The elite Hezbollah commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike Monday in southern Lebanon fought for the group for decades and took part in some of its biggest battles.

Wissam al-Tawil, a 48-year-old commander in Hezbollah's secretive Radwan Force deployed along the border with Israel, was killed when the strike hit his SUV in his hometown of Khirbet Silem. The strike was about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border, beyond the villages and towns that have witnessed the two sides exchange fire over the past three months.

A major winter storm bringing heavy snow and freezing rain to some communities spread across New England on Sunday, sending residents scurrying for their shovels and snowblowers to clear sidewalks and driveways.

Winter storm warnings and watches were in effect throughout the Northeast, and icy roads made for hazardous travel as far south as North Carolina.

Slovenia's rescuers are hoping on Monday to extract five people who have been trapped in a cave for more than two days because of high water levels.

The rescue operation should be completed by mid-afternoon if everything goes as planned, said Sandi Curk, who is coordinating the effort.

Wall Street pointed lower before the opening bell Monday following its worst week since Halloween.

Futures for the S&P 500 were unchanged, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4%.

U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff will head to the Australian Open with greater confidence in her form and fitness after beating Elina Svitolina in three sets in the Auckland Classic final.

The third-ranked Gauff became only the fourth player to win back-to-back singles in Auckland, achieving the feat at the age of 19.

Rafael Nadal chose to look on the bright side when it comes to the torn hip muscle that will keep him out of the Australian Open and extend his absence from tennis to more than a year.

At least, he told the world via social media on Sunday, this is not the same part of the hip that he hurt in Melbourne last January and that required surgery last June. At least, the 22-time Grand Slam champion explained, he still can point to his main goal for 2024, which remains to be fit and ready to compete in a serious way at the French Open on his beloved red clay.

It has been a slow start to the January transfer window in the Premier League.

Expect that to change pretty quickly.

Flights resumed Monday on a repaired runway at Tokyo's Haneda airport a week after a collision between a Japan Airlines plane and a coast guard aircraft believed to have been caused by human error.

The coastal runway is one of four at Haneda and its reopening means the airport is near returning to normal operations.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un turned 40 on Monday with no announced public celebrations at home, after he entered the new year with artillery barrages into the sea and vows to expand his nuclear arsenal.

Since taking power in late 2011, Kim, the third generation of his family to rule North Korea, is believed to have established an absolute leadership similar to his predecessors. But his birthday has yet to be officially celebrated, unlike his late father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung. Their birthdays are two of the North's biggest holidays and are marked with great fanfare, loyalty campaigns and sometimes massive military parades.

Farmers blocked highway access roads in parts of Germany Monday and gathered for demonstrations, launching a week of protests against a government plan to scrap tax breaks on diesel used in agriculture.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's unpopular three-party coalition infuriated farmers last month by drawing up plans to abolish a car tax exemption for farming vehicles and the diesel tax breaks. The proposals were part of a package to fill a 17-billion-euro ($18.6-billion) hole in the 2024 budget.