LONDON -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson cleared a major hurdle in the British House of Commons Monday when lawmakers rejected a challenge to his controversial Internal Market Bill.

MPs voted to give the UK Internal Market Bill a second reading by 340 to 263.

Johnson said the legislation was necessary to prevent the EU taking an "extreme and unreasonable" interpretation of the provisions in the Withdrawal Agreement relating to Northern Ireland. (UK-EU-Internal market bill)

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HOUSTON -- Sally strengthened to a Category 2 Hurricane on Monday as it is moving over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico ahead of making landfall on the U.S. southeast coast.

According to forecast, Sally slowly moves northwest through the Gulf towards the north-central Gulf coast, continuing gaining power before landfall. Forecasters warned that Sally could become a Category 3 major hurricane when making landfall along the coast of Mississipi and Alabama. (US-Hurricane)

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ABUJA -- Two road safety police officers were killed and ten others abducted on Monday in an attack by gunmen in Nigeria's central region, said local authorities.

Bisi Kazeem, the spokesman for the Federal Road Safety Corps, said a total of 26 officers were traveling for a training program when the gunmen struck, attacking the two buses conveying them at Mararaban Udege in the north-central state of Nasarawa. (Nigeria-Gunman-Abduction)

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UNITED NATIONS -- The number of people affected by flooding in Sudan has jumped by 160,000 in just four days to nearly 720,000 with the number of flood-related deaths at 102, UN humanitarians said on Monday.

More than 71,000 homes have been destroyed, another 72,000 damaged and more than 3,300 livestock killed, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. (UN-OCHA-Sudan-Flooding)

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ATHENS -- The bodies of three victims have been recovered, while 53 others have been rescued about 12 nautical miles off southeastern Crete island, after a vessel carrying a still unclear number of refugees and migrants sank, Greece's Coast Guard said on Monday.

A search and rescue operation was underway with the participation of a Navy frigate, Air Force helicopter, and ships sailing nearby, while winds blowing in the area were reaching up to 7 on the Beaufort scale, according to the e-mailed press release. (Greece-Refugee-Migrant)

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MOSCOW -- Four Russian fighter jets intercepted three U.S. strategic bombers over the Black Sea on Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Air defense units of Russia's Southern Military District detected three air targets approaching the Russian state border over the neutral waters of the Black Sea, the ministry's Zvezda broadcasting service said. (Russia-US planes-Interception)