Facebook is launching a new platform that will allow users of the social network to access shows and clips created specifically for the site.

Watch is aimed at allowing the social network to take on web rivals You tube as well as more traditional TV.

It will feature a wide range of programming, from live sports matches and safari expeditions, to a reality show about a day in the life of a social media star.

The redesigned video tab will initially be available to a limited group in the US but will be expanded to all users. Facebook launched its the Video tab in April last year and rumours have been flying that the Menlo Park firm was working on a new TV service.

It was reported in May that Facebook had signed deals with millennial-focused news and entertainment creators Vox Media, BuzzFeed, ATTN, Group Nine Media and others to produce shows, both scripted and unscripted. US users who are selected for the trial will be able to create 'watchlists', see what their friends are watching, and communicate with other people interested in the same videos.

There will be sections such as 'Most Talked About', which highlights shows that spark conversation, and 'What's Making People Laugh'.

Some of the shows will be funded by the social network, particularly if they are 'community-orientated'.

In a post on his own Facebook page, founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said: 'Watching a show doesn't have to be passive. It can be a chance to share an experience and bring people together who care about the same things.

'That's why today we're launching the Watch tab in Facebook - a place where you can discover shows your friends are watching and follow your favorite shows and creators so you don't miss any episodes.

'You'll be able to chat and connect with people during an episode, and join groups with people who like the same shows afterwards to build community.'

Watch will be available on mobile, on desktop and laptop, and via the firm's TV apps.

Three people have been treated for minor injuries after an 'unidentified substance' was delivered in an envelope to a sushi restaurant in London Borough Market.

The Metropolitan Police said the incident is not being treated as terror-related 'at this early stage'.

Officers were called to Feng Sushi at 1.38pm on Thursday and no arrests have been made.

London Fire Brigade said firefighters using protective equipment were inside the building after they were called to assist police with a 'chemical incident'. 'A community warden then told me that a white powder had been received,' Mr Dawson added.

'I asked him for where he heard that and he couldn't say.

'Police on the scene didn't confirm anything. And Borough Market security said "some kind of corrosive material attack or incident".' 

The property in Stoney Street - one of the locations targeted by the London Bridge terrorists in June - was evacuated and a crime scene put in place.

London Ambulance Service said three people were treated at the scene and 'no one was taken to hospital'. 

She wanted to follow in the footsteps of her high-flying barrister father and was on the brink of starting a law degree that would have opened up a world of opportunities.

But instead Emily Bowen is beginning a prison sentence this week after a rivalry with another teenager from her orchestra led to a sickening acid attack at their school.

Bowen was jailed on Monday for putting drain cleaner in the viola case of love rival Molly Young, who was scarred for life when she went to get her instrument in the music room at Knox Academy, in Haddington, East Lothian.

It can be reported today that Bowen later wrote a fake poison pen letter in a bid to justify her shocking actions. 

The calculating move by Bowen took place six weeks after she had poured One Shot drain cleaner - containing 91 per cent sulphuric acid - into Molly's viola case. The corrosive liquid poured out of the case and onto 18-year-old Molly's legs as she took the instrument down from a shelf in the classroom. 

The girls, described as 'talented musicians', had fallen out when Miss Young began seeing Bowen's former boyfriend. Bowen was jailed for 21 months for the 'wicked' incident - which took place in September last year - at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Monday.

The court had previously been told that the 18-year-old had penned the poisonous letter to herself and signed it with her victim's name. 

Fiscal depute Aidan Higgins said: 'On November 10 last year Emily Bowen prepared a letter which appeared to come from Molly Young in which she talked of Emily Bowen to kill herself.

'Subsequently Emily Bowen admitted it was she who was the author of the letter. Bowen, from Haddington, is the daughter of Andrew Bowen QC and a family friend revealed the teenager wanted to follow in her father's legal footsteps as she was due to study law at Aberdeen University.

But those career dreams are now over for the acid attacker as she will spend the next 21 months behind bars instead.

The friend said: 'Emily had been accepted to Aberdeen University to take a law degree. She is a very intelligent girl and she would have sailed through any degree she wanted to do.

'She has always looked up to her father Andy and I think it was a dream of hers to follow him in his profession.'

Mr Bowen sat beside his daughter in the dock when she pleaded guilty to recklessly and culpably pouring sulphuric acid into Molly Young's viola case during a court hearing in June.

Mr Bowen has in the past worked for the United Nations in a legal capacity in the Gaza Strip, Kosovo and the West Bank. 

Sheriff Michael O'Grady QC described the attack as 'utterly wicked', telling Emily: 'In the period leading up to these events you actually researched this topic.

An 'infatuated' prison officer has been jailed for exchanging more than 850 text messages with an inmate at a young offenders institution.

Chelsea Blackwell, 27, made around 115 calls to Emmanuel Callender-Scott, an inmate at Aylesbury Young Offenders Institution, some of which lasted more than two hours.

She even tried to call him five times after his phone was seized in a cell search.

Blackwell, of Bootle, Merseyside, was handed an eight-month jail term today after admitting misconduct in a public office.

Callender-Scott, 22, was previously jailed for seven years for wounding with intent after he stabbed a cyclist and a Russian tourist on London's Regent's Canal.

The court heard that, in additional to the text messages and phone calls, four letters were seized from the prisoner's cell and a couple from Blackwell's home address.

Blackwell switched to using a second, 'dirty phone' mid-way through their relationship, the court heard. 'All these were seized and then at beginning of August Miss Blackwell's accommodation was searched and there was found some further letters and two mobile phones and the subsequent investigation really centres on those items.'

Tests carried out on the letters found in Callender-Scott's cell revealed Blackwell's fingerprints while a handwriting expert determined she had written them.

Although they were not read out to the court, Mr Mandel said: 'The language used is that of an infatuated person.'

Phone records between the pair's phones revealed more than 850 separate contacts made in the space of less than four weeks including calls more than two hours in length. 

'There were attempts to contact or make calls to the prisoner's number after the phone was seized from him so she was completely unaware of what had happened in terms of his cell being searched,' Mr Mandel continued.

'Some of the texts make it really clear that she was infatuated with this prisoner and contacted him and he contacted her often on a very frequent basis. The court heard that Blackwell had registered a 'conflict of interest' and was moved from A wing, where Callender-Scott was housed, to E wing, although she did go back and visit her old wing from time to time.

Defending barrister, John Lamb, told the court that Blackwell had since been fired from her job in the prison service and was now working at a dog kennels. 

The judge said: 'It's accepted that the offence consisted of communication only. There is no suggestion that you had taken anything into the prison for Mr Callender-Scott.

A British hostage who was held hostage by Al-Qaeda for six years has revealed he has converted to Islam and sees 'many good things' in the religion.

Stephen McGown, 42, was snatched from a hostel in the historic trading city of Timbuktu in northern Mali in 2011 alongside Swede Johan Gustafsson and Dutchman Sjaak Rijke.

Speaking today, just 10 days after his release, he said he had been well treated but was distraught to have not been freed before his mother died.

He said he had been converted to Islam in the Sahara desert and added he was determined to be positive after his ordeal. 'I see a lot of good in Islam. It has opened my eyes. It's taken me away from capitalism.' 

He revealed he feared for his life three times during his time in captivity, but stopped after his conversion.  He said his captors were unaware he held joint UK citizenship. 

'I don't believe they knew my nationality. It would have been first prize for them if I was British…they kidnapped me just because I was non-Muslim. McGown, 42, flanked by his wife Catherine and father Malcolm, explained how he was sometimes held in handcuffs and chains at night with two other hostages.

'I did my best to see the best in a bad situation,' McGown said, looking in good health and smiling regularly despite recently suffering from a severe fever and meningitis.

'I didn't want to come out an angry person and be a bigger burden on my family,' he added.

'Sometimes you are miserable and you want to fight everyone (but) I did not want to become a mess. I want to come home a better person.'

He paid tribute to his mother who died in May, saying she was 'an amazing lady and I can imagine the difficulties she went through.'

He said he built a simple hut of grass and sticks to survive the cold desert nights when he often had only one blanket, adding that he feared for his life three times in the first three months after he was captured in 2011.

Bank of England will continue to produce animal fat £5 notes despite thousands of complaints by vegans and religious groups.

BoE said today that there were environmental risks to using the alternative, derived from palm oil, and that the government had ruled it too expensive.

Polymer banknotes were launched last year, with the Mint claiming they were more durable and harder to fake. But more than 130,000 people signed an online petition calling on the BoE to stop using animal products in the notes after it emerged that they contained small amounts of tallow, which comes from cows and sheep. 

Some Hindu temples and vegetarian cafes refused to accept the new five pound note which features war time Prime Minister Winston Churchill

A BoE spokesman said: 'The Bank fully recognises the concerns raised by members of the public and has not taken this decision lightly.'

The only alternative for its polymer banknotes was to use more expensive chemicals derived from palm oil, and that its suppliers were unable to commit to that in an environmentally friendly way. 

Britain's planned new polymer 20-pound and its 10-pound notes, which will be launched in September, are also affected by Thursday's announcement.  The BoE said that as well as the environmental concerns about palm oil, cost was a consideration: the switch would add about 16.5 million pounds ($21.45 million) to the cost of making bank notes over the next 10 years. 'Her Majesty's Treasury advised the Bank that it does not believe switching to palm oil derivatives would achieve value for money for taxpayer,' it said.

Britain's polymer bank notes typically contain less than 0.05 percent of animal products, the BoE said.

Donald Trump has been spotted playing golf at his vacation destination Wednesday while the nuclear crisis escalates with North Korea after his 'fire and fury' threat.

North Korea's state run news agency KCNA dismissed his warning as a 'load of nonsense' and said that only 'absolute force' can work on someone as 'bereft of reason' as Trump' as the country steams ahead with its plan to strike the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam by mid-August.

Pentagon chief James Mattis issued his own warning among the increasingly aggressive rhetoric, telling Kin Jong that he risks destroying his regime and his people if he attacks.

The magnitude of the nuclear crisis was underlined as one White House aide, Sebastian Gorka, compared it to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Meanwhile, the president appeared to be unfazed by the escalating threat, as it was revealed to be on the course when his golfing companion, a New Jersey businessman, posted an Instagram picture saying their match had gone 'down to the 18th hole'.

Trump - who had tweeted that his 17-day stay at Bedminster, New Jersey, was not a vacation - did not have his game officially disclosed by the White House.

It is likely to fuel concerns over the response to the North Koreans' increasingly aggressive posture which in the space of 24 hours saw Trump and his Secretary of State Tillerson apparently at odds, and his Pentagon chief James Mattis revealed to have been initially out of the loop. 

Mattis weighed in with his own stern warning to North Korea on Wednesday afternoon - shortly before the Instagram image emerged - invoking the 'end' of its regime following President Trump's own admonition that Pyongyang's threats would bring 'fire and fury.'

• Trump was revealed to be golfing on Wednesday as the tense stand-off with North Korea escalated
• One adviser - aide Sebastian Gorka - compared it to the Cuban missile crisis but Trump was photographed on the course by a New Jersey businessman who said their game had gone to the 18th hole
• Defense Secretary James Mattis issued a statement referencing the potential 'end' to the DPRK regime 
• He touted 'the most precise, rehearsed and robust defensive and offensive capabilities on Earth' and said: 
• North Korea said it is 'carefully examining' a plan to strike Guam and it will be put in place once leader Kim Jong Un makes a decision
• North Korea's state run news agency dismissed Trump's 'fire and fury' warning as a 'load of nonsense' and said that only 'absolute force' can work on someone as 'bereft of reason' as Trump' 
• Threat came after Trump said that additional threats of violence against the U.S. 'will be met with the fire and the fury like the world has never seen'
• US officials believe Kim Jong-Un has built a miniaturized warhead for missiles and are ramping up their rhetoric in turn' Defense Intelligence officials say he now has 60 nuclear weapons in his arsenal