Manchester attack: Bomber not acting alone, says Amber Rudd

   Manchester attack: Bomber not acting        alone, says Amber Rudd 



The man who carried out a suicide attack in Manchester was "likely" to have not acted alone, Home Secretary Amber Rudd says.
Salman Abedi killed 22 and injured 64 when he blew himself up at the Manchester Arena on Monday night.
Police arrested three men in Manchester on Wednesday. Abedi's 23-year-old brother was arrested on Tuesday.
The UK terror threat level is now up to its highest level of "critical", meaning more attacks may be imminent.
It means military personnel are being deployed to protect key sites.
The Palace of Westminster has been closed to the public following police advice, and will not re-open until further notice, a statement on its website said.
And the Changing the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace has been cancelled on Wednesday to allow for the redeployment of police officers, the Ministry of Defence said.
Mrs Rudd said: "[Monday's attack] was more sophisticated than some of the attacks we've seen before, and it seems likely - possible - that he wasn't doing this on his own."
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said that the bomber is thought to have been a "mule", using a device built by someone else.

Who are the victims?

The victims include Nell Jones, 14, eight-year-old Saffie Roussos, Alison Howe, Lisa Lees, Jane Tweddle-Taylor, 50, Martyn Hett, 29,Olivia Campbell, 15,Kelly Brewster, 32, John Atkinson, 28, Georgina Callander - thought to be 18 - and Marcin and Angelika Klis, a Polish couple from York.
The injured are being treated at eight Greater Manchester hospitals. Of those, 20 are in a critical condition, and some have lost limbs.
The wounded include 12 children aged under 16.
Several people are still missing, including Eilidh MacLeod, 14, from Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Chloe Rutherford, 17, and Liam Curry, 19.
Eilidh's friend, Laura MacIntyre, 15, who was also reported as missing, was later identified as one of the seriously injured in a Manchester hospital.
Greater Manchester Police said it was "confident" that officers know the names of all those killed. It said that it had made contact with all of the families.
It would formally name the victims after the post mortems, a process likely to take four or five days.
A hotline has been set up for people concerned about loved ones - 0800 096 0095.

What does a 'critical' threat level mean?


 soldiers would be placed in key public locations to support armed police in protecting the public. These include Buckingham Palace, Downing Street, embassies and the Palace of Westminster.
Military personnel may also be seen at other events over the coming weeks, such as concerts, Mrs May said, working under the command of police officers.
The prime minister said she did not want the public to feel "unduly alarmed" but said it was a "proportionate and sensible response".
Mrs Rudd said 984 troops had been deployed in the first instance. Up to 3,800 are available.
She said she "absolutely" expected the raising of the threat level to critical to be temporary, adding that the bomber had been known "up to a point" by the intelligence services.
Mrs Rudd also said there would be an "uplift" in Prevent, the government's anti-radicalisation programme, after June. This had already been planned before Monday's attack, she added.
The highest threat level, which is decided by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre - a group of experts from the police, government departments and agencies - has only been reached twice before.
The first time the threat level was raised to critical was in 2006 during a major operation to stop a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners with liquid bombs.
The following year, security chiefs raised it once more as they hunted for the men who had tried to bomb a London nightclub, before going on to attack Glasgow Airport.
The Metropolitan Police says it has increased its presence across London.
These include specialist police officers who are trained "to spot the tell-tale signs that a person may be carrying out hostile reconnaissance or committing other crime... based on extensive research into the psychology of criminals and what undermines their activities".

Who was the attacker?

The change in terror threat comes after investigators were unable to rule out whether the bomber, named by police as Salman Abedi, had help carrying out the attack.
He is understood to be a 22-year-old born in Manchester to parents of Libyan descent, and a former Salford University student.
He attended Burnage Academy for Boys in Manchester between 2009-11.
Hamid El-Sayed, who worked for the UN on tackling radicalisation and who now works at Manchester University, said Abedi had a "really bad relationship" with his family.
He said, according to a family friend, that Abedi's parents had tried to "bring him back on the right path and they failed to do that".
"Eventually he was doing very bad at his university, at his education, and he didn't complete, and they tried to take him back to Libya several times. He had difficulties adjusting to European lifestyle."
  • Abedi blew himself up in Manchester Arena's foyer shortly after 22:30 BST on Monday.
  • Fans were beginning to leave a concert by US singer Ariana Grande.
  • Witnesses at the arena described seeing metal nuts and bolts among the debris of Monday's bomb, and spoke about the fear and confusion that gripped concert-goers.
  • The arena bombing is the worst attack in the UK since the 7 July bombings in 2005, in which 52 people were killed by four suicide bombers.
  • So-called Islamic State has said - via IS channels on the messaging app Telegram - it was behind the attack, but this has not been verified.
A former classmate of Abedi's has told the BBC that "he was a very jokey lad" but was at the same time was "very short tempered", becoming angry at "the littlest thing".
"He had a short temper but apart from that was a very sound lad," said the man, who did not want to be identified.
He said that Abedi was "away at random times throughout the year. but I don't know if that was because he was out the country or just didn't show up to school, because he did hang around with the wrong crowd and was very, very gullible."
"You could tell him anything and he would pretty much fall for it."
He said that, before leaving the school in 2011, Abedi became "more and more religious" and that this might explain why he cut ties with former classmates.

What's happening with the investigation?


Apart from the three arrests in south Manchester on Wednesday, Abedi's older brother Ismael was arrested in Chorlton, south Manchester, in connection with the attack.
Met Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, who is the national counter-terrorism policing lead, said the investigation was "fast-moving and making good progress".
"However, a critical line of inquiry is whether the dead terrorist was acting alone or part of a group," he said.
"We still have critical lines of inquiry they're chasing down which has led to a level of uncertainty."
Anyone with information about the attack can call the anti-terror hotline on 0800 789321.
Meanwhile, a man with a knife has been arrested near Buckingham Palace, but Scotland Yard said this incident was not believed to be terror related.

How has Manchester reacted?Thousands of people turned out for the vigil in Manchester and to hold a minute's silence to remember those who died. Vigils were also held elsewhere.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Commons Speaker John Bercow stood on stage alongside Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins.
Manchester metro mayor Andy Burnham told the BBC that the attack had been the city's "darkest hour but also you say the best of Greater Manchester".
He said: "I was in the hospitals late last night and I was hearing stories that porters, cleaners, surgeons, nurses, came in from not being on shift to help out. The public were bringing food. The people really did pull together and I think we should take a great deal of pride in that."

Trump holds first face-to-face talks with Pope Francis



US President Donald Trump has met Pope Francis for a short private audience on the third leg of his overseas trip.
The Vatican said after the meeting that there had been an "exchange of views" on several unspecified international issues, and spoke of the need to continue good bilateral relations.
The two men have already clashed at a distance on issues including migration and climate change.
Mr Trump is also meeting Italy's president and prime minister.
Later, he will fly to Brussels for a Nato summit.
He earlier vowed to help Israelis and Palestinians achieve peace, as he ended the Middle East leg of his tour.
The US leader began his foreign trip with a two-day stop in Saudi Arabia over the weekend, urging Muslim countries to take the lead in combating radicalisation.

Much-anticipated meeting

Mr Trump and his entourage arrived at the Vatican just before 08:30, in a the meeting that was arranged at the last minute.
The US president was greeted by Archbishop Georg Ganswein, the head of the papal household, and escorted by the Swiss Guard to the offices of Pope Francis
.

Correspondents say their initial greeting was cordial. Mr Trump told the Pope "it is a great honour".
The two men spoke privately for about 20 minutes. The Vatican said later that they shared a commitment to "life, and freedom of worship and conscience" and expressed hope that they can collaborate "in service to the people in the fields of healthcare, education and assistance to migrants".
On international affairs, their "exchange of vie
After the meeting, they exchanged gifts. Mr Trump gave the Pope a boxed set of writings by the civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
The Pope gave Mr Trump a signed copy of a message he delivered for World Peace Day, along with some of his writings about the need to protect the environment. "Well, I'll be reading them," Mr Trump told him.

Seeking common ground - analysis by the BBC's Jon Sopel, Rome

 Ever so slowly and flanked by the Swiss Guard the leader of the world's pre-eminent superpower walked through the Vatican to meet the leader of one of the world's pre-eminent religions.
And were there ever two more different people? Pope Francis with just the merest hint of a smile; President Trump beaming. They sat across from each other in the pontiff's study as though one was going for a job interview.
During the election campaign, when Pope Francis visited the US-Mexico border he said that people who choose to build walls and not bridges weren't Christian. Donald Trump said those comments were disgraceful.
And in February, just after Donald Trump had tried to introduce his travel ban from six mainly Muslim countries and suspended the refugee programme, the Pope tweeted: "How often in the Bible the Lord asks us to welcome migrants and foreigners, reminding us that we too are foreigners!"
The normal mantra when two world leaders meet is to say "there is more that unites us than divides us". Almost certainly true. But there are real differences as well.

And the entourage?

Mr Trump was joined not only by his wife, daughter and son-in-law but also Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser HR McMaster.
Both Melania and Ivanka Trump were dressed in black with their heads partially covered, in keeping with a traditional Vatican protocol that is no longer expected to be rigorously observed.
Melania, a Catholic, asked the Pope to bless her rosary beads.
In a light-hearted exchange, Pope Francis asked her what she gave her husband to eat. It was initially thought he had suggested "pizza" to her, but in fact he said potica, which is a cake from Mrs Trump's home country of Slovenia. She laughed in response, and agreed with him.





















What next for Mr Trump's trip?

Mr Trump followed his visit to the Vatican with talks with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Presidential Palace and Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni at the US ambassador's residence.
This is Mr Trump's first visit to Europe since taking office in January.
Security has been stepped up across Rome, with the areas around the Vatican City, the Italian presidential palace and the American ambassador's residence, where Mr Trump is staying, temporarily closed to traffic.
Despite the heavy police presence, about 100 anti-Trump protesters held a rally in one of Rome's squares on Tuesday evening.
Later on Wednesday, Mr Trump will fly to Brussels, where significant protests are expected.
For the EU and for Nato, this visit is about damage limitation with the fervent hope of establishing some kind of transatlantic chemistry, the BBC's Europe editor Katya Adler says.
She adds that the tone in Brussels has gone from off-the-record sneering when the erratic and unpredictable Mr Trump first won the November elections, to outright concern now that the implications of his presidency have begun to sink in.
BBC

demanded sex

Spear-phishing scammer demanded sex show


ix weeks ago, a young woman called Zed (not her real name) was in a meeting at work when a message popped up on Facebook Messenger from a distant friend.
"Hey babe," it began.
The friend asked Zed to vote for her in an online modelling competition, which she agreed to do.
But then - disaster. Adding her email address to the competition register had caused a tech meltdown, her friend said. She needed to borrow her email log-in to fix it quickly and restore her votes.
Zed was unsure. The friend begged - her career was at stake, she pleaded. Still in the meeting and powerless to make a call, Zed gave in - a momentary leap of faith.
Except it was not her friend that she was talking to - someone else had got into the account and was pretending to be her.
It's a scamming technique known as spear phishing.

         North Korea missile launch fails



A North Korean missile launch has failed, South Korean defence officials say, but it is unclear how many were fired or what exactly was being tested.
The US military said it detected a missile which appeared to explode within seconds of being launched.
North Korea is banned from any missile or nuclear tests by the United Nations.
However, it has conducted such tests with increasing frequency and experts say this could lead to advances in its missile technology.
Earlier this month, the North fired four missiles that flew about 1,000km (620 miles), landing in Japanese waters.
This test came from the eastern coastal town of Wonsan and will be seen as a response to annual military drills under way between the US and South Korea, which the North sees as preparation for an attack on it.

Flight ban on laptops 'sparked by IS threat'....................

Flight ban on laptops 'sparked by IS threat'


An aircraft cabin ban on large electronic devices was prompted by intelligence suggesting a terror threat to US-bound flights, say US media.
The US and UK have announced new carry-on restrictions banning laptops on certain passenger flights.
The so-called Islamic State group (IS) has been working on ways to smuggle explosives on to planes by hiding them in electronics, US sources tell ABC.
The tip-off was judged by the US to be "substantiated" and "credible".
Inbound flights on nine airlines operating out of 10 airports in eight countries are subject to the US Department of Homeland Security ban.
Phones and medical devices are not affected.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is hosting a two-day meeting of ministers and senior officials from 68 nations to discuss the threat from IS.
The Washington talks will be the first full meeting of the coalition since December 2014.

What is the meeting about? By Barbara Plett-Usher, US State Department correspondent

This will be a chance for the Trump administration to put its stamp on the global battle against the Islamic State group, and for the reticent secretary of state to put his stamp on a foreign policy issue that the president has identified as a priority.
The State Department says the meeting aims to accelerate efforts to defeat IS in its remaining strongholds: the Iraqi city of Mosul and the Syrian city of Raqqa.
On the campaign trail Mr Trump claimed to have a secret plan to obliterate the group. But his Pentagon has largely stuck with Barack Obama's strategy of supporting local ground forces, albeit with increased US military participation as the assault on Raqqa nears.
Coalition members will also discuss how to stabilise and govern the cities after the conflict; and they're looking to see if Washington remains committed to a longer term effort to secure the region.

What do we know of the threat?

Eric Swalwell, a Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC News there was "a new aviation threat".
"We know that our adversaries, terrorist groups in the United States and outside the United States, seek to bring down a US-bound airliner. That's one of their highest value targets. And we're doing everything we can right now to prevent that from happening."

"It was based on intelligence reports that are fairly recent. Intelligence of something possibly planned."
The restriction is based, we are told, on "evaluated intelligence", BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner writes.

That means that US intelligence has either intercepted discussion of a possible extremist plot or has been passed word of one by a human informant.

Israel's Arrow anti-missile system 'in first hit'


Israel has shot down a Syrian missile using its most advanced anti-missile system for the first time, Israeli media say.
A surface-to-air missile (SAM) was intercepted using the Arrow system, designed to stop long-range ballistic missiles, reports say.
The SAMs were fired at Israeli jets which had just raided sites in Syria.
Debris from the intercepted SAM came down in Jordan. Two other SAMs are said to have landed in Israel.
In a rare admission, the Israeli military said its aircraft had attacked several targets in Syria before Syria launched the missiles.
Israel said none of its planes had been "compromised", despite Syria claiming it had shot down one of four aircraft involved in the raid.

A serious escalation: Analysis by Jonathan Marcus, BBC defence correspondent

This episode is unusual on a number of counts. It is rare for Israel to admit to air strikes in Syria though there have been reports of at least four similar raids against Hezbollah weapons shipments since the start of December last year.
This also looks to be the first operational use of Israel's Arrow anti-ballistic missile system - launched possibly at an errant Syrian surface-to-air missile - that might have landed in Israeli territory.
The incident - not least because the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement has made it "official" - represents a serious escalation in tensions between Israel and Syria.
It comes less than 10 days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin. Russian radars and aircraft control a significant slice of Syrian airspace.
It's a signal perhaps to all concerned that if weapons supplies to Hezbollah continue, then Israel is ready to escalate its air campaign.

There has been sporadic cross-border fire between the two countries since the start of the Syrian war in 2011.
Air strikes, said to have been carried out by Israel, have hit sites in Syria on numerous occasions, reportedly targeting weapons shipments for Lebanon's Shia militant movement Hezbollah.
Shells, mostly believed to be strays from the fighting in Syria, have also landed in the Israel-occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Syria has also previously fired anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli fighter planes over its airspace, although none are known to have been hit.

The Israeli military said its planes were already back in Israeli airspace when the SAMs were fired in the early hours of Friday.
Israeli media said one missile was intercepted north of Jerusalem by the Arrow system.
The Jordanian military said missile debris also landed in rural areas in the north of the country, the Associated Press news agency reported.
Pictures and video on social media showed a group of people gathered round what were said to be the burnt remains of a missile embedded in the ground amid twisted metal beside a building.
AP said it hit the courtyard of a home in Inbeh, about 25 miles (40 kilometres) from the Syrian border.

What is the Arrow system?

  • An anti-missile defence system jointly developed by Israel and the US in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War, which saw Israel hit by 39 Scud missiles fired by Iraq
  • Two increasingly advanced versions of the system have been developed since it was introduced in 2000
  • Ostensibly designed to take out long-range ballistic missiles (those which leave the Earth's atmosphere on a very high trajectory)
  • Part of a multi-tiered missile defence shield to protect Israel against short-, medium-, and long-range missile threats
  • BBC

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