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There were «opportunities galore» to identify that the London Bridge extremists were plotting an attack, an inquest has heard.

Gareth Patterson, the lawyer representing several victims’ families, said there was evidence the attackers had been in contact since January 2017.

Eight people died in the attack on 3 June 2017. But investigating officer Acting Det Ch Insp Wayne Jolley denied there had been missed opportunities

Mr Patterson told the hearing at the Old Bailey in London that «any reasonably competent investigation» had the chance to detect the planning that was going on between the three men. It would have taken the trio a «significant period of time» for them to become close enough to trust each other with planning an attack, he said.

Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, left 48 people injured when they attacked passsers-by near London Bridge with a van and knives, before being themselves shot dead by armed police.

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Russia may be violating a ban on the testing of low-yield nuclear weapons capabilities at a site in the Arctic, a top US intelligence official said.

Lt Gen Robert Ashley, the director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, said Moscow was «probably not adhering to» the rules of a recognised treaty.

He was referring to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), a multilateral agreement prohibiting nuclear testing.

Russia, which ratified the treaty in 2008, says it complies with the CTBT.

The US has signed but has not yet ratified the treaty.

«Our understanding of nuclear weapon development leads us to believe that Russia’s testing activities would help it improve its nuclear weapons capabilities,» Lt Gen Ashley said on Wednesday.

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A knife-wielding man has attacked a group of schoolchildren waiting for a bus in the Japanese city of Kawasaki near Tokyo.

At least 18 people were injured in a residential area. Two of them, an 11-year-old girl and a 39-year-old man, have died. The suspect, a man in his 50s, stabbed himself in the neck after his rampage and later died in hospital. Police have named him as Ryuichi Iwasaki.

Violent crime is rare in Japan and the motive for the attack is unknown.

The suspect was holding knives in both hands as he attacked the victims – 16 of whom were schoolgirls.

Police later named the victims of the fatal attack as Hanako Kuribayashi, who was in the sixth grade, and foreign ministry official Satoshi Oyama, who is believed to be the parent of another child.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned the attack, saying he felt «strong anger» against it.

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Parcel bombs sent to UK addresses including Heathrow Airport could be linked to those sent in 2014 to army careers offices, detectives have said.

«Small improvised explosive devices» were found at Waterloo station, London City Airport and Heathrow on 5 March.

Another was recovered at the University of Glasgow the next day, while a fifth was found after being returned to a postal depot in Limerick, Ireland.

A group calling itself the IRA claimed responsibility for the packages. Police have now formally linked the latest packages to the seven letter bombs sent to British Army Recruitment Centres five years ago.

That follows further analysis of the packages by forensic experts which has found particular similarities between the devices and the methodology used in both cases.

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Egyptian forces and militants in the Sinai might both be responsible for crimes against humanity, human rights campaigners say.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses the government of carrying out enforced disappearances, killings, torture and other illegal acts. It says militants who the government is fighting have kidnapped, tortured and murdered hundreds of Sinai residents.

The two sides have long been battling in the northern part of the peninsula.

The government has declared the Northern Sinai a closed military zone, meaning independent reporting is not possible from there.

A military spokesman, Col Tamer al-Rifai, dismissed the HRW report as biased. «It is based on unverified sources,» he told AFP news agency, adding that «some politicised organisations are intent on tarnishing Egypt’s image and its armed forces with baseless claims».

Egypt has vowed to wipe out militants in the Sinai, where some are linked to the Islamic State (IS) group.

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