Trudeau condemns Abu Sayyaf murder of Canadian

ALBERTA - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned on Monday the execution of a Canadian hostage by Abu Sayyaf militants in the Philippines, calling it "an act of cold-blooded murder."

John Ridsdel, 68, a former mining executive, was captured by Islamist militants along with three other people in September 2015 while on vacation on a Philippine island.

The Philippine army said a severed head was found on a remote island on Monday, five hours after the expiry of a ransom deadline set by militants who had threatened to execute one of four captives.

"Canada condemns without reservation the brutality of the hostage-takers and this unnecessary death. This was an act of cold-blooded murder and responsibility rests squarely with the terrorist group who took him hostage," Trudeau told reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting.

"The government of Canada is committed to working with the government of the Philippines and international partners to pursue those responsible for this heinous act."

Trudeau declined to respond when asked whether the Canadian government had tried to negotiate with the captors or pay a ransom, or whether it was trying to secure the release of the other Canadian being held, Robert Hall.

The captives included Ridsdel and Hall, along with one Norwegian man and a Filipino woman, who had appealed in a video for their families and governments to secure their release.

Residents found the head in the center of Jolo town. An army spokesman said two men on a motorcycle were seen dropping a plastic bag containing the severed head.

A Philippine army spokesman said al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants had threatened to behead one of four captives on Monday if the 300 million pesos ($6.4 million) ransom for each of them was not paid by 3 p.m. local time.

The initial demand was one billion pesos each for the detainees, who were taken hostage at an upscale resort on Samal Island on Sept. 21.

Abu Sayyaf is a small but brutal militant group known for beheading, kidnapping, bombing and extortion in the south of the mainly Catholic country.

It decapitated a hostage from Malaysia in November last year on the same day that country's prime minister arrived in Manila for an international summit. Philippine President Benigno Aquino ordered troops to intensify action against the militants.

Security is precarious in the southern Philippines, despite a 2014 peace pact between the government and the largest Muslim rebel group that ended 45 years of conflict.

Abu Sayyaf is also holding other foreigners, including one from the Netherlands, one from Japan, four Malaysians and 14 Indonesian tugboat crew.

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Social media companies step up battle against militant propaganda

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook, Google and Twitter are stepping up efforts to combat online propaganda and recruiting by Islamic militants, but the Internet companies are doing it quietly to avoid the perception that they are helping the authorities police the Web.

On Friday, Facebook Inc said it took down a profile that the company believed belonged to San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik, who with her husband is accused of killing 14 people in a mass shooting that the FBI is investigating as an "act of terrorism."

Just a day earlier, the French prime minister and European Commission officials met separately with Facebook, Google, Twitter Inc and other companies to demand faster action on what the commission called "online terrorism incitement and hate speech."

The Internet companies described their policies as straightforward: they ban certain types of content in accordance with their own terms of service, and require court orders to remove or block anything beyond that. Anyone can report, or flag, content for review and possible removal.

But the truth is far more subtle and complicated. According to former employees, Facebook, Google and Twitter all worry that if they are public about their true level of cooperation with Western law enforcement agencies, they will face endless demands for similar action from countries around the world.

They also fret about being perceived by consumers as being tools of the government. Worse, if the companies spell out exactly how their screening works, they run the risk that technologically savvy militants will learn more about how to beat their systems.

"If they knew what magic sauce went into pushing content into the newsfeed, spammers or whomever would take advantage of that," said a security expert who had worked at both Facebook and Twitter, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

One of the most significant yet least understood aspects of the propaganda issue is the range of ways in which social media companies deal with government officials.

Facebook, Google and Twitter say they do not treat government complaints differently from citizen complaints, unless the government obtains a court order. The trio are among a growing number that publish regular transparency reports summarizing the number of formal requests from officials about content on their sites.

But there are workarounds, according to former employees, activists and government officials.

A key one is for officials or their allies to complain that a threat, hate speech or celebration of violence violates the company's terms of service, rather than any law. Such content can be taken down within hours or minutes, and without the paper trail that would go with a court order.

"It is commonplace for federal authorities to directly contact Twitter and ask for assistance, rather than going through formal channels," said an activist who has helped get numerous accounts disabled.

In the San Bernardino case, Facebook said it took down Malik's profile, established under an alias, for violating its community standards, which prohibit praise or promotion of "acts of terror." The spokesman said there was pro-Islamic State content on the page but declined to elaborate.

ACTIVISTS MOBILIZE

Some well-organized online activists have also had success getting social media sites to remove content.

A French-speaking activist using the Twitter alias NageAnon said he helped get rid of thousands of YouTube videos by spreading links of clear cases of policy violations and enlisting other volunteers to report them.

"The more it gets reported, the more it will get reviewed quickly and treated as an urgent case," he said in a Twitter message to Reuters.

A person familiar with YouTube's operations said that company officials tend to quickly review videos that generate a high number of complaints relative to the number of views.

Relying on numbers can lead to other kinds of problems.

Facebook suspended or restricted the accounts of many pro-Western Ukrainians after they were accused of hate speech by multiple Russian-speaking users in what appeared to be a coordinated campaign, said former Facebook security staffer Nick Bilogorskiy, a Ukrainian immigrant who helped some of those accounts win appeals. He said the complaints have leveled off.

A similar campaign attributed to Vietnamese officials at least temporarily blocked content by government critics, activists said.

Facebook declined to discuss these cases.

What law enforcement, politicians and some activists would really like is for Internet companies to stop banned content from being shared in the first place. But that would pose a tremendous technological challenge, as well as an enormous policy shift, former executives said.

Some child pornography can be blocked because the technology companies have access to a database that identifies previously known images. A similar type of system is in place for copyrighted music.

There is no database for videos of violent acts, and the same footage that might violate a social network's terms of service if uploaded by an anonymous militant might pass if it were part of a news broadcast.

Nicole Wong, who previously served as the White House's deputy chief technology officer, said tech companies would be reluctant to create a database of jihadists videos, even if it could be kept current enough to be relevant, for fear that repressive governments would demand such set-ups to pre-screen any content they do not like.

"Technology companies are rightfully cautious because they are global players, and if they build it for one purpose they don't get to say it can't be used for anything else," said Wong, a former Twitter and Google legal executive.

"If you build it, they will come - it will also be used in China to stop dissidents."

TRUSTED FLAGGER

There have been some formal policy changes. Twitter revised its abuse policy to ban indirect threats of violence, in addition to direct threats, and has dramatically improved its speed for handling abuse requests, a spokesman said.

"Across the board we respond to requests more quickly, and it's safe to say government requests are in that bunch," the spokesman said.

Facebook said it banned this year any content praising terrorists.

Google's YouTube has expanded a little-known "Trusted Flagger" program, allowing groups ranging from a British anti-terror police unit to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a human rights organization, to flag large numbers of videos as problematic and get immediate action.

A Google spokeswoman declined to say how many trusted flaggers there were, but said the vast majority were individuals chosen based on their past accuracy in identifying content that violated YouTube's policies. No U.S. government agencies were part of the program, though some non-profit U.S. entities have joined in the past year, she said.

"There's no Wizard of Oz syndrome. We send stuff in and we get an answer," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, head of the Wiesenthal Center's Digital Terrorism and Hate project.

(Reporting by Joseph Menn; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Tiffany Wu)

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Three China execs among dead as president condemns Mali attack

BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday condemned the ''cruel and savage'' attack by Islamist militants on a hotel in Mali's capital that killed 19 people, including three Chinese executives of a state-run railway firm.

Gunmen shouting Islamic slogans attacked the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako on Friday, before Malian commandos stormed the building and freed 170 hostages.

Xi called on "relevant departments" to strengthen security work "outside of China's borders", the Foreign Ministry cited Xi as saying in a statement on its website.

"China will strengthen cooperation with the international community, resolutely crack down on violent terrorist operations that devastate innocent lives and safeguard world peace and security," Xi said.

The three Chinese people killed were executives with China's state-owned China Railway Construction Corp, the company said in a statement on its website.

"China Railway Construction Corp is deeply saddened by the deaths of the three employees, and we express our deep condolences to the families of the victims and strongly condemn the atrocities committed by the terrorists," it said.

Zhou Tianxiang and Wang Xuanshang, general manager and deputy general manager of the company's international division, and Chang Xuehui, general manager of its West Africa division, were killed, the statement said.

The attack on the hotel was claimed by jihadist group Al Mourabitoun and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and is the latest in a series of deadly raids this year in Mali, which has battled Islamist rebels based in its desert north for years.

China vowed this week to bring to justice those responsible for killing one of its citizens after Islamic State said it had killed a Chinese captive.

Beijing has repeatedly denounced Islamist militants and urged the world to step up coordination in combating Islamic State, though it has been reluctant to get involved on the ground in Syria and Iraq where the group largely operates.

Chinese officials say the country faces a severe threat from Islamist separatists in its western Xinjiang region, where violence has left hundreds dead over the past three years.

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Gunfire erupts in Paris as police hunt suspected attack leader

* Alleged mastermind of Paris attacks targeted in police raid

* Two militants die in raid, woman detonates suicide bomb

* Suspects holed up in apartment after shooting in St Denis area

* Two Air France flights from U.S. diverted due to security alerts

 

 SAINT DENIS, France - Gunfire and explosions shook the Paris suburb of St Denis early on Wednesday as French police surrounded a building where a Belgian Islamist militant suspected of masterminding last week's attacks in the French capital was believed to be holed up.

Two assailants were killed, including a woman who detonated a suicide bomb, a source close to the case said, adding that the police operation was continuing to flush out two other suspects.

The target of the raid, which filled the streets of St Denis with heavily armed police and soldiers, was Islamic State militant Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was initially thought to have orchestrated the Paris attacks from Syria, police and justice sources said.

A judicial source said police had originally been hunting other suspects in St Denis, but now believed he was one of those barricaded in the building.

Shooting began at about 4.30 a.m. (0330 GMT) and police special forces of the RAID unit were still involved in exchanges of fire three hours later, witnesses said.

"The operation is still under way. It's not over," local member of parliament Mathieu Hanotin said on France Inter radio. "Everyone must stay indoors. There are still gunmen holed up in the apartment."

Three police officers and a passerby were injured in the assault.

A police source said three suspects had been arrested so far with security forces still trying to "neutralize" two more at the scene close to the Stade de France stadium which was one of the targets of last Friday's attacks.

The coordinated series of bombings and shootings killed 129 people, the worst atrocity in France since World War Two. Investigators soon linked the attacks to a militant cell in Belgium which was in contact with Islamic State in Syria.

The group claimed responsibility for killings, saying they were in retaliation for French air raids in Syria and Iraq over the past year. France has called for a global coalition to defeat the radicals and has launched three large airstrikes on Raqqa -- the de-facto Islamic State capital in northern Syria.

"LET'S GO"

French prosecutors have identified five of the seven dead assailants from Friday - four Frenchmen and a man who was fingerprinted in Greece among refugees last month.

But they now believe two men directly involved in the assault subsequently escaped.

Wednesday's operation came after a source with knowledge of the investigation said a cell phone had been found with a map of the music venue targeted in one of the attacks and a text message saying "let's go".

The source said the phone was found in a dustbin near the Bataclan concert hall where 89 people died.

Late on Tuesday, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said two Paris-bound Air France flights were diverted following anonymous bomb threats, and hundreds of passengers and crew were safely removed.

Authorities in the United States and Canada, where the planes landed, later said both aircraft had been searched and were safe.

On Tuesday night, bomb fears had prompted German police to call off a soccer match between Germany and the Netherlands in Hanover two hours before kick-off. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been due to attend.

No arrests were made and no explosives were found.

Russia has also intensified its attacks on Islamic State targets in Syria after confirming that a bomb had downed a passenger airliner over Sinai last month, killing 224. The militants had previously claimed responsibility.

Paris and Moscow are not coordinating their operations, but French President Francois Hollande is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Nov. 26 to discuss how their countries' militaries might work together.

Hollande is due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on Nov. 24 also to push for a concerted drive against Islamic State, which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq.

Obama said in Manila on Wednesday he wanted Moscow to shift its focus from propping up Syria's government to fighting Islamic State and would discuss that with Putin.

Russia is allied to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The West says he must go if there is to be a political solution to Syria's prolonged civil war.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Callus, David Brunnstrom, Matthias Blsamont, Marine Pennetier, Emmanuel Jarry, Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Jean-Baptiste Vey, Chine Labbé, Svebor Kranjc, John Irish in Paris, Alastair Macdonald and Robert-Jan Bartunek in Brussels, and Matt Spetalnick in Manila, Victoria Cavaliere and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles, Amran Abocar in Toronto and Dan Wallis in Denver; Writing by Alex Richardson and Crispian Balmer; Editing by Andrew Callus)

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Global markets brace for short-term hit after Paris attacks

SYDNEY/TOKYO -- Global stocks are set for a short-term sell-off on Monday after Islamist militants launched coordinated attacks across Paris that killed 129 people, but analysts said a prolonged economic impact or market reaction was unlikely.

President Francois Hollande has declared a state of emergency, ordering police and troops into the streets, and set three days of official mourning after the attacks he called an "act of war" by Islamic State.

The carnage prompted condemnation by world leaders and outpourings of support for Parisians from around the globe, but would likely have only a knee-jerk impact on investment decisions, said Shane Oliver, chief economist at Australia's AMP Capital in Sydney.

"History will tell us that if the economic impact is limited - and I think it will be - that markets will quickly recover and go on to focus on other things," Oliver, who is also head of strategy at the $111-billion wealth management firm.

While news of the attacks hit after markets closed on Friday, S&P 500 Index futures were still trading and shed about 1 percent in light volume.

"If this had happened during market trading hours there could have been a panic but markets had a weekend to digest all the information," said Eiji Kinouchi, chief technical analyst at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.

With Wall Street closing more than 1 percent lower after weak U.S. retail sales figures, Asian and European share markets would have been expected to fall even without the Paris attacks

French stocks, particularly those exposed to the country's large tourism sector, are likely to suffer the biggest falls.

France has the largest number of tourists in the world and the sector accounts for almost 7.5 percent of GDP.

"These Paris terrorist attacks and the larger scale of this attack could have a meaningful negative impact on the travel and tourism sector," said Robert T. Lutts, president and chief investment officer at Cabot Wealth Management in Salem, Massachusetts.

"It is possible this could cause investors to take a bit more cautious stance on the higher risk sectors of the markets."

Europe has suffered similar coordinated attacks on public transport systems previously, in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005. Almost 250 people were killed and more than 2,500 injured in those bombings on trains and buses by Al Qaeda-inspired militants.

"The knee-jerk reaction in other terrorist attacks over the last decade has been a rush to safety, including aggressive buying in the U.S. Treasury markets," said Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia.

"I sincerely hope these attacks will prove short in duration and will abate in intensity, in which case the market reaction will likely only include a brief safety bid in Treasuries."

U.S. 10-year Treasuries notes yielded 2.273 percent at Friday's close. The euro ended the week little changed at $1.0777, and is down 11 percent this year against a resurgent greenback.

French financial markets will be open as usual on Monday, stock and derivatives exchange Euronext said on Saturday.

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Kuwait detains suspects in mosque bombing - source

DUBAI - Kuwait has arrested several people on suspicion of involvement in the bombing of a Shi'ite Muslim mosque on Friday that killed 27 people, a security source said on Saturday.

"Numerous arrests of (people)... suspected of having ties with the suicide bomber have been made," said the source.

Militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing, which was the Gulf Arab country's worst militant attack in years and according to the interior ministry also wounded more than 200.

Kuwaiti daily al-Qabas said state security had arrested three people suspected of being involved.

Parliament member Khalil al-Salih was at the Imam al-Sadeq Mosque in the Sawaber district in the eastern part of the Kuwaiti capital when the attack occurred.

He said worshippers were kneeling in prayer when the bomber walked in and detonated his explosives, destroying walls and the ceiling.

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Obama wants US to declare war on Islamic State

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama sent Congress his text on Wednesday for an authorization to use military force in the campaign against Islamic State, limiting operations against the militants to three years and barring use of U.S. troops in "enduring offensive ground combat."

According to the text, Obama also wants to repeal the 2002 measure that authorized the Iraq war. But his proposal leaves in place a 2001 authorization, passed shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, for a campaign against al Qaeda and its affiliates.

Obama said he remained committed to working with Congress to "refine, and ultimately repeal" the 2001 AUMF. He said enacting a measure specific to the campaign against Islamic State fighters could serve as a model for revamping the 2001 measure.

"I have directed a comprehensive and sustained strategy to degrade and defeat ISIL," Obama wrote in a letter accompanying the draft, using an acronym for the Islamist militant group.

"Local forces, rather than U.S. military forces, should be deployed to conduct such operations," he said.

The White House said Obama would make a statement on his request at 3:30 PM EST (2030 GMT).

Obama's proposal must be approved by both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, where it is expected to provoke strong debate between Democrats, who are generally wary of another Middle East war, and Republicans, many of whom have been pushing for stronger measures against the militant fighters.

Obama has defended his authority to lead an international coalition against Islamic State since Aug. 8 when U.S. fighter jets began attacking the jihadists in Iraq. But he has faced criticism for failing to seek the backing of Congress, where some accuse him of breaching his constitutional authority.

Facing pressure to let lawmakers weigh in on an issue as important as the deployment of troops and chastened by elections that handed power in Congress to Republicans, he said in November he would request formal authorization for the use of military force (AUMF).

Secretary of State John Kerry, who spent nearly three decades in the U.S. Senate, said in a statement it was important that the administration work with Congress to secure its passage. The coalition fighting Islamic State will be stronger if it is passed, he said.

"The world needs to hear that the United States speaks with one voice in the fight against ISIL," he said. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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PH mourns police killed in anti-terror bloodbath

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84 children killed in Taliban attack on Pakistan school

PESHAWAR - At least 84 children were killed in Pakistan on Tuesday when Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in the city of Peshawar, taking hundreds of students and teachers hostage in the bloodiest insurgent attack in the country in years.

They were among the 126 people killed. with 122 others injured in the attack, a Pakistani provincial official said.

Troops surrounded the building and an operation was under way to rescue the remaining children, the army said. A Reuters journalist at the scene said he could hear heavy gunfire from inside the school.

Pervaiz Khattak, Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the province of which Peshawar is the capital, said 84 children had been killed.

"In CMH (Combined Military Hospital) there are around 60 and there are 24 dead in Lady Reading (hospital)," he told local television channels.

It was not immediately clear whether some or all of the children were killed by the gunmen or in the ensuing battle with Pakistani security forces trying to gain control of the building.

Outside, helicopters hovered overhead and ambulances ferried wounded children to hospital.

An unspecified number of children were still being held hostage in the school, a provincial official said, speaking some three hours after the attack began.

The Pakistani Taliban, who are fighting to topple the government and set up a strict Islamic state, have vowed to step up attacks in response to a major army operation against the insurgents in the tribal areas.

They have targeted security forces, checkpoints, military bases and airports, but attacks on civilian targets with no logistical significance are relatively rare.

In September, 2013, dozens of people, including many children, were killed in an attack on a church, also in Peshawar.

"WE WANT THEM TO FEEL THE PAIN"

The hardline Islamist movement immediately claimed responsibility.

"We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females," said Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani. "We want them to feel the pain."

The army said in a statement that many hostages had been evacuated but did not say how many.

"Rescue operation by troops underway. Exchange of fire continues. Bulk of student(s) and staff evacuated. Reports of some children and teachers killed by terrorist," the army said in a brief English-language statement.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attack and said he was on his way to Peshawar.

"I can't stay back in Islamabad. This is a national tragedy unleashed by savages. These were my kids," he said in a statement.

"This is my loss. This is the nation's loss. I am leaving for Peshawar now and I will supervise this operation myself."

Military officials at the scene said at least six armed men had entered the military-run Army Public School. About 500 students and teachers were believed to be inside.

"We were standing outside the school and firing suddenly started and there was chaos everywhere and the screams of children and teachers," said Jamshed Khan, a school bus driver.

One student inside the school at the time of the attack told a private television channel: "We were in the examination hall when all of sudden firing started and our teachers told us to silently lay on the floor. We remained on the floor for an hour. There was a lot of gunfire.

"When the gunfire died down our soldiers came and guided us out."

Originally the Taliban said the attackers, including a number of suicide bombers, had been instructed not to target children and shoot only adults. (Additional reporting by Mehreen Zahra-Malik and Syed Raza Hassan in Islamabad and Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan; Writing by Katharine Houreld and Maria Golovnina; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

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Hostages were 'human shields' in Algeria: Filipino survivor

MANILA - Islamic militants used foreign hostages as human shields to stop Algerian troops aboard helicopters from strafing them with gunfire, a Filipino survivor of the four-day bloodbath recounted Monday.

Father-of-four Joseph Balmaceda said he saw one Japanese hostage draped with explosives, while he and others had their hands bound with cable ties, during the ordeal at the In Amenas gas plant in the Sahara Desert that ended Saturday.

"Whenever government troops tried to use a helicopter to shoot at the enemy, we were used as human shields," a clearly stressed Balmaceda told reporters shortly after arriving back in Manila.

"We were told to raise our hands. The government forces could not shoot at them as long as we were held hostage."

Balmaceda, nursing abrasions to his face and a loss of hearing, said he was the only survivor out of nine hostages who were aboard a van that exploded, apparently from C-4 explosives that the militants had rigged to the vehicle.

He said two militants were transferring the nine hostages to the central facility of the gas plant but the bomb went off during a clash with Algerian security forces.

"The only thing left of the car was the back portion of the Land Cruiser," said Balmaceda, 42.

"I was the only one who survived because I was sandwiched between two spare tires. That is why I am still here and can talk to you."

Balmaceda said the two militants driving the vehicle were also killed.

"But (other) hostage-takers were firing at me. It meant there were other terrorists," he said.

"So I crawled about 300 meters to where the government forces were. And when I reached them I fainted. When I woke up I was in the hospital."

The Al-Qaeda-linked "Signatories in Blood" group said it attacked the gas plant in retaliation for a French military operation to evict Islamists from neighboring Mali.

Most hostages were freed on Thursday in a first Algerian rescue operation, which was initially viewed by foreign governments as hasty, before the focus of public condemnation turned on the jihadists.

Balmaceda said the incident in which the vehicle exploded occurred on the second day of the siege, apparently during the first rescue operation.

The crisis ended on Saturday with a final assault by Algerian troops.

Dozens of foreigners are believed to have died during the siege, although authorities have yet to give a definite figure.

The Philippine government said earlier Monday that six Filipinos had been confirmed killed, and four were missing.

Balmaceda, who worked at the facility as a maintenance technician for eight years, said the hostage takers had initially told him and other Filipinos that they were mainly interested in killing French and US nationals.

"We were told by the leader that: "This is not a problem with the Philippines, we don't have a quarrel with the Philippines and you will not be touched. We have problems with France and the Americans'," he said.

However he said he was with four other Filipinos when he was initially captured, and he had not seem them since. They were not in the van that exploded.

Balmaceda said he was overjoyed to be back in the Philippines and with his family.

"I am very very happy. I prayed to be reunited with them. I couldn't die because I have four kids to take care of," he said.

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