Death toll rises

in Hong Kong

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong firefighters have found dozens more bodies in a high-rise complex after a massive fire engulfed seven buildings. The death toll has risen to 128, with many still unaccounted for.

Authorities said fire alarms in the complex, which housed many older people, did not sound during the fire.

Authorities on Friday arrested eight more people involved in the building’s renovation, including scaffolding subcontractors and project managers. The fire spread rapidly due to bamboo scaffolding and highly flammable foam panels. Crews have prioritized apartments from which they received emergency calls. The fire was fully extinguished Friday morning.

Zelenskyy’s chief

of staff resigns

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the resignation of his powerful chief of staff, Andrii Yermak, who was also the country’s lead negotiator in talks with the U.S. The resignation on Friday came hours after Yermak’s residence was searched by anti-corruption investigators.

The unprecedented search at the heart of Ukraine’s government was a blow for the Ukrainian leader that risked disrupting his negotiating strategy at a time when Kyiv is under intense U.S. pressure to sign a peace deal nearly four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Yermak has long been a trusted confidant of Zelenskyy, who has resisted persistent pressure to replace him.

Trump plans to

pardon Hernandez

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he will be pardoning former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who in 2024 was convicted for drug trafficking and weapons charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison. The president explained his decision on social media by posting that “according to many people that I greatly respect,” Hernandez was “treated very harshly and unfairly.”

Hernandez had been convicted last year in the U.S. of conspiring to import cocaine and two weapons counts. He had served two terms as the leader of the Central American nation of roughly 10 million people.

Israeli forces

raid village

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Israeli forces have raided a village in southern Syria, killing at least 13 people, according to Syrian officials.

It was the deadliest Israeli attack since its troops seized a swath of southern Syria a year ago following the ouster of former President Bashar Assad. Syria’s Foreign Ministry described Friday’s attack in the village of Beit Jin as a “horrific massacre,” saying women and children were among the dead.

Israel said its troops were conducting an operation to seize suspects from the Jamaa Islamiya militant group in the village and came under fire from militants. It said they returned fire, killing a number of militants. Syrian officials say local residents confronted the troops and that the dead were civilians.