Update: Police pin down terror suspects in Paris flat

Shots were fired in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis as French police conducted an operation related to the terrorist attacks last week, the police said. 

PHOTO: REUTERS

NOV 18, 20153:07 PM

[PARIS] Shots were fired in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis as French police conducted an operation related to the terrorist attacks last week, the police said.

A raid was being carried out at an address in the Saint- Denis Basilique district, the police said. Two people have been killed, Le Monde reported. Police have cornered in an apartment an armed group that includes Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind, AFP said. At least three police were wounded in the raid, RTL said.

Five men were barricaded in the apartment and people living in the area have been told to stay indoors and turn off their lights, according to France Info radio. Helicopters circled the area and sporadic shots were being heard, Saint-Denis Mayor Didier Paillard said on France Info. All transport in the area has been halted, he said. Schools in Saint-Denis will be closed today, AFP said.

The attacks on Friday at seven sites in the Paris area killed 129 people and injured more than 300. French police have conducted a dragnet across the country since then, carrying out hundreds of raids and searches.

Arrests were made in Belgium and Germany in recent days as the hunt for attackers and their possible accomplices crossed Europe's borders. While French officials blame Islamic State for the Paris strikes, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday authorities still didn't have the full picture, including the total number of individuals involved.

The country has stepped up bombing of Islamic State targets since Friday, destroying a command center and a training site at the terror group's stronghold in Raqqa, Syria.

BLOOMBERG

    
 

Law Ministry sets up regulatory authority to streamline law firm licensing matters

By

Claire Huanghuangjy@sph.com.sg@ClaireHuangBT

NOV 18, 20153:08 PM

THE Ministry of Law (MinLaw) has set up the Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) which will streamline licensing matters relating to law practices in Singapore under a single authority.

The move is one of several recommendations made by the Committee to Review the Regulatory Framework of the Singapore Legal Services Sector last January, said the ministry on Wednesday.

The review was aimed at modernising Singapore's regulatory framework for the legal profession.

The Legal Profession Act was then amended to reflect the recommendations and was passed by Parliament last November.

The changes, together with new rules enacted under the amended Act, come into force on Wednesday.

MinLaw said the changes give law firms greater flexibility to attract and retain non-lawyer talent.

This, as non-lawyer employees of law firms can now become partners, directors or shareholders in, or share in the profits of (up to 25 per cent), their firms. They can apply to the LSRA to be registered as regulated non-practitioners.

It also said the LSRA will administer a new integrated licensing regime that brings together certain regulatory functions previously undertaken separately by the Attorney-General's Chambers' Legal Profession Secretariat and the Law Society of Singapore.

"The integrated regime aims to ensure that business criteria, such as names of law practices, foreign ownership and profit sharing, will be applied consistently.

"The newly-developed LSRA e-Services portal will bring all application transactions online and do away with manual processes. Back-end data interfaces between LSRA, the Supreme Court and the Law Society of Singapore will provide a more seamless and convenient experience for users of the portal," said the ministry.

It added that the public can tap an integrated search function on the LSRA's website to search all law practices and collaborations registered with the LSRA, as well as all lawyers practising law in Singapore, by name, firm or practice area.

    
 

Paris terror raid targets mastermind, leaving at least 2 dead

Three suspected terrorists linked to last week's attacks in Paris were killed as French police raided an address in the the northern suburb of Saint-Denis, a government official said. 

PHOTO: AFP

NOV 18, 20153:23 PM

[PARIS] At least two people were killed and five arrested in a predawn raid targeting the suspected mastermind of last week's terrorist violence, as an international manhunt led investigators back to the very Paris suburb where the first of the attacks took place.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 20-something Belgian citizen, was believed to be holed up in an apartment with several other people in Saint Denis, said Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor. Friday's attacks, the deadliest terrorist assault in peacetime France, had begun at the nearby Stade de France.

Wednesday's operation began at 4.20 am in a small pedestrian street in the heart of the old town, near the cathedral where French kings were entombed. The dead included a woman who blew herself up with a suicide vest. No police were killed. Of those taken into custody, three were in the apartment and two were taken nearby.

Five men were barricaded in the apartment and people living in the area were told to stay indoors and turn off their lights, according to France Info radio. Helicopters circled the area and sporadic shots were heard. From 8 a.m., President Francois Hollande tracked the operation with Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve from his office at the Elysee Palace.

According to France2 television, police identified the location using a mobile phone that was found outside the Le Bataclan concert hall in the 11th arrondissement where 89 people were killed on Friday.

Abaaoud, the son of a Moroccan shopkeeper, joined the ranks of the Islamic State a few years ago and called himself a "terrorist tourist" on his Facebook page. Boasting a high- profile on social media, Abbaoud is also linked by French officials to a failed assault on a Paris-bound high-speed train in August and a plot to attack a church in the city in April.

Belgian security officials began tracking him in March 2014 after he appeared in a video behind the wheel of a pickup truck dragging mutilated bodies to a mass grave in Syria.

The attacks on Friday at seven sites in the Paris area killed 129 people and injured more than 300. French police have conducted a dragnet across the country since then, carrying out hundreds of raids and searches.

After French police arrested 23 suspected extremists in a nationwide crackdown on Monday and conducted 128 raids that night, the focus of the investigation had spread to Belgium and Germany. Security forces are seeking Salah Abdeslam, who police believe was an accomplice to the Paris attacks and whose brother Brahim Abdeslam has been named as one of the suicide bombers.

Belgian prosecutors on Monday charged two suspects detained after the attacks, while other searches in the Brussels district of Molenbeek failed to lead to new arrests. Seven people were arrested yesterday in a German town near the Belgian border before being released once police established that Abdeslam wasn't among them.

France has stepped up bombing of Islamic State targets since Friday, destroying a command center and a training site at the terror group's stronghold in Raqqa, Syria.

As the raid was still ongoing, Environment and Energy Minister Segolene Royal told France 2 television that security will be increased on France's high-speed rail links as well as on international routes.

BLOOMBERG

    
 

Shunning protocol, Obama interviews Alibaba billionaire Ma

US President Barack Obama took time off at an Asia-Pacific summit on Wednesday for an unusual task - putting questions to Chinese internet billionaire Jack Ma and a young Filipina entrepreneur on government-business ties in a panel discussion. 

PHOTO: AFP

NOV 18, 20154:35 PM

[MANILA] US President Barack Obama took time off at an Asia-Pacific summit on Wednesday for an unusual task - putting questions to Chinese internet billionaire Jack Ma and a young Filipina entrepreneur on government-business ties in a panel discussion.

Mr Obama joked comfortably with the eccentric founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding, which is looking to make inroads into foreign markets, including the United States.

During the discussion on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Manila, the US president probed Mr Ma on how he thought government and established businesses could help young entrepreneurs.

"Government is simple - just reduce the tax, or no tax, for these guys," Mr Ma responded, to a wave of laughter and applause from the audience of business executives. "You got a lot of cheers from your fellow CEOs," Mr Obama quipped in response.

See who is talking about ALIBABA

Last 30 days:

• 18120
• 358
• 1593

30 days avg

HOT COMPANIES

EasyJet +151% messages

• Smiths Group +133%
• British Land +119%
• Hikma Pharma +85%
• Taylor Wimpey +34%
• Compass +14%
• Babcock +11%
• Aviva +9%
• AstraZeneca +3%
• Berkeley Grp HLD +3%

• Smiths Group +133%
• British Land +119%
• Hikma Pharma +85%
• Taylor Wimpey +34%
• Compass +14%
• Babcock +11%
• Aviva +9%
• AstraZeneca +3%
• Berkeley Grp HLD +3%

Mr Ma's remarks come as Alibaba works to invest heavily in ventures abroad. Executives have said its push beyond the China market is a top priority, as the company works to maintain its rapid growth even as the prospect of e-commerce saturation at home looms large.

Alibaba has said some of its larger overseas markets include Brazil and Russia.

Mr Obama also praised the relatively unknown Filipina entrepreneur, Aisa Mijeno, a professor of engineering who invented a lamp powered by salt water. He suggested that Mr Ma should invest in the company of his fellow panellist after she said she was looking for funding to mass-produce the lamps.

"I'm just saying," Mr Obama said, throwing Ma a suggestive look. "Serving as a matchmaker here, a little bit." Mr Ma smiled in response. He said Alibaba had been putting 0.3 per cent of the company's total revenue for the past six years towards encouraging young people to find solutions to climate change and other environmental issues.

Mr Ma added that he thought it was a "fantastic idea" to invest in clean technology, referring to a recent conversation in which Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates broached the idea.

Agreement on climate change is one of the bright spots in Washington's troubled relationship with Beijing, which has been shaken recently by a row over China's increasingly assertive posture in the South China Sea.

Leaders of the two countries agreed in September to a common vision for a global climate change agreement, including steps to deliver on earlier pledges to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

REUTERS

    
 

Paris attacks: Raid over, seven arrested

French police said the assault had concluded on an apartment in northern Paris on Wednesday in which at least two jihadists were killed and seven arrested. 

PHOTO: AFP

NOV 18, 20157:06 PM

[PARIS] French police said the assault had concluded on an apartment in northern Paris on Wednesday in which at least two jihadists were killed and seven arrested.

Police sources said they were still working to secure the suburb of Saint-Denis after the six-hour raid, part of a manhunt for those linked to a devastating string of attacks on Paris late on Friday which left 129 dead.

AFP

    
 

Taiwan's KMT presidential hopeful names rights lawyer as running mate

NOV 18, 20157:52 PM

[TAIPEI] Taiwan's presidential hopeful for the embattled ruling Kuomintang (KMT) chose a popular labour rights lawyer as his running mate Wednesday as the party seeks to prevent a rout in January's vote.

The Beijing-friendly KMT is trailing Tsai Ing-wen of the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party in the polls - Tsai would become Taiwan's first female president if elected.

KMT candidate Eric Chu announced Wang Ju-hsuan as his running mate, a laywer and former labour minister who has won a reputation for her work with women and underprivileged groups.

At a time when the KMT is being heavily criticised by opponents for growing too close to Beijing, Wang is an independent who is not known for strong views on cross-Strait relations.

"While serving as the minister... her performance has been hailed by workers groups," Chu told reporters.

Wang served as labour affairs minister from 2008 to 2012.

She then left politics to focus on legal work, but said she had returned to further the rights of vulnerable groups.

"I decided to come back, because... if we hope to change the destiny of underprivileged people, it can only be done through politics... Only through politics, can distribution of the country's resources be changed," she said Wednesday.

The KMT is struggling to regain public support after its worst-ever local election defeat last year, with its China-friendly policy under current president Ma Ying-jeou a major factor.

The party has been criticised for failing to deliver prosperity to ordinary people, despite closer ties and trade deals with China.

Salaries have remained frozen, while the cost of living rises.

There are also fears that Beijing's influence on the island is growing, with opponents riled by Ma's recent high-profile meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

China still considers Taiwan part of its territory awaiting reunification by force if necessary, even though the island has ruled itself for more than six decades since their split in 1949 at the end of a civil war.

The Beijing-sceptic DPP's Tsai named her running mate on Monday. Chen Chien-jen, health minister from 2003 to 2005, was credited with coordinating the response that enabled Taiwan to combat the SARS epidemic.

Nearly 700 people were infected in Taiwan during the outbreak. The viral disease, which causes pneumonia-like symptoms, forced the government to shut schools and public areas and claimed 84 lives on the island.

AFP

    
 

All 129 fatalities in Paris attacks identified: official

NOV 18, 20159:20 PM

[PARIS] All 129 fatalities in last week's Paris attacks have now been identified but dozens of other casualties remain in critical condition, a statement from the French cabinet said Wedneday.

"To date, the dead victims have all been identified, that is 129," said the statement issued after the weekly cabinet meeting. A total of 221 people remain in hospital, dozens of them seriously hurt.

AFP