
Poland's president wants Netanyahu cleared to visit for Auschwitz memorial despite ICC war crimes indictment
CBSN
Berlin — Poland's President Andrzej Duda has called for a special exemption to let Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attend events in the country marking 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp, without facing the risk of arrest under an International Criminal Court warrant. Poland will host a memorial service eight decades after Allied forces seized the notorious camp from German troops and liberated the surviving prisoners on January 27, 1945.
Duda sent a letter to Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk urging an exemption for Netanyahu, who has not said whether he wishes to attend the annual event, as he's done several times previously, according to a statement confirmed by the head of the Polish president's office, Malgorzata Paprocka.
Duda highlighted the significance of the 80th Auschwitz memorial service, saying any representatives from Israel, particularly those in leadership positions, should be able to participate without legal obstacles.

Hamas said on Friday it has accepted a proposal from mediators to release one living American-Israeli hostage and the bodies of four dual-nationals who had died in captivity. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office cast doubt on the offer, accusing the U.S. and Israeli-designated terrorist group of trying to manipulate talks underway in Qatar on the next stage of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.

One of China's biggest restaurant chains has promised to refund thousands of customers after video of a customer urinating into a simmering hotpot went viral online, triggering a public outcry. The clip, recorded last month, appears to show a young man standing on a table at a branch of the Haidilao restaurant chain in Shanghai urinating into a vat of boiling broth.

In August 2021, Tamim Satari raced to the Kabul International Airport to evacuate Afghanistan after working with the American military as an intelligence officer, helping U.S. forces coordinate aerial bomb campaigns against the Taliban. But in the chaos of the U.S. withdrawal, his wife and newborn son were left behind.

It's a confusing time for American diplomacy. After yesterday's meeting in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. appeared on Tuesday to be back in Ukraine's corner — and calling on Russia to agree to a 30-day ceasefire in the war it started more than three years ago. It remained entirely unclear on Wednesday, however, whether Vladimir Putin might agree to a temporary ceasefire. His forces currently have the momentum on the battlefield but, like Ukraine, Russia is thought to have suffered hundreds of thousands of military casualties.

Quetta, Pakistan — Pakistani security forces were battling hundreds of separatist militants holding roughly 300 hostages Wednesday on a train they hijacked in the country's remote southwest, officials said. At least 30 of the militants had been killed, security officials said, while about 190 of the roughly 450 passengers initially on the train had been rescued.