GitLab

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

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

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

Netanyahu has signaled he would resume the war, even if that indicates leaving lots of hostages in captivity. "President Trump completely agreed with me: We will do whatever to return all the captives, however Hamas will not exist," Netanyahu said after the exchange.

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

Israelis' delight 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 employees launched after being imprisoned for over a year in Gaza arrived in Bangkok on Sunday.

Sarusak Rumnao, 32, Watchara Sriaoun, 33, Sathian Suwannakham, 35, Pongsak Thaenna, 36, funsilo.date and Bannawat Saethao, 27, were freed on Jan. 30 as part of an exchange arrangement.

They were accepted by member of the family, some of whom cried, 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 welcome home the released hostages.

"We are all very grateful and very pleased that we get to go back to our homeland. We all would truly like to thank you. I wear ´ t know what else to state," Pongsak told a press conference at the airport.

Maris said the Thai federal government "never ever gave up hope and here is the result today. The tears of joy are our support." He included 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 state no thanks

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - Groups representing some of South Africa's white minority responded Saturday to a strategy by President Donald Trump to offer 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 monetary assistance to South Africa as punishment 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 federal government of allowing violent attacks on white Afrikaner farmers and introducing a land expropriation law that allows it to "take ethnic minority Afrikaners' agricultural residential or commercial property without payment."

The South African government has rejected there are any collective attacks on white farmers and has said that Trump's description of the colony law is full of misinformation and distortions.

Afrikaners are descended from mainly Dutch, however also French and German colonial settlers who initially arrived in South Africa more than 300 years earlier. They speak Afrikaans, a language obtained from Dutch that developed 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 jolt

WASHINGTON (AP) - Three weeks in, President Donald Trump keeps cranking out executive orders developed to remake the federal government while billionaire Elon Musk hunts for more methods to upend the federal labor force.

Trump likewise provoked - then aborted - trade wars with Canada and Mexico but allowed one with China to move on. He apparently downplayed potentially thorny political issues while insisting he was severe about the United States taking Gaza, emptying out its residents and redeveloping the location into "the Riviera of the Middle East." It was a concept that buddy and enemy alike around the world rejected.

Here are some Week 3 takeaways:

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

Just like Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden before him, Trump used Inauguration Day to put pen to paper on actions suggested to erase big numbers of his predecessor's policies. Trump likewise released 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 environment accord and keep TikTok functioning.

31 thought Maoist rebels and 2 policemans are eliminated in forest battle in main India

PATNA, India (AP) - At least 31 suspected Maoist rebels and two cops authorities were killed on Sunday in the deadliest battle up until now this year in main India, cops said.

Hundreds of authorities and paramilitary soldiers launched an operation in the forests of the Indravati area of Chhattisgarh state based on intelligence that large number of rebels had gathered there, said state cops Inspector General Pattilingam Sundarraj.

Sundarraj said as the troops conducted a search operation battling appeared in the forest, eliminating at least 31 insurgents and 2 police authorities. Two other authorities were hurt. He said search operations were continuing in the area and the soldiers had recovered some arms and ammunition, consisting of automated rifles.

There was no instant declaration from the rebels.

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

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

CAIRO (AP) - Libya authorities discovered nearly 50 bodies today from two mass graves in the country ´ s southeastern desert, officials said Sunday, in the most current catastrophe involving people looking for to reach Europe through the chaos-stricken North African nation.

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

Authorities published images on its Facebook page revealing cops officers 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 eliminated before being buried in the mass tomb.

A different mass tomb 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 grave, he included. Authorities were still searching the area.

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

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

Nearly 1,000 personnel, including armed authorities, firemens and physician, continued to operate in the rescue operation following the landslide in the town of Jinping in Junlian county on Saturday. Some officers navigated through the remains of collapsed buildings, utilizing drones and life-detection radars to locate any signs of life with the aid of local authorities who recognized with the location, state broadcaster CCTV said.

They saved two injured people and evacuated about 360 other individuals after 10 houses and a production building were buried, CCTV reported.

At a news conference Sunday, authorities said initial assessments associated the disaster to current heavy rainfall and local geological conditions. They said these elements transformed a landslide into a particles circulation, resulting in an accumulation of debris extending about 1.2 kilometers (majority a mile) in length, with an overall volume exceeding 100,000 cubic meters (3.5 million cubic feet).

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong was at the website to guide the rescue operation and visited the impacted residents. He prompted authorities to strive to look for the missing individuals, according to main news firm Xinhua.

Kosovo choose brand-new parliament as foreign aid diminishes and talks with Serbia are stalled

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - Kosovars cast their votes Sunday in a parliamentary election thought about a crucial test for Prime Minister Albin Kurti as talks on normalizing ties with competing Serbia remain stalled and foreign financing 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 but is not expected to win the required bulk to govern alone, leaving open the possibility the other 2 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 crimes, and the Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, the earliest celebration in the country that lost much of its support after the death in 2006 of its leader, Ibrahim Rugova.

The parties made big-ticket promises to increase public incomes and pensions, improve education and health services, and battle hardship. However, they did not explain where the cash would come from, nor how they would bring in more foreign investment.

Kurti has actually been at odds with Western powers after his Cabinet took numerous steps that raised tensions with Serbia and ethnic Serbs, consisting of the ban on the use of 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 advised the federal government in Pristina to refrain from unilateral actions, fearing the revival of inter-ethnic conflict.

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

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Authorities are working to recover the wreckage of an airplane crash in western Alaska that killed 10 people while detectives are attempting 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 vanished Thursday afternoon. The Bering Air airplane was discovered the next day after a substantial search. Nine passengers and the pilot were eliminated.

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

Here are things to understand about the airplane crash, which is among the deadliest 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 trip, and the aircraft went missing out on about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Nome.

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Trump's AI ambition and China's DeepSeek eclipse an AI top in Paris

PARIS (AP) - The geopolitics of synthetic intelligence will remain in focus at a significant summit in France where world leaders, executives and professionals will work out pledges on directing the development of the rapidly advancing innovation.

It's the current in a series of global discussions around AI governance, but one that comes at a fresh inflection point as China's buzzy and budget-friendly DeepSeek chatbot shakes up the market.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance - making his very first journey abroad given that taking office - will participate in the Paris AI Action Summit starting Feb. 10, while China's President Xi Jinping will be sending his special envoy, indicating high stakes for the meeting.

Here's a breakdown:

Presidents and leading federal government authorities, tech bosses and researchers are gathering in Paris for the two-day summit cohosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The occasion aims to deal with how to harness expert system ´ s potential so that it benefits everybody, while containing the innovation ´ s myriad risks.