A gas station explosion early on Friday in southeastern Rome injured at least 25 people including nine police officers and a firefighter, local authorities and rescuers said. The explosion was heard across the Italian capital shortly after 8 a.m. and sent up a huge cloud of dark smoke and fire that was visible from several areas of the city. Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri said local police and firefighters rushed to the area after receiving a report of a gas leak. Two explosions followed after they arrived, he added. Elisabetta Accardo, Rome’s police spokeswoman, said 16 residents were injured, including two who were in “severe conditions” and hospitalized at Rome’s Casilino hospital.

Lebanese authorities have intercepted a staggering $8.2 million in cash at Beirut International Airport over the past week, according to a report in the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper citing a judicial source. The money was found stashed in the luggage of three passengers: two had arrived from Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, via Ethiopia, while the third had flown in from Istanbul.

The Iranian military loaded naval mines onto vessels in the Persian Gulf last month, a move that increased concerns in Washington that Tehran was preparing to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, two US officials told Reuters. The previously unreported preparations, which were picked up by US intelligence, occurred some time after Operation Rising Lion began on June 13, the officials said. The preparations of the mines, which were not deployed, indicate that Tehran was seriously considering blocking the strait, the world’s most important oil passageway. About a third of the world’s seaborne oil traffic passes through the strait from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, and Bahrain, as well as liquefied natural gas from Qatar.

NEW YORK (AP) — Sales of Tesla electric cars fell

A crash involving two buses at NYC’s Port Authority bus terminal this morning left 14 people injured, caused the terminal to shut down, and triggered delays at the Lincoln Tunnel.

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WASHINGTON – William Pulte, head of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, demanded Congress investigate Federal Rese

NEW YORK (AP) — A politically motivated hacker breached Columbia Univers

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