France church attack: Second suspect in priest killing named

French prosecutors have identified the second man involved in the killing of a priest in a Normandy church on Tuesday as 19-year-old Abdel Malik Petitjean.

Like the other attacker, Adel Kermiche, he was known to the security services.

The teenagers were shot dead by police outside the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray where they had killed Father Jacques Hamel, 86, and taken hostages.

So-called Islamic State (IS) released a video of what it said were the two men pledging allegiance to the group.

"Following DNA tests, it emerged that the terrorist has been identified as Abdel Malik Nabil Petitjean," a source in the Paris prosecutor's office said.

Petitjean, from a town in eastern France, had been on a watch list as a potential security threat since June after trying to enter Syria from Turkey.

He had been harder than Kermiche to identify because his body was badly disfigured in the police shooting, but officers found an ID card belonging to him in Kermiche's home and confirmed his identity in a DNA match with his mother.

After Petitjean was named, his mother, Yamina, denied he could have been the killer.

"I know my kid, he is kind. I did not produce a devil. He never talked about IS," she told BFM television.

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European terror attacks

What we know about church attack

Tributes to Fr Jacques Hamel

Profile: Abdel Malik Petitjean

Kermiche 'was brainwashed'

Corsican nationalists warn IS

How France is wrestling with jihadist terror

What drives individuals to commit mass killings?

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French media have reported sources close to the investigation as saying anti-terrorism police had been searching for a man in the days before the attack who "strongly resembled" Petitjean, after receiving a tip-off from a foreign intelligence agency about an imminent attack.

A photograph of the man said to be planning the attack had been supplied but not his name.

Kermiche, also 19, was being monitored by police and was wearing a surveillance tag at the time of the attack.

He was arrested twice last year trying to reach Syria and was awaiting trial for alleged membership of a terrorist organisation.

The French government has faced strong criticism from political opponents over perceived security failings since the Bastille Day lorry attack in Nice two weeks ago in which more than 80 people died.

President Francois Hollande has said France will form a National Guard from reserve forces, in an attempt to prevent further attacks.

He has urged "patriots" to sign up to become reservists and has said parliamentary consultations on forming the Guard will take place in September "so this force can be created as fast as possible to protect the French".

Merkel rules out migrant policy reversal after attacks

Recent attacks in Germany involving asylum-seekers would not change its willingness to take in refugees, Chancellor Angela Merkel has said.

She said the attackers "wanted to undermine our sense of community, our openness and our willingness to help people in need. We firmly reject this".

But she did propose new measures to improve security.

These include information sharing, deciphering web chatter and tackling arms sales on the internet.

What is going on in Germany?

Ansbach attacker: From asylum seeker to IS suicide bomber

What drives individuals to commit mass killings?

Two recent attacks in Bavaria were both by asylum seekers. A suicide bomb attack in Ansbach on Sunday that injured 15 people was carried out by a Syrian who had been denied asylum but given temporary leave to stay.

An axe and knife attack on a train in Wuerzburg on 18 July that wounded five people was carried out by an asylum seeker from Afghanistan.

Both men had claimed allegiance to so-called Islamic State.

The deadliest recent attack - in Munich on 22 July which left nine dead - was carried out by a German teenager of Iranian extraction but was not jihadist-related.

'We can do this'

Mrs Merkel, who interrupted her summer holiday to hold the news conference in Berlin, said the asylum seekers who had carried out the attacks had "shamed the country that welcomed them".

But she insisted that those fleeing persecution and war had a right to be protected, and Germany would "stick to our principles" in giving shelter to the deserving.

Referring to the attacks that have taken place in France, Belgium, Turkey, the US and elsewhere, she said "taboos of civilisation" had been broken, and they were intended to "spread fear and hatred between cultures and between religions".

But in reference to her famous phrase "Wir schaffen das" or "We can do this" - uttered last year when she agreed to take in a million migrants - Mrs Merkel said: "I am still convinced today that "we can do it".

"It is our historic duty and this is a historic challenge in times of globalisation. We have already achieved very, very much in the last 11 months".

Mrs Merkel said that "besides organised terrorist attacks, there will be new threats from perpetrators not known to security personnel".

To counter this, she said: "We need an early alert system so that authorities can see during the asylum request proceedings where there are problems."

Mrs Merkel added: "We will take the necessary measures and ensure security for our citizens. We will take the challenge of integration very seriously."

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Seven deadly days

A week of bloody attacks has frayed nerves in Germany, which led the way in accepting asylum seekers from Syria. To date, two of the attacks have been linked to a militant group:

• 18 July: An axe-wielding teenage asylum seeker from Afghanistan is shot dead after injuring five people in an attack on a train. IS claims the attack, releasing a video recorded by the attacker before the incident

• 22 July: A German teenager of Iranian extraction goes on a shooting rampage in the Bavarian state capital, Munich, killing nine people, most of them migrants, before shooting himself. He is said to have been obsessed with school shootings

• 24 July: A Syrian asylum seeker is arrested in the town of Reutlingen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, after allegedly killing a Polish woman with a machete and injuring two other people. Police suggest it was probably a "crime of passion"

• 24 July: A failed Syrian asylum seeker blows himself up outside a music festival in the small Bavarian town of Ansbach, injuring 15 other people.

Germans shaken by violence

German media on the attacks

Labour leadership: Legal action against Corbyn ballot vote

A legal challenge to Jeremy Corbyn's right to automatically stand in the Labour leadership contest is being heard at the High Court in London.

Donor and former candidate Michael Foster is contesting Labour's decision to allow Mr Corbyn on to the ballot paper without having to secure nominations from 50 other MPs and MEPs.

Labour's National Executive Committee backed the move by 18 to 14 votes.

Mr Corbyn is taking on former work and pensions spokesman Owen Smith.

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As a challenger, Mr Smith had to win the backing of 20% of Labour's MPs and MEPs to be eligible to stand - a hurdle he overcame easily.

But the NEC's decision that, as the incumbent, Mr Corbyn did not have to adhere to the same requirements has proved controversial.

The NEC backed Mr Corbyn's automatic inclusion following a highly charged meeting earlier this month. Labour's ruling body, of which Mr Corbyn is a member, is reported to have taken a range of legal opinions before making its decision.

Mr Foster, who unsuccessfully stood in the seat of Camborne and Redruth at the last general election, has expressed concerns about "apparent manipulation" of the party's rules and questioned whether the legal advice was given proper consideration.

'Unhelpful'

Lawyers for Mr Foster told the High Court on Tuesday that Labour and Mr Corbyn made a "very problematic interpretation" of the party's rules.

Gavin Millar QC said there was no concept of "incumbent" or "incumbency" in the party rules. "There is no distinction in the rules between the leader candidate to be automatically on the ballot paper or the challenger candidate," he said.

Mr Millar said: "There's nothing whatsoever unfair to a leader to expect him or her to gather or have a minimum level of support in the combined group [of Labour MPs and MEPs] if the leader wants to stand again in the teeth of the challenge.

"It goes with the job description to maintain that minimum level of support in the PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party)."

Mark Henderson, appearing for Labour's NEC, said precedent suggested courts were wary of intervening in voluntary unincorporated associations such as the Labour Party except where their rules have "incoherence".

He said the leadership rules should not be construed "according to grammatical niceties" but as ordinary members of the party would understand them.

The rules, he said, were "not ambiguous nor open to serious doubt", and that there was no "custom, precedent nor practice" which suggested Mr Corbyn should be stopped from automatically going forward to a ballot of members.

The hearing is expected to last all day, with a ruling at a later date.

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Analysis by BBC political correspondent Iain Watson

The court case has huge implications for Labour.

Its ruling body - the National Executive Committee - put Jeremy Corbyn automatically on the leadership ballot but Michael Foster believes the party leader should have to seek the same number of nominations from MPs as his challenger.

That might be difficult for Mr Corbyn to achieve so if he loses the court case he could potentially lose his job too.

Mr Foster's QC argued there was no concept of incumbency in Labour's rules or anything which in terms was designed to give an incumbent leader an advantage and that all candidates should be treated in an even-handed way. In other words, that Mr Corbyn should not be exempt from seeking nominations from his fellow MPs.

But counsel for Labour's general secretary argued that the courts should be wary of intervening in the affairs of a major political party and that the intention of the rules was not to exclude the democratically elected leader from the ballot if challenged

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Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson, who was a participant in the NEC meeting, has said its decision must be respected and the legal challenge is "very unhelpful".

The outcome of the leadership election is due to be announced on 24 September.

It emerged on Monday that Labour is facing legal action from people who have joined the party since the EU referendum after the NEC decided that only those who signed up on or before 12 January could automatically vote.

Solicitors Harrison Grant said they had issued proceedings against the Labour Party "on behalf of a number of new members who have been denied the opportunity to vote in the forthcoming leadership election".

More-recent joiners were given the opportunity to vote by becoming registered supporters at a cost of £25 each.

France church attack: Priest killed by two 'IS soldiers'

A priest has been killed in an attack by two armed men on his church in a suburb of Rouen in northern France.

The attackers entered the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray during Mass, taking the priest, Fr Jacques Hamel, 84, and four other people hostage.

Police later surrounded the church and French TV said shots were fired. Both hostage-takers are now dead.

The Amaq news agency, linked to so-called Islamic State, said "two IS soldiers" had carried out the attack.

President Francois Hollande said the men had claimed to be from IS.

Speaking in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, he said the attackers had committed a "cowardly assassination" and France would fight IS "by all means".

Pope Francis decried the "pain and horror of this absurd violence".

French interior ministry spokesman, Pierre-Henri Brandet, said one of the hostages had been critically wounded.

He said the hostage-takers had been "neutralised" after coming out of the church. French prosecutors say one person has since been detained over the attack.

'Treasured' priest

Police sources said it appeared the attackers had slit the priest's throat with a knife.

The area was cordoned off while the church was searched for explosives, and police told people to stay away.

Mr Brandet said the investigation into the incident would be led by anti-terrorism prosecutors.

One of the men was known to the French intelligence services, French TV channel M6 has reported.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has expressed his horror at the "barbaric attack".

"The whole of France and all Catholics are wounded. We will stand together," he wrote on Twitter.

The Archbishop of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun, who was attending a Catholic gathering in Poland, said: "I cry out to God with all men of goodwill. I would invite non-believers to join in the cry.

"The Catholic Church cannot take weapons other than those of prayer and brotherhood among men."

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Analysis - BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner

After criticisms of police shortcomings over the Nice attack on 14 July, French anti-terrorist police moved with commendable speed to close down this hostage situation in a Norman church.

Observers have pointed out that France and other countries are now moving more quickly towards what is called tactical intervention - overwhelming armed force aimed at minimising the period during which terrorists or armed criminals can threaten the public.

The selection of a church by the attackers, whom IS refer to as its "soldiers", crosses a new red line in the grim history of recent attacks on continental Europe. The murder of a defenceless 84-year-old priest in this attack will have further inflamed public opinion.

News that one of the attackers was on the French government's terror watch-list, known as the S list, will prompt many to question its purpose if he can remain at large to carry a knife into a church.

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Boy's Legendary Jungle 2016 HD

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Munich shooting: David Sonboly 'planned attack for year'

The teenage gunman who killed nine people in Munich on Friday had been planning his attack for a year, German authorities say.

David Ali Sonboly, 18, who had a Glock pistol and more than 300 bullets, killed himself after the attack.

Bavarian officials said the gunman, still not officially named, appeared to have bought the illegal pistol used in the attack on the so called "dark net".

Vigils continue in the city to commemorate the victims.

Seven of the dead were teenagers - two Turks, two Germans, a Hungarian, a Greek and a Kosovan.

A further 35 people were injured, but only four of them have bullet wounds.

The state government officials told a news conference that the victims of the attack had not been specifically targeted and were not classmates of the gunman.

Also they did not include three youths allegedly involved in bullying Sonboly when he was at school.

• Attack as it happened
• What we know so far
• Who were the victims?
• Munich shooting in pictures
• Eyewitness accounts

Video games

Robert Heimberger, head of Bavaria's criminal police, said the gunman had been planning the attack since he paid a visit last year to the town of Winnenden - the scene of a previous school shooting in 2009 - and took photographs.

He said it was likely the Glock pistol - which had been reactivated - was bought on the "dark net" market, an area accessible only with the use of special software. It had been a theatre prop.

Sonboly was said to be a keen player of "first-person shooter" video games.

Mr Heimberger added that the parents of the gunman remained in shock and were not able to be interviewed.

He also said police had not found the manifesto of Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik when they searched the gunman's room at his parents' flat.

A day earlier, officials had raised the possibility of a link to Breivik, whose own attack was carried out five years earlier to the day.

As to Sonboly's state of mind, a spokesman for the Munich prosecutors' office told the news conference that the gunman had spent two months as an inpatient at a mental care facility in 2015 and was afterwards treated as an outpatient.

"The suspect had fears of contact with others" and also depression, Thomas Steinkraus-Koch said.

However, there was no evidence of any political motivation.

Senior German politicians have called for tighter controls on the sale of guns in the wake of the shooting at the Olympia shopping centre.

Munich's police chief has urged the media to respect the privacy of those affected by the attack on Monday, when schools reopen.

China floods: Dozens killed and hundreds of thousands evacuated

Floods in north and central China have killed at least 87 people, with scores missing and hundreds of thousands forced from homes, officials say.

Hebei and Henan provinces have been the worst hit by the flash floods and landslides.

Nearly 50,000 homes collapsed in Hebei, where 72 people were killed, while 18,000 houses were damaged in Henan.

The Chinese authorities have said they will provide funds for flood-hit areas, with millions of people affected.

Authorities in Hebei said 25 people were killed in one city alone - Xingtai. Some 300,000 people have been evacuated in the province.

Henan has seen 15 deaths so far, with 72,000 people evacuated.

There have also been power cuts and major problems with the communications and transport networks across a wide area, Xinhua said.

Angry residents have blamed local officials for failing to warn them of the severe weather in advance.

The summer rains have been especially heavy in China this year and the government has said more than 200 people have been killed as a result of the weather.

It has estimated that more than 1.5 million hectares of crops have been damaged and said direct economic losses exceed $3bn (£2.3bn).