News

No bombs have been found on two commercial US airlines forced to land in Atlanta following online threats last night.

The flights, run by Delta and Southwest Airlines, received the bomb threats on Twitter and landed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for evacuation and inspection.

The all-clear was announced about 90 minutes after the jets landed.

At least 30 people have been killed in a residential area of Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, by rocket attacks launched by pro-Russian rebels.

NATO said fighting in the area has sharply escalated "in utter disregard of the ceasefire."

Russian troops were using sophisticated missiles, rockets and drones at multiple locations in Donetsk and Luhansk as well as Mariupol, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

Russia denies having troops in eastern Ukraine.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said that Islamic State's video purporting to show the execution of Japanese captive Haruna Yukawa appears valid.

Speaking on NHK TV, he condemned it as "outrageous and impermissable" and "strongly demanded" the immediate release of the remaining hostage, Kenji Goto Jogo.

Abe also said that Japan would not give in to terrorism.

He would not comment on how the country will respond to the latest Islamic State demand to free Islamist prisoner Sajida al-Rishawi.

Ukip is facing fresh controversy after a senior party official said that the party is proud to stand up for Britain's “hundreds of thousands of bigots,” The Sunday Times (£) reported.

The comments were made by the party's general secretary Matthew Richardson, who also described the NHS as the "biggest waste of money in the UK" in a video released last night.

A source told the paper that Mr Richardson said at a meeting last month: "I've said before, people talk about Ukip being bigots. There are hundreds of thousands of bigots in the United Kingdom and they deserve representation."

Mr Richardson insisted the comments were "clearly light-hearted harmless banter in the pub" and did "not reflect any seriously held belief".

The paper said that Mr Richardson was appointed last year "to put an end to the party’s series of public relations gaffes and to prevent 'bad stuff' about Ukip from making it into the media."

In a further blow to the party, Amjad Bashir, an MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, defected to the Tories last night, denouncing Ukip as "pretty amateur" with a "ridiculous" lack of policies.

Ukip's general secretary Matthew Richardson has said the NHS costs too much money to run and is partly to blame for Britain's national debt, in a video released by the Labour party.

Mr Richardson is also reported to have gone on to say that Britain has "thousands of bigots" and Ukip is proud to stand up for them, according to The Sunday Times (£).

The British nurse who was on the brink of death from Ebola, left hospital tonight saying she is "happy to be alive."

Pauline Cafferkey spent almost a month in a special isolation unit in London, after the disease struck when she returned from voluntary work in Sierra Leone.

Now completely free of the virus, she paid tribute to the hospital staff who saved her life.

Rebecca Barry reports.