Paris Attacks Hit Global Travel

From tourism to luxury spending, the City of Light will likely feel a profound economic hit in the aftermath of the Paris attacks.

Travel stocks across Europe took a big hit on Monday as investors worried about the attacks’ immediate and long-term impact across the continent. French hotel group Accor fell 4.7%, the worst among hotel and cruise line stocks in Europe. Air France-KLM SA, which counts Paris-Charles De Gaulle airport as its main hub, led the loss of major European airlines with 5.7% one-day drop. Other leading European airlines such as Germany’s Lfthansa AG, Norwegian Air Shuttle, and Finnair, also fell more than 2%, while budget airlines like Ryanair and easyJet saw a slight one-day drop.

The fear in Europe extended to the U.S. as well. Eight out of the 15 worst performers on the S&P 500 today were travel-related, including hotels, cruise lines and booking sites. Priceline and Expedia both fell more than 2%, while Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises dropped 1.5% and 1.2% respectively. All of the Big Four airlines – Delta, American Airlines, United Continental, and Southwest Airlines– came under pressure too, as a gloomy outlook of the global tourism industry erased airline stocks’ spectacular gains in October. 

In addition to travel stocks across different continents, Europe’s leading luxury retailers felt the pain today. From Italy’s Salvatore Ferragamo to France’s Hermes and Christian Dior, high-end brands have benefited from a strong influx of Asian shoppers to Paris and other major European tourism destinations. It remains unclear to investors whether a decrease in tourist numbers would post any significant impact on holiday sales in the most important quarter of the year for retailers.

While the tragedy struck fear in the global stock market today, some analysts argue that it is now a good time to buy in these sectors. “We think that as long as these incidents do not continue, airline stocks will start to trade on fundamentals, rather than fear,” wrote S&P Capital IQ’s equity analyst Jim Corridore. “We do not see a long term demand impact from the Paris events. With that in mind, we think demand remains strong and lower fuel expense is driving strong profitability and strong operating cash flows.”

Suspected Paris Attacks 'Scout' Held In Turkey

Ahmet Dahmani, 26, was held at a luxury hotel in the southern coastal city of Antalya, where world leaders had been meeting days earlier at the G20 summit, the Dogan news agency said.

The report said two other men, both Syrians, were also detained on a nearby road on suspicion that they had been sent by Islamic State to ensure Dahmani's safe passage across the border.

Counter-terrorism police first became aware of Dahmani - a Belgian man of Moroccan origin - when he arrived on a flight to Antalya and tracked him to the hotel in the Manavgat district of the city, Dogan said.

Separately, Turkey deported a group of Moroccans detained at Istanbul's main airport this week over suspected links to IS.

The eight, who said they had arrived at Ataturk airport on Tuesday night from Casablanca for a holiday, were detained by border police and questioned by profiling experts who flagged them as suspected militants, a government official said.   

Russia to overhaul national security

Russia's parliament has backed a sweeping overhaul of national security, including a possible expansion of intelligence powers, after the Kremlin had concluded a bomb downed a Russian plane over Egypt last month. 

In a rare meeting of both chambers of parliament on Friday, deputies and senators adopted a resolution calling for tougher penalties for "terrorists", stricter public security measures, and new action to combat extremism.

"You can't have too much security, and any system needs perfecting," said Valentina Matviyenko, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and the head of the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament. "Such work is going on at full pace."

Russia has intensified its air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria in response to the plane attack that killed all 224 people on board on October 31.

Parliamentarians say they want to ensure that Putin knows he has their full support if he decides to go further.

Matviyenko said security measures at airports, on public transport, and in places where large events are held, have already been beefed up - on Putin's orders - in the past week.

Sergei Mironov, the leader of the Just Russia party, said on Friday that it was "essential" in the wake of the plane crash for Russia to bring back the death penalty for terrorists and their accomplices. The penalty is currently subject to a moratorium.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Mironov's idea was a new one, but that the issue was complex, while Sergei Ivanov, Putin's chief-of-staff, said Russians would back such a proposal, but that it was "premature" to reinstate capital punishment.

In a separate development, Riad Haddad, the Syrian ambassador to Russia, told journalists in St Petersburg that Russia faced a major threat from ISIL members who come from post-Soviet countries.

The Russian Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying that about 10,000 natives of post-Soviet states were fighting for ISIL.

UN Agrees To Combat IS

David Cameron says the world has united against Islamic State

The world powers also agreed to co-ordinate efforts aimed at preventing further atrocities by IS - but the resolution does not provide any legal basis for military action.

The UN Security Council said IS "constitutes a global and unprecedented threat to international peace and security" and it expressed the determination "to combat by all means this unprecedented threat".

vote comes a week after militants launched co-ordinated gun and bomb attack in the French capital, killing 130 people. 

The continuing global threat posed by extremists was again highlighted after gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Mali, where at least 21 people have been killed.

resolution was drafted by the French, co-sponsored by the UK and also gained support from the Russians, whose veto power previously led western nations to put off seeking UN backing.

Following the vote, Prime Minister David Cameron said: "This is an important moment. Today, the world has united against ISIL (IS).

"The international community has come together and has resolved to defeat this evil, which threatens people of every country and every religion.

"The United Nations Security Council has unanimously backed action against this evil death cult in both Syria and Iraq.

"It has also reiterated its determination to secure a political solution to the conflict in Syria."

He added: "Today’s vote shows beyond doubt the breadth of international support for doing more in Syria and for decisive action to eradicate ISIL.

"Britain will continue to support our allies who are fighting ISIL in Syria.

"We cannot expect others to shoulder the burdens and the risks of protecting this country."

Although the UN resolution does not invoke the chapter of the UN charter authorising the use of force, Mr Cameron - who insists there is a legal case for military action even without it - will hope it will bolster support at Westminster for his efforts to extend airstrikes into Syria.

But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is strongly opposed to such a move, Seven days after the massacre in France, Parisians took to the city's streets in a united show of defiance.

Crowds gathered at the scenes of the attacks and landmarks to hold vigils and mark the exact moment a week on when the terrorists launched their deadly rampage.

Bouquets were laid at the Place de la Republique, lit by the flames of hundreds of candles, and at the cafe La Belle Equipe, where one of the gun attacks took place, mourners broke into a round of applause at a memorial for the victims.

France will be on a state of high alert until well into the new year after the country's senate voted to extend a state of emergency for three months.

The move expands powers to allow police to carry out arrests and searches, while authorities can ban the movement of people and vehicles at specific times and places.

Meanwhile, Belgian authorities have brought terror charges against a third suspect  over the attacks, with two others in custody.

New Zealand police: 7 believed dead in helicopter crash

All seven people aboard a helicopter that crashed Saturday on a scenic glacier in New Zeland are believed to have been killed, police said.

The wreckage of a helicopter was located inside a crevasse on Fox Glacier, but rescuers were unable to reach it due to the difficult terrain, police said in a statement. They said that the pilot and six passengers are believed dead.

The helicopter crashed at about 11 a.m. on the glacier, a popular tourist destination on New Zealand's South Island.

Rescue teams reached the scene Saturday afternoon, but said crevasses and rugged terrain were hampering their efforts.

A rescue helicopter used a winch to lower a paramedic and an alpine rescue team to the vicinity of the crash, said Vince Cholewa, a spokesman for Maritime New Zealand. He said the area where the helicopter crashed was filled with crevasses and treacherous terrain.

He said there was low cloud in the area, but otherwise the rescuers had not reported being hampered by the weather.

Cholewa said it was a commercial helicopter that crashed, but he didn't have details yet on whether the passengers were tourists.

Tourism companies regularly fly visitors onto the popular glacier so they can view it up close.

Obama Visits Asian Refugee Center

The Associated Press

Pushing back against efforts to bar Syrian refugees from resettling in the U.S., President Barack Obama vowed Saturday that his country will be a welcoming place for millions fleeing violence around the world "as long as I'm president."

Obama commented Saturday at a learning center in the Malaysian capital that serves the poor, including some refugees. He met with boys and girls wearing crisp white and black uniforms and neckties as they sat at tables and worked on painting and puzzle projects.

Obama said the youngsters "represent the opposite of terror, the opposite of the type of despicable violence we saw in Mali and Paris."

Most of the children the president met with are Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group. Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar to escape persecution by the country's Buddhist majority, with many ending up in Malaysia, where Obama was attending a regional economic summit.

Obama noted that the world is currently focused on the humanitarian tragedy in Syria, where years of civil war have forced millions to flee to other countries to escape the bloodshed. But he said the world must not forget about some 60 million people who have been displaced around the globe.

Last week's Paris attacks have led U.S. lawmakers to seek to halt or delay the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the U.S. out of concern that terrorists could try to slip in with them and carry out similar attacks. Obama has rejected that idea and pledged to veto any bill sent to him to block Syrians from entering.

Speaking of the children he had just met with, Obama said: "Anybody who had a chance to see those kids, hopefully you understood the degree to which they're just like our kids. They deserve love and stability and protection."

He said more and more countries are recognizing that they need to do more, vowing that "as long as I'm president we are going to keep stepping up."

The refugees Obama met with have all been cleared to come to the U.S. and have been assigned to specific cities, the White House said.

Obama will confront the refugee debate even more directly when he returns to Washington on Monday. One of his first orders of business will be a White House meeting Tuesday with French President Francois Hollande, who is vowing war against the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks, as European nations tighten border controls out of fear that terrorists could strike again.

Analysis: Mali hotel siege

For anyone who has followed news of Mali or travelled there in recent years, Friday's attack that killed more than 19 people at the Radisson Blu hotel is unsurprising, but no less tragic or horrific for its apparent predictability.

Since France's military intervention in January 2013 to halt the southwards movement of a coalition of armed groups who controlled much of the country's north, the security situation has remained precarious. And in some ways, it has gotten even worse.

The morning attack reportedly began after a small group of armed men hijacked a diplomatic car in the country's capital, Bamako, using the vehicle's protected status to bypass hotel security before shooting several guards, storming inside, and taking hostages.

A statement posted on Twitter claimed the attack on behalf of al-Mourabitoun, an armed group led by veteran rebel commander Moktar Belmoktar, with cooperation from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb's (AQIM) Saharan Emirate under the command of Yahya Abou el-Hammam. 

Al Jazeera Arabic and the Mauritanian Newspaper Al Akhbar also reportedly received communiques confirming the statement.

A body is removed from the Radisson Blu hotel after it was stormed by gunmen during an attack in Bamako on Friday

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told French television that Belmoktar, who was the target of a US air strike in the Libyan town of Ajdabiyah in June, "is likely behind this attack, although we are not certain of it".

If the claim of responsibility proves true, it would not be the first attack from Belmoktar's group in Bamako. In March, Mourabitoun claimed responsibility for an attack that killed five people at the popular La Terrace bar and restaurant in the capital's Hippodrome neighbourhood. The group also said it was behind shots fired at a United Nations vehicle and compound.

This year alone, Mali's violence has killed at least 342 people - including UN peacekeepers, foreign personnel and contractors, as in the attack this summer on the Byblos Hotel in the central city of Sevare.

Civilians have also fallen victim to intercommunal fighting and improvised explosive devices. Some were also targeted by AQIM, the largely Tuareg group, Ansar Al-Din, and the newer Front pour la Liberation du Masina (FLM) for allegedly collaborating with Malian and French security forces.

While the rebel environment in Mali appears fragmented, the separation and scattering of fighters after the French intervention has also helped these movements remain active. Moreover, this is part of a larger pattern of dealing with conflict by separating into smaller groups built in part around ethnic, social and linguistic ties.

For instance, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) split from AQIM in 2011 - in part over frustration among Saharan and Sahelian fighters with Algerian dominance within AQIM; yet, this did not stop these groups from collaborating in the occupation of Mali in 2012. 

Similarly, long-standing radical and political actor Iyad Ag Ghali's Ansar Al-Din, created in 2011, connected Tuareg fighters from AQIM with newer recruits from Tuareg and other groups, especially in the area around the northern city of Kidal. 

FLM leader Amadou Koufa was initially part of the rebel push south in 2013, before splitting off and reportedly recruiting largely among his ethnic Peul community, staging attacks in central and southern Mali and harkening back to the 19th-century Masina state established by the reformist Muslim leader, Shekou Amadou.

As AQIM, Ansar Al-Din, and Belmoktar's fighters scattered after the French intervention, other rebels relocated or simply returned home to bide their time. But the fighting never stopped, and in the past year in particular, these groups have returned to the fore and expanded their combat operations across Mali, even as French forces fanned out across the Sahel as part of Operation Barkhane, designed to combat armed groups across the region.

Rebels target UN and other convoys almost daily with improvised explosive devices, while AQIM fighters killed six UN peacekeepers in a complex attack near Timbuktu in June. Other attacks in the region of Mopti, as well as near the borders with Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast, have been attributed to the FLM or groups associated with Ansar Al-Din. 

Like water thrown onto an oil fire, the flames have simply spread elsewhere, instead of being extinguished.

Although Friday's attack follows closely on the heels of last week's gun and bomb assaults that killed at least 129 people in the streets of Paris, it is more likely that the carnage at the Radisson Blu was tied to local factors.

The hotel, always popular with diplomats and other foreign personnel, was preparing for the sixth meeting of the Coordinating Committee of the Algiers Accords, signed in June between rebel groups and the Malian government.

The attack also takes place soon after a series of local truces around the town of Anefis brought a halt - for the moment - the intercommunal conflict between different Tuareg and Arab armed groups that had raged since the signing of the Algiers Accords.

The assault also came just days after Ansar Al-Din leader Ag Ghali released an audio tape railing against the accords, praising the attacks in central and southern Mali, and threatening France.

We will know more in the days to come about why and how this attack took place. But no matter what the cause, it appears dishearteningly likely that insecurity and violence will continue to spread in Mali for the foreseeable future.