US: TRIAL BEGINS IN E. JEAN CARROLL'S RAPE LAWSUIT AGAINST DONALD TRUMP

A nearly 30-year-old rape claim against Donald Trump went to trial Tuesday as jurors in the federal civil case heard a former advice columnist's allegation of being attacked in a luxury department store dressing room.

The former president says nothing happened between them.

E. Jean Carroll will testify that what unfolded in a few minutes in a fitting room in 1996 "would change her life forever," one of her lawyers, Shawn Crowley, said in an opening statement.

"Filled with fear and shame, she kept silent for decades. Eventually, though, silence became impossible," Crowley said.

And when Carroll broke that silence in a 2019 memoir, the then-president "used the most powerful platform on Earth to lie about what he had done, attack Ms. Carroll's integrity and insult her appearance." Trump - who wasn't in court but hasn't ruled out testifying -- has called Carroll a "nut job" who fabricated the rape claim to sell her book. Defence attorney Joe Tacopina told jurors Tuesday that her story was wildly implausible and short of evidence.

He accused her of pursuing the case for money, status and political reasons, urging the jurors from heavily Democratic New York to put aside any animus they themselves might hold toward the Republican ex-president and ex-New Yorker.

"Nobody's above the law, but no one is beneath it." The trial stands to test Trump's "Teflon Don" reputation for shaking off serious legal problems and to reprise accounts of the type of sexual misconduct that rocked his 2016 presidential campaign as he seeks office again.

IRAN CHARGES TWO ACTRESSES FOR NOT WEARING HEADSCARVES

Two prominent Iranian actresses face up to two months in jail for flouting rules forcing women to cover their heads in public.

Actresses Pantea Bahram and Katayoun Riahi were accused of “the crime of removing the hijab in public and posting photos on the internet,” the ISNA agency reported on Tuesday, citing the Tehran police, which has referred the case to the Prosecutor’s Office.

Bahram caused quite a stir last week when photos of her without a headscarf at the screening of a television series went viral.

The venue manager was later fired for failing to remove the actress from the theater.

Riahi, who was arrested in November for posting videos without a veil, recently published several photos on social media in which she was not wearing a headscarf.

Iranian police launched an operation on Apr. 15 using surveillance cameras to identify and target women not wearing a veil.

The education and health ministries announced in early April that female students not wearing a veil would be banned from attending universities and colleges.

On Monday Iranian authorities banned women not wearing a headscarf from entering museums and historical sites.

SINGAPORE HANGS MAN FOR TRAFFICKING 1KG OF CANNABIS

Singapore on Wednesday hanged a prisoner convicted of conspiracy to smuggle one kilogram of cannabis, authorities said, ignoring international calls for the city-state to abolish capital punishment.

The execution took place despite a plea by the United Nations Human Rights Office for Singapore to "urgently reconsider" the hanging and calls by British tycoon Richard Branson to halt it.

"Singaporean Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, had his capital sentence carried out today at Changi Prison Complex," a spokesman for the Singapore Prisons Service told AFP.

Tangaraju was convicted in 2017 of "abetting by engaging in a conspiracy to traffic" 1,017.9 grams (35.9 ounces) of cannabis, twice the minimum volume required for a death sentence in Singapore.

He was sentenced to death in 2018 and the Court of Appeal upheld the decision.

Branson, a member of the Geneva-based Global Commission on Drug Policy, wrote Monday on his blog that Tangaraju was "not anywhere near" the drugs at the time of his arrest and that Singapore may be about to put an innocent man to death.

Singapore's Home Affairs Ministry responded Tuesday that Tangaraju's guilt had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

The ministry said two mobile phone numbers that prosecutors said belonged to him had been used to coordinate the delivery of the drugs.

‘LET’S FINISH THIS JOB’, SAYS BIDEN, 80, ANNOUNCING 2024 PRESIDENTIAL RUN

President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he will seek a second White House term in 2024, a decision that will test whether Americans are ready to give the 80-year-old Democrat, already the oldest U.S. President ever, another four years in office.

Mr. Biden made his announcement in a slickly produced video released by his new campaign team, in which he declares it is his job to defend American democracy.

It opens with imagery from the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump.

“When I ran for President four years ago, I said we’re in a battle for the soul of America, and we still are,” Mr. Biden said. “This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for re-election.”

“Let’s finish this job. I know we can,” he said.

Mr. Biden described Republican platforms as threats to American freedom, vowing to fight efforts to limit women’s healthcare, cut Social Security and ban books, while blasting “MAGA extremists”. MAGA is the acronym for the “Make America Great Again” political slogan of Mr. Trump, who may well be Mr. Biden’s Republican opponent in the November 2024 election.

Mr. Biden’s age makes his re-election bid a historic and risky gamble for the Democratic Party, which faces a tough election map to hold the Senate in 2024 and is the minority in the House of Representatives now.

Mr. Biden’s approval ratings were stuck at just 39% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on April 19 and there are steep concerns about his age among some Americans. He would be 86 by the end of a prospective second term, almost a decade higher than the average U.S. male’s life expectancy.

‘HUGE BIOLOGICAL RISK AFTER SUDAN FIGHTERS OCCUPY LAB’

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that fighters in conflict-ravaged Sudan had occupied the national public laboratory holding samples of diseases including polio and measles, creating an “extremely, extremely dangerous” situation. Fighters “kicked out all the technicians from the lab... which is completely under the control of one of the fighting parties as a military base,” said Nima Saeed Abid, the WHO’s representative in Sudan.

He did not say which of the fighting parties had taken over the laboratory.

Mr. Abid said he had received a call from the head of the national laboratory in Khartoum on Monday, a day before 72-hour ceasefire between Sudan’s warring generals officially came into effect. He pointed out that the lab held so-called isolates, or samples, of a range of deadly diseases. The director of the lab had also warned of the danger that “depleting stocks of blood bags risk spoiling due to lack of power,” Mr. Abid said.

The UN health agency also said that it had confirmed 14 attacks on healthcare facilities during the fighting, killing eight and injuring two.

The fighting has pitted forces loyal to Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against those of his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the Rapid Support Forces.

The Sudanese Health Ministry has put the number of deaths so far at 459, with a further 4,072 wounded, the WHO said on Tuesday, adding that it had not be able to verify that number.

CHINA DROPS COVID PCR TEST RULE FOR INBOUND TRAVELLERS

Beijing : China said on Tuesday that it would no longer require travellers entering the country to show a negative PCR test for the Covid, another step toward reopening after a long period of pandemic-eraisolation. But it was not clear whether testing requirements would be abolished altogether. A spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry said only that, beginning on April 29, people going to China “can” take an antigen test to “replace” the previously mandated PCR test within 48 hours before boarding their flight. Airlines would not check test results before boarding, the spokeswoman, Mao Ning, added. She didn’t say whether others, such as immigration officials, would check.

TALIBAN KILL IS LEADER BEHIND KABUL AIRPORT BOMBING

The Islamic State group mastermind thought to have planned the devastating 2021 bombing at Kabul airport has been killed by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, US officials say.

The bombing that August killed 170 civilians and 13 US soldiers as people were trying to flee the country as the Taliban took control.

The IS figure was killed weeks ago but it took time to confirm his death, US officials told BBC news partner CBS

His name has not been released.

US officials said they had determined through intelligence gathering and monitoring of the region that the leader had died, though they did not provide further details on how they had learned that he was responsible for the bombing.

According to a report in the New York Times, the US learned of the leader's death in early April. It is unclear whether he was targeted by the Taliban or if he was killed during ongoing fighting between IS and the Taliban, the newspaper reported.

N DAKOTA IS 14TH US STATE TO OK NEAR-TOTAL ABORTION BAN

North Dakota became the latest US state on Monday to enact a near-total ban on abortion, just one month after the state Supreme Court temporarily blocked a similar ban from taking effect. Under the new law, an abortion in the case of rape or incest would be permissible only in the first six weeks of pregnancy. Abortion is permitted without gestational limits if terminating a pregnancy can “prevent the death or a serious health risk” of the mother.

Governor Doug Burgum, a Republican, signed the bill into law Monday. The law, Burgum said, “reaffirms North Dakota as a pro-life state. ” The new law, which takes immediate effect, is a dramatic shift for North Dakota, where abortions had been legal up until 22 weeks of pregnancy. The law makes North Dakota at least the 14th state with an active ban on nearly all abortions, though it is likely to face legal challenges, experts said. Since the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion last year, conservative states have enacted restrictions or full bans.

KENYA STARVATION CULT ‘MASSACRE’ TOLL HITS 90 AS SEARCH PAUSED

SHAKAHOLA: The death toll from a suspected Kenyan starvation cult climbed to 90 on Tuesday, including many children, as police said investigators were pausing the search for bodies because the morgues were full. “We don’t know how many more graves, how many more bodies, we are likely to discover,” Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said.

VENEZUELA’S OPPOSITION LEADER GUAIDO EXPELLED FROM COLOMBIA

BOGOTÁ: Colombia expelled Venezuelan Opposition figure Juan Guaido on Monday, hours after he arrived in Bogota for a conference on his crisis-torn country. Neither Guaido, recognized in 2019 by more than 50 countries as Venezuela’s de facto leader, nor Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was invited to attend the event.