The terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland has been raised from substantial to severe, meaning an attack is highly likely.

The move, based on an MI5 intelligence assessment, follows a rise in dissident republican activity, including a recent gun attack on a top police officer. It reverses a downgrade in Northern Ireland's terror threat level last March - its first change for 12 years.

It was announced by Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris. MI5, the UK's Security Service, is believed to review the threat level every six months. The terrorism threat level remains substantial in the rest of the UK, meaning an attack is a strong possibility.

Threat levels are designed to give an indication of the likelihood of a terrorist attack and there are five rankings ranging from low to critical. Severe is one level below critical, meaning an attack is expected imminently.

The monkeypox outbreak has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.

The classification is the highest alert that the WHO can issue and follows a worldwide upsurge in cases. It came at the end of the second meeting of the WHO's emergency committee on the virus.

More than 16,000 cases have now been reported from 75 countries, said WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. There had been five deaths so far as a result of the outbreak, he added.

There are only two other such health emergencies at present - the coronavirus pandemic and the continuing effort to eradicate polio. Dr Tedros said the emergency committee had been unable to reach a consensus on whether the monkeypox outbreak should be classified as a global health emergency. However, he said the outbreak had spread around the world rapidly and he had decided that it was indeed of international concern.

Too little was understood about the new modes of transmission which had allowed it to spread, said Dr Tedros. "The WHO's assessment is that the risk of monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions, except in the European region, where we assess the risk as high," he added.

There was also a clear risk of further international spread, although the risk of interference with international traffic remained low for the moment, he said. Dr Tedros said the declaration would help speed up the development of vaccines and the implementation of measures to limit the spread of the virus.

A 22-year-old Thai man has been charged with the murder of a British man in western Thailand, according to local officials.

Marcus Evans, 49, died after being attacked in Kanchanaburi in the early hours of Saturday, Thai police said. A second British man, named by police as Shaun Dagnan, 54, was seriously injured and taken to hospital. A sickle was found at the scene, they added.

The alleged attacker is due in court on Monday, police said in a statement. They also said Mr Evans had lived in the area for five years, and Mr Dagnan for three.

Police released passport photos of the two men, which show Mr Evans was born in Weston-super-Mare in Somerset and Mr Dagnan was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

A spokesperson from the UK Foreign Office said: "We are in contact with the Royal Thai Police following the death of one British man and the hospitalisation of another in Thailand and are ready to provide consular support."

The Haitian prime minister was forced to scramble to safety to avoid a string of gunfire during an assassination attempt on Saturday, video footage shows. Ariel Henry was leaving a church after taking part in an event commemorating the Caribbean country's independence when a gang of 'bandits and terrorists' tried to gun him down.

The failed shooting comes just five months after Haiti's President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in a predawn attack at his home. Video footage broadcast on social media showed Henry and his entourage scrambling toward their vehicles.

Gangs' hold on parts of Haiti has strengthened since the assassination of Moise in July. Police, who called Saturday's attack the work of 'armed groups,' were unable to immediately confirm casualties. 

Prior to the incident, a local gang boss had made threats against Henry in local media. The prime minister's office said arrest warrants had been issued for the suspects who fired on Henry's convoy. The attack has renewed concerns about the safety of officials in Haiti since Moise's assassination.

Sixteen European governments have issued a statement to "firmly condemn the deployment of mercenary troops" in the west African state of Mali.

The 16 governments, including France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany, said they were aware of "the involvement of the Russian Federation government in providing material support to the deployment of the Wagner group in Mali and call on Russia to revert to a responsible and constructive behavior in the region."

(NB. These blades could be accessed by other groups or individuals for attack purposes)

London transport staff have been warned after anti-mask posters with razor blades on the back were found, a union has said.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said it had raised the issue of "Masks Don't Work" posters with Transport for London (TfL).

TfL said it was not aware of any incidents involving blades but had given advice to its workers.

A similar poster was found in Cardiff where a woman was injured removing it.

The RMT called for the courts to take the "hardest possible line" against those found responsible.

At least two people have died and dozens more are trapped under debris in a huge landslide in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

Falling boulders have buried a truck, a passenger bus and other vehicles, according to local reports.

Police and local officials have begun rescue efforts, said Jairam Thakur, chief minister of Himachal Pradesh.

There have been several deadly landslides in India in recent months during an unusually heavy monsoon.

It's still unclear what caused Wednesday's landslide - it happened on a highway in Kinnaur district. Local reports say five people have been rescued, but around 30 others are still trapped.

A British man has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying for Russia.

German federal prosecutors said the man - named only as David S - worked at the British embassy in Berlin.

He allegedly passed documents to Russian intelligence "at least once" in exchange for an "unknown amount" of money.

He was arrested in Potsdam outside Berlin on Tuesday and his home and workplace have been searched.

A spokesman for Germany's foreign ministry quoted by AFP news agency said Berlin was taking the case "very seriously", and said spying by "a close alliance partner on German soil is unacceptable".

The arrest was the result of a joint UK-German investigation, the statement read.

It was intelligence-led and had been going on for some time leading up to the arrest, the BBC's Security Correspondent Gordon Corera says. MI5 and other UK agencies, as well as British police, had been working with the Germans to learn as much as they could about the alleged activity.

Four Iranian intelligence officials have been charged with plotting to kidnap a New York-based journalist critical of Iran, US prosecutors say. The indictment did not name the target, but Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American author and activist, says it was her.

The conspirators, who all live in Iran and remain at large, also allegedly plotted to lure a person in the UK and three others in Canada to Iran. All of the targets had been critical of Iran, according to the indictment.

The US justice department says the Iranian officials sought to lure the New York-based journalist to a third country where the abduction was planned. The plotters even offered money to the writer's relatives in Iran to betray them, which they refused to do, the indictment contends.

They hired private investigators to spy on the target's Brooklyn home and family, and set up a live video feed of the property. They also researched a service offering military-style speedboats for evacuation from New York City, and maritime routes to Venezuela, an ally of Iran.

There was no immediate response from the Iranian government.

The head of MI5 is to urge the public to be as vigilant about threats from "hostile states" as from terrorism. These include disruptive cyber-attacks, misinformation, espionage and interference in politics - and are usually linked to Russia and China.

In a speech on Wednesday, Ken McCallum will say these "less visible threats... have the potential to affect us all". He will say these threats are affecting UK jobs and public services and could even lead to a loss of life.

The head of the Security Service wants to challenge the idea that activity by so-called "hostile states", usually taken to mean primarily Russia and China, only affects governments or certain institutions. Instead, he will argue, in an annual threat update, that the British public are not immune to the "tentacles" of covert action by other states.