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The deportations took place despite a US federal judge granting a temporary suspension of the expulsions order, apparently as planes were already headed to El Salvador.

"Today, the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country," Bukele said Sunday morning on X, sharing a video of several men in handcuffs and shackles being transferred from a plane to a heavily guarded convoy.

Trump signed an order invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 on Friday, but it was not publicly announced until Saturday.

The wartime authority allows a president to detain or deport citizens of an enemy nation, and has been invoked only three times before -- during major international conflicts, including World War I and II.

Bukele, in a meeting last month with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, had offered to house prisoners from the United States in his country, including members of Tren de Aragua and Salvador's own MS-13 gang.

Bukele said the alleged gang members had been sent to the country's maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a mega-prison on the edge of a jungle 75 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of San Salvador with capacity for 40,000 prisoners.

Inmates at the prison are packed in windowless cells, sleep on metal beds with no mattresses are forbidden from having visitors.

Rubio said in a separate statement Sunday that "hundreds of violent criminals were sent out of our country."

"I want to express my sincere gratitude to President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador for playing a pivotal role in this transfer," Rubio said.

He added that as part of the transfer, the United States had also deported "top leaders" of MS-13, "plus 21 of its most wanted to face justice in their homeland."

Trump, in his order, claimed Tren de Aragua was "conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States both directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime."

The statement gives Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi 60 days to enact the ruling making all Tren de Aragua gang members "subject to immediate apprehension, detention and removal."

The detention and expulsion order will apply to all Venezuelan Tren de Aragua members who are over 14 and not naturalized US citizens or lawful permanent residents.

The ACLU and an allied group, Democracy Forward, asked the US District Court in Washington to bar the deportations -- arguing that the 1798 act was not intended for use in peacetime.

Judge James Boasberg on Saturday issued a 14-day halt to any deportation under the new order.

Bondi slammed the ruling, saying in a statement that it "disregards well-established authority regarding President Trump's power, and it puts the public and law enforcement at risk."

The El Salvador prison where the alleged gang members were sent already houses some 15,000 members of the MS-13 and rival Salvadoran Barrio 18 gangs.

They were rounded up under a state of emergency imposed by Bukele after a surge in gang violence in 2022.

Some are serving sentences of over 200 years.

Kočani (Republic of North Macedonia) (AFP) – A fire tore through an overcrowded nightclub packed with mostly young people in North Macedonia early Sunday, killing 59 people, apparently after on-stage fireworks at a hip-hop concert set the venue ablaze, authorities said.

Some 155 people who were injured in the inferno had been taken to hospitals across the country, 22 of them in critical condition, officials said. Some of the more serious cases were taken to hospitals in other European countries.

Interior Minister Pance Toskovski said that more than 20 wounded and three of those killed in the fire were minors.

"At the time of the event around 500 people were inside, while 250 tickets were sold," he said.

The blaze started in the Club Pulse in the eastern town of Kocani, which was packed with mostly young fans attending a concert by a popular hip-hop duo called DNK.

"The fire started around 2:30 am (0130 GMT), the sparklers that were on stage ignited the styrofoam on the ceiling. I heard an explosion and the roof collapsed," one young person who was inside for the concert told local media.

"We all rushed to get out, we all ran towards one door that was for both entry and exit," they were quoted as saying.

Another, a young woman waiting outside a hospital in the capital Skopje for a friend being treated for burns, said: "Initially we didn't believe there was a fire. Then there was huge panic in the crowd and a stampede to get out."

The government proclaimed a seven-day mourning period and ordered flags lowered.

"A decision will also be made on an urgent and extraordinary inspection of all nightclubs, discotheques and restaurants that organise parties," the government said in a statement.

Pope Francis sent prayers to the victims and survivors and wished "the families of the dead, mostly young people, the expression of his deep condolence," the Vatican said in a message addressed to the bishop of Skopje, Kiro Stojanov.

Videos posted on social networks and shot before the fire showed there were "stage fountains" set up -- a type of indoor fireworks used during performances.

Other videos published by media showed huge flames emerging from the building, a two-storey white structure in Kocani, a town with 30,000 residents.

An AFP photographer in the town saw military medical vehicles arrive to reinforce staff at the local hospital tending to some of the injured.

As the day unfolded, the leaders of neighbouring countries sent condolences.

Many of the patients in serious condition were transferred to other countries like Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Turkey.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said on X that she was "deeply saddened about the tragic fire" and that "the EU shares the grief and pain of the people of North Macedonia".

Sanaa (AFP) – Yemenis on Sunday recounted their panic and terror as the first US attacks under President Donald Trump struck rebel-held areas, killing dozens and wounding more than 100.

A "horrific explosion" rocked the capital, Sanaa, late on Saturday during suhoor, the night-time meal during the holy month of Ramadan, one resident said.

"The house shook, the windows shattered, and my family and I were terrified," father-of-two Ahmed, who did not want to give his full name, told AFP.

"I've been living in Sanaa for 10 years, hearing shelling throughout the war. By God, I've never experienced anything like this before."

The Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who control much of the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country, have been fighting a Saudi-led coalition since 2015.

The US strikes were aimed at preventing a resurgence of months of attacks on the vital Red Sea shipping lane during the Israel-Hamas war.

"This is the most scared I've been since the beginning of the war," said Malik, 43, who has three children.

"Yesterday's shelling in Al-Jiraf (northern Sanaa) was absolutely terrifying: six strikes in a row.

"My children were screaming and crying in my arms. It's the first time I've ever said the Shahada," he said, referring to the prayer that is recited before death.

"I was waiting for one of these missiles to hit our house."

Attacks on Sanaa and Saada, the birthplace of the Huthi movement in Yemen's rugged northern mountains, and elsewhere killed 31 and wounded 101, according to the rebels' health ministry.

Footage from Huthi media showed children and a woman among those being treated in a hospital emergency room, including a dazed girl with blackened legs wrapped in bandages.

Late on Saturday, a plume of white smoke had risen over Sanaa after explosions rocked the northern district of the capital.

However, the Huthis sealed off areas around the blast sites, making it impossible to gauge the true scale of the destruction.

"This is the point of no return, and from now on, it's gloves off between the Huthis and CENTCOM," he said, referring to the regional US military command.

Amal, 29, who lives with her mother in Sanaa, said Saturday's attacks were "terrifying... windows were shattered and the walls of the house shook".

But she added: "We've witnessed hundreds of raids, most of them in the same areas.

"Several military operations against the Huthis have been announced, but they've only added more casualties, most of them civilians.

"The homes and locations of the leaders are well-known, but the victims are always civilians."

Athens (AFP) – Greece is riding a weather "rollercoaster", with weekend temperatures spiking to a record high for March just ahead of a forecast bout of snow and frost, meteorologists said on Sunday.

The mercury soared to 31.4 degrees Celsius (88.5 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday in the central town of Livadia -- the highest-ever recorded for March, according to National Observatory of Athens’ Meteo.gr.

Across the country, other weather stations registered temperatures more typical of balmy May than the closing days of winter.

"The very high maximum temperatures recorded during the last four days (from Wednesday to Saturday) in the country, were record highs for the month of March in many areas," Meteo.gr said.

Following a surge of wildfires, a nationwide ban on burning material on rural properties is in effect until March 18.

"To have such temperatures so early in March, this has never happened before!" meterologist Panagiotis Giannopoulos told ERT television.

The unusual spike was attributed to a blanket of Saharan dust in the air.

This winter is listed as the 13th warmest in Greece. The previous one, in 2023-2024, remains the warmest on record.

Inhabitants in Greece will have to brace for plunging temperatures from Tuesday, though, weather-watchers said.

"A cold air mass on Tuesday will give showers and snow all over the country," Giannopoulos said.

"In Athens, where today we have 27 degrees the maximum temperature will be 11 degrees. This is a rollercoaster," he added.

The abrupt change is particularly problematic for the agricultural sector.

In Greece's region of northern Macedonia -- which experienced 27 degrees on the weekend -- the expected frost is set to cause severe damage to fruit trees that are in full bloom.

Greece has become a climate-change hotspot. It had its hottest summer and warmest winter on record in 2024, according to data from the Meteo.gr network.

The year brought unprecedented temperatures, extreme rainfall and a notable frequency of impactful weather events.

Thirty-one significant weather incidents disrupted daily life in 2023, well above the 2000-2024 average, while nine weather-related deaths were registered.

Mexico City (AFP) – Protesters gathered across Mexico on Saturday to demand justice following a grisly discovery of charred bones, shoes and clothing at a suspected drug cartel training ground.

Demonstrations took place in the western state of Jalisco, where the remains were found, and in cities across the country, including the capital Mexico City, Tijuana, Veracruz and San Luis Potosi, according to AFP journalists and local press reports.

Families searching for some of the more than 100,000 people missing in Mexico discovered the bodies on March 5 at a ranch where forced recruits are thought to have been held.

The Guerreros Buscadores collective -- a group dedicated to locating missing people -- described the site as an "extermination center" with "clandestine crematoriums", causing shock in a country that has become inured to spiraling cartel-related violence.

In the Mexican capital, demonstrators placed candles and rows of shoes in tribute to the missing.

Since October 2023, groups searching for missing Mexicans have reported the discovery of six more alleged clandestine crematoriums in Jalisco.

Hundreds of graves have been discovered elsewhere in the country.

The United Nations Human Rights Office on Friday described the finding in Jalisco as a "deeply disturbing reminder of the trauma of disappearances linked to organized crime across the country."

"The discovery is all the more disturbing given that this site had been previously raided as recently as September 2024 by the National Guard and the Jalisco State Prosecutor's Office, without crucial evidence being detected," it added.

Juan Carlos Perez, a 22-year-old student demonstrating, hoped the protest would serve as a wake-up call to take action against the rampant criminal violence that has overwhelmed Mexico's security and justice institutions for two decades.

"My first reaction [to the finding] sadly was 'ah look, another one', but then I started following the story and realized that it could have been me, it could have been my dad, my mom," he said.

Beijing (AFP) – Chinese internet search giant Baidu released a new artificial intelligence reasoning model Sunday and made its AI chatbot services free as ferocious competition grips the sector.

Technology companies in China have been scrambling to release improved AI platforms since start-up DeepSeek shocked its rivals with its open source and highly cost-efficient model in January.

Baidu announced in a WeChat post that its latest X1 reasoning model -- which the company claims performs similarly to DeepSeek's but for lower cost -- and a new foundation model, Ernie 4.5, were available via its AI chatbot Ernie Bot.

Baidu also made the models free to use, more than two weeks ahead of schedule. Previously, users had to pay a monthly subscription to access the company's latest AI models.

The Beijing-based company was one of China's first to roll out a generative AI platform publicly, in 2023, but rival chatbots from companies such as TikTok owner ByteDance and Moonshot AI have since gained more users.

Baidu faces stiff competition in the consumer-facing AI sector where startup DeepSeek shook up the industry at home and abroad with a model that performed comparably to competitors such as US-made ChatGPT, but cost much less to develop.

Since then, Chinese companies and local government agencies have rushed to incorporate DeepSeek's open-source model into their work, while other technology companies have been playing catch-up.

Baidu itself has integrated DeepSeek's R1 reasoning model into its search engine.

In February, WeChat owner Tencent released a new AI model that it claimed answers queries faster than DeepSeek, even as it incorporated its rival's technology into its messaging platform.

The same month, Alibaba, which has partnered with Apple to develop AI for the US company's phones in China, said it would invest 380 billion yuan ($52 billion) in AI over the next three years.

Alibaba this month also released a new version of its AI assistant app powered by its open-source Qwen reasoning model.

Baidu has also announced plans to follow DeepSeek's lead by making its Ernie AI models open-source from June 30.

Houston (AFP) – At least 33 people were killed and dozens more injured Saturday when tornadoes and violent storms raked across the central United States, officials said.

Local news showed roofs torn off homes and large trucks overturned, as forecasters warned of more tornadoes to come this weekend.

Eight people died in Kansas in a crash involving more than 50 vehicles, caused by low visibility during a "severe dust storm," local police said.

Missouri State Highway Patrol confirmed 12 storm-related fatalities and shared images of boats piled on top of one another at a marina destroyed by the weather.

The state police reported downed trees and power lines, as well as damage to buildings, with some areas severely impacted by "tornadoes, thunderstorms and large hail."

"It was the scariest thing I've ever been through, it was so fast, our ears were all about to burst," Alicia Wilson, who was evacuated from her home in Missouri, told TV station KSDK.

Further south in Mississippi, the state's governor said six deaths were reported and that three people were missing late Saturday.

Meanwhile in Texas, local authorities told AFP that four people had died in vehicle accidents linked to dust storms and fires that reduced visibility on the roads.

In the neighboring state of Arkansas, officials said three people had died and 29 had been injured in the storm.

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency in response and said she had spoken with President Donald Trump.

"He said to tell the people of Arkansas he loves them and he and his administration are here to help with whatever we need following last night's tornadoes," Sanders wrote on X.

At least 200,000 homes and businesses across the central United States were without power by Saturday evening, according to tracking site poweroutage.us.

More tornadoes were forecast Saturday in the central Gulf Coast states including Mississippi and Tennessee.

"Numerous significant tornadoes, some of which may be long-track and potentially violent, should continue into this evening," the National Weather Service said.

Tornadoes are spinning columns of air that touch the ground from massive cumulonimbus thunderstorm clouds.

The central and southern American states of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas get the most violent ones due to unique geographical and meteorological conditions.

Dubbed "Tornado Alley," this is where winds of widely varying temperatures meet in volatile, potent storm clouds, with most storms occurring from May to June.

In 2024, 54 people died in tornado-related incidents in the United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Montreal (AFP) – Canada is reviewing a major purchase of US-made F-35 combat planes amid serious tensions with the Trump administration, a spokesperson for the Canadian defense ministry told AFP on Saturday.

That announcement came two days after Portugal said it too was reexamining a possible purchase of American F-35 fighter jets amid rising international anger over the tariff war President Donald Trump has launched and his wavering support for the Atlantic alliance.

Trump rattled America's northern neighbor by imposing 25 percent tariffs on all Canadian products before agreeing to suspend levies on Canadian exports covered by a North American trade pact.

And he has regularly infuriated Canadians by suggesting their country become the 51st US state.

In one of his first official acts since taking office Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney has asked the defense ministry "to determine if the F-35 contract, as it stands, is the best investment for Canada, and if there are other options that could better meet Canada's needs," according to an email from Laurent de Casanove, the ministry spokesperson.

The Canadian government in January 2023 signed a contract with giant US defense company Lockheed Martin to purchase 88 F-35s for a total of Can$19 billion ($13.2 billion).

It has already paid for a first shipment of 16, set for delivery early next year.

The deal has not been canceled, but "we need to do our homework given the changing environment, and make sure that the contract in its current form is in the best interests of Canadians and the Canadian Armed Forces," the statement said.

Portugal indicated Thursday that it was studying both American F-35s and European aircraft as it looks to replace its air force's aging F-16s.

Outgoing defense minister Nuno Melo raised those options in an interview Thursday in the daily Publico, referring to the "predictability of our allies" and "the recent position of the United States, in the context of NATO and on the level of international geostrategy."

"The blast in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood of Latakia city has so far resulted in three deaths and 12 injured," state news agency SANA said citing provincial authorities.

It added that "civil defence teams and residents are still searching for others injured and missing".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor later described the blast as an "accident" resulting from a resident's attempt to dismantle unexploded ordnance in the building.

A resident of the city, Ward Jammoul, 32, told AFP that she heard a "loud blast", adding that she "headed to the site and found a completely destroyed building".

She said civil defence personnel and ambulances were present at the site, alongside "a large number of people who had gathered to look for those trapped under the rubble".

An image carried by SANA showed a large plume of smoke rising over a populated neighbourhood.

A report by non-governmental organisation Humanity and Inclusion had warned last month of the dangers posed by unexploded munitions left over from the devastating civil war that erupted in 2011.

It said experts estimated that between 100,000 and 300,000 of the roughly one million munitions used during the war had never detonated.

Dhaka (AFP) – United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said Saturday the organisation is exploring the possibility of a humanitarian aid channel from Bangladesh to Myanmar.

Guterres is on a four-day visit to Bangladesh that saw him meet on Friday with Rohingya refugees, threatened by looming humanitarian aid cuts.

Around a million members of the persecuted and mostly Muslim minority live in squalid relief camps in Bangladesh, most of whom arrived after fleeing the 2017 military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar.

"We need to intensify humanitarian aid inside Myanmar to create a condition for that return (of the Rohingyas) to be successful," Guterres said during a press briefing.

Guterres suggested that under the right circumstances, having a "humanitarian channel" from Bangladesh would facilitate the return of the Rohingya community, but said it would require "authorisation and cooperation".

Asked if dialogue with the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic minority rebel group in Myanmar, was essential for the repatriation of Rohingyas, Guterres said: "The Arakan Army is a reality in which we live."

He acknowledged that in the past relations with the AA have been difficult but said, "Necessary dialogue must take place".

Guterres added that engaging with the AA was important as sanctions against the group would require the UN Security Council's approval, which could prove difficult to obtain.

"It's essential to increase pressure from all the neighbours in order to guarantee that fighting ends and the way towards democracy finally established," Guterres said.

The UN chief's remarks came after human rights group Fortify Rights issued a statement urging the Bangladesh government to facilitate humanitarian aid and cross border trade to reach war-affected civilians in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

The AA is engaged in a fierce fight with the military for control of Rakhine, where it has seized swaths of territory in the past year, all but cutting off the state capital Sittwe.

The UN's World Food Programme said on Friday that it will be forced to cut off one million people in war-torn Myanmar from its vital food aid because of "critical funding shortfalls".

The upcoming cuts would hit 100,000 internally displaced people in Rakhine -- including members of the persecuted Rohingya minority -- who will "have no access to food" without its assistance, it said.

Last year, the UN warned that Rakhine faces an "imminent threat of acute famine".

Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) (AFP) – Two Brazilians have been sentenced to 19 and 23 years in prison respectively for the beating death of a young Congolese migrant in Rio de Janeiro, the court announced Saturday.

Aleson Cristiano de Oliveira Fonseca was sentenced to 23 years and seven months, and Fabio Pirineus da Silva to 19 years and six months for the killing on January 24, 2022 of Moise Kabagambe, a court statement said.

The 24-year-old Kabagambe was killed near the kiosk where he worked along the Barra da Tijuca beach.

Testimony from his family, buttressed by surveillance video, showed the two men savagely beating Kabagambe when he asked them for his overdue wages for two days of work.

The attackers struck him with their fists, their feet and a stick after a third man, Brendon Alexander Luz da Silva -- who will face trial later -- had bound his hands and feet, the court statement said.

"We got the response we had been waiting for for three years," Maurice Kabagambe, the dead man's brother, told the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

"All of Brazil saw what they did to Moise. They killed him like cowards."

The crime shocked Brazilians as images from the surveillance video were shown repeatedly on television. Demonstrations were organized to demand justice.

Moise Kabagambe and members of his family had arrived in Brazil in 2011 after fleeing armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Tokyo (AFP) – The Unification Church has come under intense scrutiny in Japan since a former prime minister was assassinated, but it could soon fall even further from grace.

Authorities said in October 2023 they were seeking to dissolve the influential sect, founded in South Korea and nicknamed the "Moonies" after its late founder, Sun Myung Moon.

The church is accused of pressuring followers into making life-ruining donations, and blamed for child neglect among its members -- although it has denied any wrongdoing.

Now a court order is expected to strip the group of legal recognition as early as this month, major Japanese media outlets reported.

The dissolution would remove the church's tax-exempt status while branding the organisation a harmful entity.

Former prime minister Shinzo Abe -- Japan's longest-serving leader -- was shot dead on the campaign trail in 2022, allegedly by a man who resented the Unification Church.

Investigations after Abe's murder revealed close ties between the sect and many conservative ruling-party lawmakers, leading to the resignation of four ministers.

Even after its dissolution, the Unification Church could continue religious practices, said lawyer Katsuomi Abe.

But "its reputation will decline, and the number of followers will decrease", said Abe, who represents former believers seeking compensation after making huge donations.

The amount donated by Japanese members over the decades has been estimated by some at hundreds of millions of US dollars or more.

Since 2023, nearly 200 people have demanded compensation of 5.7 billion yen ($38.5 million) in total, according to Abe and other lawyers.

"I don't think any other organisation has caused such damage" to Japanese society, he told AFP.

It would be the third religious group ordered to disband in Japan -- another being the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which released a deadly nerve agent on the Tokyo subway 30 years ago.

Aum eventually declared bankruptcy, but its two successor groups continue to operate in the country.

The Unification Church -- officially the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification -- was founded in 1954.

It rose to global prominence in the 1970s and 80s, becoming famous for mass weddings often held in stadiums.

Its affiliate groups have secured addresses from Donald Trump and Japan's Abe, who was not a member of the church or its sub-groups but made a video speech at a 2021 event.

The man accused of killing Abe is 44-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, whose mother is said to have donated 100 million yen ($1 million at the time) to the Unification Church in total.

Yamagami, now in pre-trial detention, could face the death penalty if convicted.

He has reportedly attempted suicide in the past, while his brother took his own life.

Their uncle has described receiving calls for help from Yamagami when his mother left her children alone and without food to attend church.

Since Abe's murder, the church has pledged to prevent "excessive" member donations.

Japan has long been a financial hub for the Unification Church, which tells members they must atone for the wartime occupation of Korea and sells expensive items to grant forgiveness from sins.

A man whose parents are members told a recent lawyers' gathering that his family could not afford school equipment or even sometimes to run a bath.

He was told not to interact with "satanic" non-members and felt "lonely and isolated". He said his brother took his own life last year after suffering mental health problems.

It could take up to a year for the dissolution order to be finalised if the church appeals.

Lawyers warn the group could transfer its financial assets elsewhere, partly due to a 2023 bill approved by the ruling party that critics say takes a light touch on financing.

"They've been sending tens of billions of yen every year to their South Korean headquarters," said Abe.

He and other lawyers are calling for stronger legislation so that money can be returned to victims.

Liquidating the church's assets will be a daunting job, Abe warned.

"There is a big question as to how many years the liquidation process will take... and whether it will go smoothly," he said.