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"Good morning, Mr Trump." The innocuous greeting from a New York judge belied the grim expression on Donald Trump's face as he sat flanked by his lawyers in the Manhattan Criminal Courts Monday.  While his legal team tussled with the prosecution over what evidence could be admitted, the first former US president to face a criminal trial listened intently and -- barring a few words spoken in response to Judge Juan Merchan -- silently. The case, which could prove enormously consequential for both Trump and the country, is being heard in courtroom 1530 inside an imposing, scaffolding-clad Art Deco courthouse on New York City's Centre Street. Trump wore his signature red tie with a white shirt, dark blue suit and a US flag lapel pin as Merchan declared the trial open. The 45th president fixed the magistrate with a defiant look, having accused him of being "corrupt" on his Truth Social platform after Merchan declined repeated calls from the defence to recuse...

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned the international community Sunday against deeper descent into conflict, addressing the Security Council during a meeting over Iran's weekend attack on Israel.  "Neither the region nor the world can afford more war," Guterres said.  "The Middle East is on the brink," he told the Security Council.  "The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate," he added, calling for "maximum restraint." Late on Saturday, Iran launched a direct attack on its long-time arch foe Israel for the first time, firing a wave of more than 300 missiles and drones. Nearly all of them were intercepted by Israel and others, including the United States, Jordan and Britain.  According to the Israeli army, 12 people were injured.  Iran said its attack came in response to a deadly April 1 air strike on Tehran's consulate ...

Turkish, Jordanian and Iraqi officials said on Sunday Iran gave wide notice days before Saturday's drone and missile attack on Israel allowing mass casualties and rampant escalation to be averted, but a U.S. official denied this. Most of the hundreds of drones and missiles launched by Iran in a retaliatory strike were downed before reaching Israeli territory, though a young girl was critically injured and the region remains braced for further escalation. Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Sunday Iran had given neighbouring countries and Israel's ally the United States 72 hours' notice it would launch the strikes, a move that would have enabled them to largely thwart the attack. Turkey's Foreign Ministry said it had spoken to both Washington and Tehran before the attack, adding it had conveyed messages as an intermediary to be sure reactions were proportionate. "Iran said the reaction would be a response to Israel's attack on its emb...

Israel said Sunday that Hamas is holding hostages in Rafah in southern Gaza, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to launch a ground invasion despite international outcry. "Hamas is still holding our hostages in Gaza... We also have hostages in Rafah, and we will do everything we can to bring them back home," Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at a briefing. In a separate statement, the army said it was calling "approximately two reserve brigades for operational activities on the Gazan front".  It did not specify whether the brigades would be deployed inside Gaza. The move comes just days after the army pulled out all troops from southern Gaza's main city of Khan Yunis, leaving just one brigade to carry out operations across the Palestinian territory. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/npYaRyv

Israel is closing schools nationwide over security concerns, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Saturday, after Iran threated to retaliate for a deadly air strike on its Damascus consulate. There will be "no educational activities" when the school week begins on Sunday "in light of the security situation," he said in a televised statement. The measure is set to last two days, according to online army guidelines.  Iran has vowed retaliation after the presumed Israeli strike on April 1 which levelled its consulate in Damascus, killing seven members of the Revolutionary Guards including two generals. US President Joe Biden said on Friday that he expected Iran to retaliate "sooner (rather) than later". Earlier on Saturday Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized a container ship "related to the Zionist regime (Israel)" near the Strait of Hormuz, state media reported. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz postponed a planned visit to Hungary ...

The Sydney police officer who shot dead the man who killed six people at a mall has been hailed as a hero for ending the killer's rampage on Saturday. Inspector Amy Scott took down the 40-year-old man who attacked nine people including a nine-month-old baby. Videos from inside the mall, which have now gone viral on social media, show the inspector sprinting across the shopping centre, chasing the knife-wielding attacker. In one of the clips, she was seen checking on injured shoppers, even performing CPR on one of them. คลิปที่ สารวัตร Amy Scott ตำรวจหญิงจาก สถานีตำรวจ Rose Bay บุกเดี่ยววิ่งเข้าใส่ผู้ก่อการร้ายและวิสามัญคนร้ายหยุดยั้งการก่อเหตุต่อเนื่องในห้างสรรพสินค้า ที่เกิดเหตุ ที่ออสเตรเลีย pic.twitter.com/zLGRz8sDmn — แมวเกเร (@Unrulycat2511) April 13, 2024 Reports suggest that the officer was the only one near the attacker and single-handedly confronted and shot him dead. According to witnesses, she fired several rounds at the killer after he tried to attack her. A photo...

Donald Trump goes on trial Monday for allegedly covering up hush money payments to hide affairs ahead of the 2016 presidential election which propelled him into the White House. He will become the first former US president to go on criminal trial when jury selection begins next week. Here are the key questions ahead of the landmark trial: What is Trump accused of? As Trump closed in on victory in the 2016 presidential election, adult film star Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged 2006 sexual tryst with Trump. The payments, made by Trump's lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, were revealed by The Wall Street Journal in January 2018. Prosecutors have seized on the concealment of the payments as "legal fees" in the Trump Organization's accounts when Cohen was reimbursed as the heart of their case. Prosecutors say Trump "concealed the reason for these payments... which clearly were paid in order to influence voters," former prosec...