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Turkey is prepared to take its fight against Kurdish forces in northern Syria as far east as Iraq, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.

Speaking in Ankara, Mr Erdogan reiterated that his forces will move against Kurdish-controlled Manbij, which risks confrontation with the US. US troops are based in the city, which was taken from the Islamic State group (IS) by Kurdish-led forces in 2016.

Turkey launched its operation against the Kurdish militia last weekend.

Backed by pro-Turkish Syrian rebels, Turkish forces attacked the Kurdish enclave of Afrin with the declared aim of driving out the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Turkey considers the YPG an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in south-eastern Turkey for three decades.

The campaign has strained relations between Ankara and Washington, which has supported the YPG in its fight against IS.

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A mysterious letter has come to light purportedly from one of three inmates who famously escaped Alcatraz in 1962.

Someone claiming to be John Anglin wrote to San Francisco police in 2013, but it has only now been made public. «My name is John Anglin,» reads the letter. «I escape from Alcatraz in June 1962. Yes we all made it that night, but barely!»

To this day, the three escapees remain on the most wanted list with photos of what they might look like today. It claims brothers John and Clarence Anglin along with inmate Frank Morris lived into old age after escaping the prison half a century ago. The author says Clarence Anglin died in 2008 and that Morris died in 2005.

The writer tries to make a deal with authorities, saying: «If you announce on TV that I will be promised to just go to jail for no more than a year and get medical attention I will write back to let you know exactly where I am. «I am 83 years old and in bad shape. I have cancer.»

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A police force is is having to hire «case investigators» in order to bridge a gap in officer numbers.

Thames Valley Police (TVP) is struggling to fill posts as officers are leaving the force at a higher rate than new recruits joining.

A «combination» of an increase in retirements, high living costs and transfers to other forces were reasons for the shortfall in numbers. The force said it was short of 98 officers with a net loss of 26 a month. Chief constable Francis Habgood said he did not think officer numbers were at «crisis» point, but added there were «pressures because of the numbers leaving are high».

There are plans to recruit about 100 more investigators in specialist departments this year, who do not have the powers of arrest, to cope with increasing demands.

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The number of violent crimes and sex offences recorded by police in England and Wales has risen sharply over the past year, figures show.

Knife crime and robbery also increased in the 12 months to September 2017 compared with the previous year, the Office for National Statistics said.

About 5.3 million crimes were recorded in all in that 12-month period, up 14%. However, the separate Crime Survey, based on people’s experiences, suggests crime continues to fall.

This survey, based on interviews with 35,000 households in England and Wales, includes crimes that people do not report to police.

The latest police figures for the 12 months to September from 44 forces show:

68,968 robbery offences, up 29%
138,045 sex offences, up 23%
37,443 knife crime offences, up 21%
1,291,405 violent crime offences, up 20%

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The UK charity Save the Children has temporarily suspended its programmes in Afghanistan after an attack on its offices in the city of Jalalabad.

At least three people were killed and 24 were injured when Islamic State (IS) militants detonated explosives and stormed the building. Fierce gun battles raged for most of the day.

Save the Children said it was closing its offices out of concern for the safety of all its staff. But it said in a statement that it was «committed to resuming our operations and lifesaving work as quickly as possible».

The attack started at about 09:10 local time (04:40 GMT) on Wednesday when a suicide bomber detonated a vehicle explosive at the entrance to the Save the Children compound, Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province said.

One eyewitness spoke of seeing a gunman use a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) to hit the gate. «An explosion rocked the area and right after that children and people started running away,» resident Ghulam Nabi told Reuters news agency. «I saw a vehicle catch fire and then a gunfight started.»

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