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

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - Hamas-led militants released 3 gaunt, frail-looking Israeli captives and Israel freed nearly 200 Palestinian detainees Saturday in the latest exchange of a ceasefire that has stopped briefly 16 months of war in Gaza.

The captives ´ condition and scenes of Hamas forcing them to speak in a handover ceremony 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 lots of captives in captivity. "President Trump entirely agreed with me: We will do whatever to return all the captives, however Hamas will not exist," Netanyahu said after the exchange.

Civilians Eli Sharabi, 52; Ohad Ben Ami, 56; and Or Levy, 34, were amongst about 250 people 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 hostages go back to Bangkok after being held for over a year in Gaza

BANGKOK (AP) - Five Thai workers released after being held hostage 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 released on Jan. 30 as part of an exchange arrangement.

They were embraced 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 invite home the freed hostages.

"We are all extremely grateful and extremely pleased that we get to go back to our homeland. We all would actually like to thank you. I wear ´ t know what else to say," Pongsak informed a news conference at the airport.

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

Trump says some white South Africans are oppressed, could be resettled in the US. They state 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 use them refugee status and resettlement in the United States by stating: thanks, however no thanks.

The strategy was detailed in an executive order Trump signed Friday that stopped all aid and monetary help to South Africa as penalty for what the Trump administration said were "rights violations" by the federal government against a few of its white residents.

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

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

Afrikaners are come down from mainly Dutch, but also French and German colonial settlers 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 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 designed to remake the federal government while billionaire Elon Musk hunts for more ways to overthrow the federal labor force.

Trump also provoked - then called off - trade wars with Canada and Mexico but permitted one with China to progress. He apparently played down possibly tough political issues while insisting he was major about the United States taking Gaza, emptying out its locals and redeveloping the location into "the Riviera of the Middle East." It was an idea that buddy and opponent alike around the world turned down.

Here are some Week 3 takeaways:

Trump has actually spent 20 days in workplace, and on nearly each of them, he has signed executive orders - often a number of.

Just like Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden before him, Trump used Inauguration Day to put pen to paper on actions meant to clean out big numbers of his predecessor's policies. Trump also 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 believed Maoist rebels and 2 policemans are eliminated in forest combat in main India

PATNA, India (AP) - A minimum of 31 suspected Maoist rebels and 2 police authorities were eliminated on Sunday in the deadliest battle so far this year in main India, cops said.

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

Sundarraj said as the troops conducted a search appeared in the forest, eliminating a minimum of 31 insurgents and 2 police officials. Two other authorities were hurt. 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 statement from the rebels.

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

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

CAIRO (AP) - Libya authorities discovered almost 50 bodies this week from two mass graves in the nation ´ s southeastern desert, officials said Sunday, in the most recent disaster involving people seeking to reach Europe through the chaos-stricken North African country.

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, adding that authorities took them for autopsy.

Authorities published images on its Facebook page revealing policeman and medics digging in the sand and recuperating dead bodies that were covered in blankets.

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

A different mass grave 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 people were buried in the grave, he added. Authorities were still searching the location.

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

BEIJING (AP) - Emergency teams in China's southwestern Sichuan province fought against time Sunday to locate 28 people missing after a rain-triggered landslide killed someone and buried homes.

Nearly 1,000 personnel, including armed authorities, firefighters and medical experts, 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 buildings, using drones and life-detection radars to locate any signs of life with the aid of local authorities who recognized with the area, state broadcaster CCTV said.

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

At a press conference Sunday, authorities said initial evaluations attributed the catastrophe to current heavy rainfall and local geological conditions. They said these elements changed a landslide into a debris circulation, resulting in a build-up of particles extending about 1.2 kilometers (more than half 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 guide the rescue operation and visited the impacted locals. He urged authorities to strive to search for the missing individuals, according to main news company Xinhua.

Kosovo choose brand-new parliament as foreign aid dwindles 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 funding for among Europe's poorest countries in question.

Kurti ´ s left-wing Vetevendosje!, or Self-Determination Movement Party, is seen as the front-runner but is not expected to win the needed bulk to govern alone, exposing 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 a worldwide criminal tribunal at The Hague accused of war criminal offenses, and the Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, the earliest party in the country 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 salaries and pensions, enhance education and health services, and battle hardship. However, they did not explain where the cash would come from, nor how they would bring in more foreign investment.

Kurti has actually been at odds with Western powers after his Cabinet took a number of actions that raised stress with Serbia and ethnic Serbs, including the restriction 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 advised the 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 people

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Authorities are working to recover the wreckage of an airplane crash in western Alaska that eliminated 10 individuals while private investigators are trying to determine what triggered 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 neighborhood of Nome when it vanished Thursday afternoon. The Bering Air airplane was discovered the next day after a comprehensive 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 start of high winds and annunciogratis.net 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 set up 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 eclipse an AI top in Paris

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

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

U.S. Vice President JD Vance - making his very first journey abroad considering that taking workplace - will go to 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 top federal government authorities, tech managers and scientists are gathering in Paris for the two-day summit cohosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The event aims to resolve how to harness expert system ´ s prospective so that it benefits everyone, while containing the technology ´ s myriad risks.