GitLab

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

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - Hamas-led militants released three gaunt, frail-looking Israeli captives and Israel released nearly 200 Palestinian detainees Saturday in the current exchange of a ceasefire that has paused 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 might increase pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend the ceasefire beyond its existing six-week phase.

Netanyahu has actually signified he would resume the war, even if that indicates leaving lots of captives in captivity. "President Trump entirely concurred with me: We will do whatever to return all the captives, but Hamas will not be there," Netanyahu said after the exchange.

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

Israelis' pleasure 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 employees released after being held hostage for over a year in Gaza arrived in Bangkok on Sunday.

Sarusak Rumnao, 32, Watchara Sriaoun, 33, photorum.eclat-mauve.fr Sathian Suwannakham, 35, Pongsak Thaenna, 36, and Bannawat Saethao, 27, were freed on Jan. 30 as part of an exchange plan.

They were embraced by member of the family, some of whom wept, in the arrivals hall at Suvarnabhumi airport. Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sagniampongsa and the Israeli Ambassador wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de to Thailand Orna Sagiv were both at the airport to invite home the released hostages.

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

Maris said the Thai federal government "never gave up hope and here is the outcome today. The tears of happiness are our support." He added that Bangkok would continue working to protect the release of the remaining Thai hostage.

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

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - Groups representing a few of South Africa's white minority responded Saturday to a strategy by President Donald Trump to provide them refugee status and resettlement in the United States by stating: thanks, but 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 violations" by the federal government against some of its white citizens.

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

The South African federal government has actually rejected there are any collective attacks on white farmers and has actually said that Trump's description of the new land oke.zone law has lots of false information and distortions.

Afrikaners are descended from mainly Dutch, however likewise French and German colonial inhabitants who first got here in South Africa more than 300 years back. They speak Afrikaans, a language obtained from Dutch that developed in South Africa, and are unique 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 jolt

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

Trump also provoked - then cancelled - trade wars with Canada and Mexico but allowed one with China to progress. He seemingly minimized potentially thorny political problems while insisting he was serious about the United States seizing Gaza, clearing out its homeowners and redeveloping the area into "the Riviera of the Middle East." It was a concept that good friend and enemy alike worldwide turned down.

Here are some Week 3 takeaways:

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

Just like Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden before him, Trump utilized Inauguration Day to put pen to paper on actions implied 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 environment accord and keep TikTok operating.

31 believed Maoist rebels and 2 policemans are killed in forest combat in main India

PATNA, India (AP) - At least 31 presumed Maoist rebels and 2 police officials were killed on Sunday in the most dangerous battle so far this year in main India, cops said.

Numerous authorities and paramilitary soldiers launched an operation in the forests of the Indravati location of Chhattisgarh state based upon intelligence that big number of rebels had gathered there, said state police Inspector General Pattilingam Sundarraj.

Sundarraj said as the soldiers performed a search operation combating erupted in the forest, killing at least 31 insurgents and two authorities authorities. Two other cops were injured. He said search operations were continuing in the location and the troops had recovered some arms and ammunition, including automated rifles.

There was no immediate declaration from the rebels.

Sunday's battling is the biggest up until now this year and the second significant clash in less than a month in Chhattisgarh, according to law enforcement officers Jitendra Yadav.

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

CAIRO (AP) - Libya authorities revealed almost 50 bodies this week from two mass graves in the nation ´ s southeastern desert, authorities said Sunday, in the most recent catastrophe including 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, including that authorities took them for autopsy.

Authorities published images on its Facebook page showing law enforcement officer and medics digging in the sand and recuperating 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 separate mass tomb with a minimum of 30 bodies was likewise found in Kufra after raiding a human trafficking center, according to Mohamed al-Fadeil, head of the security chamber in Kufra. Survivors said nearly 70 individuals were buried in the grave, he included. Authorities were still searching 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 fought against time Sunday to find 28 individuals missing out on after a rain-triggered landslide eliminated a single person and buried homes.

Nearly 1,000 personnel, consisting of armed police, firefighters and medical specialists, 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 locate any signs of life with the aid of regional authorities who recognized with the area, state broadcaster CCTV said.

They rescued 2 hurt people and evacuated about 360 other individuals after 10 homes and a production building were buried, CCTV reported.

At a news conference Sunday, authorities said initial evaluations attributed the disaster to current heavy rainfall and regional geological conditions. They said these elements transformed a landslide into a particles circulation, resulting in a build-up of particles stretching 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 assist the rescue operation and visited the impacted residents. He advised authorities to make every effort to search for the missing individuals, according to main news firm 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 crucial test for Prime Minister Albin Kurti as talks on normalizing ties with rival Serbia remain stalled and foreign financing for among Europe's poorest in question.

Kurti ´ s left-wing Vetevendosje!, or Self-Determination Movement Party, is viewed as the front-runner but is not expected to win the necessary bulk to govern alone, leaving open the possibility the other two contenders 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, and the Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, the oldest celebration in the nation that lost much of its support after the death in 2006 of its leader, Ibrahim Rugova.

The celebrations made big-ticket pledges to increase public incomes and pensions, improve education and health services, and battle poverty. However, they did not explain where the money would originate from, nor how they would attract more foreign financial investment.

Kurti has been at chances with Western powers after his Cabinet took numerous actions that raised stress 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 on Belgrade ´ s social services and payments. The U.S., the European Union and the NATO-led stabilization force KFOR have urged the 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 eliminated 10 individuals

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Authorities are working to recover the wreckage of an airplane crash in western Alaska that eliminated 10 individuals while detectives are attempting to identify what triggered the little commuter aircraft to go down in the icy Bering Sea.

The single-engine turboprop airplane was traveling from Unalakleet to the center neighborhood of Nome when it disappeared Thursday afternoon. The Bering Air airplane was discovered the next day after a substantial search. Nine guests and the pilot were eliminated.

Crews on Saturday succeeded 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 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 regularly arranged commuter journey, and the aircraft went missing about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Nome.

___

Trump's AI ambition and China's DeepSeek overshadow an AI summit in Paris

PARIS (AP) - The geopolitics of expert system will remain in focus at a significant summit in France where world leaders, executives and specialists will hammer out promises on guiding the advancement of the quickly advancing technology.

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

U.S. Vice President JD Vance - making his first trip abroad considering that taking workplace - will attend the Paris AI Action Summit beginning Feb. 10, while China's President Xi Jinping will be sending his unique envoy, signaling high stakes for the meeting.

Here's a breakdown:

Presidents and leading government authorities, tech employers and researchers are collecting in Paris for the two-day top cohosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The event aims to resolve how to harness expert system ´ s potential so that it benefits everyone, while containing the technology ´ s myriad dangers.