The Israeli military says it has found evidence that hostages were present in an underground tunnel in the Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, which has become the focus of Israel’s ground offensive. The military on Wednesday showed the tunnel to journalists who were escorted into a neighborhood near the ruins of destroyed homes and streets. A corrugated tin hut covered the tunnel’s entrance in a residential yard. The tunnel was hot and humid, with walls lined with concrete and electrical wires. Farther inside was a bathroom, where the military said it found evidence that hostages had been there, including their DNA. A military spokesman did not elaborate.

The head of the U.N. health agency says holiday gatherings and the spread of the most prominent variant globally led to increased transmission of COVID-19 last month. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says nearly 10,000 deaths were reported in December, while hospital admissions during the month jumped 42% in nearly 50 countries — mostly in Europe and the Americas — that shared such trend information. He says the JN.1 variant is now the most prominent in the world.

A veteran Laotian diplomat recently appointed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ special envoy to Myanmar, has arrived on his first mission to the strife-torn nation. He is meeting with the head of the ruling military council and other top officials. Alounkeo Kittikhoun faces the tough challenge of promoting the regional group’s peace plan for Myanmar to quell the violence between the military government, which seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, and an armed pro-democracy resistance movement that is assisted by ethnic minority fighting forces. The 10-member ASEAN regional grouping is concerned that the destabilization could have regional consequences.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to appoint a 34-year-old prime minister surprised many because of his age and relatively short career. But Gabriel Attal has become one of the most prominent and ambitious figures on the French political scene in recent years, saying there’s “nothing greater than serving France.” The centrist politician is often compared to Macron, France’s youngest president, who went from presidential adviser to head of state in a few years. Attal described his appointment as “the symbol of audacity.” He also is France’s first openly gay prime minister.

A smiling and joking Alexei Navalny has appeared in court via video link from the Arctic penal colony where he is serving a 19-year sentence. It's the first time the Russian opposition leader has been shown on camera since his transfer to the remote prison last month. Russian media released video of Navalny in black prison garb and a buzz cut joking about the Arctic weather and saying conditions were better there than at his old prison. The video came during a hearing in a courtroom in the Vladimir region in central Russia on a lawsuit he filed against prison officials at a penal colony near there before his transfer. Navalny alleges he was punished for bogus reasons.

Nepal’s police have arrested a controversial spiritual leader known as “Buddha Boy” on charges of sexually assaulting a minor and involvement in the disappearances of at least four of his followers from his camps. Ram Bahadur Bamjan — believed by some to be the reincarnation of Siddhartha Gautama, who became revered as Buddha — was arrested late Tuesday from his house in a suburb of Kathmandu, the Nepalese capital. Police brought him before the media in handcuffs on Wednesday and said he tried unsuccessfully to flee by jumping two floors from a window when officers arrived. His followers later gathered outside the detention center where Bamjan is being held but were pushed back by riot police.

A legal battle over whether Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza amounts to genocide opens Thursday at the United Nations’ top court. Two days of preliminary hearings at the International Court of Justice will examine South Africa’s call for judges to order an immediate suspension of Israel’s military actions. Israel stringently denies the genocide allegation. The case that is likely to take years to resolve strikes at the heart of Israel’s national identity as a Jewish state created in the aftermath of the Nazi genocide in the Holocaust. Israel is sending a strong legal team to the International Court of Justice to defend its military operation launched in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to seek governance reforms when he meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday. Blinken says he has secured commitments from multiple countries in the region to assist with rebuilding and governing Gaza after the war against Hamas, and that wider Israeli-Arab normalization is still possible, but only if there is “a pathway to a Palestinian state.” That approach faces serious obstacles, beginning with the Israeli government’s adamant opposition to Palestinian statehood. But it would also have to grapple with the Western-backed Palestinian leadership’s dearth of legitimacy among its own people.

The U.N. Security Council has scheduled a vote Wednesday on a resolution that would condemn and demand an immediate halt to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on merchant and commercial vessels in the Red Sea area. The U.S. draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, says at least two dozen Houthi attacks are impeding global commerce “and undermine navigational rights and freedoms as well as regional peace and security.” The Iranian-backed Houthis have said they launched the attacks with the aim of ending Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip. The resolution would demand the release of the first ship the Houthis attacked on Nov. 19, the Galaxy Leader, which has links to an Israeli company.

China is being accused of using military threats, diplomatic pressure and fake news in a broad strategy to influence voters in Taiwan’s elections to pick candidates who favor unification. China’s ultimate goal is to take control of the self-governing island democracy. Beijing has long insisted Taiwan is part of China and must be regained, by military force if necessary, regardless of the views of the island’s people. It sends warships and fighter jets near Taiwan on a near-daily basis, hoping to intimidate the island’s 23 million people and wear down its military. Beijing has described Saturday's elections as a choice between war and peace. So far, surveys show most Taiwanese support their de facto independence.

China’s space agency says its latest lunar explorer has arrived at the launch site in preparation for a mission to the moon in the first half of this year. Wednesday's announcement came a day after a U.S. company abandoned a lunar landing planned for Feb. 23 because of a fuel leak that started soon after takeoff on Monday. China and the U.S. are both pursuing plans to land astronauts on the moon in what has become a growing rivalry in space. The U.S. plans to do so in 2026, and China’s target date is before 2030.

As of Wednesday, 203 deaths were reported following the 7.6 magnitude quake that slammed the western coastline of Japan on New Year’s. Seven of them were at evacuation centers, where rescued people died from injuries and sickness. Such deaths weren’t directly caused by the damage from the quakes, fires and mudslides. They happened in alleged safety. Rain and snow warnings were issued for the area. Nearly 30,000 people whose homes were destroyed or deemed unsafe are staying at schools and other makeshift facilities. Deaths on Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture have climbed daily, as rescue teams drew bodies from the rubble.

Cesareans are surging in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, which has one of the world’s highest rates. More than half of babies born in the territory are now delivered via surgery compared with only 32% on the U.S. mainland. That's according to a federal report released Wednesday. Medical experts say reasons behind the surge in Puerto Rico vary and include the island’s crumbling health care system. One doctor says ob-gyns prefer to schedule a cesarean to ensure they will have all the medical personnel required for a birth. The World Health Organization recommends a cesarean rate of between 10% to 15%.

Security camera video from a West Bank village shows a young man standing in a central square when he is suddenly shot and drops to the ground. Seconds later, two others rushing to his aid are also hit, killing a 17-year-old, just before an Israeli military jeep arrives. An Associated Press review of the video and interviews with the two wounded men indicate that Israeli soldiers opened fire on the three although they did not appear to pose a threat. Last week's fatal shooting is the latest in a series of events in which Israeli soldiers appear to fire on Palestinians without provocation.

More than 50 countries that together have half the world’s population are expecting national elections in 2024. The year looks set to test even the most robust democracies and to strengthen the hands of leaders with authoritarian leanings. From Taiwan and Russia to India and South Africa, the bumper crop of contests has huge implications globally. In some countries, the balloting will be neither free nor fair. And in many, isolationist policies, curbs on opposition parties or the potential for manipulation have put the fate of democracy front and center. Looming large on the calendar is a possible U.S. presidential rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

It was a day like any other at the TC Television studio in Guayaquil, Ecuador, with its mid-afternoon newscast underway, when the masked gunmen burst in unleashing at least 15 minutes of threats and fear – all broadcast live. First a man with a pistol appeared in the middle of the public TV station’s live transmission followed by a second man with a shotgun, then a third and more. With the show’s “After the News” name on the country’s screens, station’s employees are brought onto the set and ordered to lie down. The unprecedented assault on a TV station followed the apparent escapes from prison of two of the leaders of Ecuador’s most powerful gangs.

Israel is sending top legal minds, including a Holocaust survivor, to The Hague this week to counter allegations that it is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The robust engagement with the International Court of Justice is unusual for Israel, which normally considers the United Nations and international tribunals as unfair and biased. The decision to participate reflects Israeli concerns that the claims could force it to halt its war against Hamas and tarnish its image internationally. South Africa launched the case at the United Nations’ top court in The Netherlands, alleging that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide. Israel vehemently denies the claim.

A group of armed, masked men in Ecuador launched an audacious attack on a television station during a live broadcast and so revealed the country’s spiraling violence in the wake of an apparent recent prison escape. The imprisoned leader of a drug gang mysteriously vanished from his cell in the coastal city of Guayaquil on Sunday, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency. On Tuesday, thousands of viewers tuned in to TC Television watched live as the men threatened presenters and studio hands with firearms and what appeared to be sticks of dynamite. Sounds resembling shots were audible, as well as pleas and moans of pain.

Armed men have broken into the set of a public television channel in Ecuador as it broadcast live and threatened people. The men with faces covered entered the set of the TC Television network in the port city of Guayaquil and shouted that they had “bombs.” Noises similar to gunshots could be heard. Ecuador has been rocked by a series of attacks including explosions and the abduction of several police officers after the government imposed a state of emergency in the wake of the apparent escape of a powerful gang leader from prison.

Polish police have arrested two politicians convicted of abuse of power who had taken refuge for hours in the palace of President Andrzej Duda. The arrests, reportedly made inside the palace, mark a dramatic escalation of a standoff between the new and previous governments. The development is the latest in the escalating dispute between the new government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and the conservative Law and Justice party that governed Poland for eight years until its election defeat last year. The prime minister claimed that the president was obstructing justice by giving the wanted men refuge.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says officials at the Arctic prison colony where he is serving a 19-year term have isolated him in a tiny punishment cell over a minor infraction. Navalny said in a social media statement relayed from behind bars that officials accused him of refusing to “introduce himself in line with protocol.” Navalny has been behind bars since January 2021, when he returned to Russia after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. He has since received three prison terms and spent months in isolation in a penal colony in central Russia for alleged minor infractions. He was transferred last month to the prison above the Arctic Circle.

Countless tiny plastic pellets are washing up on the shores of northern Spain and local authorities have declared an environmental emergency after a shipping container fell off a transport vessel last month. State prosecutors are investigating over fears that the pellets could have toxic properties. They say there are indications that the pellets have also been found on French shores. Greenpeace and other environmental groups calculate the total amount of pellets lost to be in the millions. They say the pellets can break down into even smaller microplastics that can be consumed by fish that are later caught by fishermen.

Prosecutors say a 26-year-old man who tried to sell what he claimed was a walking stick used by the late Queen Elizabeth II has been sentenced for eBay buyers. Dru Marshall, from Hampshire in southern England, claimed he was a senior footman at Windsor Castle and that the proceeds from the “antler walking stick” sale would go to cancer research. Prosecutors say the auction had reached 540 pounds ($686) before he cancelled the listing after learning police had launched an investigation. He was found guilty of fraud by false representation and sentenced to a 12-month community order.

Hezbollah says it launched a drone strike at the Israeli army’s northern headquarters Tuesday in retaliation for recent strikes in Lebanon that killed top Hamas and Hezbollah officials. Israel’s military acknowledges that one of its army bases in northern Israel was targeted but says there were no injuries or damage. Also Tuesday, officials said an Israeli drone strike in Lebanon killed three Hezbollah members. Hezbollah says it struck at the Israeli army’s northern command headquarters in Safed with several drones. The Israeli military did not specify where the base is located.

Serbian authorities have started evacuating nearly 200 animals that have been stranded on a river island for weeks and were facing hunger and cold as temperatures dropped across the country. The cows, calves and horses got stuck on the Krcedinska Ada island in the middle of the Danube river after water levels rose sharply last month, blocking their way back to the shore. The Serbian government’s Ministry of Agriculture has said that a total of 97 cows, 40 calves and 70 horses were stranded up to 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the shore. Most of the animals are privately owned, officials said.

A Ukrainian air force official says Russia’s recent escalation of missile and drone attacks is stretching his country's air defense resources. That has left Ukraine vulnerable in the 22-month war unless it can secure further weapon supplies. As soldiers on both sides fight from largely static positions along the roughly 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line, recent Russian attacks have used large numbers of various types of missiles in an apparent effort to saturate air defense systems and find gaps in defenses. The Ukrainian air force spokesman said Tuesday that Ukraine needs more air defense systems to cope with the barrages. Ukraine uses weapons from the Soviet era and more modern ones provided by its Western allies.