News in brief
By The Associated Press
Catholic bishops in Mexico met with drug cartel leaders
MEXICO CITY | A Roman Catholic bishop in Mexico says he and three other bishops met with drug cartel bosses in a bid to negotiate a possible peace accord in the violent southern state of Guerrero. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Thursday he approved of such talks.
López Obrador said it wasn’t the first time church leaders had held such talks, and that they have done so before in the neighboring state of Michoacan and in other states. The bishop said the talks failed, because the cartels and drug gangs didn’t want to stop fighting for territory in Guerrero. Those turf battles have shut down transportation and led to dozens of killings in recent months.
Los Angeles firefighters injured after burning truck’s fuel tank explodes
LOS ANGELES | Authorities say a burning truck’s fuel tank exploded while Los Angeles firefighters were trying to battle the blaze. Nine were injured, including two critically. Fire officials say 10 firefighters responding to a report of a vehicle fire early Thursday in the Wilmington neighborhood arrived on the scene minutes before the blast.
Officials say all victims were rushed to a nearby trauma center and stabilized. One has been transferred to a burn unit at another hospital. The explosion site is in an industrial area separated from a neighborhood by a wide street and a rail line. Wilmington is 18 miles south of downtown.
Greece legalizes same-sex civil marriage
ATHENS, Greece | Greece has become the first Orthodox Christian country to legalize same-sex civil marriage, despite opposition from Church officials.
A cross-party majority of 176 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament voted late Thursday in favor of the bill drafted by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ center-right government. Another 76 rejected the reform while two abstained from the vote and 46 were not present in the house.
Israeli forces storm the main hospital in southern Gaza
RAFAH, Gaza Strip | Israeli forces have stormed the main hospital in southern Gaza in what the army says is a search for the remains of hostages taken by Hamas.
The raid on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis came after troops had besieged the facility for nearly a week as hundreds of staff, patients and others inside struggled under heavy fire and dwindling supplies, food and water.
Separately, Israel launched a second day of airstrikes in southern Lebanon after killing 10 civilians and three Hezbollah fighters just hours after a rocket attack killed an Israeli soldier.
—From AP reports
