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Rescuers sift through the rubble at the scene of an Israeli strike that targeted Beirut's southern suburbs. Photo: AFP Hezbollah says 16 members killed, including two senior leaders Israel says group's military chain severely damaged Strike escalates long-running Israel-Hezbollah conflict Rescue workers in Beirut searched for people still missing in rubble after an Israeli airstrike targeting Hezbollah commanders killed at least 37 people in a suburb of the Lebanese capital, according to authorities. Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed group, said that 16 members including senior leader Ibrahim Aqil and another commander, Ahmed Wahbi, were among those killed in the deadliest strike in nearly a year of conflict with Israel. Israel's army said it hit an underground gathering of Aqil an...

By Esther Linder, ABC Photo: AFP PHOTO / Israel Defense Forces (IDF) As Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a televised address in Beirut on Thursday, a booming sound like thunder cracked several times through the Lebanese capital. Nasrallah was speaking to condemn Israel for allegedly carrying out remotely detonated device attacks on Hezbollah's members, killing 37 and injuring thousands including civilians. But the noise heard by Beirut residents wasn't thunder, and it has become terrifyingly familiar - a sonic boom caused by Israeli warplanes. What is a sonic boom? A sonic boom occurs when an aircraft travels equal to or faster than the speed of sound (approximately 343 metres per second, or 1 kilometre in 2.91 seconds). It sounds like a huge crash of thunder or a cannon going...

Photo: AFP A man shattered a sculpture by Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei during the opening of his exhibition at Palazzo Fava in the Italian city of Bologna, a spokesperson for the show said. Footage from CCTV cameras - posted on Ai Weiwei's Instagram account - showed a man vigorously pushing the sculpture over, breaking it and then holding a piece of it over his head. The sculpture targeted was the artist's large blue and white 'Porcelain Cube', the spokesperson said. The exhibit's curator, Arturo Galansino, said the perpetrator was well-known in the art world. "Unfortunately, I know the author of this inconsiderate gesture from a series of disturbing and damaging episodes over the years involving various exhibitions and institutions in Florence," said Galansino. The police in Bo...

By Dave Graham, Reuters Stephen Fry Photo: AFP British actor Stephen Fry has praised Austria for welcoming him as a citizen and giving him the right to vote in the country's upcoming election following a change in the law that sought to address Austria's crimes under Nazism. In 2019, the Austrian Parliament passed a bill making descendants of Austrians who fled Nazi rule eligible for citizenship, a step which Fry told newspaper Der Standard was a "noble gesture" in an interview published on Saturday. Fry, one of Britain's best-known actors and TV broadcasters, said this month in a video on social media that he had obtained citizenship because he had grandparents from Austria and that his great-grandparents had died in the Holocaust. After thanking Austria for changing the law and urg...

US Vice President Kamala Harris and former US President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Photo: Brendan SMIALOWSKI and Patrick T. Fallon / AFP US Vice President Kamala Harris has accepted an invitation from CNN to participate in another debate against Donald Trump on 23 October, and urges her Republican rival to face her less than two weeks ahead of the 5 November presidential election, the Democratic candidate's campaign said on Saturday. "Vice President Harris is ready for another opportunity to share a stage with Donald Trump, and she has accepted CNN's invitation to a debate on 23 October. Donald Trump should have no problem agreeing to this debate," Jen O'Malley Dillon, the chair of the Harris campaign, said in a statement. Asked about Harris' acceptance of ...

By Anna Chisholm, ABC News Photo: RNZ/Michael Hall Sunsets leave artist Jayde Hopkins feeling peaceful and reset. While "not religious", the Gurindji and Woolwonga woman, who lives on Larrakia lands in Darwin, says a sunset can also make her feel in "awe of the universe". "I think as an artist it's the colours that really speak," Jayde says, "the warm colours make me feel that way too." She'll even point a sunset out to strangers at the petrol station. "You'll never see the same sunset again. It's only there for a short amount of time. It's up to you to notice and appreciate it before it's gone." It's the same feelings and emotions she tries to recreate abstractly through her painting. Jayde also welcomes sunsets because they mark the end of the day. "You're finished work and now your...

By Dawoud Abu Alkas and Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters A Palestinian boy sits amongst the debris at the site of an Israeli strike on a school in southern Gaza. Photo: AFP / Omar Al-Qattaa Health ministry says 22 Palestinians killed in school Israel says it targeted Hamas command centre No breakthrough in ceasefire efforts Palestinians said an Israeli strike killed at least 22 people in a school sheltering displaced people in southern Gaza City on Saturday, while the Israeli military said the attack targeted a command centre of militant group Hamas. The Gaza health ministry said most of those killed were women and children. The Hamas-run government media office said 13 children and six women were among the dead. The military said it hit a Hamas command centre embedded in the compound...