A total of 246 survivors and 78 bodies have been brought to the ground over three days of rescue operation at an abandoned gold mine in South Africa, the police said.

In a statement issued at 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, the South African Police Service (SAPS) said that 246 illegal miners had been retrieved alive from underground and had been arrested since the rescue operation commenced on Monday at the Stilfontein mine in the North West Province. The number of bodies recovered stood at 78, the same as the previous update released at 4:00 pm, news agency reported.

"We cannot say for sure that the operation has been called off at this stage," SAPS national spokesperson Athlenda Mathe told.

GERB-UDF, the largest political force in the Bulgarian Parliament, on Wednesday proposed the formation of a three-party coalition government, two and a half months after the parliamentary elections.

Rosen Zhelyazkov, GERB-UDF's nominee for Prime Minister, proposed the new government moments after Bulgarian President Rumen Radev handed him an exploratory mandate.

The coalition also includes the parliamentary groups of Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP)-United Left and There Is Such People, Zhelyazkov said, adding that it would be supported by Democracy, Rights and Freedoms - DRF when voted by the National Assembly, the country's parliament.

The three-party coalition and DRF have together 126 seats. The proposal for cabinet needs to be approved by legislators in a simple majority vote in the 240-member parliament.

Two people have drowned in separate accidents in Western Australia (WA).

Police in WA said on Wednesday that a man aged in his 40s drowned at a beach on the state's south coast on Monday while trying to rescue two children.

The man was among four adults who entered the water at Native Dog Beach, over 400 km southeast of Perth, to assist the children just after 2 pm local time on Monday before encountering difficulty.

He became unresponsive and was carried to the shore by members of the public who performed first aid.

Emergency services were called to the scene and ambulance crews took the man to a nearby medical center, but he could not be revived.

Both children and the other three adults returned to shore safely, police said.

Just days ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th US President, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against his best ally Elon Musk over an alleged securities violation relating to his acquisition of Twitter in 2022.

The SEC lawsuit alleged that the tech billionaire “failed to disclose his 5 per cent ownership stake of Twitter in a timely manner”, violating federal securities law.

The complaint, filed in federal court in Washington, DC, also claimed that the Tesla and SpaceX owner “waited to disclose the acquisition in order to build up a larger position in Twitter at a discounted price”, said reports.

The lawsuit against Musk came as Gary Gensler, Chairman of the SEC, is set to step down on January 20, the day Trump takes over as US President.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and US President Joe Biden held a phone conversation to discuss the intensive mediation efforts undertaken by Egypt, the US, and Qatar to reach a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip and exchange prisoners and detainees.

During the conversation on Tuesday, both leaders stressed the importance of the concerned parties' commitment to overcoming obstacles and showing the necessary flexibility to reach an agreement, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

Sisi emphasised the need to reach an immediate ceasefire agreement to put an end to the serious humanitarian suffering of the citizens in the Strip, and spare the region the consequences of expanding the conflict, news agency reported.

The two presidents also highlighted the importance of continuing to strengthen bilateral relations in all fields, especially given the strategic relations between the two countries.

Investigators detained impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol at his residence on Wednesday in their second attempt to take him into custody for questioning over his short-lived imposition of martial law.

A warrant to detain Yoon was executed at 10:33 a.m., according to the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), marking the first time a sitting president has been arrested, news agency reported.

A convoy of vehicles carrying Yoon left the presidential residence compound in central Seoul shortly afterward to head to the CIO office in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul.

Yoon was seen stepping out of a car and entering the office to undergo questioning before investigators seek a warrant to formally arrest him within 48 hours.

Yemen's Houthi group said in a statement that it targeted a power plant in the southern Israeli port city of Eilat, using a "winged missile."

"The attack achieved its goal successfully," Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in the statement aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.

Also, Sarea said his group carried out another attack against Israel, targeting vital targets in Tel Aviv city with several bomb-laden drones, news agency reported.

He vowed that his group's attacks against Israel "will not stop until Israel stops war in Gaza and lifts its siege."

The attacks against the power station in Eilat and targets in Tel Aviv came a few hours after the Houthi group took responsibility for launching a ballistic rocket attack against the Israeli Defence Ministry.

Earlier in the day, Israeli media said the Houthi rocket attack was intercepted by the Israeli air defense system.

Reacting strongly to reports of the death of an Indian national in Russia, India on Tuesday reiterated its demand for the early discharge of the remaining Indians currently serving the Russian Army in the conflict zones.

"We have learnt of the unfortunate death of an Indian national from Kerala who had apparently been recruited to serve in the Russian Army. Another Indian national from Kerala, who was similarly recruited, has been injured and is receiving treatment in a hospital in Moscow," said Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.

Offering condolences to the family of the deceased, the senior diplomat stated that the Indian Embassy in Moscow is in touch with the families, and all possible assistance is being rendered.

The United Nations and aid partners are responding to deadly Tropical Cyclone Dikeledi battering southeast Africa with high winds and heavy rain, UN humanitarians said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the UN partners began working with local authorities after the cyclone made landfall on Saturday in northern Madagascar, the same area hit by deadly Cyclone Chido nearly a month ago, news agency reported.

OCHA's latest ReliefWeb status alert reported that Dikeledi's center was over the Mozambique Channel, approximately 75 km east of the coast of Nampula province in northeastern Mozambique. It passed just south of Mayotte, the island where Cyclone Chido inflicted heavy death and destruction.

The government of Madagascar reported that three people were killed and more than 350 displaced to several temporary sites. More than 5,200 people were directly affected, nearly 1,300 homes flooded, and five health centers were damaged.

South Korea will set up tailored strategies for different scenarios in the wake of potential changes in the US trade policy following the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump next week, the industry ministry said on Tuesday.

"If the United States introduces detailed trade protectionism measures, significant impacts on South Korea's exports will be inevitable," the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a policy report.

"There are also concerns protectionist measures could spread among major markets in a chain reaction," it added, reports news agency.

The ministry said it is currently formulating strategies based on "accurate data" to counter potential moves by the Trump administration to implement protectionist measures targeting countries with trade surpluses with the US.

US President Joe Biden cited taking the Quad to the "next level" among the major foreign policy achievements of his outgoing administration and noted that hosting the leaders at his home for the last summit showed "we're really friends."

Biden on Monday said he strengthened America's bilateral and multilateral alliances and partnerships, such as NATO and the Quad; forged new ones, such as AUKUS with the United Kingdom and Australia, and weakened America's adversaries, such as Russia, China and Iran.

He also spoke at length about his decision to pull the US out of Afghanistan, ending the country's longest war.

"The United States is winning the worldwide competition compared to four years ago," Biden said in a speech at the State Department.

About 92,000 people remain under mandatory evacuation orders and 25 dead due to the Los Angeles wildfires in the western US, and another 89,000 are under evacuation warnings, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna told reporters.

At least 25 people have died and more than a dozen others remain unaccounted for as multiple wildfires rage across the Los Angeles area.

The fierce wildfires in Los Angeles County, fueled by severe drought conditions and strong winds, scorched over 40,500 acres, and destroyed more than 12,300 structures as of Monday, news agency reported.

The Palisades Fire, the largest one, was 14 per cent contained, and the Eaton Fire, the second largest, was 33 per cent contained as of Monday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).

Iran and three European powers -- France, Britain and Germany -- have agreed to restart discussions on lifting sanctions and Tehran's nuclear program, a senior Iranian diplomat said.

Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's deputy Foreign Minister, announced this on social media platform X as a new round of talks began in Geneva between Iran, the three countries, and the European Union. The talks are expected to cover a range of issues, including how the countries relate to each other, as well as problems in the region and the world, news agency reported.

Gharibabadi said the talks were "serious, frank, and constructive," adding they went into detail about removing sanctions and the nuclear issues needed for a deal.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said on Monday that "progress" has been achieved in the talks held in Qatar on a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that will secure the release of the hostages.

"There is progress in the negotiations to release the hostages," Sa'ar said during joint remarks alongside Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who is on a trip to the region.

"Israel very much wants to release the hostages and is working hard to reach a deal," Sa'ar said.

As firefighters continue to battle devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area, winds are expected to intensify in the coming days, potentially further complicating rescue efforts.

According to the local officials, gusty winds and persistently dry weather are increasing extreme fire threats in the region.

Northeast wind gusts surpassed 50 miles (about 80 km) per hour on Sunday, and the strong Santa Ana winds are also forecast to pick up in the coming days.

These winds, combined with low humidity and extremely dry vegetation, will keep the fire threat in Los Angeles County at a "very high" level, said Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone.

Three active wildfires are still ravaging Los Angeles County, scorching nearly 40,300 acres (about 163 square km), according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE).

 A man has died and a woman has been hospitalized after a light plane crashed in Australia's Northern Territory (NT).

The 63-year-old man and 29-year-old woman were the sole occupants of the plane when it crashed in a recreational area about 50 km southeast of Darwin on Sunday, local authorities reported.

NT Police, Fire and Emergency Services said in a statement that the crash was reported to police at about 10:20 am local time.

Emergency services were deployed to the scene where the 63-year-old pilot was found deceased inside the plane.

The death toll from the ravaging wildfires in Los Angeles has risen to 24, local media reported.

Wildfires continued to rage through Los Angeles County, marking a catastrophic 'Black Swan' event of unprecedented scale in the history of the US' most populous county.

Among the active fires, the Palisades Fire has burned through 19,978 acres (80.85 square km) with just six per cent containment as of Thursday night. Meanwhile, the Eaton Fire has scorched 13,690 acres (55.4 square km) and remains completely uncontained, news agency reported.

For residents like Michael, an accountant in Altadena where the Eaton Fire erupted, the devastation has been life-altering. He was evacuated moments before his home was engulfed by flames.

"It's like living through Armageddon," he said, choking back tears. "We've lost everything."

Three people were killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a group of people near the Shebaa Farms in southern Lebanon, a Lebanese military source said.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told on Sunday that an Israeli drone fired an air-to-ground missile at the Bastra area south of the town of Shebaa, resulting in the fatalities.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Saturday that its air force had identified and attacked three "suspects" near the Israeli-annexed Shebaa Farms area, news agency reported.

Lebanon's General Directorate of Civil Defence announced on Sunday it had retrieved two bodies in the Lebanese town of Khiam, the bodies and remains of eight people in the town of Naqoura, two bodies in the village of Biyyadah, and one body in the village of Tayr Harfa.

At least eight Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on areas of the Gaza Strip, according to local civil defence and medical sources.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defence in Gaza, reported that three people were killed in an Israeli drone strike targeting a gathering of Palestinians in the al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, news agency reported.

In a separate attack, two Palestinians were killed in an airstrike in the Al-Karama neighbourhood northwest of Gaza City, and two more were killed in an Israeli strike in the Al-Shuja'iya neighboruhood east of Gaza City.

Additionally, medical sources reported that a young man was killed in Jabalia town in northern Gaza, where eyewitnesses confirmed injuries from Israeli artillery targeting the area.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday urged the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to surrender its weapons, signalling a potential breakthrough in the country's most intractable conflicts.

Speaking in the Kurdish-dominated city of Diyarbakir, Erdogan described what he called a "new and important window of opportunity" to resolve a struggle that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the 1980s. "We do not think it is right that this should be wasted," he said.

His government has recently enlisted support from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party, whose members visited Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned PKK leader, to explore possibilities for disarmament.

Uganda's admission as a BRICS partner state presents an opportunity for the East African country to benefit from deeper ties with some of the world's largest emerging markets and to facilitate its own development, a senior official has said.

Starting January 1, 2025, Uganda officially became a BRICS partner state, along with eight other countries.

"We have joined a platform or an association of countries that are highly industrialized, some of which have evolved from similar circumstances to where we are now," Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in charge of Regional Cooperation John Mulimba told news agency.

"BRICS offers a significant opportunity to learn from their technological advancements and innovations, including the use of information and communication technology as a tool for societal transformation," he added.

Devastating wildfires continue to rage across different parts of Los Angeles County, leading to widespread disruptions, including school closures and the cancellation of entertainment, sports, and community events.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest public school district in the United States, closed schools on Thursday and Friday to fend students and staff from hazardous air quality. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho emphasised that travelling to school posed greater risks than staying at home, particularly for children with respiratory conditions.

Some campuses near evacuation zones also experienced power outages and low attendance before the closures were announced.

The black box of a passenger jet that crashed in South Korea's southwestern airport late last month failed to work for the last four minutes, the transport ministry said Saturday.

The result of analyzing the ill-fated airplane's Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) by the US National Transportation Safety Board showed that data storage in both the FDR and the CVR stopped about four minutes before its crash into a localizer, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The ministry's aviation railway accident investigation committee planned to identify the cause of the data not being stored.

The localizer refers to a part of the instrument landing system providing aircraft with runway centerline guidance.

The wildfire in Argentina's Nahuel Huapi National Park has so far destroyed over 3,500 hectares, local authorities reported.

"Following several reconnaissance flights, the fire's perimeter was updated with greater accuracy, estimating an affected area of 3,527 hectares," the park's administration said in a press statement on Friday.

The area, it said, was shrouded in smoke Friday morning, which spread across nearby valleys and prevented aerial operations to combat the blaze.

Access from Los Rapidos to the Circuito

One man has died and two more have been hospitalized after a knife fight at a park in Melbourne's southwest in Australia.

Police in the state of Victoria said on Saturday that officers were called to reports of a group of youths fighting in a park in the suburb of Wyndham Vale - about 30 kilometres southwest of central Melbourne at 11:30 pm local time on Friday.

Officers arrived at the scene and found one man with a stab wound. He received medical treatment but died at the scene,

Two other males were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, news agency reported.

Victoria Police said that officers arrested four males nearby who were assisting with inquiries.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that "Yemen's Houthis are paying and will continue to pay a heavy price for their aggression (on Israel)," describing them as a proxy of Iran and "a threat to Israel and the entire region."

Netanyahu's remarks came after Israel's military announced that its warplanes targeted the Hezyaz power station in Yemen's capital Sanaa, as well as the Yemeni ports of Hodeidah and Ras Issa. The military claimed it targeted infrastructures used by Houthi forces for military operations.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, who observed the airstrikes from the Air Force command centre in Tel Aviv, said, "The port of Hodeidah is paralysed, and the Ras Issa port is ablaze," adding the strikes sent a message to the Houthi group that "no one will be immune."

At least 11 people have lost their lives, with fears that the death toll could climb as rescue efforts intensify following devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.

The fires, which erupted on Tuesday, have left communities reeling as they witness the extensive destruction caused by the raging blazes.

Firefighters continue to battle the flames amid challenging conditions, though the strong winds that fueled the infernos earlier in the week have now subsided. The disaster has already engulfed over 12,000 homes and structures across a densely populated 25-mile (40 km) area north of downtown Los Angeles.

For residents like Michael, an accountant in Altadena where the Eaton Fire erupted, the devastation has been life-altering. He was evacuated moments before his home was engulfed by flames.

People who have limited access to air conditioning may be at higher risk of seeking emergency care for health problems following exposure to wildfire smoke, according to a new study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) in the US, as Los Angeles County battles the most destructive wildfires in its history.

The study suggested that US policies should prioritise equity and education regarding the measures people can take to protect themselves from the harmful pollutants in wildfire smoke.

Posted online ahead of publication in the journal Environmental Research: Health, the study found that exposure to fine particle matter (PM2.5) from wildfire smoke in California is associated with higher rates of emergency department visits for all causes, non-accidental causes, and respiratory disease.

This risk varied by age and race, but was especially high for individuals who lived in areas with lower availability of air conditioning.

An estimated 3.2 million children under 5 are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year in war-torn and famine-afflicted Sudan, a UN spokesman said.

"Of these children, over 700,000 will likely suffer from severe acute malnutrition," said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at a regular briefing, adding that the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is sounding the alarm, news agency reported.

Dujarric said Sudan is the site of the world's largest child displacement crisis, with 5 million children homeless because of the hostilities. Most children leave their homes with only the clothes on their backs, and their mothers often walk for days, sometimes up to 20 days, to reach a camp, looking for safety, food and basic shelter.

Israeli airstrikes claimed the lives of at least 22 Palestinians, including a journalist, as fuel shortages threaten to plunge Gaza into a communications blackout, officials warned.

The Civil Defence in Gaza reported eight fatalities and several injuries from an airstrike targeting a group of people and a house in the Shuja'iyya neighbourhood of Gaza City. Later, an airstrike on the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed seven people, news agency reported.

In southern Gaza's Khan Younis, medical officials at Nasser Hospital said that four bodies were recovered after aerial and artillery attacks struck multiple locations in the city. In Al-Nuseirat, central Gaza, Al-Awda Hospital reported three deaths, including journalist Sa'ed Nabhan of Al-Ghad TV, and six injuries from artillery shelling and drone strikes.

With the death of Nabhan, the number of journalists killed since the conflict began on October 7, 2023, has risen to 203, according to the government media office in Gaza.

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg will serve as the country's interim Chancellor following Karl Nehammer's recent resignation from the post, Austrian news agency APA reported on Wednesday.

Schallenberg will lead the caretaker government after Nehammer's formal resignation on Friday until a new government is formed, APA quoted the office of Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen as saying.

Schallenberg, 55, has served as Austria's foreign minister since 2019.

Van der Bellen on Monday tasked Herbert Kickl, leader of the far-right Freedom Party, with forming a new government after recent coalition talks without the far-right party collapsed.

US warplanes carried out seven airstrikes on military sites held by the Houthi group in northern Yemen on Wednesday, a military official of the Yemeni government forces told news agency.

The official said on condition of anonymity that the strikes targetted key military locations in the Harf Sufyan district of Amran province and Jarban area in Sanhan district, south of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, the official said.

He provided no details regarding casualties or the scale of damage caused by the airstrikes.

Turkey has established a new Cybersecurity Directorate to strengthen defence against cyber threats, according to a presidential decree published in the Official Gazette on Wednesday.

The newly-formed body will be responsible for implementing decisions made by the Cybersecurity Board, which will be chaired by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The board will also include key ministries such as interior, justice, defence, transport and infrastructure, along with industry and technology.

In a post on the social media platform X, Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said that the directorate will determine policies, strategies, and objectives to ensure cybersecurity, prepare action plans, and implement projects supporting cybersecurity and information security.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday that his country and Iraq have common concerns about the ongoing developments in Syria.

He made the remarks at a joint press conference with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani following their meeting in the Iranian capital Tehran earlier in the day, according to a statement published on the website of his office.

Pezeshkian said he had discussed recent developments in the West Asia region with the Iraqi prime minister, listing some of the two countries' common concerns over Syria as ensuring stability and calm, maintaining its territorial integrity, countering terrorist activities, making Israel leave the occupied Syrian territories and paying attention to religious sentiments, especially with regard to Shiite Muslims' sacred sites and holy shrines in Syria.

2024 was New Zealand's 10th-warmest year on record, and eight of New Zealand's 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2013, according to the annual climate summary published by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) on Wednesday.

The ongoing warming trend observed both locally and globally is consistent with human-caused climate change, which is largely driven by human greenhouse gas emissions, said a NIWA statement, adding atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels continued to rise, surpassing 420 parts per million (ppm) at NIWA's monitoring station during 2024.

The 2024 nationwide average temperature calculated from NIWA's seven station series was 13.25 degrees Celsius, being 0.51 degree Celsius above the 1991-2020 annual average, it said, adding eight months of 2024 had temperatures that were well above average or above average.