Theresa May to trigger Brexit as early as Tuesday - sources

Theresa May is set to trigger Britain's exit from the EU as early as Tuesday next week as Labour peers indicated they were ready to pass her Brexit bill.

A senior Labour source told Sky News there was an "80 to 90% chance" that the EU Notification of Withdrawal Bill would clear the upper chamber by midnight on Monday, paving the way for the Prime Minister to formally trigger Article 50.

On Monday, the House of Commons is expected to vote down two amendments added to the Brexit bill by peers, with the Government insistent that the legislation be passed unamended.

It will then be passed back to the House of Lords, where there is little appetite to challenge the Commons again on the legislation.

:: What happens when Article 50 is triggered?

One Labour peer told Sky News that such a move would be too "politically risky". However, another source cautioned that the way David Davis responded to the amendments in the House of Commons on Monday was crucial.

"If he treats the House of Lords with disrespect, it won't be straightforward," said the source. "If he ignores the Lords' amendments and concerns then the 10% comes into play."

The swift passing of legislation would give the Prime Minister the power to formally trigger Article 50 on Tuesday when she updates MPs on last week's EU Council summit.

However, some European sources remained sceptical that the Prime Minister would go for such a tight timetable, given that she would risk a diplomatic upset by triggering Article 50 immediately before the Dutch elections on Wednesday.

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William Cash, a leading Brexiteer, told Sky News it might be more "tactful" for Mrs May to wait until the actual polling day to trigger Article 50 in order to avoid the appearance of interfering in the Dutch election.

Geert Wilders, the leader of the far right Party for Freedom, has hailed Britain's vote to leave the European Union as a "patriotic spring" during his election campaign, and could try to turn Britain's Article 50 moment to his advantage in the final hours of campaigning.

Downing Street has committed to triggering Article 50 by the end of March but has refused to give a date.

The House of Lords passed the Brexit bill back to the Commons last week with two amendments: one guaranteed the rights of EU citizens to remain in the EU while the second called on the Government to give parliament a "meaningful vote" on the final deal.

However, David Davis, the Brexit secretary, on Saturday warned colleagues not to support either amendment amid rumours that up to 20 Tory MPs could rebel on the second amendment.

:: Brexit - your guide to the jargon

"I will be asking MPs to send the legislation back to the House of Lords in its original form so that we can start building a global Britain and a strong new partnership with the EU," said Mr Davis.

"By a majority of four to one, MPs passed straightforward legislation allowing the Government to move ahead with no strings attached."

Meanwhile, European leaders are also preparing for formal Brexit negotiations to begin within days and have pencilled in a gathering to respond to Britain's formal letter of notification.

Enda Kenny, Ireland's prime minister, told reporters the EU 27 had provisionally set a meeting in early April to agree a framework for exit talks.

He said: "The next meeting is to be on 6 April, provided that the (British) prime minister (Theresa May) moves Article 50, I think by 15 March.

"There will be a response immediately from the European Council, and there will be guidelines issued by the European Council within 48 hours. And the European Council meeting to adopt those guidelines will be on 6 April."

On Friday, Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, and Baroness Smith, shadow leader of the House of Lords, wrote to the Prime Minister urging her to "reflect and reconsider on the overwhelming case to act" on the two amendments tabled by peers.

Shopping mall in Germany closed over fears of imminent terror attack

A shopping centre in Germany has been ordered to stay closed after a tip-off that a terror attack was planned for today.

The Limbecker Platz centre in the city of Essen, western Germany, was shut on Saturday morning as more than 100 police officers, many of them armed, searched the complex.

The mall, which is one of the biggest in the region and can attract up to 60,000 shoppers on Saturdays, will remain closed all day and the nearest underground station has also been shut.

A police spokesman said: "We received during the course of yesterday some very serious indications from security circles that an attack was planned for today and would be carried out, so we were forced to take these measures."

Separately, police said in a statement: "The shopping centre will be closed all Saturday due to security concerns. The police has concrete information regarding a possible attack."

The nature of the threat has not been revealed by police.

The disruption comes just a few days after several people were injured when a man armed with an axe attacked commuters at Dusseldorf railway station.

The man was arrested and is being questioned but so far police have not said whether the incident was a terror attack

Germany is on high alert after an attack last December on a Christmas market in Berlin when a truck rammed into pedestrians killing 12 people and Islamic State claimed responsibility.

Earlier in 2016 three people were injured in an attack on a Sikh temple in Essen by radicalised German-born Muslim teenagers.

Security officials estimate there are some 10,000 radical Islamists in Germany.

BT agrees to legal separation of Openreach in deal with regulator

The telecoms regulator says BT has agreed to a "legal separation" of its Openreach division, in a move aimed at addressing competition concerns.

Ofcom said the deal - which stops short of a full split - meant the company's infrastructure unit will become a "distinct, legally separate company with its own board, within the BT Group".

It goes some way to addressing the demands of BT's rivals, including Sky PLC - the owner of Sky News - which claim Openreach favours BT's own retail business and harms their customers' interests as a result.

They had called for a full split on competition grounds.

Openreach builds and maintains the tens of millions of copper and fibre lines that run from telephone exchanges to homes and businesses across the UK.

BT and its competitors rely on these to service their business and domestic customers.

Ofcom, which had demanded the separation in November, said while Openreach would remain part of the BT Group it would have a separate board and brand identity from BT, though its chief executive and chairman would be accountable to BT's boss in some areas.

It expected 32,000 staff to formally transfer to Openreach later this year once consultation processes and pension arrangements had been completed.

The head of Ofcom, Sharon White, warned the watchdog would "carefully monitor" performance once the separation took place.

Muhammad Ali's son detained at US airport for second time

Muhammad Ali's son was detained and questioned at a Washington airport before being allowed to fly home to Florida, his lawyer has revealed.

The incident came after Muhammad Ali Jr met with politicians to talk about a separate airport detention last month.

Mr Ali and his mother, Khalilah Camacho Ali, were stopped at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after returning from Jamaica on 7 February.

They travelled to Washington on Wednesday without incident to speak to members of a congressional subcommittee on border security about that experience.

Attorney Chris Mancini said that when Mr Ali tried to board a JetBlue Airways flight back to Florida that day he was detained for 20 minutes.

Mr Mancini said Mr Ali spoke to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials by telephone and showed his driver's licence and passport before he was allowed to board the plane.

"None of this was happening Wednesday," Mr Mancini said in a telephone interview on Friday as he was travelling with the family.

"Going to Washington obviously opened up a can of worms at DHS."

Florida Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was on the same flight, posted a photo on Twitter with Mr Ali after he was allowed to board and wrote: "On way home on DOMESTIC FLIGHT Muhammad Ali Jr. detained AGAIN ... Religiously profiling son of 'The Greatest' will not make us safe."

The Alis, both born in the United States, have said in interviews previously that they believe they have been stopped because they are Muslim with Arabic names.

Earlier this week they unveiled a campaign for religious freedom in the spirit of the boxing icon, supported by former boxers Evander Holyfield, Larry Holmes and Roberto Duran among others.

Meanwhile, Maryland has become the latest state to join the legal challenges against President Donald Trump's revised temporary travel ban.

The first order, which temporarily stopped the entry of refugees and travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries, was the subject of more than two dozen lawsuits.

Critics claimed it discriminated against Muslims and violated the US Constitution, while the Trump administration said the measure was necessary to protect the US against terror attacks.

EU leaders prepare for Theresa May to trigger Article 50 within days

European leaders are preparing for formal Brexit negotiations to begin within days should Theresa May trigger Article 50 next week.

EU leaders, meeting in Brussels, were told to prepare for the possibility that Britain could trigger talks as early as next Tuesday, with a formal gathering on 6 April pencilled in to respond to Britain's formal letter of notification.

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny confirmed to reporters that the EU 27 had provisionally agreed a meeting in early April to agree a framework for exit talks.

:: Brexit - your guide to the jargon

"The next meeting is to be on the 6th of April, provided that the [British] Prime Minister [Theresa May] moves Article 50, I think by the 15th of March," he said.

"There will be a response immediately from the European Council, and there will be guidelines issued within 48 hours. And the European Council meeting to adopt those guidelines will be on 6 April."

However, some European sources remained sceptical that the Prime Minister would go for such a tight timetable, given that she would risk a diplomatic upset by triggering Article 50 immediately before the Dutch elections on 15 March.

Meanwhile, in the UK, Mrs May has scheduled a major Commons statement on Tuesday, raising Brexiteers' hopes she might use it to formally trigger Brexit.

:: Jean-Claude Juncker hopes Britain will 're-enter the boat'

David Lidington, the Commons Leader, said the Prime Minister's statement on the EU Council had been moved from Monday to Tuesday - blaming diary commitments.

The EU Notification of Withdrawal Bill will return to the House of Commons on Monday - after its passage through the House of Lords - and could be voted through as early as Monday evening - giving the Prime Minister the opportunity to formally trigger Article 50 on Tuesday.

However, that timetable could only be met if the House of Lords, which last week sent the bill back to the House of Commons with two amendments, decides to allow the bill to pass.

The upper chamber has voted in favour of giving Parliament a "meaningful vote" on the outcome of divorce talks with the European Union.

Peers are also calling for the rights of EU nationals living in the UK to be protected after Article 50 is triggered.

The Government is planning to overturn the two amendments when the bill returns to the House of Commons on Monday, with David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, describing the Lords vote as "disappointing".

"[The article 50 Bill] has a straightforward purpose - to enact the referendum result and allow the Government to get on with negotiating a new partnership with the EU," he said.

On Friday, Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, and Baroness Smith, shadow leader of the House of Lords, wrote to the Prime Minister urging her to "reflect and reconsider on the overwhelming case to act" on the two amendments tabled by peers.

Radar finds spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 which was 'lost' for eight years

India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft which was considered "lost" in 2009 has now been located by a NASA radar.

The cube-shaped Chandrayaan-1, roughly half the size of a Smart car, was discovered orbiting the moon 124 miles above the surface.

The satellite, measuring about 1.5m (5ft) tall on each side, had circled the moon more than 3,400 times since it was successfully launched on 22 October, 2008.

But its mission ended when radio contact was lost on 29 August, 2009. It had been expected to operate for two years and had been experiencing technical problems before contact was lost.

However, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, has located it after trying out new ways to find objects in space.

Due to its relatively small size, the Chandrayaan-1 was an ideal candidate.

Scientists used a new ground radar to locate two spacecraft, including the Chandrayaan-1.

JPL radar scientist Marina Brozovic said: "We have been able to detect NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft in lunar orbit with ground-based radar.

"Finding LRO was relatively easy, as we were working with the mission's navigators and had precise orbit data where it was located.

"Finding India's Chandrayaan-1 required a bit more detective work because the last contact with the spacecraft was in August of 2009."

While interplanetary radar has been used to see small asteroids several million miles from Earth, researchers were not sure if an even smaller object as far away as the Moon could be detected.

Such objects are especially hard to find because the Moon has regions with high gravitational pull that can significantly alter a craft's orbit.

Bus plunges off Nepal mountain road and down 650ft slope killing 26

At least 26 people have died after an overcrowded bus plunged off a mountain road in Nepal, according to officials.

Thirty six more were injured when the bus veered off the road near a village around 250 miles west of Kathmandu, rolling 650ft down a slope before crashing into the Pasagad river.

Villagers helped police and soldiers pull the bodies and the injured from the wreckage after the accident in the district of Jajarkot on Thursday.

Government administrator Krishna Chandra Poudel said rescue helicopters flew 18 people to hospital in Nepalgunj city, near Nepal's southern border.

Another eight people were due to be rescued by helicopter on Friday, but had to wait due to bad weather conditions.

Accidents in Nepal are often blamed on poorly maintained roads - many of which are narrow mountain routes - and vehicles in bad condition.