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US Vice Presidential possible candidates Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shaprio, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Photo: AFP US Vice President Kamala Harris plans to meet in person this weekend with the top contenders vying to become her presidential running mate for November's election as she nears a final decision on her pick, according to two sources familiar with the process. On Friday the Democratic candidate met one-on-one with US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, one of the leading contenders, and the meeting lasted roughly 90 minutes, according to two other sources familiar with the meeting. Harris was expected to make her choice by Monday (Tuesday NZ time) ahead of her first public appearance with the new vice presidential nominee on Tuesday (...

Clouds of smoke rise as the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York crumble following suicide attacks by Islamic terrorists with hijacked planes on 11 September 2001. Photo: DPA / Picture-Alliance via AFP US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday revoked plea deals agreed to earlier this week with the man accused of masterminding the 11 September 2001 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and two accomplices, who are held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Pentagon said on Wednesday the plea deals had been entered into but did not elaborate on details. A US official said they almost certainly involved guilty pleas in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table. However on Friday, Austin relieved Susan Escallier, who oversees the Pentagon's Guantanamo w...

Activists are performing drama while taking part in a protest march against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government to demand justice for more than 200 people killed in last month's violent demonstrations in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 2 August, 2024. Photo: Zabed Hasnain Chowdhury / NurPhoto / AFP At least 32 children have died during student protests that engulfed Bangladesh last month, the UN's children's agency has said. The youngest child killed had yet to turn five years old, a Unicef spokesperson said, adding that most of those who died were bystanders. They were among more than 200 people who were killed during demonstrations against job quotas in the civil service, according to figures verified by BBC Bangla. The quota system has now been scaled back by the government followi...

A Northumbria police officer. Photo: X / Northumbria Police A police office has been attacked and the property next to it set alight as protesters clashed with police in Sunderland during a demonstration linked to the Southport knife attack. Clashes between the force and rioters led to three injured officers being taken to hospital, though one had since been discharged, Northumbria police said. It follows beer cans and stones being thrown at police in riot gear outside a mosque, and other clashes between officers and demonstrators around the city. Eight people have been arrested for a range of offences, including violent disorder and burglary. Northumbria police Chief Superintendent Helena Barron said officers had been met with "serious and sustained" levels of violence, which was "utte...

By Steve Rosenberg, Russia editor for the BBC. In this pool photograph from Russian state agency Sputnik, President Vladimir Putin welcomes Russian citizens released in a major prisoner swap with the West, at Moscow's Vnukovo airport on August 1, 2024. Photo: AFP / Pool It's something Vladimir Putin does rarely: go to the airport to meet people off a plane. Personally. But he was there on Thursday night: on the tarmac at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport to meet and greet those Russians whose release he'd secured from foreign jails; part of the largest prisoner swap between Russia and the West since the Cold War. Out of the plane and down the steps came 10 people, including spies, sleeper agents and a convicted assassin. "Congratulations on your return to the Motherland!" he told them. You co...

By Max Matza and Sam Cabral for BBC News in Washington Vice President Kamala Harris is speaking at the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc.'s 60th International Biennial Boule at George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas, on 31 July, 2024. Photo: Reginald Mathalone / NurPhoto / AFP US Vice-President Kamala Harris has passed the threshold to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination in a vote of party delegates. Speaking by telephone, Harris said she was "honoured to be the presumptive nominee" as the virtual roll call continues ahead of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago later this month. Harris is the first Black woman and first South Asian woman to become the White House standard-bearer for a major US political party. If she defeats Donald Trump, the Republi...

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign appearance on 31 July, 2024 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images / AFP The US criminal case accusing Donald Trump of illegally trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat resumed on Friday after a nearly eight-month pause, with the judge left to decide how to proceed after the Supreme Court's immunity ruling. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington was expected to decide in the coming weeks which aspects of the indictment obtained by Special Counsel Jack Smith must be tossed out after the Supreme Court ruled that former presidents were entitled to broad immunity for official actions taken as president. The high court's decision to take up the case, which it heard on its last day of arguments in April an...