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BBC NEWS




        London attack: 12 arrested in                       Barking after van and knife attack 

Twelve people have been arrested after the London terror attack which left seven people dead and 48 injured.
The arrests in Barking, east London, followed a raid at a flat belonging to one of the three attackers.
A van hit pedestrians on London Bridge at 21:58 BST on Saturday. Three men then got out and stabbed people in nearby Borough Market.
The attackers were shot dead by eight officers who fired 50 bullets. A member of the public was accidentally shot.
Of the 12 people who were arrested, seven are women. A 55-year-old man was later released without charge.
Meanwhile, Canadian national Chrissy Archibald has been named by Canadian broadcaster CTVas the first victim of the attack.
A statement from her family said she "believed strongly that every person was to be valued and respected".
It said she had worked in a homeless shelter until she moved to Europe to be with her fiance.

'Range of injuries'

The so-called Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said the police had reacted knowing the attackers "had to be stopped immediately".
"The situation these officers were confronted with was critical, a matter of life and death - three armed men wearing what appeared to be suicide belts," he said.
The vests were later found to be hoaxes.
Mr Rowley said 36 people were in hospital with a "range of injuries" and 21 were in a critical condition.
Malik Ramadhan, a doctor at the Royal London Hospital, said his team had treated one man who had been shot in the head and was expected to make a full recovery.
Both London Bridge rail and Tube stations are due to reopen on Monday from 05:00 BST but the rail station will be exit only, Network Rail said.
The mother of 23-year-old Daniel O'Neill, who is recovering in hospital after being stabbed, told the BBC he had a seven-inch scar from the knife attack.
"He had just stepped outside the bar for a second and a man ran up to him and said 'this is for my family, this is for Islam' and stuck a knife in him," Elisabeth O'Neill said.
"I'm still in shock. I can't quite believe it's happened."
Sunday Express journalist and martial arts expert, Geoff Ho, who was injured, said that he helped defend a bouncer from the attackers outside the Southwark Tavern as it "isn't happening on my watch", his newspaper reported.
Controlled explosions were carried out at the flat in Barking during the raids on Sunday morning.
According to neighbours, the dead attacker lived there for about three years and was married with two children.
One man, who did not want to be named, told the BBC's Asian Network that one of the attackers had become more extreme over the past two years.
"We spoke about a particular attack that happened and like most radicals he had a justification for anything - everything and anything.
"And that day I realised that I need to contact the authorities," he said.
He said no action was taken.
"I did my bit... but the authorities didn't do their bit," he said.
It is the third terror attack in the UK in three months, following the car and knife attack in Westminster in March, in which five people were killed, and the Manchester bombing less than two weeks ago, in which 22 people were killed.
Most political parties have suspended national general election campaigning, but the prime minister said full campaigning would resume on Monday.
The general election will go ahead as planned on Thursday.
Condemning the attack, Theresa May said it was "time to say enough is enough".
Eyewitnesses described a van travelling at high speed along London Bridge, hitting pedestrians, before crashing close to the Barrowboy and Banker pub.
The white Renault van used was recently hired by one of the attackers, Mr Rowley said.

         Tech Tent: BA’s computer meltdown

 


  • Listen to previous episodes on the BBC website
  • Listen live every Friday at 15:00 GMT on the BBC World Service

This week has seen another example of the chaos that can ensue when complex computer systems fail. On Tech Tent we try to draw some lessons from the British Airways IT fiasco.
We also discuss bullying in online games and hear what the criminal underworld is saying about the WannaCry ransomware attack.

Lessons from an IT disaster

Last weekend's catastrophic failure in BA's computer system threw the travel plans of 75,000 passengers into chaos. What went wrong has become a little clearer - it appears the power somehow went off at a Heathrow data centre and when it was switched back on a power surge somehow took out the whole system.
Airline bosses insist that this means the whole incident was a power failure not an IT failure - but experts point out that power management is an essential element of any well-planned IT system.
Bert Craven of the consultancy T2RL, who has designed systems for major airlines, tells us the real question is whether the airline had what he calls geo-redundancy. 



"This is a duplicate mirrored system in a data centre at a distance. Clearly either that was not the case or there was also a problem with the geo-redundant system at the same time - a perfect storm."
He reckons every airline IT executive will have been hauled out of their bed last weekend to be asked: "Could this happen to us?"
Passengers may be tempted to ask whether it would be simpler to abandon the computers and return to paper. Mr Craven tells us that until a few years ago, airports were in the habit of printing out passenger manifests and other documents at the beginning of the day just in case things went wrong.
These days however there is just too much real-time data involved in running complex airline operations for that to be feasible. Only computers can make modern air travel work, and when they fail it is like throwing sand into the machine.

Rough Games

We are all sadly familiar with the problem of abuse and bullying on social networks. But this week the anti-bullying charity Ditch The Label published research showing the extent of the problem in online video games.
Its survey, carried out through the online game Habbo Hotel, showed more than half of young gamers reported that they had been subjected to hate speech while playing online. Bailey Mitchell, 16, told me he'd first experienced abuse when he was 10. 


And it was more than just banter - he was told to kill himself after scoring a goal in Fifa. Nowadays, he says, he can shrug it off, but when he was younger he'd come home from being bullied at school expecting to escape into a game, only to face abuse there too.
The games industry was a bit sniffy about the charity's report, unconvinced that Habbo Hotel was the right place to get an overview of the gaming scene.
Jo Twist of the British games body Ukie tells us that the industry is already acting responsibly, using everything from AI and semantic analysis to human moderators to detect abuse.
"Players are our lifeblood," she says. "We use all sorts of tools to make sure they have a safe experience."
But she says it's also up to players and parents to take responsibility. "There are games that are suitable for everybody - and some games are only suitable for 18-plus audiences."

WannaCry and the Underworld

It's still not clear who was behind last month's WannaCry ransomware attack, which affected organisations around the world, including hospitals here in the UK. But whoever it was, it seems the criminal underworld was not happy about it.
Andrei Barysevich is a cyber-security researcher at the Recorded Future threat intelligence company, who works as a consultant to the FBI and spends a lot of time monitoring the dark web.
He tells us that criminal hackers were not at all impressed by the high-profile nature of the attack - and were particularly angry about hospitals and police forces being attacked. Not because they were squeamish, you understand, but because governments and law enforcement agencies are on the warpath - and that has put criminal hackers in the spotlight.
It seems there was even a meeting of elders of the criminal underground, at which they all declared that this attack was nothing to do with them. It seems that WannaCry was probably hatched by a relatively amateur group of hackers who may have been surprised by just how much mayhem they unleashed.
It is as if a nuclear weapon fell into the hands of a group of teenage pranksters who thought it was just a firecracker - not an entirely reassuring thought.

BBC NEWS

 Obama avoids crowds outside Edinburgh     charity dinner

Former US president Barack Obama has given a speech at a charity dinner in Edinburgh, addressing an audience made up largely of business leaders.
The event was organised by the Hunter Foundation, set up by the philanthropist Sir Tom Hunter.
Thousands of people gathered at the venue but were disappointed when Mr Obama avoided the front entrance.
The former president had visited St Andrews earlier, playing a round of golf on the Old Course.
Mr Obama had arrived in Edinburgh by private jet, on what was his first visit to Scotland.
A large crowd outside the charity dinner were told by police that Mr Obama would not be making a public arrival.



 Stewart Kermack, 61, from Prestwick, said: "I came especially to see Obama. I think he is a great guy and was a very charismatic leader."


Jody Mulvey, 20, from Edinburgh said: "I'm disappointed we didn't get to see Obama but I understand after everything that's going on right now."
The dinner at the EICC is thought to be one of his first major addresses since his term as president came to an end.
Tickets for a table of 10 at the event are understood to have cost about £5,000.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was at the dinner.
Although the media were not allowed inside, Mr Obama is reported to have said that in times of inequality people turn to simplistic and populist answers on the left and the right.
He also spoke about the Manchester bombing, saying it is not possible to solve lone wolf attacks perfectly.
If someone is determined and willing to die, he said, it is almost impossible to prevent that entirely.


All of the cash raised at the dinner will be split between children's charities in Scotland and the Obama Foundation.
Security was tight in Edinburgh as police stepped up resources around major events in the wake of the Manchester bombing.
Comedian Kevin Bridges, singer Annie Lennox and Scottish band Texas provided entertainment at the event and young people were also involved.
Thirteen-year-old Mila Stricevic, from Glasgow, read a poem after winning a schools competition.


Mr Obama, a golfing enthusiast, had been joined in St Andrews by Sir Tom Hunter, whose charitable foundation had invited Obama to speak in Edinburgh.
After completing the third hole, Mr Obama spoke to the crowd who had been following him around the course.
He shook hands with people and asked them how they were doing before heading back to play golf.



The Hunter Foundation has previously arranged for US politicians and actors including Bill Clinton, Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney to come to Scotland.
Last year, Leonardo DiCaprio travelled to Edinburgh to speak at the Scottish Business Awards at the EICC.
Announcing Barack Obama's visit in April, Sir Tom said: "From the south side of Chicago to the White House has been an epic, historic journey and it will be a true honour to hear that story from the man who made that journey.
"We are both truly proud and delighted to be hosting the 44th president of the United States in Scotland at this event."

BBC NEWS

      Teenager stabbed to death in Peckham

A 17-year-old boy has been stabbed to death in a street attack.
Abdirahman Mohamed was killed on Southampton Way in Peckham, south London, just after 23:00 BST on Friday, close to the Tesco Express store.
Despite efforts to keep him alive he was pronounced dead at the scene. No-one has been arrested and police are appealing for witnesses.
Abdirahman, from Camberwell, is the eighth teenager to be stabbed to death in London so far this year.
Det Ch Insp Diane Tudway said: "Abdirahman's family are utterly devastated and cannot understand why he has been taken from them in what is such a senseless act of violence.
"The motive at this time is unclear and we are retaining an open mind as to why Abdirahman was stabbed."

BBC NEWS

                   Weather warnings explained

BBC Weather carries National Severe Weather Warnings which are issued by the Met Office. These warning triangles appear in our national and local weather broadcasts when extreme weather conditions are forecast.
The warnings are colour-coded, with the colours reflecting the likely impact of the predicted weather.
A yellow warning is the lowest level, rising in severity through amber to red for the most severe weather.
You would probably see a red triangle used two or three times a year, whereas yellow triangles could appear several times in the space of a week.
Forecasters need to look at two things when issuing a weather warning. How severe will the weather be and how confident are they that it will happen? Plug this into a grid and you come up with the level of warning. Let's have a look at a couple of examples.
Light snow, confident forecast

In this scenario, there is a confident forecast of light snow showers so it is very likely that snow will fall, but the amounts of snow are expected to be small so the impact should be fairly low.
A yellow warning is issued, which would only go up to amber if the forecast changed to heavier snow.Heavy snow, high level of uncertainty



In an alternative scenario, a weather front pushing in from the west is expected to produce rain, but there is a risk of this turning to heavy snow at some point as it meets colder air.
The potential impact of the snow is fairly high, but there is also a high degree of uncertainty in the forecast so initially a yellow warning is issued. This could move up to amber nearer the time as confidence in the forecast increased.
So whenever you see the warning triangles appearing on our broadcasts it is worth not just taking an extra interest in the forecast, but also looking out for updates as the warning level could change

BBC NEWS

        In pictures: London Bridge attack

 Images from the scene of the major police operation in central London..

 The surrounding area was closed to the public

 

Apple to scan iPhones for child sex abuse images

  Apple has announced details of a system to find child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on customers' devices. Before an image is stored on...