GitLab

Hamas launches 3 frail-looking Israeli hostages for Palestinian detainees under Gaza ceasefire

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - Hamas-led militants released 3 gaunt, frail-looking Israeli captives and Israel freed almost 200 Palestinian detainees Saturday in the current exchange of a ceasefire that has actually paused 16 months of war in Gaza.

The hostages ´ condition and scenes of Hamas forcing them to speak in a handover ceremony stimulated outrage in Israel and could increase pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend the ceasefire beyond its existing six-week stage.

Netanyahu has signified he would resume the war, even if that implies leaving dozens of hostages in captivity. "President Trump entirely agreed with me: We will do everything to return all the hostages, however Hamas will not be there," Netanyahu said after the exchange.

Civilians Eli Sharabi, 52; Ohad Ben Ami, 56; and Or Levy, 34, were amongst about 250 individuals taken during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war.

Israelis' joy turned to shock and tears when they saw their emaciated state.

Released Thai hostages return to Bangkok after being held for over a year in Gaza

BANGKOK (AP) - Five Thai workers launched after being held captive for over a year in Gaza got here in Bangkok on Sunday.

Sarusak Rumnao, yewiki.org 32, Watchara Sriaoun, 33, Sathian Suwannakham, 35, Pongsak Thaenna, 36, and Bannawat Saethao, 27, were released on Jan. 30 as part of an exchange plan.

They were accepted by family members, a few of whom wept, in the arrivals hall at Suvarnabhumi airport. Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sagniampongsa and the Israeli Ambassador to Thailand Orna Sagiv were both at the airport to invite home the freed hostages.

"We are all extremely grateful and extremely delighted that we get to go back to our homeland. All of us would really like to thank you. I don ´ t know what else to state," Pongsak informed a press conference at the airport.

Maris said the Thai government "never ever offered up hope and here is the result today. The tears of pleasure are our support." He included that Bangkok would continue working to protect the release of the remaining Thai captive.

Trump says some white South Africans are oppressed, could be transplanted in the US. They say no thanks

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - Groups representing some of South Africa's white minority reacted Saturday to a plan by President Donald Trump to offer them refugee status and resettlement in the United States by saying: thanks, however no thanks.

The strategy was detailed in an executive order Trump signed Friday that stopped all aid and financial help to South Africa as penalty for what the Trump administration said were "rights offenses" by the federal government against some of its white people.

The Trump administration accused the South African government of permitting violent attacks on white Afrikaner farmers and introducing a land expropriation law that enables it to "take ethnic minority Afrikaners' agricultural home without payment."

The South African federal government has rejected there are any concerted attacks on white farmers and has said that Trump's description of the brand-new land law is full of false information and distortions.

Afrikaners are come down from mainly Dutch, but likewise French and German colonial inhabitants who initially arrived in South Africa more than 300 years back. They speak Afrikaans, a language obtained from Dutch that established in South Africa, and stand out from other white South Africans who come from British or other backgrounds.

Trump's 3rd week saw more executive orders, a trade war that wasn't and a Mideast shock

WASHINGTON (AP) - Three weeks in, President Donald Trump keeps cranking out executive orders created to remake the government while billionaire Elon Musk searches for more ways to overthrow the federal labor force.

Trump likewise provoked - then called off - trade wars with Canada and Mexico but enabled one with China to move forward. He seemingly played down possibly thorny political concerns while insisting he was serious about the United States taking Gaza, clearing out its homeowners and redeveloping the area into "the Riviera of the Middle East." It was an idea that good friend and opponent alike all over the world declined.

Here are some Week 3 takeaways:

Trump has actually invested 20 days in workplace, and on nearly each of them, he has signed executive orders - often a number of.

Similar To Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden before him, Trump utilized Inauguration Day to put pen to paper on actions indicated to erase great deals of his predecessor's policies. Trump also issued Day 1 orders to pardon most members of the mob that assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord and keep TikTok working.

31 thought Maoist rebels and 2 law enforcement officers are eliminated in forest battle in main India

PATNA, India (AP) - A minimum of 31 believed Maoist rebels and two police authorities were killed on Sunday in the most dangerous combat so far this year in main India, police said.

Hundreds of cops and paramilitary soldiers introduced an operation in the forests of the Indravati location of Chhattisgarh state based on intelligence that large number of rebels had collected there, said state police Inspector General Pattilingam Sundarraj.

Sundarraj said as the troops carried out a search operation fighting appeared in the forest, eliminating at least 31 insurgents and 2 cops authorities. Two other authorities were hurt. He said search operations were continuing in the location and the soldiers had recovered some arms and ammunition, consisting of automatic rifles.

There was no immediate statement from the rebels.

Sunday's battling is the greatest so far this year and the 2nd significant clash in less than a month in Chhattisgarh, according to policemans Jitendra Yadav.

2 mass graves with bodies of nearly 50 migrants discovered in southeastern Libya

CAIRO (AP) - Libya authorities uncovered almost 50 bodies today from two mass graves in the country ´ s southeastern desert, officials said Sunday, in the current disaster involving people seeking to reach Europe through the chaos-stricken North African country.

The first mass tomb with 19 bodies was found Friday in a farm in the southeastern city of Kufra, the security directorate said in a statement, including that authorities took them for autopsy.

Authorities published images on its Facebook page revealing policeman and medics digging in the sand and recuperating dead bodies that were wrapped in blankets.

The al-Abreen charity, which assists migrants in eastern and southern Libya, said that some were obviously shot and eliminated before being buried in the mass grave.

A different mass grave with a minimum of 30 bodies was likewise discovered in Kufra after raiding a human trafficking center, according to Mohamed al-Fadeil, head of the security chamber in Kufra. Survivors said almost 70 people were buried in the tomb, he included. Authorities were still browsing the location.

Rescuers hunt for 28 individuals still missing out on after a landslide in southwest China; 1 body recuperated

BEIJING (AP) - Emergency groups in China's southwestern Sichuan province battled against time Sunday to locate 28 people missing after a rain-triggered landslide eliminated one person and buried homes.

Nearly 1,000 workers, including armed cops, firemens and physician, continued to work in the rescue operation following the landslide in the village of Jinping in Junlian county on Saturday. Some officers navigated through the remains of collapsed buildings, using drones and life-detection radars to find any indications of life with the aid of regional officials who were familiar with the area, state broadcaster CCTV said.

They saved two hurt individuals and left about 360 other people after 10 homes and a production structure were buried, CCTV reported.

At a news conference Sunday, authorities said initial assessments associated the catastrophe to recent heavy rainfall and local geological conditions. They said these factors transformed a landslide into a particles flow, leading to an accumulation of particles extending about 1.2 kilometers (majority a mile) in length, with an overall volume surpassing 100,000 cubic meters (3.5 million cubic feet).

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong was at the site to assist the rescue operation and went to the affected citizens. He advised authorities to make every effort to look for the missing people, according to main news agency Xinhua.

Kosovo votes for brand-new parliament as foreign aid decreases and talks with Serbia are stalled

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - Kosovars cast their votes Sunday in a parliamentary election considered a key test for Prime Minister Albin Kurti as talks on normalizing ties with rival Serbia remain stalled and foreign financing for one of Europe's poorest nations in question.

Kurti ´ s left-wing Vetevendosje!, or Self-Determination Movement Party, is seen as the front-runner however is not expected to win the necessary majority to govern alone, exposing the possibility the other 2 competitors sign up with ranks if he fails to form a Cabinet.

The other oppositions are the Democratic Party of Kosovo, or PDK, whose main leaders are detained at a worldwide criminal tribunal at The Hague implicated of war criminal offenses, and the Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, the oldest party in the nation that lost much of its assistance after the death in 2006 of its leader, Ibrahim Rugova.

The parties made big-ticket promises to increase public salaries and pensions, improve education and health services, and fight poverty. However, they did not explain where the cash would come from, nor how they would attract more foreign financial investment.

Kurti has been at chances with Western powers after his Cabinet took numerous steps that raised tensions with Serbia and ethnic Serbs, including the ban on making use of the Serbian currency and dinar transfers from Serbia to Kosovo ´ s ethnic Serb minority that depends upon Belgrade ´ s social services and payments. The U.S., the European Union and the NATO-led stabilization force KFOR have actually prompted the government in Pristina to refrain from unilateral actions, fearing the revival of inter-ethnic dispute.

Here's what we understand about a commuter airplane crash in Alaska that killed 10 people

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Authorities are working to recuperate the wreckage of an airplane crash in western Alaska that killed 10 people while detectives are trying to determine what caused the little commuter aircraft to go down in the icy Bering Sea.

The single-engine turboprop airplane was taking a trip from Unalakleet to the hub community of Nome when it disappeared Thursday afternoon. The Bering Air airplane was discovered the next day after a . Nine guests and the pilot were killed.

Crews on Saturday prospered in recuperating the remains of those killed in the crash from a wandering ice floe before the awaited beginning of high winds and snow.

Here are things to understand about the airplane crash, which is one of the most dangerous airplane crashes in the state in 25 years.

Officials said contact with the Cessna Caravan was lost less than an hour after it left Unalakleet on Thursday. Authorities said the flight was a routinely arranged commuter journey, and the aircraft went missing about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Nome.

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Trump's AI aspiration and China's DeepSeek overshadow an AI top in Paris

PARIS (AP) - The geopolitics of expert system will remain in focus at a major top in France where world leaders, executives and specialists will work out pledges on assisting the development of the quickly advancing technology.

It's the newest in a series of global discussions around AI governance, however one that comes at a fresh inflection point as China's buzzy and economical DeepSeek chatbot shakes up the market.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance - making his very first trip abroad because taking office - will go to the Paris AI Action Summit starting Feb. 10, while China's President Xi Jinping will be sending his unique envoy, indicating high stakes for the conference.

Here's a breakdown:

Heads of state and leading government officials, tech bosses and researchers are collecting in Paris for the two-day summit cohosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The occasion aims to resolve how to harness expert system ´ s possible so that it benefits everybody, while containing the innovation ´ s myriad dangers.