Carmakers Nissan and Jaguar demand duty guarantees after Brexit

Britain's two biggest carmakers are demanding guarantees from the Government over the impact from Brexit on their businesses before they commit to future investment.

Nissan, whose Sunderland's car plant is Britain's biggest, wants the UK to pledge compensation for any tax barriers that may be raised as a result of leaving the European Union.

Boss Carlos Ghosn said it could not afford to "wait until the end of Brexit" for a deal.

His counterpart at Jaguar Land Rover, Dr Ralf Speth, responded by saying his company would have to "realign its thinking" on investment if Nissan was to get any kind of compensation - insisting there should be a level playing field.

He also told the Reuters news agency there had been signs of a backlash in Europe, the firm's largest market, after the EU vote with some continental customers no longer wanting to buy British cars.

Image Caption:A Nissan production line in Sunderland

The pair spoke up amid warnings from Britain's car industry body that investment was being hit by uncertainty following the Leave vote. 

The Sunderland plant is Nissan's biggest factory in Europe, with a capacity of 500,000 vehicles a year.

It represents around a third of Britain's total car output.

The plant's 6,700 workers turn out Juke, Qashqai and Leaf models, many of them for export to the continent.

Nissan is due to decide early next year on where to build its next Qashqai vehicle.

There are fears among carmakers that Britain could be heading towards a "hard Brexit" which would leave them paying tariffs to export UK-made cars to Europe.Mr Ghosn told reporters at the Paris motor show: "If I need to make an investment in the next few months and I can't wait until the end of Brexit, then I have to make a deal with the UK Government.

"You can have commitments of compensation in case you have something negative.

"If there are tax barriers being established on cars, you have to have a commitment for carmakers who export to Europe that there is some kind of compensation.

"If these kinds of principles are accepted we can go ahead because it will neutralise some of our concerns."

Sunderland voted overwhelmingly to leave the European Union in the 23 June referendum, with 61% or 82,394 of 134,400 voting out.

Another Japanese carmaker with production facilities in the UK, Toyota, has also raised concerns. 

It said the imposition of duties as part of a Brexit deal would make running its Derbyshire plant "very, very tough".

Dr Speth insisted Jaguar Land Rover stood to potentially lose more if Brexit meant tariffs went up.

"We are the only car manufacturer in the UK to do all the work in terms of research, design, engineering, production planning in the UK," he said.

Man admits killing 19 people after row with parents over money

A man has confessed to killing 19 people in one village after an argument with his parents over money.

The Xinhua news agency, quoting police, said Yang Qingpei first murdered his mother and father, then went on a killing spree of their neighbours to prevent them reporting his crime.

A list of the victims' names circulating online showed they included 11 males and eight females, with the youngest a three-year-old girl and the oldest 72.

Four names were minors under 18.

The mass killing took place in the village of Yema in China's mountainous Yunnan Province. Yunnan police said 27-year-old Yang was arrested more than 120 miles away in the provincial capital of Kunming after 33 hours of "arduous investigation".

But video footage circulating online reportedly from Yema itself showed police and heavily armed officers walking the streets and a young man in jeans handcuffed on the ground. 

A working group has been sent to the scene of the murders by the Ministry of Public Security to oversee the case.

WW2 bomb blown up off Portsmouth is damp squib

A World War Two bomb dragged out of Portsmouth Harbour to be blasted apart by the navy has turned out to be a damp squib.

The whole of Gunwharf Quays shopping and leisure complex and the seafront near the device was evacuated in the expectation of a massive explosion that would send a huge plume of seawater into the air.

The Royal Navy blew up the 1,100lb (500kg) bomb at 7am this morning - but not a ripple was detected on the water's surface.

It left the confused navy crew bobbing in a rigid inflatable craft just over a mile to the east of the Isle of Wight, not knowing whether their efforts had worked.

Princess Charlotte takes Royal duties in her stride

Princess Charlotte has taken her first official engagement in her stride in Canada, as she was seen walking in public for the first time.

The little 16-month-old was joined by big brother Prince George, who is three, at a garden party held at Governor House in Victoria.

The Royal children have been staying there with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, with their nanny looking after them while their parents travel around British Columbia and the Yukon on the rest of the Royal tour.

After being carried down some steps into the garden party Princess Charlotte was keen for her mother to put her down, and soon ran off towards a large arch made from balloons, beaming back at her mother.

Prince George also joined his little sister, hitting the balloons in a more boisterous way.

There was plenty of proof that William and Kate are hands on parents.

Ex-UN boss Kofi Annan: Proxy wars in fight 'until last Syrian life'

Russia has said it will press on with its bombing campaign in Syria, as the United Nations pleaded for medical evacuations from war-ravaged Aleppo.

The developments came as former UN secretary general Kofi Annan told Sky News that "proxy wars" in Syria could prolong the five-year-old conflict.

Moscow is supporting a ferocious assault by the forces of Syrian President Bashar al Assad on the rebel-held eastern part of the city.

There have been calls for it to stop bombing Aleppo and join efforts to restore the shattered truce.

But the calls were rejected by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who blamed the US for the latest surge in violence.

He said Russia would "continue the operation of its air force in support of the anti-terrorist activity of Syria's armed forces".

US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have condemned the Russian and Syrian airstrikes as "barbarous", according to the White House.

Sudan used chemical weapons in Darfur attacks, claims Amnesty

Sudan has been accused of using chemical weapons in at least 30 attacks on villages in the country's Darfur region.

Human rights group Amnesty International posted video and pictures on its social media sites which it says show children with injuries caused by chemical attacks.

It says they show youngsters gasping for breath after an attack, and with blisters on their skin.

Up to 250 people may have died - many of them children - as a result of the weapons banned by an international agreement that Sudan is a signatory to, according to the group's research.

Image Caption:A child who Amnesty International says was affected by chemical weapons

The most recent attack is said to have taken place on 9 September.

Sudan has denied using chemical weapons.

The attacks are alleged to have taken place in the Jebel Marra area of Darfur, where the Sudanese government has been battling rebels in a civil war.

Image Caption:Fragments of an alleged bomb said to have contained chemical weapons. Pic: Amnesty

Human rights groups say the region has been the scene of ethnic cleansing by groups loyal to the Arab-controlled Sudanese authorities.

Amnesty says more than 170 villages have been destroyed or damaged by the "Sudanese authorities and irregular groups working in concert with them" since the start of 2016.

Chemical weapons are thought to have been used in at least 30 of these.

Amnesty says its research is based on satellite images, expert photo analysis and 200 telephone interviews with survivors.

Images in a video on its YouTube page show villages it says were heavily bombed.

Image Caption:Attacks are said to have destroyed much of the village of Karmal. Pic: Amnesty

Image Caption:A satellite picture of Karmal shows the village before the alleged attacks. Pic: Amnesty

Dr Keith Ward, a chemical weapons expert, says in the video: "We are certain that the kind of injuries seen and the explanations for what people saw at the source of the attack, could not be explained simply by the explosive effects of either conventional or incendiary munitions."

Amnesty's director of crisis research, Tirana Hassan, calls it "a true violation of international norms. It is a war crime".

The civil war has raged since 2003 when rebel groups took up arms in response to what they saw as an attempt to oppress the non-Arab population.

The UN estimates 300,000 people have died in the conflict and 2.7 million have fled their homes.

The Sudanese ambassador to the UN, Omer Dahab Fadl Mohamed, said the claims were "utterly unfounded" and that Sudan does not possess chemical weapons.

He said: "The allegations of use of chemical weapons by Sudanese Armed Forces is baseless and fabricated.

"The ultimate objective of such wild accusation is to steer confusion in the ongoing processes aimed at deepening peace and stability and enhancing economic development and social cohesion in Sudan."

North Korean soldier crosses demilitarized zone to defect to South

A North Korean soldier has defected to South Korea by walking through the heavily mined military border zone.

The soldier was unarmed and is being questioned over how and why he made the crossing, the South's military said.

Around 1,000 North Koreans defect to the South every year through China, but the soldier took the unusual step of traversing directly across the fortified eastern border.

The Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) is a strip of land 160 miles long and around 2.5 miles wide running across the Korean Peninsula.

Image Caption:A South Korean soldier at an observation post near the DMZ

It was established at the end of the Korean War and acts as a buffer zone between the two countries.

Despite its name, it is heavily mined, lined with barbed wire and has soldiers on both sides.

Military officials said the soldier arrived unharmed and without any exchange of fire.

The defection comes amid heightened tensions in the region since the North conducted its fourth nuclear test at the beginning of the year and followed it with an unprecedented string of missile tests.

This month it carried out its fifth and largest nuclear test in what is seen as an attempt to counter alleged hostility from the United States.

North Korea has been in a nominal state of war with South Korea since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, and there have been several high-profile defections recently that have embarrassed the North.

The most prominent defector was Thae Yong Ho, the North's deputy ambassador to the UK, who became the highest-ranking diplomat to defect to the South when he arrived last month.

In April, 12 North Korean waitresses in a restaurant in China fled to the South along with their manager, and a North Korean teenager taking part in a Hong Kong maths contest in July sought asylum at the South Korean consulate.

In 2014 another North Korean soldier successfully fled after a failed escape attempt over which he was beaten for 15 days.

The man spoke to Sky News about the horrors of life under North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and how he dreamed of one day being reunited with the family he left behind.