CBSN International News

Tel Aviv — Testing the bounds of a fragile ceasefire in its fifth day, Israel's military said Thursday that forces had opened fire in the southern Gaza Strip on masked, armed suspects who posed a threat to their safety. The Israel Defense Forces, in a statement, reported incidents east of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, and in the area of the Kerem Shalom border crossing, through which aid trucks have been delivering more food, water and medical supplies since the ceasefire took effect. 

Hundreds of LGBTQ couples in Thailand got married Thursday as the country's landmark marriage equality law came into effect. Thailand is the first country or region in South East Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, and the third in Asia after Taiwan and Nepal.

At least 12 train passengers were killed on Wednesday after being hit by another service on an adjacent track in western India after they jumped from their coaches in panic to escape a rumored fire incident, the Press Trust of India reported.

A solitary sunfish at an aquarium in southwestern Japan lost its appetite, began banging into the side of the fish tank and appeared unwell days after the facility closed last month for renovations. As a last-ditch measure to save the popular fish, its keepers hung their uniforms and set up human cutouts outside the tank.

London — A 26-year-old man pleaded guilty Wednesday to the murder of a mother and two of her daughters at their family home just north of London last year, in an attack that involved a crossbow and a knife. Prosecutors said Kyle Clifford killed his 25-year-old ex-girlfriend Louise Hunt and her 28-year-old sister Hannah Hunt with a crossbow before stabbing their mother, Carol Hunt, 61, to death on July 9.

Police in Greece said Wednesday they were investigating how an ancient Greek statue came to be dumped in a black plastic bag near garbage cans in the northern city of Thessaloniki.

Drug traffickers whose entire organized crime ring was brought down by a photo of a French Bulldog were ordered to fork over more than $1.4 million, the United Kingdom's National Crime Agency said. 

An Israeli military operation in a built-up refugee camp in the occupied West Bank killed at least seven people Tuesday, according to Palestinian health officials, as the Israel Defense Forces announced a new "large scale" offensive in the area on the third day of a ceasefire in the smaller Gaza Strip.

Two men admitted on Monday to the brutal 2003 murder of a Frenchman when they appeared in court after more than two decades on the run.

Islamabad, Pakistan — Afghanistan's Taliban government announced the release Tuesday of two Americans in a prisoner exchange.

President Trump has signed an executive order beginning the process of withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. It was among dozens of executive actions he signed after being sworn in Monday for a second term, on issues ranging from immigration to foreign policy to climate change.

London — A British teen pleaded guilty Monday to murdering three girls and attempting to kill 10 other people in what a prosecutor said was a "meticulously planned" stabbing rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England last summer. Axel Rudakubana, 18, entered the surprise plea as jury selection had been expected to begin at the start of his trial in Liverpool Crown Court.

An Indian court on Monday sentenced a police volunteer to life in prison after finding him guilty in the rape and killing of a trainee doctor last year, a crime that sparked nationwide protests over inadequate safety for women and led to a speedy trial in the country's slow-moving justice system.

More than 80 people have been killed in Colombia's northeast region following failed attempts to hold peace talks with the National Liberation Army, a Colombian official said.

A senior Taliban figure has urged the group's leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls, saying there is no excuse for them, in a rare public rebuke of government policy.

A long-awaited ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has officially begun after a last-minute delay of almost three hours. The fighting continued past the initially provisioned 8:30 a.m. local (1:30 a.m. Eastern) deadline as the Israeli military said Hamas had failed to provide the names of the first three hostages due to be released, per the terms of the agreement.

South Korea's impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, was formally arrested early Sunday, days after being apprehended at his presidential compound in Seoul, as he faces possible imprisonment over his ill-fated declaration of martial law last month.

At least 30 people have been injured, some seriously, in a chairlift accident at the Spanish Astún ski resort, in the Pyrenees mountain range, emergency services and local media reported Saturday.

A police volunteer was found guilty of the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in India, a crime that sparked countrywide protests and hospital strikes last year.

Canadian homeowners returned home in July 2024 and found a star-shaped pattern of grey dust spotted on a walkway in front of their home on Prince Edward Island.

Archeologists in Pompeii, the ancient Roman city buried by ash and lava in 70 AD, unearthed a private bathhouse built over 2,000 years ago, officials said Friday.

Russia on Friday sentenced three lawyers who had defended Alexey Navalny to several years in prison for bringing messages from the late opposition leader from prison to the outside world.

London - Britain's Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced Thursday that there would be a number of new central government-backed local inquiries into years-old allegations of child grooming gangs, weeks after Elon Musk accused British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failings in relation to the handling of the crimes in a series of tweets. The crimes took place a decade ago when Starmer was the country's top prosecutor.

New Delhi — Popular Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan was seriously injured after being stabbed repeatedly by an intruder at his Mumbai home on Thursday, but doctors treating him said he was out of danger after surgery.

Female family ties were at the heart of social networks in Celtic society in Britain before the Roman invasion, a new analysis suggests.

Twenty-three people in Istanbul have died in 48 hours after drinking tainted alcohol, authorities said Wednesday.

U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday that they're discussing a potential plea deal with Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, the long-elusive Mexican drug lord who was arrested last summer and whose son could testify against him if he goes to trial.

Kyiv, Ukraine — Russia on Wednesday launched a major ballistic and cruise missile attack on regions across Ukraine, targeting energy production and compelling authorities to shut down the power grid in some areas despite freezing winter weather, officials said.

South Korean law enforcement officials on Wednesday detained impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his brief imposition of martial law last month.

Nine beaches in Sydney, Australia, have been closed after mysterious gray debris shaped like small balls washed up ashore.

Queen Elizabeth II wasn't told details of her long-time art adviser's double life as a Soviet spy because palace officials didn't want to add to her worries, newly declassified documents reveal.

In a roughly 30-minute phone call Sunday afternoon, President Biden delivered difficult news to the families of three Americans held by the Taliban. He did not have a deal with the Taliban to free their loved ones from captivity, despite what U.S. officials described to CBS News as a significant offer the U.S. had extended in Doha days earlier. The U.S. considers Ryan Corbett and George Glezmann to be wrongfully detained by the Taliban, and describes Mahmood Habibi, who holds dual American and Afghan citizenship, as "unjustly held" since 2022. 

A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 has hit southwestern Japan, the country's Meteorological Agency said Monday, while warning the public to stay away from coastal areas because of a tsunami threat.

A young gorilla rescued from a plane's cargo hold is recovering at an Istanbul zoo, officials said Sunday, while wildlife officers consider returning him to his natural habitat.

President Biden honored Pope Francis with the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction, the highest civilian award given by the president, on Saturday, saying the pontiff was a "light of faith, hope, and love that shines brightly across the world."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved sending the director of the Mossad foreign intelligence agency to ceasefire negotiations in Qatar in a sign of progress in talks on the war in Gaza.

The black boxes of the passenger jetliner that crashed in South Korea last month killing 179 people stopped recording about four minutes before the crash, South Korean officials said Saturday.

Tel Aviv — Israeli military strikes killed more than 600 people in the Gaza Strip in the first 10 days of 2025, pushing the death toll over 46,000 since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian territory's health ministry, and one new estimate suggests it could be much higher. Israel launched the war after Hamas carried out its unprecedented terrorist attack, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.

Kano, Nigeria — Authorities in northern Nigeria's largest city have begun evacuating more than 5,000 street children seen as a "security threat" and a growing concern as an economic crisis forces more to fend for themselves. The Hisbah, a regional police force tasked with enforcing Islamic Sharia law, have carried out midnight raids on motor parks, markets and street corners in the regional capital, Kano, since the beginning of the year, evacuating children as they sleep.

France on Thursday charged the founder of an adult website used to commit sexual offences, including by a French man who recruited dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife, prosecutors said.

Most of the 35,000 online pharmacies around the world are operating illegally and could be selling dangerous or ineffective drugs, according to the U.S. Trade Representative's annual "notorious markets" report.

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.

Ramstein Air Base, Germany — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said Donald Trump's return to the White House would open "a new chapter" and reiterated a call for Western allies to send troops to help "force Russia to peace." He made the plea as the Biden administration announced what will likely be its last major military aid package for Ukraine — a promise of weapons and other support worth $500 million.

Iran's military forces were four days into extensive drills on Wednesday that many believe are essentially preparations for how the country could react to a U.S., Israeli or combined attack on its nuclear facilities.

Mexico isn't the sole source of fentanyl, its president said Tuesday at a news conference for the country's anti-drug campaign, just weeks after threats from President-elect Donald Trump to impose tariffs over drug trafficking. 

Rome — An Italian journalist detained in Iran for three weeks and whose fate became intertwined with that of an Iranian engineer wanted by the United States was freed Wednesday and is heading home, Italian officials announced.

British tennis star Cameron Norrie apologized and avoided disqualification when a racquet he tossed in the air struck a spectator at the ATP Tour tournament in Auckland on Tuesday.

A popular Japanese actor hired to be the wholesome face of a low-alcohol beer has been fired after getting drunk and breaking into his neighbor's home, officials said.

Paris — Jean-Marie Le Pen, the historic leader of France's far-right political movement, died Tuesday at the age of 96, the French news agency AFP said, citing his family. Le Pen, who had been in a care facility for several weeks, died Tuesday "surrounded by his loved ones," the family said in a statement.

Seoul, South Korea — North Korea said Tuesday its latest weapons test was a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile designed to strike remote targets in the Pacific as leader Kim Jong Un vowed to further expand his collection of nuclear-capable weapons to counter rival nations.