At least 25 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.

Ten people, including a woman and a young girl, were killed when a ministry of religious endowments building in the eastern Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City was hit, according to rescuers.

The Israeli military said it had struck "Hamas terrorist targets" after it said gunmen had opened fire towards an area where its soldiers were operating in the southern city of Khan Younis, in violation of the five-week-old ceasefire agreement.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas.

The flare-up of violence comes after the UN Security Council passed a resolution that endorsed US President Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan to end two years of devastating war.

Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence agency, told the BBC that Israeli air, drone and artillery strikes hit several locations in Gaza City and Khan Younis shortly after sunset on Wednesday.

The attacks marked a sharp escalation after several days of relative calm, he said.

The Civil Defence reported that the strike in Zeitoun caused severe damage to the religious endowments ministry's building and surrounding structures, and posted a video showing its rescue workers appearing to find two people buried under rubble.

Photos published by the Anadolu news agency meanwhile showed the bodies of three young children reportedly recovered from the scene.

In a separate incident in Gaza City, one person was killed and several others were wounded when a drone struck a group of people at Shejaiya junction on Salah al-Din Street, Gaza's main north-south road, according to Mr Bassal.

He said another person was killed when a tank shell struck a house belonging to the Balboul family in Shejaiya's Mushtaha Street, which is also in eastern Gaza City.

In Khan Younis, three people were killed and a number were wounded in a strike on a group inside a sports club run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), he added.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that "several terrorists opened fire toward the area where IDF soldiers are operating in Khan Younis" earlier on Wednesday.

"This action constitutes a violation of the ceasefire agreement. No IDF injuries were reported," it added. "In response, the IDF began striking Hamas terrorist targets across the Gaza Strip."

Israeli public broadcaster Kan cited a security source as saying the targets of the strikes were the commander of the Zeitoun Battalion of Hamas's military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and the commander of its naval force.

On Monday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution that sought to shore up the fragile ceasefire, which took effect on 10 October.

Member states authorised the creation of a transitional governance body called the Board of Peace, which will be chaired by President Trump, and a temporary International Stabilisation Force (ISF), which will be tasked with ensuring "the process of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip".

Trump hailed the resolution as "a moment of true historic proportion".

A Hamas statement reiterated that the group would not give up its weapons without a Palestinian state, arguing its fight against Israel was legitimate "resistance".

Israel's ambassador to the UN stressed the importance of disarmament, saying that his country would "not stop or let up" until Hamas no longer presented "a threat".

The Israeli military launched an offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 69,500 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, including 280 during the ceasefire, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Thirty-five people and three institutions have gone on trial in North Macedonia over a devastating fire at a nightclub that killed 63, mainly young, people in March.

"I know about the pain of loved ones, we are all parents," Judge Diana Gruevska-Ilievska told the crowded courtroom, filled with defendants and dozens of victims' relatives. She promised the case would be conducted in a transparent and disciplined manner.

Club Pulse, in the eastern town of Kocani, was packed with young Macedonians attending a concert by a popular hip-hop duo when sparks from pyrotechnic devices set fire to the ceiling.

Prosecutors told the trial that years of failings had turned the club into a death trap.

Three former mayors of Kocani, the nightclub's owner and public licensing officials are among those charged.

They are accused of endangering public safety by allowing an unsafe venue to operate.

The judge warned the court that the trial could last for "five months or five years".

Defence lawyers attempted to delay the start of proceedings due to the charges being merged into a single case. The judge rebuffed them, ruling this did "not violate any rights of the parties".

At the time of the tragedy, authorities said only one proper exit was functioning at the club as the back door had been locked.

Sparks from the pyrotechnics spread quickly on the club's ceiling, which had been made of flammable material.

About 500 people were inside the club at the time, leaving 59 dead and some 200 others injured. Four of the injured died later. Many were unable to escape because of blocked exits.

Outrage after the fire prompted protests in the Macedonian capital Skopje and elsewhere, with victims' families organising local marches in Kocani itself.

Another protest entitled "March of the Angels" took place in Skopje days before the trial began, organised under a Macedonian social media campaign called "Who's Next?".

Prosecutors told the trial that the Kocani disaster was not the result of one person's actions or mistakes - rather it arose out of a series of institutional failures and a lack of responsibility.

None of the defendants had wanted to face up to the danger that had been there for years, according to prosecutor Borche Janev.

Prosecutors allege that licences for the club were issued unlawfully, inspections were not carried out and overcrowding was allowed at the venue.

Another allegation is that there was no permit for the band to set off the pyrotechnic devices that started the fire.

"If we remain silent and lose the truth... we will never have the strength as a society to embark on a path to healing," Janev was quoted by local media as telling the court.

A prominent French anti-drugs campaigner whose brother was killed by drugs criminals last week, five years after the murder of his elder brother, has vowed to stand up to intimidation and "keep telling the truth about drugs violence".

Amine Kessaci, 22, was writing in Le Monde newspaper a day after the funeral of his younger brother Mehdi, whose murder last week has been described by the government as a turning-point in France's drugs wars.

"Yesterday I lost my brother. Today I speak out," he wrote in his opinion piece.

"[The drugs-traffickers] strike at us in order to break, to tame, to subdue. They want to wipe out any resistance, to break any free spirit, to kill in the egg any embryo of revolt."

Mehdi Kessaci, 20, was shot dead last Wednesday as he parked his car in central Marseille in what appears to have been a warning or punishment aimed at his older brother, Amine, from the city's drugs gangs.

Speaking after a ministerial meeting on drugs crime at the Elysée palace on Tuesday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said: "We all agreed that this premeditated murder was something totally new. It's clearly a crime of intimidation. It's a new level of violence."

Mehdi was the second Kessaci brother to be killed by drugs criminals. In 2020 the body of Brahim Kessaci, then 22, was found in a burnt-out car.

That murder prompted Amine to launch his association, Conscience, which aims to expose the damage to working-class communities caused by gangs.

Marseille is renowned for worsening drugs wars, and Amine Kessaci recently wrote a book called Marseille Wipe your Tears – Life and Death in a Land of Drugs.

In his Le Monde article, Amine revealed he was recently warned by police to leave Marseille because of threats to his life.

He attended his younger brother's funeral wearing a bullet-proof jacket and under heavy police protection.

"I speak because I have no choice but to fight if I don't want to die. I speak because I know that silence is the refuge of our enemies," he wrote, urging courage from citizens, and action from the government.

Mehdi Kessaci's murder has brought the national spotlight back on a drugs trafficking problem that French experts and ministers agree is reaching almost unmanageable proportions.

According to Senate member Étienne Blanc, author of a recent study, turnover in the drugs trade in France is now €7bn (£6bn) – or 70% of the entire budget of the justice ministry.

He said around 250,000 people drew a living from the trade in France – more than the entire number of police and gendarmes, which is 230,000. According to Le Monde, the country counts 1.1 million users of cocaine.

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday launched a broadside against such consumers, telling the weekly cabinet meeting that "sometimes it is the city-centre bourgeoisie that is funding the traffickers".

Macron had called a special drugs summit the day before in response to Amine's murder and in order to review progress on a new anti-drugs law that was passed in June.

It sets up a special prosecutor's office dedicated to organised crime - similar to the office that tackles terrorism - which will eventually have 30 specialised magistrates.

Under the law, senior drugs convicts are made to serve their terms in isolation in a specially converted prison where it is hoped it will be harder to continue running operations from behind bars.

According to Laurent Nuñez, there is evidence that the crackdown on drugs crime is having an effect - with the number of homicides in Marseille down from 49 in 2023 to 24 in 2024.

The number of dealing points in the city had halved from 160 to 80, he added.

"The war is not won, but we do have results."

According to the author of a recent book, Narcotraffic, Europe's poison, "France is at the heart of the geopolitics of drugs. With its two major ports of Marseille and Le Havre, it has an ideal geographical position in this Europe of free movement."

Mathieu Verboud said that the growth in world production of cocaine had triggered an "explosion of supply and demand. The market has gone through the roof and so have the profits."

The sheer wealth of drugs organisations meant they had the power to corrupt everyone from dock-workers to local politicians, the author warned, a process he said was already well-advanced in countries like the Netherlands and Belgium.

Several French politicians have said it is time to call in the army to deal with drugs-trafficking and the gangs which hold sway in many high-immigration city estates.

Christian Estrosi, mayor of the southern coastal city of Nice, said: "Narcotrafficking has transformed into narcoterrorism. Its aim now is to terrorise, subjugate and rule.

"We have already successfully deployed the means to fight terrorism. It's time to act with determination against narcoterrorism."

Estrosi was referring to wave of deadly jihadist attacks in the mid 2010s, when France deployed hundreds of soldiers on to the streets of many cities where they continue to patrol.

Younger Australian teenagers on Instagram, Facebook and Threads are being told their accounts will be shut down ahead of the country's social media ban for under-16s.

Meta, which owns the three brands, said it had begun notifying users it believes to be between 13 and 15 years old by text, email and in-app messages that their accounts would start being deactivated from 4 December.

The ban in Australia comes into force on 10 December. It affects a number of platforms which also include TikTok, YouTube, X and Reddit.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the "world-leading" ban was aimed at "letting kids be kids". Meta and other firms oppose the measure but said they would comply.

Australia's internet regulator has estimated there are 150,000 Facebook users and 350,000 teens on Instagram in the 13-15 age bracket.

From 4 December, children aged below 16 will not be able to create accounts on Meta's social media platforms.

The company said it was asking young users to update their contact details so they could be notified when they became eligible to open an account.

They can download and save their posts, videos and messages before their accounts are shut down.

Meta said that teens who said they were old enough to use Instagram, Facebook and Threads could challenge the restriction by taking a "video selfie" to be used in facial age scans.

They could also provide a driver's licence or other government issued-ID.

All these verification methods were tested by the UK-based Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) earlier this year, in a report commissioned by the Australian state.

While the ACCS said that all methods had their merits, it added: "We did not find a single ubiquitous solution that would suit all use cases, nor did we find solutions that were guaranteed to be effective in all deployments."

Social media platforms which fail to take "reasonable steps" to block under-16s face fines of up to A$50m (£25m).

"While we are working hard to remove all users who we understand to be under the age of 16 by 10 December, compliance with the law will be an ongoing and multi-layered process," Antigone Davis, vice-president and global head of safety at Meta, told Reuters Financial.

Meta wants to see a law where under-16s have to get parental approval before they download a social media app.

The firm told Australia's Seven News: "Teens are resourceful, and may attempt to circumvent age assurance measures to access restricted services."

But it said: "We're committed to meeting our compliance obligations and are taking the necessary steps to comply with the law."

Australia's e-Safety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said the ban was aimed at proctecting teens "from pressures and risks they can be exposed to while logged in to social media accounts".

In a move seemingly to avoid being included in the ban, gaming platform Roblox this week announced that children under 16 would be unable to chat to adult strangers.

Mandatory age checks will be introduced for accounts using chat features, starting in December for Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, then the rest of the globe from January.

• Roblox blocks children from chatting to adult strangers
• Enforcing Australia's social media ban is possible but contains risks, report says

Which firms does Australia's social media ban apply to?

The e-safety commissioner has published a list of which social media platforms will be impacted by the age ban.

They are:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Kick
• Reddit
• Snapchat
• Threads
• TikTok
• X (formerly Twitter)
• YouTube

Platforms not included are:

• Discord
• GitHub
• Google Classroom
• LEGO Play
• Messenger
• Roblox
• Steam and Steam Chat
• WhatsApp
• YouTube Kids

Nine people have been killed in Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

Russia launched more than 470 drones and 47 missiles in the "brazen attack", he wrote in a post on Telegram.

Three districts of Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv, were hit by a massive drone attack which injured more than 30 people, including children. Photos posted online showed buildings and cars ablaze.

Power cuts are affecting a number of regions across the country, Ukraine's energy ministry said.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

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A portrait by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was sold for $236.4m (£179m) in New York on Tuesday, making it the second most expensive piece ever sold at auction.

Six people took part in a 20-minute bidding battle for the Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer which was painted between 1914 and 1916.

Auction house Sotheby's has not disclosed the buyer's identity.

The portrait was looted by the Nazis and almost destroyed in a fire in World War Two, but was rescued in 1948.

The artwork was returned to Lederer's brother, Erich, a friend and subject of Klimt's contemporary, Egon Schiele. The piece remained in Lederer's possession for most of his life, before he sold it in 1983, according to Sotheby's.

The painting shows Lederer, an heiress and the daughter of one of Klimt's patrons, wearing a white robe and stood in front of a blue tapestry covered in Asian motifs.

The Nazis, who annexed Austria in 1938, looted the Lederer art collection but left family portraits behind, says the National Gallery of Canada.

Estée Lauder heir Leonard A Lauder made it part of his private collection in 1985, where it was displayed in his Fifth Avenue home in New York.

Tuesday's sale shot past expectations, with the painting predicted to sell for $150m before the auction. The second highest sale for a Klimt on record was Lady with a Fan, which sold for $108.8m in 2023 in London.

Several other Klimt works in Lauder's collection were auctioned at the same event, including Flowering Meadow and Forest Slope at Unterach am Attersee, which fetched between $60m and $80m each.

The most expensive artwork ever sold at auction was Salvator Mundi, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which sold in 2017 for $450.3m.

Tuesday also saw a sculpture of a fully functioning gold toilet by the conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan picking up $12.1m just an hour after the record-breaking Klimt sale.

The 101-kg toilet received just one bid. Sotheby's said that the buyer was a famous American brand.

Both chambers of Congress agreed to order the US justice department to release its files on sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The House of Representatives overwhelming approved the measure in a 427-1 vote and the Senate unanimously fast-tracked it without a formal vote.

The moves come just days after President Donald Trump reversed his position and urged Congress to vote to disclose the records following public pushback from many of his supporters.

Last week, Trump and his ties to Epstein were thrust back into the headlines after more than 20,000 pages of documents - some mentioning the president - were released. The White House denied any wrongdoing.

Republican Clay Higgins, of Louisiana, was the sole House objector and cited his concern about “innocent people being hurt” with the release of the information.

Trump’s reversal from attacking those on Capitol Hill who wanted the files released to saying there was “nothing to hide” surprised some in Washington.

The Republican congressional leadership was caught off guard after aligning their message with the president for the past few weeks and opposing the release.

House Speaker Mike Johnson had repeatedly called the push to release the Epstein files a "Democrat hoax".

On Tuesday, he voted in support of release.

• What do we know about the Epstein files?
• Why the Epstein case looms large in MAGA world

The measure had been expected to take a few days to reach the US Senate, but after the resounding afternoon vote in the House, the timeline quickly sped up.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer brought up the bill on the floor of the Senate under a procedure called unanimous consent. Because no one objected, there was no debate and no amendments added to the bill.

It will head from the Senate to the president‘s desk, where he is expected to sign it into law.

A congressional vote was not required to release the files - Trump could have ordered the release on his own.

The bill requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to release “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell no later than 30 days after the law is enacted.

Those materials include internal justice department communications, flight logs and people and entities connected to Epstein.

But the bill also gives Bondi the power to withhold information that would jeopardise any active federal investigation or identifies any victims.

Epstein, a financier, was found dead in his New York prison cell in 2019 in what a coroner ruled was a suicide.

He was being held on charges of sex trafficking, having previously been convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.

During two criminal investigations into Epstein, thousands of documents were gathered, including transcripts of interviews with victims and witnesses.

Trump and Epstein previously socialised in similar circles, but the president said he cut ties with Epstein many years ago, before his 2008 conviction. The president also said he was unaware of Epstein’s criminal activity.

Last week, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee published three email chains, including correspondence between Epstein and Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.

Some of those make mention of Trump, including one email, sent in 2011, in which Epstein wrote to Maxwell: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.. [VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him.”

The White House said last week that the victim referenced in the email was prominent Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre.

Giuffre, who died in April, has said that she never saw Trump participate in any abuse and there is no implication of any wrongdoing by Trump in the emails.

Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the emails were "selectively leaked" by House Democrats to "liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump".

The push for the release of the investigative files held by the Department of Justice was led by Republican Thomas Massie, a Kentucky congressman who sometimes dissents from his party, and Democrat Ro Khanna, a California congressman, both of whom introduced the legislation.

Massie has faced criticism from Trump for his push to release the files, but has stood firm.

“In 2030, he’s not going to be the president,” Massie said to ABC News over the weekend. He added that fellow Republicans who voted against release "will have voted to protect paedophiles”.

Another Republican who has pushed for the release of the files is House Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. She had been a staunch supporter of Trump before the two fell out over the issue, with the president now calling her a "traitor".

At a news conference earlier in the day on Tuesday, Greene said she is speaking up on behalf of Epstein's survivors. She also called out Trump directly.

"Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves; a patriot is an American that serves the United States of America and Americans like the women standing behind me," Greene said.

She said that row over Epstein has been one of the "most destructive things" to Trump's Make America Great Again movement since his election in 2016.

Survivors of Epstein’s abuse also spoke at the news conference, urging lawmakers to release the files and pushing Trump to do the same.

Epstein survivor Annie Farmer said that keeping the files under wraps amounted to “institutional betrayal”.

“Because these crimes were not properly investigated, so many more girls and women were harmed,” Ms Farmer said.

US President Donald Trump has said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "knew nothing" about the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as he welcomed the kingdom's de facto ruler to the White House.

Trump's comments appeared to contradict a US intelligence assessment in 2021 which determined the crown prince had approved the operation that led to Khashoggi's death at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

The crown prince, who has denied any wrongdoing, said at the White House that Saudi Arabia "did all the right things" to investigate Khashoggi's death.

It was his first visit to the US since the assassination, which sent shockwaves through the US-Saudi relationship.

In the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump shot back at a reporter who asked a question about the killing.

"You're mentioning someone that was extremely controversial," the US president said.

"A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen."

"But he [the Crown Prince] knew nothing about it," Trump added. "You don't have to embarrass our guests."

The crown prince added that Saudi Arabia "did all the right steps" to investigate the murder, which he called "painful" and a "huge mistake".

A US intelligence report made public in 2021 - under President Joe Biden's administration - determined that the crown prince had approved of a plan to "capture or kill" Khashoggi in Istanbul. During his first administration, Trump White House officials declined to release the report.

While dozens of Saudi officials faced sanctions in the wake of the assassination, none directly targeted the crown prince.

At the time, Saudi Arabia rejected the report as "negative, false and unacceptable".

On Tuesday, Khashoggi's widow called on the crown prince to apologise for her husband's murder, for which she said there was "no justification".

"The Crown Prince said he was sorry so he should meet me, apologize and compensate me for the murder of my husband @JKhashoggi," Hanan Elatr Khashoggi posted on X. Granted political asylum in the US, she lives in the Washington DC area.

Tuesday's meeting between Trump and Mohammed bin Salman was expected to include deals on civilian nuclear power, artificial intelligence and Saudi investment in the US, which the crown prince said was being upped to $1tr (£761bn) from $600bn pledged earlier this year.

Echoing Trump's own words, bin Salman said that the US was the "hottest country on the planet" and praised the US president for creating "long-term opportunity".

The two men also discussed the potential sale of advanced F-35 fighter aircraft to the Saudis.

Trump said that while export licences were still being announced, he expected a deal between the Saudis and US defence giant Lockheed Martin.

The potential sale has caused alarm among some Israeli officials, who have said that it could potentially hurt the country's "qualitative military edge" in the Middle East, where it is so far the only nation to have F-35s.

The US president said the model sold to the Saudis would be broadly similar to the one the Israelis operate.

"This [Saudi Arabia] is a great ally, and Israel is a great ally," Trump said. "I know they'd like you to get planes of reduced calibre.

"But as far as I'm concerned, I think they are both at a level where they should get top of the line," he added.

The crown prince's visit to Washington continues with a gala dinner on Tuesday night, followed by an investment summit on Wednesday.

Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo - who plays in the Saudi professional league - was also expected to be at the White House on Tuesday, a White House official confirmed to the BBC.

Biden did not host the crown prince and vowed to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah" over its human rights record. In 2022, however, Biden visited the kingdom to reach agreement on other issues.

The family of a Muslim man, who was lynched by a Hindu mob in India's Uttar Pradesh state in 2015, say they will continue fighting for justice after authorities recently moved to drop all charges against the accused.

Mohammad Akhlaq, then 50, was beaten to death after rumours spread that he had stored and consumed beef, a claim his family continues to deny.

Slaughter of cows is a sensitive issue in India as the animal is considered sacred by Hindus, who comprise 80% of the country's 1.2 billion people. Uttar Pradesh is among the 20 states of states with strict laws banning cow slaughter and the sale and consumption of beef.

The incident, which took place in Dadri - 49km (31 miles) from capital Delhi - was the first major and widely reported case of cow-related violence in India and had sparked widespread protests.

Akhlaq's family's lawyer told BBC Hindi that 18 people were charged for various offences, including murder and rioting. All of them are out on bail.

Now the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government of Uttar Pradesh has moved a local court, asking it to drop the charges against the men.

In an application filed last month, the public prosecutor argued there were "inconsistencies" in the witness testimonies in identifying the accused and asked the court to close the case.

The court is expected to decide on whether it would accept the application on 12 December.

The news has shocked Akhlaq's family, who say they are prepared to challenge the government's plea.

"We never thought that our fight of 10 years would be attempted to be closed off like this," his younger brother Jaan Mohammad told BBC Hindi.

The family left the village shortly after the killing and has not returned.

"Now, we are scared for our safety even more," Mr Mohammad said. "Will this [move to withdraw the case] not embolden the criminals?"

Mr Mohammad says he will never forget the night his brother was murdered.

Akhlaq had been sleeping with his 22-year-old son Danish on 28 September 2015, when a mob wielding sticks, swords and cheap pistols barged into their home, accusing the family of having slaughtered a cow and consuming it.

The family said it later found out that the mob attacked him after an announcement was made from a Hindu temple that someone had slaughtered and eaten a cow.

The accused men found some meat in the fridge that the family insists was mutton, and held it as proof. While Akhlaq died on the spot, his son was seriously injured in the attack.

The case sparked widespread outrage. Although initial arrests came within a week, the chargesheet took three months to file.

Many also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for speaking about the incident days after Akhlaq's death, while some BJP members, then in power at the federal level, were accused of defending the attackers.

One party leader had described the lynching as an "accident", while another said consuming beef was unacceptable.

The police, in its first chargesheet, named 15 main accused, including a juvenile and a local BJP leader's son, along with 25 witnesses. Four more accused were later added, bringing the total to 19; one died in 2016.

Last month, the Uttar Pradesh government argued that witnesses, including Akhlaq's family, had given conflicting statements during the investigation.

It noted that Akhlaq's wife initially named 10 people in her complaint, while his daughter Shaista cited 16, and his son Danish 19.

"Despite both the parties living in the same village, the witnesses have changed the number of accused," the application says.

Mohammad Yusuf Saifi, Akhlaq's family lawyer, said the "chaos and confusion" at the time of the incident made it understandable that not every witness saw all involved.

"The only thing to see is whether there is any evidence against the people who have been named," he said.

The application also noted that police seized five sticks, iron rods, and bricks from the accused, but found no firearms or swords, contrary to what Akhlaq's wife had stated in her complaint.

It further stated that officials had recovered cow meat from the spot. In 2016, a case was filed against Akhlaq's family under the cow slaughter law - and is still pending before a court in Uttar Pradesh.

The family has however has repeatedly denied the allegation.

Mr Saifi, alleged the case was meant to "pressurise" the family, noting that a local veterinary report identified the meat as goat, not cow.

As the family anxiously waits for the court's verdict, they are holding out hope.

"I still have faith in the court," Akhlaq's brother, Mr Mohammad, said. "I believe justice would be done one day."

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At least 13 people have been killed in an Israeli strike near a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, the country's health ministry says.

The Israeli military said it had targeted members of the Palestinian armed group Hamas "operating in a training compound... in the Ein el-Hilweh area".

It said the location was used by Hamas to plan and carry out attacks against Israel - but provided no evidence to support the claims. Hamas has not commented.

Israel has carried out regular air strikes on people and places in Lebanon since a deal to end the conflict with the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah. Most strikes have targeted Hezbollah but Israel has also attacked Hamas in the country.

As well as those killed in the strike, Lebanon's health ministry said at least four people had been left wounded.

Images showed emergency workers at the entrance of Ein el-Hilweh, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.

Footage online also showed ambulances rushing through the narrow streets of the crowded camp as a huge plume of smoke billowed from the location hit.

Initial reports say the attack struck an area outside a mosque that is usually busy at night. Palestinian factions are known to be present in the camp.

In its statement, the IDF said "measures were taken to reduce the chance of harm to civilians, including the use of precision munitions, aerial observations, and additional intelligence information".

Hamas attacked southern Israel from Gaza on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others as hostages. Israel's military response has killed at least 69,169 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalated after the Lebanese group fired rockets at Israeli positions the day after 7 October 2023. Hezbollah said it was acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel and Hezbollah fought an escalating conflict for 13 months that culminated in an intense Israeli bombing campaign and ground incursion into southern Lebanon in October 2024.

Lebanese authorities said Israel's attacks killed about 4,000 people there - including many civilians - and led to the displacement of more than 1.2 million residents. Israeli authorities said more than 80 of its soldiers and 47 of its civilians were killed in the hostilities.

Two Miss Universe judges have resigned days before the annual beauty pageant, with one of them accusing organisers of rigging the selection process.

Lebanese-French musician Omar Harfouch, who announced his resignation from the eight-member jury on Instagram, alleged that an "impromptu jury" had pre-selected finalists ahead of the competition, set to be held on Friday in Thailand.

Hours later, French football manager Claude Makélélé also announced he'd pulled out, citing "unforeseen personal reasons".

The resignations come just weeks after several Miss Universe contestants walked out of a pre-pageant event over controversial comments made by an official from host nation Thailand.

"An impromptu jury has been formed to select 30 finalists from among the 136 participating countries, without the presence of any of the real [eight] members of the jury, including me," Mr Harfouch wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday, saying he had discovered this via social media.

The unofficial jury comprises "individuals with a significant potential conflict of interest due to some personal relationships with some of the Miss Universe contestants", he claimed.

Mr Harfouch did not elaborate on how this "impromptu jury" would function, or how it would override the official jury's decision.

The Miss Universe Organisation on Tuesday put out a statement to rebuff Mr Harfouch's claims, saying that "no external group has been authorised to evaluate delegates or select finalists".

It suggested that Mr Harfouch may have been referring to the Beyond the Crown programme: a "social impact initiative" that operates independently from the Miss Universe competition, and has a separate selection committee.

The Miss Universe Organisation announced the Beyond the Crown selection committee on Monday. In its statement on Tuesday, the Organisation said that Mr Harfouch's allegations had "mischaracterised" the programme.

Mr Makélélé, who also announced his resignation via Instagram, described it as a "difficult decision".

"I hold Miss Universe in the highest regard. The platform represents empowerment, diversity, and excellence - values I have always championed throughout my career," he wrote.

The beauty pageant drew backlash earlier this month after its Thailand director Nawat Itsaragrisil publicly berated Miss Mexico, Fatima Bosch, at a pre-pageant event for not posting promotional content on her social media platforms.

In videos that have since gone viral, Ms Bosch and several other contestants could be seen walking out of the event, and some could be heard shouting at Mr Nawat.

Mr Nawat later claimed that some of his words were misunderstood - but his conduct nevertheless prompted a stern rebuke from Miss Universe Organisation, which has since sent a delegation of international executives to take over running the competition.

Nearly every Republican in the US House of Representatives voted on a bill to compel the release of documents tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The lone "nay" came from the Republican lawmaker from Louisiana, Clay Higgins, who defied his party saying his vote was a principled "NO".

"What was wrong with the bill three months ago is still wrong today," Higgins wrote on X. "It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America."

The resounding vote in favour of the Epstein bill, 427-1, marks a rare moment of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill. Hours later, the US senate too approved the legislation, clearing the way for the final act - President Donald Trump's signature.

For Higgins, safeguarding the personal information of Epstein's many victims was the primary issue with the legislation.

"As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people – witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc," he wrote on X. "If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt."

Higgins said he would support the bill if it were to be amended by the Senate, which Republican majority leader John Thune had already suggested was unlikely.

"When a bill comes out of the House 427 to 1 and the president said he's going to sign it, I'm not sure that amending it is in the cards," Thune said before the Senate's unanimous approval for the bill on Tuesday.

Prior to the House passing the legislation, only four Republicans had joined all Democrats in signing a petition to force a vote - Thomas Massie, Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

But it achieved overwhelming Republican support after President Trump dropped his opposition to a vote.

Higgins has represented Louisiana's third district since 2017 and is widely regarded as one of the most conservative members of Congress, according to his website.

His holdout vote in the wake of 200-plus members of his party voting otherwise is not the first time he has taken an unorthodox stance.

In 2024, House Republicans voted to censure Higgins for offensive remarks he made on social media after he called Haiti "the nastiest country in the western hemisphere" and referred to Haitians as "eating pets" and "slapstick gangsters".

"All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th," Higgins wrote.

Facebook removed two posts from Higgins in 2020, after he wrote he would "drop any 10 of you where you stand", referring to any armed protesters that might attend a Louisiana demonstration against police brutality.

Facebook told Business Insider at the time the posts "were removed for violating our policies against inciting violence".

Before Congress, Higgins was a member of Louisiana's St Landry's Parish Sheriff's Office. He resigned in 2016 amid backlash about a controversial anti-crime video where he was seen holding a rifle and making threats against gang members.

The BBC has contacted Higgins's office for comment.

Former US treasury secretary Larry Summers is stepping down from the board at OpenAI, a week after a tranche of emails between him and late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was released.

Summers said in a statement to the BBC that he was "grateful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the potential of the company, and look forward to following their progress".

Summers, who was also once the president of Harvard University, said on Monday that he would be stepping back from public commitments over his ties to Epstein.

The recently released emails showed Summers communicated with Epstein until the day before Epstein's 2019 arrest for the alleged sex trafficking of minors.

In a statement, the artificial intelligence company said it respected Summers' decision to resign.

"We appreciate his many contributions and the perspective he brought to the Board," OpenAI said.

The news comes after both chambers of Congress agreed on Tuesday to pass a measure to require the US justice department to release its files on Epstein.

The measure will then head to the desk of US President Donald Trump for approval. He has said he plans to sign the bill, after reversing his position on the issue following pushback from his supporters.

A batch of Epstein-related emails released by the House Oversight Committee last week mentioned a number of high-profile figures in the financier's former circle, without indicating any legal wrongdoing by those figures.

The emails indicated that Summers and Epstein dined together frequently, with Epstein often trying to connect Summers to prominent global figures.

After the emails were shared with the public, Summers said he took "full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr Epstein".

He added that he wanted "to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me".

Summers held senior posts under two Democratic presidents; serving as treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, and as director of the National Economic Council under Barack Obama.

He led Harvard from 2001 to 2006 and remains a professor there. When announcing his step-down from public commitments earlier on Monday, he said he would continue his teaching commitments.

Following Summers' announcement on Monday, the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington where Summers was a senior fellow, confirmed that Summers was no longer affiliated with the organisation.

Summers joined the board of OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, in 2023 - following a failed attempt to oust its chief executive Sam Altman.

The Kenyan authorities paid a network of trolls to threaten and intimidate young protesters during recent anti-government demonstrations, Amnesty International has said.

A new report by the human rights organisation said government agencies also employed surveillance and disinformation to target organisers of the mass protests, which swept Kenya across 2024 and 2025.

The demonstrations were driven largely by "Gen Z" activists who used social media platforms to mobilise.

In response to Amnesty's report, Kenya's interior minister said the government "does not sanction harassment or violence against any citizen".

But Amnesty said it had uncovered a campaign to "silence and suppress" the protesters.

Young women and LGBT+ activists were disproportionately targeted, with misogynistic and homophobic comment, as well as AI-generated pornographic images, the report said.

The BBC has approached the government for further comment.

One activist told Amnesty: "I had people coming into my inbox and telling me: 'You will die and leave your kids. We will come and attack you'.

"I even had to change my child's school. Someone sent me my child's name, the age... the school bus number plate. They told me: 'If you continue doing what you're doing then we will take care of this child for you'."

The report features a man who said he was part of a team paid between 25,000 and 50,000 Kenyan shillings (about $190-$390; £145-£300) per day to amplify government messaging and drown out trending protest hashtags on social media platform X.

As well as digital abuse, the authorities have also been accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown on the protests.

More than 100 people died, rights groups say, when police clashed with protesters during two waves of demonstrations - one in 2024 and one in 2025.

The authorities were also accused of arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and using lethal force against the protesters.

The government accepted there had been some case of excessive force by police, but also defended the security forces in other instances.

The demonstrations railed against issues such as proposed tax rises, increasing femicide and corruption.

Amnesty chief Agnès Callamard said the organisation's report "clearly demonstrates widespread and coordinated tactics on digital platforms to silence and suppress protests by young activists".

"Our research also proves that these campaigns are driven by state-sponsored trolls, individuals and networks paid to promote pro-government messages and dominate Kenya's daily trends on X," she added.

Kenya's Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said: "The government of Kenya does not sanction harassment, or violence against any citizen... any officer implicated in unlawful conduct bears individual responsibility and is subject to investigation and sanction."

Amnesty also raised concerns about unlawful state surveillance, including allegations - denied by Kenya's largest telecom provider, Safaricom - that authorities used mobile data to monitor protest leaders.

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A South Korean passenger ferry carrying 246 passengers and 21 crew has run aground on rocks off the country's south-east coast.

The Queen Jenuvia 2 is stuck on a reef and unable to move, but there is currently no risk of sinking or capsizing, according to the Coast Guard. People are currently being moved to patrol boats, it said.

The accident happened near Jangsan Island in Sinan County on Wednesday evening local time. The vessel ran aground on rocks near the uninhabited island of Jogdo.

Local media reported that five people sustained minor injuries from the impact of the grounding, but there have been no other casualties.

South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok has ordered all available vessels to be mobilised to rescue the ferry.

"We have confirmed that there is currently no flooding. We are transferring passengers to patrol boats and moving them to a safe location," a Coast Guard official said, Chosun Ilbo newspaper reports.

The Coast Guard plans to move the vessel ashore at high tide.

The ferry was travelling to the port city of Mokpo after departing from the resort island of Jeju, carrying 246 passengers and 21 crew members, the Coast Guard.

The area is near the site of the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014 that killed more than 300 people, mostly school children heading for a school trip.

Nicki Minaj - the US-based, multi-million-selling Trinidadian rapper - has publicly backed President Donald Trump's allegations that Christians face persecution in Nigeria.

"In Nigeria, Christians are being targeted," Minaj said on Tuesday at a UN event organised by the US, adding that "Churches have been burned, families have been torn apart … simply because of how they pray."

It follows recent threats by Trump to send troops into Nigeria "guns a-blazing" if its government "continues to allow the killing of Christians".

But the Nigerian presidency says the widespread violence that has long plagued the West African nation affects everyone, regardless of background or belief.

Minaj, whose real name is Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, said calling for the protection of Christians in Nigeria "is not about taking sides or dividing people,"but about "uniting humanity".

"This is about standing up in the face of injustice. It's about what I've always stood for," she added while standing alongside the US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz.

The 42-year-old rapper thanked Trump for "prioritizing this issue and for his leadership".

She described Nigeria as "a beautiful nation with deep faith traditions" and even acknowledged the "beautiful Barbz" - her fans - in the West African country.

Waltz thanked the rapper for "leveraging her massive platform to spotlight the atrocities against Christians in Nigeria".

For months, right-wing campaigners and politicians in Washington have been alleging that Islamist militants were systematically targeting Christians in Nigeria.

But the BBC has found that some of the data being relied on to come to this conclusion is difficult to verify.

Deadly disputes are also often over vital resources like land and water or fuelled by inter-ethnic tensions, rather than religion, say analysts.

Nigeria's government does not deny that there is deadly violence in the country. But says that, "Terrorists attack all who reject their murderous ideology - Muslims, Christians and those of no faith alike".

Minaj previously namechecked her fanbase, known as the "Barbz", as a reason for her intervention, saying online: "The Barbz & I will never stand down in the face of injustice. We've been given our influence by God. There must be a bigger purpose."

Last year she publicly revealed that despite moving from her native Trinidad to New York at an early age, she still does not have US citizenship.

Her appearance at the UN on Tuesday is her highest-profile political intervention to date.

She made headlines during the pandemic for sharing disinformation about side-effects of the Covid vaccine - claiming that when a friend of her cousin had the jab, it caused his testicles to swell up and he became impotent.

"His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding," Minaj wrote online.

Her comments were criticised by UK's chief medical officer at the time, and then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson also commented, joking: "I am not as familiar with the works of Nicki Minaj as I probably should be."

In recent months, her years-long feud with fellow New York rapper Cardi B escalated in them trading insults about each others' careers and family members.

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Two girls, who were among at least 25 children and a teacher kidnapped from their boarding school in north-western Nigeria's Kebbi state on Monday, have managed to escape, a local official told the BBC.

The pair ran away as their armed captors were leading them into the bushes and got away across farmland, Hussaini Aliyu of Danko Wasagu council said.

He added that the girls were "back and are safe", but one of them needed medical treatment as she had hurt her leg while fleeing.

The assault left two members of staff dead - a teacher was killed while trying to protect girls and a security guard later died in hospital from gunshot wounds.

A team of soldiers, police and volunteers are combing forested areas in an attempt to rescue the captives seized by the gunmen.

"You must continue day and night fighting. We must find these children," Maj Gen Waidi Shaibu, Nigeria's army chief of staff, told troops sent to Kebbi state.

Over the past decade, schools in northern Nigeria have become frequent targets for armed groups, who often carry out abductions to seek ransom payments or leverage deals with the government.

Police say the gunmen, described locally as "bandits", invaded the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga town at about 04:00 (03:00 GMT) on Monday.

Parents face an agonising wait.

One inconsolable father, whose daughter is still being held captive, told BBC Hausa that his family had been crying non-stop and "it's hard to go back home and look at their faces".

He said he had two daughters enrolled at the school one of whom had successfully hid from the attackers, but the other had not been so lucky.

"My two daughters hid in the toilet when the armed men invaded their hostel.

"When the [gunmen] ordered all those hiding to come out, or else they'll kill them, one of my daughters got scared and came out," the father said.

He added that he had heard of the abductions after the Muslim early-morning prayer on Monday, and had rushed to the school and been there ever since.

"My daughter is a very bright and easy-going person," he said.

Police say the attackers "engaged police personnel on duty in a gun duel" before climbing over the perimeter fence and taking the girls from their hostel.

The security guard who died had a granddaughter and great-granddaughter at the same school and they are among those kidnapped.

It has devastated his family.

"I found him in his pool of blood," the security guard's daughter told the BBC. "Then they took my daughter and also my granddaughter."

She said she had been unable to eat or sleep ever since.

The attack highlights the persistent security crisis plaguing the region, leaving families in a state of fear.

Nigeria's central government says it is "deeply concerned" by the abductions.

In a statement on Monday, Information Minister Mohammed Idris Malagi said the authorities "share in the pain" of the affected families and were working urgently to rescue the girls.

He added that President Bola Tinubu remained "unwavering in his commitment to protect every Nigerian, especially schoolchildren".

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US special envoy Steve Witkoff is set to join talks with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday, as the Ukrainian president said he wanted to "intensify" peace negotiations.

"Bringing the end of the war closer with all our might is Ukraine's top priority," Zelensky said, adding that efforts would also focus on resuming prisoner exchanges.

Turkey has maintained ties with both Kyiv and Moscow and has previously hosted talks between the two factions.

But no Russian representative is set to join the meeting in Ankara, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

He added that while there were "no concrete plans" for Vladimir Putin to speak to either the Turkish side or to Witkoff, the Russian president was "of course open to a conversation".

Ankara will be the fourth capital Zelensky visits in only a few days. In Athens he secured a gas deal, in Paris he signed a deal with France to obtain up to 100 fighter jets and in Madrid he held talks on co-operation with Spanish arms manufacturers.

The visits are part of Zelensky's mission to try to shore up European support for Ukraine while Russian attacks on the country intensify and Moscow's troops close in on the key city eastern city of Pokrovsk.

Domestically, Zelensky is facing the most serious crisis in years. Several members of his closest circle are under investigation for co-organising a large-scale criminal scheme, and two ministers have resigned.

The scandal threatens to widen still and some EU leaders – who in December will decide whether to unblock a €140bn (£121bn) loan for Kyiv based on frozen Russian state assets – have warned Zelensky needs to do more to tackle corruption.

As the fourth anniversary of the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 inches closer, Moscow and Kyiv remain fundamentally opposed in their views of how to end the war.

Earlier in November Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia's conditions for a peace deal had not changed since Putin laid them out in 2024.

At the time, the Russian president demanded that Kyiv renounce any ambition to join Nato, as well as full Ukrainian withdrawal from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

Zelensky has repeatedly argued that withdrawing from Donetsk and Luhansk – together known as the Donbas – would leave the rest of the country vulnerable to future attacks.

Following a long meeting with Putin in April, Witkoff appeared to suggest that a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv hinged on the status of the contested Ukrainian regions as well as Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. This stance led to tensions with Zelensky, who accused him of "disseminating Russian narratives".

Zelensky and Witkoff have not met since early September. Although the summer saw a flurry of high-level talks and meetings - including between Trump and Putin - American efforts to bring a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine closer have stalled.

At one point, it appeared Trump and Putin were about to meet again in Budapest –but that summit was scrapped, apparently after the US side became aware that Moscow had no intention of budging from several demands that were unacceptable to Kyiv.

But contact between US and Russian officials has continued, albeit under the radar. Putin's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev was reportedly in Washington for meetings with Witkoff in late October, only days after Trump imposed sanctions on Russia's two biggest oil companies.