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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 released almost 200 Palestinian detainees Saturday in the current exchange of a ceasefire that has 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 might increase pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend the ceasefire beyond its current six-week stage.

Netanyahu has actually indicated he would resume the war, even if that indicates leaving dozens of hostages in captivity. "President Trump entirely agreed 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 Or Levy, 34, were among about 250 people taken during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war.

Israelis' joy 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 workers launched after being imprisoned 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 freed on Jan. 30 as part of an exchange plan.

They were accepted by family members, 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 welcome home the released captives.

"We are all really grateful and very happy that we get to go back to our homeland. We all would really like to thank you. I don ´ t know 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 happiness are our motivation." He included that Bangkok would continue working to secure the release of the remaining Thai hostage.

Trump states some white South Africans are oppressed, might be transplanted in the US. They say no thanks

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - Groups representing a few of South Africa's white minority responded Saturday to a plan by President Donald Trump to provide them refugee status and resettlement in the United States by saying: thanks, however 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 federal government against some of its white people.

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

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

Afrikaners are come down from mainly Dutch, but likewise French and German colonial settlers who first 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 shock

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

Trump also provoked - then called off - trade wars with Canada and Mexico but permitted one with China to move on. He seemingly made light of potentially thorny political issues while insisting he was severe about the United States seizing Gaza, emptying out its residents and redeveloping the area into "the Riviera of the Middle East." It was a concept that pal and opponent alike all over the world declined.

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 numerous.

Much Like Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden before him, Trump utilized Inauguration Day to put pen to paper on actions suggested to wipe out great deals of his predecessor's policies. Trump also issued 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 environment accord and keep TikTok working.

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

PATNA, India (AP) - A minimum of 31 believed Maoist rebels and two police officials were eliminated on Sunday in the deadliest combat so far this year in main India, cops said.

Hundreds of 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 gathered there, said state cops Inspector General Pattilingam Sundarraj.

Sundarraj said as the troops conducted a search operation combating erupted in the forest, killing a minimum of 31 insurgents and two authorities officials. Two other police were injured. He said search operations were continuing in the location 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 most significant up until now this year and the second significant clash in less than a month in Chhattisgarh, according to police officer Jitendra Yadav.

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

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

The first mass tomb with 19 bodies was discovered Friday in a farm in the southeastern city of Kufra, the security directorate said in a declaration, including that authorities took them for autopsy.

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

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

A separate mass tomb with a minimum of 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 individuals were buried in the grave, he included. Authorities were still searching the area.

Rescuers hunt for 28 people 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 eliminated a single person and buried homes.

Nearly 1,000 personnel, consisting of armed authorities, firemens and medical professionals, continued to operate in the rescue operation following the landslide in the village 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 indications of life with the aid of regional authorities who recognized with the area, state broadcaster CCTV said.

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

At a press conference Sunday, authorities said preliminary assessments associated the disaster to recent heavy rainfall and regional geological conditions. They said these aspects changed a landslide into a particles circulation, resulting in a build-up of debris stretching about 1.2 kilometers (over half a mile) in length, with a total volume exceeding 100,000 cubic meters (3.5 million cubic feet).

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong was at the website to assist the rescue operation and checked out the impacted locals. He urged authorities to make every effort to look for the missing individuals, according to main news firm Xinhua.

Kosovo votes for 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 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 nations in question.

Kurti ´ s left-wing Vetevendosje!, or Self-Determination Movement Party, is seen as the front-runner however is not anticipated to win the required bulk to govern alone, leaving open the possibility the other two competitors join ranks if he fails to form a Cabinet.

The other oppositions are the Democratic Party of Kosovo, or PDK, whose main leaders are detained at an international criminal tribunal at The Hague accused of war criminal offenses, and 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 celebrations made big-ticket promises to increase public wages 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 draw in more foreign investment.

Kurti has actually been at odds with Western powers after his Cabinet took several steps 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 urged the federal government in Pristina to refrain from unilateral actions, fearing the revival of inter-ethnic dispute.

Here's what we understand online-learning-initiative.org 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 investigators are attempting to identify what caused the little commuter aircraft to go down in the icy Bering Sea.

The single-engine turboprop airplane was traveling from Unalakleet to the hub neighborhood 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 succeeded in recuperating 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 know about the airplane crash, which is one of 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 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 top in Paris

PARIS (AP) - The geopolitics of synthetic intelligence will remain in focus at a major top in France where world leaders, executives and specialists will work out pledges on directing the development of the quickly advancing technology.

It's the current in a series of international dialogues 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 trip abroad since taking office - will attend the Paris AI Action Summit starting Feb. 10, while China's President Xi Jinping will be sending his unique envoy, signaling high stakes for the conference.

Here's a breakdown:

Heads of state and leading government authorities, tech managers and chessdatabase.science scientists 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 deal with how to harness artificial intelligence ´ s potential so that it benefits everybody, while containing the technology ´ s myriad dangers.

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