Eleven-month-old Charlie Gard, whose short life captured the hearts of the world, has died a week before his first birthday. 

Charlie suffered from a rare genetic condition which saw him in hospital for the majority of his short life.

His parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, fought a lengthy and emotional legal battle to take their severely ill baby son to the US for treatment, but were denied by judges.

Charlie's mother, Connie, said tonight: 'Our beautiful little boy has gone, we are so proud of you Charlie.'

Yesterday courts denied his parents the chance to bring their son home to die and he was taken to a hospice. Charlie's plight has seen hundreds of supporters - called Charlie's Army - lending their voices and money to see the child given treatment, with £1.35 million raised on an online fund-raising site.

Pope Francis and US president Donald Trump weighed into the debate, with the Vatican saying the pontiff prayed for 'their wish to accompany and treat their child until the end is not neglected'. The protracted legal battle saw the couple take their case to the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court - all of which ruled life support treatment should end and Charlie should be allowed to die with dignity. Judges at the European Court of Human Rights refused to intervene in the case - and the couple said they had been denied their final wish to be able to take their son home to die and felt 'let down' following the lengthy legal battle.

The couple, of Bedfont, west London, ended their legal battle on July 24, in what they called the 'most painful of decisions' and their son was moved to a hospice on July 27 . 

Charlie, who was born on August 4 last year, has a form of mitochondrial disease, a condition that causes progressive muscle weakness and brain damage.

Described as 'perfectly healthy' when he was born, Charlie was admitted to hospital at eight weeks and his condition has progressively deteriorated. The couple said they wanted to take their son across the Atlantic for nucleoside bypass therapy, but specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where Charlie was being cared for, said the treatment was experimental and would not help.

They paid tribute to their 'absolute warrior' less than a fortnight before his first birthday on the steps of the High Court, with father Chris saying: 'Mummy and Daddy love you so much Charlie, we always have and we always will and we are so sorry that we couldn't save you.

'We had the chance but we weren't allowed to give you that chance. Sweet dreams baby. Sleep tight our beautiful little boy.'

Charlie's parents added they believed their son might have been saved if experimental therapy had been tried sooner.

Ms Yates said time had been 'wasted', adding 'had Charlie been given the treatment sooner he would have had had the potential to be a normal, healthy little boy.'

Doctors at Great Ormond Street did not agree, with lawyers representing the hospital saying the 'clinical picture' six months ago had shown irreversible damage to Charlie's brain.

They said the 'unstoppable effects' of Charlie's rare illness had become plainer as weeks passed. The syndrome is an inherited disease which starts to show symptoms in infancy.

Most patients are born after a normal pregnancy and appear healthy at birth.

Symptoms usually begin to appear in the first few months of life.

It causes progressive muscle weakness, decreased muscle tone and kidney problems.

It also causes patients to lose motor skills such as standing, walking, eating and talking.

Eventually the muscles that control breathing become weak and respiratory failure is the most common cause of death.

Intelligence is not usually affected.

Children with severe forms of the condition usually survive for less than a year.

It is not yet fully understood what causes the condition but both parents of the child have to carry the gene mutation.

It is recessive meaning a child has a 25 per cent chance of suffering from the disease if both their parents carry the mutation.

Waterloo Road actress Holly Matthews has spoken of her heart-wrenching grief as she sits with her husband Ross Blair in a hospice during his final days.

Ross, son of ex - Aston villa player Andy Blair, was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour in 2014. 

The father-of-two is being cared for at the Myton Hospice in Coventry, where Holly has stayed with him day and night for a month.

Holly, who has also starred in Doctors and Casualty, has written a candid Facebook post as she sits as Ross's bedside in his final hours.

'What a reality to be waiting for one of the people you love most in the whole world to die and even hoping that it will come soon,' wrote Holly.

'That is a weird space to be in, but a space that I and his family are living in.

'Grieving before they have gone, waiting for the last breath, half knowing it's best if it is, half relieved when it's not.

'None of this feels real at all and I keep having moments of happend what the  'how did we even get here?!' Ross, who is just 32, was diagnosed with a rare grade-4 primitive neuroectodermal tumour (PNET), and underwent brain surgery and chemotherapy.

At the time doctors gave him the devastating diagnosis that he had a 50/50 chance of surviving more than five years.

But Ross, a property developer, responded well to the treatment and the tumour remained stable for two years.

Things looked hopeful, and the couple - who have been together for nine years - were able to continue lives as normal, making happy memories with their daughters Brooke, now six, and Texas, four. But in 2016 a scan revealed that the tumour had grown, and on August 4 Ross underwent a second operation at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, where 75 per cent of the tumour was removed.

It was followed by radiotherapy and a year of chemotherapy tablets.

Again, Ross responded well, and the couple were able to go about their lives as normal, enjoying making memories with their family.

In May the family travelled to the Caribbean for a holiday, where Ross was feeling good. 

But just two days after they returned Ross suffered a seizure, and since then Holly said his health has rapidly deteriorated.

He was taken to hospital, then after a brief spell at home, he has been transferred to the Coventry hospice where Holly remains at his bedside. 'Nearly a month on, living in Myton Hospice and my amazing husband is still holding on,' said Holly.

'Of course he's now in a deep sleep, not eating, drinking, or conscious of his surroundings, but his strong body is fighting for him and sadly at this stage it is kind of working against him. 

A double manhunt has been launched after a 15-year-old girl was raped by two different men in the same day.

The teen was first assaulted in a secluded part of Witton railway station, in Birmingham, between 7pm on Tuesday and 2am the following morning.

She had walked to the station with her friend, but was led away by a man who approached her. Shortly after that attack, the girl walked out of the station and flagged down a passing vehicle to ask for help.

However, after getting in the car she was then raped a second time by another man.

A major investigation, involving detectives from both British Transport Police (BTP) and West Midlands Police, is now under way to try to identify both attackers and appeal for witnesses.

The first attacker is described as Asian with light skin, brown eyes, was of a skinny build and about 6ft tall.

He was wearing a track suit top and bottoms, black trainers and was in his early 20s. The second attacker is also described as Asian, in his early 20s, 5ft 6/7ins tall, of large build with a tight-cropped beard and was wearing a blue jumper and black jeans.

BTP Detective chief inspector Tony Fitzpatrick said: 'This was a horrifying ordeal for this young girl and we have specially trained officers supporting her.

'It is now vitally important we investigate exactly what happened on Tuesday morning as well as identifying offenders for both of these awful incidents.

'My detectives are currently examining all available CCTV in an effort to identify the offenders and whilst these enquiries are made, we are keen to speak with any potential witnesses.

'Whilst this incident happened during the early morning and there may not have been many people around, I would be keen to speak with anyone who may have been in the area at the time.

'If you were passing by the station and saw two girls walking with an older man, then please get in touch immediately.

'Likewise, if you saw any suspicious vehicles close to Witton station close to 2am then please get in touch as soon as possible.

'Your information could prove vital in our inquiries to identify the perpetrators.' 

Mr Fitzpatrick added: 'We are now doing all we can to trace the people responsible and bring them to justice.' 

The ringleader of the London Bridge terror attack was filmed telling a former Muslim he should 'be killed' for leaving the religion less than a year before the bloody massacre.

Khuram Butt was wearing a Superman hoodie and smiled as he threatened another man in Hyde Park corner, the BBC reports.

The altercation is believed to have happened in August last year, nine months before eight people were murdered in the Saturday night attack on London Bridge.

The man who filmed Butt has now said he wishes he had gone to police with the footage.  The witness, from north west London, told the BBC: 'He came up and said "I want top have a discussion". 

'He turned suddenly and got personal and started threatening that I'm going to kill you.

'He was just threatening and very aggressive. I was scared, he said "if you do not honour my religion you should be killed".                                                        

• Khuram Butt was wearing Superman hoodie as he argued with people in London
• London Bridge terror attack ringleader told former Muslim he should 'be killed'
• The altercation is believed to have happened in August last year 
• Man who filmed Butt said he wishes he had gone to police with the footage 

Heroic Grenfell firefighters have said they were willing to die in the inferno as they desperately struggled to rescue everyone inside.

They relived their experiences of tackling the horrific fire in a new ITV documentary series exploring the challenges the brigade face every day.

A London Fire Brigade commander said as they battled flames they had 'no intention' of coming out until they had rescued everyone they could, despite their fear the burning building was on the verge of collapse. Commander Welch was one of the first senior officers to arrive at the scene and he described how the flames kept raging as more and more firefighers arrived.

He added: 'Initially they had six machines. Then they asked for eight, and then 10, and then 15, 20 and 25.'

Commander Welch said it very quickly became clear that they needed to declare a major incident .

Commander Pat Goulbourne, who was also at the scene, added that he knew Grenfell Tower and had be there before, reports the Mirror.

He said: 'I just knew we had the job of our lives on the go because already I could see fire from the lower floors and I could not believe I was looking at fire to the top floor. 'I've never seen anything like that. The fire was changing, it was moving rapidly. You could hear people screaming for help. There were people making signals for help. It was dreadful.' 

Commander Goulbourne described 'men, women and children' coming out of the building 'fully sooted'.

The men worked from a bridgehead post two floors below where the fire started on the fourth floor.

Commander Goulbourne said it was the busiest bridgehead he had ever seen.

The June 14 fire, which claimed at least 80 lives, is featured in the ITV series: Inside London Fire Brigade. TV crews followed the London Fire Brigade for 12 months, showing the diverse challenges they face.  

Commander Welch described the logistical problems the firefighters faced when they arrived at the 24-storey building in the early hours of the morning.

'We had our hoses going up the staircase, he said. 'We had people trying to get out coming down the staircase.

'We've got firefighters going up the staircase and the staircase was filling with smoke.

'The priority was really to try to reach the flats we knew had people in. The issue we had was the intensity of the fire'. 

A High Court judge has given Charlie Gard's parents until midday tomorrow to reach an agreement with Great Ormond Street Hospital on arrangements for the end of his life.

Mr Justice Francis said the 11-month-old will be transferred to a hospice where his ventilation tube will be removed if doctors and his parents fail to reach a compromise about how he should be cared for in his final moments.

Charlie's parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard had said it was their final wish to take him home to 'slip away' in his cot before his first birthday.

Both his parents and doctors have now conceded that he should move to a hospice - but continue to disagree over the detail of care plans.

Miss Yates and Mr Gard wanted to spend a week at a hospice with Charlie before he died.

But Great Ormond Street bosses said they were not satisfied that a properly-qualified specialist would be in control under the parents' plan, and said life-support treatment should end shortly after Charlie arrived at a hospice.

A family friend said the pair, 'will be devastated they have not been granted their final wishes as parents.'  

Charlie is only expected to spend a few hours in a hospice because they are not licensed to be able to look after him for more than a few hours once the ventilator is taken off. 

A shopkeeper has told how two teenagers raced into his East London off licence and screamed 'We've got acid on us!' as their skin was 'peeling off'. 

The man, who has asked not to be named, recalled the terrifying incident where two men were targeted with a 'noxious substance', which a police officer described as 'bleach', in Roman Road, Bethnal Green, at around 7pm this evening.

The attack comes after five people were left injured after having acid thrown in their faces in North and East London on July 13. Another person was injured in connection with the incident. The shopkeeper told the Mail Online: 'They were two Bengali boys who came into the shop. They had acid on their face and they were burning - their skin was peeling off.  'The ambulance caller was asking a lot of questions about it but what do I do - deal with the call or the water?

'I've never seen anything like this before. It's really scary.

'I think the boys had been attacked elsewhere and then got in their car and drove here to get water. Their car was outside.

'Their face and their legs were all burnt. One of them was saying: "Put the water in my jeans". 

Witnesses said a blue tarpaulin has been erected to shield the victims from the public.

Four fire engines, police and paramedics are at the scene, which was cordoned off. 

Footage posted online by Mr Lennon shows a topless man pouring water on to his face as he is surrounded by five paramedics as a policeman watches on.

Another man is seen sitting on the pavement as he has his blood pressure taken by the medics. Please click, comment, sibscribe to our blog 

An Indian Muslim make up artist was dragged from the shower and Tasered before being raped and murdered in an alleged 'honour killing' because she fell in love with an Arab Muslim, a court has heard.

Celine Dookhran, 19, was found dead inside a £1.5million South London house after her friend managed to escape despite having her throat slit in the same attack. 

The court was told Miss Dookham had been in a relationship with an Arab Muslim and her family members did not approve because they were Indian Muslims. 

The survivor, who is in her twenties, claims she heard her friend scream as she was dragged from the shower and stunned with a Taser before she herself was taken from her bed. 

The victims were bound with duct tape and rope and had socks shoved into their mouths before being rolled up into dust sheets and thrown into a vehicle by two men in balaclavas.

They were driven five miles to a house under renovation before Miss Dookhran was raped and murdered – but the second woman fled.

Mujahid Arshid, 33, appeared before magistrates in Wimbledon yesterday charged with the murder, rape, and kidnap of Miss Dookhran and the attempted murder, rape and kidnap of the second woman. Vincent Tappu, 28, was charged with the kidnap of both.                                                                                                                              Smileband want to address a word of support to women that have suffered the torment of rape, it's a very disturbing element to a women's life, there are key developing support organisations that can help women with this cause of a nightmare, our thoughts go out to the family of miss Dookran, we wish to exceed the support further in the future by aiding support in some sort of way. Please click, share, subscribe to our blog. 

The people who find themselves homeless, Lee Davies, a 24-year-old from Plymouth who now sleeps rough in London, was kicked out of his home due to the end of an assured-shorthold tenancy. The Most recent government data shows that a third of all households in England made homeless, 40% in London, were due to a landlord ending a tenancy – up from 11% of all cases in 2009. With the rise of private renting, the precarity of the tenure has been reflected in the cases councils see in their homelessness applications.                                When Davies approached his local authority for help finding accommodation, he found little sympathy: on one occasion, he was informed that as a single young man he was low priority; on another advised to rent another property, despite the fact he had no money for a deposit; and on a third visit, told he was “intentionally homeless” because he could have found somewhere else to live after his landlord had given him notice. Finally, he gave up, relying on friends’ sofas – but eventually his friends’ patience ran out.                                                      At that point, he found a novel way of finding places to sleep. “If I went on Grindr, I could meet men who had their own flats and offer to spend the night with them. Then I could have a shower, charge my phone, and go out,” he tells me. “I didn’t like some of the guys, but the alternative was sleeping in shop doorways, so it was all about weighing up the pros and cons.”

But then Davies’s phone was stolen and this lifeline was cut off. Now he has no way to contact friends and family, and sleeps rough in central London. “At least when I could still get online, I could pretend this was temporary and that everything was fine; but now no one knows where I am, and if they wanted to find me, they couldn’t.” He has bruises on his neck, from a few nights ago when he slept in a doorway near a cashpoint and a drunk man in a suit kicked him repeatedly while swearing at him.

Davies’s situation is not unique, and is becoming increasingly common. The government’s Most recent figures from autumn 2015, estimate that there are 3,569 rough sleepers on any one night in England – more than double the number in autumn 2010, when it was 1,768. And sources told the Observer this month that This year counts, which has only just finished, is likely to be higher again.                                                                                                        

In cities around the country, homelessness has increased visibly, with many more people on the streets. The highest rates of rough sleeping are in Westminster, Bristol and Brighton and Hove, the government figures suggest. London has the Highest rate of street homelessness and Adam Williams, office manager at a support organisation Christian homelessness charity in Manchester, says the number of people requesting their services has never been higher than this year. “People are visibly affected when they visit London at the moment, especially if they haven’t been here for a few years. However, my fear is that people will become desensitised to the situation [so many people sleeping rough] and that within a year it will just become a normal state of affairs in most people’s eyes. Smileband pushes people to give a pound to these organisation as they bring change to a person who need help living ruff in the uk. Story like this makes us understand how we have things so much different and these people can have that change as well, please bring back human rights to people living in the uk. Please click, share, comment, subscribe too it blog. 

U.K. Police force are to be provided with acid response kits to tackle the escalating scourge of violence in which corrosive liquids are used as weapons across the country.

Britain's largest police force are to roll out new measures as part of a targeted operation which includes distributing 1,000 acid relief kits to London's police force today.

 Police said that they are issuing guidelines for dealing with corrosive liquids in accordance with national police policy.

A recent chemical scare in Solihull, spread the 'face melter' fear of corrosive substances beyond London's borders when a man shouted 'I've got acid' before squirting what is now thought to be cleaning fluid in the face of a drinker outside a pub last week.

And a major operation has been launched in London to combat the rise in acid attacks, which have claimed multiple victims in the capital in recent months.

Five litre bottles of water are now to be stocked in emergency patrol cars across the the capital to provide vital and immediate treatment on the scene. Smileband does not agree with the violence that has been growing in the heart of cities around the uk.            We hope to aid a right strategy to build secure jobs in the uk based around support for people that follow us. Please click, comment, subscribe to our blog.