Alleged members of a global sextortion operation that targeted more than 100 victims and led to the death of a 17-year-old boy were extradited to the United States on Sunday to face federal criminal charges, authorities said.

Rex Heuermann was arrested on Thursday and charged with killing four women whose bodies were found along the Long Island coastline in 2010

A graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been charged with the murder of a faculty member following the deadly shooting on Monday. Tailei Qi, a PhD student majoring in applied physical sciences major, was arrested and booked into Orange County Sheriff’s Office jail on a first-degree murder charge. He was ordered held without bond on Tuesday and is expected to reappear in court on 18 September. The faculty member killed in the shooting was identified by UNC officials as Zijie Yan, the head of the Department of Applied Sciences and Mr Qi’s academic adviser. The motive for the shooting remains unclear. Authorities said during Mr Qi’s court hearing that a 9mm was used in the shooting. “[Mr Yan] was a beloved colleague, mentor and friend to many on our campus. My leadership team and I have met with his colleagues and family to express our condolences on behalf of our campus,” UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin M Guskiewicz said in a statement. “Please join me in thinking and praying for his family and loved ones during this difficult time.” The chancellor said students were “traumatised” following the shooting on Monday that prompted a three-hour lockdown. Read More UNC Chapel Hill graduate student Tailei Qi charged with murder in shooting of faculty member UNC Chapel Hill shooting victim identified as associate professor Zijie Yan UNC shooting suspect’s social media complaints about murdered faculty member revealed A new college term, a faculty member killed and a student arrested: What we know about the UNC shooting

The Webb Space Telescope is marking one year of cosmic photographs with one of its best yet

Denise Morgan was shot dead in an apparent murder-suicide in New York City.

Seven years ago, I was at my local antenatal class preparing for the birth of my firstborn. In my forties and armed with a coloured birthing ball, I looked around and gasped. All the other soon-to-be-mums were at least a decade younger than me. Some were nearly half my age. It briefly panicked me. Would I make any friends? Why did I leave it so late to have kids? Was I doing something wrong? In hindsight, though, I had no reason to worry: your forties is absolutely the best decade in which to have your first child. According to data published last week in The Daily Telegraph, the number of women becoming first-time mothers in their forties has increased in recent years: today, one in 25 UK births is to a woman aged 40-plus. That’s a lot of women just like me, despite the fact that getting pregnant over 35 gets you labelled as someone of “advanced maternal age”. That might sound harsh until you remember that older pregnancies used to be termed “geriatric” – thank God that’s been phased out. I’ve never regretted waiting until my forties, even if I had been trying for children for years by that point. My story is undeniably unique: my partner Alex took his own life while we were doing IVF, but that didn’t stop me from continuing to try to get pregnant. The maternal call was strong, so I decided to carry on with the process using Alex’s frozen sperm. Today I have two beautiful daughters with him: Lola, seven, and Liberty, five. It is an understatement to say I was ready for a baby at 40. I was grounded. Confident. Unlike when I was in my twenties or thirties, I knew exactly who I was and what made me tick. I had life experience. I no longer got FOMO. I didn’t even drink, having been through hell and back to become sober 20 years earlier. My career was fully off the ground, and therapy had helped me identify the family dysfunction I knew to ditch for the sake of my kids. I also wasn’t worried about my body bouncing back after the birth. I just desperately wanted to be a mum. Of course, there are all sorts of advantages to having children in your twenties and thirties. A huge bonus is that you’re simply more fertile. According to research, 31 is the magic age to have a baby – you’re still as fertile as in your twenties, but you also have more money. I’m sure motherhood in your fifties is great, too – although using your own eggs is highly unlikely, unless you froze them at some point before you turned 35. It means that some older mums often turn to donor eggs. Thinking back on my twenties and thirties, I don’t know how I would have managed motherhood. I don’t think I was ready to put my own needs on hold. I can’t imagine how hard it would have been to juggle work and my children, especially with the spiralling costs of childcare. I do accept that there are greater risks inherent in waiting to have kids. Both the quantity and quality of eggs dwindle. The rates of failed fertilisation, miscarriage and birth defects rise with age. There’s also the social pressure that comes with not having children early – you’re forced into endless conversations about the “ticking timebomb” of your fertility, and expected to fend off probing inquiries about your biological clock. The British Fertility Society advises women to start trying for a baby by the age of 32 at the latest, for a 90 per cent guarantee of having a child without resorting to IVF. But this advice simply wouldn’t have worked for me – I was determined to find the right person to have children with, and that didn’t happen until I was 35. When mine and Alex’s attempts to naturally conceive failed, and then Alex died, only at that point did I know I had the maturity to go it alone. I do have some regrets – I wish I’d frozen my eggs at the peak of my fertility in my mid-twenties, for instance (this process costs between £4,000 and £7,000 in the UK). But otherwise, having children in my forties was the right thing to do. Yes, I had my wobbles. I remember sobbing on the bathroom floor after yet another failed pregnancy test. I would berate myself for leaving it so late. I had to force myself to remember that many women experience fertility struggles in their twenties and thirties, too. All of those anxious feelings, though, flew out the window once I had my first child. When I left the hospital to begin parenthood alone, a new bag of nappies in hand, I didn’t have a meltdown. I was just so grateful that I’d had a baby, especially when the odds seemed so stacked against me. Sleepless nights trying to coax my child back to sleep were what I had most desired. It was all so good, in fact, that I went on to have a second child in my forties. I had a spare embryo in a freezer in St Petersburg. Now I call her Liberty. Every day since becoming a mum, I have embraced the mess and chaos, and appreciate every minute. I’m sure my younger self would cringe at the thought of me spending my evenings helping my children with their homework. But I’m proud to say that I’m living my best life. Read More Vanessa Hudgens addresses pregnancy speculation amid Cole Tucker engagement Rachel Bilson reveals she’s suffered multiple miscarriages Pregnant woman has maternity photo shoot in hospital before giving birth Hailey Bieber responds to ‘disheartening’ pregnancy rumours Like Rebecca Adlington, I also lost my baby at 20 weeks Britney Spears reveals she had an abortion while dating Justin Timberlake

Dwayne Johnson opened up about his friends across party lines during an interview on 'The Joe Rogan Podcast'

Egypt unexpectedly resumed its cycle of monetary tightening, seeking to tame inflation that’s running at an all-time high.

A surgical tool the size of a dinner plate was found inside a woman's abdomen 18 months after her baby was delivered by cesarean section, according to a report by New Zealand's Health and Disability Commissioner.

'Vladimir Putin made the wrong choice. All the worse for him. Soon we will have a new president,' said Yevgeny Prigozhin

Studies indicated that by 2030, nearly 400 Americans will fall ill due to this bacteria each year

Brandy McCaslin and her three children were found dead with gunshot wounds when police entered the house upon getting no response