Stand-off as homes evacuated over 'hazardous items' in Northolt

Armed police are in a stand-off with a man who has reportedly barricaded himself inside a property and could have "hazardous items".

About 80 people have been evacuated from their homes following the alert in Wood End Lane, Northolt, north-west London.

Police negotiators are also at the scene and a 400-metre wide cordon has been put up around the property.

Officers said they are treating seriously reports that the items could be dangerous and that the man has tried to prevent access to the address.

Police were called to the site just before 1am this morning after fears were raised for the man inside and possibly hazardous items there.

Image Caption:Police dog handlers have been called in as part of the operation in Northolt

Officers have not attempted to get into the property amid concerns for their safety as well as his.

Local residents have been temporarily re-housed, also for safety reasons.

Detectives said there was no suggestion that the incident was terror-related and was not part of an ongoing police operation.

The Met said in a statement: "At this stage, police believe there is one man inside the address.

Image Caption:A number of police vehicles are in the affected area

"Whilst it is not known what the man has inside the property, police are treating seriously reports that the items could be dangerous.

"And that attempts have been made by the man to prevent access to the address."

It added: "Police would like to thank those local residents directly affected for their cooperation and patience.

Image Caption:Wood End Lane in Northolt. Pic: File

"Local officers are on duty around the area of Wood End Lane to talk to the local community and address any concerns that they may have.

"The priority of the Metropolitan Police Service is to bring this incident to a safe conclusion."

Syrian army responsible for third chlorine gas attack, says UN inquiry

A United Nations inquiry has found Syrian government forces responsible for another toxic gas attack, this time in Syria's Idlib province in March 2015.

It is the third gas attack so far that the inquiry by the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the global chemical weapons watchdog, has blamed on President Bashar al Assad's forces.

In a confidential report, submitted to the UN Security Council, the inquiry said military helicopters were used to drop barrel bombs on Idlib, which released toxic chlorine gas.

The use of chlorine as a weapon is banned under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in 2013.

If inhaled, chlorine gas can kill by burning the victim's lungs and drowning them in the resulting body fluids.

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The finding sets the stage for a showdown in the UN Security Council between Russia and western council members over how to respond.

The report said the names of the individuals who had command and control of the helicopter squadrons at the time could not be confirmed, but said those responsible "must be held accountable".

In an earlier report by the inquiry, President Assad's forces were blamed for chlorine attacks in Talmenes on 21 April, 2014 and in Sarmin on 16 March, 2015.

It also said Islamic State militants had used sulfur mustard gas.

Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons under a deal brokered by Moscow and Washington in 2013.

The deal was backed by the UN Security Council, which passed a resolution saying that in the event of non-compliance, "including unauthorised transfer of chemical weapons, or any use of chemical weapons by anyone" in Syria, it would impose measures under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter.

Chapter 7 deals with sanctions and the authorisation of military force by the Security Council.

However, the Council would need to pass another resolution to impose any sanctions on people or entities found to be linked to the attacks.

Donald Trump takes rare swipe at Michelle Obama

Donald Trump has taken a rare swipe at Michelle Obama, accusing her of criticising his rival Hillary Clinton.

The presidential candidate has avoided directly hitting out at the first lady for much of the race.

But at a campaign rally in North Carolina, Mr Trump had a change of heart.

He accused Mrs Obama of attacking his rival during the 2008 primaries.

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He said she was alluding to Mrs Clinton when she said that if you "can't run your own house," you can't run the White House.

Although the first lady did make that comment, the White House has vehemently denied that it was a reference to the Clintons, instead insisting it was about their own attempts to balance family and politics. 

Mr Trump also complained that "all she (Michelle Obama) wants to do is campaign".

Mrs Obama has slammed Mr Trump both indirectly and directly on multiple occasions during the presidential campaign. 

In an emotional speech which went viral last week, she addressed the now infamous footage in which the Republican nominee brags about women letting him kiss and grope them because he is famous. 

Mrs Obama, speaking at a Mrs Clinton rally in New Hampshire, said Mr Trump's "obscene" comments had shaken her "to my core".

She continued: "This was a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behaviour."

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The first lady also hit out at Trump's refusal to say whether he will accept the outcome of the election if Mrs Clinton wins. 

She said his comments threatened "the very idea of America itself".

Mrs Clinton echoed the first lady's words at a rally in Cleveland on Friday, saying Mr Trump is "threatening our democracy".

She said the "peaceful transition of power is one of the things that sets us apart", adding that America knows the "difference between leadership and dictatorship".

Both candidates were back on the campaign trail on Friday, a day after they traded insults at a charity dinner in New York. 

Cyber attacks hit Twitter, Netflix and Spotify

Major internet services including Twitter, Neflix and Spotify have been affected by a series of cyber attacks, which have taken large portions of the internet offline.

Top US security agencies including the US Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are investigating the repeated attacks, which made dozens of sites inaccessible to millions of users in the US and elsewhere on Friday.

The discussion site Reddit, hospitality booking service Airbnb, the money transfer service PayPal and news sites including CNN, The Guardian and The New York Times also reported disruption.

The attacks targeted the little known internet infrastructure company, Dyn, which provides crucial services to all the affected sites.

Dyn routes and manages internet traffic. Put simply, it serves as a gateway for people to access thousands of websites.

The company said it had resolved one attack launched yesterday morning, which disrupted operations for about two hours. A second a few hours later was causing further disruptions.

"Our engineers are continuing to investigate and mitigate several attacks aimed against the Dyn Managed DNS infrastructure," Dyn said on its website.

The disruptions expose worrying vulnerabilities in the overall network at a time of unprecedented fears about the cyber threat in the United States. 

In recent months hackers have reportedly breached both political organisations and election agencies.

Dozens killed as passenger train derails in Cameroon

At least 55 people have been killed and almost 600 injured after a packed passenger train derailed in Cameroon.

Passengers in the front of the train reported seeing the carriages behind swing off the tracks moments before the crash.

"There was a loud noise. I looked back and the wagons behind us left the rails and started rolling over and over. There was a lot of smoke," said a Reuters journalist travelling in a wagon near the front of the train.

Image Caption:The cause of the crash is not yet clear

At least 14 people are still feared to be trapped under the debris of the train, which is strewn across adjacent rail tracks.

The accident occurred around 120km (75 miles) west of the capital Yaounde while the Camrail inter-city train was en route to the port city of Douala, Cameroon's transport minister Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo'o said.

Image Caption:At least 55 people are feared dead after the crash

"The cause of the accident is not yet clear," he said, adding that several of the injured were in very serious condition.

"There are the bodies of women, children. There are many," said one employee of Camrail, which is operated by France's Bollore, adding that three of his colleagues were among the victims.

The train is said to have been crammed with people due to road traffic disruption between Yaounde and Douala.

Image Caption:The train was crammed with people due to road traffic disruption

According to the Reuters journalist at the scene, a rail employee said additional carriages had been added to the train to accommodate people who were unable to made the journey by road.

It is unclear, however, whether that played a role in the accident.

Camrail has expressed its condolences to the victims' families in a post on Facebook.

South Africa 'to withdraw from war crimes court'

South Africa has formally begun the process of withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC), media reports say.

They say diplomats have notified the UN of the move, accusing the ICC of bias against African countries.

Last year, South Africa refused to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the ICC on charges of genocide and war crimes.

He was attending an African Union summit in Johannesburg.

Mr Bashir denies allegations he committed atrocities in Sudan's troubled western Darfur region.

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Several media outlets say they have obtained a copy of the "Instrument of Withdrawal", signed by South Africa's foreign minister.

"The Republic of South Africa has found that its obligations with respect to the peaceful resolution of conflicts at times are incompatible with the interpretation given by the International Criminal Court," the document says.

Neither South Africa nor the UN have officially confirmed the media reports.

There are also conflicting legal opinions as to whether South Africa can leave the ICC without parliamentary approval.

'Runaway train'

Human Rights Watch criticised the reported move.

"South Africa's proposed withdrawal from the International Criminal Court shows startling disregard for justice from a country long seen as a global leader on accountability for victims of the gravest crimes," said Dewa Mavhinga, the NGO's Africa division senior researcher. 

"It's important both for South Africa and the region that this runaway train be slowed down and South Africa's hard-won legacy of standing with victims of mass atrocities be restored," Mr Mavhinga said.

Last year, South African warned it might leave the ICC.

The reported move to leave comes a week after the South African President Jacob Zuma visited Kenya, a country that has been highly critical of the ICC ever since the prosecutor charged its President Uhuru Kenyatta with crimes against humanity. 

He denied the charges, and the trial later collapsed due to lack of evidence. 

Two weeks ago Burundi became the first country to express its intent to pull out of the ICC - a decision described by the court as "a setback in the fight against impunity".

Previously, the African Union has urged member states not to co-operate with the ICC, accusing it of bias against Africa.

The 124-member ICC opened in 2002. It is the first legal body with permanent international jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

US election: Clinton and Trump trade barbs at Al Smith dinner

White House rivals Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have poked fun at each other at a charity dinner, a day after their bitter duel on the debate stage.

She laughed as Mr Trump joked about her well-paid speeches and the FBI investigation into her private email.

But he was booed when he joked that she hated Catholics.

The annual Alfred E Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York is a white-tie gala that every four years features the presidential candidates.

There is a tradition that the rivals stand up and make jokes about each other, but this year it comes after one of the most rancorous campaigns in memory.

On Wednesday night in Las Vegas at their final debate, Mr Trump called his Democratic rival a "nasty woman" and they both interrupted each other throughout. They refused to shake hands before or after.

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His nickname for her is "Crooked Hillary" and he has threatened to appoint a special prosecutor to have her jailed if he becomes president.

Mrs Clinton has said her Republican rival is running a "hateful, divisive campaign" and is unfit to take the highest office.

But at the New York event, they briefly put their differences aside and sat just one seat apart, with Cardinal Timothy Dolan between them.

When they entered and took their seats, they did not shake hands or make eye contact, but when Mr Trump stood up to speak, he gave her a friendly double-pat on her shoulder.

He joked that this crowd - of about 1,500 people - was her biggest audience yet, and in a dig at her Wall St connections, he said it would be unusual for her to be with so many corporate leaders and not get paid.

But when he said she was so corrupt she got booted off the Watergate commission, boos rang out.

And they resurfaced when, in a reference to emails hacked within her campaign team, he said she was "pretending not to hate Catholics". It was one of the few occasions when the smile left Mrs Clinton's face.

Perhaps his best line was when he referred in jest to his wife Melania's plagiarised speech in July, which borrowed from First Lady Michelle Obama.

Then Mrs Clinton stood up and had her chance. "We'll either have the first female president or the first president who started a Twitter war with Cher," she said.

Instead of seeing the Statue of Liberty being a beacon of hope, Mr Trump rates her looks as a "four" or "maybe a five" if she loses the torch and tablet, and changes her hair, Mrs Clinton joked.

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Some of her jokes...

"I've had to listen to Donald Trump for three full debates… I have now stood next to Donald Trump longer than any of his campaign managers."

"After listening to your speech, I will enjoy hearing [his running mate] Mike Pence deny that you ever gave it."

"I'm so flattered Donald thought I used some kind of performance enhancer [before the debate]. I did. It's called preparation"

And his...

"Last night, I called Hillary a nasty woman, but this stuff is all relative. After listening to Hillary rattle on and on and on, I don't think so badly of Rosie O'Donnell anymore."

"Now I'm told Hillary went to confession before tonight's event, but the priest was having a hard time when he asked her about her sins, and she said she couldn't remember 39 times."

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