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The UK will not block use of the death penalty by the US in the case of two men who are accused of being Islamic State members, the home secretary says.

In a letter to the US attorney general, leaked to the Telegraph, Sajid Javid said the UK will seek no assurances that the pair will not be executed.

Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh were captured in Syria in January. But if the Londoners go to Guantanamo Bay the UK will withhold intelligence, the BBC’s Frank Gardner said.

Shami Chakrabarti, Labour’s shadow attorney general, said Mr Javid had «secretly and unilaterally abandoned Britain’s opposition to the death penalty» and appeared to be encouraging «this grave human rights abuse».

The men are accused of being the last two members of an IS foursome dubbed «The Beatles».

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A Turkish court has ruled against extraditing Australia’s most wanted jihadist, Neil Prakash, to face terrorism charges in his home country.

Prakash was arrested in Turkey in 2016 after crossing from Syria. He later admitted partial blame for Islamic State group terror plots in Australia.

In May last year, Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull said he expected Prakash to be extradited «within months». He is now likely to face charges in Turkey, reported News Corp Australia. The Australian government has said it is disappointed by the Turkish judge’s decision in the Kilis Criminal Court.

Australian authorities have said that Melbourne-born Prakash is linked to failed terror plots in Australia and calls for lone-wolf attacks against the US.

In 2016, the government described him as «the principal Australian reaching back from the Middle East» into networks in Melbourne and Sydney.

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Only 9% of crimes end with suspects being charged or summonsed in England and Wales, Home Office figures suggest.

In the 12 months to March, 443,000 crimes resulted in a charge or summons out of 4.6 million offences — the lowest detection rate since 2015. Data also shows police closed nearly half (48%) of all cases because no suspect could be identified. It comes as new figures show the number of homicides has increased for the fourth year running.

The Home Office statistics on crime outcomes is published at the same time as quarterly crime figures and the Crime Survey for England and Wales, which is based on people’s experiences of crime. The changing picture of how successfully police are catching criminals comes against a backdrop of rising crime.

Overall, crimes recorded by police went up 11% in the year to March, figures published by the Office for National Statistics suggested.

The Home Office said that along with a growing caseload, there was evidence to suggest that more recorded crimes were in the most challenging offence types to investigate.

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An attempt to deploy a new submarine for Spain’s navy has run aground again, after it emerged it cannot fit in its dock, Spanish media report.

The S-80 boat was redesigned at great expense after an earlier mistake meant it had problems floating, and it was lengthened to correct the issue.

Spanish newspaper El País now reports that after the changes, the docks at Cartagena can no longer fit the vessel. The cost for each has almost doubled, the newspaper said.

It estimated that the cost of each S-80 «Plus» submarine would now be close to €1bn (£900m).

The original problem with the submarine dates back to 2013, when it was discovered that it was about 100 tons heavier than it needed to be. That caused a problem for its buoyancy — so it could submerge, but might not come back up again.

A former Spanish official told the Associated Press at the time that someone had put a decimal point in the wrong place, and «nobody paid attention to review the calculations».

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Two men have been found guilty of being members of banned neo-Nazi group National Action.

Christopher Lythgoe, 32, of Warrington, and Matthew Hankinson, 24, of Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, were convicted after a trial lasting over five weeks.

Lythgoe was jailed for eight years and Hankinson for six.

Earlier in the trial, another man, Jack Renshaw, 23, of Skelmersdale, Lancs, admitted preparing an act of terrorism after buying a machete. He admitted buying it for the purpose of murdering West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper.

A former National Action member, Robbie Mullen, warned the anti-racism charity Hope Not Hate of Renshaw’s plan, and they went to the police. A total of six men were on trial at the Old Bailey, accused of being members of National Action.

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