General News

Homeowners on a street in Germany have been told they must foot the bill for their road's construction - even though it's been there for nearly 80 years.

Residents on Auf'm Rott, in suburban Dusseldorf, went to court after city authorities told them pay an average of 10,000 euros ($11,000; £8,400) per household for what looked like a long-established road, Die Welt reports.

The bills included a conversion from the Nazi-era Reichsmark currency into euros for the original road surface, first laid in 1937, which is being dubbed "Hitler asphalt" by the German media. The figures were also adjusted for inflation.

While homeowners were perplexed, a court has now confirmed that they must cough up the cash. It determined that while construction began in the 1930s, the road was only officially completed in 2009 when pavements were added. For the intervening period it was considered to be under development.

In Germany, residents have to pay a "development contribution" to the local authority for things like new roads, cycle paths and street lighting.

According to Die Welt, the council says people weren't required to contribute towards road construction under the Third Reich, so the costs are simply being billed now. The court agreed, saying that the length of time involved doesn't matter. "There is no statute of limitations in relation to the construction work," says Franziska Hoette, a judge at Dusseldorf's Administrative Court.

So, Auf'm Rott's current residents will be shelling out for the "Hitler asphalt", streetlamps dating back to 1956, a sewer from the 1970s, and pavements and greenery added in 2009. But despite taking a sizeable financial hit, the residents appear to have accepted the court's verdict. Spiegel Online reports that they've withdrawn their complaint, saying: "If this is how it is, then this is how it is."

Source: bbc.com

A hot air balloon has caught fire and crashed in the US state of Texas, with all 16 on board confirmed dead, the Texas department of safety says.

The balloon came down in fields near Lockhart, about 30 miles (50km) south of the state capital Austin.

Caldwell County sheriff Daniel Law said the basket of the balloon was on fire when emergency crews arrived.

Videos posted by local media suggest the balloon came down near tall power lines, but the cause is not yet known.

The balloon crashed at about 07:40 (12:40 GMT), officials said.

"It does not appear at this time that there were any survivors of the crash," the sheriff's office said.

It is the deadliest hot air balloon crash in the US.

Local resident Margaret Wylie said she was outside her home when she heard two "pops" which she thought was a gun going off.

"The next thing I knew you saw a big fireball go up. I was just praying that whoever was there got away from the thing in time," she said.

The hot air balloon came down near power lines

The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation. Erik Grosof, an NTSB official at the scene, said only that there had been "a number of fatalities".

He said the balloon was believed to have belonged to the Heart of Texas Balloon Rides, an Austin-based company that offers trips to see the sunrise with champagne.

A Fox News reporter from Lockhart who is at the scene says contact was lost with the balloon about half an hour into a scheduled one-hour flight.

Two years ago, the NTSB called for better regulation of hot air balloon flights in the US, recommending they should be subject to the same oversight as tour planes and helicopters.

"The potential for a high number of fatalities in a single air tour balloon accident is of particular concern if air tour balloon operators continue to conduct operations under less stringent regulations and oversight," it said.

Governor Greg Abbott asked in a statement that "all of Texas to join us in praying for those lost".

Other deadly hot air balloon accidents

May 2013: Three Brazilian tourists killed and more than 20 other people injured as two balloons collided in the central Turkish region of Cappadoccia

February 2013: A hot air balloon caught fire and crashed in Luxor, Egypt, killing 19 foreign tourists

August 2012: Six people died and another 26 were injured when a hot air balloon caught fire and crashed near Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital

January 2012: A hot air balloon struck power lines and exploded near Carterton in New Zealand, before crashing to the ground - all 11 people on board were killed.

October 2009: Four Dutch tourists died in Guangxi, China, after a hot air balloon caught fire and crashed

August 2001: A hot air balloon touched a power line in south-west France, killing six people

Source: bbc.com

Recent attacks in Germany involving asylum-seekers would not change its willingness to take in refugees, Chancellor Angela Merkel has said.

She said the attackers "wanted to undermine our sense of community, our openness and our willingness to help people in need. We firmly reject this".

But she did propose new measures to improve security.

These include information sharing, deciphering web chatter and tackling arms sales on the internet.

What is going on in Germany?

Ansbach attacker: From asylum seeker to IS suicide bomber

What drives individuals to commit mass killings?

Two recent attacks in Bavaria were both by asylum seekers. A suicide bomb attack in Ansbach on Sunday that injured 15 people was carried out by a Syrian who had been denied asylum but given temporary leave to stay.

An axe and knife attack on a train in Wuerzburg on 18 July that wounded five people was carried out by an asylum seeker from Afghanistan.

Both men had claimed allegiance to so-called Islamic State.

The deadliest recent attack - in Munich on 22 July which left nine dead - was carried out by a German teenager of Iranian extraction but was not jihadist-related.

The suicide attacker in Ansbach targeted crowds attending a music festival - he injured 15 people

'We can do this'

Mrs Merkel, who interrupted her summer holiday to hold the news conference in Berlin, said the asylum seekers who had carried out the attacks had "shamed the country that welcomed them".

But she insisted that those fleeing persecution and war had a right to be protected, and Germany would "stick to our principles" in giving shelter to the deserving.

Referring to the attacks that have taken place in France, Belgium, Turkey, the US and elsewhere, she said "taboos of civilisation" had been broken, and they were intended to "spread fear and hatred between cultures and between religions".

But in reference to her famous phrase "Wir schaffen das" or "We can do this" - uttered last year when she agreed to take in a million migrants - Mrs Merkel said: "I am still convinced today that "we can do it".

"It is our historic duty and this is a historic challenge in times of globalisation. We have already achieved very, very much in the last 11 months".

An Afghan asylum-seeker injured five people in an axe attack on this train in Bavaria

Mrs Merkel said that "besides organised terrorist attacks, there will be new threats from perpetrators not known to security personnel".

To counter this, she said: "We need an early alert system so that authorities can see during the asylum request proceedings where there are problems."

Mrs Merkel added: "We will take the necessary measures and ensure security for our citizens. We will take the challenge of integration very seriously."

Seven deadly days

A week of bloody attacks has frayed nerves in Germany, which led the way in accepting asylum seekers from Syria. To date, two of the attacks have been linked to a militant group:

• 18 July: An axe-wielding teenage asylum seeker from Afghanistan is shot dead after injuring five people in an attack on a train. IS claims the attack, releasing a video recorded by the attacker before the incident

• 22 July: A German teenager of Iranian extraction goes on a shooting rampage in the Bavarian state capital, Munich, killing nine people, most of them migrants, before shooting himself. He is said to have been obsessed with school shootings

• 24 July: A Syrian asylum seeker is arrested in the town of Reutlingen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, after allegedly killing a Polish woman with a machete and injuring two other people. Police suggest it was probably a "crime of passion"

• 24 July: A failed Syrian asylum seeker blows himself up outside a music festival in the small Bavarian town of Ansbach, injuring 15 other people.

Germans shaken by violence

German media on the attacks

WATCH: 'We must fight hate with love'

Source; bbc.com

In the last hour police in Munich have said the suspect in the shopping mall shootings is an 18-year-old German-Iranian national. He had been living in Munich for some time and acted alone, before killing himself.

Nine victims are dead, including "adolescents", police say. Twenty people remain injured, including three people who have life-threatening injuries.

Police say "the motive or explanation for this crime is completely unclear".

Earlier, shooting began at about 18:00 (16:00 GMT) on Friday. Witnesses said the attacker opened fire on members of the public in Hanauer Street, near a branch of McDonald's, before he moved to the nearby Olympia shopping centre.

Some 2,300 police officers were deployed and a manhunt was launched, as the Bavarian capital's transport system was suspended and the central railway station was evacuated.

The body of the suspect was found about 1km (0.6 miles) from the Olympia shopping centre in the north-western suburb of Moosach. 

We are now halting our live coverage for the night.  

Please continue to follow the main news story, which can be found here.

Four teenage boys have worn skirts to school in protest at being disciplined for wearing shorts on the hottest day.

The year nine students at Longhill High School in Rottingdean, East Sussex, were among about 20 boys who wore PE shorts instead of trousers on Tuesday.

Some were sent home, and others kept in isolation and excluded the next day.

When the four boys turned up in school skirts on Thursday, head teacher Kate Williams said they could "wear any part of the agreed school uniform".

The mother of 14-year-old Michael Parker, who was one of the group, said three of the boys were initially told to remove the skirts, but all four of them kept them on.

Angela Parker said they wore them to school again earlier, and were joined by a further 10 boys.

The PE shorts worn by the boys on Tuesday were an official part of the uniform, bearing the school logo.

Michael Parker in the school's branded PE shorts (left) and in the school skirt

Pupils who changed out of the shorts and back into trousers were not disciplined.

In a statement on Tuesday, Ms Williams told The Argus: "Students have access to water in order to keep themselves hydrated. We have made reasonable steps to ensure that classrooms are as comfortable as possible.

"I have high standards regarding uniform, and today, in the warm weather conditions, these high standards have been challenged by approximately two percent of parents/students."

Another of the pupils, Kodi Ayling, said he put his trousers back on as he did not want to be excluded from school, but when he wore the skirt, Ms Williams "okayed it and said it was alright".

His father, Wesley Allen, said he hoped the protest would persuade the school to reconsider its school uniform policy.

Longhill High School has now broken up for the summer holidays.

Source: bbc.com

California Governor Jerry Brown has denied parole for Leslie Van Houten, a former follower of Charles Manson, who is serving a life sentence for murder.

A prison board had recommended parole.

However, Governor Brown said her "inability to explain her willing participation in such horrific violence" made him think she was still a risk to society.

Relatives of her victims opposed her release with a petition signed by 140,000 people.

Van Houten has now been denied parole 20 times over the 1969 killings of Leno La Bianca and his wife Rosemary.

Then 19, she held down Rosemary La Bianca while someone else stabbed her and she later admitted she stabbed the woman after she was dead.

Van Houten (right) was found guilty with other Manson Family members at a 1970 trial

"I don't let myself off the hook. I don't find parts in any of this that makes me feel the slightest bit good about myself," she said at her April parole board hearing.

Since her conviction, Van Houten, now 66, completed college degrees and demonstrated exemplary behaviour while in detention.

She was the youngest Manson follower to be convicted of murder.

She has been seen as the most sympathetic of cult leader's followers.

The La Bianca killings came a day after other followers of Charles Manson carried out the grisly murder of actress Sharon Tate and four others.

Prosecutors at the time said he controlled his followers using drugs and other means.

Manson, who directed but did not take part in the murders, thought the killings would start a race war, called "Helter Skelter" after a Beatles song.

Now 81, he remains in prison, as do others of his followers, including Patricia Krenwinkel and Charles Watson.

Source: bbc.com

Police in the German city of Munich say the perpetrators of a shooting attack are still on the run, and they advise people to avoid public places.

There are reports of at least six people killed, but police have not confirmed that figure.

A big security operation is under way at the Olympia shopping centre in the north-western Moosach district.

Shop workers have been unable to leave the building. There is no information about a possible motive for the attack.

The police Facebook page quoted eyewitnesses as saying they had seen three attackers carrying guns.

Police are now describing it as "an acute terror situation".

Public transport has been suspended as the extensive security operation continues. The city's central railway station has been evacuated.

People stranded by the emergency and unable to get home are being offered shelter by locals. The initiative was launched with the Twitter hashtag #Offentür (open door).

Follow the latest developments in our live blog

Police helicopters are flying over the city and special forces are involved in the massive police deployment.

The security forces have been on alert after a teenage migrant stabbed and injured five people on a train in Bavaria on Monday in an attack claimed by so-called Islamic State.

The authorities had warned of the danger of further incidents.

Police have been deployed in large numbers

A man working at a petrol station in Munich told the BBC: "We see just ambulances and it's like firemen and police but all this area is evacuated, all the streets.

"Now [there] are no cars just on the side of the streets. All of the streets are blocked. I see that the people are scared. Everybody are running around."

Munich police said they did not know where "the perpetrators" were. "Look after yourselves and avoid public places".

Source: bbc.com

Roger Ailes, the long-time boss of Fox News, has resigned after a number of female employees accused him of sexual harassment.

The network's parent company, 21st Century Fox, announced his resignation.

The announcement does not mention the sexual harassment allegations, which have now come from multiple Fox presenters.

Executive chairman Rupert Murdoch wrote that Mr Ailes has made a "remarkable contribution" to Fox News.

"We continue our commitment to maintaining a work environment based on trust and respect," Fox executives Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch said in the statement. "We take seriously our responsibility to uphold these traditional, long-standing values of our company."

Analysis: Nick Bryant, BBC News, New York

Roger Ailes has long been viewed one of America's most powerful conservatives. The one-time media consultant to Richard Nixon was the key figure in building the Fox News channel into a ratings, profits and, most important perhaps, political powerhouse.

Prior to his dramatic and embarrassing downfall, Mr Ailes was said to be one of the few employees that Rupert Murdoch actually feared. But it was the media mogul's admiration for his long-time lieutenant and ideological soul-mate that came through in the warm statement released by Fox News Channel's parent company, 21st Century Fox.

"His grasp of policy and his ability to make profoundly important issues accessible to a broader audience stand in stark contrast to the self-serving elitism that characterises far too much of the media," said Rupert Murdoch, in a tribute that did not touch upon the allegations of sexual harassment against the former news chief. Noticeably, it was left to Mr Murdoch's sons, Lachlan and James, to point out that the company is committed "to maintaining a work environment based on trust and respect."

I'm told by a source close to the company that the Murdochs wanted to move quickly, a lesson learnt from the handling of the phone hacking scandal.

It's also measure of the importance that Mr Murdoch attaches to the Fox News channel that he is personally taking over as chairman and acting CEO after losing one of the central figures in his global media empire. What makes Mr Ailes' departure all the more dramatic is that it should happen on the final day of the Republican convention at a time when a deeply divided conservative movement was already in such a state of flux.

Mr Ailes, 76, said he was stepping down because he had become a "distraction".

"I will not allow my presence to become a distraction from the work that must be done every day," Mr Ailes wrote in a letter to Rupert Murdoch.

He has run Fox News since it launched in 1996 and is credited with reshaping the American media and political landscape.

A veteran of Republican political campaigns, he turned the cable news network into a ratings leader and an influential force in the Republican Party.

"Rupert Murdoch is a conservative, but the Republican intensity, the conservative passion including the viciousness toward the Democrats that we now see against Hillary Clinton and has been going on against Obama all these years, all that is Roger Ailes,'' Paul Levinson, communications professor at Fordham University, told the AP news agency.

Less than two weeks ago former presenter Gretchen Carlson sued Mr Ailes for sexual harassment and wrongful termination, claims he denies.

Ms Carlson (right) worked for Fox News for 11 years

With hit shows like Hannity, Fox News is the highest-rated news network in the US

Ms Carlson, who worked for the network for 11 years, alleges that he proposed having a sexual relationship with her and he instructed her to turn around in his office so he could look at her backside.

Mr Ailes also allegedly called her a "man hater" and that she needed to "get along with the boys".

A report in New York magazine, citing anonymous sources, said lawyers for 21st Century Fox gave Mr Ailes a deadline of 1 August to resign or face being fired.

Further allegations surfaced in US media that Mr Ailes sexually harassed another Fox News presenter, Megyn Kelly, about 10 years ago, claims he has also denied.

Source: bbc.com

A Florida policeman shot and wounded an autistic man's unarmed black therapist on Monday, local media reports.

Charles Kinsey, who works with people with disabilities, told WSVN television he was helping a patient who had wandered away from a facility.

Mobile phone video shows Mr Kinsey lying down with his hands in the air, and his patient sitting in the road with a toy truck.

The latest shooting follows weeks of violence involving police.

US police shootings: How many die each year?

Why do US police keep killing black men?

North Miami Assistant Police Chief Neal Cuevas said officers were called out on Monday, following reports of a man threatening to shoot himself.

Police ordered Mr Kinsey and the patient to lie on the ground, he told The Miami Herald.

The video shows Mr Kinsey lying down while trying to get his patient to comply.

'Wow was I wrong'

He can be heard telling officers he has no weapon, and that the other man is autistic and has a toy truck.

An officer then fired three times, striking Kinsey in the leg, Mr Cuevas said. No weapon was found.

Police have not released the name or race of the officer who shot him but said he had been placed on administrative leave.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the incident.

In an interview with the TV station from his hospital bed, Mr Kinsey said he was more worried about his patient than himself during the incident.

"As long as I've got my hands up, they're not going to shoot me. This is what I'm thinking. They're not going to shoot me," he said. "Wow, was I wrong."

Mr Kinsey is a member of the Circle of Brotherhood, a collective of African American men and community activists in south Florida.

"It could be any of us," Lyle Muhammad, a spokesman for the group, told BBC.

"Here's an individual who is going about his daily employment and doing it well, and speaking clearly and following every single instruction he was given, and he still finds himself assaulted."

Worsening relations

Alton Sterling's death, which was caught on mobile phone camera, sparked off widespread protests against police treatment of the black community

The shooting comes amid concern over worsening race relations in the United States.

Mr Muhammad said there was an "inherent fear of black men in this country that allows us to to be gunned down without provocation".

He said he hoped better community policing training would come to the North Miami Police Department as a result of the incident.

Three law enforcement officers were shot dead and three others wounded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Sunday.

The killer was shot by police. It later transpired he had posted videos complaining at police treatment of African Americans and urging them to "fight back".

Two weeks earlier, on 5 July, two white officers in Baton Rouge killed a black man, Alton Sterling, 37.

That shooting, also captured on mobile phone video, provoked widespread protests about police treatment of the black community.

A day later, on 6 July, another black man, 32-year-old Philando Castile, was killed in Minnesota when a police officer pulled him over. The next day, a sniper killed five Dallas police officers as they guarded a peaceful protest.

Source: bbc.com

A former air force commander has denied being a ringleader of Friday's attempted military coup in Turkey.

Gen Akin Ozturk and 26 senior officers were charged with treason and remanded in custody by a court on Monday, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

But in a statement to prosecutors, the general insisted: "I am not the person who planned or led the coup."

Anadolu had earlier quoted him as telling interrogators that he had "acted with intention to stage a coup".

Officials have blamed the unrest, which killed at least 232 people and wounded 1,400, on the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and the "parallel structure" they say he has formed to topple the government.

"I don't know who planned or directed it. According to my experiences, I think that the [Gulen movement] attempted this coup," Gen Ozturk was quoted as telling prosecutors by Anadolu before appearing in court in Ankara.

"But I cannot tell who within the armed forces organised and carried it out. I have no information. I have fought against this structure."

In an interview with the BBC on Monday evening, Mr Gulen called the attempted takeover "treason" and urged the government to produce evidence of his alleged involvement, saying Turkey was no longer really a democracy.

• What you need to know
• 'What's happening to our country?'
• How mobiles beat tanks and saved Erdogan
• Who was behind coup attempt?
• Why did Turkish coup plot fail?

Earlier, the interior ministry dismissed almost 9,000 police officers as part of a purge of officials suspected of involvement in the coup attempt.

That followed the arrest of 6,000 military personnel and suspension of almost 3,000 judges over the weekend.

After a breakfast meeting in Brussels with US Secretary of State John Kerry, European Union foreign ministers warned that Turkey's ambitions to join the bloc would be over if the death penalty was reinstated.

"We need... to have Turkey respect democracy, human rights, and fundamental freedoms," EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said.

Mr Kerry urged the Turkish government to "maintain calm and stability throughout the country", but also cautioned "against a reach that goes well beyond that and stress the importance of the democratic rule being upheld".

But Mr Erdogan refused to rule out executing those convicted of treason if the death penalty were to be restored by parliament.

"Why should I keep them and feed them in prisons, for years to come?' - that's what the people say," he told CNN.

"They want a swift end to it, because people lost relatives, lost neighbours, lost children... they're suffering so the people are very sensitive and we have to act very sensibly and sensitively."

Mr Erdogan also insisted the US should extradite Mr Gulen, warning that it "should not keep such a terrorist".

Mr Gulen told the BBC that the US authorities would not respond to any request that was unlawful.

But he added that he would die eventually - and that whether that happened at home or in prison did not matter to him.

Turkey's Western allies expressed concern at the crackdown and urged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to respond in a measured way.

Source: bbc.com

What has propelled the rise of the outspoken rabble-rousing billionaire, Donald Trump? I went to Bakersfield, a hardcore Republican enclave in the otherwise liberal state of California, to find out.

"If you go to the Mexican neighbourhoods where a lot of illegals are," said David Rogers, a white IT expert who lives here, "they're all dirty. I don't want to hang around people that throw trash out on the street."

Mr Rogers was born in Bakersfield in 1946, when it was a largely white town. Now, about half the population is Hispanic or black. Mr Rogers, like many of Mr Trump's supporters I met here, believes crime levels and drugs problems in his town are largely due to the influx of immigrants.

The United States is in the throes of a historical wave of immigration that began in the 1960s. Fifty-nine million immigrants, many Mexican, have changed the face of America. Mr Trump's supporters, like Mr Rogers, say they do not object to immigrants as a whole. They say it's just the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants they resent.

Donald Trump is promising to "put America first", with sweeping pledges to deport illegal immigrants, negotiate better trade deals for America, and make the United States great again.

David Rogers with Hilary Andersson at a Trump rally in Fresno, California

On a hot Sunday evening, Mr Rogers invited friends over for a barbecue. The discussion turned to Mr Trump's proposal to build a wall along America's entire 2,000-mile (3,200km) border with Mexico, to keep out illegal immigrants.

"You've got to have a boundary if you're going to have a country," said Mr Rogers. "What they should do is they should shoot them as they get to the top and if they fall over on the Mexican side then we're in the clear," said Mr Roger's son, Alex.

As Mr Trump's campaign gains steam, the presidential hopeful is attracting a broader base of supporters. Not all have views as extreme as Mr Rogers and his friends.

But here in Bakersfield, there is a lot of support, not just for Mr Trump's plan to build a border wall, but also his more radical proposal to deport 11 million illegal immigrants.

"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," Mr Trump said last summer. "They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

The collapse in the price of oil has hit Bakersfield hard

Many of Mr Rogers's neighbours now are Hispanics. "All these people are hard workers," said Roxi Mankel, who lives across the street from him. "How can somebody get so much support with so much hate?"

The answer, locally at least, is that many feel immigrants are taking scarce jobs. And times are hard in Bakersfield nowadays.

On a street corner in the rough part of town called Oildale, an exhausted looking woman sat on her front porch with a motley collection of old furniture, pots and clothes for sale out on her lawn.

"Everybody's been laid off," said Shari Kent, who was selling her possessions to try to make money. "People have got to eat," she added. Bakersfield is dotted with oil rigs, stretching as far as the eye can see. Many are idle. The global collapse in oil prices has hit this oil town hard. Ms Kent has had her hours cut at the local grocer's shop because there are now so few customers.

"Hispanics will work for less money, you know," Ms Kent's neighbour Ramona told me. "They can undercut the price."

America's illegal immigrants make up a workforce of an estimated eight million people that helps to drive America's economy.

Bakersfield has a long history of racial tension. In Oildale, where Ms Kent lives, you were not welcome after dark when Mr Rogers was a youth, unless you were white. "No blacks across that bridge after dark," said Mr Rogers. He and his friends used to throw things at black people to hound them out.

There were protests at Trump's Fresno rally

It's not so different now. Walking along a backstreet, we passed a garage with a swastika on the wall. Locals say white white gangs roam the streets, and that there are often street fights between African American and white youths.

In some ways Mr Rogers has adapted to the changing face of his town. He has Mexican friends. One night when we were with him, he arranged food for a sick Mexican neighbour. He says it's not about race. But he supports Mr Trump's call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US, saying American lives are the most important.

"Muslims... have a certain look, and I just feel like, OK, I don't like that person,' you know," he told me. "If we save one person's life, [an] American's life, it's worth stopping everybody from coming in."

Many Americans never expected Donald Trump's presidential bid to make it this far. Some Republicans have disavowed him completely, because of his hard-line proposals. Others hope he will tone his message down.

It's a message that appears to have tapped into a groundswell of anger, resentment and racial tension.

"I think Donald Trump opened up Pandora's Box to what's been hidden, with all the racism and hatred that's been in the United States," said Roxi Mankel.

Dealing with what comes out of that box may yet decide the outcome of this November's presidential contest.

Source: bbc.com

North Korea has fired three ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, say US and South Korean military officials.

The missiles were launched from the western city of Hwangju, said South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The US said the first two were believed to be short-range Scud missiles while the third was presumed to be a mid-range Rodong.

It comes after the US and South Korea said they would deploy an anti-missile system to counter the North's threats.

North Korea is barred by UN sanctions from any test of nuclear or ballistic missile technology. But tensions have soared since it carried out its fourth nuclear test in January.

It has also conducted several launches in recent months, including a test of mid-range missiles in June which were considered its most successful yet.

Seoul has said activity detected recently in North Korea indicates it could be preparing to conduct a fifth nuclear test imminently.

• North Korea's missile programme
• North Korea nuclear tests: what did they achieve?
• North Korea's nuclear programme: How advanced is it?

The latest launches happened between 05:45 local time (20:45 GMT on Monday) and 06:40, the South's military said, in a statement quoted by Yonhap news agency.

"The ballistic missiles flight went from 500km (310 miles) to 600km, which is a distance far enough to strike all of South Korea including Busan," South Korea's military said in a statement. Busan is a port city in the south.

The US Strategic Command said it had tracked the launches, but that they had posed no risk to US interests.

Earlier this month, Seoul and Washington agreed to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system in the South. The system will be based in the town of Seongju, in the south-east.

The North's military had warned it would retaliate with a "physical response".

China has also criticised the decision, saying it will destabilise security in the region.

Source: bbc.com

A teenage Afghan refugee armed with an axe and knife injured four people on a train in southern Germany before being shot dead by police, officials say.

Three people were seriously hurt and one suffered minor injuries in the attack in Wurzburg, police said.

Initial reports said up to 20 people had been injured but it was later revealed that at least 14 had been treated for shock.

The motive for the attack is not yet clear.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said the attacker was a 17-year-old Afghan refugee who had been living in the nearby town of Ochsenfurt.

He told public broadcaster ARD that the teenager appeared to have travelled to Germany as an unaccompanied minor.

Mr Herrmann said authorities were looking into reports that the attacker had yelled out "an exclamation". Some witnesses quoted by German media said they had heard him shout "Allahu akbar" ("God Is Great") during the attack.

Bloodstains could be seen on the floor of the train carriage

The incident happened at about 21:15 (19:15 GMT) on the train which runs between Treuchlingen and Wurzburg.

"Shortly after arriving at Wurzburg, a man attacked passengers with an axe and a knife," a police spokesman said.

Police said the attacker had fled the train but was chased by officers who shot him dead.

Although the motive has not been established, the BBC's Damien McGuinness in Berlin says there is nervousness in Germany about attacks by Islamist extremists following the attacks across the border in France.

In May, a man reportedly shouting "Allahu akbar" killed one person and wounded three others in a knife attack at a railway station near the German city of Munich.

He was later sent to a psychiatric hospital and authorities said they found no links to Islamic extremism.

Source: bbc.com

In the wake of the attack in Nice, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has criticised the government for not doing enough to provide security.

The centre-right opposition leader called for any foreign nationals with links to radical Islam to be expelled from France.

More than 80 people died when an attacker ploughed a lorry into people celebrating Bastille Day on Thursday.

Eighty-five people remain in hospital, 18 of them in critical condition.

Many survivors are still waiting for news of their loved ones. Only 35 bodies have so far been officially identified.

Prosecutors say painstaking measures are needed to avoid errors of identification.

Forceful message

Speaking to French television, Mr Sarkozy said "Democracy must not be weak, nor simply commemorate. Democracy must say 'We will win the war'."

He said he supported stronger measures like expulsion of radicalised Muslims, and electronic tagging for those at risk of radicalisation.

France's government has said it is at war with violent jihadists.

But a third major attack in 18 months has led to criticism of the country's leaders.

Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was shot dead after ramming his lorry into crowds

Radicalised too quickly?

There is no indication that the Nice attacker, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, was a jidhadist.

Neighbours have described him as a violent loner who liked to drink, lift weights and go salsa dancing.

• Nice attack: What we know
• Who were the victims?
• Who was the attacker?

But France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls has suggested he may have been radicalised too quickly to trigger the authorities' attention.

He was shot dead by police when his vehicle's path along the Promenade des Anglais was eventually halted.

French media reported that he researched the route in the days before the attack.

The reports say Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drove through the seafront promenade area of the French city on Tuesday and Wednesday in preparation.

Europe 1 radio said CCTV footage from the days beforehand showed him driving through the area in the lorry, closely observing the scene.

Tunisian security sources have told the BBC he visited Tunisia frequently, most recently eight months ago.

So-called Islamic State said the attacker was acting in response to its calls to target civilians in countries that are part of the anti-IS coalition.

At the scene - By Tom Burridge

An impressive air of normality in much of tourist-packed Nice is deceptive. As well as grief, bewilderment hangs in the sea air.

There are tears, hugs and silence at the mountain of candles, flowers and cuddly toys on the beach promenade, where joggers stop and parents bring young children to read the messages.

A large white banner says: Why children? And, in a child's handwriting: Why do you want war?

The bloodstains on the tarmac are gradually disappearing. The lampposts the lorry smashed into will be replaced.

But for those who knew or loved the victims, things will never be the same. More armed police and soldiers guarding the streets will serve as a reminder.

Amid the fear and sadness, and the unanswerable questions, defiance acts as a source of comfort.

He will never defeat us, says one message on the promenade. Another reads: Love defeats hate.

Six people are being held in connection with the killings.

The latest arrests, of an Albanian couple who have not been identified, were on Sunday morning, French judicial sources said.

Lahouaiej-Bouhlel's estranged wife, who was detained on Friday, was released on Sunday.

Source: bbc.com

President Obama has called for restraint after three police officers were shot dead in the city of Baton Rouge in Louisiana.

The gunman, an African-American who had served for five years in the Marines, was also killed.

Tensions in the city have been high since a black man Alton Sterling was shot dead by police two weeks ago.

It remains unclear whether Sunday's incident was related to that death and a second police killing in Minnesota.

Those two deaths spared protests across the United States and triggered a revenge attack by a black army veteran who shot dead five officers in the city of Dallas.

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In a live broadcast from the White House, President Obama called upon all Americans to unite and refrain from divisive language.

"Regardless of motive, the death of these three brave officers underscores the danger that police across the country confront every single day, and we as a nation have to be loud and clear that nothing justifies violence against law enforcement," he said.

"Everyone right now focus on words and actions that can unite this country rather than divide it further," he added, as the US begins two weeks of political conventions with Republicans meeting in Cleveland later on Monday.

"We need to temper our words and open our hearts... all of us," said the president.

A vigil was attended by police officers and members of the public on Sunday evening at Saint John the Baptist Church in Zachary, just north of Baton Rouge.

Exchange of fire

The incident began on Sunday morning with shots being fired at a petrol station on Airline Highway in Baton Rouge.

Police received reports of a man with an assault rifle.

Witness Brady Vancel told WAFB TV he saw what may have been gang members shooting at each other before police arrived.

Another witness said she saw a gunman wearing a black mask and military-style clothing.

Shots were exchanged over a period of more than 15 minutes, leaving three police officers and the suspect dead, with three other officers wounded, one in a critical condition.

The dead officers were named as Montrell Jackson, 32, and Matthew Gerald, 41, of the Baton Rouge police department, and Sheriff's Deputy Brad Garafola, 45. All three men had families.

The suspect was named as 29-year-old Gavin Long, of Kansas City, Missouri, a former Marine.

He received an honourable discharge, and won several medals while in the military, including one for good conduct.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards told a news conference it was an "absolutely unspeakable, heinous attack."

Although no other suspects have been identified, police said they were investigating whether the gunman had help from unknown others.

"We are not ready to say he acted alone," said state police spokesman Major Doug Cain.

Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden said he had spoken to White House officials who had offered assistance. He said it was "a defining moment" for community relations.

But he also told local media the "rhetoric from some people" after the death of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge may be connected to the shootings, without elaborating who.

"Everything's been anti-police," he said.

Source: bbc.com

The driver of a lorry that killed 84 people in an attack in the French city of Nice has been confirmed as Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, 31.

Ten of the dead were children. Some 202 people were injured; 52 are critical, of whom 25 are on life support.

Prosecutors said Lahouaiej-Bouhlel had driven the lorry 2km (1.2 miles) along the famous Promenade des Anglais and fired at police before being shot dead.

The attack happened as thousands in Nice marked Bastille Day on Thursday.

Other weapons found inside the lorry were replicas or fake.

What the prosecutor said

Francois Molins said no group had admitted carrying out the attack but that it bore the hallmarks of jihadist terrorism.

Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drove the 19-tonne lorry into crowds at about 22:45 local time (20:45 GMT).

He fired at officers with a 7.65mm calibre automatic pistol when the vehicle was close to the Negresco hotel and continued for another 300m, where his vehicle was stopped near the Palais de la Mediterranee hotel and he was shot dead.

Also found in the lorry were an ammunition magazine, a fake pistol, replica Kalashnikov and M16 rifles, and a dummy grenade.

There was also a bicycle, empty pallets, documents and a mobile phone. Items were later seized from Lahouaiej-Bouhlel's Nice home.

Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a chauffeur and delivery man, had three children but had separated from his wife, who was taken into police custody on Friday, Mr Molins said.

He was known to the police as a petty criminal, but was "totally unknown to intelligence services... and was never flagged for signs of radicalisation", the prosecutor added.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said he could not confirm links to jihadism.

However, Prime Minister Manuel Valls told France 2 television that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was a "terrorist without doubt linked to radical Islamism in one way or another".

• Follow the latest live updates
• What we know
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• 'Heartbreaking' image of victim
• Bastille Day attack in pictures
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• Who was the attacker?

What has the president said?

Francois Hollande, who arrived to Nice on Friday, said the attack was of "an undeniable terrorist nature".

He said the battle against terrorism would be long, as France faced an enemy "that will continue to attack those people and those countries that count liberty as an essential value".

Mr Hollande said the attack was carried out "to satisfy the cruelty of an individual or possibly a group" and that many of the victims were foreigners and young children.

"We will overcome the suffering because we are a united France," he said.

A state of emergency, in place since November's Paris attacks carried out by militants from the so-called Islamic State group, in which 130 people died, has been extended by three months.

What witnesses saw

Simon Coates, a solicitor from Leeds told the BBC: "I saw one woman lying on the ground talking to her dead child, as other people desperately did what they could to save their loved ones.

"As the lorry passed by me a young boy of 10 or so just managed to leap to one side and escape by inches. Tragically dozens of those on foot, young and old alike, were not so lucky. Virtually everyone I saw on the promenade was either dead or beyond real help with truly terrible injuries."

Source: bbc.com

A court in the Netherlands has sentenced a man to 30 days in jail for insulting the king on Facebook.

The 44-year-old Dutchman "intentionally insulted" King Willem-Alexander, accusing him of being a murderer, thief and rapist, the Dutch judiciary said.

He was convicted of breaking seldom-used royal defamation laws.

A Dutch political party has proposed scrapping the laws and the king has pledged to accept the outcome of any debate on the issue.

Profile: Willem-Alexander, King of the Netherlands

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The court in Overijssel suspended 16 days of the sentence and the man will not spend any more time in jail, having already spent 14 days in preventative custody last year.

He was found to have doctored images of executions online to include the king's face in place of those of the actual victims, the judiciary said.

"This behaviour is unacceptable in our society and demands that a penalty be imposed on the suspect," it said in a statement.

The Dutch D66 political party is campaigning to abolish the lese majeste law, which was last used in 2014 after an activist shouted obscene slogans about the royal family during a protest.

Prosecutors initially charged the protester but reversed the decision after the move was condemned as an attack on freedom of speech.

The Netherlands' lese majeste law dates from 1881 and carries sentences of up to five years jail or a fine of 20,000 euros ($22,200; £16,700).

In total 18 prosecutions were brought under the law between 2000 and 2012, half of which resulted in convictions, Dutch TV reported.

Source: bbc.com

US President Barack Obama has urged police, and black communities to come together, saying it should not be "us versus them", in a town hall meeting on race and policing.

Mr Obama and ABC News held the forum amid an increase in racial tensions in the US in recent weeks.

Last week a gunman killed five Dallas police at a Black Lives Matter protest.

Micah Xavier Johnson told police he was angry after recent shooting deaths of black men at the hands of officers.

Alton Sterling was killed by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on 5 July. A day later, Philando Castile was shot and killed during a traffic stop outside Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Videos of both shootings were widely publicised.

"I don't want a generation of young people to grow up thinking either that they have to mistrust the police or alternatively, that the police who are doing a good job and out there... that they're constantly at risk not just from criminals but also because the community mistrusts them," Mr Obama said.

He added: "It's going to require all of us not to close ourselves off and go to corners but rather require us to come together and listen to each other."

Guests in the town hall meeting included Sterling's 15-year-old son, Cameron, and Castile's girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds - who live streamed the aftermath of Castile's shooting.

Mr Obama tried to bridge the divide between police and the black community.

He empathised with victims of police violence but also acknowledged that police face huge challenges - challenges they can't handle alone.

"It is absolutely true that the murder rate in the African-American community is way out of whack compared to the general population," Mr Obama said in response to a question from Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn.

"We can't put the burden on police alone," Mr Obama said. "It is going to require investments in those communities."

Mr Obama also offered a rare personal account about how he has been affected by racism.

He talked about how, when he was a child growing up in Hawaii, a female neighbour once refused to go in a lift with him.

She was just "worried about riding the elevator with me," Mr Obama said.

He said that sense of being feared as a black man continued as he grew older.

"Over time you start learning as you're crossing the street, suddenly the locks start going on doors," Mr Obama said.

In one tense exchange, Texas Lt Governor Dan Patrick - who has been critical of the Black Lives Matter movement and the president - pressed Mr Obama on his commitment to law enforcement.

Mr Obama insisted that it was possible to be critical of police while still being supportive.

"We shouldn't get too caught up in this notion that somehow people who are asking for fair treatment are somehow automatically anti-police," the president said.

Source: bbc.com

A lorry has struck a crowd after Bastille Day celebrations in the southern French city of Nice, killing at least 80 people and injuring dozens, officials say.

It happened on the famous Promenade des Anglais after a firework display. The driver was shot dead and guns and grenades were found inside the lorry.

President Francois Hollande said the attack was of a "terrorist nature".

He said he was extending a state of emergency by three months.

France had been on high alert following last November's attacks in Paris in which 130 people died and hundreds were wounded.

The state of emergency had been due to end on 26 July.

"France is badly hit," Mr Hollande said, adding that "we need to do everything we can to fight against" such attacks.

"All of France is under the threat of Islamic terrorism."

About 50 people were injured, 18 of them critically, in the incident on Thursday evening.

Prosecutor Jean-Michel Pretre said the lorry drove 2km (1.2 miles) through a large crowd, the AFP news agency reports.

One image on Twitter showed about a dozen people lying on the street.

Live updates

Attack in pictures

The mayor and police urged residents to stay indoors.

Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet denied earlier reports of hostage situations and said the driver of the lorry had been "neutralised".

He added that officials were investigating whether the driver acted alone.

No group has so far claimed responsibility, however, prosecutors said the inquiry would be handled by anti-terror investigators.

Some reports spoke of shots being exchanged between police and the occupants of the lorry but these have not been confirmed.

Social media video showed people running through the streets in panic following the incident.

A journalist with the Nice Matin newspaper reported from the scene that there was "a lot of blood and without doubt many injured".

An AFP reporter said the incident took place as the firework display was ending, adding: "We saw people hit and bits of debris flying around."

Another image on Twitter showed a white lorry stopped in the middle of the promenade with damage to its front, and four police officers observing it while taking cover behind a palm tree.

One eyewitness told BFM TV: "Everyone was calling run, run, run there's an attack run, run, run. We heard some shots. We thought they were fireworks because it's the 14th of July.

"There was great panic. We were running too because we didn't want to stick around and we went into a hotel to get to safety. "

Another witness, Roy Calley told the BBC that there were "thousands of people on the promenade" when the incident happened.

"The police have completely taken over the city, the promenade has now been closed down. Everybody was physically pushed away from the site and told to get back in no uncertain terms by the police."

"I live 200m from the promenade and it took nearly one hour 30 minutes to get back to my flat because all the roads have been closed down."

US President Barack Obama condemned "in the strongest terms what appears to be a horrific terrorist attack in Nice", the White House said.

The president had been briefed about the situation "and his national security team will update him, as appropriate", National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said.

On Friday, flags will be flying at half-mast, and Nice's jazz festival has been cancelled.

Source: bbc.com

A 46-year-old has been charged with assaulting a pensioner who had asked a man to stop urinating in the street.

Derek Laidlaw, 70, was attacked after confronting a man near the wall of his partner's house in Failsworth, Oldham.

Mr Laidlaw suffered severe bruising to his face and head during the incident at about 22:45 BST on 2 July.

Stephen Anthony Glynn, from Massey Avenue, Failsworth, is due to appear before magistrates on Monday charged with actual bodily harm.

Source: bbc.com