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

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

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

Netanyahu has signaled he would resume the war, even if that means leaving dozens of hostages in captivity. "President Trump entirely concurred with me: We will do everything to return all the captives, however Hamas will not exist," Netanyahu said after the exchange.

Civilians Eli Sharabi, 52; Ohad Ben Ami, 56; and galgbtqhistoryproject.org Or Levy, 34, were amongst about 250 individuals taken throughout the 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 captives go back 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 got here 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 plan.

They were welcomed by member of the family, a few 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 welcome home the released captives.

"We are all very grateful and really happy that we get to go back to our homeland. We all would truly like to thank you. I wear ´ t understand what else to say," Pongsak informed 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 motivation." He added that Bangkok would continue working to protect the release of the remaining Thai captive.

Trump states some white South Africans are oppressed, could 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 provide them refugee status and resettlement in the United States by saying: thanks, but no thanks.

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

The Trump administration accused 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 actually rejected there are any collective attacks on white farmers and has said that Trump's description of the colony law has lots of false information and distortions.

Afrikaners are descended from mainly Dutch, however also French and German colonial settlers who initially got here in South Africa more than 300 years ago. They speak Afrikaans, a language obtained from Dutch that developed in South Africa, and are unique 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 developed to remake the government while billionaire Elon Musk hunts for more methods to upend the federal workforce.

Trump also provoked - then aborted - trade wars with Canada and Mexico but permitted one with China to move on. He apparently minimized potentially tough political problems while insisting he was serious about the United States seizing Gaza, clearing out its residents and redeveloping the area into "the Riviera of the Middle East." It was a concept that buddy and opponent alike around the globe rejected.

Here are some Week 3 takeaways:

Trump has actually spent 20 days in office, and on almost every one of them, he has actually signed executive orders - typically 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 large numbers of his predecessor's policies. Trump also released Day 1 orders to pardon most members of the mob that assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6, setiathome.berkeley.edu 2021, withdraw the U.S. from the Paris environment accord and keep TikTok functioning.

31 suspected Maoist rebels and 2 police officers are killed in forest battle in main India

PATNA, India (AP) - At least 31 presumed Maoist rebels and two authorities authorities were eliminated on Sunday in the most dangerous fight so far this year in main India, police said.

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

Sundarraj said as the soldiers carried out a search operation battling erupted in the forest, killing a minimum of 31 insurgents and 2 authorities authorities. Two other cops were injured. He said search operations were continuing in the area and the troops had actually recuperated some arms and ammo, including automatic rifles.

There was no instant statement from the rebels.

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

2 mass graves with bodies of almost 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, authorities said Sunday, in the most recent catastrophe involving people seeking to reach Europe through the chaos-stricken North African country.

The very first mass grave with 19 bodies was discovered 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 posted images on its Facebook page revealing policeman and medics digging in the sand and recovering dead bodies that were wrapped 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 tomb with at least 30 bodies was also 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 people were buried in the grave, he added. 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 fought against time Sunday to find 28 people missing out on after a rain-triggered landslide killed one individual and buried homes.

Nearly 1,000 personnel, consisting of armed police, sitiosecuador.com firemens and medical specialists, 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 structures, using drones and life-detection radars to find any indications of life with the aid of regional officials who recognized with the area, state broadcaster CCTV said.

They rescued 2 injured people and left about 360 other individuals after 10 houses and a production structure were buried, CCTV reported.

At a news conference Sunday, authorities said initial evaluations attributed the disaster to recent heavy rainfall and local geological conditions. They said these aspects changed a landslide into a particles flow, resulting in an accumulation of debris extending about 1.2 kilometers (over 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 visited the affected homeowners. He advised authorities to make every effort to look for the missing people, according to main news company Xinhua.

Kosovo votes for 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 rival Serbia remain stalled and foreign funding for one of Europe's poorest countries in question.

Kurti ´ s left-wing Vetevendosje!, or Self-Determination Movement Party, is viewed as the front-runner but is not anticipated to win the essential majority to govern alone, leaving open 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 an international criminal tribunal at The Hague implicated of war criminal offenses, and the Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, the oldest party in the country 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, and fight poverty. However, they did not explain where the cash would come from, nor how they would bring in more foreign investment.

Kurti has been at chances with Western powers after his Cabinet took numerous actions that raised stress with Serbia and ethnic Serbs, consisting of the ban on the usage of the Serbian currency and dinar transfers from Serbia to Kosovo ´ s ethnic Serb minority that depends upon Belgrade ´ s social services and bio.rogstecnologia.com.br payments. The U.S., the European Union and the NATO-led stabilization force KFOR have actually advised 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 recover the wreckage of an airplane crash in western Alaska that eliminated 10 people while detectives are trying to identify 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 center community 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 killed.

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

Here are things to learn 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 regularly 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 aspiration and China's DeepSeek overshadow 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 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 very first journey abroad since taking office - will go to the Paris AI Action Summit starting Feb. 10, while China's President Xi Jinping will be sending his special envoy, signaling high stakes for the meeting.

Here's a breakdown:

Presidents and top government officials, 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 occasion aims to address how to harness expert system ´ s possible so that it benefits everybody, while containing the technology ´ s myriad threats.