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File photo. Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Nevada in September 2024. Photo: AFP US special counsel Jack Smith is dropping the federal election subversion and the mishandling of classified documents cases against President-elect Donald Trump, seeking the cases' dismissal in court filings Monday. Trump has said he would fire Smith once he retook the office, shattering previous norms around special counsel investigations. "The (Justice) Department's position is that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated," Smith wrote in a six-page filing with the US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, DC, regarding the election subversion case. "This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant." Smit...

By Maayan Lubell and Laila Bassam for Reuters Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike struck the southern suburbs of Beirut on November 9 2024. Photo: Nael Chahine A senior Israeli official said on Monday Israel's cabinet would meet on Tuesday to approve a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah, and a Lebanese official said Beirut had been told by Washington that an accord could be announced "within hours". Israeli officials had said earlier that a deal to end the war was getting closer though some issues remained, while two senior Lebanese officials voiced guarded optimism even as Israeli strikes pounded Lebanon anew. US news website Axios, citing an unnamed senior US official, said Israel and Lebanon had agreed to the terms of a deal, and a senior Israeli official told Reuters Tuesday's meet...

By Jade Macmillan for the ABC RFK Jr has been chosen to become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Photo: Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images / AFP When Robert F Kennedy Jr was running as an independent candidate at this year's US election, he attracted a series of bizarre headlines. "RFK Jr says doctors found a dead worm in his brain," screamed The New York Times. "RFK Jr admits to dumping a dead bear in Central Park," said NPR. "Feds open probe into RFK Jr for allegedly decapitating a dead whale," reported Fox News. The 70-year-old had been seen as a potential spoiler in a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. But by the time Kamala Harris replaced the president on the Democratic ticket, his campaign had faltered and was running out of money. Opinion polls sugg...

Highways leading to Islamabad have been blocked, as supporters of Imran Khan are expected to approach the city, which was also locked down in October. (file photo) Photo: AFP / FAROOQ NAEEM Pakistan's capital has been put under a security lockdown ahead of protests by supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan calling for his release. Highways leading to Islamabad through which supporters of Khan, led by members of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, are expected to approach the city and gather near the parliament on Sunday (local time), have been blocked. Most major roads of the city have also been blocked by the government with shipping containers and large contingents of police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed in riot gear, while mobile phone services ha...

COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev speaks at a first closing plenary of the COP29 Climate Conference in Baku on 23 November, 2024. Photo: AFP The world's least-developed nations have reacted angrily to the deal reached at the COP 29 climate summit - and New Zealand campaigners say they have a point. At the summit, in oil-rich Azerbaijan, a spending target of $300 billion (NZ$514b) a year was agreed on to help poorer countries - many of which have contributed very little, per capita, to emissions - deal with the impacts of climate change. It replaces a previous commitment of US $100 billion (NZ$171b) per year, a target which rich countries only met in 2022, two years behind schedule. Though agreed to, the new deal did not please everyone. "This document is nothing more than an optical illus...

By Tamar Michaelis, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Sophie Tanno, CNN Zvi Kogan had been missing in the United Arab Emirates since Thursday. Photo: Supplied / chabad.org Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have arrested three people in connection with the death of an Israeli rabbi who, according to Israel, was killed in an "antisemitic act of terror". Zvi Kogan, who also holds Moldovan citizenship and is a representative of Chabad, a religious movement of Hasidic Jews with communities, synagogues and other institutions in many countries, had been missing since Thursday afternoon. Chabad's official website says he was abducted from Dubai - one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE. On Sunday, the UAE interior ministry confirmed it had discovered Kogan's body and arrested three people in...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi for Reuters The evacuations were the latest in multiple waves of displacement since the Israel-Gaza war began 13 months ago. (file photo) Photo: MAJDI FATHI / AFP The Israeli military has issued new evacuation orders to residents in areas of an eastern Gaza City suburb, setting off a new wave of displacement. Meanwhile, a Gaza hospital director was injured in an Israeli drone attack, Palestinian medics said. The new orders for the Shejaia suburb posted by the Israeli army spokesperson on X on Saturday night were blamed on Palestinian militants firing rockets from that heavily built-up district in the north of the Gaza Strip. "For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the south," the military's post said. The rocket volley on Saturday was claimed by Hamas'...

By Rebecca Armitage and Lucia Stein, ABC Massachusetts woman Karen Read. Photo: Screenshot / NBC What started with too many drinks at a bar in the small US town of Canton during a snowstorm, has ended in an intense legal battle and allegations of a sweeping conspiracy among law enforcement. On 28 January 2022, a severely wounded police officer was found close to death on the front lawn of a friend's house in the midst of a blizzard. No-one can agree how John O'Keefe got there. Prosecutors in the state of Massachusetts allege that the off-duty Boston police officer was run down by his girlfriend during an argument. But Karen Read insists she dropped John off at the house so he could keep drinking with his friends, and while she was angry at him, she did not mow him down with her car. ...

By Tamar Michaelis, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Sophie Tanno, CNN Zvi Kogan had been missing in the United Arab Emirates since Thursday. Photo: Supplied / chabad.org An Israeli rabbi missing in the United Arab Emirates has been found dead, Israeli authorities said on Sunday, in what they described as an "antisemitic terrorist act". Zvi Kogan, who also holds Moldovan citizenship and is a representative of Chabad, a religious movement of Hasidic Jews with communities, synagogues and other institutions in many countries, had been missing since Thursday afternoon (local time). Chabads official website says he was abducted from Dubai. In a joint statement Sunday, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Kogan's body had been located by UAE authorities. "The mu...

Melbourne teenager Bianca Jones has died after suspected Laos methanol poisoning. Photo: Facebook The father of a teenager who died from methanol poisoning while on holiday in Laos has pushed for the local government to act and prevent further tragedies. Mark Jones spoke to media outside Bangkok Hospital in Thailand, where his daughter Bianca Jones was transferred after falling ill from ingesting methanol. He thanked the Australian public for the "overwhelming" support and love shown to his family over the past week. Bianca, 19, was holidaying with friend Holly Bowles, also 19, at popular tourist town Vang Vieng in Laos when she fell ill after consuming alcoholic drinks. Jones said the trip to Laos was supposed to be the start of wonderful adulthood for his daughter. "Our daughter was o...