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 hostages and Israel freed almost 200 Palestinian detainees Saturday in the current exchange of a ceasefire that has paused 16 months of war in Gaza.

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

Netanyahu has actually signified he would resume the war, even if that means leaving lots of hostages in captivity. "President Trump entirely agreed 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 people taken during 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 hostages go back 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, 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, some of whom wept, 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 extremely grateful and very delighted 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 press conference at the airport.

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

Trump says some white South Africans are oppressed, could be transplanted 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 offer 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 monetary help to South Africa as punishment for what the Trump administration said were "rights violations" by the government against some of its white people.

The Trump administration accused the South African 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 compensation."

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

Afrikaners are come down from mainly Dutch, but likewise French and German colonial settlers who initially showed up in South Africa more than 300 years back. They speak Afrikaans, a language obtained from Dutch that developed in South Africa, and are distinct 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 jolt

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

Trump also provoked - then aborted - trade wars with Canada and Mexico but enabled one with China to progress. He apparently played down possibly thorny political problems while insisting he was major 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 pal and enemy alike all over the world turned down.

Here are some Week 3 takeaways:

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

Much Like Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden before him, Trump utilized Inauguration Day to put pen to paper on actions implied to erase 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 operating.

31 believed Maoist rebels and 2 policemans are eliminated in forest fight in main India

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

Numerous authorities and paramilitary soldiers launched an operation in the forests of the Indravati location of state based upon intelligence that a great deal of rebels had gathered there, said state police Inspector General Pattilingam Sundarraj.

Sundarraj said as the soldiers conducted a search operation battling erupted in the forest, killing at least 31 insurgents and 2 cops officials. Two other police were hurt. He said search operations were continuing in the location and the soldiers had actually recuperated some arms and ammunition, consisting of automated rifles.

There was no instant statement from the rebels.

Sunday's battling is the greatest so far this year and the second major clash in less than a month in Chhattisgarh, elearnportal.science according to law enforcement officers Jitendra Yadav.

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

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

The very first mass grave with 19 bodies was found Friday in a farm in the southeastern city of Kufra, the security directorate said in a statement, including that authorities took them for garagesale.es autopsy.

Authorities published images on its Facebook page revealing law enforcement officer 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 apparently shot and killed before being buried in the mass tomb.

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 almost 70 people were buried in the grave, he added. Authorities were still browsing the location.

Rescuers hunt for 28 individuals 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 one person and buried homes.

Nearly 1,000 workers, including armed cops, firemens and doctor, continued to work 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 locate any signs of life with the aid of local officials who were familiar with the area, state broadcaster CCTV said.

They saved 2 injured individuals and left about 360 other individuals after 10 homes and a manufacturing building were buried, CCTV reported.

At a press conference Sunday, authorities said initial evaluations associated the disaster to recent heavy rainfall and local geological conditions. They said these elements changed a landslide into a particles circulation, resulting in a build-up of debris extending about 1.2 kilometers (more than 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 assist the rescue operation and checked out the affected citizens. He prompted authorities to strive to search for the missing individuals, according to main news company Xinhua.

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

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - Kosovars cast their votes Sunday in a parliamentary election considered a key test for Prime Minister Albin Kurti as talks on stabilizing ties with rival 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 viewed as the front-runner but is not expected to win the required 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 implicated of war crimes, 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 promises to increase public incomes and pensions, improve education and health services, and fight poverty. However, they did not explain where the money would originate from, nor how they would bring in more foreign financial investment.

Kurti has been at odds with Western powers after his Cabinet took a number of steps that raised tensions with Serbia and ethnic Serbs, including the ban 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 government in Pristina to refrain from unilateral actions, fearing the revival of inter-ethnic dispute.

Here's what we know 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 killed 10 individuals while investigators are trying to determine what triggered the small commuter aircraft to go down in the icy Bering Sea.

The single-engine turboprop airplane was traveling from Unalakleet to the center community of Nome when it vanished Thursday afternoon. The Bering Air airplane was found the next day after an extensive search. Nine travelers and the pilot were killed.

Crews on Saturday prospered in recovering the remains of those killed in the crash from a drifting ice floe before the awaited start of high winds and 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 frequently arranged commuter journey, 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 artificial intelligence will remain in focus at a major top in France where world leaders, executives and experts will hammer out pledges on assisting the development of the rapidly advancing technology.

It's the current 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 shakes up the market.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance - making his very first journey abroad because taking workplace - will go to the Paris AI Action Summit beginning Feb. 10, while China's President Xi Jinping will be sending his special envoy, signifying high stakes for the meeting.

Here's a breakdown:

Presidents and leading government officials, tech managers and scientists are gathering in Paris for the two-day top cohosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The occasion aims to deal with how to harness expert system ´ s possible so that it benefits everybody, while containing the innovation ´ s myriad risks.