POLITICS & POLICY

US allies at NATO scrambled Wednesday to put a brave face on the return of Donald Trump to the White House amid fears the unpredictable Republican could upend European security and pull the plug on Ukraine support.

Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has revealed plans to introduce new legislation to allow for adjusted electronic monitoring and curfews. Burke said in a statement that "regulations are now being finalized that will allow for an adjusted process for electronic monitoring devices and curfews to be used."

Sold by her family as a teenager, Zarin was beaten, drugged and repeatedly gang-raped -- just one of many thousands of young women trafficked in India.

The first polls closed Tuesday in the volatile White House race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump as a divided nation anxiously awaited the result of one of the tightest elections in US history.

The wives and girlfriends of dozens of men on trial in France accused of raping another woman while she was drugged by her husband have reacted with anger and disbelief, although some say they will stand by the accused.

The plan includes extending the Continuation Bonus for permanent members of the Australian Defense Force (ADF) and increasing the ADF's Operational Reserves by an additional 1,000 personnel to strengthen and sustain a highly skilled workforce.

Speaking to reporters in Canberra, Foreign Minister Penny Wong emphasized that the federal government would continue to maintain a cooperative relationship with the U.S., regardless of which candidate won.

Sculptor Aung Naing Lin has spent decades carving Buddha statues to help guide Myanmar's faithful -- but getting the marble he needs from rebel-held quarries in the midst of civil war is now a perilous task.

When political outsider Donald Trump defied polls and expectations to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election, he described the victory as "beautiful."

As the new changes take effect on June 1, 2025, an average graduate with a loan of AU$27,600 will have AU$5,520 removed from their debt.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, "We're busy prioritising all of our purchases when it comes to defence assets, we've got a considerable increase in our defence budget and we'll make sure all of the decisions that we make are in our national interest."

Israel formally notified the United Nations of its decision to sever ties with the agency supporting Palestinian refugees, it said Monday, after lawmakers voted to ban the organisation vital to the occupied territories.

Quincy Jones, who has died at the age of 91, was a jazzman, composer and tastemaker whose studio chops and arranging prowess connected the dots between the 20th century's constellation of stars.

Ukrainian soldier Anton Sushko, severely wounded, thought he was finally safe when he spotted a rescue team after crawling for hours through the battlefield in eastern Ukraine.

Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike killed three people near the southern city of Sidon on Sunday as more bombs fell in the country's east after Israel warned it would again hit Hezbollah targets there.

Moldovans went to the polls on Sunday in a tense presidential election runoff that could play a key role in the country's European future amid fears of Russian interference.

The world's biggest nature conservation conference closed in Colombia on Saturday with no agreement on a roadmap to ramp up funding for species protection.

Israel on Saturday again carried out deadly air strikes on north Gaza, where the UN calls conditions "apocalyptic", as Lebanon's Hezbollah intensified rocket fire near Israel's commercial hub of Tel Aviv, on Israel's second front.

US job growth slowed drastically in October, hit temporarily by hurricanes and labor strikes, in a final major economic snapshot at the end of a razor-edge presidential election campaign where cost-of-living worries dominated voter concerns.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris hold dueling campaign rallies Friday in Wisconsin's largest city Milwaukee, as both candidates make frantic last-ditch appeals to wavering voters with Election Day just around the corner.

At least 10 strikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs early Friday, after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for buildings in Hezbollah's stronghold to evacuate.

With a showman's flair and an outlaw's moustache, the Pakistani gangster dials the hotline on his own most wanted notice -- taunting the authorities who put a bounty on his head.

Cattle farmer Khairallah Yaacoub refused to leave south Lebanon despite a year of Hezbollah-Israel clashes.

The US and South Korean defense chiefs called Wednesday for North Korea to withdraw its troops from Russia, where Washington says some 10,000 of them have been deployed for possible action against Ukrainian forces.

Senior US officials were to meet their Israeli counterparts Thursday to discuss a possible deal to end the conflict in Lebanon and secure Israel's northern border from Hezbollah attacks.

North Korea said Thursday it had test-fired one of its newest and most powerful missiles to boost its nuclear deterrent, Kim Jong Un's first weapons test since being accused of sending soldiers to Russia.

Georgia's pro-European president on Wednesday refused a summons by prosecutors to give evidence after she accused the ruling party of fraud in the weekend's disputed parliamentary election.

Progress has been slow but it is relentless. "We have seen an acceleration in this progression, with the feeling that it cannot be stopped," he added, describing a "Russian strategy of pressure everywhere, all the time, while waiting for (the defence) to crack, crumble or collapse."

The US economy undershot expectations in the third quarter even as growth remained resilient, according to government data Wednesday, weighing on inflation-weary voters less than a week to the presidential election.