AP News in Brief At 6:04 A.m. EST .
Hamas launches 3 frail-looking Israeli captives for Palestinian detainees under Gaza ceasefire
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - Hamas-led militants released 3 gaunt, frail-looking Israeli hostages and Israel freed nearly 200 Palestinian detainees Saturday in the most recent exchange of a ceasefire that has stopped briefly 16 months of war in Gaza.
The hostages ´ condition and scenes of Hamas forcing them to speak in a handover ceremony triggered outrage in Israel and might increase pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend the ceasefire beyond its existing six-week stage.
Netanyahu has signaled he would resume the war, even if that indicates leaving dozens of hostages in captivity. "President Trump entirely concurred with me: We will do everything to return all the captives, however Hamas will not be there," Netanyahu said after the exchange.
Civilians Eli Sharabi, 52; Ohad Ben Ami, 56; and Or Levy, 34, securityholes.science were amongst about 250 people taken during 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 workers released after being imprisoned 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 freed on Jan. 30 as part of an exchange arrangement.
They were accepted by household members, a few 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 released captives.
"We are all really grateful and extremely delighted 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 federal government "never quit hope and here is the outcome today. The tears of delight are our encouragement." He added that Bangkok would continue working to protect the release of the remaining Thai hostage.
Trump says some white South Africans are oppressed, might be resettled 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 saying: thanks, but no thanks.
The strategy was detailed in an executive order Trump signed Friday that stopped all aid and financial support to South Africa as punishment 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 federal government of permitting violent attacks on white Afrikaner farmers and presenting a land expropriation law that enables it to "take ethnic minority Afrikaners' agricultural home without compensation."
The South African government has denied there are any concerted attacks on white farmers and has 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 inhabitants who initially arrived in South Africa more than 300 years ago. 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 created to remake the federal government while billionaire Elon Musk hunts for more methods to overthrow the federal labor force.
Trump likewise provoked - then cancelled - trade wars with Canada and Mexico however enabled one with China to move on. He seemingly made light of potentially thorny political issues while insisting he was major about the United States taking Gaza, clearing out its homeowners and redeveloping the location into "the Riviera of the Middle East." It was a concept that buddy and foe alike around the globe declined.
Here are some Week 3 takeaways:
Trump has spent 20 days in workplace, and on almost every one of them, he has actually 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 indicated to eliminate large numbers 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 environment accord and keep TikTok operating.
31 suspected Maoist rebels and elearnportal.science 2 policemans are eliminated in forest battle in main India
PATNA, India (AP) - At least 31 thought Maoist rebels and 2 cops authorities were killed on Sunday in the most dangerous battle so far this year in main India, police said.
Hundreds of police and paramilitary soldiers introduced an operation in the forests of the Indravati location of Chhattisgarh state based upon that large number of rebels had actually collected there, said state authorities Inspector General Pattilingam Sundarraj.
Sundarraj said as the troops performed a search operation combating appeared in the forest, killing a minimum of 31 insurgents and two authorities officials. Two other authorities were hurt. He said search operations were continuing in the area and the soldiers had recovered some arms and ammunition, including automated rifles.
There was no instant statement from the rebels.
Sunday's combating is the greatest 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 nearly 50 migrants discovered in southeastern Libya
CAIRO (AP) - Libya authorities discovered nearly 50 bodies today from two mass graves in the nation ´ s southeastern desert, officials said Sunday, in the most recent catastrophe involving individuals looking for to reach Europe through the chaos-stricken North African country.
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 statement, including that authorities took them for autopsy.
Authorities published 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 helps migrants in eastern and southern Libya, said that some were obviously shot and eliminated before being buried in the mass grave.
A different mass tomb with at least 30 bodies was likewise found 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 find 28 people missing after a rain-triggered landslide killed a single person and buried homes.
Nearly 1,000 personnel, including armed cops, firefighters and doctor, 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, utilizing drones and life-detection radars to locate any indications of life with the aid of regional authorities who recognized with the location, state broadcaster CCTV said.
They rescued 2 injured individuals and left about 360 other people after 10 houses and a production structure were buried, CCTV reported.
At a press conference Sunday, authorities said preliminary assessments attributed the disaster to current heavy rainfall and local geological conditions. They said these aspects transformed a landslide into a particles circulation, leading to a build-up of particles stretching about 1.2 kilometers (more than 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 site to assist the rescue operation and checked out the impacted homeowners. He advised authorities to strive to look for the missing individuals, according to main news agency Xinhua.
Kosovo elect new parliament as foreign aid diminishes 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 rival Serbia remain stalled and foreign funding for one of Europe's poorest nations in concern.
Kurti ´ s left-wing Vetevendosje!, or Self-Determination Movement Party, is viewed as the front-runner but is not expected to win the needed majority to govern alone, leaving open the possibility the other 2 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 an international criminal tribunal at The Hague accused of war crimes, and the Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, the earliest celebration in the country that lost much of its assistance after the death in 2006 of its leader, Ibrahim Rugova.
The celebrations made big-ticket pledges to increase public wages and pensions, enhance education and health services, and fight hardship. However, they did not explain where the cash 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, consisting of the ban 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 prompted 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 eliminated 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 taking a trip from Unalakleet to the hub community of Nome when it vanished Thursday afternoon. The Bering Air airplane was discovered the next day after a substantial search. Nine guests and the pilot were killed.
Crews on Saturday was successful in recovering the remains of those eliminated in the crash from a drifting ice floe before the awaited start of high winds and snow.
Here are things to learn 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 summit in Paris
PARIS (AP) - The geopolitics of expert system will remain in focus at a significant 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 global 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 market.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance - making his very first trip 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 special envoy, signifying high stakes for the conference.
Here's a breakdown:
Heads of state and top federal government authorities, tech managers and researchers are collecting 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 potential so that it benefits everybody, while containing the innovation ´ s myriad risks.