Hours before the shooting unfolded in West Hollywood, Gaga was pictured strutting through the streets of Rome.

She is currently filming in the Italian city for Ridley Scott's new movie Gucci, in which she stars Maurizio Gucci's ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani.

Debuting new brunette locks, the Bad Romance hitmaker was spotted walking into her hotel, glad in a glamorous animal print kaftan and a black studded face mask.

Earlier this month, Gaga revealed that a 'very important member' of her family was hospitalized for two months with COVID-19 after falling 'very, very ill' with the virus.

The 11-time Grammy winner admitted it was difficult for her to visit them in the ICU because she had to be by herself.

When asked what has been giving her hope over the past year, she said: 'I got to be honest. I'm about to cry on the other end of this call with you because it's really - it's doctors, it's nurses, it's essential workers.

'I haven't spoken to this person about speaking about this publicly, but I will tell you that a very important member of my family was very, very ill recently and in the hospital for almost two months.

'I was in the ICU by myself many times because you can't go in with more than one person, if you can go in at all. I have never seen the heroic acts of bravery that I witnessed, watching these doctors and nurses and people that were cleaning at the hospital.'


Pictured: Lady Gaga with her dogs, and one of Lady Gaga's 3 bulldogs being rescued first by police, then her bodyguard, after it managed to escape.

Lady Gaga has offered a $500,000 reward for the return of two of her French bulldogs after they were stolen by a gunman who shot her dog walker four times in the chest in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.

Ryan Fischer was ambushed outside his home on West Hollywood's Sierra Bonita Avenue as he walked Gaga's dogs Koji, Miss Asia, and Gustav just before 10pm yesterday.

The attacker then fled with two of the dogs, Koji and Gustav, while Miss Asia managed to get away.

Police arrived to the scene to find Fischer seriously hurt, but conscious and communicative.

Video captured by KABC showed Fischer lying on the sidewalk and clinging to Miss Asia as first responders treat him.

The 30-year-old was taken to a nearby hospital and is now said to be 'recovering well'.

It's unclear whether the thieves knew the dogs belonged to Gaga. However, French bulldogs are in high demand and sell for anywhere between $3,000-$5,000. Those with pedigree lineage can also go for as much as $10,000.

Gaga, 34, is said to be distraught over the incident and is offering a $500,000 reward for the return of Koji and Gustav 'no questions asked', TMZ reported.

There has been no mention of a reward for the capture of the shooter.

Fischer, who runs a company called Valley Of The Dogs, had been watching Gaga's French bulldogs while she's away filming a new Ridley Scott movie in Rome, Italy.

Just six days ago, Fischer had posted a video to Instagram of him singing to the trio, and tagged Miss Asia's official Instagram page. He has previously posted images of the dogs on a number of other occasions.

In a statement to DailyMail.com, the LAPD said investigators are treating the case as an 'assault with a deadly weapon,' noting that the weapon used was a semi-automatic handgun.

It was initially believed there were two attackers, but LA police said on Thursday afternoon that they were hunting for a single shooter.

The gunman fled the scene northbound on Sierra Bonita Avenue in a white vehicle and remains at large, police said.

The LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division has taken over the investigation. The RHD is responsible for investigating the highest-profile cases in LA.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9299591/Lady-Gagas-dogwalker-shot-four-times-chest-two-men-stole-two-gods.html#comments



Pictured: Dog walker Ryan Fischer with dogs, and the scene of crime.

Ricardo Mexia blamed the January surge mainly on the decision to ease coronavirus restrictions over Christmas, although he also noted the rapid spread of the UK variant that had brought significantly more younger patients into hospital with Covid-19.

The government, for its part, cited that more contagious variant, which now predominates among new cases, as its main reason for imposing a full lockdown.

In a sign of how fluid the situation is, just days after that announcement, it backtracked on its pledge to keep schools open, instead suspending face-to-face classes. With no date for schools to reopen, remote learning is to start up from 8 February.

Meanwhile, the number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 continues to set new records and is currently more than five times the peak of last spring.

With barely half a dozen intensive care beds free in Portugal, the issue is not so much a lack of beds as shortages of specialist staff and equipment.

The medical staff, 50 ventilators and 150 beds flown in from Germany will help, but it merely highlights the tens of thousands of Portuguese nurses - including many specialists - who have emigrated in recent years.

The situation is most acute in the Lisbon region, which is seeing around half of new cases and where hospitals have been struggling.

A hospital in Amadora, just north of the capital, last week had to hurriedly transfer dozens of patients to other units in the region because of its overloaded oxygen network.

Across the River Tagus, ambulances this past weekend queued for more than 12 hours outside the main hospital in Almada, as its emergency department struggled with the flood of patients. Civil defence forces have since set up triage tents to free up ambulances.

Prime Minister António Costa visited a Lisbon health centre on Wednesday to mark the start of vaccinations for people aged 80 and over who are not living in care homes. But that was later overshadowed by the resignation by the head of the vaccination taskforce.

Although Mr Costa has insisted that lockdown is now paying off, the minister of health, Marta Temido, has warned the public that the crisis is far from over.

"This will be another week with a lot of pressure in terms of admissions and the next two weeks will probably be very difficult where intensive care is concerned," she said.

The sight of a German military plane touching down in Lisbon on Wednesday, carrying intensive care specialists and ventilators to help save lives in Portugal's embattled hospitals, recalls the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe.

Last spring, when Italy was overwhelmed by the first wave of infections, it was helped out by several other European countries taking in patients - even if many Italians felt it was too little, too late.

Now, almost a year on, it is Portugal's turn.

The country's national health service is overwhelmed. There's a shortage of beds and specialist nurses, and in one hospital last week, potentially life-threatening problems in an overburdened oxygen system.

Portugal got off relatively lightly in that first wave, although it later caught up in terms of confirmed cases relative to population.

Now, though, the situation here is dramatically worse, with a giant third wave in January that has seen the country top global rankings for new cases and deaths associated with Covid-19.

Daily new cases have recently been around 10 times their peak of last spring, and January accounted for 45% of all coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began.

The lockdown imposed in mainland Portugal on 15 January does now seem to be reducing the transmission rate, but there is still a huge number of active cases.

"However low the R [rate] is, if the number of cases is high it is very difficult to get them down," said Ricardo Mexia, president of the Portuguese Association of Public Health Doctors. "That's the problem now."


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55902317

Madrid also closed Barajas Airport on Friday night as a result of the chaotic weather which made flying impossible.

At least 50 flights to Madrid, Malaga, Tenerife and Cueta were cancelled as a result of the airport shutdown.

Aena, who controls all of Spain's airports, tweeted: 'Owing to the forecast of snow and for security, Madrid Barajas airport will remain closed throughout Saturday'.

The airport's closure came after the Real Madrid team were left trapped on a runway for four hours last night before being given a go-ahead to take off.

Skiers were seen gliding through the Puerta del Sol plaza in central Madrid, while one man was spotted making his way through the capital with his sled dogs.

Car salesman Javier Talanco took his five huskies out for a spin in surreal scenes after historic snowfall left the city looking more like Reykjavik.

Javier, who practices the dog-powered sport of mushing but normally in the mountains, treated the children of neighbours to rides on his sled after the heaviest snowfall in Madrid in at least 50 years.

He said afterwards: 'They have snow in their blood and as soon as they saw it out of the window, they started getting nervous and wouldn't stop playing.'

'We're going to reach everyone and help them get to safety.'

Transport Minister Jose Luis Abalos added: 'We are in the grip of an historic storm and obviously it's had a huge knock-on effect on transport.'

On the A4 in Madrid, the Red Cross set out to deliver food packages to lorry drivers who were also trapped in their vehicles because of the snow.

Meteorologists had predicted Friday's snowfall to reach around 20cm with temperatures hovering around freezing.

Drivers in Madrid had to be rescued from their cars today after unprecedented heavy snowfall caused by Storm Filomena wreaked havoc across Spain, leaving thousands of drivers stranded.

The M-30 and M-40 motorways near to the Spanish capital were among 400 roads on which traffic was affected by the heavy snowfall.

Madrid city council called on citizens to stay at home and avoid non-essential travel as a result of the unusual blizzard.

Ten regions, including the Spanish capital, were placed on red alert earlier today, with more heavy snowfalls predicted.

Speaking to Spanish television RNE from her car, one woman said: 'I drove to see my husband in hospital and have been stuck here for three hours. It's a journey which should take 15 minutes.'

The Spanish Unit for Military Emergencies, which deployed 147 soldiers to help stranded drivers, tweeted to say: 'We continue the rescue of vehicles on the A4, A5, M40 and M607.'

Emergency services said around 1,000 trapped motorists had been reached by the early hours of this morning.

Carlos Novillo, director of Madrid Emergencies, described the situation as critical but added: 'We're still working on reaching cars trapped on the M40 and M506 motorways.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9128869/Army-drafted-save-stranded-drivers-near-blizzard-hit-Spanish-capital.html

10 still missing

Rescue teams in Norway continued their search for survivors during the night but weather and unstable ground prevented easy access. The landslide left a 700-meter long crater in the village of Ask.
Rescue efforts continued through the night to find residents missing after Wednesday's landslide in the Norwegian village of Ask, police said on Thursday.

Karianne Knudsen, operations chief in the Ost police district, told local national broadcaster NRK that 10 people remained uncontactable and that a total of 31 housing units and nine buildings had collapsed, several of which caved-in hours after the landslide struck.

"We are still hopeful about finding people and saving lives," chief of police operations Dags Andre Sylju told local media. "Time has been key during the whole rescue operation. The longer it goes on, the worse the odds become."

Huge crater left behind
The earthfall hit the town of Ask, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Oslo, early on Wednesday morning. Estimated to be 700 meters (2300 ft) long and 300 meters wide, the landslide created a huge crater.

Officials said at least 10 people were injured, one critically and more than a thousand residents have been evacuated.

Local police announced on Twitter that the "search has continued through the night with the use of drones and helicopters. Listening and observation posts were also set up … The weather conditions in the area are still challenging."


https://www.dw.com/en/norway-landslide-10-still-missing-after-dozens-of-homes-collapse/a-56102550

Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg offered her sympathies in a social media post, saying: 'It hurts to see how the forces of nature have ravaged Gjerdrum. My thoughts go to all those affected by the landslide.

'Now it is important that the emergency services get their job done.'

Solberg travelled to the village of around 1,000 people on Wednesday and described the landslide as 'one of the largest' the country had seen.

'It's a dramatic experience to be here,' Solberg told reporters, adding she was particularly concerned with those still missing.

Geologists from the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate are currently assessing the site where the landslide hit to determine whether it is safe for rescue crews to enter.

The area where Ask is in a location known for having a lot of so-called quick clay, a form of clay that can change from solid to liquid form. There have been previous landslides reported in the area.

Quick clay is also found elsewhere in Norway and Sweden, but the government agency said in a statement that it was 'unlikely that similar large landslides' would occur elsewhere in the region for now.

It also exists in Finland, Russia, Canada and Alaska, according to the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, having been formed after the last ice age when ice sheets covered much of northern Europe and North America.

After the ice melted, the clay was elevated above sea level, creating landmasses which can collapse 'like a house of cards' if overloaded, experts say.

The clay was once strengthened by salt deposits, but these have gradually been washed away over the millennia, leaving the quick clay areas 'highly unstable'.

Dozens are missing and at least nine people have been injured in a massive night-time landslide in a Norwegian town.Homes were buried under a 2,000ft-long slick of mud at 4am in the village of Ask, in the municipality of Gjerdrum, 12 miles north of Oslo.

Photos show at least eight homes were swept away in the area, which was home to around 5,000 people, and geologists have blamed a layer of unstable 'quick clay' beneath the topsoil.

Formed after the end of the last ice age, quick clay is found in Sweden, Norway and other Arctic countries, and can 'totally collapse and float like a liquid' when too much weight is piled on it.

Some 40 ambulances were sent to the scene and hundreds have been evacuated amid fears of further landslides.

Cops, who have declared a disaster, say 26 are unaccounted for and several people have been trapped with some managing to phone relatives appealing for help. Others made emergency calls to report their houses were moving.

Following an assessment by geologists, the police decided to extend their original evacuation zone further south of the landslide, which is 700metres long.

'Several homes have been taken by the landslide. Emergency services, with assistance from the Norwegian civil defence and the military, are in the process of evacuating,' Norwegian police said on Twitter.

Norwegian media said up to 200 people had been evacuated from their homes and nine injured, though none were in critical condition.

'Police are designating this as a disaster,' chief of operations Roger Pettersen told broadcaster NRK amid Arctic conditions on Wednesday.

He added: 'The injured have been transported to hospital and to the emergency room. 'In addition, we have a retirement home that has been evacuated and extensive evacuation is underway for the homes that are within the evacuation zone.'

He said emergency calls had come in from people saying their whole house was moving.

Helicopters hovered over the area, at times lowering emergency responders towards the debris of collapsed houses.

'There were two massive tremors that lasted for a long while and I assumed it was snow being cleared or something like that,' Oeystein Gjerdrum, 68, told NRK.

'Then the power suddenly went out, and a neighbour came to the door and said we needed to evacuate, so I woke up my three grandchildren and told them to get dressed quickly.'

The evacuation has now slowed because the landslide cut straight across a road through the village, leaving a deep ravine which cars could not pass.

'So there are dramatic reports and the situation is serious,' Pettersen said.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9098647/Landslide-hits-Norway-sparking-mass-evacuation.html

A British stream locomotive from the colonial era would be more reliable than this Chinese machine.

Nigerians simply have no interest in their own history, it goes against their entrepreneurial nature.

It takes an article written by a British journalist in a UK newspaper, featuring academics from Europe for us to be able to read an up to date story about it.

Austrian public broadcaster ORF cited witnesses saying several shots were first fired shortly after 8pm local time.

Another Austrian newspaper reported that the attack was on the street that houses the city's main synagogue.

The attack comes just four days after a knife-wielding Tunisian man beheaded a woman and killed two other people in Nice, France before being shot by police.

Brahim Aoussaoui, 21, allegedly beheaded Nadine Devillers, 60, slit the throat of sexton Vincent Loques, 55, and stabbed mother-of-three Simone Barreto Silva, 44, to death in the horrifying attack.

On October 16, History teacher Samuel Paty was decapitated for showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a civics class discussion on free speech on October 16.

He became the subject of an online hate campaign over his choice of lesson material - the same images which unleashed a bloody assault by Islamist gunmen on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo five years ago.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said there was 'no room for hatred and violence in our common European home,' while his foreign minister Luigi Di Maio tweeted that 'Europe must react'.

The father of one of Paty's pupils, who started the social media campaign even though his daughter was not in class when the cartoons were shown, is among seven people charged over the attack.

He had exchanged messages with the killer, 18-year-old Chechnya-born Abdullakh Anzorov, via WhatsApp in the days leading up to the murder.

Ricard said that two teenagers - aged 14 and 15 - were also among the those being prosecuted for their part in a group who shared €300-350 (£270-£315) offered by the killer to help identify Paty.

The pair stayed with Anzorov for more than two hours waiting for the 47-year-old father of one even after the killer told them he wanted to 'humiliate and strike' Paty over the Muhammad caricatures, seen as offensive by many Muslims.

Anzorov decapitated Paty with a knife and tweeted an image of the teacher's severed head on Twitter before he was shot dead by police.

Czech police said they had started random checks on the country's border with Austria following Monday's attack.

'Police are carrying out random checks of vehicles and passengers on border crossings with Austria as a preventive measure in relation to the terror attack in Vienna,' the police tweeted.

Police urged people to avoid all open spaces and public transport in the city. They also said trams and buses were not stopping and urged social media users not to post videos of the police operation, so as not to endanger officers.

Photos and videos from the scene show police officers searching restaurants, cars and people as part of the manhunt.

Oskar Deutsch, the head of the Jewish community in Vienna, said the shooting took place in the street where the city's main synagogue is located but that it wasn't clear whether the house of worship had been targeted.

The synagogue was already closed at the time of the shooting, Deutsch tweeted. A neighbouring restaurant was also closed.

Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister said he saw at least one person fire shots at people sitting outside bars in the street below his window.

'They were shooting at least 100 rounds just outside our building,' Hofmeister said.

'All these bars have tables outside. This evening is the last evening before the lockdown,' he added. 'As of midnight, all bars and restaurants will be closed in Austria for the next month and a lot of people probably wanted to use that evening to be able to go out.'

'It sounded like firecrackers, then we realised it was shots,' said one eyewitness quoted by public broadcaster ORF.

A shooter had 'shot wildly with an automatic weapon' before the police arrived and opened fire, the witness added.

Footage believed to be taken near the scene showed people ducking and weaving as they run for cover, with shots ringing out.

Reacting to the attack, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: 'I am deeply shocked by the terrible attacks in Vienna tonight. The UK's thoughts are with the people of Austria - we stand united with you against terror.

Home Secretary Priti Patel tweeted: 'Deeply shocked and saddened by the incident that has taken place in Vienna this evening. My thoughts are with everyone who has been affected and we stand ready to support in any way we can.'

French President Emmanuel Macron vowed Europe would not bow to terrorists following the shootings in Vienna on Monday in which at least two people including one attacker died and several more were injured.

'We French share the shock and sorrow of the Austrian people following the attack in Vienna,' Macron tweeted in both French and German.

'After France, it is a friendly nation that has been attacked. This is our Europe. Our enemies must know who they're dealing with. We will concede nothing.'

Germany's foreign ministry said Monday that 'we cannot give in to hate that is supposed to divide our societies' following shootings in Austrian capital Vienna that left two dead, including one attacker, and several injured.

'Even if we can't yet foresee the extent of the terror, our thoughts are with the wounded and the victims in these difficult hours,' the ministry wrote on Twitter, calling the news from neighbouring Austria.

-Three people are thought to have been killed in a shooting rampage across six different places in Vienna
-Police are urging people to avoid public transport and the Vienna city centre as they deal with the incident
-There are reports of several attackers, with one accomplice said to have 'blown themselves up' amid rampage
-Interior Minister Karl Nehammer told Austrian broadcaster ORF: 'At the moment I can confirm we believe this is an apparent terror attack'



At least three people have been killed and 15 others injured in six gun attacks and a reported 'suicide bomb explosion' near a synagogue in Vienna on the city's final night before coronavirus lockdown.

A huge manhunt is currently underway for multiple attackers armed with rifles following the horrific shootings, with the first near the synagogue reported at 8pm local time.

One attacker is thought to have 'blown themselves up' during the rampage with another arrested and one shot dead by police. A police officer is also thought to have been shot and seriously injured. Vienna mayor Michael Ludwig said 15 people were admitted to hospital, seven with serious injuries.

The rampage comes on the last evening before Austria goes into lockdown, with bars and restaurants in the country closed from midnight tonight and people flocking to enjoy one last night of freedom.

Shocking footage showing a man carrying an assault rifle and sprinting through the streets of Vienna and firing off shots was shared on social media, shortly after reports of the attack. More distressing footage appears to show the moment a man is shot by an attacker.

Interior Minister Karl Nehammer told Austrian broadcaster ORF: 'It appears to have been a terror attack.'

He added that the perpetrators are on the loose and 'heavily armed and dangerous' and the army had been asked to guard key locations in the city to allow police officers to pursue the attackers

'We have brought several special forces units together that are now searching for the presumed terrorists. I am therefore not limiting it to an area of Vienna because these are mobile perpetrators,' Nehammer said, urging the public to stay indoors until the all-clear is given.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz described the shootings as a 'hideous terrorist attack'. He tweeted: 'We are currently going through difficult times in our republic. I would like to thank all the emergency services who risk their lives, especially today for our safety.

'Our police will take decisive action against the perpetrators of this hideous terrorist attack. I am glad that our police officers have already been able to eliminate a perpetrator. We will never allow ourselves to be intimidated by terrorism and will fight these attacks resolutely by all means.'

'One of the perpetrators was neutralised, but several perpetrators appear to still be on the loose,' he said. 'They seem to also, as far as we know, be very well equipped, with automatic weapons. So they were very well prepared. It's definitely a terror attack.'

Pic 1: Gunman on the loose
Pic 2-3: Suspects
Pic 4: 2 individuals not thought to be involved

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8906871/Shots-fired-near-synagogue-Vienna-police-say-major-operation-underway.html#comments

Sophie Vénétitay, deputy head of the SNES-FSU teachers' union, said: 'He was murdered because he was doing his job, namely teaching critical thought.' She said Mr Paty was a history and geography teacher who was in charge of 'moral and civic education'.

'In that capacity, he gave a lesson on the freedom of expression with the Mohammed cartoons,' she said.

Thibault Humbert, mayor of the nearby suburb of Éragny-sur-Oise, said: 'This was an exceptionally violent and horrifying attack. The police must be commended for intervening with such speed.'

Other politicians lined up to express their horror at the killing, with Xavier Bertrand, centre-Right president of the Hauts-de-France region, saying: 'Islamist barbarity has taken aim at one of the symbols of the Republic: school. The terrorists want to shut us up, to bring us to our knees.
France's litany of deadly attacks

'They should know that we will not bend, they will never forbid us to read, write, draw, think, teach.'

Marine Le Pen of National Rally said: 'A teacher beheaded for showing Charlie Hebdo caricatures. We are in France with this level of unbearable barbarity. Islamism is waging war on us: it is by force that we must drive them out of our country.'

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, head of the far-Left party, Unbowed France, said: 'Horrible crime in Conflans! In fact, the assassin takes himself for the god that he claims he follows. He is sullying religion. And he is inflicting on us all the hell of having to live with murderers like him.'

Local lawmaker Antoine Savignat said, 'If we cannot talk about the Charlie Hebdo caricatures in school, we end up in denialism... In France, the country of freedom of expression, this cannot be allowed to happen.'

Parents of pupils laid flowers at the school gate. Some said their children were distraught.'(My daughter) is in pieces, terrorised by the violence of such an act. How will I explain to her the unthinkable?' one father said.

Muslim leaders condemned the killing, which many public figures perceived as an attack on the essence of French statehood and its values of secularism, freedom of worship and freedom of expression.

Tareq Oubrou, the imam of a Bordeaux mosque, said of the killing, 'It is not a civilisation that kills an innocent person, it is barbarity'.

A police source said the scene has been cordoned off and a bomb disposal unit dispatched because of the suspected presence of an explosive vest.

'[The attacker] is believed to be from a Chechen background,' said an investigating source, referring to the Russian Federation republic.

Thousands of battle-hardened Chechen refugees, including many devout Muslims, entered France in the early 2000s following two bloody wars against Russia.

Around 30,000 Chechens in total escaped to France, many of them resettling in the suburbs of major cities such as Paris.

France has seen occasional violence involving its Chechen community in recent months – in the Dijon region, the Mediterranean city of Nice, and the western town of Saint-Dizier – believed to be linked to local criminal activity.

It was not known what link, if any, the attacker might have with the teacher or whether he had accomplices.

Police on Friday arrived at the scene after receiving a call about a suspicious individual loitering near the school, a police source said. There they found the dead man and nearby sighted the suspect armed with a knife-like weapon, who threatened them as they tried to arrest him.

They opened fire and injured him severely, the source said. The man later died of his injuries, a judicial source said.

The attack follows a terrorism enquiry being launched in Paris last month after two news agency staff were stabbed outside the former offices of Charlie Hebdo – the magazine where staff members were murdered in 2015 after publishing cartoons mocking the Prophet.

Those on trial range in age from 29 to 68, and are charged with providing logistics to the terrorists, including cash, weapons and vehicles.

Paris-born brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi murdered 12 people in the Charlie Hebdo offices using Kalashnikovs, before escaping in a stolen car, and later being killed by police.

A third terrorist, Amedy Coulibaly, gunned down four shoppers in a kosher supermarket and a policewoman during three days of carnage before he too was killed.

Charlie Hebdo now produces its magazine from a top secret location, and in September re-published the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed which had provoked outrage in the Muslim world.

There have been a series of bomb, gun and knife attacks carried out by Islamic State and al-Qaeda operatives in France, dating back to early 2015

The deadliest single terrorist attack ever in the country came in November 2015 when 130 people were killed in Paris. Suicide bombers pledging allegiance to ISIS targeted the Stade de France, cafes, restaurants and the Bataclan music venue, where 90 died.

Earlier in the year, two Paris-born gunmen linked to Al-Qaeda broke into the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, leaving 17 people dead inside and three outside.

In July 2016, 86 people were killed and more than 400 injured when a 19-tonne truck was deliberately driven into crowds on the seafront promenade at Nice, in the South of France.

The terrorist turned out to be a Tunisian immigrant who was shot dead by police. During the same month, two Isis terrorists murdered an 86-year-old Catholic priest during a church service in Normandy.

There have been frequent knife attacks on the forces of law and order, leading to the deaths of serving police.

In October last year, a radicalised computer operative working at the Paris Prefecture in central Paris stabbed four of his colleagues to death. The attacker – who was also shot dead – turned out to be a Muslim convert who kept extremist Al-Qaeda and Islamic State literature and images on his computer.


Photos: Macron addresses nation and visits scene of crime.
Teenagers pay their respects.

Chnina and an Islamic activist friend, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, are among eleven people who have been arrested in connection with the attack.

The video shared by Chnina sparked community outrage and was shared by a mosque in Pantin, a Parisian suburb. Days later, Mr Paty was stabbed and decapitated in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine 25 miles north west of Paris.

Witnesses said they heard Chechen-born attacker Anzorov shout 'Allahu Akbar' – Arabic for God is the Greatest – before he was shot dead by police about 600 yards from the killing.

French anti-terror prosecutors said they were treating the assault as 'a murder linked to a terrorist organisation'.

Eleven people have now been arrested, including the parents of a child at the school who had signalled their disagreement with Mr Paty's decision to show the cartoon, a judicial source said.

Four people were initially detained by police over the murder, but five new people held for questioning are members of Anzorov's social circle, including his grandparents, parents and 17-year-old brother.

Yesterday's terror attack came as Emmanuel Macron works on a bill to address Islamic radicals, who authorities claim are creating a parallel society outside French values.

France has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe with up to five million members.

The French President denounced what he called an 'Islamist terrorist attack', claiming: 'One of our compatriots was murdered today because he taught the freedom to believe or not believe.'

Mr Macron added: 'It was no coincidence that the terrorist killed a teacher because he wanted to kill the Republic and its values. The Enlightenment, (is) the possibility to make our children, wherever they come from, whatever they believe in, whether they believe or not, whatever their religion, to turn them into free citizens.

'This battle is ours and it is existential. They will not pass. Obscurantism and the violence that goes with it will not win. They will not divide us. That's what they seek and we must stand together.'

Prime Minister Jean Castex wrote on Twitter today: 'Through one of its defenders, it is the Republic which has been struck in the heart by Islamist terrorism.

'In solidarity with its teachers, the State will react with the greatest firmness so that the Republic and its citizens live, free! We will never give up. Never.'

Addressing the country's teachers, pupils and their parents, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said Paty was killed by what he called the enemies of freedom. 'The Republic will never, never, never back down when confronted by terror, intimidation,' he said in a recorded statement.

Laurent Brosse, mayor of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, said: 'We'll pick ourselves up together, thanks to our spirit of solidarity.'

In an outpouring of grief, the hashtag #JeSuisSamuel (I am Samuel) trended on social media, like the #JeSuisCharlie call for solidarity after the attack on Charlie Hebdo in 2015.

France's parliament suspended Friday's debate after news of the decapitation, with session president Hugues Renson, visibly moved, calling the attack 'abominable'.

MPs stood as Renson said that 'in the name of all of us, I want to honour the memory of Mr Paty.' Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer tweeted: 'The Republic is under attack.'

Lawmakers and teachers' unions hailed the slain teacher's courage for confronting challenging taboos in French society. Freedom of expression was a core tenet of democracy, they said.

Jean-Remi Girard, president of the National Union of School Teachers, told BFM TV that children needed to understand that blasphemy can shock, but is legal.

The French prime minister has joined thousands of demonstrators rallying in tribute to a history teacher who was brutally beheaded at a school near Paris for showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to his class.

Samuel Paty, 47, was brutally stabbed to death and beheaded by Aboulakh Anzorov, 18, in a northern suburb of the French capital on Friday afternoon.

In Paris, thousands including French Prime Minister Jean Castex gathered to pay tribute to the slain teacher in a defiant show of solidarity at the Place de la Republique.

Some held placards reading 'I am Samuel' that echoed the 'I am Charlie' rallying cry after the 2015 attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which published caricatures of Mohammed.

A moment's silence was observed across the square, broken by applause and a rendition of La Marseillaise, the French national anthem. Others recited: 'Freedom of expression, freedom to teach.'

Demonstrators also gathered in major cities including Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Nantes, Marseille, Lille and Bordeaux.

It has been revealed that Islamist terrorist Anzorov filmed himself killing and then beheading Paty outside the gates of his school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine before sharing a video of the victim's severed head to fellow ISIS supporters.

It has also been revealed the half-sister of the Russian-born killer travelled to Syria to join ISIS in 2014 and was the subject of an anti-terror investigation.

Investigations are focusing on Brahim Chnina, father of a 13-year-old girl in Paty's class, who denounced the teacher online and gave details of the school. He has since been arrested.

Branding Mr Paty a thug in a video posted on Twitter sometime in the last week, he asked the community to complain about the teacher's behaviour. The killer is presumed to have seen the video and acted upon it.

After the killing, Anzorov himself shared pictures and videos online with Chechen ISIS Telegram channels, and also denounced Emmanuel Macron as the 'leader of the infidels'.

The killer's uncle told French television: 'He was a child. He was only 18. If he were still alive, I would have asked him: 'Why did you do that? What was going on your head?' He must have been influenced by someone.'

Meanwhile the prosecutor leading the investigation, Jean-François Ricard, said that the suspect, who had been granted a 10-year residency as a refugee in March and was not known to intelligence services, had been armed with a knife and an airsoft gun, which fires plastic pellets.

It emerged yesterday that Anzorov asked pupils at the French school to point out the teacher who had shared a Charlie Hebdo cartoon of the Prophet nude before targeting him.

Mr Paty had received threats after showing the cartoon during a class on freedom of speech about 10 days ago.

The teacher had invited Muslim students to leave the room before showing the caricature. Muslims believe that any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8852237/Islamist-terrorist-filmed-moment-beheaded-teacher-France-showing-cartoons-Mohammed.html

A father of a 13-year-old pupil at the secondary school in middle-class Conflans-Sainte-Honorine said Mr Paty had told any Muslim students to leave because the cartoon would likely cause offence.

However, one pupil stayed behind by mistake, and later told her Muslim parents. They filed a complaint against the teacher and held a meeting with Mr Paty, the school principal and an official from the education authority.

I was hoping for some photos of "the beautiful city of Epe" ?

TobiAbuja:
Incredible.

Pretty impressive. We'll see what comes out of it.

REAL LIFE IRON MAN: BRITISH FIRM GRAVITY CREATE A WEARABLE JET PACK

The jet pack uses five gas turbines that produce over 1,000 brake horsepower to gain flight and can reach speeds of over 55 miles per hour (89 kph).

Gravity Industries was awarded a patent earlier this year in what its British creators are saying is the world's first for a 'jet suit'.

All components of the suits are 3D printed including the aluminium casing for the jets themselves.

'The jet suit works by using micro jet engines which are pretty much the same things that we see on jet aircraft,' inventor Richard Browning explained.

'There are two on each arm and one on the back. The way they blow so much air downwards allows you to lift off the ground.

'All the manoeuvrability comes down to your own human balance and coordination. If you point the jets increasingly down you go up and if you flare them out you go down again.

'It is very safe, you only go to a height where if you fell you would be able to recover, it would not be a terrible injury.'

Turbines: 5

Fuel: Jet A1 Kerosene, Premium Diesel

Fight Time: Up to 8 minutes

Speed: over 60km/h

Pilot weight: Under 13 stone (85kg) wearing current Jet Suit

It's mission, said the Gravity Industries website, is to 'inspire innovation and creativity in the STEM domain and encourage engagement and participation in STEM subjects prior to GCSE subject selection and beyond'.

---

The patent, issued by the UK's Intellectual Property Office, covers: 'A wearable flight system with a number of propulsion assemblies including a left-hand propulsion assembly and a right-hand propulsion assembly worn on a user's hands and/or forearm'


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8784547/Real-life-Iron-Man-demonstrates-potential-emergency-rescue-use-jet-suits.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7N24DsQMkU?t=1

A jet suit for paramedics which would see patients reached in minutes by a "flying" medic has been tested by the Great North Air Ambulance Service.

After a year of talks between GNAAS and Gravity Industries, a first test flight was carried out in the Lake District.

Andy Mawson, director of operations at GNAAS, came up with the idea and described seeing it as "awesome".

He said it meant a paramedic could "fly" to a fell top in 90 seconds rather than taking 30 minutes on foot.

Mr Mawson said: "There are dozens of patients every month within the complex but relatively small geographical footprint of the Lakes.

"We could see the need. What we didn't know for sure is how this would work in practice. Well we've seen it now and it is, quite honestly, awesome."

Mr Mawson said the exercise had demonstrated the huge potential of using jet suits to deliver critical care services.

The test flight was carried out by Richard Browning, founder of Gravity Industries.

He said the suits had two mini engines on each arm and one on the back allowing the paramedic to control their movement just by moving their hands.

"The biggest advantage is its speed," Mr Mawson said.

"If the idea takes off, the flying paramedic will be armed with a medical kit, with strong pain relief for walkers who may have suffered fractures, and a defibrillator for those who may have suffered a heart attack.

"In a jet pack, what might have taken up to an hour to reach the patient may only take a few minutes, and that could mean the difference between life and death.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-54331994

Really fascinating.

For those wondering about the skin colour of the boy, the clue is in the date (50-100AD). This is way past the time of 'Ancient Egypt' as we know it, and there were many Greeks (already well established) and Romans in Egypt by this time.

For some weird reason, the 3d modelers made his face darker than the painting.

TobiAbuja:
Didn't anyone mention Enugu Rangers to him?

A £2 mil investment there would be interesting ...

JoshOxborn:
A touching story... interesting to read.

Yes, it is a long one but quite unusual.

A total of 1,223 Wrexham Supporters Trust members attended the meeting on Tuesday, where over 95 per cent of the votes cast were in favour of holding talks with the celebrity pair as 31 voted against.

Both Reynolds and McElhenney have responded to the complete disbeliefe online following the announcement from the club.

The Green Lantern actor retweeted an eight year old tweet that coincidentally mentioned about him turning up in the Northern Welsh town.

He comically quoted: 'Yep, you never know' and followed that up with 'I've waited eight years to respond to this tweet'.

Meanwhile, McElhenney decided to compliment the BBC Sport Wales account for using a dashing photo of him on the red carpet amid the shock news.

Trust director Spencer Harris explained before the meeting with the members that he wants any deal to be concluded as quickly as possible.

'All we're going to commit to - because we're not going to pressure on ourselves - is that we will conclude the discussions as soon as possible,' Harris told BBC Wales.

'We will get to a position when the potential investors put forward a deal and the next stage… we would put that in front of the members for a vote if they wish to proceed with that deal or not.'

Wrexham are the oldest football club in Wales and the third oldest football club in the world having been founded in 1864.

They fell out of the football league in 2008 and have remained a non-league club since then and became fan-owned in 2011.

Hollywood actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds are looking to invest in non-league football team Wrexham following a shock announcement from the club.

From the bright lights of American showbiz to the raining hilltops of North Wales, Reynolds, best known for his role as Marvel superhero Deadpool, and McElhenney from the sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, are ready to 'put forward their vision' at a Special General Meeting.

The fans trust have voted enormously in favour for talks to proceed between the Hollywood pair and the Welsh club.

Wrexham, which has been fan-owned since 2011, could see a potential £2million investment from the entrepreneurial Reynolds and McElhenney.

On their club website Wrexham released a statement that read: 'As a result, talks with the proposed bidders will now continue and we are in a position to confirm the two people interested in investing in Wrexham AFC.

'Rob McElhenney is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter, best known as the creator of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

'Ryan Reynolds is an award-winning Canadian actor, writer, producer and business entrepreneur whose credits include Marvel's Deadpool.

'In due course, Mr. McElhenney and Mr. Reynolds will put forward their vision for Wrexham AFC and proposal for members to vote on at a second Special General Meeting.'


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-8765673/Hollywood-actors-Rob-McElhenney-Ryan-Reynolds-looking-invest-Wrexham.html



Pic 1 - Reynolds
Pic2 - McElhenney

A mother's story

Like Peter, Keia and her husband have adopted a white child, Princeton. They have also faced incomprehension and suspicion.


See link for video:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-54238642

Over the course of three years nine children stayed with Peter, using his home as a stopgap for a few months before returning to their families. They were black, Hispanic and white.
"One thing I wasn't prepared for was how hard it was when a child left," he says. "It's not something you can ever prepare for."

Peter left long gaps between the children so he could be emotionally available for the next one.
So when he got a call late on a Friday evening from the foster agency about an 11-year-old boy named Anthony who needed an urgent place to stay, Peter resisted.

"It had only been three days since the last child had left, so I said, 'No, I need at least two months.' But then they told me that this was an exceptional case, a tragic case, and they just needed to house him for the weekend until they could come up with a solution."
Reluctantly, Peter agreed and Anthony - a tall, pale, athletic boy with a mop of curly brown hair - was dropped off at his home at 3am. The next morning Anthony and Peter sat down for breakfast.
"You can call me Peter," he said to the boy.
"Can I call you Dad?" was Anthony's reply.

Peter was shocked. The two had barely spoken to each other. Although he didn't yet know Anthony's backstory, Peter felt instantly connected to him. The two spent the weekend cooking and talking. They visited the mall so Peter could buy him some clothes. They asked each other superficial questions: what food they liked, what kind of films they enjoyed.
"We were both trying to see how we would fit together."

On Monday, when the care worker came over, Peter learned Anthony's story.
He had been in the foster care system since the age of two, and had been adopted by a family when he was four.
But now, seven years later, Anthony's adoptive parents had abandoned him at a hospital.
"I couldn't believe it," says Peter, "They never said goodbye, they never gave a reason why, and they never came back. It killed me. How could people do this?"
"Anthony's life took me back to my childhood.
"This kid was like me at age 10 on the streets of Kampala, having nowhere to go. And so I turned to the social worker, and I said, 'You know what? I just need the paperwork to enable him go to school and we'll be fine.'"
Peter looked at Anthony and realised that the boy had perhaps shown great foresight.
"Remember, he'd called me 'Dad' right away. This kid knew I'd be his dad."
Anthony's adoptive parents had gone to the county court to sign over their rights to him, so he was available to be placed with a family.
"I think we both knew immediately that he would be staying with me permanently," Peter says. Within a year, Peter had formally adopted Anthony.
As they settled into their life together, Anthony wanted to hear all about his father's life in Uganda, says Peter, because now this was his heritage too. Anthony would help Peter prepare Ugandan dishes like katogo, a breakfast of diced cassava mixed with beans.
At school, Anthony began to relish introducing Peter to his friends.
"This is my dad," he would announce, enjoying the sometimes confused looks from his classmates.

---

But there have been challenging moments. On one holiday, airport security stopped Anthony to ask him where his parents were.
Anthony pointed Peter out to the officials, who immediately started carrying out a background check. Anthony became increasingly frustrated at what he saw as overt racism, but Peter calmed him down.

"I'm your dad and I love you, but people who look like me, we aren't always treated well," Peter said to Anthony, who was now 13. "Your job is not to get angry at the people who treat me this way, your job is to make sure you treat people who look like me with honour."
In spring of this year, the foster agency called Peter to see if he could temporarily care for a seven-year-old boy called Johnny (not his real name), who was in need of a foster family at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Johnny settled in as well as Anthony had, and following the example of his foster brother he too called him "Dad".

Johnny, with his straight blond hair and small pale frame, attracted even more suspicious glances when he was out with Peter.
Which was why Peter didn't feel surprised when the lady who saw them walk out of the restaurant called the police. It only took minutes for them to verify Peter was Johnny's guardian, but the event left the boy shaken.

Peter explained to him that this kind of thing was liable to occur, now and again, because he was black and Johnny was white.

Stories of transracial adoption most often feature white families adopting black and Asian children. When the opposite happens, and black and Asian parents adopt white children, officials and members of the public can become very suspicious.

Seven-year-old Johnny was about to lose it. He'd woken up in a sulk and it was only escalating as the day progressed. Now, at a diner in Charlotte, North Carolina, Peter could see Johnny arguing with another child in the play area. He had to act fast to get his foster son out of the restaurant before a loud tantrum would erupt. Taking the boy in his arms, Peter quickly paid the bill.

As he carried Johnny to their car, the child wriggled moodily in his embrace, and was still agitated as Peter put him down to open the car door.
A woman approached them, frowning.
"Where is this boy's mother?" she asked.
"I'm his father," Peter replied.
The woman took a step back and stood in front of Peter's car. She looked down at his number plate and took out her phone.
"Hello, police please," she said calmly down the phone. "Hey, there's a black man. I think he's kidnapping a little white kid."
Johnny suddenly became still, and looked up at Peter. Peter put his arm around his foster son.
"It's OK," he said to the boy.

---

On the Lonely Planet travel site, the dusty town of Kabale is described as "the kind of place most people get through as fast as possible". In Uganda, near the borders of Rwanda and DR Congo, it serves as a transit point on the route to a number of famous national parks in the vicinity.
For Peter, his hometown still holds painful memories.

It was an impoverished upbringing. As a child, eight members of his family slept on the hard floor of a two-bedroom hut.

"There wasn't much to hope for. If we had a meal, it was potatoes and soup," he says, "and if we were lucky we had beans."
Violence and alcoholism were a daily reality in Peter's life. To escape them, he would run to the homes of his aunts, who lived only metres away.
"On one hand there was a big extended family available, and I learned that it takes a village to raise a child," he says, "but it was chaotic."
At the age of 10, Peter decided he would rather be homeless. So, grabbing as much loose change as he could, he ran to the bus stop.
"Which one goes the furthest away?" he asked a woman who was waiting at the stop. She pointed to a bus, and although Peter couldn't read the sign, he boarded it. It was bound for Uganda's capital, 400km away.

When Peter disembarked in Kampala after almost a day of travelling, he headed to the market stalls that bordered the streets and asked the vendors if he could do work - any work - for food.

For the next couple of years, Peter lived on the streets. He made friends with other homeless boys and they shared their earnings or meals. Peter says he learned an invaluable life skill: to recognise kindness in other people at a glance.
One kind man was Jacques Masiko. He visited the market for his weekly shop, and he would buy Peter a hot meal before he left. After about a year, Mr Masiko asked Peter if he would like to be educated. Peter said yes, so Mr Masiko arranged for him to start at a local school.
After six months, seeing Peter thriving at his lessons, Mr Masiko and his family asked the boy to come and live with them. In Jacques Masiko, Peter found a man who treated him like a member of his family. Peter paid him back by excelling at school and eventually winning a scholarship to an American university.

A couple of decades later, Peter was in his early 40s and happily settled in the US. He was working for an NGO that would take donors to Uganda to help disadvantaged communities. It was on one such trip, when he saw a white family travelling with their adopted daughter, that Peter realised children in America sometimes needed a new home as badly as children in Uganda.
On his return to North Carolina, Peter went to a local foster agency and said that he would like to volunteer.

"Have you thought of becoming a foster parent?" the lady at the foster care office asked as she took down his details.
"I'm single though," Peter replied.
"So?" she responded, "There are plenty of boys in the care system looking for male role models, people who want to be a father figure in their life."

There was only one other single man who had signed up to be a foster parent in the state of North Carolina at the time.
When he filled out his forms, Peter assumed that he would automatically be matched with African American children. But he was shocked that the first child that came into his care was a five-year-old white boy.
"This was when I realised that all children needed a home, and colour should not be a factor for me," says Peter.
"I had two spare bedrooms, and I should home anyone who needed it.
"Just like Mr Masiko gave me a chance, I wanted to do this for other children."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-54238642
_________________

Pic 2: Peter's mother stands outside the house where he grew up
Pic 3: Jacques Masiko, right, took Peter off the streets and gave him an education

Very saw. RIP Dianna Rigg.

This should be FP.