IDF says two soldiers will spend weeks in military prison over incident it said was viewed with great severity

Two Israeli soldiers will spend weeks in military prison for the desecration of a Christian object after one stuck a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon and the other photographed it.

The photo of the soldier, a cigarette dangling from his own mouth, went viral and sparked widespread outrage. It was the latest act by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon to be denounced as anti-Christian.

Both sides also confirm prisoner swap which Donald Trump announced along with suspension of all ‘kinetic activity’ between the warring states

Donald Trump has announced a three-day ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine from 9 to 11 May.

The US president said on social media the ceasefire would include a suspension of all “kinetic activity” and a swap of 1,000 prisoners from each country. It was confirmed by both sides.

Argentina, where the MV Hondius cruise departed, consistently ranked by WHO as having highest incidence of hantavirus in region

Officials and experts in Argentina are scrambling to determine if their country is the source of a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has gripped an Atlantic cruise ship, amid reports that a number of passengers have already returned to their home countries.

Argentina, where the cruise to Antarctica departed, is consistently ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having the highest incidence of the rare, rodent-borne disease in Latin America. Investigators there are working to contact trace the source of contamination.

Without offering details or evidence, US Southern Command describes the people killed as ‘narco-terrorists’

The US military said on Tuesday it had struck a vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing three people, in the latest such attack that rights groups label as “extrajudicial killings” and Washington describes as targeting “narco-terrorists”.

US Southern Command posted about the strike on social media Tuesday evening, alleging that the vessel struck on Tuesday was operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations” that it did not identify.

Spokesperson calls former New York City mayor ‘a fighter’ but does not say cause of his hospitalization

Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City, has been hospitalised and is in a “critical but stable condition”, his spokesperson said on Sunday evening.

Ted Goodman, the spokesperson, posted on social media: “Mayor Giuliani is a fighter who has faced every challenge in his life with unwavering strength, and he’s fighting with that same level of strength as we speak. We do ask that you join us in prayer for America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani.”

Investigators find explosives in car, which crashed into Multnomah Athletic Club shortly before 3am Saturday

A person was found dead after a vehicle plowed into a health club in downtown Portland, Oregon, early Saturday morning, police said. Investigators later found explosives inside the car.

Portland police and the Portland fire and rescue department responded to the Multnomah Athletic Club shortly before 3am after the vehicle crashed through the front entrance and caught fire. Once the blaze was brought under control, a person was found dead inside the vehicle, police said in a statement.

Orange county resident Tommi Jo Mejer’s son was illegally riding e-motorcycle when he ran into 81-year-old

• Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email

A southern California woman is facing an additional charge of involuntary manslaughter after an 81-year-old man died from his injuries after being struck by the woman’s teen son while he was riding an e-motorcycle, prosecutors said on Friday.

On 16 April, Tommi Jo Mejer’s 14-year-old son was riding a Surron e-motorcycle and doing wheelies when he hit Ed Ashman, according to prosecutors. Ashman, a former captain in the US Marine Corps, was walking home from his job as a substitute teacher at a high school in Lake Forest.

The US sanctions target people operating in broad sections of Cuban economy, including energy, defence and mining

Cuba’s government has said new sanctions imposed on the island by Donald Trump amounted to “collective punishment”, as an enormous 1 May procession outside the American embassy in Havana vowed to “defend the homeland”.

In an executive order on Friday, the US president said he would impose sanctions on people involved in broad sections of the Cuban economy, as he seeks to put more pressure on Havana after ousting Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, earlier this year.

Pair apologise in court after being accused of defrauding buyers including some of New York’s most prominent fine art auction houses

A father and daughter in New Jersey have pleaded guilty to running a years-long counterfeiting scheme to trick art galleries and auction houses into buying forged paintings of works by prominent artists such as Andy Warhol, Banksy and Pablo Picasso.

Federal prosecutors said Erwin Bankowski, 50, and Karolina Bankowska, 26, commissioned an artist in Poland to create at least 200 of the fakes and ultimately defrauded buyers of at least $2m.

Arrests of Audias Flores and César Alejandro ‘N’ lead to gunmen blocking roads, as US embassy warns employees to avoid Reynosa after earlier arrest

The Mexican authorities have arrested two top criminals, one of them a close ally of the slain founder of the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG), prompting gunmen to block roads in the western state of Nayarit.

Audias Flores, known as “El Jardinero”, is a regional commander in control of swathes of CJNG territory along Mexico’s Pacific coast. He was considered a potential successor to Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho”, who ran the cartel and was killed in a security operation in February.

Cocaine-trafficking rebels blamed for worst attack on civilians in decades, which also left 56 people injured

The death toll in a Colombian highway bombing blamed on cocaine-trafficking rebels has risen to 21, the government said on Monday, in the country’s worst attack on civilians in decades and just ahead of elections.

The attack on Saturday left 56 injured and buses and vans mangled on the Pan-American Highway, in the restive south-western Cauca department.

The Israeli government and Hezbollah have traded blame over breaches to the truce, which is set to run for several more weeks

Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes on the country’s south killed 14 people on Sunday, the deadliest day since a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into force over a week ago.

The health ministry said the dead on Sunday included two women and two children, adding that 37 other people were wounded. Israel said one of its soldiers was also killed.