported the losses reported by the Afghan Taliban authorities, saying the death toll has exceeded 300 and that it expected the number to rise. The agency said the flood had destroyed more than 2,000 homes. The IOM wrote on X, "We operate 16 warehouses throughout Afghanistan, and we are working with our partners to provide lifesaving aid to the affected people."   The spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres quoted him as saying that he was saddened by the loss of life in flash floods in Baghlan and extended his condolences to the victims’ families. "The United Nations and its partners in Afghanistan are coordinating with the de facto [Taliban] authorities to swiftly assess needs and provide emergency assistance," Stéphane Dujarric said. Experts attribute the high seasonal rainfall in Baghlan and subsequent flooding to climate change, which caught an apparently unprepared administration and local residents off guard. The deputy prime minister for economic affairs, Abdul Ghani Baradar, traveled to the province Sunday to oversee rescue operations, medical aid provision, emergency food distribution, and temporary shelter arrangements, his office said. Poverty-stricken Afghanistan, reeling from years of conflict, is prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes, droughts, and floods. It is considered by the U.N. to be among the countries most vulnerable to climate change. In mid-April, heavy rains and flash floods in 32 of the 34 Afghan provinces killed more than 100 people and destroyed nearly 1,000 homes. The calamity also destroyed 24,000 hectares of farmland in a country where 80% of the more than 40 million population depend on agriculture to survive. Afghanistan’s economy collapsed after the Taliban seized power militarily in August 2021. Aid groups say the Taliban-governed South Asian nation finds itself economically isolated, losing development funding that previously subsidized an estimated 75% of Afghanistan’s spending on public services. International humanitarian aid for the country has significantly declined since the Taliban takeover even though the U.N. estimates over 15 million Afghans, or 35% of the population, suffer from crisis or worse levels of food insecurity. 

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RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces were battling Palestinian militants across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, including in parts of the devastated north that the military said it had cleared months ago, where Hamas has exploited a security vacuum to regroup. Israel has portrayed the southern Gaza city of Rafah as Hamas' last stronghold, saying it must invade in order to succeed in its goals of dismantling the group and returning scores of hostages. A limited operation there has expanded in recent days, forcing some 300,000 people to flee. But the rest of the war-ravaged territory seems to provide ample opportunities for Hamas. Israel has yet to offer a detailed plan for postwar governance in Gaza, saying only that it will maintain open-ended security control over the coastal enclave, which is home to some 2.3 million Palestinians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected postwar plans proposed by the United States for the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to govern Gaza with support from Arab and Muslim countries. Those plans depend on progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state, something to which Netanyahu's government is deeply opposed. With the two close allies divided, Gaza has been left without a functioning government, leading to a breakdown in public order and allowing Hamas to reconstitute itself in even the hardest-hit areas. Palestinians reported heavy Israeli bombardment overnight in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp and other areas in the northern Gaza Strip, which has suffered widespread devastation and been largely isolated by Israeli forces for months. U.N. officials say there is a "full-blown famine" there. Residents said Israeli warplanes and artillery struck across the camp and the Zeitoun area east of Gaza City, where troops have been battling Palestinian militants for over a week. They have called on tens of thousands of people to relocate to nearby areas. "It was a very difficult night," said Abdel-Kareem Radwan, a 48-year-old Palestinian from Jabaliya. He said they could hear intense and constant bombing since midday Saturday. "This is madness." First responders with the Palestinian Civil Defense said they were unable to respond to multiple calls for help from both areas, as well as Rafah, on the southern edge of Gaza. Israeli troops have been battling militants there since the army seized the nearby border crossing with Egypt last week. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the top Israeli military spokesman, said troops are fighting in all parts of Gaza, "in areas where we have not yet operated and in places where we have." He said that in addition to Jabaliya and Zeitoun, forces were also operating in Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, towns near Gaza's northern border with Israel that were heavily bombed in the opening days of the war. The military "is now going into Jabaliya for the second time and into Zeitoun for the third time, and it will continue to go in and out," columnist Ben Caspit wrote in Israel's Maariv daily, channeling the growing frustration felt by many Israelis more than seven months into the war. "Hamas' regime cannot be toppled without preparing an alternative to that regime," he wrote, drawing comparisons with the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "The only people who can govern Gaza after the war are Gazans, with a lot of support and help from the outside." Five Israeli soldiers were killed in Zeitoun on Friday, and Palestinian militants fired a barrage of 14 rockets toward the Israeli city of Beersheba that night. Another rocket launched overnight damaged a home in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, the military said Sunday. The United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees, the main provider of aid in Gaza, meanwhile said 300,000 people have fled Rafah since the operation began there. Most are heading to the heavily damaged nearby city of Khan Younis or Mawasi, a crowded tent camp on the coast where some 450,000 people are already living in squalid conditions. Rafah was sheltering some 1.3 million Palestinians before the Israeli operation began, most of whom had fled fighting elsewhere in the territory. Israel has now evacuated the eastern third of Rafah, and Hagari said dozens of militants had been killed there as "targeted operations continued." The United Nations has warned that a planned full-scale Rafah invasion would further cripple humanitarian operations and cause a surge in civilian deaths. Rafah borders Egypt near the main aid entry points, which are already affected. Israeli troops have captured the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, forcing it to shut down. Egypt has refused to coordinate with Israel on the delivery of aid though the crossing because of "the unacceptable Israeli escalation," the state-owned Al Qahera News television channel reported, citing an unnamed official. U.S. President Joe Biden has said he won't provide offensive weapons to Israel for Rafah. On Friday, his administration said there was "reasonable" evidence that Israel had breached international law protecting civilians — Washington's strongest statement yet on the matter. Israel rejects those allegations, saying it tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames Hamas for the high toll because the militants fight in dense, residential areas. The war began when Hamas and other militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 250 hostage. They still hold about 100 captives and the remains of more than 30. Israel's air, land and sea offensive has killed more than 34,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. Israel says it has killed over 13,000 militants, without providing evidence.

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Tunis, Tunisia — Tunisian security forces stormed the bar association in Tunis and arrested the lawyer and political commentator Sonia Dahmani after she made comments on television about the state of the country, her lawyers said. The arrest late Saturday was covered live by the France 24 news channel, which said it was forced to cut its broadcast, and that its crew had been assaulted and a cameraman briefly detained. Dahmani's attorney Dalila Msaddek in a post on Facebook reported a "police attack against the bar association headquarters" with "lawyers assaulted and the abduction of colleague Sonia Dahmani to an unknown location." Islam Hamza, another lawyer in Dahmani's defense team, confirmed to AFP that Dahmani had been arrested. Tunisian media reported Dahmani was under investigation under the controversial Decree 54, which outlaws "spreading false news" online or in the media and "incitement to hate speech." Journalists and opposition figures argue the law has been used to stifle dissent. Msaddek said the pundit was summoned to court on Friday to explain her remarks but refused to appear. A court then issued a warrant ordering law enforcement to bring Dahmani before the investigating judge. Dahmani told journalists before her arrest that she refused to appear "without knowing the reasons for this summons." During a show on the Carthage Plus TV channel on Tuesday, she responded to another pundit's claim that migrants from sub-Saharan African countries were seeking to settle in Tunisia. "What extraordinary country are we talking about?" she asked sarcastically, triggering angry reactions from some Tunisian social media users. France 24, whose team had been at the bar association at the time of the arrest to report on an event in support of Dahmani, said in a statement that police officers forced the crew to stop transmitting live footage. The police "violently" removed the camera from its tripod and detained cameraman Hamdi Tlili, who "was released after about 10 minutes," said the network. It condemned what it said was a "brutal intervention by security forces that prevented journalists from practicing their profession as they were covering a lawyers' protest for justice and in support of freedom of expression." Signed by President Kais Saied in September 2022, Decree 54 mandates up to five years in prison for the use of communications networks to "produce, spread [or] disseminate ...  false news" or to "slander others, tarnish their reputation, financially or morally harm them." Since the decree came into force, more than 60 journalists, lawyers and opposition figures have been prosecuted under it, according to the National Union of Tunisian Journalists. The North African country is a key departure point for thousands of migrants who risk perilous Mediterranean Sea crossings each year hoping for a better life in Europe. But the situation of sub-Saharan African migrants in Tunisia has worsened, particularly after a speech by Saied last year in which he painted "hordes of illegal migrants" as a demographic threat. 

TORGIANO, Italy — The Prada Group is expanding its production footprint in Italy, including dozens of new jobs at its knitwear factory in Umbria, leaning into "Made in Italy" as integral to the brand's ethos and developing new artisanal talent to ease the luxury group through a generational shift in its workforce. Prada CEO Andrea Guerra, who was brought in last year as part of the generational change in family-run Prada's management, said at an unveiling of the expanded plant Tuesday that the company is investing 60 million euros ($65 million) in production this year. At Torgiano, Prada has added 30 new jobs this year, alongside 65 last year, bringing the workforce to some 220 employees, mostly women, to create knitwear for the Prada and Miu Miu brands, a key category for the group. The site had just 39 employees when Prada bought it in 2001. "For many years, Torgiano was a small, important place, linked to the Umbrian knitwear tradition,'' mostly dedicated to product research and development, Guerra said. "In the last six or seven years, with the extraordinary growth in knitwear, we decided to create an all-around industrial hub," adding production to a reinforced R&D center. The innocuous low-slung plant, identified by a simple, small Prada nameplate near the gate, is at the heart of a network that includes dozens of smaller companies that together create some 30,000 pieces of knitwear a month for the global luxury group. They include red crocheted Miu Miu culottes to soft gray Prada cardigans that have become a trademark. Guerra described the Milan-based fashion group's manufacturing footprint in central Italy as a "network of intelligent relationships and craftsmanship merged with a constant capacity to bring innovation to the market." Prada's investments to exert greater control over its supply chain stand out against the backdrop of a recent investigation that revealed sweatshop conditions in Chinese-owned factories producing luxury goods for other Italian brands in the Lombardy region, where the Italian fashion capital Milan is located. The production arm of Giorgio Armani has been put under receivership as part of an ongoing supply chain probe. Prada has focused on what it calls vertical integration of its supply chain — working with smaller companies, some with just a handful of craftspeople, that provide specific, sometimes unique, skills. For its knitwear operation, Prada works with some 60 smaller companies that it refers to as "partners" or "collaborators." "Contractors, subcontractors, that is not something tied to this world. There are production phases that are assigned to our collaborators, our partners,'' Guerra said, adding: "The way I work inside, and the way I work outside needs to be the same." Lorenzo Bertelli, marketing director and head of corporate social responsibility who is slated to take over the company from his parents Patrizio Bertelli and Miuccia Prada, said a strong governance is the key to avoiding "such incidents." He credited his father with starting Prada on the road to integrating its supply chain in the 1990s. Audits of suppliers, which have so far been voluntary, will become mandatory in 2025 under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting legislation, aimed at controlling abuses, said Stefania Saviolo, a fashion and luxury expert at Milan's Bocconi University. Publicly quoted companies like Prada, which are used to a level of transparency and reporting, will likely have an easier time than others, she said. Integrating the supply chain doesn't just mean that a major player buys up smaller companies, she said, but they may invest in specific machinery, or help them secure bank financing. "It is not ownership, it is a longer transaction along the model of partnership,'' Saviolo said, adding that such relationships also provide a sense of security to the smaller companies more vulnerable to market crashes. Noting that the luxury and fashion industries have long relied on third-party manufacturing, Bernstein global luxury goods analyst Luca Solca said the kind of investments by Prada to integrate manufacturing processes in-house "is a sort of catch-up with best-in-class-players in the industry." A key part of Prada's investments are aimed at securing know-how into the next generation, a transition the company has been preparing also in its management and creative roles. Finding new workers with both experience and passion is difficult, even in a region where knitwear is part of the local tradition, said Lorenzo Teodori, who runs the Torgiano plant. To fill that gap, Prada runs an internal academy as needed at its 23 Italian production sites to train young craftspeople. The next one in Torgiano starts in the fall, with experienced workers training the next generation. "Through the Prada Academy, we have seen how this dialogue is still alive and successful,'' Bertelli said. "We need it to train the future technicians of tomorrow, who in turn will be the teachers in the future. It is a fundamental cycle for our group."

New York — All dogs coming into the U.S. from other countries must be at least 6 months old and microchipped to help prevent the spread of rabies, according to new government rules published Wednesday. The new rules require vaccination for dogs that have been in countries where rabies is common. The update applies to dogs brought in by breeders or rescue groups as well as pets traveling with their U.S. owners. "This new regulation is going to address the current challenges that we're facing," said Emily Pieracci, a rabies expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was involved in drafting the updated regulations. The CDC posted the new rules in the federal register on Wednesday. They take effect Aug. 1 when a temporary 2021 order expires. That order suspended bringing in dogs from more than 100 countries where rabies is still a problem. The new rules require all dogs entering the U.S. to be at least 6 months, old enough to be vaccinated if required, and for the shots to take effect; have a microchip placed under their skin with a code that can be used to verify rabies vaccination; and have completed a new CDC import form. There may be additional restrictions and requirements based on where the dog was the previous six months, which may include blood testing from CDC-approved labs. The CDC regulations were last updated in 1956, and a lot has changed, Pieracci said. More people travel internationally with their pets, and more rescue groups and breeders have set up overseas operations to meet the demand for pets, she said. Now, about 1 million dogs enter the U.S. each year. Dogs were once common carriers of the rabies virus in the U.S. but the type that normally circulates in dogs was eliminated through vaccinations in the 1970s. The virus invades the central nervous system and is usually a fatal disease in animals and humans. It's most commonly spread through a bite from an infected animal. There is no cure for it once symptoms begin. Four rabid dogs have been identified entering the U.S. since 2015, and officials worried more might get through. CDC officials also were seeing an increase of incomplete or fraudulent rabies vaccination certificates and more puppies denied entry because they weren't old enough to be fully vaccinated. A draft version of the updated regulations last year drew a range of public comments. Angela Passman, owner of a Dallas company that helps people move their pets internationally, supports the new rules. It can especially tricky for families that buy or adopt a dog while overseas and then try to bring it to the U.S., she said. The update means little change from how things have been handled in recent years, she said. "It's more work for the pet owner, but the end result is a good thing," said Passman, who is a board member for the International Pet and Animal Transportation Association. But Jennifer Skiff said some of the changes are unwarranted and too costly. She works for Animal Wellness Action, a Washington group focused on preventing animal cruelty that helps organizations import animals. She said those groups work with diplomats and military personnel who have had trouble meeting requirements, and was a reason some owners were forced to leave their dogs behind.