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A former Nasa engineer spent six months building a glitter bomb trap to trick thieves after some parcels were stolen from his doorstep.

The device, hidden in an Apple Homepod box, used four smartphones, a circuit board and 1lb (453g) of glitter.

Mark Rober, who is now a Youtuber, caught the original thieves on his home security camera. He decided to take action after the police said they were unable to investigate the case. He designed the elaborate bomb so that it would be activated when the package in which it was hidden was opened by thieves. The phone cameras and microphones would record the moment. The device contained an accelerometer to detect motion.

When the parcel was jostled, the device would check the GPS signal to see if it had been moved from its spot. If it had, then it would send a signal to activate the phones and start recording.

The glitter was in a cup that spun round on a motor when released as the box was opened. The device was also engineered to squirt a tube of fart spray every 30 seconds.

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Christmas shoppers could have their faces scanned in central London this week as part of a police trial.

The Met says it will invite people to take part in testing the technology rather than scanning people covertly. The trials will be held near Soho, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square on Monday and Tuesday.

Privacy campaigner Big Brother Watch has described the use of such technology as «authoritarian, dangerous and lawless». In a statement the group said that «monitoring innocent people in public is a breach of fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of speech and assembly».

Officers say the software can identify people wanted by the police or the courts.

An investigation by Big Brother Watch earlier this year suggested the technology flagged up a «staggering» number of innocent people as suspects.

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A former British soldier who was convicted in Turkey of being a member of a terrorist organisation has skipped bail and returned to the UK.

Joe Robinson, from Leeds, was facing a seven-and-a half-year jail term.

In 2015, he spent time with Kurdish armed groups in Syria, including the YPG, which Turkey regards as a terrorist group.

Robinson, 25, was on bail pending an appeal against his conviction. He said he believed the Turkish authorities had «no legitimate reason» to convict him of terror offences, and he wanted to be left alone to spend time with friends and family in the UK.

Robinson, who left the country without permission from the Turkish courts, said he had «made the hard decision to take the matter into my own hands».

Turkish police arrested Robinson while he was on holiday in 2017.

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A Strasbourg gunman yelled «Allahu Akbar» («God is greatest» in Arabic) as he opened fire on people enjoying an evening out at a Christmas market, the Paris public prosecutor told reporters.

Rémy Heitz said two people had been killed and one left brain-dead after the attack in the eastern French city on Tuesday. Twelve were wounded, six seriously.

The man, named by local media as Chérif Chekatt, was known to authorities as having been radicalised in prison. The 29-year-old was armed with a gun and a knife and escaped the area in a taxi, Mr Heitz said.

The attacker boasted to the driver — who has spoken to police — that he had killed 10 people, and said he had been injured in a firefight with soldiers.

Four people connected to the suspect had been detained overnight in Strasbourg, Mr Heitz added. Sources close to the investigation quoted by Reuters news agency said they were the suspect’s mother, father and two brothers.

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A Siberian policeman described as Russia’s most prolific mass murderer in modern times has been given a second life sentence.

Mikhail Popkov, 53, murdered 55 women and a policeman near Irkutsk between 1992 and 2007. He was already in jail for 22 other murders. He killed the victims after offering them late-night rides in his car. At least 10 were also raped.

Popkov was caught in 2012 after a DNA match identified his car. The victims were all women between the ages of 16 and 40 apart from one male, a policeman. In three cases he was on duty in his police car.

Popkov killed them around the city of Angarsk, near Irkutsk, with an axe and hammer. He dumped their mutilated bodies in forests, by the roadside and in a local cemetery.

He claimed to be «purging» Angarsk of what he saw as immoral women.

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