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

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

The captives ´ condition and scenes of Hamas requiring 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 present six-week phase.

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

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

Israelis' happiness 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 released after being held captive 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 released on Jan. 30 as part of an exchange arrangement.

They were welcomed by relative, 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 welcome home the freed hostages.

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

Maris said the Thai federal government "never ever provided up hope and here is the result today. The tears of pleasure are our encouragement." He included that Bangkok would continue working to secure 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 reacted 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 plan 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 government against a few 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 enables it to "take ethnic minority Afrikaners' agricultural home without settlement."

The South African federal government has denied there are any concerted attacks on white farmers and has said that Trump's description of the brand-new land law has plenty of misinformation and distortions.

Afrikaners are descended from mainly Dutch, however likewise French and German colonial settlers who initially arrived in South Africa more than 300 years ago. They speak Afrikaans, a language obtained from Dutch that established in South Africa, and stand out 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 hunts for more ways to upend the federal labor force.

Trump likewise provoked - then called off - trade wars with Canada and Mexico but allowed one with China to progress. He relatively downplayed potentially tough political issues while insisting he was severe about the United States taking Gaza, clearing out its residents and redeveloping the location into "the Riviera of the Middle East." It was a concept that pal and enemy alike around the world turned down.

Here are some Week 3 takeaways:

Trump has invested 20 days in workplace, and on nearly every one of them, he has actually signed executive orders - often several.

Just like Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden before him, Trump used Inauguration Day to put pen to paper on actions implied to erase large numbers of his predecessor's policies. Trump likewise provided Day 1 orders to pardon most members of the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord and keep TikTok operating.

31 presumed Maoist rebels and 2 law enforcement officers are eliminated in forest combat in main India

PATNA, India (AP) - At least 31 believed Maoist rebels and two cops officials were eliminated on Sunday in the deadliest fight up until now this year in main India, police said.

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

Sundarraj said as the troops conducted a search operation battling appeared in the forest, killing at least 31 insurgents and 2 cops authorities. Two other police were injured. He said search operations were continuing in the area and the troops had actually recovered some arms and ammunition, including automated rifles.

There was no instant declaration from the rebels.

Sunday's combating is the most significant up until now this year and the 2nd significant clash in less than a month in Chhattisgarh, according to cops officer Jitendra Yadav.

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

CAIRO (AP) - Libya authorities discovered almost 50 bodies today from 2 mass graves in the nation ´ s southeastern desert, authorities said Sunday, in the current tragedy including individuals 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 declaration, adding that authorities took them for autopsy.

Authorities posted images on its Facebook page showing policeman and medics digging in the sand and recovering dead bodies that were wrapped in blankets.

The al-Abreen charity, which assists migrants in eastern and southern Libya, said that some were obviously shot and eliminated before being buried in the mass grave.

A separate mass grave 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, disgaeawiki.info he added. Authorities were still searching the location.

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 eliminated someone and buried homes.

Nearly 1,000 personnel, including armed police, firefighters and medical professionals, continued to operate 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 officials who were familiar with the area, accc.rcec.sinica.edu.tw state broadcaster CCTV said.

They saved 2 hurt individuals and evacuated about 360 other individuals after 10 houses and a manufacturing structure were buried, CCTV reported.

At a news conference Sunday, authorities said preliminary assessments attributed the catastrophe to current heavy rainfall and local geological conditions. They said these factors changed a landslide into a debris flow, leading to a build-up of particles extending about 1.2 kilometers (over half a mile) in length, with a total volume surpassing 100,000 cubic meters (3.5 million cubic feet).

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong was at the site to direct the rescue operation and went to the impacted homeowners. He advised authorities to make every effort to look for the missing individuals, according to main news agency 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 stabilizing ties with competing Serbia remain stalled and foreign funding for among Europe's poorest countries in concern.

Kurti ´ s left-wing Vetevendosje!, sciencewiki.science or Self-Determination Movement Party, is seen as the front-runner but is not expected to win the necessary bulk to govern alone, leaving open the possibility the other 2 competitors sign up with ranks if he fails to form a .

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 funsilo.date the Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, the earliest celebration in the nation 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 poverty. However, they did not explain where the cash would originate from, nor how they would bring in more foreign financial investment.

Kurti has actually been at odds with Western powers after his Cabinet took several actions that raised tensions with Serbia and ethnic Serbs, including the restriction 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 actually prompted 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 recuperate the wreckage of an airplane crash in western Alaska that eliminated 10 people while private investigators are attempting 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 neighborhood of Nome when it disappeared Thursday afternoon. The Bering Air airplane was discovered the next day after a substantial search. Nine passengers and the pilot were killed.

Crews on Saturday was successful in recuperating the remains of those eliminated in the crash from a wandering ice floe before the awaited beginning 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 scheduled commuter trip, forums.cgb.designknights.com 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 top in Paris

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

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

U.S. Vice President JD Vance - making his very first journey abroad given that taking workplace - will go to 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 conference.

Here's a breakdown:

Heads of state and leading government officials, tech managers and scientists are gathering in Paris for the two-day top cohosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and photorum.eclat-mauve.fr Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The occasion aims to address how to harness expert system ´ s prospective so that it benefits everyone, while containing the innovation ´ s myriad dangers.