News

Emergency alerts have been sent to all mobile phones in New York warning people to get their vehicles off the road by 11pm local - 4am UK.

Minimum fines of $300 will be imposed on those breaching the curfew - already the streets are deserted.

New York City and other parts of the north-east US have shut down ahead of a massive blizzard which could affect more than 60 million people.

The "potentially historic" storm has led to states of emergency being declared in New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire and New York.

All non-emergency vehicles have also been banned in New York from 11pm local time.

Retailers said they had sold out of shovels and basic food as people attempt to stock up on supplies before the snowstorm hits.

Thousands of people across the UK will gather today to remember the millions of people killed in the Holocaust, on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, established by the Government to promote and support Holocaust Memorial Day, expects more than 2,400 events to take place across the country.

Senior politicians, celebrities and religious leaders will join survivors for a service in central London.

Six candles will be lit by survivors while Michael Palin, Keeley Hawes and Christopher Eccleston will be among those making a reading as part of the memorial service.

A public inquiry into the death of poisoned spy Alexander Litvinenko is to open today.

Litvinenko, 43, died in November 2006 after meeting with two Russian men at the Millennium Hotel in London's Grosvenor Square.

Police believe he drank tea laced with radioactive polonium-210.

His family say he was working for MI6 at the time and accuse the Kremlin of ordering his death.

Inquiry chairman Sir Robert Owen will open the proceedings at the Royal Courts of Justice today following years of conspiracy theories and legal wrangling.