Paris attacks
French police raid an apartment in Saint Denis following attacks that killed 129 people in Paris last week. Live updates from Paris and around the world.
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French police stand guard as people gather to look at the Eiffel Tower that is lit with the blue, white and red colours of the French flag in Paris in tribute to the victims of a series of deadly attacks on Friday in the French capital. REUTERS/Charles Platiau
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The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee has called on President Barack Obama to suspend plans to admit Syrian refugees into the United States, Fox News reported on Monday.
"Leaders from the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center, or NCTC, and Department of Homeland Security have repeatedly indicated to my committee that we lack the on the ground intelligence necessary to thoroughly vet Syrian refugees seeking to resettle here," Representative Michael McCaul said in a letter to Obama, the cable news outlet reported.
(Reporting by Timothy Ahmann; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
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The United States still plans to try to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees into the country in the coming year, the State Department said on Monday as the weekend attacks in Paris renewed scrutiny on Syrian migrants.
"These refugees are subject to the highest level security checks of any category of traveler to the United States," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told a news briefing. "We think we can do this safely and in a way that reflects American values."
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by David Alexander) -
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Facebook to enable safety check more in disasters after criticism https://t.co/M6wGGNoJDL via @Reuters2:30 PM - 16 Nov 2015
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Lots of people were talking about the new feature from Facebook that lets people mark themselves as safe during a crisis. There was some criticism that the feature was turned on for Paris, but not Beirut, which saw deadly suicide bombings a day earlier than the Paris attacks. Facebook apparently took the criticism to heart...Facebook to enable safety check more in disasters after criticism
Facebook Inc vowed on Monday to turn on its "Safety Check" feature more often during disasters in response to growing criticism that it only enabled the function after the attacks in Paris.
In the wake of the deadliest attack on Europe in over a decade that killed at least 129 people and injured many more, millions of people used Facebook's Safety Check tool to tell their friends they were safe.
But many users on the social media platform criticized Facebook for not mobilizing the same safety function during other attacks around the world, especially after suicide bombings in Beirut a day earlier that killed at least 43 people. Facebook's safety check feature was launched in October 2014.
Read more at Reuters -
Republican Rand Paul to offer bill to halt U.S. visas for refugees
Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Rand Paul said on Monday he would introduce a bill to put an immediate moratorium on U.S. visas for refugees fleeing extremist groups.
Paul, speaking after attacks in Paris last week linked to Islamic State militants, said he would halt visas for people from about 30 countries with major jihadist activity and impose a waiting period for people coming from countries that have visa waiver agreements with the United States.
(Reporting by Emily Stephenson; Editing by Mohammad Zargham) -
Republican presidential candidates vow tougher approach to Islamic State
ReutersRepublican presidential candidates vowed to take a tougher approach to Islamic State militants on Monday with Jeb Bush saying a larger troop presence is needed and Donald Trump saying he would consider closing some mosques in the United States. -
Kerry arrives in Paris in show of U.S. support after attacks
ReutersU.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Paris on Monday to pay respects to those killed in last week's attacks in the French capital and to stress Washington's support for a key ally in the war against Islamic State militants. -
Syrian peace process offers hope post-Paris
ReutersAfter the attacks, outside powers called for a ceasefire followed by a political transition. A big obstacle is that Russia and America don’t agree on what should happen to Assad. But it’s the best chance to end the war, crush Islamic State and solve the refugee crisis. -
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Paris attacks: What would it take for U.S. boots to hit the ground in Syria?
ReutersPressure on the White House to escalate the Syria/Iraq war has no doubt intensified post-Paris. Should Islamic State strike an American civilian target, President Barack Obama would be all but forced to "do something more." What might that "something" look like, and what would be the consequences? -
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Who were the Paris attackers?
ReutersFrance, which along with Belgium has launched a massive manhunt for people involved in the attacks that killed at least 129 people in Paris on Friday, is striving to establish the identities of the attackers and chief suspects. -
Obama, Congress heading for budget showdown over Syrian refugees
ReutersSome U.S. Republicans sought to use a must-pass spending bill on Monday to stop President Barack Obama's plan to accept thousands of Syrian refugees, saying the Paris attacks had proven they pose too much of a threat to the United States. -
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Two weeks ago, the mayor of Molenbeek ordered the closure of a neighborhood bar where Brussels police had found young men dealing drugs and smoking dope over the summer.Last Friday, the owner blew himself up at another laid-back corner cafe, this time in Paris, on a mission of retribution from Islamic State. Read more.
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"A lot of our partners right now in Europe are facing a lot of challenges in terms of the numbers of individuals who have traveled to Syria and Iraq and back again, and so their ability to monitor and survey these individuals is under strain,” Brennan said. Read more.Quietly moving modest numbers of airborne and special operations troops through Kurdish-held areas would be possible and necessary to attack Islamic State from a second front. - Columnist Peter Van Buren.
A spokesman for France's military command told Reuters early on Tuesday that 10 French warplanes, launched from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, had conducted air strikes overnight targeting a command center and a recruitment center for jihadists in the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa. Read more. -
Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Germany fear that the attacks in Paris could further shift public opinion against the Berlin government's welcoming asylum policy. Read more.
"Texas cannot participate in any program that will result in Syrian refugees - any one of whom could be connected to terrorism - being resettled in Texas," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in an open letter to Obama on Monday. "Neither you nor any federal official can guarantee that Syrian refugees will not be part of any terroristic activity." Read more. -
France, which along with Belgium has launched a massive manhunt for people involved in the attacks that killed at least 129 people in Paris on Friday. Investigations are underway to establish the identities of the attackers and chief suspects. Read more about what we know. -
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The newspaper said police also found ammunition in one of the homes, including bullets used in Kalashnikov assault rifles of the kind used by some of the Paris attackers.A lawyer for one of the men, who has not been named, declined comment, telling Reuters she had not yet seen the police report. A lawyer for the other man, Mohamed Amri, has said that his client was unaware of any plot. Read more.
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DUESSELDORF, Germany, Nov 17 (Reuters) - German police in the western city of Aachen have arrested two women and one man in an operation linked to the attacks last Friday in Paris which killed at least 129 people, the police said on Tuesday.
The police declined to give any information on the identity or nationality of the three individuals. Aachen is close to Germany's border with Belgium and the Netherlands. -
"We are concerned about reactions by some states to end the programs being put in place, backtracking from commitments made to manage the refugee crisis (i.e. relocation), or proposing the erection of more barriers," UNHCR's chief spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said."We are deeply disturbed by language that demonizes refugees as a group. This is dangerous as it will contribute to xenophobia and fear."
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French warplanes targeted a command center and a recruitment center for jihadists in the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in the second consecutive night of strikes ordered by President Francois Hollande, a military command spokesman told Reuters.The strike involved 10 fighter jets launched from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. French defense officials said the United States had stepped up intelligence sharing, enabling Paris to identify more specific targets. Read more.
French President Francois Hollande waits for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (unseen) at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, November 17, 2015. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer -
Intelligence agencies have long argued for so-called "backdoors" that would enable them to monitor encrypted email messages, chat applications, phone calls and other types of electronic communications. But privacy advocates and technology companies staunchly oppose such backdoors and have successfully beaten back all legislative efforts to require them.A U.S. security official said there is no evidence yet demonstrating that the Paris attackers used a particular method for communicating, or whether any technology they used was encrypted in a particular way. The Islamic State has publicly claimed responsibility for the killings.Still, several lawmakers and U.S. intelligence officials seized on the attacks to lobby for backdoors. Read more.
People pray outside Le Carillon restaurant, one of the attack sites in Paris, November 15, 2015. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen -
VIENNA, Nov 17 - Austrian police are trying to pin down the movements in Austria of a suspect in Friday's attacks in Paris, who entered the country from Germany in early September and told the authorities he was on holiday, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.A government official named the man as Belgian-born Frenchman Salah Abdeslam, 26, who escaped back to Belgium on Saturday after the attacks and eluded a police dragnet in the Brussels neighbourhood of Molenbeek, where he lived with his two brothers. (Full Story)The Austrian interior ministry said Abdeslam entered Austria from Germany on Sept. 9 with two other men who so far had not been named in connection with the attacks.Abdeslam had attracted attention when the authorities stopped the vehicle he was travelling in."He said he was going on holiday in Vienna, but there are no further details yet," Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner told ORF radio. "Now the question is where did he stay in Austria, and for what purpose." More details.
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Turkey working to finish shutting northern Syria border -Kerry
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday the United States is starting an operation with Turkey to finish securing the northern Syrian border, an area that Islamic State militants have used as a lucrative smuggling route.
"The entire border of northern Syria - 75 percent of it has now been shut off. And we are entering an operation with the Turks to shut off the other remaining 98 km (61 miles)," he said in an interview with CNN.
Kerry arrived in Paris on Monday to pay respects to victims of Friday's militant attacks that killed 129 people.
The area where the operations would take place is now controlled by the radical Islamists. The United States and Turkey hope that by sweeping Islamic State, also frequently called Daesh, from that border zone they can deprive it of a smuggling route which has seen its ranks swell with foreign fighters and its coffers boosted by illicit trade.
Under a long-discussed joint U.S.-Turkish plan, moderate Syrian rebels, trained by the U.S. army, would be expected to fight Islamic State on the ground and help coordinate air strikes by the U.S. coalition, launched from Turkish air bases, under the strategy drawn up by Washington and Ankara.
Diplomats familiar with the plans have said cutting off one of Islamic State's lifelines could be a game-changer in that corner of Syria's complex war. The core of the rebels, who number less than 60, would be highly equipped and be able to call in close air support when needed, they say.
"We are in a common struggle with the U.S. against Daesh and in the coming days some steps will be taken together," a Turkish official told Reuters, declining to comment further.
But there are major challenges.
Turkey is distrustful of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which has proved a useful U.S. ally in fighting Islamic State. It controls adjacent territory on the eastern side of the Euphrates river, just across from Karkamis and the jihadist-held town of Jarablus. Ankara wants it to advance no further and considers the Euphrates a red line not to be crossed.
Earlier, speaking to reporters after meetings French President Francois Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in Paris, Kerry said increased coordination with Russia in the fight against Islamic State militants would require progress in the political process to end the Syrian war.
Kerry said agreements reached last week at Vienna peace talks on Syria, meant the country could be "weeks away, conceivably, of a big transition."
Kerry referred to independently conducted U.S. and Russian air strikes in Syria. -
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Belgium hits back at French criticism over lax intelligence
Belgium hit back on Tuesday at French complaints that it had dropped the ball in investigations into Islamist militants involved in last Friday's attacks in Paris.
French President Francois Hollande told parliament on Monday the coordinated suicide bombings and shootings which killed at least 129 people had been planned in Belgium. (Full Story)
A French intelligence source, commenting on Belgium's security resources, told AFP: "The Belgians just aren't up to it".
The comments drew wide coverage in media in Belgium, where officials scrambled to defend the country's record.
"A priori, there were only three individuals involved who came from Belgium, that means five were French," Guy Rapaille, the head of Belgium's intelligence oversight committee, told state broadcaster RTBF.
"It will be up to the investigation to decide where the attacks were planned. We cannot decide in advance who are the ones responsible," he added.
France has identified two of the suicide attackers as Frenchmen who were living in Belgium. An international arrest warrant has also been issued for the brother of one of the attackers, another Frenchman who was living in Molenbeek, a poor district of Brussels home to many Muslim immigrants which is now at the centre of investigations into the attacks.
Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens pointed to Belgian police uncovering a jihadist cell in the eastern Belgian town of Verviers in January and foiling a plan to launch an attack in Belgium.
"After Verviers, other countries congratulated us," Geens told RTBF.
"Now, just like others, we were unable to prevent things from happening. If there is blame, I do not mind looking into it when the time is right."
(Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Gareth Jones) -
French President Francois Hollande will travel to Washington on Nov. 24 and to Moscow on Nov. 26 to discuss the fight against Islamic State and situation in Syria, the presidency said in a statement on Tuesday.
The statement said the trips to meet President Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin would be made "in the context of action by the international community in the struggle against Daesh and the effort to rectify the situation in Syria," it said, referring to the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
Hollande on Monday called for a grand coalition to fight the group behind last Friday's bloody attacks on the French capital.
(Reporting by Andrew Callus; Editing by John Irish) -
Hong Kong gears up for fresh protests as activists target airport
HONG KONG Hong Kong braced on Friday for further demonstrations and a "stress test" of the city's international airport at the weekend, as nearly three months of anti-government protests showed no sign of abating.
