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A man has been arrested after a woman was taken hostage, apparently at knifepoint, at a restaurant near Leicester Square in London’s West End.

Police with riot shields surrounded the Bella Italia restaurant on Irving Street after the incident was reported at 20:50 GMT. Parts of the busy tourist area were cordoned off and nearby diners were ordered to stay indoors.

The man was detained soon after 22:45. There were no reports of injuries. He was seen being led from the restaurant by police and was then driven away.
Officers at the scene said the man had been found with a knife in his pocket.

Jordan Brown, who was playing a gig at Caffe Concerto next door, told the BBC: “All of a sudden the police came around and said ‘please can we stop playing’. “They then kept us inside.” Police have said the incident is not terror-related.

Killings and torture are being committed with impunity by all sides in Libya, according to a UN report.

Human rights violations carried out by armed groups battling for control of the country could amount to war crimes, the report says. Victims include detainees, journalists and human rights activists. Scores of people have been tortured and killed. Libya, fragmented since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, now has rival militia-backed parliaments.

There are hundreds of different armed groups and the chaos has allowed so-called Islamic State to gain a foothold. The report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Libya describes a country descending into violent chaos. Other tactics documented in the report include indiscriminate attacks on civilians, rape and other sexual violence.

This is all happening in a climate of “complete impunity”, the report says, made worse because Libya’s justice system has collapsed. The crimes are committed by “a multitude of actors – both state and non-state”. The UN says the report is the most comprehensive to be carried out in Libya in recent years.

Interviews were carried with hundreds of people inside the country and with Libyans forced to flee to Italy, Tunisia and Egypt.

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This is the dramatic moment when a police officer held a gun to a man’s head in a raid at west Belfast house.

Armed police targeted the property at Aspen Walk in Twinbrook in the early hours of Wednesday after a 41-year-old man was shot in the leg.

Two men, aged 25 and 35, were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after armed officers and a police helicopter were deployed.The victim is in a serious condition after the attack at Glasvey Drive.

The suspects remain in police custody and officers remain at the property at Aspen Walk where they have been carrying out searches. A Police Service of Northern Ireland detective said: “A motive for this attack has not yet been established. “I would appeal to anyone who witnessed the incident or anyone with any information that would assist with our investigation to contact detectives in Lisburn police station.”

The White House has presented to Congress a plan to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, one of the president’s long-standing goals.

He wants to transfer the remaining 91 detainees to their home countries or to US military or civilian prisons. But Congress is deeply opposed to terror suspects being held on US soil and is expected to block the move.

The prison costs $445m (£316m) to run annually and closing it was a 2009 promise from President Barack Obama.
Human rights campaigners have repeatedly complained about the prison in Cuba, which has held 780 detainees since it opened in 2002.

The president told reporters on Tuesday it undermined national security. “This is about closing a chapter in our history,” said Mr Obama. “It reflects the lessons we’ve learned since 9/11 – lessons that must guide our nation going forward.” But Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio was scathing in his criticism, saying Guantanamo prisoners do not belong on US soil.”These are literally enemy combatants,” he said, adding he would ship terrorists straight to Guantanamo “to find out what they know”.

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Iraqi Kurdish forces rescued a 16-year-old Swedish girl from Islamic State militants near the city of Mosul last Wednesday, Kurdish officials say.

A statement by the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) said the girl was from the town of Boras. She was “misled by an [IS] member in Sweden to travel to Syria and later to Mosul”, it added.

A spokeswoman for the Swedish foreign ministry told a Swedish newspaper that it had no information about the case. The KRSC statement, which named the girl and included a photograph of her, said it had been called upon by Swedish authorities and members of her family to assist in locating and rescuing her from IS, which has controlled Mosul since 2014. “She is currently in the Kurdistan Region and is provided the care afforded to her under international law,” it added. “She will be transferred to Swedish authorities to return home once necessary arrangements are put place.”

The girl was 15 years old and pregnant when she ran away from Boras last May with her boyfriend and travelled to Syria, Swedish media reported. The girl was seized by IS in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in August, after which she was moved to territory controlled by the jihadist group.

In mid-August, the Swedish foreign ministry confirmed it had been told a Swedish minor was in Syria, and said it was in contact with family members.