Image copyright AP Image caption Police found papers, a mobile phone and credit card inside the lorry, according to reports Police are yet to confirm the identity of the man behind the wheel of the white lorry that ploughed into hundreds of people celebrating Bastille Day on the seafront in Nice.
However, he was named locally as Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old man living in Nice, known to police but not previously linked to jihadist groups. He was married with three children and worked as a delivery driver, although he no longer lived with his partner, reports say. Police raided his home on Friday morning, in the Abattoirs area not far from Nice railway station. As emergency services tended to the men, women and children left dying and wounded on the Promenade des Anglais, police scoured the lorry for evidence and found papers that identified him as a Franco-Tunisian or of Tunisian origin. One report said his driver's licence, credit card and mobile phone were found inside the lorry. He had been in trouble with the police in the past for petty crime and violence, but he was not on the watch list of radicalised young men. Anyone seen as a threat to state security has what the government refers to as a "fiche S". The majority of attacks carried out in France since January 2015 have been staged by men designated with a "fiche S", and also linked to so-called Islamic State (IS). Although witnesses initially thought the killer had lost control of the lorry, it soon became clear he was acting deliberately. "I even had time to see the driver's face. He had a beard and appeared to be having fun," one man said. Image copyright Twitter Image caption According to iTele news, police were searching the lorry driver's home in Nice There were suggestions that among the papers found in the vehicle were rental documents. According to one report, the killer hired the lorry from a rental firm in Saint-Laurent-du-Var, a town to the west of Nice, two days beforehand. In 2012, he was barred from entering the home he shared with his partner in the north of the city because of allegations of domestic violence, Nice-Matin reports (in French). Image copyright AFP Image caption The flat where the suspected attacker lived was searched by police in Nice on Friday Outside the flat in the Route de Turin where he had been living, residents of the four-storey building described the man as a loner who never responded when they said hello. He would often be seen climbing the stairs to his first-floor flat, carrying his bike, they said. Although the attacker had a pistol, all the other weapons found in the lorry turned out to be fake, which raises questions about the extent of support he had from jihadist groups. Who was police attacker Larossi Aballa? Many are linking the attack to a 2014 audio message from an IS spokesman, Mohammed al-Adnani, who urged followers to stage all manner of attacks. "If you can't detonate a bomb or fire a shot, manage by yourself... run them over with your car," he said. Many of France's jihadist killers, starting with Mohammed Merah in Toulouse in 2012, began their journey towards militant Islam as petty criminals. The Nice attacker appears to have followed the same path.
0 Comments
Image copyright Reuters The US economy created 287,000 jobs in June, rebounding strongly from disappointing growth in May.
The figure was much stronger than forecast, and the dollar and yields on US government bonds rose in the belief a US rate rise was now more likely. The Labor Department revised down May's already weak first estimate of 38,000 jobs to just 11,000. The unemployment rate, which is derived from a different data set, rose to 4.9% in June from 4.7% the month before. The change in the jobless rate reflected a rise in the number of people registering that they were looking for work, generally regarded as a sign of confidence in the economy. 'Sigh of relief' The growth in jobs was seen across a variety of sectors. Manufacturing employment - which had dropped by 16,000 in May - rose by 14,000, there were 29,900 more jobs in the retail sector, and the leisure and hospitality sectors gained 59,000 jobs. Image copyright Reuters May's weak jobs figure had been depressed by a strike by 35,000 Verizon workers. Their return to work helped to boost information technology employment by 44,000. The Labor Department figures indicated that wage growth remained tepid, rising by just 0.1% in June from the month before. However, earnings were 2.6% higher compared with June last year, up from a rate of 2.5% in May. Market watchers welcomed the stronger-than-expected jobs figures. "It has been a month of huge shocks for the global economy, but what you can hear now is a massive sigh of relief from the markets. The disastrous May non-farm payroll reading followed by Brexit were very painful, yet there is now a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel," said Dennis de Jong, managing director of UFX.com. "Although the Federal Reserve will take encouragement from this vital data, they simply aren't in a position to consider a rate hike at the moment. There is still huge uncertainty around the world, but the US economy has at least taken a step in the right direction here." May's 'blip' Earlier this year there had been speculation that the Fed could raise interest rates as soon as July. However, May's disappointing jobs report and the uncertainty following the UK's vote to leave the EU appeared to have pushed any rate rise well into the future. Andrew Hunter, assistant economist at Capital Economist, said the latest jobs figures could bring forward the time when the Fed might act. "The surge... suggests that the sharp slowdown in the preceding months was nothing more than a blip," he said. "Fed officials will want to see evidence of a more sustained recovery in employment growth over July and August as well, but this nonetheless supports our view that the next hike could still be in September." |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2018
Categories |