JERUSALEM

Israel prepared ‘for worst’ if activists breach blockade

Israel is “prepared for the worst” in a showdown with pro-Palestinian activists seeking to breach Israel’s sea blockade of Gaza but still hopes they will drop the plan, a Cabinet minister said Wednesday.

Information Minister Yuli Edelstein called on organizers to change course and deliver their cargo of medicine and construction materials to Gaza via an Israeli port. They rejected that option Wednesday.

The 10 ships could sail this week, and the voyage would be expected to take several days. Israel has said it will not allow them to reach Gaza. Greece is the flotilla’s base of operations, but activists won’t disclose the exact location of the boats because of security concerns.

Israel has enforced a Gaza border blockade since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized the territory in 2007. Last year, an Israeli raid on a similar flotilla killed nine activists on a Turkish vessel.

KAMPALA, Uganda

Lightning strike at school kills 23, hospitalizes 47

The death toll from a lightning strike on a primary school in northern Uganda has risen to 23, with 47 pupils still hospitalized, the state minister for disaster preparedness said Wednesday.

Lightning struck the Runyanya primary school in Kiryandongo late Tuesday as pupils sheltered from a heavy downpour, instantly killing 18.

“The cause of the accident is that there were no lightening conducting devices at the school. There has been negligence by the technical people to enforce the rules not only in schools but in hospitals,” a top Ugandan official, Musa Eceru, told reporters.

Deaths and injuries from lightning have been on the rise in the country, and experts put it down to the abnormal movement of air masses into the country from the Atlantic Ocean through the Democratic Republic of Congo.

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Mudslide buries section of Trans-Canada Highway

A massive mudslide has buried a section of the Trans-Canada Highway in British Columbia, and police are trying to determine if anyone is trapped.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Peter Thiessen said Wednesday that authorities don’t yet know if any cars or homes were involved.

The mudslide occurred between Hope and Chilliwack, more than 62 miles east of Vancouver.

About 20 cars of a CN Rail train carrying consumer goods were caught in the mud. CN spokeswoman Kelli Svendsen said there were no injuries, and the train didn’t derail.

Police say the highway will be closed for an indefinite period.