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A man has appeared in court charged with the attempted murder of a hospital worker who was stabbed in Brighton.

Connolly Mellon, 30, of Waterloo Street, Brighton, is accused of stabbing 56-year-old George Joseph at the Royal Sussex County Hospital. The hospital was put into lockdown after Mr Joseph was attacked at about 08:40 BST on Sunday. He was treated for stab wounds and later discharged.

Mr Mellon is also accused of possessing an offensive weapon in a public place.

Appearing at Brighton Magistrates’ Court, he entered no plea on both charges. He was remanded in custody and is due to appear at Lewes Crown Court on 17 August.

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Russian spies are targeting organisations trying to develop a coronavirus vaccine in the UK, US and Canada, security services have warned.

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said the hackers «almost certainly» operated as «part of Russian intelligence services». It did not specify which organisations had been targeted, or whether any information had been stolen. But it said vaccine research had not been hindered by the hackers. Russia has denied responsibility.

«We do not have information about who may have hacked into pharmaceutical companies and research centres in Great Britain. We can say one thing – Russia has nothing at all to do with these attempts,» said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Putin, according to the Tass news agency.

The warning was published by an international group of security services: the UK’s NCSC, the Canadian Communication Security Establishment (CSE), the United States Department for Homeland Security (DHS) Cyber-security Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
the US National Security Agency (NSA).

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A man has died in a shooting in north London.

The man, believed to be aged in his 20s, was found with a gunshot wound in Windrush Road, near Harlesden, at about 03:00 BST. Police officers provided first aid until paramedics arrived but the man was pronounced dead at the scene. The Met is contacting his next of kin.

A murder investigation has been launched and inquires are under way. No arrests have been made.

Windrush Road is in the area less than a mile away from where a two-year-old boy was shot in Energen Close on 3 June. A few miles away in Brent, there have been four other murder investigations launched in 2020, including the deaths of sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman who were fatally stabbed in Fryent Country Park in June.

So far this year there have been more than 65 murder investigations launched across London. Nine of those homicides have involved a firearm and 36 have been caused by a stab wound.

Iran says it has executed a former defence ministry employee convicted of selling information to the US.

The execution of Reza Asgari took place last week, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told reporters. Mr Esmaili said that Asgari had passed on details about Iran’s missile programme to the Central Intelligence Agency after retiring from the defence ministry’s aerospace division in 2016. He did not mention when Asgari was arrested, put on trial or sentenced.

Mr Esmaili made the announcement while responding to a question about another man convicted of spying, Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd.
He has been sentenced to death for providing intelligence to the CIA and Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency on the movements of Iranian forces in Syria.

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The ex-head of the Islamic police in Timbuktu was part of a «reign of terror» in the Malian city in 2012, prosecutors in The Hague say.

Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoude refused to enter a plea to the International Criminal Court (ICC) charges, which include torture and sexual slavery. He was a member of an Islamist militant group that imposed strict Islamic law. He is also charged with directing attacks against historic monuments.

These include ancient manuscripts and buildings dedicated to Islam, which the militants considered idolatrous.

Mr Al Hassan was handed over to the ICC in 2018 by the Malian authorities – five years after French troops helped liberate Timbuktu from the jihadists. He is accused of being a key member of Ansar Dine, the militants who occupied Timbuktu in May 2012 – one of several Islamist groups to exploit an ethnic Tuareg uprising at the time to take over cities in northern Mali.

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