GREEN MAG

By Ahmed Kingimi and Hamza Ibrahim

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Feb 5 (Reuters) - All 166 worshippers kidnapped during attacks on ​two churches in Kurmin Wali in northern Nigeria's ‌Kaduna state last month have been released, the Christian Association of Nigeria ‌said on Thursday.

Reverend John Hayab, chairman of the northern chapter of CAN, said every abducted worshipper had now returned, without giving details on whether a ransom was paid or ⁠how the release ‌was secured.

CAN leader in Kaduna, Reverend Caleb Ma'aji, also confirmed the release, saying he just ‍returned from the government house in Kaduna where the governor is set to receive the worshippers.

"The stage is set for them to ​be brought... His Excellency will meet with them. This ‌is a result of the prayers we have offered," he said.

Nigerian government officials have yet to comment publicly on the release.

The assault on the Kaduna churches was among the latest in a string of mass abductions that ⁠has intensified pressure on the Nigerian ​government. Nigeria has also faced scrutiny ​from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has accused the country of failing to stop the persecution ‍of Christians. ⁠U.S. forces struck what they described as terrorist targets on December 25.

Abuja says it is working with Washington ⁠to improve security and denies any systematic persecution of Christians.

(Additional reporting ‌by Hamza Ibrahim in Kano, Writing by Elisha ‌Bala-Gbogbo; Editing by Alex Richardson)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) —Iranand the United States will hold talks Friday in Oman, their latest over Tehran's nuclear program after Israel launcheda 12-day war on the countryin June and the Islamic Republic launcheda bloody crackdown on nationwide protests.

Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump has kept up pressure on Iran, suggesting America could attack Iranover the killing of peaceful demonstratorsor if Tehran launches mass executions over the protests. Meanwhile, Trump has pushed Iran's nuclear program back into the frame as well after the June war disrupted five rounds of talks held in Rome and Muscat, Oman, last year.

Trump began the diplomacy initially by writing a letter last year to Iran's 86-year-oldSupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneito jump start these talks. Khamenei has warned Iran would respond to any attack with an attack of its own, particularly as the theocracy he commands reels following the protests.

Here's what to know about Iran's nuclear program and the tensions that have stalked relations between Tehran and Washington since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Trump writes letter to Khamenei

Trump dispatched the letter to Khamenei on March 5, 2025, thengave a television interview the next dayin which he acknowledged sending it. He said: "I've written them a letter saying, 'I hope you're going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it's going to be a terrible thing.'"

Since returning to the White House, the president has been pushing for talks while ratcheting up sanctions and suggesting a military strike by Israel or the U.S. could target Iranian nuclear sites.

A previous letter from Trump during his first term drew an angry retort from the supreme leader.

But Trump's letters to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his first term led to face-to-face meetings, thoughno deals to limit Pyongyang's atomic bombsand a missile program capable of reaching the continental U.S.

Oman mediated previous talks

Oman, a sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, has mediatedtalksbetweenIranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff. The two men have met face to face after indirect talks, a rare occurrence due to the decades of tensions between the countries.

It hasn't been all smooth, however. Witkoff at one point made a television appearance in which he suggested 3.67% enrichment for Iran could be something the countries could agree on. But that's exactly the terms set by the 2015 nuclear deal struck under former President Barack Obama, from whichTrump unilaterally withdrew America. Witkoff, Trump and other American officials in the time since have maintained Iran can have no enrichment under any deal, something to which Tehran insists it won't agree.

Those negotiations ended, however, with Israel launching the war in June on Iran.

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The 12-day war and nationwide protests

Israel launched what becamea 12-day war on Iranin June that includedthe U.S. bombing Iranian nuclear sites. Iran later acknowledged in November that the attacks saw ithalt all uranium enrichment in the country, though inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have been unable to visit the bombed sites.

Iran soon experienced protests that began in late December over the collapse of the country's rial currency. Those demonstrations soon became nationwide, sparking Tehran to launch a bloody crackdownthat killed thousandsand saw tens of thousands detained by authorities.

Iran's nuclear program worries the West

Iran has insisted for decades that its nuclear program is peaceful. However, its officialsincreasingly threaten to pursue a nuclear weapon. Iran now enriches uranium to near weapons-grade levels of 60%, the only country in the world without a nuclear weapons program to do so.

Under the original 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium up to 3.67% purity and to maintain a uranium stockpile of 300 kilograms (661 pounds). The last report by the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran's program put its stockpile at some 9,870 kilograms (21,760 pounds), with a fraction of it enriched to 60%.

U.S. intelligence agencies assess that Iran has yet to begin a weapons program, but has "undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so." Iranian officials have threatened to pursue the bomb.

Decades of tense relations between Iran and the US

Iran was once one of the U.S.'s top allies in the Mideast underShah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who purchased American military weapons and allowed CIA technicians to run secret listening posts monitoring the neighboring Soviet Union. TheCIA had fomented a 1953 coupthat cemented the shah's rule.

But in January 1979, the shah, fatally ill with cancer, fled Iran as mass demonstrations swelled against his rule.The Islamic Revolution followed, led by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and created Iran's theocratic government.

Later that year, university studentsoverran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seeking the shah's extradition and sparking the 444-day hostage crisis that saw diplomatic relations between Iran and the U.S. severed.The Iran-Iraq war of the 1980ssaw the U.S. back Saddam Hussein.The "Tanker War"during that conflict saw the U.S. launch a one-day assault that crippled Iran at sea, while the U.S. latershot down an Iranian commercial airlinerthat the U.S. military said it mistook for a warplane.

Iran and the U.S. have seesawed between enmity and grudging diplomacy in the years since, with relations peaking when Tehran made the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. ButTrump unilaterally withdrew America from the accordin 2018, sparking tensions in the Mideast that persist today.

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage fromthe Carnegie Corporation of New YorkandOutrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Department of Homeland Security plans to purchase and operate mega warehouses to use as immigration detention centers are raising concerns among lawmakers, local residents and government contractors.

The proposed centers are so large that some could house as many as 8,000 detainees at once, according to a DHS spreadsheet of more than 20 potential locations that was verified by NBC News. The largest federal prison in the U.S., for example,has roughly 4,000 inmates.

At least two facilities have already been secured.

One is outsidePhoenix, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement paid $70 million for a building the sizeof seven football fields, according to NBC affiliate KPNX of Phoenix. ICE purchased the 418,000-square-foot warehouse in an industrial park in Surprise.

Surprise city officials said in a statementthat they were not aware of the purchase, that they had not been notified of it and that they had not been contacted by DHS or any other federal agency.

The other is outsidePhiladelphia, where ICE bought a warehousefor $87.4 million last month for possible conversion into an immigration detention center, according to NBC Philadelphia.

President Donald Trump said in an interview with NBC News on Wednesday that hisadministration could use a "softer touch"on immigration enforcement after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens last month in Minneapolis. But Trump also said he hopes to push hisimmigration crackdown into five more cities.

And as the administration's expanding plans for mass immigrant detention,which NBC News first reportedin November, are coming into sharper focus, concerns are only growing.

Pro-immigrant community groups in Colorado, Mississippi and Arizona have already voiced opposition, and Arizona lawmakers said they worry the purchase of the massive building would mean aggressive immigration enforcement was coming to their area, KPNX reported.

In Hutchins, Texas, on Wednesday night, the League of United Latin American Citizens and state officials demonstrated against a proposed ICE facility.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said in a statement Wednesday that he strongly opposed the possibility ofa detention center near Byhalia, Mississippi.

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"I am all for immigration enforcement, but this site was meant for economic development and job creation," he posted on X, along with a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. "We cannot suddenly flood Byhalia with an influx of up to 10,000 detainees."

Democratic lawmakershave criticized a proposed facility in Roxbury, New Jersey. And immigrant advocates say apossible detention center in Hudson, Colorado,a rural area more than 30 miles from Denver, would mean lawyers and family members would have difficulty visiting, in part because there is no good public transportation that far away from the city, according to NBC affiliate KUSA of Denver.

To win an ICE warehouse contract, a company must already be doing business with the U.S. Navy or partner with companies that do business with the Navy, according to an executive at a company that houses detainees and is under consideration to run one of the new ICE warehouses. The process was similar when the Trump administration built its largest detention center to date — a sprawling tent facility in Texas.

Two government contractors told NBC News they were worried that new warehouses — and the large numbers of immigrants who would be housed in them — would present safety problems.

Hiring staff members for more than 2,500 people, especially in more rural areas, would be very challenging, an executive said.

At one site, building a detention center the size DHS has requested could drain the town's water supply, the executive said.

Another contractor told NBC News that any detention facility with more than 1,500 detainees would be risky.

The housing estimates for the warehouses are based on the square footage of potential facilities, and they could change after they are outfitted to accommodate people living in them.

ICE currently houses more than 70,000 immigrants in 224 facilities nationwide, according to the agency's data from early February.

The single ICE facility already in operation, at Fort Bliss, Texas, not far from the U.S.-Mexico border, has been plagued with problems. At least three immigrants died at the facility over 44 days;the medical examiner ruled one of the deaths a homicide.

Members of Congress have demanded access to the facility over safety concerns andhave gone to courtto ask a federal judge to stop the Trump administration's policies that limited access to the facilities and required a week's notice before a visit. A judge ordered Homeland Security this week to allow lawmakers to make unannounced visits.

BORMIO, Italy (AP) — Skiers from host Italy still trying to secure starting spots led the second downhill training session at theMilan Cortina Winter Olympicson Thursday and Austria's Daniel Hemetsberger crashed.

Milan Cortina Olympics Alpine Skiing

Mattia Casse posted the fastest time but missed a gate midway down. Teammates Florian Schieder andGiovanni Franzoniwere second and third, respectively.

Franzoni, the breakout star of the Italian team who recently won the downhill in Kitzbuhel, Austria, already has a starting spot, along with Dominik Paris, who holds the Bormio record with seven World Cup victories. Casse, Schieder and Christof Innerhofer — who was seventh — are vying for the last two spots.

Favorites like Marco Odermatt and Ryan Cochran-Siegle, the American wholed the opening sessionWednesday, tested only portions of the Stelvio course and otherwise stood up out of their tuck positions.

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Hemetsberger lost control midway down, got spun around and crashed through a gate — causing his helmet to pop off. He then hit the safety nets at high speed. He quickly got back up but was holding his face and nose area.

A third and final training session is scheduled for Friday before the downhill race on Saturday awards the first Alpine skiing medal of the Games.

AP Winter Olympics:https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

One of the biggest cricket games of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 is currently in limbo of being played.

Pakistan is threatening to boycott the Feb. 15 match against archrival India, in protest and to stand with Bangladesh, which is out of the World Cup after refusing to play games in India, due to security concerns.

The decision to skip what is usually the biggest match of any international cricket tournament comes straight from the Pakistan government, as tensions continue to mount between the neighboring countries in Asia.

Despite the Pakistan-India match likely not happening, the T20 World Cup hosted by India and Sri Lanka will still have many exciting games. Here's a look at eight of the top matches to watch in the 2026 T20 World Cup:

USA vs India

• Date: Saturday, Feb. 7

Team USA opens its second T20 World Cup appearance with a match against the host India from Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, India.

During the 2024 T20 World Cup, the U.S. fell to India by 7 wickets on June 12, 2024. How the USA competes in this game against the host and favorite could tell fans how the tournament will go.

Italy vs Scotland

• Sunday, Feb. 8

Italy will make its T20 World Cup debut against the team it defeated in the European qualifier to seal the spot for its first-ever World Cup in the format.

Scotland backed into the tournament as a replacement for Bangladesh, when it was removed from the World Cup after a refusal to play in India due to security concerns.

USA vs Pakistan

• Date: Tuesday, Feb 10

On June 4, 2024, USA cricket had a historic win over Pakistan in the T20 World Cup in Dallas. The win is considered by many to be the biggest upset win in cricket history.

Now the U.S. will need to hold off an angry Pakistan team that will be seeking revenge for the embarrassing loss when the team's square off from the Singhalese Sports Club (SSC) in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

England vs West Indies

• Date: Wednesday, Feb. 11

The match pits two of the finalists from the 2016 T20 World Cup. West Indies defeated England on back-to-back-to-back-to-back sixes from Carlos Brathwaite in the 20th over.

Both teams will be under new leadership during this tournament when they face off in Mumbai, as both made coaching changes in 2025.

South Africa vs Afghanistan

• Wednesday, Feb. 11

In the 2024 semifinals, South Africa defeated Afghanistan to clinch an appearance in its first-ever T20 World Cup final.

The two teams will again square off at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India.

USA vs Netherlands

• Date: Friday, Feb. 13

Following two matches against two of the powerhouses in cricket, Team USA will get a bit of an easier match against the Netherlands from Chepauk Stadium in Chennai.

If the USA can steal a win against India or Pakistan, it will have a chance to qualify for the Super 8's for the second consecutive World Cup.

USA vs Namibia

• Date: Sunday, Feb. 15

The USA completes its Group A stage games against Namibia from Chepauk Stadium in Chennai.

Coming into this match, Team USA should know if this is its final match in India or if it is playing for a spot in the Super 8's. Either way, this could be a statement game ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which will have cricket as a sport.

Australia vs Sri Lanka

• Date: Monday, Feb. 16

While the initial group stages do not have a ton of star power going up against each other, the Australia and Sri Lanka match is one of the exceptions. Both teams have previously won a World Cup in the format.

With Sri Lanka acting as a co-host for the World Cup, this match could be a chance to signal to the cricket world that it is back to its winning ways against one of the most successful cricket powers.

Key T20 World Cup dates

• Super 8s: Feb. 21 through March 1

• Semifinals: March 4-5

• Final: March 8

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Best T20 World Cup cricket matches to watch