Wills And Kate 'Burn Off Curry' On Bhutan Trek

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have taken on one of Bhutan's toughest challenges to climb to the 1,500ft high Tiger's Nest monastery.

The trip to the top took William and Kate three hours as they walked hand-in-hand along a winding path that led through a pine forest.

The Duke admitted at one stage as he wiped the sweat from his brow that it was "quite tough on the way up" while the Duchess joked: "It's a great way to burn off the curry."

En route, the couple met three Americans who were coming back from the monastery.

Lauren McKennan, 29, Chris Steele, 27, and Alex Willmore, 28, stopped to chat with the royals.

Ms McKennan said: "They were pretty altogether. There wasn't a single trail of sweat. They stopped to talk to us for three to five minutes and were absolutely charming."

Mr Willmore added: "They asked us how long we had been here and talked about how lovely the weather was. They said how rainy it had been when they were doing the archery and how glad they were doing the trek today.

"We asked for a photograph. They just laughed and wouldn't do it. But they were absolutely charming, very cool, very nice. They kept on saying how beautiful it was."

The royal couple poised for pictures at the half-way point for the limited number of media permitted to accompany them on this part of the tour.

Husband and wife then headed off on the last leg of the trek with their arms around one another. 

At the top, the pair stopped to admire the views from the 17th century Paro Taktsang, perched on a sheer cliff face.

On their return back down to the valley, the Prince said: "It was amazing ... beautiful scenery it was stunning to walk up there".

William also joked he would remind his father, Prince Charles, that he made it to the top.

The Prince of Wales completed half the trek on a visit in 1998 but decided against going any further because of the height.

Kate and William also admitted on Friday that they were missing their children "massively" during the trip but added they are in "good hands".

George and Charlotte have remained at home during the week-long tour of India and Bhutan. 

Kate and William fly back to India on Saturday and will visit the Taj Mahal.

Five Suspects Held By Anti-Terror Police

Four people have been arrested in Birmingham and one person held at Gatwick Airport on suspicion of terror offences.

Three men aged 26, 40 and 59 and a 29-year-old woman - were held in Birmingham on Thursday night.

Meanwhile a 26-year-old man was arrested at Gatwick Airport early on Friday morning.

Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale, who leads on counter-terrorism for the West Midlands, said the investigation involved MI5 and Belgian and French authorities.

He said the arrests were pre-planned, and said there was "no risk to the public at any time".

There is no information to suggest an attack in the UK was being planned, he added.

Police are also searching a number of properties in Birmingham as part of the investigation.

Voice Of Tube's 'Mind The Gap' Warning Dies

The voice of London Underground's 'mind the gap' announcements has died.

Phil Sayer, 62, was heard on most automated public address systems across the UK rail network.

He died on Thursday, and his widow Elinor Hamilton wrote on Facebook: "Phil Sayer - voice of reason, radio, and railways. A dearly loved husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend.

"We are sorry to announce that this service terminates here."

Mr Sayer worked as a BBC presenter before going on to set up a voiceover company with his wife.

One London Underground station that his voice notably isn't heard at is Embankment.

Instead, a 40-year-old recording by Oswald Laurence is played at his widow's request.

Dr Margaret McCollum said she loved hearing her late husband's voice when she travelled through Embankment.

In 2013 Transport for London (TfL) stopped using the recording - but relented following her request.

TfL began using the "mind the gap" message from 1969, and there have been several voices used on the Tube network over the years.

They include The Archers actor Tim Bentinck, who was the voice on the Piccadilly Line for 15 years from 1990.

North Korea missile test fails, says South

North Korea conducted a missile test off its east coast on Friday morning, but the launch appears to have failed, say US and South Korean officials.

The rocket has not yet been identified but is suspected to have been a previously untested "Musudan" medium-range ballistic missile.

The launch coincided with the birthday of North Korea's founding leader, Kim Il-sung.

It also comes amid particularly high tension on the Korean peninsula.

South Korea's Yonhap national news agency quoted government sources as saying that the missile was a type of intermediate-range ballistic missile known as a Musudan, also called the BM-25.

North Korean forces were seen recently moving two such missiles. 

The report said it would be the North's first Musudan test, and that it may have at least 50 more.

The Musudan is named after the village in North Korea's northeast where a launch pad is sited.

It has a range of about 3,000 km (1,800 miles), which extends to the US Army base on the Pacific island of Guam, but not as far as the mainland US. 

The US said it had tracked the latest launch, but could also not confirm details,

"We call again on North Korea to refrain from actions and rhetoric that further raise tensions in the region and focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its international commitments and obligations," a State Department official said.

China also criticised what it called "the latest in a string of sabre-rattling that, if unchecked, will lead the country to nowhere," according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The BBC's Stephen Evans in Seoul says that even though it failed, the test illustrates the determination of current leader Kim Jong-un to get the ability to strike the United States, but also the North's technological limitations.

The North has made a series of threats against the South and the US since the UN imposed some of its toughest ever sanctions on the country.

The move was a response to the North's fourth nuclear test in January and its launching of a satellite in February, both of which broke existing sanctions.

The North has also been angered by South Korea and the US conducting their largest ever joint military exercises, which wrap up next week.

In March, North Korea said it had developed nuclear warheads small enough to fit on ballistic missiles. However, experts cast doubt on the claims.

The birthday of North Korea's founder - Mr Kim's grandfather - is significant. Four years ago, the North tried to celebrate it with a similar missile launch, but that too failed.

North Korea's rocket launches

• February 2016: Launch of rocket reportedly carrying satellite
• May 2015: North Korea announces it has successfully tested a submarine-launched missile for the first time, but scepticism is then poured on the claim
• Dec 2012: North Korea launches three-stage rocket, says it successfully put a satellite into orbit; US defence officials confirm object in orbit
• Apr 2012: Three-stage rocket explodes just after take-off, falls into sea
• Apr 2009: Three-stage rocket launched; North Korea says it was a success, US says it failed and fell into the sea
• Jul 2006: North Korea test-fires a long-range Taepodong-2 missile; US said it failed shortly after take-off

Nine-Year-Old Boy Is Super Sweet Job Hunter

A nine-year-old boy applied for a job at his local confectionary shop because he wanted to help people "find tasty sweets".

Ryan Dobson dropped off a handwritten letter to Sweets and Treats in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, after being told by his mother that treats and activities in the school holidays had to be paid for.

He said he would like the job as it would be "probably fun meeting happy, cheerful people and helping them find tasty sweets", and suggested he could hand out free samples to attract customers.

Ryan said he would "love to have a job" at the sweet shop

He also said he could work on the till because "I am in top maths set at school".

The store praised the boy on Facebook, calling his letter the "Best application form EVER!!!!" and saying they admired his "brilliant ideas" to drum up business.

Sweets and Treats owner Danielle Jaggers says the post has since been viewed by over 22,000 people.

While the shop gently turned Ryan's application down on account of his age, his efforts were rewarded with a special visit where he served ice cream and measured out sweets.

He told The Shields Gazette: "It was really exciting and amazing that I got the chance to have a try at working in the sweet shop."

His mother Lea Dobson says she was pleased to see her son practising his English during the school break.

But she added that "for now he’s back to dreaming about becoming a footballer when he grows up, just like every other nine-year-old".

Sweet and Treats said they wished they could employ Ryan

:: Ryan's letter in full:

Dear Sweets and Treats,

I would like to inform you that I would like a job at Sweets and Treats.

But not a full-time one as I am only nine (nearly ten).

I would love to have a job in your store because it is probably fun meeting happy cheerful people and helping them find tasty sweets.

My idea is to get Sweets and Treats more customers because more customers means more business.

I could stand outside of the door giving free samples of sweets and if they like the sweets then they can buy them.

I could even work at the till because I am good with money and I am in top maths set at school.

I hope you employ me because I would like a job and would enjoy a job.

Yours sincerely, Ryan.

The Kidnapped Nigerian Girls Are Among the Many Victims in a War on Women

It was two years ago today that militants stormed the dormitory of a government boarding school for girls in Chibok, Nigeria. Nearly 300 girls, most still wearing their pajamas, were herded at gunpoint into waiting trucks. Some were able to escape before the militants reached their redoubt in the trackless Sambisa forest of northern Nigeria, but 219 young women are still missing.

At the time the kidnapping was so repugnant that it launched a worldwide hashtag campaign, #bringbackourgirls, and brought the relatively unknown Islamist group Boko Haram global notoriety. These days kidnapping is one of the group’s basic modus operandi, with several thousand men and women having gone missing in the past two years. The group doesn’t stop there—many of their kidnap victims, especially women and children, appear to have been abducted for the sole purpose of being used as suicide bombers, either unknowingly, through the use of remote detonators, or through indoctrination, according to a recent analysis by Unicef

Though reports surfaced from time to time that the kidnapped schoolgirls from Chibok might have met a similar fate, a new video, obtained by CNN, indicates that the young women may have been reserved for another purpose entirely: propaganda and ransom. The footage, taken from what is assumed to be a “proof of life” video filmed in December, shows fifteen of the women standing against a dingy yellow wall and clad in the voluminous black coverings of conservative Muslim women.

CNN spoke to some of the girls’ mothers and a classmate to confirm their identities. In the video, one young woman addresses the camera with what seems to be a prepared speech: “We are all well,” she says, emphasizing the “all” in an indication that the 15 may represent a larger group. She then goes on to urge the government to fulfill unspecified promises. Nigerian government spokesperson Lai Mohammad tells CNN that the government is reviewing the video, and that there are “ongoing talks,” but that he can’t disclose further details for fear of endangering the negotiations.

Early on Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau taunted the Nigerian government, and the world, with a video announcing that the mostly Christian Chibok students had converted to Islam and that they would be forcibly married off to Boko Haram militants. Other kidnapped women who have escaped from captivity recount harrowing tales of sexual servitude and repeated rapes.

Over the past year and a half, the Nigerian military has made considerable gains against the terror group, recapturing territory and freeing thousands of kidnapped women and children in the process. But those who have been rescued or who have managed to flee are not necessarily better off. They face severe discrimination at home or in the refugee camps, where they are derided as “Boko wives” and shunned as if they carry disease, according to a recent report by the UK-based peace building organization International Alert. Many escape pregnant, or carrying the young children of their rapists. Stigmatised by their communities, many have been forced into prostitution just to survive.

Boko Haram is not alone when it comes to using captured women as sexual slaves or rewards for fighters. ISIS has created a whole industry out of rape and sexual servitude, complete with formal laws regulating the conditions under which a woman can be sold or used. Both are examples of how rape continues to be used as a war crime. Boko Haram’s particular focus on kidnapping women as a way to spread terror may be unprecedented, but it is just one more example of how women and girls have become pawns in their battle for notoriety.

Obama to visit Saudi Arabia for defence talks

US President Barack Obama will talk next week with leaders in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries about agreements on counter-terrorism and bolstering ballistic missile defence systems, a White House official said on Thursday.

Obama will travel to Saudi Arabia with his defence chief Ashton Carter to meet with King Salman on Wednesday and then attend a summit with other leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council on Thursday.

"As you'll hear more coming out of the summit, there’s been agreements reached to increase our cooperation on counter-terrorism, streamlining the transfer of critical defence capabilities to our GCC partners, bolstering GCC ballistic defence ... systems, and defending against the cyber threat," said Rob Malley, a senior adviser to Obama on the Middle East.

"On all of those, I think you'll see progress has been made, there's been much deeper cooperation between us and the GCC," Malley told reporters on a conference call.

Obama plans to discuss the fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Saudi-led conflict in Yemen, and Iran and regional stability issues, said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser.

The president also wants to hear about ideas from King Salman and other leaders for dealing with economic issues, given the sharp drop in oil prices, Malley said.

Obama then will travel to London to meet British Prime Minister David Cameron and to Hanover for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, where ISIL - also known as ISIS - and counter-terrorism cooperation also will be on the agenda, the White House said.

Obama plans to also discuss Afghanistan and Russian moves in Ukraine with Cameron and Merkel, the White House officials said.