The final toll of dead and missing from two refugee shipwrecks off Libya at the weekend has risen to 245, the United Nations high commission for refugees (UNHCR) has said. Tuesday’s revised estimate is partly based on horrific accounts from hospitalised survivors, and raises the death toll in the two incidents by about 50 people.

The revised tallies suggested that 82 went missing after a shipwreck on Friday night and a further 163 are feared dead in an incident off the Libyan coast on Sunday. The International Medical Corps said a woman and six men were rescued by the Libyan coast guards in the second incident. The new figures were given by the UNHCR at a briefing in Geneva. Overall the weekend disasters pushed the death toll on the Libya Mediterranean route for 2017 up to 1,300, while refugees and asylum seekers who successfully crossed the Mediterranean now number more than 43,000.(guardian)…[+]

Aine Lesley Davis, one of the British jihadis who brutalised and beheaded western hostages in Syria, has been convicted in Turkey on terrorism charges and jailed for seven and a half years. Davis, 35, is suspected by western intelligences services of being a member of the cell – along with Mohammed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John – that oversaw the beheadings of hostages including the British aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines and the US journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley.

He was found guilty at a court in Silivri, a town 45 miles west of Istanbul, of being a member of a terror organisation. Officials believe he had been plotting an attack in Turkey. The UK Foreign Office said it was aware of his conviction…[+]

The US watched Russians hack France’s computer networks during the presidential election – and tipped off French officials before it became public, a US cyber official has told the Senate.France’s election campaign commission said on Saturday that “a significant amount of data” — and some fake information — was leaked on social networks following a hacking attack on Emmanuel Macron’s successful presidential campaign.  France’s cybersecurity agency is investigating what a government official described as a “very serious” breach. The leak came 36 hours before the nation voted Sunday in a crucial presidential runoff between Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.(guardian)…[+]