WORLD

Colorado authorities are investigating possible threats against state Supreme Court justices, Denver police said on Tuesday, one week after the court barred former President Donald Trump from the state's presidential primary ballot.

The FBI said it was assisting local law enforcement in the investigation.

The Denver Police Department also said it was providing "extra patrols" around the homes of the justices, who ruled 4-3 on Dec. 19 that Trump should be disqualified under a little-known clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment for engaging in insurrection.

As the Israel-Hamas war continues to rage, an Israeli airstrike has killed a high-ranking Iranian general in the Damascus neighborhood in Syria. Iranian officials and allied terrorist groups in the region vowed revenge for the killing but did not immediately launch any retaliatory strike. Clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border between Hezbollah and Israel, too, have continued to intensify, with daily exchanges of missiles, airstrikes and shelling across the frontier.

Negotiations for a truce deal between Israel and Palestinian terror group Hamas appeared to make little headway as fighting between the warring sides raged on in Gaza. Israel rebuffed demands from Hamas to permanently stop fighting in the besieged enclave, The Times of Israel reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his country's long-standing position on the war that the fighting wouldn't stop at all unless Hamas was "completely destroyed" and hostages were released safe and sound. He said Hamas was given "a simple choice -- either to surrender or die" as they did not "have any option".

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday claimed India-Canada relations have undergone what he called 'a tonal shift' since the US accused an Indian government employee of asking an individual to hire an assassin to kill separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. In an interview with CBC, he claimed there was an understanding that "they can't bluster their way through this".

Trudeau has accused unidentified Indian agents of having a hand in the June murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. India has outrightly rejected the claim and demanded evidence from Ottawa.

The United States on Monday announced a 10-nation coalition to quell Huthi missile and drone attacks on ships transiting the Red Sea, with Britain, France, Bahrain and Italy among countries joining the "multinational security initiative."

"Countries that seek to uphold the foundational principle of freedom of navigation must come together to tackle the challenge posed by this non-state actor," US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels have escalated attacks on tankers, cargo ships and other vessels in the Red Sea, imperiling a transit route that carries up to 12 percent of global trade.