International

Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages on Saturday, whose emaciated appearance shocked Israelis following their release on live TV, in the latest stage of a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza.

The US Coast Guard in Alaska found the wreckage of a small plane atop frozen sea ice on Friday, after the aircraft suddenly lost altitude on Thursday and the crash killed all 10 people on board, officials said.

A US judge has temporarily allowed roughly 2,700 US Agency for International Development employees put on leave by President Donald Trump's administration to go back to work, pausing aspects of a plan to dismantle the agency.

Hamas accused Israel of multiple breaches of their ceasefire agreement on Friday, a day before the scheduled exchange of three more Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners in the latest stage in a fragile deal aimed at ending the war in Gaza.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the United States from February 12 to 13 and hold talks with President Donald Trump, India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Friday.

The Trump administration plans to reduce the number of staff at the US government's giant humanitarian agency USAID to fewer than 300 people from more than 10,000, the New York Times reported.

Sweden's right-wing government said on Friday it would seek to tighten gun laws in the wake of the country's deadliest mass shooting at an adult education centre where the attacker appeared to have used several of his own licensed rifles.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday authorised economic and travel sanctions targeting people who work on International Criminal Court investigations of US citizens or US allies such as Israel, repeating action he took during his first term.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said on Friday that the number of attacks on the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine had increased, Russia's TASS state news agency reported.

At least 29 bodies of migrants have been recovered in two locations in the southeast and west of Libya, a security directorate and the Libyan Red Crescent said on Thursday.

The UN human rights chief said on Friday that he was deeply disturbed by the escalating crisis in eastern Congo, urging all those with influence to help halt the violence and warning of a risk that it spreads beyond the country's borders.

The Trump administration’s effort to slash and reshape American foreign aid is crippling the intricate global system that aims to prevent and respond to famine.

Israel has withdrawn from the United Nations Human Rights Council, following the footsteps of the United States, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Thursday.

Democrats on the US House oversight committee on Thursday called for an investigation of potential national security threats posed by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have received the country's first ship capable of launching drones and helicopters at sea, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Israel would hand over Gaza to the United States after fighting was over and the enclave's population was already resettled elsewhere, which he said meant no US troops would be needed on the ground.

Hundreds of Bangladeshi protesters smashed down buildings connected to ousted former leader Sheikh Hasina on Thursday, hours after students with excavators began demolishing a museum to her father.

US President Donald Trump's administration appeared to backtrack on Wednesday after his proposal to take over Gaza sparked uproar, with the United Nations warning against "ethnic cleansing" in the Palestinian territory.

Africa's leading public health official will write to the US Secretary of State on Thursday to highlight how the US aid freeze is threatening the lives of people across the continent and efforts to contain disease outbreaks that could ultimately impact Americans.

Last month was the world's warmest January on record, continuing a streak of extreme global temperatures despite a shift towards the cooling La Nina weather pattern, European Union scientists said on Thursday.

One person died and 15 were arrested trying to enter Canada from the United States in three incidents in recent weeks, Canadian police said on Wednesday, highlighting efforts to secure the border as US President Donald Trump demands a crackdown.

President Donald Trump's plan for the US to take over war-torn Gaza and create a "Riviera of the Middle East" after resettling Palestinians elsewhere has shattered US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and sparked widespread criticism.

Argentina will pull out of the World Health Organization (WHO), President Javier Milei's office said Wednesday, following in the footsteps of the United States which announced its exit from the UN agency last month.

Saudi Arabia said Wednesday it will not normalise ties with Israel unless a Palestinian state is established, after Israel's prime minister said he thought normalisation with the Gulf kingdom was "going to happen".

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Wednesday that US President Donald Trump's remarks about taking over the Gaza Strip are "ridiculous" and "absurd" and could destabilise the Middle East.

Students and teachers recalled trying to save the lives of their comrades before fleeing the scene of a mass shooting in Sweden described by the prime minister on Wednesday as a "dark day" in the country's history.

Several metro stations in Brussels were closed on Wednesday after a shooting at the central Clemenceau station, the Belgian prosecutor's office said.

The Philippine lower house of Congress on Wednesday endorsed an impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte, the daughter of the country's firebrand former president, paving the way for a rare trial in the Senate.

Eleven people were killed in a shooting at an adult education centre on Tuesday, Swedish police said, marking the country's deadliest gun attack in what the prime minister called a “painful day”.

China announced a wide range of measures on Tuesday targeting US businesses including Google, farm equipment makers and the owner of fashion brand Calvin Klein, minutes after new US tariffs on Chinese goods took effect.

Over 90 per cent of schools in Gaza have been either completely or partially destroyed, rendering them unfit for use according to United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Farida Shaheed.

Syria's transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan are expected to discuss a joint defence pact in Ankara on Tuesday, including establishing Turkish airbases in central Syria and training for Syria's new army, four sources familiar with the matter said.

US President Donald Trump suspended his threat of steep tariffs on Mexico and Canada on Monday, agreeing to a 30-day pause in return for concessions on border and crime enforcement with the two neighbouring countries.

The air forces of the Philippines and the United States held joint patrols over the South China Sea on Tuesday, a move that angered China, which also conducted a "routine patrol" over a disputed shoal.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday said that it launched the first-ever vaccine trial in Uganda for ebola from the Sudan species of the virus.

El Salvador on Monday offered to house in its jails "dangerous criminals" from anywhere in the world deported by the United States, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after lengthy talks with the Central American country's leader.

Families boarded ferries and extra flights were laid on to help people leave Santorini on Monday as dozens of tremors shook the Greek island for a fourth day.

A bomb tore through the lobby of a luxury apartment block in Moscow on Monday, killing at least one person and injuring four others in an attack targeting a pro-Russian paramilitary leader from eastern Ukraine, the state TASS news agency reported.

A car bomb killed at least 15 people in the Syrian city of Manbij on Monday, the second attack there in three days and Syria's deadliest since Bashar al-Assad was toppled from power in December.

President Donald Trump said the sweeping tariffs that he has imposed on Mexico, Canada and China may cause "short term" pain for Americans as global markets reflected concerns the levies could undermine growth and reignite inflation.

The Israeli military blew up buildings in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Sunday in an operation that the Palestinian state news agency said leveled around 20 buildings.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday warned Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino that Washington will "take measures necessary" if Panama does not immediately take steps to end what President Donald Trump sees as China's influence and control over the Panama Canal.

Qatar's prime minister on Sunday called on Israel and Hamas to immediately begin negotiating phase two of the Gaza ceasefire, adding that there is no clear plan for when talks will begin.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to leave Israel on Sunday for a meeting with US President Donald Trump, looking to strengthen ties with Washington after tensions with the previous White House administration over the war in Gaza.

One person died on Sunday in Australia's north Queensland state in heavy flooding, authorities said, urging thousands of people to move to higher ground due to torrential rains.

Ukraine and Russia traded blame for a deadly missile strike on Saturday that killed at least four people in the dormitory of a boarding school situated in a part of Russia's Kursk region held by Kyiv forces.

Turkey said on Sunday it had killed 23 Kurdish rebels in northern Syria, the latest in a series of strikes against them which have continued since US President Donald Trump took office last month.

Syria's transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa met Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Sunday in his first foreign trip as Syrian leader, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

Greek authorities have advised people on the Aegean island of Santorini to shut schools on Monday, avoid two small ports and refrain from gathering in indoor spaces after increased seismic activity in the area over recent days.

Canada, China and Mexico have ordered retaliatory tariffs in response to the US decision to slap 25 per cent tariffs on all goods coming from Mexico and Canada and 10 per cent on imports from China.

Arab foreign ministers rejected the transfer of Palestinians from their land under any circumstances, presenting a unified stance against US President Donald Trump's call for Egypt and Jordan to take in residents of the Gaza Strip.

Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles on Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least four civilians and damaging residential buildings and infrastructure across the country, Ukrainian officials said.

Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages on Saturday, in the latest stage of a truce aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza.

A medevac plane crashed soon after takeoff in Philadelphia on Friday with a child and five others on board, the air ambulance company that operated it said, adding that it had not confirmed any survivors.

Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday it would free the father of the youngest hostages seized in its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and two others including a dual US citizen in the next exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Two people were killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley area, the Lebanese health ministry said on Friday, after the Israeli military said it had struck several Hezbollah targets there overnight and along the Syrian-Lebanese border.

The US military said it killed a senior operative of Al-Qaeda's Syria branch in an air strike on northwestern Syria on Thursday.

Investigators recovered the so-called black boxes from an American Airlines jet, which collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River in Washington DC on Wednesday night, as authorities continued to search for answers.

A small US security firm is hiring nearly 100 US special forces veterans to help run a checkpoint in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas truce, according to Reuters sources, introducing armed American contractors into the heart of one of the world's most violent conflict zones.

Hamas freed three Israeli and five Thai hostages in Gaza on Thursday and Israel released 110 Palestinian prisoners after delaying the process in anger at the swarming crowds at one of the hostage handover points. 

The US Army helicopter that collided with a passenger jet near Washington was being operated on a training flight by a "fairly experienced crew" with night-vision goggles, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday.

More than 60 people were feared dead after an American Airlines regional passenger jet collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday and crashed into the frigid Potomac River near Reagan Washington National Airport.

Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages in return for 110 Palestinian prisoners to be freed later on Thursday in the latest stage of a ceasefire deal, while five Thai hostages were also released in Gaza.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani arrived on Thursday in Syria's Damascus, the first visit by a foreign head of state since Bashar al Assad's fall.

President Paul Kagame said Rwanda was ready for "confrontation" as he rejected criticism over his backing for M23 rebels who were pushing south on Thursday in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after capturing the major city of Goma.

The UN human rights chief appealed on Thursday for $500 million in funding for 2025 to support its work such as investigating human rights abuses around the world from Syria to Sudan, warning that lives hang in the balance.

A Russian drone struck a multi-storey apartment building in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy early on Thursday, killing four people and injuring nine, including a child, the regional authorities said.

Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa was declared president for a transitional phase on Wednesday, tightening his hold on power less than two months after he led a campaign that toppled Bashar al-Assad.

Israeli troops will remain in the Palestinians' Jenin refugee camp once the large-scale raid they launched last week is complete, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday, as an Israeli airstrike killed 10 the West Bank's Tubas. 

Dozens of people were killed in a pre-dawn stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela in northern India on Wednesday, police sources said, as tens of millions gathered to take a dip in sacred river waters on the most auspicious day of a six-week Hindu festival.

At least 14 civilians were killed and 29 wounded in attacks by Turkish-backed forces in northern Syria on Monday and Tuesday, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces group said.

A small aircraft carrying oil workers in South Sudan's Unity State crashed on Wednesday, killing 20 people, an official said.

Israeli airstrikes in Nabatieh, a major town in southern Lebanon, injured 24 people on Tuesday, the Lebanese health ministry said.

A nuclear power plant was among the targets of a massive Ukrainian drone attack against Russian oil and power facilities, Russian officials and media outlets reported on Wednesday.

Australian police said on Wednesday they had foiled a planned antisemitic attack after discovering a caravan containing explosives in an outer Sydney suburb in New South Wales state.

Rwandan-backed M23 rebels appeared to have consolidated their control over Goma, with eastern Congo's largest city mostly quiet on Wednesday apart from sporadic gunfire in some outlying districts, residents said.

A US judge on Tuesday temporarily paused part of the Trump administration's sweeping directive to pause federal loans, grants and other financial assistance, granting a win to advocacy groups who said the policy would be devastating.

An Airbus plane belonging to South Korean carrier Air Busan caught fire on Tuesday at Gimhae International Airport in the country's south while preparing for departure to Hong Kong, fire authorities said.

The western Indian state of Maharashtra has formed a panel to study a proposal to ban petrol and diesel vehicles in Mumbai city amid worsening air quality and only allow electric or gas driven vehicles, it said in an order.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed along the main roads leading north in Gaza on Monday, jubilant to be returning home after months of living in temporary shelter but fearing what might remain of their homes amid the bombed-out ruins.

Overnight Russian air attacks wounded eight people, set a private business on fire and damaged residential buildings around Ukraine, local officials said on Tuesday.

UN Chief Antonio Guterres on Monday voiced concern over the US freeze on foreign aid, urging additional exemptions for critical development and humanitarian activities.

Chinese startup DeepSeek said on Monday it will temporarily limit registrations due to a cyberattack after the company's AI assistant amassed sudden popularity.

India and China have agreed to resume direct air services after nearly five years, India's foreign ministry said on Monday, signalling a thaw in relations between the neighbours after a deadly 2020 military clash on their disputed Himalayan border.

The head of the World Food Programme in Afghanistan says the agency can only feed half the millions of Afghans in need after cuts in international aid and an impending freeze in US foreign funding.

Thirty-seven suspected terrorists, including suspected members of IS, have been arrested across east Africa over the last two months, the global police body Interpol said on Monday.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians began moving along the main roads leading north in Gaza on Monday as Israel opened roadblocks after Hamas agreed to hand over female Israeli hostage Arbel Yehud and two other hostages.

The US and Colombia pulled back from the brink of a trade war on Sunday after the White House said the South American nation had agreed to accept military aircraft carrying deported migrants.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko extended his 31-year rule with a massive win in a presidential election that Western governments have rejected as a sham, according to preliminary results on Monday.

The US said on Sunday that the agreement between Lebanon and Israel would remain in effect until February 18, after Israel said on Friday it would keep troops in the south beyond the Sunday deadline set out in a US-brokered ceasefire that halted last year's war with Hezbollah.

South Korea's prosecutors indicted President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday on charges of leading an insurrection with his short-lived imposition of martial law on December 3, the main opposition party said.

Israeli forces killed 15 people in south Lebanon on Sunday as a deadline for their withdrawal passed and thousands of people tried to return to their homes in defiance of Israeli military orders, Lebanese authorities said.

Hamas handed over four Israeli female soldiers to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza City on Saturday morning.

Pete Hegseth narrowly secured enough votes on Friday to become the next US defence secretary, a major victory for President Donald Trump after fierce opposition from Democrats and even some Republicans to his controversial nominee.

Israeli forces will remain in southern Lebanon beyond a 60-day deadline stipulated in a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah because its terms have not been fully implemented, the Israeli prime minister's office said on Friday.

Hamas has announced the names of four Israeli women soldiers to be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in the second swap under the ceasefire deal in Gaza.

At least eight people died and seven more were injured in a blast at an ordnance factory in the western Indian state of Maharashtra on Friday.

Record high winds from Storm Eowyn battered Ireland and Northern Ireland on Friday, leaving almost one-third of Irish homes and businesses without power and forcing cancellation of hundreds of flights and the closure of schools and public transport.

The US will leave the World Health Organization on January 22, 2026, the UN said, after being formally notified of the decision by President Donald Trump, who has accused the agency of mishandling the pandemic and other international health crises.

Russian air defences repelled a massive Ukrainian drone attack overnight, intercepting and destroying 121 drones targeting 13 regions, including Moscow, Russia's Defence Ministry said, making no mention of casualties or damage.

A federal judge blocked Donald Trump's administration from implementing the Republican president's executive order curtailing the right to automatic birthright citizenship in the United States, calling it "blatantly unconstitutional."

A British teenager who killed three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event was jailed for at least 52 years on Thursday, for an attack Prime Minister Keir Starmer called one of the most harrowing moments in Britain's history.

Palestinians in northern Gaza prepared tent encampments for displaced families on Thursday, two days before they were expected to return to their home areas in accordance with the timeline of a ceasefire deal agreed between Israel and Hamas.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Thursday called for the US to continue supplying Ukraine and said Europe would pay the bill.

The Kremlin said on Thursday it saw nothing particularly new in a threat by US President Donald Trump to hit Russia with new sanctions and tariffs if it did not agree to end the war in Ukraine.

A new wildfire that broke out north of Los Angeles on Wednesday rapidly spread to more than 38 square km, fuelled by strong winds and dry brush, forcing mandatory evacuation orders for more than 31,000 people.

Russia unleashed a drone and missile strike on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia overnight, killing one, wounding 31 others and leaving tens of thousands without power or heat, officials said on Thursday.

The Trump administration has urged government employees to inform on each other and their departments in order to root out any attempts to hide diversity programs.

Turkey has detained 11 people as part of an investigation into a fire that killed 79 people and injured dozens at a ski resort in the Bolu mountains, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on Wednesday.

The climate crisis and an unlimited expansion of artificial intelligence could be existential threats for humanity, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday, adding AI should serve humanity and not the other way around.

Prince Harry claimed a "monumental" victory over Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper group on Wednesday after the publisher settled his lawsuit, admitting unlawful actions at its Sun tabloid for the first time and paying substantial damages.

US President Donald Trump has pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison for running an underground online marketplace where drug dealers and others conducted more than $200 million in illicit trade using bitcoin.

Israeli security forces backed by helicopters raided the volatile West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, killing at least nine Palestinians in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a, "large-scale and significant military operation".

US President Donald Trump has announced a private sector investment of up to $500 billion (AED1.8 trillion) to fund infrastructure for artificial intelligence, aiming to outpace rival nations in the business-critical technology.

Israel's army chief Herzi Halevi said on Tuesday he would resign on March 6, taking responsibility for the massive security lapse on October 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen from Gaza carried out a cross-border attack on Israel.

A fire at a ski resort hotel in Turkey's Bolu mountains killed 76 people and injured dozens on Tuesday, forcing panicked guests to jump out of windows in the middle of the night.

The United States will exit the World Health Organization (WHO), President Donald Trump said on Monday, saying the global health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.

A landslide in Indonesia's Central Java city of Pekalongan killed 16 people and injured 10, an official at the country's regional disaster mitigation agency and police said on Tuesday.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol attended on Tuesday a Constitutional Court hearing of his impeachment trial where he denied ordering military commanders to drag lawmakers out of parliament during his short-lived bid to impose martial law.

President Donald Trump has pardoned nearly everyone criminally charged with participating in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, in a show of solidarity with supporters who stormed the seat of American power in his name.

Donald Trump vowed to usher in a new era of American greatness, minutes after he was sworn in as president for the second time to complete an extraordinary political comeback.

US President Joe Biden issued pre-emptive pardons on Monday for people Republican successor Donald Trump has targeted for retaliation.

US President-elect Donald Trump will call for a "revolution of common sense" during his inaugural address, the Wall Street Journal said on Monday citing excerpts of his prepared remarks.

An Indian court awarded the life sentence on Monday to a police volunteer convicted of the assault and murder of a junior doctor at the hospital where she worked in the eastern city of Kolkata, rejecting demands for the death penalty saying it was not a rare crime.

Eight people died and seven were injured in a fire at a nursing home outside Belgrade on Monday which authorities said was caused by arson, Serbian state TV RTS reported.

South African police have launched a manhunt for a Lesotho gang member believed to have controlled operations at an illegal gold mine where 78 bodies were recovered last week during a police siege, from which he escaped.

US President Joe Biden welcomed a ceasefire in Gaza on Sunday and said hundreds of trucks were entering the seaside enclave to help its civilians.

A ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip took effect on Sunday after a nearly three-hour delay, pausing a 15-month-old war that has brought devastation and seismic political change to the Middle East.

At least 86 people were killed and more injured in northern Nigeria on Saturday when a petrol tanker truck overturned, spilling fuel that exploded, the country's national emergency agency said.

Hundreds of supporters of South Korea's arrested president, Yoon Suk Yeol, stormed a court building early on Sunday after his detention was extended, smashing windows and breaking inside, an attack the country's acting leader called "unimaginable".

Sir Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, will be boarding Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity and blasting off to space on Sunday.

Singapore is reviewing penalties for violent offences following an outcry over a 12-day prison sentence for a student who strangled his girlfriend until she blacked out.