JERUSALEM; 05 Feb 2019; AA: Israeli forces rounded up 25 Palestinians in overnight raids carried out across the occupied West Bank, according to the Israeli military on Tuesday.

The individuals were arrested for “suspected involvement in popular terrorist activities”, the army said in a statement, without elaborating on the nature of these activities.

CARACAS, 05 Feb 2019; AA: U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan oil company PDVSA will affect the global market negatively, the oil minister said Monday.

In an interview aired by private broadcaster Televen, Manuel Quevedo, also president of the oil company, commented on U.S. sanctions imposed last week on PDVSA and its U.S. subsidiary Citgo.

Quevedo said US sanctions and trade wars will affect oil prices in 2019.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A political death watch took shape at Virginia’s Capitol as Gov. Ralph Northam consulted with top administration officials Monday about whether to resign amid a furor over a racist photo in his 1984 yearbook.

Practically all of the state’s Democratic establishment — and Republican leaders, too — turned against the 59-year-old Democrat after the picture surfaced late last week of someone in blackface next to another person in a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe. The photo was on Northam’s medical school yearbook page.

05 Feb 2019; DW: Robbers raided dozens of safe deposit boxes from a bank in Belgium at the weekend after tunneling in, prosecutors said.

The thieves tunneled up into the vault of an Antwerp branch of BNP Paribas via a nearby sewer system.

At 1:34 p.m. (12:34 UTC) the bank's alarm was triggered despite the vault door remaining locked. By the time authorities made it into the vault, thieves had opened and robbed 20 to 30 deposit boxes and fled into the tunnel.

NEW YORK, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Science-fiction (sci-fi) lovers and cinemagoers in the United States can soon enjoy China's first homemade sci-fi blockbuster as "The Wandering Earth" will premiere in the country on Tuesday, the first day of the Chinese New Year.

A total of 29 cities across the United States will see the movie released, among which 12 will roll out the movie in the form of IMAX 3D, including New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and San Francisco.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- A study from Washington University showed that women's brains were about three years younger than men's, offering a clue to why women tend to stay mentally sharp longer than men.

In a study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers studied 205 people to figure out how their brains use a portion of sugar in a process called aerobic glycolysis that sustained brain development but dropped steadily with age.

ABUJA, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- A total of 41,000 Nigerians were killed by cancer in 2018, out of an estimated 166,000 cases recorded in the country, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

WHO's health emergency team lead in Nigeria, Clement Peter, made the disclosure here at a seminar in commemoration of the "2019 World Cancer Day," which is observed annually on Feb. 4.

The theme for this year's World Cancer Day is "I am and I will."

ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey became the latest state on Monday to boost its hourly minimum wage to $15 after Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law a measure phasing in the higher rate over five years.

Murphy signed the bill alongside Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver and Democratic legislative leaders at a raucous event in Elizabeth where advocates cheered, “Ready for 15,” carried banners with their union affiliation and applauded loudly once the bill was signed.

BRASILIA, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's government on Monday announced it will submit an anti-crime bill to congress that stiffens penalties for serious crimes.

"The Brazilian government is declaring war on organized crime," president Jair Bolsonaro, who is recovering from surgery in hospital, said in a written message to lawmakers.

Crime in Brazil has "set records" due to the "weakening" of security forces and "too permissive" laws, said Bolsonaro.

British Home Secretary Sajid Javid has signed the order for the extradition of Vijay Mallya to India. Mallya’s legal team has two weeks to lodge an appeal.

“On 3 February, the Secretary of State, having carefully considered all relevant matters, signed the order for Vijay Mallya’s extradition to India,” the British Home Office said in a statement. “Vijay Mallya is accused in India of conspiracy to defraud, making false representations and money laundering offenses.”

Mumbai, Feb 4 (PTI) Dalit scholar and rights activist Anand Teltumbde, who was briefly arrested by the Pune police last week in the Elgaar Parishad case, Monday said the "Urban Maoist" was a bogey that was being raised to "silence" those who raise their voice against policies of the government.

Teltumbde, who teaches at the Goa Institute of Management, was arrested by Pune police Saturday at the Mumbai airport, despite the supreme court having granted him time till February 11 to seek anticipatory bail.

New Delhi, Feb 4 (PTI) Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday complimented Union minister Nitin Gadkari for his remarks that "one who cannot take care of home, cannot manage the country", saying he has guts and should also comment on the Rafale deal, "farmers distress and destruction of institutions".

The Congress president cited a report quoting Gadkari as saying that party workers should first fulfil their domestic responsibilities as "those who cannot do that cannot manage the country".