Subtropical Storm Alberto gained the early jump on the 2018 hurricane season as it headed toward anticipated landfall sometime Monday on the northern Gulf Coast, where white sandy beaches emptied of their usual Memorial Day crowds.

Though the Atlantic hurricane season doesn't officially start until Friday, Alberto has become the first named storm this year, throwing disarray into long holiday weekend plans up and down Florida's Gulf Coast. And just as Memorial Day marked summer's unofficial start in the U.S., Alberto gave it the unofficial start of what forecasters recently predicted would be an active hurricane season.

Insurgents in Syria have excavated graves in a cemetery in a refugee camp in the capital Damascus in search of the remains of three Israeli soldiers who have been missing for decades, a Syria-based Palestinian official said.

Anwar Raja of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command said the bodies of the three Israeli soldiers who have been missing since a 1982 battle in Lebanon were transferred to Syria after the incident.

It took him more than two months to prepare, coming up with the concept, assembling his outfit and rehearsing. Then on the big night, a five-hour session putting on makeup. The very last step, he slid on the red lace gloves with 4-inch (10-centimeter) red fingernails that he had specially ordered from the United States.

Elias was transformed into Melanie Coxxx. She was ready for her most important show: The largest drag ball in Lebanon.

Liverpool coach Juergen Klopp was unhappy with the tackle by Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos that injured his star forward Mohamed Salah.

Mohamed Salah came to Kiev with dreams of Champions League and World Cup glory. He left with his arm in a sling, his Liverpool team defeated and his World Cup in jeopardy.

Growing U.S. pressure on Hizbullah, including a new wave of sanctions targeting its top leadership, may hamper the formation of a new government that Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri was overwhelmingly chosen to form on Thursday.

Hariri's aim is to quickly recreate a national unity government that incorporates Hizbullah members to implement reforms and deal with a crippling and growing national debt, but might come under increasing pressure from the U.S. and its Arab allies to shun the militant group which says it wants to play a bigger role in the future Cabinet.

Aix marks the spot where Pierre Audi is planting his next flag in a lifelong crusade for innovation and diversity in the performing arts, passions that trace back to his boyhood in Lebanon.

The celebrated opera director and arts programmer, wrapping up a 30-year tenure at the Dutch National Opera, is taking charge of the monthlong Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, one of Europe's oldest and most respected summer music festivals.

Speaker Nabih Berri has been re-elected for a sixth consecutive term on Wednesday with an overwhelming majority of 98 votes out of the parliament’s 128-seat assembly.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly criticized Hizbullah for operating as the most heavily armed group and a political party in Lebanon and urged it to halt military activities inside and outside the country, including in Syria.

In a report to the Security Council obtained by The Associated Press, Guterres also called on Lebanon's government and armed forces "to take all measures necessary to prohibit Hizbullah and other armed groups from acquiring weapons and building paramilitary capacity" outside the authority of the state.

Lebanon's longtime Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri often seems like a veteran schoolteacher with a class of unruly students, using threats and jokes and occasional gavel-pounding to keep the assembly in order.

The 80-year-old has held the job for a quarter-century, and is set to be re-elected as speaker for a sixth time on Wednesday, when the new assembly convenes after national elections earlier this month — the first in nine years.