N Korea Vows To Turn South Into 'Sea Of Fire'

North Korea has said it will turn the South into a "pile of ashes" after moves by the US and Seoul to deploy a missile defence system on the peninsula. 

Pyongyang said it would make a "physical response" following the deployment of the advanced THAAD missile defence system.

The US and South Korea said the anti-missile system will be used to counter North Korea's growing nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.

The announcement was the latest move by the allies against the North, which conducted its fourth nuclear test this year.

The North has also launched a long-range rocket, resulting in tough new UN sanctions.

"There will be physical response measures from us as soon as the location and time that the invasionary tool for US world supremacy, THAAD, will be brought into South Korea are confirmed," the North's military said in a statement.

"It is the unwavering will of our army to deal a ruthless retaliatory strike and turn (the South) into a sea of fire and a pile of ashes the moment we have an order to carry it out," the statement carried by the official KCNA news agency said.

The North frequently threatens to attack the South and US interests in Asia and the Pacific.

South Korea's Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun warned the North not to take "rash and foolish action".

Otherwise, he said, it would face "decisive and strong punishment from our military."

The move to deploy the THAAD system came after the US blacklisted leader North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un for human rights abuses.

North Korea called the blacklisting "a declaration of war" and vowed a tough response.

Pyongyang said it had notified America that it would sever the only channel of diplomatic communication between them.

It will handle all matters, including any discussions about two Americans it has detained, under wartime laws, it said.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said the THAAD system was not intended to target any third country.

He said it was purely aimed at countering the threat from the North, in an apparent message to Beijing.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that THAAD exceeded the security needs of the Korean peninsula.

He suggested there was a "conspiracy behind this move."

Banksy Murals Destroyed By Aussie Builders

Australian builders have destroyed three murals by the renowned street artist Banksy.

It is not the first time that artwork by the British artist has been wrecked by construction workers in the city of Melbourne.

In the latest incident, three rat stencils around a doorway were drilled out and dumped in a skip during renovation work.

The rat murals were found dumped in a skip. Pic: Meyer Eidelson

Meyer Eidelson, the owner of Melbourne Walks, said on his Facebook page: "Australia's largest remaining group of Banksy street art stencils was recently destroyed.

"A new doorway in ACDC lane destroyed the three iconic works even though their location was well known to the Melbourne arts community.

"The rubble was mindlessly loaded into a skip."

Mr Eidelson said two more Banksy stencils nearby were destroyed in 2014.

The rat murals were part of the street art on this Melbourne doorway. Pic: Meyer Eidelson 

"I should have seen it coming," he said. 

"Since 1992 we have been fighting to promote the city's heritage but we are losing. The people have lost control over their own city.

"The fabulous old city that tells the Melbourne story, the city that the visitors come here to see, is shrinking every year."

A City of Melbourne spokesman said the council had tried to "preserve legal street art murals where possible", but added that "the very nature of street art is that it is temporary, ephemeral and forever changing".

"Melbourne is the street art capital of Australia and we see this art as vital to the city's vibrancy," she said.

In 2012 an image of a parachuting rat on a shop in Greville Street in Melbourne was destroyed when builders knocked a hole in a wall to install a bathroom pipe.

And the following year, a stencil of another rat and an image of a girl hugging a bomb were painted over on the walls of a church in the city.

There have been other examples of Banksy murals being destroyed elsewhere. 

In 2014 a council in Essex painted over a piece of his work because it decided it was racist, and the previous year, a work in central London was removed after the deputy mayor said keeping it would be seen as condoning graffiti.

Banksy's real identity is still unknown, but he - or she - has become one of the world's most recognised artists, and pieces of his work have sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds. 

Leadsom Pulls Out Of Race To Be Prime Minister

Andrea Leadsom has pulled out of the race to be the next Conservative leader and Prime Minister.

Speaking outside her home in central London, the energy minister said a nine-week leadership campaign to succeed David Cameron at such a critical time for the UK would be "highly undesirable".

The shock move leaves Theresa May as the only candidate - potentially clearing the way for her to be named Tory leader and PM as early as today.

Mrs Leadsom said Mrs May was ideally placed to implement a British exit from the European Union and offered the Home Secretary her full support.

However, it is not clear whether party rules would require the backbench 1922 Committee to seek another contender to appear on the ballot paper alongside Mrs May for a planned vote of 150,000 Conservative members.

Graham Brady, the chairman of the committee, will make a statement about the contest shortly.

Mrs Leadsom's statement a little more than an hour after Mrs May launched her national campaign with a speech in Birmingham.

Mrs May sought to present herself as the candidate of unity and experience, with the support of an "overwhelming" majority of Conservative MPs.

She finished top in the MPs' ballot last week with 199 votes to Mrs Leadsom's 84.

Mrs Leadsom's leadership bid got off to a disastrous start when she was forced to apologise to Mrs May after appearing to suggest being a mother gave her an edge over the childless Home Secretary as a future PM.

'Fed Up' Commuters To Protest Over Train Cuts

Commuters are to stage a demonstration today as a reduced timetable on the troubled Southern Railway franchise comes into effect.

A total of 341 trains will be cut each day for a month amid a continued shortage of staff and threat of industrial action which have caused misery for passengers for weeks.

As Southern passengers prepare to stage a protest at London's Victoria Station later, more than 12,000 people have signed a petition for the franchise to be removed from the company.

One of the organisers of the protest, Alex Prosser-Snelling, said: "We aren't people who protest normally, but everyone's fed up of the service.

"Southern mismanagement is needlessly wrecking passengers' evenings, interfering with childcare, and stressing out the workforce. Southern needs to get a grip - and if they can't or won't, the Government shouldn't let them run a railway."

Southern passengers have complained about not getting home from work to see their children because services have been so unreliable and some claim they have lost their jobs.

Southern, owned by Govia Thameslink Railway, blames high levels of staff sickness as well as industrial action by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union in a dispute over the role of conductors.

The union has offered to suspend industrial action for three months if the company pulls back from implementing the changes from 21 August.

The rail industry and the Government have offered support to Southern over its plans to switch responsibility for closing train doors from conductors to drivers.

Paul Plummer, Rail Delivery Group chief executive, said: "We're sorry when passengers are disrupted. Southern's temporary revised timetable should mean more reliable services overall and will help customers plan their journeys
better, with more certainty about which trains will run."

But Mick Cash, general secretary of the RMT, said: "The axing of nearly 350 trains a day by GTR is a crisis measure designed to rig their appalling performance figures.

"The fewer trains you run, the fewer will be delayed and the better your headline performance statistics will look. That is a fix of epic proportions and the public will not be fooled by this chicanery."

Eagle To Vow To Save Labour In Leadership Bid

Angela Eagle will today formally launch a leadership contest as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn vows to fight any challenge.

Promising to save the Labour Party, Ms Eagle will say: "I stand for hope not grievance. I stand for equality, for social justice, for social mobility.

"I am a practical socialist driven by a strong set of values who wants to get things done."

She will be introduced at her launch by Labour's former interim leader, Harriet Harman, who will declare: "Angela is all about Labour's team winning for working people.

"And it's long overdue for Labour, the party of Equality, to have its first woman leader.

"This country has voted to leave the EU with people now facing immense insecurity and a rising tide of xenophobia and racism, we need Angela as leader with her sights set firmly on bringing the party together and leading a coherent and determined Opposition which will be a credible party of government.

"The Tories have led the country into a mess. People are suffering. The country is searching for a way forward. The country needs Labour as an alternative government and we need Angela as our leader."

Ms Eagle has the backing of the 51 MPs needed for a formal challenge but it remains unclear whether Mr Corbyn will also have to secure the support of MPs in order to fight the leadership battle.

Mr Corbyn called on the former shadow business secretary, who quit his frontbench team in protest, to "think for a moment" before mounting her challenge.

The veteran left-winger also revealed he had taken "soundings" from lawyers and he expected to be on the ballot as the sitting leader.

Mr Corbyn insisted: "The rules in my view are absolutely clear."

He said he would be prepared to mount a legal challenge if he was left off the leadership slate.

Arguing he had been given a large mandate by Labour members, Mr Corbyn added: "I think we are a party that's going places and doing very well."

The party's National Executive Committee will decide on the rules after a contest is formally triggered.

Al-Shabab fighters attack Somali army base

Shabaab fighters have attacked a Somali army base southwest of the capital, Mogadishu, killing at least 10 soldiers, the group and a military officer told the Reuters news agency.

The attackers rammed a car packed with explosives before storming the base, some 50km outside Mogadishu, on Monday morning.

"A suicide car bomb rammed into the base and then al-Shabab fighters stormed it. At least 10 soldiers died," Major Ahmed Farah told Reuters from the nearby town of Afgooye.

An al-Shabab spokesman told Reuters its fighters were behind the raid, adding that 30 soldiers had been killed in the attack.

The armed group often cites a higher death toll than official figures.

Al-Shabab often launches attacks on Somali security forces, officials and army bases in an effort to topple the government and impose its own brand of government on Somalia.

On Sunday, more than 100 members of al-Shabab raided a police station in northeast Kenya overnight, wounding one officer and making off with arms and ammunition, according to police.

Andrea Leadsom apologises to Theresa May over 'motherhood' remark

Andrea Leadsom has apologised to Theresa May after she was accused of suggesting being a mother made her a better candidate for prime minister.

The energy minister told the Daily Telegraph: "I've already said to Theresa how very sorry I am for any hurt I have caused."

The row broke out after Mrs Leadsom said having children meant she had "a very real stake" in Britain's future.

She later said having children had "no bearing on the ability to be PM".

Tory contender: Andrea Leadsom

Tory contender: Theresa May

Guide to the Conservative leadership race

Mrs Leadsom made her original comments during an interview in the Times, in which she discussed her bid to become the next leader of the Conservative Party, and therefore the UK's next prime minister.

The article quoted Mrs Leadsom as saying Mrs May, the home secretary who is her opponent in the leadership race, "possibly has nieces, nephews, lots of people.

"But I have children who are going to have children who will directly be part of what happens next".

Mrs Leadsom told the Telegraph motherhood should not play a part in the Tory leadership campaign and added that she deeply regretted "that anyone has got the impression that I think otherwise".

She went on to say the Times article "said completely the opposite of what I said and believe" and that the criticism she faced since left her feeling "under attack, under enormous pressure - it has been shattering".

"I was pressed to say how my children had formed my views. I didn't want it to be used as an issue," she said.

Among those who had criticised Mrs Leadsom over her original comments were business minister Anna Soubry, who said her comments meant she was "not PM material", while Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said there was a "gulf in class" between the two candidates.

Senior MP Sir Alan Duncan said the energy minister's remarks were "vile".

However, Mrs Leadsom's key supporter Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, has said she is facing a "black-ops" campaign by MPs who want to "denigrate her reputation".