Hurricane Melissa was strengthening rapidly late Saturday, threatening to become a major hurricane and cause catastrophic flooding in the northern Caribbean, including Haiti and Jamaica.

Melissa became a hurricane on Saturday, prompting U.S. forecasters to issue a hurricane warning for Jamaica, saying it could reach the island as a major storm early next week. Forecasters warned that Melissa could reach Category 4.

“Life-threatening and catastrophic flash flooding and landslides are expected in portions of southern Hispaniola and Jamaica into early next week,” the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Saturday evening.

As of late Saturday, Melissa had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph, and was located about 130 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica. It was also about 260 miles west-southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and was moving westward at 3 mph.

The slow-moving storm was expected to drop torrential rain, up to 25 inches, on Jamaica, according to the hurricane center. Up to 35 inches of rain could pound the Tiburon peninsula in southwestern Haiti.

The Cuban government on Saturday afternoon issued a hurricane watch for the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Holguin.

Melissa is forecast to hit eastern Cuba early Wednesday, where up to 12 inches could fall in some areas.

The erratic and slow-moving storm has killed at least three people in Haiti and a fourth person in the Dominican Republic, where another person remains missing.

The Navy began evacuating hundreds of U.S. citizens and their pets to Florida from the Navy base at Guantánamo Bay on Saturday.

FBI indicts dozens on Philly drug charges

More than two dozen people have been indicted on drug-related charges as part of a yearslong investigation into a gang in Philadelphia, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Friday.

Cocaine, fentanyl and heroin were sold in the Kensington area in “one of the most prolific drug blocks in the city” from Jan. 2016 to Oct. 2025, according to the indictment.

The group of 33 people were charged with 41 counts related to drug distribution, and the indictment said they maintained control of the area through violence and threats against rivals.

The main area where the gang operated was essentially “owned” by Jose Antonio Morales Nieves, 45, known as “Flaco,” the indictment says. Other members paid him “rent” to sell drugs there. More than 20 people were arrested Friday.

Members had assigned shifts and “well-defined” roles such as setting up a schedule at all hours for the block, managing money, looking out for police, resupplying drugs and carrying out violence against rival gangs, the indictment says.

Texas baby rescued from overturned car

Authorities in Texas say a baby is expected to make a full recovery after it was pulled from under a vehicle that had flipped during a crash.

Body camera footage released by the Fort Worth Police Department shows an officer running toward the overturned car Thursday morning. Both the mother and child had been ejected.

The officer rallied bystanders at the scene to lift the car just enough to pull the 1-year-old to safety.

The child was unresponsive at first, but resuscitation efforts paid off and the child eventually began to cry. Police said both the mother and child were expected to make a full recovery.

Harris doesn’t rule out second presidential race

Kamala Harris isn’t ruling out another run for the White House.

Harris was asked about the possibility in an interview with the BBC posted online Saturday. She said she expects a woman will be president in the coming years, and it could possibly be her.

The former vice president said she’s “not done” but hasn’t decided whether to run in 2028. She dismissed the suggestion that she’d face long odds.

Harris replaced then-President Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee after he dropped out of the race. She ultimately lost to Republican President Donald Trump.

N.J. officer charged for sidetrack on murder call

A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors say he didn’t quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead stopping at an ATM and pizzeria.

Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 60 miles from Manhattan in central New Jersey, according to Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office.

Prosecutors say GPS data and surveillance video show Bollaro drove nearly two miles in the opposite direction of the caller’s location to a bank ATM.

When he arrived at the location of the first caller, the officer told the dispatcher he didn’t hear anything and said he would continue to the locations of the other callers. But Robeson’s office said GPS data shows he never visited those locations before he asked the dispatcher to clear him from the scene.

They say Bollaro instead headed to Duke’s Pizzeria in Pittstown, where he remained for nearly an hour. Witnesses later saw him park and enter another local restaurant, where he remained for roughly another hour, prosecutors said.

Bollaro later submitted a report in which prosecutors say he made false statements about the extent of his investigation.

The following day, the bodies of Lauren Semanchik, 33, and Tyler Webb, 29, were found in a home roughly 600 feet away from the location of the first 911 caller. Prosecutors say the two had been shot to death by New Jersey State Police Lieutenant Ricardo Santos, who had later killed himself.

East Timor joins ASEAN, first add in decades

East Timor’s prime minister told leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that it was a “dream realized” for his nation to be admitted to the bloc and an opportunity as it seeks to boost its struggling economy.

“Today, history is made,” Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao told the other leaders as the flag of East Timor, also known as Timor Leste, was added to the other 10 on the stage at a formal ceremony in Kuala Lumpur.

It was ASEAN’s first expansion since the 1990s and was more than a decade in the making.

The integration of the region’s youngest and poorest nation — with just 1.4 million people — demonstrates ASEAN’s “inclusivity and adaptability, especially at a time of geopolitical flux,” said Angeline Tan, an analyst with Malaysia’s Institute of Strategic & International Studies.

Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit dies

Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit, who supervised royal projects to help the rural poor, preserve traditional craft-making and protect the environment, died on Friday. She was 93.

The Royal Household Bureau said she died in a hospital in Bangkok, adding that she began suffering from a blood infection on Oct. 17 and despite her medical team’s efforts, her condition did not improve.

Although overshadowed by her late husband and her son, the current king, Sirikit was beloved and influential in her own right. Her portrait was displayed in homes, offices and public spaces across Thailand and her Aug. 12 birthday was celebrated as Mother’s Day. Her activities ranged from helping Cambodian refugees to saving some of the country’s once-lush forests from destruction.

Independent elected as Irish president

Left-wing independent Catherine Connolly, who secured the backing of Ireland’s left-leaning parties including Sinn Féin, has won the country’s presidential election in a landslide victory against her center-right rival.

Official results showed strong voter support for Connolly as president, a largely ceremonial role in Ireland. She won 63% of first-preference votes once spoiled votes were excluded, compared to 29% of her rival Heather Humphreys, of the center-right party Fine Gael.

Connolly, 68, said Saturday evening at Dublin Castle that she would champion diversity and be a voice for peace and one that “builds on our policy of neutrality.”

— From news services