Manhunt after deadly attack at Munich shopping centre

German police are engaged in a huge anti-terror manhunt in the city of Munich after nine people died in a shooting at a shopping centre.




Police are investigating whether one of the bodies is that of a perpetrator. At least 10 people have been wounded.
Three armed attackers were earlier reported to be on the run. Police urged people to avoid public places.
Public transport shut for several hours after the attack at the Olympia centre in the north-western Moosach district.
Police helicopters are flying over the city and the elite border security unit, GSG9, has been flown in.
The body of the suspected attacker was found about 1km (0.6 miles) from the shopping centre, local media reported, and police were using a robot to check it for explosives.
German news magazine Focus reported that a gunman had shot himself in the head, but investigators have not commented.
A car believed to be linked to the attack was taken away by police on a tow-truck, the magazine added.
The Bavarian capital's central railway station was evacuated as authorities suspended all public transport. The system was reopened several hours later.
Thousands of people stranded by the emergency and unable to get home were offered shelter by local residents. The initiative was launched with the Twitter hashtag #Offenetür (open door).


Police, who describe the operation as "an acute terror situation", say the first reports of a shooting in Hanauer Street came in just before 18:00 (16:00 GMT).
Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, told national TV the motive for the attack was still unclear.
"We cannot rule out that it is linked to terrorism but we can't confirm it either, but we are also investigating in this direction," he said.
A meeting of the government's security cabinet will be held on Saturday.
Munich shopping centre

Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer is holding a crisis meeting with security advisers and the German Interior Minister, Thomas de Maiziere, who was on his way to the US, is returning home.
Meanwhile the neighbouring Czech Republic is boosting its border security.

More details have begun emerging about events at the shopping centre.
Local resident Dominic Faust described how people entered the mall screaming.
"Those people told us that there was a shooting outside and so the security closed the door of this mall and asked everybody to go upstairs to the fifth floor," he said.
A man working at a petrol station in Munich earlier told the BBC: "We see just ambulances and firemen and police but all this area is evacuated, all the streets.
"Now [there] are no cars just on the streets. All of the streets are blocked. The people are scared. Everybody is running around."
Munich police said they did not know where "the perpetrators" were. "Look after yourselves and avoid public places".
Police also urged people to help their operation by avoiding speculation and to desist from using photos or video of their deployments online.
German security forces have been on alert since a teenage migrant stabbed and injured five people on a train in Bavaria on Monday, in an attack claimed by so-called Islamic State.
The authorities had warned of the danger of further incidents.

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Saudi Arabia Wants To Push Oil Above $50. What Will It Take?

After letting oil prices head to the mid-$20s and drive a few hundred American frackers out of business, Saudi Arabia wants oil prices to head above $50 again – and stay there.

That’s what new Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih told German newspaper Handelsblatt recently. In order to achieve a balance in oil markets in the long term, that is.

Less than a month ago,  Khalid al-Falih delivered a similar message to American frackers in Texas. “We are out of it,” he stated in an interview with Houston Chronicle. “The oversupply has disappeared. We just have to carry the overhang of inventory for a while until the system works it out.”

Higher oil prices is certainly music to the ears of Saudi Arabia’s rulers. It will help them close the fiscal and social budget gap that was opened during the recent oil price wars. And it will pave the way for the roadshow for the Aramco IPO to finance the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

So, just how can the Kingdom help push prices above $50? There’s a good, a bad, and an ugly way of doing that.

The good way is to scale back its own oil production, setting an example for other OPEC members.

The trouble with this option is that other OPEC members may not follow Saudi Arabia’s lead — especially long time enemy Iran. In fact Iran may step up production to spoil Aramco’s IPO plan.
Then there are the American frackers, the new “swing producers.”  They are ready to bring oil
rigs back on line, as soon as oil prices head north, recreating an excess in the oil market, sending oil prices south again.
Then there’s the bad option. Saudi Arabia can flood oil markets with oil and push oil prices back to $20s, driving the last standing American fracker out of business.

If that were to happen, oil prices would then spike back to $50 and above, as it would dramatically reduce the world’s oil supply.

Most notably, it would help the Kingdom regain its old role as a “swing producer.”

But there would be plenty of collateral damage in the process, both to the Kingdom’s own fiscal and social budget, and to already strained relations with its American ally.

Besides, this strategy takes time, and time isn’t on the Kingdom’s side, as the Aramco IPO is around the corner.

But wait, there’s the ugly option: Saudi Arabia can make peace with old enemy Iran, and revive the old OPEC, pushing prices back to $100.

The trouble with this option is that it is so unlikely that it isn’t even worth discussing further.

The bottom line: The rise of American frackers and Iran’s return to global markets have spoiled — and will continue to spoil — Saudi Arabia’s efforts to reign over the oil market, as it once did.

Britain Foreign Office advises Britons in Turkey to stay indoors

Turkish armies are standing guard at Takism Square in Istanbul following the attempted coup

Britons in Turkey are being "strongly" advised to stay indoors after at least 90 people died in an attempted coup, the Foreign Office has said.
Some flights to Turkey have been diverted or cancelled and those due to travel should check with their airline or tour operator, it said.
Alev Scott, a British-Turkish writer, heard gunfire in Istanbul's Taksim Square and low-flying jets, while Rhonda Jones, on holiday in Marmaris, described hearing gunfire in the streets and a "small explosion".
Officials in Turkey say 1,500 soldiers have been arrested.
British nationals in Turkey can contact the Foreign Office on 020 7008 0000.
More than 2.5 million Britons visit Turkey every year.
In Istanbul, gunfire was heard and military vehicles blocked key bridges and access to the airport, while military jets flew over the capital Ankara.
In a statement, the Turkish foreign ministry said the coup attempt "was foiled by the Turkish people in unity and solidarity. Our president and government are in charge".
'Remain vigilant'
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson tweeted that he was "very concerned" by the events in Turkey and said the Embassy was "monitoring the situation closely".
The updated Foreign Office advice said: "Large-scale military action is ongoing in Turkey, and a state of martial law is in effect.
"There are widespread reports of gunfire and explosions in Ankara and Istanbul, and the military has been deployed to the streets...
"We strongly advise you to stay indoors, avoid public places, in particular demonstrations, and remain vigilant."
It said the bridges across the Bosphorus in Istanbul and the road between Marmaris and Icmeler are closed.
Gunfire has been reported between the resorts of Marmaris and Icmeler, it said.
Witness Ms Scott, said: "I was watching things from my terrace, watching the military vehicles on the Bosphorus Bridge and then these sonic booms started.
"It was actually quite scary so I went down into my flat just keeping away from the windows which had all blown open."
Ms Jones, a player for Rangers Ladies football club, posted a video on Twitter of cars and scooters filling the streets in a procession loudly beeping their horns.
She described hearing "gunfire exchanged up and down the street in Marmaris" and "a small explosion".
Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson tweeted that he had spoken to Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and underlined the UK's "support for the democratic elected government and institutions".
In a statement, shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry urged "calm and restraint".
She said: "There is no excuse on any side for violence or abuse of human rights, and we would urge all parties to engage with the international community to preserve peace and democracy, and resolve this situation.
"In particular, we urge all those in a position of authority to reassure Britons and other foreign nationals currently visiting Turkey that they are safe, and will be allowed to return home without impediment at the earliest opportunity."
A spokeswoman for the UK's largest travel association, ABTA, said travellers should follow Foreign Office advice.
The Association of British Insurers said travellers should be able to transfer travel insurance to the new destination if alternative arrangements are made by those booked to travel to Turkey.
British Airways has cancelled all flights to and from Turkey on Saturday and flight BA675 departing from Istanbul on Sunday. It said the situation will be kept "under review".

Kano GSM Market Raised Down By Fire

Kano GSM Market

No fewer than 40 temporary stores were completely razed down and valuables worth millions of naira destroyed at Kano Farm Center GSM market following a fire outbreak. The incident occurred yesterday around 4:30, Fesit global

   Crowd watching helplessly as fire engulf kano gsm market

gathered.
Eyewitness, Told Fesit Global team that the fire started from the battery repairers unit of the market. He said if not because of the quick intervention of the officials of Kano State Fire Service Department, the damage would have been worse.
Confirming the incident, the Director, Kano State Fire Service Department, Alhaji Mustapha Rilwanu, said more than 40 stores have been destroyed.
It could be recalled that sometime last year, there was a fire outbreak in the market where property worth millions of naira were lost.
 Alhaji Mustapha Rulwan  said we received distress call around 5.20PM and we immediately mobilised our personnel to the area. We were able to put out the fire within 45 minutes,” he said.

He said it was an inverter that was being used by some of the traders that caused the inferno as most of the affected shops were made of wood and zinc.
reports has it  that this is the second time the market was gutted by fire in the last eight months.

Tayyip Erdogan denounces coup attempt In Turkey

                                                   Recep Tayyip Erdogan- President of Turkey

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced an attempted coup from a military group, saying that those who had participated in the uprising would “pay a heavy price”.
President Erdogan, whose location was unclear, used a video livestream on a mobile phone to respond to the military group which had two hours earlier seized key points in the capital Ankara and the main city of Istanbul, and he called for citizens to take to the streets.

He said the plotters would be unsuccessful and that he was returning to the capital Ankara, and that the uprising would be given the “necessary response.”
“We welcome the commitment of opposition parties, which expressed their objections to the coup attempt, to democracy,” he said. “I urge the Turkish people to convene at public squares and airports. There is no power higher than the power of the people. Let them do what they will at public squares and airports.”
He added that the “chain of command has been violated. This is a step against the higher ranks... The judiciary will swiftly respond to this attack.”
Mr Erdogan made his comments on CNN Turk, a private television channel, via the FaceTime video app on an iPhone held up by the newsreader.
The military, which has toppled the government at least three times since 1960, said it had taken over the “administration of the country, to reinstate constitutional order, human rights and freedoms, the rule of law and the general security that was damaged.”
As it took control of the state broadcaster TRT, the military group calling itself the Council for Peace in the Homeland announced a general curfew, and the highest level of security at ports, airports, borders. It said that all the people who had committed treason would be brought to justice.
The group, through the announcer, said martial law had been imposed: “Freedom of citizens guaranteed by peace council will not allow public order to be damaged. Freedom of citizens guaranteed by peace council regardless of race, religion, language.”
In Istanbul military jets and helicopters were seen flying over the centre of the city and military vehicles were reported as having blocked traffic on several of the city’s main arteries.
Istanbul Mayor İbrahim Melih Gökçek also called on all citizens to take to the streets on his Twitter account.
A journalist for the state broadcaster, who asked not to be named, said it had been “evacuated by the military” when its news broadcast was about to begin shortly before 8pm GMT.
“They confiscated everyone’s phone on the way out,” they said. “We all thought it was a hijacking of a plane at first [following rumours of an attack on Ataturk airport]. Everyone went home and as things unfolded, all TRT buildings were being taken over by the military at the same time.”
“We have received an email form the managing director saying TRT is off air for the time being, saying it is all part of the​ Gülen movement​ ​[led by Fethullah Gülen] and the police are trying to fight back.​”​
Police were setting up barricades along streets leading to the prime minister’s office in Ankara, the journalist said, but police headquarters in Istanbul have been taken over by military. There had been exchanges of gunfire which they believed to have been between police and military, they added.
A source in the president’s office said: “This is an attack against Turkish democracy. A group within the Armed Forces has made an attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government outside the chain of command. The statement made on behalf of the Armed Forces wasn’t authorised by the military command. We urge the world to stand in solidarity with the Turkish people.”
Access to social media was cut off in various parts of the country. Access roads to the international airport were blocked.


The Greek military put its forces on alert following reports of the attempted military coup in neighbouring Turkey, according to a senior Greek official.
Ned Price, White House National Security Council spokesman, said President Barack Obama was being briefed on the reported coup in Turkey, and that he would continue to receive updates on the situation.
Speaking in Moscow, US secretary of state John Kerry said: “We hope there will be stability, peace and continuity in Turkey.” He declined to comment further, adding that he had heard about events in Turkey only minutes earlier after a day of intensive talks with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
“It is important right now to avoid any bloodshed, any violent clashes,” Mr Lavrov said about Turkey. “Issues should be addressed and resolved constitutionally in any country.”
Aaron Stein, a Turkey expert at the Atlantic Council, said a coup would be a “considerable” problem for America because of the role the country plays in the fight against the Islamic State. US fighter jets also fly bombing missions to Syria from Incirlik air base in Turkey. The country is a key player in the struggle to deal with the hundreds of thousands of refugees streaming out of Syria.
Mr Stein said that while coups in Turkey were “old hat” the nation had not seen one in several decades. “Any rhetorical intervention [by the US] would be counter productive when we don’t have all the facts,” he added.
Tim Ash, an analyst at Nomura who follows Turkey closely, said the coup was “totally unexpected”. “I think most people assumed that Erdogan had made peace with the old elements of Turkey’s deep state in a deal to rein in the Gulenists,” he said, noting that there had been “some remarkable shifts in Turkey in recent weeks, particularly over foreign policy, with the rapprochement with Russia, and Israel, and in recent days talk of similar deals with Syria”.
Sooner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish programme at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said any coup would complicate matters for the US because of laws that prevent the Pentagon from dealing with countries where the lawful elected government has been overthrown. But he said the importance of Turkey for US operations against Isis in Iraq and Syria, which have deepened in recent months, would make it very difficult to pull back from working with Turkey. “I can’t see Washington walking back from this and giving ISIS the upper hand in the battle in Syria,” he said.
Mr Cagaptay also added that after previous military coups in Turkey — in 1960 and 1980 — the military had actually moved quickly to strengthen relations with the US. “[In the past] the first thing the military did after the coup was not only to pronounce its strong commitment to Nato and increase its co-operation with the US.
White House, state department and Pentagon officials were holding emergency meetings to gather information about the developments in Turkey and to determine the US response.
All flights to Istanbul were suspended.
“We are aware of the current developments in Turkey,” the British Foreign Office said on Friday evening adding that it was “urgently seeking more information.”
The FCO issued an advisory notice for British nationals to avoid all public places on the country. United Nations chief Ban Ki-Moon appealed for calm through a spokesperson, who said the UN was seeking to clarify the situation.
American companies with significant operations in Turkey include Boeing and Lockheed Martin. JPMorgan Chase said it was “monitoring the situation and contacting local staff”.
Nick Heras, a Turkey expert at the Center for a New American Security, said the coup would pose a “major test” for US-Turkey relations. He said, if successful, it would “require the US and its EU partners in Nato to make a decision: are they willing to allow a democratic government to be overthrown even if there has been disagreement over the manner in which that government was governing.” He said main question should the coup turn out to be unsuccessful was that “how does it work with the Turks to manage the after effects.”
“The US at this point will probably to see how this plays out. Turkey has undergone coups in the past after it joined Nato,” said Mr Heras.

Russian President Ready to Dialogue And Collaborate With British Prime Minister , Theresa May

Russian president Vladimir Putin has said he was ready for "constructive dialogue" with Britain's new Prime Minister Theresa May.

Vladimir Putin

"Vladimir Putin confirmed his willingness to have a constructive dialogue and to collaborate with the British prime minister about current issues concerning bilateral relations and the international agenda," the Kremlin said in a statement shortly after Mrs May took office.

Mr Putin "stressed the conviction that the preservation and augmentation of the significant potential of Russian-British cooperation in various fields that has been accumulated for a long time is in the fundamental interests of the two countries".
Mr Putin also thanked David Cameron, with whom he at times had a difficult relationship. 

"I hope that your rich political experience will be in demand in the future, both in the United Kingdom and in the international community," the statement said.

Last month, Mr Putin seemingly took delight in the former prime minister's EU referendum defeat. Mr Cameron had stated Brexit would be in Russia's interests.
"Statements by the UK Prime Minister, Mr Cameron before this plebiscite where he stated Russia's position, have no basis and never did," Mr Putin said.

"I believe that this is nothing more than a flawed attempt to influence the public opinion in his own country.

"As we see, it didn't even have the desired... result.

"I have already said that we never interfered, never spoke about this, and acted in my opinion very properly.

"And of course we closely followed what was going on, but did not affect this process and did not even attempt to do so."

The Kremlin has said it hopes for an improved "understanding" with post-Brexit Britain, but played down suggestions that the result of the EU referendum would benefit Russian foreign policy.

Notorious Mafia Boss Nicknamed 'the tractor' Dies In Italy Prison

Bernardo Provenzano after his arrest in 2006 Credit: Reuters

Notorious Mafia Boss Nicknamed 'the tractor' Dies In Italy Prison
A notorious crime boss who was nicknamed 'the tractor' for the ruthless way he mowed down his enemies has died in a Milan hospital, according to prison authorities.
Bernardo Provenzano was the undisputed head of the Cosa Nostra Mafia from 1993 until his arrest in 2006 ended 43 years on the run.

The last known photograph of Bernardo Provenzano - here aged 25 - before his arrest in 2006 Credit: Reuters

As a young hitman in Corleone, the hill town near Palermo made famous in the Godfather films, Provenzano made a name for himself through his violence.

Over more than four decades Provenzano became a legendary outlaw and fugitive for evading police. Investigators believe he was in Sicily, probably often within sight of his hometown, all those years, protected by a network of local contacts.

When he was caught, Provenzano had already been convicted in absentia for a string of murders, including the 1992 killings of two anti-mafia prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Until his arrest at the age of 73 at a farmhouse near Corleone, one of the last pictures police had of Provenzano was taken when he was just 25.
He had turned the farmhouse into a rudimentary command centre of two typewriters, a dictionary and a Bible full of home-made tabs and annotations of Old and New Testament verses.

This was how Provenzano had run the mafia for more than a decade: through writing tiny messages called 'pizzini' in a code language of numbers, letters and Biblical quotations.

These were folded tens of times and then sealed in transparent tape and dispatched via a chain of messengers. The Sicilian term 'pizzino' has since become common usage in Italian to denote any written message with a criminal function.

Provenzano, who never went to secondary school, wrote in often ungrammatical Italian. He assigned numbers from two to 164 to his accomplices - he was number one - and many of them did not know which number referred to which person.


Once he became the Mafia's undisputed head in 1993, he abandoned the unbridled brutality of his early years and ran it like the chief executive of a company.

The so-called 'Provenzano Doctrine' which earned him the new nickname 'The Accountant' was aimed at ensuring a low profile, with no more bombs or mass killings and creating consensus among the other local bosses.

Over more than four decades Provenzano became a legendary outlaw and fugitive for evading police. Investigators believe he was in Sicily, probably often within sight of his hometown, all those years, protected by a network of local contacts.

After his arrest he suffered serious health problems, including cancer and Parkinson's disease, and in 2014 was transferred from a Parma prison to the San Paolo Hospital in Milan where he was still held under maximum security.