The New York judge presiding over President-elect Donald Trump's hush money case has set sentencing for 10 days before his January 20 inauguration and said he was not inclined to impose jail time.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is "strong and unpredictable," and those qualities can be a decisive factor in his policy approach to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

However, Zelensky said it won't be possible to end the almost three years of war in one day, as Trump claimed during his election campaign he could do.

Italy summoned Iran's ambassador on Thursday to demand the release of an Italian journalist while Tehran demanded Italy free an Iranian citizen arrested on a U.S. warrant over a drone attack in Jordan that killed three Americans a year ago.

The developments reflected an escalation in a sensitive, three-nation diplomatic tangle marked by a series of public barbs.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan presented President Joe Biden with options for a potential U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear facilities if the Iranians move towards a nuclear weapon before Jan. 20, in a meeting several weeks ago that remained secret until now, three sources with knowledge of the issue told U.S. news portal Axios.

The United States has imposed sanctions on two groups linked to Iranian and Russian efforts to target American voters with disinformation ahead of this year's election.

Treasury officials announced the sanctions Tuesday, alleging that the two organizations sought to stoke divisions among Americans before November's vote. U.S. intelligence has accused both governments of spreading disinformation, including fake videos, news stories and social media posts, designed to manipulate voters and undermine trust in U.S. elections.

A U.S. Army veteran who drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year's revelers in New Orleans, killing 15 people, had posted videos to social media hours before the carnage saying he was inspired by the Islamic State group and expressing a desire to kill, the president said.

The FBI said it was investigating early Wednesday's attack in which the driver steered around a police blockade and slammed into revelers before being shot dead by police as a terrorist act and did not believe he acted alone.

Shock and dismay prevailed in Montenegro on Thursday after a gunman fatally shot 12 people, including two children, in a western town before killing himself.

At least four others were wounded in the shooting rampage in Cetinje on Wednesday that followed a bar brawl, officials said. This was the second such incident in the town in the past three years.

International condemnation has poured in for the attack on a crowd of New Year's Eve revelers in New Orleans which killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens more.

At least 10 people were killed and 30 injured when a vehicle plowed into a crowd in a popular tourist district in the U.S. city of New Orleans, city authorities said Wednesday.

Iran will hold nuclear talks with France, Britain, and Germany on January 13 in Switzerland, local media reported on Wednesday, quoting a foreign ministry official.