• Keysight sparks £1.1bn bidding war for London-listed Spirent

    An American company is gatecrashing a £1bn agreed takeover of Spirent Communications, the cybersecurity specialist, in the latest example of a bidding war breaking out for a London-listed company. Sky News has learnt that Keysight Technologies, which is publicly traded in New York, is preparing to launch a formal offer for Spirent worth roughly 200p-a-share. That would value the FTSE 250 target at about £1.15bn. Keysight's bid will trump a 175p-a-share bid unveiled last month by Viavi Solutions,...

  • International Paper boxes clever with £5bn-plus DS Smith counterbid

    A New York-listed paper producer is mobilising to gatecrash a £5.1bn takeover of DS Smith, the British-based packaging group. Sky News understands that International Paper has indicated to DS Smith that it wants to launch a formal counterbid to trump an agreed offer from DS Smith by Mondi, another London-listed paper group. If it does proceed with a formal offer - which is expected to comprise a large stock-based component - it would set the stage for a multibillion-pound transatlantic bidding...

  • Aliyah Jaico, eight, dies after being 'violently sucked' into hotel swimming pool pipes in Texas

    An eight-year-old girl died after being "violently sucked" into piping at a hotel swimming pool, her family has said. Aliyah Jaico had been enjoying a dip with her family at the DoubleTree hotel in Houston, Texas, when the tragedy happened on Saturday 23 March. Lawyers representing the family said she was in the "lazy river style" pool when she was "violently sucked into a 12 to 16-inch unsecured gap in the swimming pool flow system". Her body was later found around 6m (20ft) deep inside the...

  • Tories have overseen nuclear 'renaissance' claims Sunak - despite minister saying UK is 'running to catch up'

    Rishi Sunak has claimed his party has overseen a "renaissance" in the nuclear industry - just hours after one of his ministers suggested plans for the sector should have been laid out "years ago". The prime minister said the Conservatives supported nuclear power and the UK's nuclear deterrent as he visited the home of the UK's nuclear submarine fleet, Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria. The site will get £20m of public money and £180m a year over the next decade in a move the government hopes will...

  • Ecuador's youngest mayor Brigitte Garcia and aide shot dead in latest bout of political violence

    Ecuador's youngest mayor and an aide were shot dead on Sunday, police in the South American country have said. Brigitte Garcia, 27-year-old mayor of San Vicente, and her communications director Jairo Loor, were found dead in Manabi province, officers said. Police added that the pair had both suffered gunshot wounds and that the gunfire had come from within the car, which was rented. Ms Garcia - a member of former president Rafael Correa's left-wing Citizen Revolution Movement party - is the...

  • Four die after rally car crashes into spectators in Hungary

    Four people have died after a rally car veered off the road and crashed into a group of spectators in Hungary. At least eight others were injured in the crash during a race between the towns of Labatlan and Bajot near the Danube River in the northwest of the country. Police said in a statement that the reason for the crash is not yet known. Eight ambulances and four rescue helicopters went to the scene, according to local media. from Sky News:What Moscow atrocity footage tells us about...

  • Mountain lion attacks two brothers, killing one and injuring the other

    A mountain lion has killed one man and left another with "traumatic injuries" to his face, authorities in the US state of California have said. The two brothers were hunting for shed antlers when they were attacked by the mountain lion in Georgetown, a remote part of El Dorado County. The younger brother, 18, called the county sheriff's office on Saturday afternoon to report he and his 21-year-old brother were attacked by the lion. Deputies arrived around 1.30pm to find the younger man with...

  • Kate's cancer diagnosis: From conspiracies to compassion - how the tone in the US has changed

    Following weeks of intense speculation, not just on social media but by some news outlets, too, there has been a change in tone from the US in its coverage of the Princess of Wales's health. As in the UK, Kate's cancer diagnosis dominated the major broadcasters and newspapers on Friday. It is a definite shift from the coverage that has played out in recent weeks, as jokes were made and conspiracy theories spread following the release of the now infamous doctored Mother's Day photo from...

  • Kate cancer latest: King releases statement; royal correspondent on why diagnosis revealed now

    Kate, the Princess of Wales, has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. In a video message, the princess said, "it has been an incredibly tough couple of months for our entire family". Follow all the latest Sky News coverage in the stream below.

  • Mississippi 'Goon Squad' officers jailed for torturing two black men

    Two former Mississippi sheriff's deputies who were members of a group calling itself "the Goon Squad" have been handed lengthy prison sentences for their part in torturing two black men. Hunter Elward, 31, was jailed for 20 years, and Jeffrey Middleton, 46, was sentenced to 17-and-a-half years on Tuesday during back-to-back proceedings at a federal court in Jackson, Mississippi, according to the US Justice Department. They were two of six officers who burst into a house in Braxton, Mississippi,...

  • Aaron Taylor-Johnson: Who is he and what are his James Bond credentials?

    He's being touted as the next 007, but who is Aaron Taylor-Johnson - and does he have the action and acting skills to be the next James Bond? First off, who is he? The 33-year-old British star was born Aaron Perry Johnson in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, in 1990. Excelling at drama, dance and singing, he was a successful child actor - with his first professional stage appearance aged just six in a London production of Macbeth. As a teenager he appeared in movies including Shanghai Knights in...

  • Oprah Winfrey on past weight shaming and starving herself for months

    Oprah Winfrey says she "starved herself" for months before wheeling out a "wagon of animal fat" to represent all the weight she'd lost on an episode of her talk show back in 1988, all in a bid to combat the "shame" she felt around her weight. The 70-year-old star - who has been ranked among the most influential women in the world - described the criticism she had received over her weight during her career, saying that for more than two decades "making fun of my weight was a national sport". he...