AP News in Brief At 6:04 A.m. EST .
Hamas launches 3 frail-looking Israeli captives for Palestinian detainees under Gaza ceasefire
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - Hamas-led militants released 3 gaunt, frail-looking Israeli hostages and Israel released almost 200 Palestinian detainees Saturday in the most current exchange of a ceasefire that has stopped briefly 16 months of war in Gaza.
The hostages ´ condition and scenes of Hamas requiring 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 actually signified he would resume the war, even if that means leaving lots of hostages in captivity. "President Trump entirely agreed with me: We will do whatever 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 among about 250 individuals taken during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, kenpoguy.com that stimulated the war.
Israelis' happiness turned to shock and tears when they saw their emaciated state.
Released Thai captives return to Bangkok after being held for over a year in Gaza
BANGKOK (AP) - Five Thai workers launched after being held hostage for over a year in Gaza arrived in Bangkok on Sunday.
Sarusak Rumnao, 32, Watchara Sriaoun, 33, Sathian Suwannakham, 35, Pongsak Thaenna, 36, and Bannawat Saethao, 27, were freed on Jan. 30 as part of an exchange arrangement.
They were accepted by family members, some of whom sobbed, 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 very grateful and extremely delighted that we get to return to our homeland. We all would really like to thank you. I wear ´ t know what else to say," Pongsak told a press conference at the airport.
Maris said the Thai federal government "never ever quit hope and here is the outcome today. The tears of happiness are our motivation." He added that Bangkok would continue working to protect the release of the remaining Thai hostage.
Trump states some white South Africans are oppressed, might 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 strategy by President Donald Trump to provide them refugee status and resettlement in the United States by stating: thanks, however no thanks.
The strategy was detailed in an executive order Trump signed Friday that stopped all aid and wiki.asexuality.org financial assistance to South Africa as penalty for what the Trump administration said were "rights infractions" by the federal government against some of its white citizens.
The Trump administration implicated the South African government of permitting violent attacks on white Afrikaner farmers and introducing a land expropriation law that allows it to "take ethnic minority Afrikaners' agricultural home without payment."
The South African government has denied there are any collective attacks on white farmers and has said that Trump's description of the new land law is complete of false information and distortions.
Afrikaners are descended from mainly Dutch, however also French and German colonial inhabitants who initially showed up in South Africa more than 300 years ago. They speak Afrikaans, a language obtained from Dutch that developed in South Africa, and are distinct from other white South Africans who originate 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 methods to overthrow the federal labor force.
Trump also provoked - then called off - trade wars with Canada and Mexico but allowed one with China to progress. He relatively minimized possibly thorny political concerns while insisting he was severe about the United States seizing Gaza, clearing out its homeowners and redeveloping the location into "the Riviera of the Middle East." It was a concept that friend and enemy alike all over the world rejected.
Here are some Week 3 takeaways:
Trump has actually spent 20 days in workplace, and on nearly every one of them, he has signed executive orders - often a number of.
Just like Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden before him, Trump used Inauguration Day to put pen to paper on actions implied to wipe out large numbers of his predecessor's policies. Trump likewise 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 killed in forest fight in main India
PATNA, India (AP) - At least 31 presumed Maoist rebels and two authorities officials were eliminated on Sunday in the most dangerous battle up until now this year in main India, police said.
Numerous authorities and paramilitary soldiers launched an operation in the forests of the Indravati area of Chhattisgarh state based on intelligence that a great deal of rebels had gathered there, said state authorities Inspector General Pattilingam Sundarraj.
Sundarraj said as the troops performed a search operation combating erupted in the forest, eliminating at least 31 insurgents and two authorities authorities. Two other authorities were injured. He said search operations were continuing in the location and the soldiers had recuperated some arms and ammo, consisting of automatic rifles.
There was no instant declaration from the rebels.
Sunday's battling is the biggest up until now this year and the 2nd major setiathome.berkeley.edu clash in less than a month in Chhattisgarh, according to policemans Jitendra Yadav.
2 mass graves with bodies of almost 50 migrants found in southeastern Libya
CAIRO (AP) - Libya authorities uncovered almost 50 bodies today from 2 mass graves in the nation ´ s southeastern desert, authorities said Sunday, in the current disaster involving people seeking to reach Europe through the chaos-stricken North African nation.
The very first mass tomb with 19 bodies was found Friday in a farm in the southeastern city of Kufra, the security directorate said in a declaration, adding that authorities took them for autopsy.
Authorities published images on its Facebook page revealing law enforcement officer and medics digging in the sand and recovering dead bodies that were covered in blankets.
The al-Abreen charity, which helps migrants in eastern and southern Libya, said that some were apparently shot and killed before being buried in the mass grave.
A different mass grave with at least 30 bodies was likewise found in Kufra after raiding a human trafficking center, according to Mohamed al-Fadeil, wavedream.wiki head of the security chamber in Kufra. Survivors said almost 70 people were buried in the grave, 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 recovered
BEIJING (AP) - Emergency teams in China's southwestern Sichuan province battled against time Sunday to locate 28 individuals missing out on after a rain-triggered landslide eliminated one person and buried homes.
Nearly 1,000 personnel, including armed cops, firefighters and physician, continued to work in the rescue operation following the landslide in the town of Jinping in Junlian county on Saturday. Some officers browsed through the remains of collapsed buildings, using drones and life-detection radars to find any signs of life with the aid of regional authorities who were familiar with the area, state broadcaster CCTV said.
They rescued two hurt individuals and left about 360 other people after 10 houses and a production building were buried, CCTV reported.
At a press conference Sunday, authorities said preliminary assessments attributed the disaster to current heavy rainfall and regional geological conditions. They said these factors transformed a landslide into a particles circulation, resulting in an accumulation of debris stretching about 1.2 kilometers (more than half a mile) in length, with a total volume going beyond 100,000 cubic meters (3.5 million cubic feet).
Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong was at the website to direct the rescue operation and visited the impacted homeowners. He urged authorities to make every effort to look for the missing people, according to main news company Xinhua.
Kosovo choose brand-new parliament as foreign aid dwindles 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 stabilizing ties with rival Serbia remain stalled and foreign funding for one of Europe's poorest nations in concern.
Kurti ´ s left-wing Vetevendosje!, or Self-Determination Movement Party, is seen as the front-runner however is not anticipated to win the needed bulk to govern alone, exposing the possibility the other two competitors sign up with ranks if he fails to form a Cabinet.
The other challengers are the Democratic Party of Kosovo, or PDK, whose main leaders are detained at a global criminal tribunal at The Hague implicated of war criminal offenses, wiki.vst.hs-furtwangen.de and the of Kosovo, or LDK, the oldest party in the nation that lost much of its support after the death in 2006 of its leader, Ibrahim Rugova.
The parties made big-ticket pledges to increase public wages and pensions, improve education and health services, kenpoguy.com and battle hardship. However, they did not explain where the cash would come from, nor how they would attract more foreign investment.
Kurti has been at chances with Western powers after his Cabinet took several actions that raised stress with Serbia and ethnic Serbs, uconnect.ae consisting of the restriction on using the Serbian currency and dinar transfers from Serbia to Kosovo ´ s ethnic Serb minority that depends on Belgrade ´ s social services and payments. The U.S., the European Union and the NATO-led stabilization force KFOR have prompted the federal 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 eliminated 10 individuals while private investigators are attempting to determine what triggered the small commuter aircraft to go down in the icy Bering Sea.
The single-engine turboprop airplane was traveling from Unalakleet to the hub neighborhood of Nome when it disappeared Thursday afternoon. The Bering Air airplane was discovered the next day after an extensive search. Nine passengers and the pilot were eliminated.
Crews on Saturday prospered in recovering the remains of those killed in the crash from a drifting ice floe before the awaited onset of high winds and snow.
Here are things to learn about the airplane crash, which is among 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 frequently arranged commuter journey, and the aircraft went missing out on about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Nome.
___
Trump's AI aspiration and China's DeepSeek eclipse an AI summit in Paris
PARIS (AP) - The geopolitics of synthetic intelligence will remain in focus at a major summit in France where world leaders, executives and experts will hammer out promises on directing the advancement of the rapidly advancing technology.
It's the most recent in a series of worldwide dialogues around AI governance, however one that comes at a fresh inflection point as China's buzzy and economical DeepSeek chatbot shocks the market.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance - making his first trip abroad since taking office - will go to the Paris AI Action Summit beginning Feb. 10, while China's President Xi Jinping will be sending his unique envoy, indicating high stakes for the meeting.
Here's a breakdown:
Heads of state and leading government authorities, tech employers and researchers are collecting in Paris for the two-day summit cohosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The event aims to resolve how to harness artificial intelligence ´ s prospective so that it benefits everyone, while containing the innovation ´ s myriad dangers.