NEWS SUMMARIES 23 March
Belgium’s federal prosecutor today revealed that Brussels bombmaker Najim Laachraoui (left and centre) – known as the ‘Man in White’ is still on the run. This morning Belgian media reported that the ISIS explosives expert was taken alive by a SWAT team inside a pizzeria in the Anderlecht suburb of the city, hours after police said he helped carry out the attacks that killed 34 yesterday. However the chief prosecutor has now said he was never in custody after he slipped the net following the bombing attacks at Brussels Airport and is still at large. The latest twist came after Belgian brothers Ibrahim (top right and bottom right) and Khalid El Bakraoui (top right image on the left) were named as two of the ISIS suicide bombers – eight days after they escaped police in a gunfight. Laachraou left a suitcase bomb and walked out of the terminal moments before 14 died at 8am yesterday. Laachraoui was already one of the world’s most wanted men, having built the suicide vests that helped kill 130 in Paris last November, and went on the run with Salah Abdeslam before hiding in Brussels for four months. All of the men were ‘well known’ to police and had been on the run following a shoot-out in a terrorist hideout in the Belgian capital’s Forest suburb last Tuesday. In another twist, police are now hunting for a fourth bomber (bottom right image on the left) who accompanied Ibrahim El Bakraoui during the airport attack. Police said Khalid El Bakraoui (top right image on the left) was responsible for the Metro bombing which killed 20.
Tears spilled today as friends, family and strangers gathered in solidarity today at Brussel’s main square to hold vigil for their loved ones lost in yesterday’s terror attacks. In heartbreaking images, a mother – known only as Sonia – held her two young children close as she wept for the victims at the city’s Place de la Bourse (main). But Brussels remained defiant today as mourners broke out in a round of applause after the minute’s silence held this morning at 11am. The square has become a focal point for Belgians to unite and show solidarity against the ISIS terrorists who brought carnage to their city.
It strikes me, instead of normalising terror, instead of accepting that an attack on the UK is inevitable, and instead of the Belgian president announcing ‘What we knew would happen has happened’, we need leaders who when they stand up and say ‘Never again’ actually mean it and come up with solutions, writes KATIE HOPKINS. The Managing Editor of Channel 4 News tweeted me last night, asking if I would share a picture of the people of Belgium chalking words of defiance in the public square (pictured right) as if they were all suddenly infantilised by their impotence. I refused. Because, you see, you are not standing up to terror. You are normalising it. On June 23 we really do have the opportunity – probably our last – to say never again. To get out, once and for all.
Najim Laachraoui (left) – the ‘man in white’ filmed walking through Brussel’s Zaventem Airport with suicide bombers Ibrahim and Khalid El Bakraoui – is the younger brother Mourad Laachraoui (circled right), who represents Belgium in Taekwondo. Mourad, 29, won a silver medal in the 54kg category at the world championship held in South Korea last year. This is the third medal the electronics’ graduate has won for Belgium, adding to previous bronze medals. Mourad has distanced himself from his terrorist younger brother Najim, and the family, who are of Moroccan descent, are deeply ashamed of his fanatical opinions and murderous activities.
Coronation Street stalwart William Roache has claimed that his late co-star Anne Kirkbride had been an alcoholic battling depression in the months before her death last January, at the age of 60. Speaking at the Royal Television Society Awards on Tuesday evening, the Ken Barlow actor added that she had been on medication ‘all her life’, and explained the reason she was absent from the ITV soap in the months before she died was because show bosses had given her three months to pull herself together. However, she succumbed to cancer before she made her return to the serial drama, on which she appeared as Deirdre Barlow for 42 years.
One of the Brussels bombers was arrested in Turkey and deported back to Belgium in June with a warning that he was a militant, it has sensationally been revealed. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ibrahim El Bakraoui (left and inset), who yesterday blew himself up at Brussels Airport (right), was arrested in Gaziantep in southern Turkey close to the Syrian border last summer. Officials said he was deported to Holland before being passed back over to Belgium. The president said Belgian authorities had failed to confirm the suspect’s links to terrorism ‘despite our warnings that he was a foreign fighter’. The revelation came as it was dramatically revealed this evening that the identity of the ‘Man in White’, who was previously thought to be explosives expert Najim Laachraoui, remains a mystery. He is now Europe’s most wanted man and a major international manhunt to find him remains ongoing. It emerged as it was revealed that Laachraoui was actually the other airport suicide bomber, who was pictured on the left-hand side on CCTV footage showing the three ISIS suspects wheeling their suitcases into the terminal prior to the deadly bombing which occurred at 8am local time yesterday. Ibrahim and Laachraoui killed 14 people and injured dozens of others when they set off suicide vests and explosives-packed suitcases at the airport. They were accompanied by the ‘Man in White’ who abandoned his suicide mission and fled the terminal when his nail-shrouded bomb failed to explode. Just 79 minutes later, Ibrahim’s brother – Khalid El Bakraoui – detonated his suicide vest on a Brussels Metro train at Maelbeek station killing 20 people.
Briton Pauline Graystone, who has lived in Belgium for 20 years, today described the terrifying moment she tried to protect her daughter as the first explosion shook Zaventem airport. Mrs Graystone (pictured main) and her family were standing next to a check-in desk in the crowded terminal when they heard the first blast, which her husband instantly recognised as the sound of a bomb. The couple (pictured top right) huddled with their daughter on the floor as the second explosion tore through the building moments later. The twin attacks killed 14 people and left dozens more injured. Pictured top left, the wreckage after the explosions.
Harrowing footage captures Besmur Idrizi, of East Tilbury, Essex, brutally beating a dog in a lift. A CCTV operator watched on as the horror unfolded, which led to a helpless Staffordshire bull terrier, named Sugar, suffering bruising and a blood-shot eye. The heartless thug was jailed for 20 weeks at Basildon Magistrates’ Couty, as well as being banned from keeping animals indefinitely.
https://youtu.be/k8WYn6wvRvw
Republicans are criticizing Obama for staying in Cuba in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Belgium. He went to a baseball game, where he casually chatted with Cuban dictator Raul Castro and did the wave.
Heidi Cruz (right) came out to attack Donald Trump after he threatened to ‘spill the beans’ on her after a conservative super PAC backing Ted Cruz used an advert that slut-shamed his wife Melania. The ad (left), circulated on social media, shows the Trump’s wife, a former model, in a nude 2000 GQ photo shoot captioned: ‘Meet Melania Trump, your next First Lady. Or you could vote for Ted Cruz on Tuesday.’ The GOP frontrunner responded to the ad in characteristic bombastic fashion on Twitter, writing: ‘Lyin’ Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a G.Q. shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lyin’ Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!’ he wrote. Cruz was quick to respond, saying: ‘Pic of your wife not from us. Donald, if you try to attack Heidi, you’re more of a coward than I thought. #classless.’
All News articles, Wednesday 23 March
Is Shakespeare’s grave missing his SKULL? Radar survey of the Bard’s resting place ‘could confirm rumours his head was stolen by 18th Century trophy hunters’
Ted Cruz defends comments that all Muslim neighborhoods in the US be patrolled by police while calling on the NYPD to restart their surveillance program
Police hunting for a couple who vanished while climbing Ben Nevis on Valentine’s Day have found the bodies of a man and woman buried in snow on the Scottish mountain
Grandmother ‘told police she couldn’t believe she missed’ after being charged with shooting up her son-in-law’s home – and told them she ‘needed to get her eyes fixed’
Boy shaken as a baby by his father dies after 12 years on life support … because his parents won legal fight to stop him being taken off despite THREE doctors testifying he wouldn’t recover
CLEVELAND (AP) — A 12-year-old boy who was shaken as a baby and remained in a vegetative state for the rest of his life has died, authorities said Wednesday....
‘He deserves a childhood’: Radio host Robyn Bailey pays a teary tribute to her ‘responsible’ son on his 16th birthday after his father committed suicide
Qantas pilot struggling with his broken marriage hired a light plane and ‘deliberately’ crashed into the ocean after sending final text message
Principal at Bondi primary school bans use of the word ‘Easter’ in student hat parade
Frantic search for Kentucky couple missing after Brussels terror attacks goes on as desperate family reveal pair have not been found
