GAZA – Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza handed over two detainees, identified as Arbel Yehoud and Gadi Mozes, to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Khan Younis camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, as part of the third batch of the prisoner and detainee exchange process.
XINHUA
JERUSALEM/GAZA – The Israeli military confirmed on Thursday that Hamas had handed over one of its hostages in the Gaza Strip to the Red Cross.
Meanwhile, Palestinian sources in Hamas told Xinhua that the movement will release another two hostages shortly.
XINHUA
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 – Eighteen bodies have been recovered from the Potomac River following the collision of a passenger plane and an Army Blackhawk helicopter near the Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, local media reported.
No survivors have been pulled out of the river into which the collided aircraft crashed, as rescue efforts were underway, CNN said.
American Airlines, which operated the ill-fated passenger plane, said in a statement that 60 passengers and four crew members were on board. The airliner has set up a hotline for those with loved ones onboard the plane.
Three soldiers were on board the Blackhawk, CNN reported, citing a U.S. defense official.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in a statement that he had been “fully briefed on the terrible accident” and that he was “monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise.”
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on the social platform X that the Pentagon is “actively monitoring” the situation and is “poised to assist if needed.”
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said that the midair collision occurred around 9 p.m. EST (0200 GMT Thursday), involving a regional jet that had departed from Wichita, Kansas, and a military Blackhawk helicopter, and that all takeoffs and landings from the airport have been halted.
XINHUA
MOSCOW, Jan 29 – Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that its troops had taken control of the village of Novoielyzavetivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, near the logistics centre of Pokrovsk, the latest target in their steady advance westward.
Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s military made no mention of the village in a late evening report.
It reported “intensive” Russian activity in the Pokrovsk sector, with Ukrainian forces repelling 39 attacks by Moscow’s forces and nine clashes continuing.
The popular Ukrainian military blog DeepState, which records military positions on the basis of open source materials, showed
Novoielyzavetivka to be under Russian occupation.
REUTERS
RAMALLAH, Jan. 29 – Ten Palestinians were killed and several others injured in an Israeli airstrike on the town of Tammoun, southeast of Tubas in the occupied West Bank, late on Wednesday, Palestinian health officials said.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said ten bodies and several wounded people were taken to Tubas Governmental Hospital after the strike.
XINHUA
WASHINGTON, Jan 29 – U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Wednesday to combat antisemitism and pledge to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests, a White House official said.
A fact sheet on the order promises “immediate action” by the Justice Department to prosecute “terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews” and marshal all federal resources to combat what it called “the explosion of antisemitism on our campuses and streets” since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump said in the fact sheet.
“I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before,” the president said, echoing a 2024 campaign promise.
Rights groups and legal scholars said the measure would violate constitutional free speech rights and would likely draw legal challenges.
“The First Amendment protects everyone in the United States, including foreign citizens studying at American universities,” said Carrie DeCell, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.
“Deporting non-citizens on the basis of their political speech would be unconstitutional.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a large Muslim advocacy group, said it would consider challenging the expected order in court if Trump tried to implement it.
The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled U.S. college campuses, with civil rights groups documenting a surge in hate crimes and incidents directed at Jews, Muslims, Arabs and other people of Middle Eastern descent.
The order will require agency and department leaders to provide the White House with recommendations within 60 days on all criminal and civil authorities that could be used to fight antisemitism, according to the fact sheet.
Many pro-Palestinian protesters denied supporting Hamas or engaging in antisemitic acts, and said they were demonstrating against Israel’s military assault on Gaza, where health authorities say more than 47,000 people have been killed.
Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, a nonpartisan civil rights group, said the group was deeply troubled by the apparent conflation of criticism of Israel with alleged antisemitism in the expected order.
Berry said the order would have a chilling effect on free speech across the United States.
REUTERS
RAMALLAH – A Palestinian prisoners advocacy group said Israeli authorities would release 110 prisoners, including 30 minors, on Thursday as part of an exchange under a Gaza ceasefire deal agreed with Hamas.
“Tomorrow, 110 Palestinian prisoners are to be released,” the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said in a statement, referring to the third exchange of hostages and prisoners under the truce, which began on January 19.
The group said the prisoners were expected to arrive in the “Radana area of Ramallah at around noon.”
Publishing the list of the prisoners, the group said 30 were under the age of 18, 32 had been sentenced to life imprisonment, and 48 others were serving jail terms of varying lengths.
The group also said that 20 of the prisoners set to be released would be sent into exile.
In the previous two swaps, seven Israeli hostages were freed by militants in exchange for 290 prisoners — almost all Palestinians, with the exception of one Jordanian.
On Thursday, three Israeli hostages are to be freed, along with five Thai nationals.
The three Israeli hostages are Arbel Yehud, Agam Berger and Gadi Moses. The identities of the five Thais are still unknown.
A fourth swap planned for Saturday will see three Israeli men released, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
AN-AFP, Jan 29, 2025
JENIN, West Bank/JERUSALEM, Jan 29 – 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 a crackdown in the occupied West Bank extended into a second week.
Hundreds of Israeli troops backed by helicopters, drones and armoured vehicles have been fighting sporadic gunbattles with Palestinian militants while carrying out searches in the streets and alleyways for weapons and equipment.
“The Jenin refugee camp will not be what it was,” Katz said during a visit to the refugee camp.
“After the operation is completed, IDF forces will remain in the camp to ensure that terrorism does not return.”
He did not give details and a military spokesperson declined to comment.
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned what it called Katz’s “provocative” statement and called for international pressure on Israel to stop the operation, which has already been condemned by countries including France and Jordan.
Israeli forces went into Jenin immediately after the start of a six-week ceasefire in Gaza, saying it aimed to hit militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both of which receive support from Iran.
Israel regards the West Bank as one part of a multi-front war against Iranian-backed groups established around its borders, from Gaza to Lebanon and including the Houthis in Yemen, and it turned its attention to the area immediately after the halt to fighting in Gaza.
At least 17 Palestinians, including six members of armed militant groups and a two-year-old girl, have been killed in Jenin and the surrounding villages during the operation, according to Palestinian officials.
The military said forces had killed at least 18 militants and detained 60 wanted individuals, dismantling over 100 explosive devices and seizing a weapons manufacturing workshop.
An investigation into the death of the girl is still ongoing, a spokesperson said.
Within the camp, dozens of houses have been demolished and roads have been dug up by special armoured bulldozers, driving thousands of people from their homes.
Water has been cut and Palestinian officials say at least 80% of the camp’s inhabitants have been forced to leave their homes.
“It’s terrifying, the explosions the fires, the houses which were demolished,” said Intisar Amalka, a displaced camp resident who said her nephew’s car had been destroyed by an Israeli bulldozer.
SPREAD OF ARMY ROADBLOCKS SNARL PALESTINIAN LIFE
The Jenin refugee camp, a crowded township built for descendants of Palestinians who fled their homes or were driven out in the 1948 Middle East war around the creation of the state of Israel, has been a centre of militant activity for decades and the target of repeated raids by Israeli troops.
Just prior to the latest raid, security forces of the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited governance in parts of the West Bank, conducted a weeks-long operation of its own in a bid to reassert control in Jenin.
As the fighting in Gaza has subsided, at least for the moment, Israeli forces have stepped up operations across the area, setting up checkpoints and roadblocks which have made travelling even short distances between towns and villages an hours-long trial for Palestinians.
Elsewhere in the northern West Bank, Israeli forces have been carrying out an operation in Tulkarm, another volatile city where they have clashed repeatedly with militants recently, moving into the city itself as well as into its refugee camp.
The West Bank, a kidney-shaped stretch of land about 100 kilometres (62 miles) long, was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and is seen by Palestinians as the core of a future independent state, along with Gaza.
It has seen a surge in violence since the start of the war in Gaza in which hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, many of them armed gunmen but also including stone-throwing youths or uninvolved civilians, and thousands have been arrested.
Palestinian attacks in the West Bank and Israel have also killed dozens of Israelis.
REUTERS
CAIRO, Jan 29 – Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa was named as the country’s president for the transitional period, the Syrian state news agency reported on Wednesday, citing commander Hassan Abdel Ghani.
REUTERS
PHNOM PENH – Three villagers died in northeast Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province on Wednesday after consuming homemade rice wine, which was suspicious of containing “high levels of methanol,” a local health report said.
The incident occurred in Yasom village in Bakeo district’s Soeung commune after the victims drank rice wine that was probably adulterated, said the report from the Ratanakiri Provincial Health Department’s Emergency Response Team.
The dead included two men and one woman, aged between 54 and 78, the report said, adding that two others were hospitalized in the case.
“The victims had developed symptoms such as abdominal pain, cough, breathing difficulty, and eye irritation,” the report said.
It added that adulterated wine’s samples were collected for a lab test.
The Ratanakiri Provincial Information Department reported that soon after the tragic incident, Ratanakiri Provincial Governor Nhem Sam Oeun ordered authorities to temporarily close all local rice wine distilleries, pending the wine’s lab test result.
Rice wine is popular in rural areas in the Southeast Asian country due to its cheap price.
XINHUA
NEW DELHI – At least 30 people were killed and 60 others injured during a stampede that took place early Wednesday at the ongoing mega Hindu festival, Maha Kumbh Mela, in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh, officials said.
The pre-dawn stampede was triggered after a barrier broke as tens of thousands of devotees thronged the Triveni Sangam on the occasion of taking a holy dip at Prayagraj, about 196 km south of Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh.
“About 90 people were taken to the hospital through ambulances, but unfortunately, 30 devotees have died,” a senior police official Vaibhav Krishna posted in Prayagraj told media during a press briefing in the evening. “Out of 30 dead, 25 have been identified and the rest are yet to be identified.”
The police official said 36 people were being treated at the local hospital.
In 2013, at least 40 pilgrims were killed in a stampede at a train station in Prayagraj during the same festival.
XINHUA
KHOST, Afghanistan – Unidentified armed men shot dead 10 civilians, all members of a same family in eastern Afghanistan’s Khost province on Tuesday night, a spokesman for the provincial government Mustaghfar Garbaz said Wednesday.
The gruesome incident took place in Ali Shir district late Tuesday when unknown armed men entered a house and opened fire, killing 10 people including two men and eight women and children on the spot.
Garbaz said that efforts are underway to arrest and bring to justice those behind the multiple murders.
XINHUA
MOSCOW – A Ukrainian drone was shot down in Russia’s Smolensk region during an attempted attack on a nuclear power facility, regional governor Vasily Anokhin said on Wednesday.
No casualties or damage have been reported, Anokhin said on his Telegram channel.
Multiple civilian sites in the area had come under a large-scale drone assault, he said, adding that one of the drones was downed during an attempt to strike a nuclear energy facility.
XINHUA
MEXICO CITY – Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum brushed off speculations on Tuesday after Google Maps said it would rename “the Gulf of Mexico” for U.S. users following an executive order.
Let’s not speculate further on the subject, Sheinbaum said at a regular press conference.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent executive order to change the gulf’s name only applies to U.S. territory, so the name remains the same for Mexico and the rest of the world, Sheinbaum said.
“The Gulf of Mexico is still the Gulf of Mexico,” she said.
Trump ordered federal agencies to change the name of “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” on their maps and documents as part of a series of executive actions on his first day back in the White House.
XINHUA
PRAYAGRAJ, India – A stampede at the world’s largest religious gathering in India killed at least 15 people with many more injured, a doctor at the Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj told AFP Wednesday.
“At least 15 people have died for now. Others are being treated,” said the doctor in Prayagraj city, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to media.
An AFP photographer saw rescuers and worshippers evacuating victims from the scene and people climbing over a barrier.
Deadly crowd crushes are a notorious feature of Indian religious festivals, and the Kumbh Mela, with its unfathomable throngs of devotees, already had a grim track record of deadly crowd crushes before the latest incident overnight.
Local government official Akanksha Rana told the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency that the stampede began after crowd control barriers “broke.”
The six-week festival is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar, and millions of people were expected to be present on Wednesday for a sacred day of ritual bathing at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.
AN-AFP
KYIV – Ukraine’s government on Tuesday sacked a deputy defense minister in charge of weapons purchases amid infighting over procurement that is complicating Kyiv’s attempt to reassure key Western partners at a critical moment in the war with Russia.
The dispute burst into the open last week after Defense Minister Rustem Umerov criticized Ukraine’s arms procurement effort as having failed to deliver results for frontline troops.
Ukraine has sought to clean up defense spending as the war grinds toward its fourth year, an effort that has taken on greater importance as US President Donald Trump considers whether to continue supporting Kyiv’s military.
As well as requesting Dmytro Klimenkov’s removal, Umerov leveled particular criticism at the Defense Procurement Agency, which coordinates weapons purchases for Ukraine’s outgunned military.
The agency was established after a series of allegations earlier in the war of ministry misspending, and has aimed to cut out intermediaries and minimize the risk of corruption.
In a statement on Friday, Umerov said it had “inexplicably transformed into an ‘Amazon’” and its purchases were too publicly visible. Ukraine has long sought to keep details of arms procurement a closely guarded secret.
Umerov also said that he would not renew a contract with agency chief Maryna Bezrukova, a reformer whose appointment last year had been applauded by Kyiv’s Western partners. He pledged to install a new director.
The agency said in response that it had made “significant progress” in boosting supply and lowering prices, and that it would continue working under Bezrukova.
The standoff comes as Ukrainian troops face Russian advances across swathes of the east. Both sides are attempting to gain a battlefield edge ahead of any potential peace talks, but Kyiv’s defenses are buckling amid a shortage of men and weapons.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Western partners to keep arms flowing to Ukraine.
The defense ministry’s own anti-corruption council, comprised of elected civic activists, said the infighting could compromise that effort.
“We believe the current situation is harmful to Ukraine, the Ukrainian military and our international relations,” it said on Saturday. “We must be clear and predictable for partners.”
In a statement on Monday, G7 diplomats in Ukraine urged officials to quickly resolve the dispute.
“Consistency with good governance principles and NATO recommendations is important to maintain the trust of public and international partners,” they wrote.
AN-REUTERS, Jan 28, 2025
NEW DELHI – At least seven persons died and more than 50 were injured when a makeshift stage installed for devotees at a religious congregation collapsed in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, a local police officer said over the phone.
There were several women and children among the victims of the incident, which occurred in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district, according to the police.
The makeshift stage was made of bamboo and wood. It collapsed as it failed to bear the weight of people standing over it.
There was a commotion soon after the incident occurred. Those injured were admitted to a local hospital.
XINHUA
BEIRUT – The Lebanese Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that the death toll from three days of Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon has risen to 25, with 160 others wounded.
In a statement, the ministry’s Public Health Emergency Operations Center reported that one person was killed and 26 others injured during the Israeli attacks on Monday.
The injured were spread across five villages in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon: Adaisseh, Bani Hayyan, Burj Al-Muluk, Houla, and Kafr Kila.
Since early Sunday, hundreds of Lebanese residents have gathered at the outskirts of their border villages, marching toward their homes by car and on foot, bypassing Lebanese army checkpoints and Israeli-imposed earth barriers.
However, Israeli forces opened fire on the returning civilians, further escalating tensions along the border.
These developments come despite the ongoing ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and the Israeli military, which took effect on Nov. 27, 2024.
XINHUA
BELGRADE – Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic announced resignation on Tuesday during an extraordinary press conference at the government building in Belgrade, citing “elevated tensions” caused by a collapse at Novi Sad railway station in November last year, which claimed 15 lives.
Vucevic said that he will perform his duties until a new prime minister is elected, adding that the entire government is currently operating in a “caretaker mandate.”
Under Serbian law, once the National Assembly acknowledges the prime minister’s resignation, the president must initiate the process of forming a new government. If no government is elected within 30 days, the National Assembly will be dissolved, and elections will be called.
Reflecting on the tragedy in Novi Sad, Vucevic said it has overshadowed the government’s work.
“The collapse of the awning at the Novi Sad railway station marked a turning point. From that moment, Serbia seemed to remain stuck,” he said.
XINHUA
DOHA – Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement on the release of six Israeli hostages this week and to allow displaced Gaza residents to return from the south to northern areas of the Strip, a spokesperson of Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.
“As part of ongoing efforts led by mediators, an understanding has been reached between the two parties,” the spokesperson, Majed Al Ansari, posted on X, noting that Israeli hostage Arbel Yehuda and two others will be released before Friday and three more hostages will be released on Saturday by Hamas, following the agreement.
“In return, Israeli authorities will, starting Monday morning, allow displaced citizens in the Gaza Strip to return from the south to the northern areas of the Strip. Additionally, Israel will provide a list of 400 individuals detained since Oct. 7, 2023, every Sunday during the first phase of the agreement,” Al Ansari said.
XINHUA
GARDEZ, Afghanistan – A child lost his life and five others sustained injuries as an explosive device left over from past wars went off in Zazai Aryub district of eastern Afghanistan’s Paktia province on Sunday, provincial police spokesman Munib Zadran said Monday.
The kids found a toy-like object and began playing with it but the device exploded, killing the child on the spot and injuring five others, the official said, adding that three of the wounded are in critical condition.
The war-torn Afghanistan is one of the most landmine-contaminated countries in the world with dozens of people, mostly children, being killed or maimed every month due to the blasts of explosive devices left over from wars in the past decades.
According to a report of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released in October last year, 292 people lost their lives in blasts of landmines and explosive remnants in the first six months of 2024 in Afghanistan.
XINHUA
MINSK – Incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko has won the presidential election of Belarus, according to the preliminary results released early Monday by the country’s Central Election Commission.
The preliminary data from the Central Election Commission showed that Lukashenko received 86.82 percent of the vote. Sergei Syrankov, Oleg Gaidukevich, Anna Kanopatskaya and Alexander Khizhnyak secured 3.21 percent, 2.02 percent, 1.86 percent and 1.74 percent of the vote, respectively.
Under Belarusian law, a presidential candidate who secures more than 50 percent of the vote is declared the winner.
Belarussian president is elected by direct ballot and the term of office is five years. The Belarus election commission will announce the final results of the voting no later than Feb. 5.
XINHUA
LA PAZ – At least 19 people died and nine others were injured early Sunday morning when a passenger bus overturned in southern Bolivia, local police said.
The accident occurred in Cerdas, a town in the Potosi department, the municipal police of nearby Uyuni reported.
Among the dead were 14 women and two minors. The injured were rushed to hospital, according to the police report.
The death toll could rise given the severity of injuries, police said.
Initial investigation indicates that the accident may have been caused by speeding and an inexperienced driver.
The bus, with a capacity to carry 50 passengers, was running a long-distance trip about 850 km between La Paz and Villazon, a town on the border with Argentina.
XINHUA
TOKYO – A tourist from China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) lost her life in Japan’s Otaru, Hokkaido, after being struck by a train on Thursday.
According to Japanese media reports, the accident occurred at around 11:30 a.m. local time near a railway crossing on the JR Hakodate Line. The victim was reportedly on the tracks taking photos of the ocean with her smartphone when she was struck by a rapid Airport Express train traveling from Otaru to New Chitose Airport. She was rushed to the hospital but was later pronounced dead.
The accident disrupted train services for approximately an hour and a half, affecting 19 trains.
The Chinese consulate general in Sapporo confirmed that it had immediately contacted Japanese authorities to gather details about the incident. The consulate is closely monitoring the situation and is in communication with relevant parties to provide necessary assistance to the victim’s family.
XINHUA
ABUJA, Jan. 23 – Nigerian troops have killed at least 25 members of the gang led by nortorious terrorist Bello Turji, the military said Wednesday.
Turji’s second-in-command Aminu Kanawa and about eight other commanders were killed as troops raided terrorist camps in the northwestern states of Sokoto and Zamfara from Monday to Tuesday, Edward Buba, the spokesman for the Nigerian military told a press briefing.
Buba said “the camp of Turji is in disarray” following the killing of Kanawa and dozens of others.
“The death of Turji’s second-in-command, close allies, commanders, and combatants was a significant blow to the terrorists’ network in the northwestern part of Nigeria, as well as their fighting capabilities,” Buba said, noting this group of terrorists was responsible for numerous kidnappings and terrorist attacks across the region.
“Overall, troops are not relenting until these terrorists are destroyed,” said Buba.
XINHUA
ANKARA, Jan. 23 – The death toll from the devastating fire at Türkiye’s Kartalkaya ski resort in northwestern Bolu province has risen to 78, and 11 people have been detained in connection with the incident, Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said Thursday.
Among the detainees are Bolu municipality’s deputy mayor responsible for the fire department, the fire chief, and the owner and the manager of the hotel, Tunc said on social media platform X, adding that investigations are ongoing.
The fire, which broke out in the early hours of Tuesday, spread rapidly through the 12-story wooden hotel. Initial investigations suggest that the fire originated in the restaurant area on the fourth floor before engulfing the upper levels.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a national day of mourning on Wednesday.
The hotel was accommodating 238 guests during the busy holiday season.
Kartalkaya is a popular ski resort in the Koroglu mountains, some 300 km east of Istanbul.
XINHUA
NEW DELHI, Jan. 23 – The death toll in the train accident in the western Indian state of Maharashtra has risen to 13, police said Thursday.
According to police, 15 people were injured in the accident, 10 of whom are still in the hospitals.
Of the 13 killed in the accident, police so far have been able to identify only eight.
The accident occurred Wednesday evening after some passengers disembarked from a train following an alarm chain-pulling incident. They were later run over by another train in Pachora of Jalgaon district, about 425 km northeast of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra.
Preliminary investigations carried out by the police said that someone had pulled the train’s alarm chain, causing it to come to a halt. Fearing a fire inside the train, many passengers deboarded onto the adjacent tracks, but were mowed down by another passing train.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed grief over the deaths in the accident and announced financial assistance for the victims.
XINHUA
PHNOM PENH, Jan. 23 – Three people lost their lives and six others were injured on Thursday during a large gathering in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, for red packets given by a local tycoon, officials said.
The tragic incident happened around 10:00 a.m. local time when a large crowd of people gathered for red envelopes given by the influential tycoon, Sok Kong, at his mansion on Norodom Boulevard in Duan Penh district.
Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Keut Chhe confirmed the tragic incident with Xinhua, saying the injured people had been rushed to the hospital for medical treatment.
Local authorities said the incident was likely caused by suffocation when a large number of people rallied in a densely packed space.
XINHUA
WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 – U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to re-designate the Houthis, a Yemen-based militant group, as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).”
According to a fact sheet released by the White House, Trump’s executive order reversed the one issued by Joe Biden four years ago that removed the Houthis from the FTO list, undoing a Trump order issued in the final days of his first presidential term.
“As a result of the Biden administration’s weak policy, the Houthis have fired at U.S. Navy warships dozens of times, launched numerous attacks on civilian infrastructure in partner nations, and attacked commercial vessels transiting Bab al-Mandeb more than 100 times,” the White House said in the fact sheet.
Wednesday’s executive order directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to recommend that the designation take effect within 30 days.
Following the designation, Trump will direct the United States Agency for International Development, after it completes a review, “to end its relationship with entities that have made payments to the Houthis, or which have opposed international efforts to counter the Houthis while turning a blind eye towards the Houthis’ terrorism and abuses.”
XINHUA
ISTANBUL, Jan. 21 – A 5.2-magnitude earthquake struck Türkiye’s northwestern province of Canakkale on Tuesday, according to the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).
AFAD said on social media platform X that the earthquake occurred at 11:38 p.m. (2038 GMT) off the coast of Ayvacik district in the Aegean Sea.
Canakkale Governor Omer Toraman shared on X that following the earthquake, relevant units started field surveys, and no reports of damage or casualties have been received so far.
The tremor was felt across a wide range of areas in the Aegean and Marmara regions.
XINHUA