Star Trek Actor Anton Yelchin Dies Aged 27

Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in recently released Star Trek films, has died in a car accident at the age of 27.

The actor had risen to prominence with several blockbuster films in recent years - and has a starring role in Star Trek Beyond, which is due to be released in July.

Publicist Jennifer Allen confirmed Yelchin was killed early on Sunday morning.

According to TMZ, the star died in a "freak accident" after getting pinned between his car and a brick mailbox at his home.

Yelchin was discovered after concerned friends visited his home in San Fernando Valley, California, because he had failed to attend a rehearsal hours earlier.

An only child, Yelchin was born in Russia and moved to the US as a baby with his parents, who were professional figure skaters.

Fellow TV and film stars, as well as fans, have paid tribute to Yelchin on Twitter.

British comedian Matt Lucas wrote: "Dreadful news about Anton Yelchin. I thought he was an amazing actor."

Actress Anna Kendrick described Yelchin's death as "unreal" and a "huge loss".

He had begun his acting career when he was just nine years old.

Boy's Head Stuck In Railings Over High Balcony

A three-year-old boy has been rescued by firefighters in China after he got his head stuck in railings and was left dangling from a fourth-floor flat.

The child was playing alone on a balcony when he fell through the security bars.

Rescuers set up cushions on the ground and took turns holding him up to reduce the pressure on his head.

Firefighters then swiftly broke the bars and managed to free the boy in a few minutes.

Miraculously, the child wasn't seriously hurt following the drama at his family's home in Baoji City in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Syrian and Russian planes bombard ISIL-held town

Syrian government and Russian jets have stepped up the bombardment of a town in northern Syria held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, increasing pressure on the fighters, a monitoring group reported.

The warplanes have carried out at least 18 air strikes since dawn on Sunday on the town of Tabqa, just west of Raqqa, Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

The activist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently said on Facebook that at least six people died in the bombing. SOHR, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, said at least one person had died, with many more injured.

The bombing has prompted a mass exodus of locals from the town to safer areas.

Earlier this month, Syrian troops started an offensive aimed at cutting off Raqqa from the Turkish border.

Troops and militiamen, backed by Syrian and Russian warplanes, pushed east from the government outpost of Ithriya, closing in on Tabqa.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by US air strikes, are also pushing towards Tabqa, located near Syria's largest dam, at the southern end of Lake Assad on the Euphrates.

The SDF, an alliance of Kurds and Arabs, are seek to retake the northern Syrian town of Minbij from ISIL as part of their offensive in Raqqa province.

Minbij is strategically important as it controls a supply route from the Turkish border to Raqqa.

Clashes between SDF forces, backed by a US-led air power, and ISIL fighters raged on Sunday on the outskirts of Minbij, the SOHR said. No casualties were reported.

Minbij has been under ISIL control since 2014.

Chelsea Clinton Has Second Child, Son Aidan

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has become a grandmother for the second time.

Chelsea Clinton, 36, announced on Saturday she has given birth to her second child, son Aidan.

She said on Twitter she and her hedge fund manager husband Marc Mezvinsky are "overwhelmed with gratitude and love".

The couple, who live in New York, have a 20-month-old daughter, Charlotte. 

Both Charlotte and Aidan were born at Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital.

Chelsea Clinton is the daughter of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former US President Bill Clinton.

Mezvinsky is the son of two former US members of Congress, Edward Mezvinsky and Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky.

Aidan is the second baby to be born to the child of a presidential candidate this year.

In March, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump became a grandfather again as his daughter Ivanka had her third child, son Theodore James.

William Tells Dads: Be Open About Feelings

The Duke of Cambridge has urged fathers to be more open about their own feelings and talk about mental well-being with their children, as he celebrates his third Father's Day as a parent.

Writing in The Sunday Express, William said: "Today I celebrate my third Father's Day as a father. 

"For me it is a day not just to celebrate how fortunate I am for my young family, but to reflect on just how much I've learned about fatherhood and the issues facing fathers in all walks of life.

"In particular, it is a time to reflect on my responsibility to look after not just the physical health of my two children, but to treat their mental needs as just as important a priority."

William is father to George, two, and Charlotte, one

He called on dads to treat mental problems as seriously as physical illnesses, warning that left unresolved they can "alter the course of a child's life forever".

"While the circumstances of any one situation are unique, it is clear that many families could have been helped if they had found it easier to talk openly about mental health challenges in the home.

"It is often said that fathers can often find it hard to talk about their own feelings so there's no wonder they struggle to speak to their son or daughter about the topic.

But we don't really have a choice. I really believe that a child's mental health is just as important as his or her physical health."

William said a "generational shift" had taken place in attitudes to mental health, allowing a better understanding of things that in the past went unacknowledged.

"A fifth of children will have a mental health issue by their 11th birthday. And left unresolved, those mental health issues can alter the course of a child's life forever.

"So on this Father's Day, I encourage all fathers to take a moment to ask their children how they are doing. Take the opportunity to discuss how you are coping with life and fatherhood with your wife, partner or with your friends.

"And know that if your son or daughter ever needs help, they need their father's guidance and support just as much as they need their mother's."

Video Reveals Boris Supported EU Single Market

Leave campaigner Boris Johnson said in an interview in 2013 that he would vote to stay in the European single market, it has emerged.

Asked by a journalist how he would vote if there was a referendum, Mr Johnson said: "I'd vote to stay in the single market. I'm in favour of the single market."

He added: "I want us to trade freely with our European friends and partners."

The interview contradicts the stance of the former Mayor of London throughout the referendum campaign.

Writing in the Sun on Sunday today, Mr Johnson said: "This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take back control of our democracy from an unelected, undemocratic, unaccountable and unreformed European Union.

"We are working flat out to achieve this. It's a chance to take back control of huge sums of money and to take back control our trade policy. There's a massive opportunity for Britain. We should be full of excitement and hope about what can be achieved."

Meanwhile, David Cameron has warned voters against a "one-way ticket" out of the EU, saying there would be "no turning back" from a Leave vote.

The Prime Minister said the Leave campaign's dismissal of experts warning against Brexit is like ignoring the safety advice of a car mechanic.

"If you were about to get into your family car and drive your family at high speed on a motorway and the mechanic said to you, 'The brakes are faulty, the fuel is leaking, don't get in that car', you would listen to that expert," he said.

"Would you take a risk with your family and get into a faulty car? You wouldn't."

As campaigning in the EU referendum resumes, a poll carried out following the death of MP Jo Cox suggests the Remain campaign has opened up a three-point lead.

The Survation survey for The Mail on Sunday, carried out on 17 June and 18 June, put Remain back in the lead on 45%, three points ahead of Leave on 42%.

BMG telephone poll for The Herald, between 10 and 15 June, put Remain ahead on 46% with Leave on 43%, and 11% undecided or unwilling to say.

However, other opinion polls showed a mixture of results just days before the EU vote.

YouGov for The Sunday Times put Remain on 44%, one point ahead of Leave on 43% in a poll on 16 and 17 June.

ComRes for The Sunday People and The Independent has 44% saying they would be "delighted" with an Out vote compared to just 28% who would feel the same way about In. The poll was done between 15 and 16 June.

Opinium for The Observer, between 14 and 17 June, put the two sides level pegging on 44% - with Leave up two points on last week while Remain was unchanged.

Sky's Senior Political Correspondent Jason Farrell said: "It seems as if, over the course of just a few days, in the wake of Jo Cox's murder, that there has been a shift in mood by the public."

Regarding the YouGov poll, he added: "(YouGov) says that (the results) are not down to a reaction to the killing of Jo Cox but due to a growing concern about the economic effects of Brexit."

The campaigns were suspended following the death of MP Jo Cox on Thursday, a killing that sparked discussion over the increasingly harsh tone of the debate.

With the referendum set for Thursday, Mr Osborne wrote in The Mail on Sunday: "Let's have less inflammatory rhetoric and baseless assertion, and more facts and reasoned argument."

He added that he hoped the campaigning could be conducted in a "less divisive tone".

It comes after London Mayor Sadiq Khan told Sky News that the way politics is conducted in Britain is "poisonous" and must change.

Reflecting on the death of Mrs Cox, Mr Khan said the behaviour of some of her colleagues during the referendum campaign was "not decent".

MPs have been backing a plan to break with the usual political divisions in the House of Commons and sit together, in tribute to Mrs Cox, when Parliament reconvenes on Monday.

::  Time To Decide: A special programme on the eve of the EU Referendum with Dermot Murnaghan on Wednesday from 10pm

:: In or Out: Get all the results and reaction from the EU Referendum from 9.30pm on Thursday 

Thousands protest US presence in Japan's Okinawa island

Tens of thousands of demonstrators have rallied on the Japanese island of Okinawa, protesting against the heavy US military presence and violent crimes by American personnel there.

Gathered on Sunday afternoon, protesters expressed their frustrations with the US after a former Marine employed as a civilian base worker allegedly raped and murdered a 20-year-old local woman in April. 

The case has intensified long-standing opposition to the military bases, a key part of the US-Japan security alliance, on the island popular with tourists.

Al Jazeera's Rob McBride, reporting from Okinawa, said the US has been acting in a sensitive manner to the current mood on the island.

"Washington quickly announced a one-month period of mourning on all their bases following the killing of the young woman," he said.

"The US insists this death should not drive a wedge between them and the people of Okinawa. But many here believe there will always be tensions while US forces remain."

The rally also called for the scrapping of plans by Washington and Tokyo to move a major US Marine facility in the centre of the island to pristine waters off the northern coast.

Okinawa's governor, Takeshi Onaga, who was expected to attend the rally, opposes the plan and instead wants Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, which sits in the middle of a crowded city, to be moved off the island altogether.

He has revoked approval for work on the facility, in a setback to the plan, despite the fact that Washington and Tokyo vow to push forward.

The roots of the presence goes back to the end of World War II when Okinawa was the site of a battle between Japan and the US, followed by a 27-year US occupation.    

High-profile crimes have sparked large-scale protest rallies before on Okinawa, now considered a strategic linchpin supporting the US-Japan alliance, but where pacifist sentiment runs high.

In 1995, tens of thousands rallied following the rape by three American personnel of a 12-year-old girl. The protests prompted Washington to pledge to reduce the US footprint on the fortified island.

Nearly 100,000 people joined a protest in 2010 against the construction of the new base off the northern coast.

US officials have grown increasingly concerned that the behaviour of its troops on the island could jeopardise support among Japanese for the security relationship.

Washington have imposed restrictions including on off-base alcohol consumption after an intoxicated sailor injured two locals while driving this month.