Pope Francis' death mourned worldwide as Catholic Church prepares for next chapter

Former Israeli Defense Minister and opposition lawmaker Avigdor Liberman on Thursday accused Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of authorizing weapons transfers to a criminal gang in Gaza that he likened to the ISIS terrorist group. Netanyahu appeared later in the day to confirm the operation, suggesting it would save the lives of Israeli forces battling Hamas in the Palestinian territory.

Six accused drug traffickers allegedly using boats and "narco subs" to traffic cocaine were hit with U.S. sanctions, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said Thursday.

Johannesburg — South African former Olympic and paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius has competed in his first race 12 years after murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius, a double leg amputee who has been free on parole since January 2024, competed in an Ironman triathlon in Durban over the weekend.

Tel Aviv, Israel — Israel has recovered the bodies of two Israeli-American hostages killed and taken in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack that ignited the war in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military and intelligence services said Thursday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the remains of Judi Lynn Weinstein and Gad Haggai were recovered and returned to Israel in a special operation by the army and the Shin Bet internal security agency.

President Trump signed a proclamation to ban travel from certain countries on Wednesday evening, citing national security risks, administration officials told CBS News. 

Three unexploded U.S. bombs from World War II were defused on Wednesday in Cologne after the German city's biggest evacuation since the end of the war.

Toronto — At least 33,400 people have been forced to evacuate their homes in three Canadian provinces due to active wildfires that are sending smoke drifting across the border into northern U.S. states and all the way across the Atlantic to Europe. As of Wednesday two deaths were blamed on the blazes.

Three former Salvadoran military officers were convicted by a five-person jury late Tuesday for the 1982 killings of four Dutch journalists during the Central American nation's civil war. They received 15-year prison sentences.

Five police officers died Monday after they were ambushed by an armed group in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, on the border with Guatemala, local officials said.

Three British nationals accused of smuggling over two pounds of cocaine into Indonesia were charged Tuesday in a court on the tourist island of Bali. They face the death penalty under the country's strict drug laws.

South Koreans are voting for a new president in a snap election triggered by the ouster of Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who is facing rebellion charges over his short-lived imposition of martial law late last year.

Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, the world's No. 1-ranked player, suffered a major defeat on Sunday to current world champion Gukesh Dommaraju. 

The woman accused of murdering three members of her ex-husband's family by serving them poisonous mushrooms has taken the stand at an Australian court on Monday as the highly publicized triple murder trial nears its conclusion.