Paramilitary fighters with Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces withdrew in large numbers from the battered capital of Khartoum on Wednesday, fleeing a city they had occupied since a ruinous war broke out nearly two years ago.

“Khartoum is now free,” declared Sudan’s military chief, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, who arrived by helicopter for a brief visit to the battle-ravaged presidential palace, which his forces had seized days earlier.

Residents poured onto the street, cheering soldiers, in Burri, a neighborhood by the Nile River. “One army, one people,” they chanted. Soldiers combed through newly captured areas, hunting for paramilitary stragglers, some of whom were beaten.

The capture of the capital by Sudan’s military marked a momentous shift in Africa’s largest war, which has brought massacres, famine and sweeping destruction in its wake. But it is unlikely to end the war.

The Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, is likely to regroup in Darfur, its stronghold in Sudan’s far west, analysts said, where it has vowed to establish a parallel government and continue to prosecute the war.

Few details known about Yemen strikes

The U.S. military has conducted strikes against Houthi militia targets in Yemen daily since March 15, but the Pentagon has not provided details about the attacks since March 17, when it said more than 30 Houthi targets had been hit on the first day.

The military’s Central Command posts images on social media of jets conducting missions against the Houthis, an Iranian-backed group, but it has refused to disclose how many targets have been struck so far or to identify the several Houthi commanders it says it has killed.

A Central Command spokesperson said this week that the strikes had “destroyed command-and-controlled facilities, air defense systems, weapons manufacturing facilities and advanced weapons storage locations.”

Tufts student arrested, whereabouts unknown

An international student in a graduate program at Tufts University was taken into federal custody Tuesday outside an off-campus apartment building, according to the university’s president and an attorney representing the student.

The student, Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen, had a valid student visa as a doctoral student at Tufts, according to a statement from her lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai. Ozturk, who is Muslim, was heading out to break her Ramadan fast with friends Tuesday night when she was detained by agents from the Department of Homeland Security near her apartment in Somerville, Mass., Khanbabai said.

“We are unaware of her whereabouts and have not been able to contact her,” the lawyer said. “No charges have been filed against Rumeysa to date that we are aware of.”

A statement attributed to a senior spokesperson for Homeland Security claimed Wednesday that Ozturk had “engaged in activities in support of” Hamas considered “grounds for visa issuance to be terminated.”

Records from Immigration and Customs Enforcement showed that a person with Ozturk’s name was being held in a Louisiana detention center Wednesday.

Late Tuesday, Judge Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts had ordered the government not to move Ozturk out of the state without advance written notice to the court. It was not clear Wednesday whether the government had provided written notice of her removal from Massachusetts.

Fate of 4 missing U.S. soldiers unconfirmed

NATO on Wednesday clarified comments that Secretary-General Mark Rutte made earlier in the day, when he suggested that four U.S. soldiers who went missing while training in Lithuania had died, even though the U.S. Army said their fate was not yet confirmed.

“The search is ongoing,” NATO said in a statement posted on X. “We regret any confusion about remarks @SecGenNATO delivered on this today. He was referring to emerging news reports & was not confirming the fate of the missing, which is still unknown.”

The U.S. Army said the Hercules armored vehicle the four U.S. soldiers were in during a training exercise had been found submerged in a body of water. It said recovery efforts were underway by U.S. Army and Lithuanian Armed Forces and civilian agencies.

The soldiers, all from 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, were conducting tactical training when they went missing.

Asked Wednesday evening by reporters if he had been briefed about the missing soldiers, President Donald Trump said, “No, I haven’t.”

Deadly wildfires rage across South Korea

Multiple wildfires raging across South Korea’s southern regions for days have killed 26 people and destroyed more than 300 structures, officials said, as thousands of personnel and dozens of helicopters were mobilized again Thursday to battle the the county’s worst-ever blazes.

Korea Forest Service chief Lim Sang-seop said “a small amount” — less than 0.2 inches — of rain was expected in the area on Thursday, not enough to play a meaningful role in extinguishing the wildfires.

The fatalities include a pilot whose helicopter crashed during efforts to contain a fire and four firefighters and other workers who died after being trapped by fast-moving flames driven by strong winds.

Destroyed in the blazes were houses, factories, vehicles and some historic structures. In Uiseong, about 20 of the 30 structures at the Gounsa temple complex, which was said to be originally built in the 7th century, have been burned. Among them were a pavilion-shaped building erected in 1668.

Bolsonaro to face charges in Brazil

A panel of Brazil Supreme Court justices on Wednesday unanimously accepted charges against former President Jair Bolsonaro over an alleged attempt to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat, and ordered him to stand trial.

Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet has accused Bolsonaro and 33 others of attempting a coup that included a plan to poison his successor, current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and kill a Supreme Court judge.

The justices said seven close allies should also stand trial on five counts: attempting to stage a coup, involvement in an armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, damage characterized by violence and a serious threat against the state’s assets, and deterioration of listed heritage.

The former president has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and says he’s being politically persecuted. A lawyer for Bolsonaro did not respond to a request for comment.

Assassination suspect gets love notes in socks

Two heart-shaped notes were hidden in the cardboard packaging of argyle socks delivered to Luigi Mangione ahead of his court appearance in Manhattan last month, according to prosecutors. “Know there are thousands of people wishing you luck,” one note said.

The episode was revealed in court documents made public Wednesday as New York prosecutors and Mangione’s defense lawyers argued over his access to evidence and whether he was receiving special treatment.

Mangione was allowed to change his outfit for the court appearance, while “most incarcerated defendants must wear jail-issued clothing,” prosecutors wrote.

Despite receiving the notes, “the defendant was permitted to wear the argyle socks,” prosecutors wrote, “which he first changed into and later changed out of because he felt that ‘they did not look good.’”

Mangione has been charged with killing Brian Thompson, of Maple Grove, chief executive of Minnetonka-based UnitedHealthcare, on a sidewalk in front of a midtown Manhattan hotel Dec. 4. Thompson was gunned down as he was arriving at an investor meeting.

— From news services