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Lebanon files UN complaint against Israel over pager attacks

Lebanon said Wednesday that it had filed a complaint with the United Nations' labour agency over deadly attacks on communication devices across the country in September, which it blames on Israel.

Lebanese Labour Minister Mustafa Bayram called the attack an "egregious war against humanity, against technology, against work", saying his country had filed the complaint with the International Labour Organization in Geneva.

"It's a very dangerous precedent," he told journalists in the Swiss city at an event organised by the UN correspondents' association ACANU.

Lebanon's Labour Minister Mustafa Bayram spoke at a press conference in Geneva

Qatar votes overwhelmingly to scrap legislative polls

A referendum in Qatar to scrap short-lived legislative polls has passed with more than 90 percent of the vote, officials said on Wednesday, ending a flirtation with democracy in the Gulf monarchy.

The vote approved a raft of constitutional amendments with 90.6 percent of valid ballots cast by Qatari citizens, the interior ministry said.

"By participating in the referendum and by voting in favour of the constitutional amendments, Qataris have celebrated... the values of unity and justice," Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, posted on X.

Turn-out was high among eligible voters for Tuesday's referendum

German's family doesn't 'trust anything' said by Iran on his death: daughter

The family of Iran-born German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd does not trust anything said by the Iranian government about his fate, his daughter said Tuesday, after the judiciary announced he had died before his death sentence could be implemented.

"We do not trust anything. We have to get proof from an independent investigation that is carried out outside of Iran," Gazelle Sharmahd told AFP.

An Iranian judiciary spokesman said earlier that Sharmahd had died in prison, after a previous announcement last week said he had been executed.

A picture of Jamshid Sharmahd with his daughter Gazelle Sharmahd

'Bulldozer' Katz, long-time ally of Israel's Netanyahu

Israel's new Defence Minister Israel Katz, known for his abrasive style, is a long-time ally and loyalist of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a dramatic announcement late on Tuesday, Netanyahu sacked defence minister Yoav Gallant over what he said was a breakdown in trust during the Gaza war against Hamas.

"Over the past few months that trust has eroded. In light of this, I decided today to end the term of the defence minister," Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office.

Katz is a Netanyahu loyalist known for his direct and sometimes abrasive style

'Lost faith': Michigan Muslims shun Harris over Mideast turmoil

Haunted by the daily violence ravaging the Middle East, Soujoud Hamade, a registered Democrat, felt compelled to back Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the US presidential election.

"It is very emotional," the 32-year-old real estate lawyer told AFP after casting her ballot Tuesday at a school in Dearborn, the nation's largest Arab-majority city, where voters could prove decisive in the key battleground of Michigan.

Voters check in and request their ballots at a polling station at Charles A. Lindbergh Elementary School in Dearborn, Michigan

Israel's Gallant: hawk on Lebanon but fought Netanyahu on Gaza future

Israel's sacked defence minister Yoav Gallant is a former general who shaped the war against Hamas in Gaza, but fell out of favour with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the future of the campaign.

A hawk on Lebanon who lost his job on Tuesday -- Election Day in key Israel backer the United States -- Gallant had in recent months clashed with Netanyahu over the future of the war in Gaza.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has been a key advocate of military action in Lebanon

Thousands in Israel protest sacking of defence minister

Thousands of Israelis protested against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's dismissal of his defence minister, demanding the government do everything in its power to bring home hostages held in Gaza.

The demonstration erupted soon after Netanyahu's office announced the sacking of Yoav Gallant on Tuesday following public differences over the war with Hamas.

Israelis demanding the return of Gaza hostages block a road in Tel Aviv after Gallant was dismissed

Gazans want new US president to end the war

Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza told AFP on Tuesday that whoever emerges victorious in the US presidential election must end the conflict in the territory, which has taken an appalling human toll.

"We are hanging by a thread, and like every other people in the world, we are looking for someone who can stop the war," said Ayman al-Omreiti, 45, from Gaza City's Al-Daraj neighbourhood.

"Our hope is that the American people will choose someone who can end the suffering of the Palestinian people."

'We are exhausted with the bombings, the destruction, the martyrs, the wounded and the devastation,' said Hani Ajur

Israel demolishes seven Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem

Municipal workers demolished seven homes in occupied east Jerusalem's Silwan neighbourhood on Tuesday, Palestinian residents and the municipality said, after an Israeli court called their construction illegal.

"This morning the Jerusalem Municipality, with a security escort from the Israel police, began its enforcement against illegal buildings in the Al-Bustan neighbourhood in Silwan," Jerusalem's Israeli-controlled city hall said in a statement.

An excavator demolishes a home belonging to the Al-Ruwaidi family in Al-Bustan

Lebanon reports deadly raid as Israel strikes Hezbollah depot in Syria

Lebanon said Israel struck locations across the country on Tuesday, killing one person, as the Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah weapons depot in a Syrian town near the Lebanese border.

The strikes came more than a month into the Hezbollah-Israel war which has left at least 1,964 dead in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures.

Lebanon's health ministry said one person was killed and 20 others were wounded following an Israeli strike on the coastal town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut.