- Record-breaking Root, Brook both pass 200 as England pile up 658-3
- Football mourns Greek defender George Baldock's shock death at 31
- Uniqlo owner reports record annual earnings
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as markets track Wall St record
- Indonesia biomass drive threatens key forests: report
- Home is far away for Madagascar in AFCON qualifying
- Two months on, Donbas soldiers begin to question Kursk offensive
- Rugby Australia to counter-sue in dispute with Melbourne Rebels
- Mumbai mourns Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- Philippines challenges China over South China Sea at ASEAN meet
- Mets advance on Lindor blast, Dodgers stay alive in MLB playoffs
- Injury-ravaged Krygios aiming to return at Australian Open
- Greek international Baldock, dead at 31: family
- EU talks deportation hubs to stem migration
- Deaths and repression sideline Suu Kyi's party ahead of Myanmar vote
- S. Africa offers a lesson on how not to shut down a coal plant
- China opens $71 bn 'swap facility' to boost markets
- Mets advance on Lindor grand slam, Yankees and Tigers win
- Taiwan President Lai vows to 'resist annexation' of island
- China's solar goes from supremacy to oversupply
- Asian markets track Wall St record as Hong Kong, Shanghai stabilise
- 'Denying my potential': women at Japan's top university call out gender imbalance
- China's central bank says opens up $70.6 bn in liquidity to boost market
- Zelensky on whirlwind tour of Europe ahead of US vote
- Youth facing unprecedented wave of violence, UN envoy warns
- 'A casino in every kitchen': Brazil's online gambling craze
- Nobel chemistry winner sees engineered proteins solving tough problems
- Lindor powers Mets past Phillies into NL Championship Series
- Wildlife populations plunge 73% since 1970: WWF
- 'Sleeper agent' bots on X fuel US election misinformation, study says
- Death toll rises to 109 after Haiti gang attack, official says
- Tigers beat Guardians and on brink of advancing in MLB playoffs
- Argentina MPs back Milei's veto of university funding
- Man City sink Barca in Women's Champions League as Bayern outgun Arsenal
- Greek international Baldock, 31, found dead in pool: state agency
- Florida seaside haven a ghost town as hurricane nears
- Pharrell Williams to co-chair Met Gala exploring Black dandyism
- Wall Street indices hit fresh records as Chinese shares tumble
- Taiwan's president to deliver key speech for National Day
- Sea row on the menu as ASEAN leaders meet China's Li
- Injured Kane won't start England's Nations League clash with Greece
- Discord seen as online home for renegades
- US forecasts severe solar storm starting Thursday
- Mozambique starts tallying votes in tense election
- Zelensky moves to court European leaders in drive for military aid
- Ratan Tata: Indian mogul who built a global powerhouse
- Rodgers rejects 'false' suggestions of role in Saleh dismissal
- One dead as storm Kirk tears through Spain, Portugal, France
- Indian business titan Ratan Tata dead at 86
- Lebanon facing 'catastrophic' situation as 600,000 displaced: UN
Trump judge sets March date for historic criminal trial
Donald Trump returned to court in Manhattan on Thursday where his attempts to dismiss charges of covering up hush money payments were rejected, setting the stage for the first criminal trial of a former US president to begin on March 25.
At the same time, his representatives attended a separate hearing in Atlanta, pushing to have the lead prosecutor bringing charges of election fraud and racketeering against Trump disqualified from the case.
They are two of four criminal cases facing the Republican frontrunner as he campaigns to retake the White House, with his legal teams seeking to push the actual trials until after the November 5 vote.
Trump, who has seized on the media attention of his legal woes to fire up his supporters and denounce his Democratic opponent Joe Biden, reiterated his claim that the charges were "just a way of hurting me in the election."
"How can you run for election if you are sitting in a courthouse in Manhattan all day long," he said as he arrived at court.
Once the hearing got underway, Judge Juan Merchan rejected Trump's request for delay, ruling that jury selection would begin as scheduled in late March.
The former president faces 34 counts of accounting fraud linked to payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Prosecutors say that Trump illegally covered up remittances to his longtime lawyer and aide, Michael Cohen, to reimburse him for payments to bury stories about Trump's alleged extramarital sexual relations with Daniels and a Playboy model.
- Legal rollercoaster -
Trump's lawyers will also be representing him in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is accused of conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden.
That hearing seeks to have the District Attorney Fani Willis dismissed from the case over an alleged relationship with another prosecutor.
Trump's legal rollercoaster could continue on Friday if, as US media have reported, a ruling is issued in his civil fraud trial, in which he is accused of grossly inflating his property's values.
In that case he risks having to pay up to $370 million and faces a ban from conducting business in New York state.
And he also faces another possible trial alleging conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election in Washington.
Trump has used the numerous legal cases to fuel his claims of being victimized as he campaigns for a return to the White House.
The hush money case dates to the closing days of the 2016 election when Trump was on the cusp of his shock win as a political outsider against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
A New York grand jury indicted Trump in March 2023 over the payments made to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
Prosecutors say the money was paid to silence Daniels over claims she had a tryst with Trump in 2006 -- a year after he married Melania Trump.
Late in the campaign, Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen arranged a payment of $130,000 to Daniels in exchange for her pledge of confidentiality.
Trump for years rejoiced in his reputation as a playboy but he denied the affair with Daniels, which would have occurred just after Melania, his third wife, gave birth.
L.Harper--AMWN