GitLab

Hamas launches 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 newest exchange of a ceasefire that has actually stopped briefly 16 months of war in Gaza.

The captives ´ condition and scenes of Hamas forcing them to speak in a handover event 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 signaled he would resume the war, even if that suggests leaving dozens of captives in captivity. "President Trump entirely concurred with me: We will do whatever to return all the captives, 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 throughout the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that triggered the war.

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

Released Thai captives go back to Bangkok after being held for over a year in Gaza

BANGKOK (AP) - Five Thai workers released after being held captive for over a year in Gaza showed up 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 relative, a few 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 captives.

"We are all very grateful and really pleased that we get to go back to our homeland. We all would really like to thank you. I put on ´ t understand what else to state," Pongsak informed a press conference at the airport.

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

Trump says 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 saying: thanks, asteroidsathome.net however no thanks.

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

The Trump administration implicated the South African federal government of allowing violent attacks on white Afrikaner farmers and presenting a land expropriation law that enables it to "seize ethnic minority Afrikaners' agricultural property without payment."

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

Afrikaners are descended from mainly Dutch, but likewise French and German colonial inhabitants who first arrived in South Africa more than 300 years earlier. 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 shock

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

Trump likewise provoked - then aborted - trade wars with Canada and Mexico but allowed one with China to progress. He apparently downplayed potentially tough political issues while insisting he was severe about the United States seizing Gaza, emptying out its homeowners and redeveloping the area into "the Riviera of the Middle East." It was a concept that buddy and enemy alike around the globe turned down.

Here are some Week 3 takeaways:

Trump has spent 20 days in workplace, and on almost each of them, he has signed executive orders - typically several.

Much Like Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden before him, Trump used Inauguration Day to put pen to paper on actions indicated to wipe out great deals of his predecessor's policies. Trump also provided 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 working.

31 presumed Maoist rebels and 2 authorities officers are killed in forest combat in main India

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

Hundreds of authorities and paramilitary soldiers introduced an operation in the forests of the Indravati area of Chhattisgarh state based on intelligence that a great deal of rebels had collected there, said state cops Inspector General Pattilingam Sundarraj.

Sundarraj said as the soldiers conducted a search operation combating erupted in the forest, killing at least 31 insurgents and 2 authorities officials. Two other authorities were hurt. He said search operations were continuing in the location and the troops had actually recuperated some arms and ammunition, including automatic rifles.

There was no immediate statement from the rebels.

Sunday's fighting is the biggest so far this year and the second significant clash in less than a month in Chhattisgarh, according to police officer Jitendra Yadav.

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

CAIRO (AP) - Libya authorities revealed nearly 50 bodies today from 2 mass graves in the nation ´ s southeastern desert, said Sunday, in the most recent disaster involving people seeking to reach Europe through the chaos-stricken North African nation.

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, adding that authorities took them for autopsy.

Authorities published images on its Facebook page revealing police officers 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 obviously shot and eliminated before being buried in the mass grave.

A different mass tomb with at least 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 nearly 70 individuals 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 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 individual and buried homes.

Nearly 1,000 workers, consisting of armed cops, 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 officials who were familiar with the location, state broadcaster CCTV said.

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

At a news conference Sunday, authorities said preliminary assessments attributed the catastrophe to recent heavy rainfall and local geological conditions. They said these elements transformed a landslide into a debris flow, resulting in a build-up of particles stretching about 1.2 kilometers (more than half a mile) in length, with an overall 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 larsaluarna.se visited the impacted homeowners. He urged authorities to strive to look for the missing individuals, according to main news agency Xinhua.

Kosovo choose new parliament as foreign aid diminishes 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 stabilizing 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 anticipated to win the needed bulk to govern alone, exposing the possibility the other two competitors join 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 activities, and the Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, the earliest 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 incomes 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 actually been at odds with Western powers after his Cabinet took several steps that raised stress with Serbia and ethnic Serbs, galgbtqhistoryproject.org consisting of the restriction 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 urged 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 eliminated 10 people

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

The single-engine turboprop airplane was taking a trip from Unalakleet to the center community of Nome when it vanished Thursday afternoon. The Bering Air airplane was discovered the next day after a comprehensive search. Nine travelers and the pilot were eliminated.

Crews on Saturday succeeded in recovering the remains of those eliminated in the crash from a wandering ice floe before the awaited start of high winds and snow.

Here are things to understand about the airplane crash, which is one of 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 routinely set up commuter trip, 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 summit in Paris

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

It's the most recent in a series of international discussions around AI governance, however one that comes at a fresh inflection point as China's buzzy and affordable DeepSeek chatbot shocks the market.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance - making his very first trip abroad given 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, signifying high stakes for the conference.

Here's a breakdown:

Presidents and leading federal government authorities, tech employers and scientists 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 address how to harness expert system ´ s potential so that it benefits everyone, while containing the innovation ´ s myriad dangers.