HMS Daring To Help In Fight Against Islamic State

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has announced that HMS Daring will soon be supporting the military campaign against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.

HMS Daring, which has a crew of 190, will sail from Portsmouth to the Gulf on Friday.

The warship will help protect US aircraft carriers engaged in bombing raids against IS targets and provide information to the headquarters controlling air operations.

As part of the deployment, the Type 45 destroyer will be patrolling some of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

Mr Fallon said: "All three armed services are making a vital contribution to defeating Daesh.

"RAF aircraft are hitting the terrorists daily on the ground; the Army is providing counter-explosives training to Iraq troops; the Royal Navy helps protect coalition carriers in the Gulf as they launch strikes.

"With the biggest defence budget in Europe and the second biggest in Nato, our Armed Forces are making a real difference around the world."

HMS Daring will be performing a similar role to that carried out by HMS Defender earlier in the year.

Her deployment follows a series of engine problems which have hit the Type 45 fleet.

The £1bn destroyers have suffered problems in the Persian Gulf because they were not designed for temperatures in the region.

Gas turbine engines driving the six Type 45s "degraded catastrophically" in very warm seas, First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Philip Jones told the Commons' Defence Committee in July.

Despite a multimillion pound refit, he said the Royal Navy had accepted it would not be able to operate the ships "all the time in every place on every day of the year".

Notting Hill Carnival: Man In Critical Condition After One Of Four Stabbings

Four people have been stabbed at Notting Hill Carnival, with one man fighting for his life in hospital.

Emergency services were called to Wornington Road in Kensington and Chelsea at 4.25pm on Sunday, the day the festival is dedicated to children and families.

A second man was arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.

Minutes later, police were called to another stabbing on Portobello Road, taking one person to hospital.

And less than an hour after that, two men were stabbed on Ladbroke Grove.

They were also taken to hospital.

This @stjohnambulance#NottingHillCarnival treatment centre is so busy they're setting up extra beds #EatDrinkBeSafepic.twitter.com/RliNx40wwq

— London Ambulance (@Ldn_Ambulance) August 28, 2016

The men were among 345 people treated by ambulance workers at the carnival, with 43 of them taken to hospital.

Police said they had arrested 71 people, including two for sex offences, 50 for drugs, 13 for possession of offensive weapons and others for theft and public disorder.

More than a million people were expected to attend the carnival on Sunday.

Notting Hill Carnival: Man In Critical Condition After One Of Four Stabbings

Four people have been stabbed at Notting Hill Carnival, with one man fighting for his life in hospital.

Emergency services were called to Wornington Road in Kensington and Chelsea at 4.25pm on Sunday, the day the festival is dedicated to children and families.

A second man was arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.

Minutes later, police were called to another stabbing on Portobello Road, taking one person to hospital.

And less than an hour after that, two men were stabbed on Ladbroke Grove.

They were also taken to hospital.

This @stjohnambulance#NottingHillCarnival treatment centre is so busy they're setting up extra beds #EatDrinkBeSafepic.twitter.com/RliNx40wwq

— London Ambulance (@Ldn_Ambulance) August 28, 2016

The men were among 345 people treated by ambulance workers at the carnival, with 43 of them taken to hospital.

Police said they had arrested 71 people, including two for sex offences, 50 for drugs, 13 for possession of offensive weapons and others for theft and public disorder.

More than a million people were expected to attend the carnival on Sunday.

Brussels explosion: Bomb blast hits police building

bomb has gone off at the Brussels Institute of Criminology, without causing casualties, Belgian media say.

Shortly before 02:30 local time (00:30 GMT), a car rammed through three fences, RTL Belgium reports.

"One or more" suspects then reportedly detonated a bomb near the laboratories.

Belgium's terror alert level remains at three since bomb attacks on Brussels airport and the city's metro claimed by so-called Islamic State killed 32 people in March.

The institute is located in Neder-Over-Hembeek, a suburb north of Brussels.

It is unclear what happened to the suspects behind the blast.

Italy Prosecutor: Shoddy Renovations May Have Led To Quake Deaths

The prosecutor investigating the aftermath of the Italy earthquake says shoddy cut-price renovations in breach of local building regulations could be partly to blame for the high death toll.

Three medieval towns were flattened by a 6.2-magnitude quake on Wednesday, killing 291 including three Britons.

Now Giuseppe Saieva has warned that property owners who commissioned sub-standard work could be held responsible for contributing to the quake's deadly impact.

He told La Repubblica: "If the buildings had been constructed as they are in Japan they wouldn't have collapsed."

In Amatrice, a small mountain town hit hardest by the quake, the collapsed partition walls of a three-storey villa caught his eye.

He told reporters: "I can only think it was built on the cheap with more sand than cement."

He warned: "If it emerges that individuals cut corners, they will be pursued and those that have made mistakes will pay a price."

Pope Francis has said he plans to visit the area affected soon, to bring the people there the "comfort of faith".

Italy's state museums are donating Sunday's proceeds to the relief and reconstruction efforts.

The nation's rich artistic heritage is being harnessed to help restore some of the notable buildings in the areas affected.

Culture Minster Dario Franceschini urged Italians to "go to a museum in a sign of solidarity with people affected by the earthquake".

It is one of several efforts that have sprung up to help the towns rebuild.

A state funeral took place on Saturday for some of the victims of the quake.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and President Sergio Mattarella were at the service for 35 people from the tiny hillside villages of Arquata and Pescara del Tronto.

Several funerals were held on Friday and a common funeral service for the dead in the hard-hit towns of Amatrice and nearby Accumoli will take place next Wednesday.

Two Airline Pilots Arrested On Alcohol Charge At Glasgow Airport

Two airline pilots have been arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol before a flight in Glasgow.

Concerns were raised before the 9am United Airlines flight took off to New York on Saturday.

Police say the two men, aged 35 and 45, were arrested at the airport and are likely to appear in court on Monday.

The flight eventually took off several hours later with two different pilots and 141 passengers on board.

A spokesman for United Airlines said: "The two pilots have been removed from service and their flying duties.

"We are co-operating with the authorities and will conduct our own investigation as well. The safety of our customers and crew is our highest priority."

A Police Scotland spokesman said the alleged offences were under the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003, Section 93.

This relates to carrying out pilot function or activity while exceeding the prescribed limit of alcohol.

For pilots, it is an offence to exceed nine microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The drink-drive limit in England and Wales is 35 microgrammes per 100 millilitres.

Last month, two Canadian pilots were charged with being drunk as they prepared to fly a passenger jet from Scotland to Toronto.

Jean-Francois Perreault, 39, and Imran Zafar Syed, 37, were arrested on 18 July before they were due to take off on the Air Transat flight from Glasgow Airport.

The men were remanded in custody when they first appeared at Paisley Sheriff Court, having also been charged under section 93 of the same Act.

At a second hearing they were granted bail on condition they surrender their passports.

Germany's Sigmar Gabriel defends middle finger gesture

Germany's economy minister and vice-chancellor has defended flicking the middle finger to a group of right-wing protesters earlier this month.

Sigmar Gabriel, who is Angela Merkel's second-in-command, said his only mistake was not using both hands.

He said his critics should think about what they would do if faced with 12 "young, aggressive, swearing and ready-for-violence Nazis".

Mr Gabriel was confronted by the hecklers in northern Germany. 

They called him a traitor of the people and mentioned his father's Nazi past.

Mr Gabriel has spoken openly of his father Walter, who he says was a supporter of Hitler's Nazi party and denied the Holocaust until his death in 2012.

In a video released on social media of the incident, one of the protesters can be heard shouting: "Your father loved his country. And what are you doing? You're ruining it."

At the time, his political party the Social Democratic Party (SPD) called it an "emotional reaction" and released a statement saying: "Obviously Sigmar Gabriel does not regard that gesture to be an appropriate form of everyday communication, but communication was not possible with bellowing neo-Nazis who were clearly prepared to use violence."