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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Reuters UKFrance wants the United Nations Security Council to push all able states to join the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq after the militants claimed responsibility for downing a Russian plane over Egypt and attacks in Paris, Lebanon, Turkey, and Tunisia. -
Reuters UKLethal U.S. drone strikes in the Middle East are fuelling hatred towards the West and spurring the expansion of Islamist militant groups such as ISIS, a group of former U.S. military airmen said on Thursday. -
The National Assembly is lit with the blue, white and red colours of the French flag in Paris, France, November 19, 2015, to pay tribute to the victims of a series of deadly attacks that occurred last Friday in the French capital. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen
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Reuters UKFrench nationals are among those held in the siege of a luxury hotel in Mali's capital Bamako on Friday, a source close to French President Francois Hollande said.
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Reuters UKBelgian authorities continued to hold two of the nine people detained on Thursday in a series of raids in Brussels related to the Paris attacks and one of the suicide bombers, federal prosecutors said on Friday.
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Reuters UKEU interior and justice ministers met in Brussels on Friday pledging solidarity with France in the wake of the Paris attacks a week ago and promising a series of new measures on surveillance, border checks and gun control.
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Reuters UKThree men from Belgium were being questioned by police in Rotterdam on Friday, hours after their car was identified as suspect, leading to the evacuation of a restaurant where the city's mayor was eating.
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Reuters UKMalaysia deployed extraordinary security measures around Kuala Lumpur on Friday as world leaders arrived for a pair of weekend summits amid fresh attacks by Islamist militants.
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An Alpini Regiment of the Italian Army checks visitors outside the Milan's cathedral, northern Italy. Police in Italy and Sweden hunted suspected militants and increased security around public buildings on Thursday after receiving reports that attacks might be planned on their soil following last week's mass killings in Paris. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo
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ReutersThe question facing France, and all of us shaken by this unbordered terror, is how we fight for free intellectual space in our cities and ourselves. One of the best ways I know, as a student and lecturer in classics, is to listen to history’s echoes in the present.
By Lex Paulson for Reuters Opinion -
ReutersIn the aftermath of the horrific attacks in Paris, politicians and commentators appear engaged in a dangerous contest to surpass each other in doomsday predictions.By Mike Duncan for Reuters Opinion
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Reuters UKOne of the attackers who blew himself up in Paris's Bataclan concert hall had missed at least three weekly check-ins with French police who were investigating him on suspicion of terrorism-related activity.
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Reuters UKMoroccan authorities last month arrested Yassine Abaaoud, a younger brother of the suspected Islamic State mastermind of the Paris attacks after he arrived in his father's hometown of Agadir, a Moroccan security source said on Friday.
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Reuters UKMosques across France held their weekly services on Friday in the shadow of last week's Paris massacre by Islamist militants, with sermons rejecting violence and asking how some radical French Muslims could support it.
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Rome to install metal detectors at Colosseum after Paris attacks
Authorities in charge of Rome's Colosseum will install metal detectors at the entrance to the almost 2,000 year-old amphitheatre as cities across Europe tighten security in the wake of last week's deadly attacks in Paris.
A spokesman for Rome's archeological sites said the killing of 129 people by Islamic militants in France prompted the decision to set up the devices around the venue that in Roman days hosted gladiator fights.
Italy has increased security in the past week and the United States Embassy in Rome warned U.S. citizens on Thursday that big tourists sites, churches, synagogues, restaurants, theatre and hotels in both the capital and in Milan could be targeted. (Full Story)
Security staff at the Colosseum already had hand-held metal detectors but the upgrade should ensure greater protection, the spokesman said.
(Reporting by Isla Binnie; Editing by Angus MacSwan) -
Russia's Security Council head met France's intelligence coordinator - RIA
The head of the Russian Federation Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, met France's intelligence coordinator Didier le Bret in Moscow on Friday, RIA news agency reported, citing the council.
Patrushev and le Bret discussed cooperation aimed at providing security in the Middle East and fighting against terrorism, it added.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Polina Devitt) -
LISTEN: One phrase from Saudi clerics could begin the end of Islamic State: https://t.co/ulKNCKy5sp https://t.co/IKZuA3A1OB
5:14 PM - 19 Nov 2015- Reply
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Russian, Syrian, jets bomb Islamic State-held eastern Syria - monitor
Russian and Syrian warplanes launched dozens of air strikes on Islamic State-held areas of eastern Syria on Friday, after the group's fighters staged an assault on an air base near the city of Deir al-Zor, a monitoring group said.
In at least 50 bombing raids, towns across Deir al-Zor province, including near the Iraqi border, were hit and dozens of vehicles and fuel oil tankers were destroyed, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Eight civilians were killed in the bombardment, including three children, the Observatory said, describing the intensity of the strikes on the province as "unprecedented".
Deir al-Zor province links Islamic State's de facto capital in Raqqa with territory controlled by the group in Iraq. Syrian government control is limited to an air base and part of Deir al-Zor city.
The strikes were launched after Islamic State fighters launched a fresh attempt at dawn to overrun the air base where government troops are holed up just south of Deir al-Zor city.
At least 20 Islamic State fighters and eight soldiers have been killed in clashes there so far.
Fighting has surged across the country since Russia launched an air campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad on Sept. 30 with the stated aim of hitting Islamic State but mostly bombing other rebel groups in the west of the country.
Islamic State has also come under pressure as a U.S.-led coalition, accompanied by some rebel groups on the ground, wages air strikes against it in eastern Syria.
(Reporting by John Davison; Editing By Richard Balmforth) -
Tapped phone led Paris attack leader to his death
Nov 20 (Reuters) - The top suspect behind last week's Paris attacks was watched by police being led into a building by a woman suicide bomber the evening before they both died there during a raid by special forces, a police source said on Friday.
Police had been tapping the phone of Hasna Aitboulahcen as part of a drugs investigation and were able to track her down to the Saint-Denis suburb north of the French capital.
They watched the 26-year-old take Abdelhamid Abaaoud, suspected mastermind of the Nov. 13 bombings and shootings that killed 130 people, into the building where both died early on Wdnesday morning.
She detonated a suicide belt during the seven-hour police assault on the building, where officials said a third unidentified person died with them. Aitboulahcen may be Abaaoud's cousin.
Once they learned Abaaoud was in France from Moroccan officials, French police focused on Aitboulahcen, a woman with links to him whom they were already trailing.
Earlier, a police source said Abaaoud had been identified on CCTV footage recorded at a suburban metro station at the same time as the killings were in progress in central Paris.
He was seen at the Croix de Chavaux station in Montreuil, not far from where one of the cars used in the attacks was found, one of the police sources said.
In response to the attacks, police carried out raids across France for a fifth night. A bill to extend a state of emergency until February and give the police new powers goes before the upper house of the French parliament later on Friday.
So far, police have searched 793 premises, held 90 people for questioning, put 164 under house arrest and recovered 174 weapons including assault rifles and other guns, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.
Police searched a mosque in Brest in western France. Its imam, Rachid Abou Houdeyfa, who has strongly condemned the Paris attacks, achieved notoriety earlier this year after telling children they could be turned into pigs for listening to music. -
Exclusive: Paris police saw woman bomber meet attack chief Abaaoud - source
ReutersPolice on Tuesday followed a woman they knew had links to the suspected mastermind of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks and watched her take him into the building that special forces attacked early the next morning, a police source told Reuters. -
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Germany opens probe into Algerian detained for Paris-attack commentsBERLIN, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Germany's federal public prosecutor is investigating whether an Algerian man detained at a refugee reception centre last week had foreknowledge of the Paris attacks but failed to inform the authorities, officials said on Friday.The man, detained in the town of Arnsberg in western Germany, allegedly told Syrian refugees at the centre before the Paris attacks that fear and terror would be spread in the French capital and spoke about a bomb. (Full Story)"We've taken the lead in the investigation," a spokesman for the federal public prosecutor told Reuters, adding that the suspect was accused of having known details of the attacks in Paris without informing security authorities.Until now, local prosecutors had been investigating the case to examine whether the allegations were credible. The decision by the federal public prosecutor to take the lead could suggest that authorities are taking the accusations seriously."Further investigation will show if the accusations are really true," the spokesman noted.The interior minister for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where Arnsberg is located, said on Thursday that the suspect was still in custody and refused to talk."The accused is not cooperative," Ralf Jaeger said.
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EU tightens border checks, gun control after Paris
ReutersThe European Union will step up checks on its citizens traveling abroad, tighten gun control and collect more data on airline passengers, ministers agreed on Friday in response to the Paris attacks a week ago. -
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Handout of a still image taken from video footage, released by Russia's Defence Ministry on November 20, 2015, shows a ground crew member writing the words "For Paris" on a bomb on a Russian military jet at the Hmeymim air base near Latakia, Syria. REUTERS/Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation/Handout via Reuters
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A drawing which reproduces French photographer Robert Doisneau's picture "Le baiser de l'Hotel de ville" (Kiss by the Town Hall) with the words "Not even hurt" over it, is seen on a wall near the Bataclan concert hall, one of the sites of last Friday's deadly attacks in Paris, France, November 20, 2015. REUTERS/Charles Platiau
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In Quebec, like France, security fears may deepen rift with Muslims
ReutersReluctance among residents in Quebec to accept thousands of Syrian refugees is deepening a rift with the province's Muslim community, raising worries that more Muslims could become radicalized as they have in France and other European nations. -
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Russians inscribe 'For Paris' on bombs destined for Syria
ReutersRussian ground crew are inscribing the words "For Paris" on some bombs destined to be dropped on targets in Syria, in a message of solidarity with the victims of last week's Paris attacks. -
Two Paris suicide bombers traveled via Greece: Prosecutor
ReutersTwo of the bombers who blew themselves up at a soccer stadium in Paris last Friday had their fingerprints taken on Oct. 3 while traveling through Greece, the Paris prosecutor said in a statement on Friday. -
No information on Paris suspect stop-over report: Colombia
ReutersColombia has no information about a media report that a person involved in the shootings and bombings of civilians in Paris landed in Bogota in July and bribed officials to be allowed passage out of the country, the foreign ministry said on Friday. -
Woman who died in Paris raid likely not wearing suicide belt - source
Investigators sorting through body parts from a flat raided by French police on Wednesday now believe Hasna Aitboulahcen, the woman who died there, was not the one wearing a suicide belt, a source close to the investigation said.
Headlines flashed around the world this week that Aitboulahcen had become Europe's first woman suicide bomber, after officials said they believed she had blown herself up at the scene of the raid in a northern Paris suburb.
Two other people died at the flat in St. Denis on the city's outskirts after Aitboulahcen, believed to be the cousin of suspected Paris Nov. 13 attacks mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud, took him there on Tuesday evening.
One of the dead has been confirmed as Islamist militant Abaaoud. The other has yet to be identified.
Police had been hunting Abaaoud since the killing of 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13, which was claimed by Islamic State, and which they believe he orchestrated.
"The initial findings from the special police indicated that it (the suicide belt wearer) was her," said the source. "But the skull we found on the pavement was not hers."
The fighting at the flat was so intense that not only were the police unable initially to identify the bodies, it took more than a day for investigators to establish that there had been three people and not two.
(Reporting by Chine Labbe; Writing by Andrew Callus; Editing by David Clarke) -
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Belgium raised the alert status for its capital Brussels to the highest level on Saturday, shutting the metro and warning the public to avoid crowds because of a "serious and imminent" threat of an attack.A week after the Paris attacks carried out by Islamic State militants, of whom one suspect from Brussels is at large and said by authorities to be highly dangerous, the city was placed on the top level "four" in the government's threat scale after a meeting of top ministers, police and security services."The advice for the population is to avoid places where a lot of people come together like shopping centres, concerts, events or public transport stations wherever possible," a spokesman for the government's crisis centre said. Read more.
A Belgian police officer and soldiers patrol in a shopping area after security was tightened following the fatal attacks in Paris, in Brussels, Belgium, November 21, 2015. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir -
The hunt for the Paris attackers
France and Belgium are trying to track down any living assailants and would-be assailants after the Friday, Nov. 13, attacks on Paris.
French authorities say the suspected ringleader, Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was among those killed in a police assault in Saint Denis, north of Paris, on Wednesday.
Here's what we know about the attackers who died in Friday's attacks and Wednesday's police assault as well as others key to investigations.
Nov 13: Seven dead assailants, not all named, played direct roles in the Nov. 13 attacks: 3 at the Bataclan hall, 3 outside the Stade de France stadium, 1 in cafe killings.Nov 18: Three people died and 8 were arrested in a Nov. 18 police assault on a building in Saint Denis. A statement from the office of French public prosecutor Francois Molins on Thursday said that a body was identified as that of prime suspect Abaaoud.Abdelhamid Abaaoud, Belgian, 28, grew up in the Molenbeek district of Brussels, but vanished in 2013 and showed up in Syria. His father Omar has accused him of kidnapping his younger brother Younes who at the age of 13 was vaunted as becoming the youngest foreign fighter in Syria. He was jailed for robbery in 2010 and spent time alongside Salah Abdeslam. His possible presence in the Saint Denis flat was part of the reason for the Nov. 18 police assault. Up until Wednesday Nov. 18, Abaaoud was believed to be in Syria. CCTV coverage showed him in the Paris metro underground rail network near the place where one car used in the attacks was found, according to a police source. The news prompted media speculation that he too may have taken part directly in the Nov. 13 attacks, and not just organized them. Read more. -
Turkish police have arrested a Belgian man of Moroccan origin on suspicion he scouted out the target sites for Islamic State in attacks that killed 129 people in Paris a week ago, a Turkish government official said on Saturday.The official, confirming a report by the Dogan news agency, said two other men were also arrested, without giving details.The Belgian, Ahmet Dahmani, was arrested at a luxury hotel in the southern coastal city of Antalya. Dogan said the 26-year-old had been staying in a five-star hotel in the popular tourist destination since Nov. 16. Read more.
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Egypt's top Muslim cleric said on Saturday that terrorism was a disease that used religion as a front and it was wrong to blame Islam for crimes committed in its name like last week's Paris attacks.Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the head of al-Azhar, the center of Islamic learning in Egypt, told a meeting of the Muslim Council of Elders which he heads that he condemned the Paris bloodshed and an attack by Islamist militants on a hotel in Mali on Friday.But he said this violence had no link to authentic Islam."It is a clear injustice, and blatant bias, to tie the crimes of bombing and destruction happening now to Islam just because those who commit them cry 'Allahu Akbar' as they commit their atrocities," Tayeb said. Read more.
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The militants who killed 130 people in Paris, triggering waves of air strikes on Syria and security alerts around the world, may have spent as little as around 7,000 euros ($7,500) to stage their attacks.World leaders scrambled to crack down on terrorist financing after the Nov. 13 assaults, which have been claimed by Islamic State in retaliation for strikes on Iraq and Syria.Within days, France and Belgium announced 1 billion euros worth of additional security measures.
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Weapons found at home of Paris attacks suspect: prosecutorsBelgian federal prosecutors said on Saturday that investigators had found some weapons at the home of a person charged on Friday with terrorism offences related to last week's attacks in Paris.The prosecutors' office said in a statement that neither explosives nor a suicide belt had been found during the search. It did not give details of the weapons actually found.An investigating judge charged the person, who was not identified, on Friday with participating in terrorist attacks and in the activities of a terrorist organization.
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Belgium to review security status Sunday afternoon: Belgian PMThe Belgian government will review the security situation in Brussels on Sunday afternoon after raising the alert level to the maximum "four" on Saturday, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel told a news conference.Michel said that the committee responsible for assessing the level of threat would sit again on Sunday morning and the government would review its measures on Sunday afternoon.The capital's metro system, for example, would remain closed until then.He declined to give the reason why the authorities raised the alert level, closing all metro stations, cancelling soccer matches for the weekend and asking citizens to avoid crowded public places.
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Exclusive: In Paris attack, nurse discovers the man he tried to save was bomber
Reuters"There were wires; one white, one black, one red and one orange. Four different colors. I knew then he was a suicide bomber." -
Few dissenting voices as France curbs rights after massacre
ReutersFrance calls itself "the homeland of human rights" but has focused in the past week on limiting them as the government pushed through sweeping curbs on basic freedoms in the wake of the Paris massacre. -
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Belgium has detained five more people following raids on Monday morning in the Brussels and Liege regions as it searches the country's links to the Paris attacks, federal prosecutors said.The federal prosecutors' office said it had carried out five raids in the Brussels area and two around the eastern city of Liege.
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More planes, more ships, more people. The Strategic Defence & Security Review is about Britain's national security. https://t.co/efDZe5Dl70
11:49 AM - 23 Nov 2015- Reply
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President Hollande and I are united in our determination to defeat the evil death cult, ISIL. https://t.co/LMrGrRE61P
9:02 AM - 23 Nov 2015- Reply
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Tens of thousands expected to rally to demand Hong Kong leader steps down
HONG KONG Tens of thousands are expected to take to the streets in Hong Kong on Sunday to demand the city's leader steps down, a day after she suspended an extradition bill following the most violent protests in decades.