Canada Shooting: Police Hunt More Gunmen

Ottawa is in lockdown as police search for up to three gunmen after one was reportedly shot dead inside Canada's parliament building.

Police told the AFP news agency that possibly up to three shooters were feared to be on the roof of the building in the capital.

It came after a soldier guarding a nearby war memorial was wounded after shots were fired.

Shots have been reported at three separate locations in Ottawa

Shots have also now been reported at a hotel and a mall in the city.

Armed forces bases across the country are being closed to the public in the aftermath of the shooting, according to CBC TV.

Video: Video: Shots In Canada Parliament

A construction worker at the parliament told the Reuters news agency he heard a gunshot, and then saw a man dressed in black with a scarf over his face running towards the building with a gun.

Another witness said more than 30 shots were fired inside the building.

Witness Marc-Andre Viau said he saw a man run into a caucus meeting at the parliament, chased by police who yelled "take cover."

This was followed by "10, 15, maybe 20 shots," possibly from an automatic weapon, he said.

Video footage posted by the Global and Mail newspaper showed police crouching for cover as they advanced along a stone hallway, with loud gunfire echoing among the gothic columns.

Video: Soldier Wounded In Ottawa Shooting

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is safe and has left Parliament Hill.

Michelle Rempel, MP for Calgary Centre North, tweeted: "Mom im okay Im in hiding."

Some people fled parliament by climbing down scaffolding erected for renovations, witnesses told the Canadian Press news agency.

The cordon has been pushed back and media on the scene have been told they are not safe.

Police have warned people in Ottawa to stay away from windows and roofs.

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1. Gallery: Pictures: Shots Fired At Canada Parliament

   Canadian police have surrounded the parliament in Ottawa after a soldier was shot while guarding a nearby monument.

The wounded soldier, who was standing guard at the National War Memorial, has been taken away in an ambulance.

The soldier appeared to be seriously wounded and medics were seen pushing on his chest to revive him.

The shooting comes two days after an Islamic convert ran down two Canadian soldiers near Montreal, killing one of them.

Authorities had raised the security threat level from low to medium after that incident.

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Tributes As Watergate Editor Ben Bradlee Dies

Former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, who oversaw the story that toppled President Richard Nixon, has died aged 93.

Bradlee died at his Washington DC home of natural causes, just weeks after revealing he had begun hospice care after suffering from Alzheimer's disease for several years.

As executive editor of the paper from 1968 until 1991, Bradlee was one of the most important figures in Washington and became part of journalism history through his role in the Watergate scandal coverage.

He guided young reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as they traced a 1972 burglary at Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate office back to the Nixon White House.

President Barack Obama led the tributes, saying: "For Benjamin Bradlee, journalism was more than a profession - it was a public good vital to our democracy.

"The standard he set - a standard for honest, objective, meticulous reporting - encouraged so many others to enter the profession. And that standard is why, last year, I was proud to honour Ben with the Presidential Medal of Freedom."

President Obama awards the Presidential Medal Of Freedom to Bradlee in 2013

The Washington Post won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Watergate scandal, which forced Mr Nixon to quit under threat of impeachment in 1974.

Bradlee has since been lauded for giving Woodward and Bernstein licence to pursue the scandal and its cover-up vigorously.

He approved their use of the unidentified "Deep Throat" source and the newspaper published around 400 articles about Watergate over 28 months.

Its coverage, along with the book and movie about it, All The President's Men, inspired a generation of investigative reporters.

Bradlee once told the American Journalism Review: "I think the great lesson of Watergate was probably the stick-tuitiveness of the Post.

"The fact that we hunkered down and backed the right horse. I think that was a wonderful lesson for publishers, too."

It was not the only time Bradlee helped upset presidents.

In 1972, the Post joined the New York Times in publishing stories based on the Pentagon Papers, a secret government account of Vietnam War decisions, despite heavy legal pressure.

Richard Nixon resigned over the scandal in 1974

The newspaper also uncovered details of the Iran-Contra scandal that rocked Ronald Reagan's presidency.

He was also friends with former president John F Kennedy, who had been his neighbour when Bradlee was a Newsweek correspondent.

In 1975 he wrote a book called Conversations With Kennedy.

Always well-dressed, he cut a dashing figure in the newsroom, where he reigned with a fiery and brusque demeanour, sharp wit and swagger.

Woodward described Bradlee as "Kirk Douglas as a submarine commander".

Bernstein told CNN that Bradlee was, "the most galvanising, remarkable figure to work with and for".

"You know those are kinds of cliches that people use, except this time it's really the case," he said.            

"His life was really about the truth."

Bradlee leaves behind his third wife, former Post reporter Sally Quinn.

He had three sons and a daughter.

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Malaysia '99.9% Sure' Of Finding MH370

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent

Malaysia's defence minister has told Sky News he is "99.9% sure" the sonar technology being used in the hunt for missing flight MH370 will find the doomed jet.

Hishammuddin Hussein officially launched the Malaysian contracted vessel GO Phoenix and its underwater probe at Fremantle Port in Perth on Wednesday.

He told Sky News: "This is cutting-edge technology. That's my personal view based on experts' opinion - 99.9% sure (sonar devices can find it).

"But the ocean is huge so it depends on narrowing the search area and that's the challenge."

Mr Hishammuddin said there was no timeline for the search

The probe, which can go to depths of nearly four miles (6.4km) and cover up to 75 sq miles (194 sq km) per day, is being used in the search area 1,200 miles off the coast of Western Australia.

GO Phoenix is one of three ships being used in the search. Sky News was allowed on board as it was resupplied and refuelled in Fremantle.

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1. Gallery: MH370: Timeline Of False Hopes

   March 8: At 9am, an hour after flight MH370 is reported missing, rumours spread online that it has landed safely in China

2. March 8: Search planes spot two oil slicks in the South China Sea but tests show the fuel is not from an aircraft

3. March 9: Vietnam search plane spots mystery objects in the South China Sea but they turn out to be unrelated to MH370

4. March 10: A moss-covered piece of floating sea debris is mistaken for a yellow life raft

5. March 11: Two MH370 passengers travelling with stolen passports are identified as illegal immigrants from Iran and are no longer suspected of terrorist activity

6. March 12: Images released of three floating white objects close to MH370's last known location but searchers find nothing

7. March 19: PM Tony Abbot announces Australian search teams have spotted two large items in the southern Indian Ocean. They were never found

8. March 22: Objects tangled with a wooden pallet are mistaken for safety straps but turn out to be seaweed

9. March 23: 122 items are picked up via a French satellite but search planes are unable to locate any of them

10. March 27: Thai satellite detects about 300 floating objects in the Indian Ocean but they cannot be identified as coming from MH370

11. March 28: Search area moves 1,100km northeast as analysis suggests plane used up fuel more quickly than expected

12. March 30: FBI investigations into a flight simulator found at the home of one of the pilots reveal 'nothing sinister'

13. April 1: Contrary to previous suggestions, final cockpit communications from the two pilots appear to be entirely routine

14. April 2: Personal and psychological analysis of all 239 passengers and crew reveals no clues to the disappearance

15. April 4: Experts dismiss plan to locate the plane's black box using a 'pinger detector' as a 'desperate move' with little chance of success

16. May 29: US Navy claims a series of pings detected by Bluefin-21 are unlikely to have any connection to the missing plane and may well have come from the search ship itself

Mr Hishammuddin said there was no timeline for the search, but if there was he would leave it up to the experts to advise.

He said Malaysia has never strayed from its focus to find the plane despite numerous obstacles and setbacks.

"All that could have been done to find the plane at this point has been done," Mr Hishammuddin said.

"This is it, the next phase. The search goes on."

Video: June 8: 'Convinced Of A Cover-Up'

One of the crew operating the sonar probe explained how good the resolution is on images received by it.

Project leader Evan Tanner said: "It can identify objects roughly 10cm in size - the same size as a soda can. It will spot that from a kilometre away. It's impressive technology."

Mr Hishammuddin acknowledged the pain still felt by the families and friends of those on board MH370.

He said: "They remain in our thoughts and also in our prayers.

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1. Gallery: Missing Passengers Of Flight MH370

   Stuntman Ju Kun, 35, was travelling to Beijing to see his two young children before starting work on the new Netflix and Weinstein Company series Marco Polo in Malaysia.

2. Muktesh Mukherjee and Bai Xiaomo were heading home to Beijing after a beach holiday in Vietnam.

3. Yue Wenchao, 26, is originally from inner Mongolia but had moved to the UK to study a postgraduate course at the University of Hull Business School.

4. Bob and Cathy Lawton of Springfield Lakes, Australia, are parents to three daughters, as well as doting grandparents.

5. Hu Xiaoning, 34, was travelling home to Beijing with his three-year-old daughter Hu Siwan.

6. French students Hadrien Wattrelos, 17, and Zhao Yan, 18, were heading for school in Beijing.

7. Paul Weeks, a mechanical engineer, left his wedding ring and watch at home when he headed to Mongolia for a work trip.

"We must continue to hope because sometimes hope is all we have.

"We will find MH370."

The GO Phoenix is expected to depart from Fremantle on Thursday to join the search operation off southwestern Australia.

MH370 disappeared with 239 people on board during its March 8 flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

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Children's Bodies Found In Storage Locker

The decomposing remains of up to four children have been found in a U-Haul storage locker in Winnipeg, Canada.

Police found the bodies after they were contacted by concerned employees of the storage locker company.

They said the deaths were being treated as "suspicious" but autopsies were yet to establish the cause.

Decomposed infant remains were found at the scene

The remains were so decomposed, it is not clear if police are dealing with three or four bodies.

Investigators are "speaking with a number of individuals" as part of their inquiry into the gruesome discovery.

"The incident is tragic beyond belief," Constable Eric Hofley told a news conference.

He said: "A storage facility is what it was and the remains were located within a storage locker or storage unit.

"My understanding is we are discussing very young infants, certainly not children, newborns of a very young age.

"The way we're describing it, it's believe to be four infants.

"So the remains were in a state such as that it's not obvious yet exactly whether we are dealing with four separate remains or three. Again that will be determined at autopsy."

Constable Hofley added: "What the outcome will be after the investigation is complete remains to be seen but that will not take away from the initial discovery and circumstances surrounding it.

"It's just too early in the investigation to say exactly what has transpired here."

But even if it was not a case of foul play, he said: "You're not allowed to store human remains in a storage locker."

Child protection officers were leading the investigation but it could later be handed over to murder detectives, he said.

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Boxer Banned After 'Brutal' Attack On Referee

A teenage boxer has been banned for life after a vicious attack on a referee who stopped his fight.

Croatian Vido Loncar's attack put Polish referee Mageja Dziurgota in hospital.

It happened during the aftermath of a European Youth Boxing Championships bout in Zagreb.

The 18-year-old initially returned to his corner calmly after Mr Dziurgota deemed his Lithuanian opponent Algirdas Baniulis to be the winner.

But seconds later Loncar floored the referee with a punch to the head before unleashing several further blows.

Loncar was dragged out of the ring by his ankles and according to his federation was arrested.

The referee remains in hospital.

Footage of the incident has been viewed more than 200,000 times on YouTube.

The Croatian Boxing Federation apologised for the "brutal" attack and said Loncar would not fight again.

But Croatian boxing director Zeljko Mavrovic said: "I believe that he is not a butcher or as bad as this act makes him look. This was part of his excessive ambition in that moment."

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Libya Orders 'Civil Disobedience' In Capital

Libya's internationally recognised government has called for a civil disobedience campaign in Tripoli until its forces can retake the capital from militias.

Prime Minister Abdullah al Thani's cabinet said on its Facebook page that it has ordered the Libyan armed forces "to advance on Tripoli to liberate it and state institutions from the grip of armed groups".

The government urged residents to launch "a civil disobedience campaign until the arrival of the army".

Libya has had two governments and parliaments competing for legitimacy since an armed group known as Fajr Libya seized Tripoli in August.

Islamist Omar al Hasi - leader of the coalition of militias - set up his own cabinet in the capital and forced Mr al Thani to move to the east of the country.

Video: Sept: Fighter Jet Crash In Libya

Commanders of Fajr Libya say they are not Islamists but rather "revolutionaries" working to "correct the revolutionary process".

In the western town of Kikla, pro-government and rebel militias clashed on Tuesday with heavy weapons and rockets, an AFP photographer said.

According to the town's mayor, Nureddin Meftah, more than 100 people have been killed and 300 wounded since pro-government militias from Zintan, southwest of Tripoli, attacked their Fajr Libya rivals in there on October 11.

There was no independent confirmation of the casualty figures.

Since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in a 2011 revolution, interim authorities have been unable to rebuild the regular army and have instead relied on state-backed militias.

Rebels who fought to oust the dictator have banded together and seized control of large parts of the oil-producing nation in the last three years.

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'Numbers' Jail Gang Behind Pistorius Threat

As Oscar Pistorius starts a five-year sentence at Pretoria's Central Prison the Olympian will need to urgently study the lore and laws of South Africa's numbers gangs.

More than a century old, the gangs - the 26s, 27s and 28s, dominate South Africa's prison system with a mixture of arcane mythology, sexual intimidation and sometimes extreme violence.

Pistorius, serving his sentence for the manslaughter of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, will quickly have to learn how to navigate through the darkest corners of jailhouse anthropology.

His life may depend on it.

According to his lawyers he has already had a death threat from the 'general' of the 26s, who is reported to be a murderer serving a 33-year sentence.

Video: Pistorius Trial: The Sentence

He told a South African news agency that if Pistorius is given special treatment then he will die.

This may have been part of the plea for leniency. But it's also a real danger.

Pistorius will most likely remain in a segregated part of the prison which also accommodates the mass killer of the apartheid regime, Eugene de Kock.

If not, he may have to seek the protection of the 28s or 27s from the threat made by the leader of the 26s.

All three gangs have their roots in the story of how Po, a deity of some kind, met Nongoloza and Kilikijan in the late 19th Century as both men were heading to work in the white-owned gold mines of the Vaal Reef.

Video: Pistorius Leaves Court For Prison

Po advised against it and encouraged both men to form highway gangs.

Kilikijan worked by day, with seven members. Nongoloza and his eight followers owned the night.

The two fell out over Nongoloza's predilection for sex with other men.

The clash in a Durban prison, legend has it, over six men that Nongoloza wanted to take as 'wives', produced, in around 1907, the 26s who take a mediating role.

Today the numbers gangs are made up of mixed race members from the Cape.

Video: Friends 'Felt Reeva's Light Today'

Most speak Afrikaans but Funagalore, the language of the mines, is the 'official'  lingua franca of the numbers.

Their interests extend far beyond the prison walls.

The 28s are the root of the 'American' - an organised crime syndicate on the Cape Flats; the 26s were formed by the Staggie brothers from the Hard Livings gang.

All run prostitution, drug dealing and protection rackets worth millions every year.

Pistorius would have trouble joining the 27s. They're the most violent group.

Video: Pistorius Sentencing Highlights

So that would leave the 28s. They run kitchen work. But the 28s' hierarchy is tough to climb.

Membership of its top tier, the Gold Line, requires initiates to stab a prison warden.

This is the 'male line' in a gang that celebrates same-sex relationships.

The foot soldiers for the Gold Line are known as the Third Division. They are the gang's muscle, sworn off sex, they may not have contact with the Silver Line, the gang's majority.

Probationers must always show they are available for sex by revealing part of their chest; while seen as sex slaves they are pampered and protected – as "wyfies".

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US Investigates IS Weapons Drop Footage

The US has claimed most of the weapons airdropped in Syria reached the Kurds they were intended to help - despite a video purporting to show Islamic State militants with a bundle.

The footage, allegedly shot in Kobani, showed fighters from the jihadist group going through boxes of military supplies.

But Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said experts were analysing the video to establish whether the bundle was the one the department previously reported had fallen into IS hands or if it was a second bundle in the group's possession.

Officials said an airdrop had delivered 28 bundles of military supplies to Syrian Kurdish fighters near Kobani on Sunday but that one had been seized by militants from IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

The Pentagon later claimed it had destroyed the missing bundle in an airstrike and an Iraqi Kurdish official said 21 tons of supplies had reached the Kurds in Kobani.

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1. Gallery: Syrian Kurds Battle IS To Retain Control Of Kobani

   Turkish soldiers clean mortars as they take up positions by the Turkish-Syrian border opposite the Syrian town of Kobani

2. Smoke rises above buildings after Islamic State militants hit the Syrian town with mortar fire

3. A man surveys the town from a point near the Mursitpinar border crossing, on the Turkish-Syrian border

4. A fighter jet flies above Kobani

5. An explosion rocks the town during an airstrike by the US-led coalition

6. Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) fighters in a street in Kobani

7. Turkish soldiers take up positions

8. A man watches Kobani through a sniper rifle binocular from near the Mursitpinar crossing

9. Turkish army tanks take up positions by the border opposite the town

10. A Turkish soldier covers an armoured vehicle

11. Kurds watch Kobani - also known as Ain al-Arab - from the southeastern village of Mursitpinar. Continue through for more pictures

"We're taking a look at this," Mr Kirby said of the video.

He confirmed the small arms ammunition and weaponry depicted in the video were the kinds of supplies that were dropped, "so it's not out of the realm of possibility" that it was one of the bundles.

"We're still taking a look at it and assessing the validity of it," he said.

"We are very confident that the vast majority of the bundles did end up in the right hands. In fact, we're only aware of one bundle that did not."

Video: Travelling Through Syria

Mr Kirby also said the US military was highly skilled at conducting airdrops and the method was an effective way to ferry supplies to forces on the ground.

The IS video, posted on YouTube, is called "Weapons and ammunition dropped by American planes that fell into areas of Islamic State control in Kobani".

It shows fighters inspecting boxes of hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades.

One masked gunman holds up a grenade and says: "Booty for the mujahideen".

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1. Gallery: Human Cost Of Battle For Kobani

   A Syrian Kurdish woman and her children at a refugee camp at Suruc, Turkey. These images have emerged as Islamic State (IS) continues to fight for control of the border town of Kobani in Syria

2. Turkey dropped its refusal to allow Kurdish fighters over the border to defend besieged Kobani, saying it was now helping Iraqi peshmerga to cross the frontier in a major policy shift

3. A woman boils a kettle of tea as her children gather around in Suruc

4. Children try to get warm around the fire

5. Children look out from their tent

6. A Kurdish refugee child from the Syrian town of Kobani sits on a makeshift swing

7. A woman boils a pot of tea in front of her tent

8. The centre of Kobani is seen from near the Mursitpinar border crossing

9. A US-led coalition aircraft flies over Kobani

10. Smoke rises as bullets with tracers fly through the air after an explosion in Kobani during a reported suicide car bomb attack by IS militants

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said US officials had seen the video but could not confirm it was accurate.

"There's obviously a lot of false information, particularly propaganda, on the internet and this may fall into that category," she said.

"We know that part of ISIL's strategy here is to wage a propaganda campaign, and that's why one of our lines of effort has been delegitimising ISIL's propaganda."

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Apple Warns Users Over Chinese iCloud Attack

Apple has acknowledged the iCloud security threat for the first time, posting a new security warning for users of its online service.

In a post on its support site the technology giant said: "We're aware of intermittent organised network attacks using insecure certificates to obtain user information, and we take this very seriously.

"If users get an invalid certificate warning in their browser while visiting www.icloud.com, they should pay attention to the warning and not proceed."

Attempts to log in to Apple's iCloud service in China have seen users directed to a spoof website which may be harvesting passwords.

iCloud users are being asked to be vigilant

Web connections to the login page are blocked and a dummy site that looks virtually identical is presented instead.

Those using Chrome and Firefox browsers are automatically notified that they are no longer on Apple's website, but users of Chinese browser Qihoo will see no indication of the issue.

Apple said its servers have not been compromised in any way.

Since details of the attacks first emerged, some internet activists have claimed that China is behind them.

However, Hua Chunying, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry, said the government was "resolutely opposed" to hacking.

State-owned internet provider China Telecom added that the accusation was "untrue and unfounded".

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Canada On Alert After Two Attacks In Days

A second attack on a Canadian soldier in three days came after the government raised the country's terror alert level.

The alert level was raised on Tuesday to medium after a man, one of 90 suspected militants being tracked by police, ran over two soldiers in Quebec.

One of the soldiers died as a result of his injuries and the suspected attacker, identified as Martin Couture Roulea, 25, was shot and killed.

On Wednesday, Canada's parliament was placed under lockdown after a soldier guarding a nearby war memorial was reportedly wounded after shots were fired.

Witnesses said more than 30 shots were fired inside the building, and one suspected gunman was shot dead.

Video: Video: Shots In Canada Parliament

Shots were also fired at the Rideau Centre Mall near the parliament building and armed police also responded to a situation at a hotel in the capital.

Police stations in Ottawa were closed to the public after the incident and Canadian armed forces bases across the country were being shut down, according to CBC TV.

Earlier this month, Canada announced its intention to join the US coalition carrying out military operations against Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria.

Video: Soldier Wounded In Ottawa Shooting

Professor Anthony Glees, security and intelligence expert from the University of Buckingham, said he thought the attacks stemmed directly from that decision.

He said: "It shows that people are determined to use terrorism to get the Canadians – who have in the past sometimes been a bit wobbly – to think about their support for airstrikes."

The Canadian government has said it was aware of more than 130 Canadians overseas who are "suspected of terrorism-related activities".

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1. Gallery: Pictures: Shots Fired At Canada Parliament

   Canadian police have surrounded the parliament in Ottawa after a soldier was shot while guarding a nearby monument.

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