FRANCE: Parachutists jumping from World War II-era planes hurled themselves today into now peaceful Normandy skies where war once raged, heralding a week of ceremonies for the fast-disappearing generation of allied troops who fought from D-Day beaches 80 years ago to Adolf Hitler’s fall, helping free Europe of his tyranny.

All along the Normandy coastline — where then-young soldiers from across the United States, Britain, Canada and other allied nations waded ashore through hails of fire on five beaches on June 6 1944 — French officials, grateful Normandy survivors and other admirers are saying “merci.”

GERMANY: Flooding, high river levels and heavy rain led to the death of a firefighter and disrupted train travel in southern Germany today.

The body was recovered after an inflatable watercraft carrying four firefighters capsized as they navigated floodwaters to bring residents to safety in the town of Pfaffenhofen, on the Ilm River in the southern Bavaria region.

A long-distance train derailed near the town of Schwaebisch Gmund, some 30 miles east of Stuttgart late on Saturday. 

LEBANON: Two shepherds were killed in an Israeli strike that hit their house in the town of Houla near the Lebanon-Israel border today.

Lebanon’s National News agency said that the men were civilians who used to sell sheep milk to neighbouring villages.

TURKEY: An apartment building collapsed in Istanbul today, killing one person and injuring eight, authorities said. The collapse renewed fears about the resilience of buildings in a city prone to earthquakes.

TV images showed firefighters shifting rubble by hand from the flattened five-storey building in Kucukcekmece, on the city’s European side.