World/Nation

al-Qaida's No. 2 leader killed in U.S. strike

CAIRO - A U.S. airstrike has killed al-Qaida's second-most-powerful figure, dealing the terror network its biggest blow since the killing of Osama bin Laden at a time when it is vying with the Islamic State group for the mantle of global jihad.

Nasir al-Wahishi was the latest in a series of senior figures from al-Qaida's powerful Yemeni branch eliminated by U.S. drone attacks over the past five months, including its top ideologue and a senior military commander. The U.S. has intensified its campaign, trying to push back the group as it has captured new territory in Yemen by taking advantage of the southern Arabian nation's chronic chaos.

In confirming the killing of al-Wahishi in a June 9 drone attack, the White House said Tuesday that his death "removes from the battlefield an experienced terrorist leader and brings us closer to degrading and ultimately defeating these groups."

The U.S. activity against al-Qaida has not been limited to Yemen. Over the weekend, a U.S. airstrike in Libya targeted an al-Qaida-linked militant commander, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who led a 2013 attack on an Algerian gas complex that killed 35 hostages, including several Americans. U.S. officials are still trying to confirm whether he was killed in the raid.

Cal-Berkeley balcony collapse kills six students

BERKELEY, Calif. - A 21st-birthday party thrown by a group of visiting Irish college students turned tragic early Tuesday when the fifth-floor balcony they were crammed onto collapsed with a sharp crack, spilling them about 50 feet onto the pavement. Six people were killed and seven seriously injured.

Police and fire and building officials were working to figure out why the small balcony broke loose from the stucco apartment house a couple of blocks from the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. But one structural engineer said it may have been overloaded if, as city officials said, it was holding 13 people.

Five of the dead were 21-year-olds from Ireland who were in the country on J-1 visas that enable young people to work and travel in the U.S. over the summer, while the sixth victim was from California, authorities said.

Russian military will add 40 new missiles this year

MOSCOW - Russia's military will add more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles this year alone that are capable of piercing any missile defenses, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday in a blunt reminder of the nation's nuclear might amid tensions with the West over Ukraine.

Putin spoke at the opening of an arms show at a shooting range in Alabino just west of Moscow, a huge display intended to showcase Russia's resurgent military.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg accused the Russians of "nuclear saber-rattling," and said that was one of the reasons the western military alliance has been beefing up its ability to defend its members.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, briefing reporters via teleconference from Boston, where he is recovering from surgery on a broken leg, called Putin's announcement concerning.

"We're trying to move in the opposite direction," Kerry said. "We have had enormous cooperation from the 1990s forward with respect to the structure of nuclear weapons in the former territories of the Soviet Union. And no one wants to see us step backwards."

Benghazi panel chairman defends Hillary

WASHINGTON - The chairman of a House panel investigating the deadly attacks in Benghazi, Libya, said a longtime confidant of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton did not write any of the numerous memos he forwarded to Clinton while she served as secretary of state.

Nearly all the memos forwarded by Sidney Blumenthal to Clinton came from a single source, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said late Tuesday.

Both Gowdy and Blumenthal agreed that Blumenthal shed little light on the Benghazi attack, but Gowdy called the all-day session interrupted by lunch and floor votes "productive" and informative. Blumenthal, however, said his appearance "was for one reason and one reason only, and that reason is politics."

Rather than offer original analysis, Blumenthal was "simply and merely a conduit of someone who may have had business interests in Libya," Gowdy said after Blumenthal spent nearly nine hours at the Capitol as Gowdy's committee met in closed session.

More rain as Tropical Storm Bill hits Texas

DALLAS - Tropical Storm Bill moved slowly over inland Texas on Tuesday, bringing another round of heavy rain to a state weary from recent deadly floods, evacuations and washed-out roads.

The storm came ashore shortly before noon along Matagorda Island with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph before starting to weaken Tuesday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. By Tuesday night, it was located about 45 miles north of Victoria, in South Texas, with maximum winds of 40 mph.

According to projections by the National Weather Service, average rainfall through noon Wednesday for portions of Texas will be 3 to 6 inches, but some isolated areas could see as much as 12 inches.

- The Associated Press