World News

The strike came barely an hour after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, delivered a fiery address to the U.N. General Assembly.

Residents described a scene of flattened buildings and destroyed vehicles after Israel unleashed strikes targeting Hezbollah’s leader outside the Lebanese capital.

After Israel detonated pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon, a fierce debate began about whether the attacks violated international law. A U.N. treaty from 1996 offers an answer.

Although Israel, like many countries, is highly secretive about its weapons stockpiles, experts believe it could outlast adversaries in offensives on at least two fronts simultaneously.

The Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah bastion in eastern Lebanon, had mostly been spared over 11 months of war. But The New York Times saw widespread devastation there after intense Israeli airstrikes this week.

The Swiss police said they had detained “several individuals” after a 64-year-old American woman reportedly died by suicide using the controversial device.

The Russian novelist, a compulsive gambler, lost everything in the opulent spa and gambling towns of Baden-Baden, Bad Homburg and Wiesbaden. An admirer of his books follows his footsteps.

The Israeli military said the commander, Mohamed Hussein Sarour, was killed in a strike. There was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah.

Israel said the goal of its strikes on Hezbollah was to allow residents of the north to go home. Some are hopeful that plan will work, but others worry that war may not bring safety.

Iran says Israel wants to trap it into a direct conflict by bombing Hezbollah, even as a new Iranian president tries outreach to the West.