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An employee of a Swedish high-tech company has been arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia.

Counter-intelligence chief Daniel Stenling said they believed the suspect was recruited by a Russian intelligence officer posing as a diplomat.

Swedish media released video purporting to show the suspect being led from a restaurant after meeting their contact. The suspect had been working on “tasks known to be the type of intelligence sought after by foreign powers”, a security service statement said, without giving details.

“It is suspected that the criminal activities have been going on since 2017,” it added.

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A West Midlands Police boss has declared knife crime “an emergency” after three teens were stabbed to death within 12 days in Birmingham.

Chief Constable Dave Thompson said stop and searches would be stepped up and more officers would patrol the streets amid the “crisis”.

There have been 269 knife crimes recorded in the city so far this year.

Police also urged more help from parents and teachers to tackle the violence among youngsters.

The spate of killings in Birmingham follows knife crime attacks in London, where there have been 12 fatal stabbings in 2019.

Mr Thompson, who was with Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson outside the scene of a teen stabbing at a charity shop in Birmingham, pledged extra patrols with additional officers in certain areas. He said: “Immediate and intensive action is needed to prevent this current crisis from continuing. My officers have been given extensive powers to search people without the need to suspect they are carrying weapons.

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India says it launched air strikes against militants in Pakistani territory in a major escalation of tensions between the two countries.

The government said strikes targeted a training camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) group in Balakot. Pakistan said the strikes hit an empty area but vowed to respond.

Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours have been strained since a suicide attack earlier this month that killed more than 40 Indian troops.

India accuses Pakistan of allowing militant groups to operate on its territory and says Pakistani security agencies played a role in the 14 February attack – claimed by JeM. Pakistan denies any role and says it does not provide safe haven to militants.

Tuesday’s air strikes are the first launched across the line of control – the de facto border that divides India-administered Kashmir from Pakistan-administered Kashmir – since a war between the two countries in 1971.

Balakot is in Pakistan’s north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Residents there said they were woken by loud explosions.

Pakistan condemned the strike and said it would respond “at the time and place of its choosing”.

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One of Britain’s most wanted fugitives has been extradited to the UK from Switzerland after being on the run in Europe for years.

Mark Acklom, who disappeared in 2012, allegedly posed as an MI6 agent to con a Gloucestershire woman out of her £850,000 life savings.

The 45-year-old was arrested at a luxury apartment in Zurich last summer.

He will appear at Bristol Magistrates’ Court on Saturday charged with 20 fraud offences.They include 12 charges of converting or removing criminal property and eight charges of fraud by false representation.

Mr Acklom allegedly posed as an MI6 agent and Swiss banker and conned divorcee Carolyn Woods into loaning him the money during a year-long relationship in Bath in 2012.

Three years ago a European Arrest Warrant was issued for Mr Acklom who was believed to be in Spain having been released from a Spanish prison over a £200,000 property fraud.

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A passenger who took a crew member hostage and threatened to storm the cockpit on a flight from Dhaka in Bangladesh was carrying a toy gun.

The 25-year-old man was shot dead by police after an emergency landing. All 148 passengers and crew on board Birman Airlines flight BG147 disembarked safely after the landing, in the city of Chittagong.

Officials later said the man was “psychologically imbalanced” and had wanted to talk to the prime minister.

In an operation that lasted about 10 minutes, Bangladeshi special forces stormed the plane and shot the suspected hijacker, who has been named by local law enforcement as aspiring actor Mohammad Palash Ahmed.

It was feared that he was carrying explosives on the Dubai-bound flight, and some passengers said they saw him with a firearm. But Chittagong police commissioner Kusum Dewan said in a statement on Monday that the suspect was carrying a toy pistol and had no explosives on him.

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