EXPLOSION AT CUBAN HOTEL KILLS AT LEAST 9

HAVANA » A powerful explosion apparently caused by a natural gas leak Friday killed at least nine people and injured 40 when it blew away outer walls from a luxury hotel in the heart of Cuba’s capital.

No tourists were staying at Havana’s 96-room Hotel Saratoga because it was undergoing renovations, Havana Gov. Reinaldo García Zapata told the Communist Party newspaper Granma.

“It has not been a bomb or an attack. It is a tragic accident,” President Miguel Díaz-canel, who visited the site, said.

State TV reported that the blast was caused by a truck that had been supplying natural gas to the hotel but did not provide details on how the natural gas ignited.

Challenge over Greene’s eligibility fails.

ATLANTA » Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger accepted a judge’s findings Friday and said U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is qualified to run for reelection despite claims by a group of voters that she had engaged in insurrection.

Georgia Administrative Law Judge Charles Beaudrot issued a decision hours earlier that Green was eligible to run, finding that the voters hadn’t produced sufficient evidence to support their claims. After Raffensperger adopted the judge’s decision, the group that filed the complaint on behalf of the voters vowed to appeal.

Before reaching his decision, Beaudrot had held a day-long hearing in April that included arguments from lawyers for the voters and for Greene, as well as extensive questioning of Greene herself.

He also received additional filings from both sides.

Israel searches for attackers who killed three.

JERUSALEM » Israeli security forces took part in a massive manhunt Friday for two Palestinians suspected of carrying out a stabbing rampage near Tel Aviv that left three Israelis dead.

The stabbing on Thursday, Israel’s Independence Day, was the latest in a series of deadly assaults deep inside the country in recent weeks. It came as Israeli-palestinian tensions were already heightened by violence at a major holy site in Jerusalem sacred to Jews and Muslims.

Police said they were searching for two suspects, 19 and 20 years old, from the town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, which has re-emerged as a militant bastion in the latest wave of violence — the worst Israel has seen in years.

Several attackers have come from in or around Jenin, and Israeli forces have launched arrest raids that have ignited gunbattles there.