Technology giants will this week face more pressure to allow intelligence services access to encrypted messaging in the aftermath of the Westminster attack.
Khalid Masood is known to have used WhatsApp in the moments before the attack, but encryption has hampered investigators trying to access his messages.
The company has faced a barrage of criticism - not least from Home Secretary Amber Rudd - at a time when tech firms were already under pressure over extremist content.
They have been invited to a meeting with government officials later this week.
And the giants of Silicon Valley once again find themselves in the centre of the debate over privacy and security.
:: Messaging apps and terror: Seven key questions
Ian Sherr, executive editor of tech magazine CNET, said: "It is all about privacy. The concern the tech industry has is that if they allow anyone access once it is just going to snowball and suddenly the government is going to be able to pull in anything they want."
In some ways, he said, tech firms might relish the opportunity to show consumers how hard they fight to protect their data, a key selling point of what they offer.
And it is not clear what capabilities firms such as WhatsApp currently have to access data contained in communications.
But, as with Apple's clash with the FBI over the San Bernardino gunman's iPhone, it raises some uncomfortable questions.
"They said 'we can't build this programme and then pretend like it never happened'," said Mr Sherr. "So they don't want to make that opening for anybody."
It is the focus of much discussion on the streets of WhatsApp's hometown of Mountain View in Silicon Valley.
It was founded by Jan Koum and Brian Acton in 2009, using the Red Rock Coffee Company as a makeshift office.
Today the company, bought by Facebook for $19bn (£15bn) in 2014, occupies a stylish new office complex a hundred yards away.
No signs confirm that WhatsApp owns the headquarters - and when Sky News paid a visit to the building, security guards refused to confirm which company was based there.
Outside Red Rock, programmer John Voorhees told Sky News: "If you're looking for people who want to do harm to us you need to consider better ways of getting information that are not just broad collections of data.
"You need to use connections within communities and things like that. There are lots more intelligent ways to go about gathering information."
Some of Mountain View's more traditional industries have some sympathy for their neighbour.
Diana Tucker, who owns the West Valley Music store, said: "I tend to fall more on the tech side because once you open that box, that genie will not go back in."
WhatsApp says it is cooperating with law enforcement over the Westminster attack.
But it is evident that governments around the world want more than that.
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Monday, March 27, 2017
Thieves steal 100kg gold coin worth millions from Berlin museum
An oversized gold coin worth millions of pounds has been stolen from a museum in Germany.
The Big Maple Leaf weighs 100 kg (221lbs) and measures 53cm (21ins) across, and is thought to be the world's biggest coin.
Berlin police said it was taken by thieves who broke into the Bode museum in the city at around 3.30am on Monday.
Spokesman Stefen Petersen said they entered through a window and broke into a cabinet where the coin was kept.
A ladder found alongside nearby railway tracks is believed to have been used by the thieves and then dumped.
The coin has a face value of $1m (£790,000), but the gold in it makes it worth almost $4.5m (£3.9m) at today's market prices.
The museum says the Big Maple Leaf is in the Guinness Book of Records for its purity of 999.99/1000 gold.
It has a portrait of the Queen on one side and maple leaves on the other.
The three centimetre thick coin is a commemorative piece issued by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007.
The Bode Museum houses one of the world's biggest collections of coins.
Exhibits include 102,000 coins from ancient Greece and about 50,000 Roman coins.
The Big Maple Leaf weighs 100 kg (221lbs) and measures 53cm (21ins) across, and is thought to be the world's biggest coin.
Berlin police said it was taken by thieves who broke into the Bode museum in the city at around 3.30am on Monday.
Spokesman Stefen Petersen said they entered through a window and broke into a cabinet where the coin was kept.
A ladder found alongside nearby railway tracks is believed to have been used by the thieves and then dumped.
The coin has a face value of $1m (£790,000), but the gold in it makes it worth almost $4.5m (£3.9m) at today's market prices.
The museum says the Big Maple Leaf is in the Guinness Book of Records for its purity of 999.99/1000 gold.
It has a portrait of the Queen on one side and maple leaves on the other.
The three centimetre thick coin is a commemorative piece issued by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007.
The Bode Museum houses one of the world's biggest collections of coins.
Exhibits include 102,000 coins from ancient Greece and about 50,000 Roman coins.
Vogue Williams 'still recovering' from Jump injury
Vogue Williams has said she is still recovering from a knee injury she suffered while training for TV show The Jump.
The Irish presenter and model was the first person forced to pull out of the winter sports competition after rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament while training.
Williams left the show one day before it aired, and was replaced by former Miss Britain Amy Willerton.
Speaking at Disneyland Paris on Sunday, more than one month after having undergone surgery, Williams said she was afraid she might have taken it "a bit too far".
The Irish presenter and model was the first person forced to pull out of the winter sports competition after rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament while training.
Williams left the show one day before it aired, and was replaced by former Miss Britain Amy Willerton.
Speaking at Disneyland Paris on Sunday, more than one month after having undergone surgery, Williams said she was afraid she might have taken it "a bit too far".
Mosul's humanitarian crisis as important as battle for city
For the past 14 years, Iraq has lurched from one multi-ethnic, multi-religious conflict to another.
Some 10,000 to 12,000 refugees are fleeing the western part of Mosul every day - a great exodus from a city that once numbered five million.
Residents have been driven out by heavy shelling and street-to-street combat between the Iraqi Army and Islamic State - but they are also exhausted and desperately hungry.
Lisa Grande, the person leading the UN's humanitarian response in the country, has spent her career working in some of the largest humanitarian crises in the world and knows the next one lurks just around the corner in Iraq.
She said: "There's something that people do not realise.
"The successful protection and, if necessary, relocation of residents from west Mosul is just as important as the battle for the city itself."
With parts of IS-controlled west Mosul under siege by the Iraqis, the price of basic supplies has skyrocketed.
"It is a catastrophe," one woman told us as she boarded a bus for the refugee camps.
"There is famine, there is hunger. One kilo of onions costs 180,000 dinars (£122). One kilo of sugar is one million to 1.4 million dinars (£680-950). This is my neighbourhood."
Their requirements are straightforward and immediate - a place to stay, food and clean water, and health care to keep people alive.
Some 10,000 to 12,000 refugees are fleeing the western part of Mosul every day - a great exodus from a city that once numbered five million.
Residents have been driven out by heavy shelling and street-to-street combat between the Iraqi Army and Islamic State - but they are also exhausted and desperately hungry.
Lisa Grande, the person leading the UN's humanitarian response in the country, has spent her career working in some of the largest humanitarian crises in the world and knows the next one lurks just around the corner in Iraq.
She said: "There's something that people do not realise.
"The successful protection and, if necessary, relocation of residents from west Mosul is just as important as the battle for the city itself."
With parts of IS-controlled west Mosul under siege by the Iraqis, the price of basic supplies has skyrocketed.
"It is a catastrophe," one woman told us as she boarded a bus for the refugee camps.
"There is famine, there is hunger. One kilo of onions costs 180,000 dinars (£122). One kilo of sugar is one million to 1.4 million dinars (£680-950). This is my neighbourhood."
Their requirements are straightforward and immediate - a place to stay, food and clean water, and health care to keep people alive.
Cyclone Debbie: Thousands evacuated as storm bears down on Queensland
Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes as a powerful storm approaches Australia's northeast coast.
Cyclone Debbie is expected to turn into a Category 4 storm, the second strongest on the scale of hurricane intensity, before it makes landfall in Queensland on Tuesday morning.
Winds are forecast to reach up to 260 kmph (160 mph) as the storm hits, making it Australia's most powerful storm since Cyclone Yasi in 2011.
Around 3,500 people have been evacuated from low-lying areas near Townsville after concerns that the tidal surge could be as high as 4m (13ft).
Authorities have also advised a further 2,000 people in the town of Bowen to leave their homes and evacuations are underway from low-lying areas in Mackay.
Queensland State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk encouraged Queensland residents to listen to authorities, saying that "the window of opportunity to leave is drastically closing".
"I am just pleading to everyone, please, listen to authorities. I do, you must as well. This is about your safety, it is about the safety of your family and the safety of your children," she said.
Ms Palaszczuk said the farming region has never experienced a storm stronger than Category 2 and warned that older homes would not withstand a Category 4 storm.
Queensland State Disaster Co-ordination Centre deputy commissioner Steve Gollschewski told people in the areas affected "to move now".
"Don't wait till tomorrow because you will not will be able to move probably past midnight tonight," he said.
The storm is expected to land somewhere along a sparsely populated 60-mile stretch of coast between the towns of Ayr and Bowen, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said.
The bad weather is also due to hit the Whitsundays Islands.
Whitsundays Regional Council Mayor Andrew Wilcox said: "in the Whitsundays we're pretty laid back sort of people.
"So what my message is, 'guys, this is a real threat, this is serious, don't be complacent, make sure you have all your preparation right, take shelter and please be safe'."
Operations at several coal mines in the area have been halted ahead of the storm and the Abbot Point coal terminal and ports at Mackay and Hay Point have also closed.
Flights to the region are also affected. Townsville Airport is closed and airlines Qantas, Jetstar, Rex and Virgin Australia say they have cancelled flights in the region.
Cyclone Debbie is expected to turn into a Category 4 storm, the second strongest on the scale of hurricane intensity, before it makes landfall in Queensland on Tuesday morning.
Winds are forecast to reach up to 260 kmph (160 mph) as the storm hits, making it Australia's most powerful storm since Cyclone Yasi in 2011.
Around 3,500 people have been evacuated from low-lying areas near Townsville after concerns that the tidal surge could be as high as 4m (13ft).
Authorities have also advised a further 2,000 people in the town of Bowen to leave their homes and evacuations are underway from low-lying areas in Mackay.
Queensland State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk encouraged Queensland residents to listen to authorities, saying that "the window of opportunity to leave is drastically closing".
"I am just pleading to everyone, please, listen to authorities. I do, you must as well. This is about your safety, it is about the safety of your family and the safety of your children," she said.
Ms Palaszczuk said the farming region has never experienced a storm stronger than Category 2 and warned that older homes would not withstand a Category 4 storm.
Queensland State Disaster Co-ordination Centre deputy commissioner Steve Gollschewski told people in the areas affected "to move now".
"Don't wait till tomorrow because you will not will be able to move probably past midnight tonight," he said.
The storm is expected to land somewhere along a sparsely populated 60-mile stretch of coast between the towns of Ayr and Bowen, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said.
The bad weather is also due to hit the Whitsundays Islands.
Whitsundays Regional Council Mayor Andrew Wilcox said: "in the Whitsundays we're pretty laid back sort of people.
"So what my message is, 'guys, this is a real threat, this is serious, don't be complacent, make sure you have all your preparation right, take shelter and please be safe'."
Operations at several coal mines in the area have been halted ahead of the storm and the Abbot Point coal terminal and ports at Mackay and Hay Point have also closed.
Flights to the region are also affected. Townsville Airport is closed and airlines Qantas, Jetstar, Rex and Virgin Australia say they have cancelled flights in the region.
Al Qaeda terror mastermind Qari Yasin killed in US airstrike in Afghanistan
An al Qaeda leader behind a series of terror attacks including one on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team has been killed, the Pentagon has said.
Qari Yasin, a senior militant figure from Balochistan, Pakistan, died during US airstrikes in Afghanistan.
He had ties with the Pakistani Taliban terror group and masterminded the bombing on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that killed dozens, including two American service members in 2008.
A 2009 bus attack in Lahore, Pakistan, killed six Pakistani policemen and two civilians and wounded six members of the Sri Lankan cricket team.
US defence secretary Jim Mattis confirmed Yasin died in Paktika Province on 19 March and said in a statement: "The death of Qari Yasin is evidence that terrorists who defame Islam and deliberately target innocent people will not escape justice."
The death of Yasin in eastern Afghanistan will fuel Pakistan's claims its militant enemies have established sanctuaries there.
The neighbouring countries have accused each other of harbouring the other's foes.
Relations deteriorated earlier this year after a series of attacks in Pakistan killed 125 people led Islamabad to close its border with Afghanistan for more than a month.
The two countries have exchanged lists of insurgents hiding out on the other's soil.
Afghanistan has given Pakistan the locations of 23 bases where its Taliban militants are hiding, which it is demanding are closed.
Qari Yasin, a senior militant figure from Balochistan, Pakistan, died during US airstrikes in Afghanistan.
He had ties with the Pakistani Taliban terror group and masterminded the bombing on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that killed dozens, including two American service members in 2008.
A 2009 bus attack in Lahore, Pakistan, killed six Pakistani policemen and two civilians and wounded six members of the Sri Lankan cricket team.
US defence secretary Jim Mattis confirmed Yasin died in Paktika Province on 19 March and said in a statement: "The death of Qari Yasin is evidence that terrorists who defame Islam and deliberately target innocent people will not escape justice."
The death of Yasin in eastern Afghanistan will fuel Pakistan's claims its militant enemies have established sanctuaries there.
The neighbouring countries have accused each other of harbouring the other's foes.
Relations deteriorated earlier this year after a series of attacks in Pakistan killed 125 people led Islamabad to close its border with Afghanistan for more than a month.
The two countries have exchanged lists of insurgents hiding out on the other's soil.
Afghanistan has given Pakistan the locations of 23 bases where its Taliban militants are hiding, which it is demanding are closed.
Low-cost airline easyJet close to landing post-Brexit EU base
EasyJet will announce within weeks the location of a new European base as Britain's airline industry grapples with the potential consequences of a 'hard Brexit'.
Sky News understands that the low-cost carrier's board has pencilled in an April decision on the location of a new air operator's certificate (AOC), which will allow it to continue flying between EU member states.
The decision will effectively entail the establishment of a new legal headquarters for easyJet, although the company has no plans to relocate the 1000 staff who work at its operational head office at Luton Airport.
EasyJet has spent the last nine months evaluating the merits of securing an AOC in each of the remaining 27 EU member states, and sources said on Sunday that countries including Austria, Malta and Portugal had been under serious recent consideration.
Sky News understands that the low-cost carrier's board has pencilled in an April decision on the location of a new air operator's certificate (AOC), which will allow it to continue flying between EU member states.
The decision will effectively entail the establishment of a new legal headquarters for easyJet, although the company has no plans to relocate the 1000 staff who work at its operational head office at Luton Airport.
EasyJet has spent the last nine months evaluating the merits of securing an AOC in each of the remaining 27 EU member states, and sources said on Sunday that countries including Austria, Malta and Portugal had been under serious recent consideration.
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