Lady Gaga’s French bulldogs have been found safe and unharmed – two days after being stolen at gunpoint in Los Angeles.

The pop star had been offering $500,000 for the safe return of Koji and Gustav – and had written in a previous Instagram post that her “heart is sick” and she was praying for their return.

Her friend Ryan Fischer, who was shot while walking the pets, is expected to make a full recovery.

“I can confirm that the dogs have been located and are safe,” Captain Jonathan Tippet said.

According to police, Mr Fischer had attempted to fight off the armed robbers – and one of the men was wielding a semi-automatic handgun.

Gaga said: “I continue to love you Ryan Fischer, you risked your life to fight for our family. You’re forever a hero.”

A Berlin-born man who threatened to blow up an NHS hospital unless he was paid £10m in cryptocurrency has been convicted of extortion by a German court.

Emil A, an Italian national, sent the first threatening email to the NHS in April 2020 – at the height of the first peak of the coronavirus pandemic – purporting to be a member of the far-right group Combat 18.

Over a six-week period he sent 18 emails, also making threats to blow up BLM protests and murder members of parliament.

The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said their experts worked 24 hours a day analysing leads and electronic communication, eventually tracking Emil A down to a flat in the German capital.

On 15 June, specialist firearms officers from Berlin Police used explosives to force entry to his flat and arrest him.

The 33-year-old – who has been in custody since his arrest – was sentenced to three years in prison, but released on bail by the court before his judgment is ratified.

Tim Court, the NCA’s head of investigations, said Emil A’s actions were “the most significant threat we’ve seen to UK infrastructure” – and that he sought to hijack significant social events like the BLM protests for monetary gain and disrupt the treatment of people suffering with coronavirus.

Mr Court said: “At the height of this we were losing nearly 1,000 people a day and we had to manage someone threatening to plant a bomb. He didn’t have access to it, but if [his threat] had become public, the impact on the confidence of people to go to hospital would have been significant.”

Authorities say Emil A didn’t have any links to the UK or its health service, but that his aim was to exploit the vulnerability of NHS, which was dealing with an influx of COVID-19 patients in the first wave of the pandemic.

Nigel Leary, deputy director of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit, said a phone call threatening to detonate a bomb in hospital could have resulted in a loss of life because it would have been difficult to evacuate patients on ventilators.

Detectives were initially unsure whether Emil A operated alone or as part of a group, but concluded that he didn’t have any links to far-right organisations and posed as a member of a neo-Nazi group in order to stoke fear.

An NHS spokesperson said: “The threat made during the extortion demand significantly added to the pressures on the NHS during the COVID pandemic and meant senior leaders and emergency response staff were called on to direct the NHS aspects of the response to this threat.

“The threat and demand was made at a time that hospitals were at their most vulnerable, and could have resulted in significant loss of life.”

More than 300 girls have been abducted from a boarding school in northern Nigeria in the latest in a series of student kidnappings in the country.

Gunmen abducted 317 students from the Girls Science Secondary School in Jangebe town, Zamfara state, on Friday.

Local man Musa Mustapha said the gunmen also attacked a nearby military camp and checkpoint, preventing soldiers from intervening at the school.

The attackers spent several hours at the camp, but there are no reports of any casualties.

Police and the military have since begun joint operations to rescue the girls, Zamfara state police spokesman Mohammed Shehu said.

Nasiru Abdullahi, who said his daughters, aged 10 and 13, were among the missing, told reporters: “It is disappointing that even though the military have a strong presence near the school, they were unable to protect the girls.

“At this stage, we are only hoping on divine intervention.”

Several large groups of armed men operate in Zamfara state, described by the government as bandits, and are known to kidnap for money and for the release of their members from jail.

Peter Hawkins, Nigeria’s UNICEF representative, called for the immediate release of the schoolgirls, saying: “We are angered and saddened by yet another brutal attack on schoolchildren in Nigeria.

“This is a gross violation of children’s rights and a horrific experience for children to go through.”

Nigeria has seen several such attacks and kidnappings over the years, notably the mass abduction in April 2014 by jihadist group Boko Haram of 276 girls from a secondary school in Chibok in Borno state.

More than a hundred of the girls are still missing.

Friday’s attack came less than two weeks after gunmen abducted 42 people, including 27 students, from the Government Science College Kagara in Niger State.

The students, teachers and family members are still being held.

In December, 344 students were abducted from the Government Science Secondary School Kankara in Katsina State before eventually being released.

And in 2019, a British aid worker, Faye Mooney, was killed by kidnappers in the country.

Anietie Ewang, Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch, said on Twitter: “Strong action is required from the authorities to turn the tide & keep schools safe.”

Amnesty International also condemned the latest “appalling attack,” warning in a statement that “the girls abducted are in serious risk of being harmed.”

Teachers have been forced to flee to other states for protection, and many children have had to abandon their education amid frequent violent attacks in communities, Amnesty said.