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Teenager among 3 dead in Turkey after floods and landslides hit southern province

ISTANBUL (AP) — Three people have died during flooding in southern Turkey on Thursday, officials said, as the Interior Ministry issued weather warnings for 15 of the country’s 81 provinces.

Heavy rainfall in Hatay, the province most affected by a devastating earthquake in 2023, caused the Asi river, also known as the Orontes, to break its banks, submerging fields and villages. Roads and bridges were also washed away.

Among the victims was a 15-year-old boy who died in a house that collapsed during a landslide in Antakya, the provincial capital, Hatay Gov. Mustafa Masatli said.

A 66-year-old man died when his car rolled into a ditch in Defne, while and another man, aged 62, was swept away in floodwaters in the Samandag district.

Masatli said the flooding had caused significant damage to agriculture across 2,900 hectares (7,166 acres) as disaster teams continued to assess the impact. Firefighters rescued many people by boat as residents bailed out their homes and tried to hold the waters at bay with makeshift barriers.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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