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

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

The hostages ´ 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 current six-week phase.

Netanyahu has signaled he would resume the war, even if that implies leaving lots of captives in captivity. "President Trump totally agreed with me: We will do everything 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 Levy, 34, were amongst about 250 individuals taken during 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 captives return to Bangkok after being held for over a year in Gaza

BANGKOK (AP) - Five Thai employees launched after being held captive for over a year in Gaza got here in Bangkok on Sunday.

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

They were accepted by relative, 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 invite home the released captives.

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

Maris said the Thai government "never ever quit hope and here is the outcome today. The tears of pleasure are our support." 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 resettled 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 plan by President Donald Trump to use them refugee status and resettlement in the United States by saying: thanks, however no thanks.

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

The Trump administration implicated the South African government of enabling violent attacks on white Afrikaner farmers and presenting a land expropriation law that allows it to "seize ethnic minority Afrikaners' farming property without settlement."

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

Afrikaners are descended from mainly Dutch, however also French and German colonial inhabitants who first got here 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 shock

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

Trump also provoked - then aborted - trade wars with Canada and Mexico however allowed one with China to move on. He seemingly made light of possibly thorny political issues while insisting he was serious about the United States taking Gaza, emptying out its residents and redeveloping the location into "the Riviera of the Middle East." It was an idea that pal and foe alike around the world turned down.

Here are some Week 3 takeaways:

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

Similar To Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden before him, Trump utilized Inauguration Day to put pen to paper on actions suggested to eliminate great deals 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, 2021, withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord and keep TikTok functioning.

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 police authorities were eliminated on Sunday in the deadliest fight up until now this year in main India, cops said.

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

Sundarraj said as the troops performed a search operation combating erupted in the forest, killing at least 31 insurgents and 2 police authorities. Two other cops were hurt. He said search operations were continuing in the location and the soldiers had actually recovered some arms and ammo, including automated rifles.

There was no instant statement from the rebels.

Sunday's battling is the biggest 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 2 mass graves in the country ´ s southeastern desert, officials said Sunday, in the most current catastrophe including people looking for to reach Europe through the chaos-stricken North African country.

The very first mass tomb 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 posted images on its Facebook page showing law enforcement officer 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 grave with at least 30 bodies was also found in Kufra after raiding a human trafficking center, according to Mohamed al-Fadeil, head of the security chamber in Kufra. Survivors said almost 70 individuals were buried in the tomb, he added. Authorities were still searching the area.

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

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

Nearly 1,000 workers, consisting of armed cops, firemens and doctor, continued to operate 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 structures, utilizing drones and life-detection radars to find any signs of life with the aid of regional authorities who were familiar with the area, state broadcaster CCTV said.

They rescued two injured individuals and left about 360 other individuals after 10 houses and a manufacturing building were buried, CCTV reported.

At a news conference Sunday, authorities said preliminary assessments associated the catastrophe to current heavy rainfall and local geological conditions. They said these elements transformed a landslide into a debris flow, resulting in a build-up 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 site to direct the rescue operation and went to the affected citizens. He urged authorities to strive to look for the missing individuals, according to main news company Xinhua.

Kosovo elect new parliament as foreign aid decreases and talks with Serbia are stalled

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - Kosovars cast their votes Sunday in a parliamentary election thought about an essential 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 essential majority to govern alone, exposing 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 photorum.eclat-mauve.fr 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 assistance after the death in 2006 of its leader, Ibrahim Rugova.

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

Kurti has actually been at odds with Western powers after his Cabinet took a number of steps that raised tensions with Serbia and ethnic Serbs, consisting of the restriction on using 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 actually prompted 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 killed 10 individuals

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Authorities are working to recover the wreckage of an airplane crash in western Alaska that eliminated 10 people while private investigators 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 center 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 drifting 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 regularly 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 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 development of the quickly advancing technology.

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

U.S. Vice President JD Vance - making his first trip abroad because taking office - will attend 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:

Heads of state and top federal government authorities, tech managers and researchers are collecting in Paris for the two-day summit cohosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The event aims to attend to how to harness synthetic intelligence ´ s prospective so that it benefits everybody, while containing the innovation ´ s myriad threats.