
Puerto Rico power outage leaves most of the island in the dark ahead of Easter weekend
CBSN
An island-wide blackout hit Puerto Rico on Wednesday as the largely Catholic residents of the U.S. territory prepared to celebrate the Easter weekend, a power company spokesman said.
All hospitals on the island are operating on generators after the power went out at 12:38 p.m. Eastern Time, Veronica Ferraiuoli, acting governor and secretary of state for Puerto Rico, said at a news conference. All 1.4 million clients on the island were without power, Hugo Sorrentini, spokesman for Luma Energy, which oversees the transmission and distribution of power, told The Associated Press.
"The entire island is without generation," he said.

Former Israeli Defense Minister and opposition lawmaker Avigdor Liberman on Thursday accused Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of authorizing weapons transfers to a criminal gang in Gaza that he likened to the ISIS terrorist group. Netanyahu appeared later in the day to confirm the operation, suggesting it would save the lives of Israeli forces battling Hamas in the Palestinian territory.

Oscar Pistorius, former Olympian convicted of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp's murder, returns to racing
Johannesburg — South African former Olympic and paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius has competed in his first race 12 years after murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius, a double leg amputee who has been free on parole since January 2024, competed in an Ironman triathlon in Durban over the weekend.

Tel Aviv, Israel — Israel has recovered the bodies of two Israeli-American hostages killed and taken in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack that ignited the war in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military and intelligence services said Thursday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the remains of Judi Lynn Weinstein and Gad Haggai were recovered and returned to Israel in a special operation by the army and the Shin Bet internal security agency.

Toronto — At least 33,400 people have been forced to evacuate their homes in three Canadian provinces due to active wildfires that are sending smoke drifting across the border into northern U.S. states and all the way across the Atlantic to Europe. As of Wednesday two deaths were blamed on the blazes.