The Latest: Merkel praises decision to cancel soccer match
PARIS (AP) The latest on the deadly attacks in Paris. (All times local):
1:05 p.m.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says security agencies made the right decision to cancel the soccer match between Germany and the Netherlands due to attack fears.
The Tuesday night friendly match in Hannover was called off 90 minutes before the kickoff after German authorities received mounting information about a possible attack on the stadium.
Merkel and several members of her Cabinet had been due to attend the match to demonstrate that Germany wouldn't bow to terror following the deadly attacks in Paris.
Merkel said Wednesday ''I was just as sad as millions of fans that this cancellation had to happen, but the security agencies took a responsible decision.''
She said ''these are difficult decisions, possibly the most difficult decisions between freedom and security. But yesterday it was taken in favor of security, and that's right.''
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12:50 p.m.
A father's heartwarming explanation to his son about the Paris terror attacks is electrifying social media, with more than 27 million views on Facebook alone.
The video shows an interview conducted by a reporter for France's Le Petit Journal in a Paris square where people are laying flowers and lighting candles to honor the 129 victims killed in the attacks.
The child tells the reporter the attacks were conducted by ''bad guys'' who were ''not very nice.'' He then expresses fear that his family will be forced to move, although his father reassures him they won't because there are ''bad guys everywhere.''
With his arm around his son, the father refers to the crowd at the square, and says, ''It's OK. They might have guns, but we have flowers.''
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12:45 p.m.
The French government says all 129 people killed in attacks Friday on a Paris stadium, a concert hall and cafes have been identified.
A statement released after Wednesday's Cabinet meeting says about 100 families have come to see the bodies.
At least 350 people were also wounded in the Paris attacks, with scores of people still critically injured. The death toll may still rise if some of the wounded do not recover.
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12:30 p.m.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins says authorities are working to determine the fate of the suspected mastermind of last week's Paris attacks after a seven-hour police raid on an apartment where he was believed to be hiding.
Francois Molins says the police began the raid Wednesday after gathering information that suspect Abdelhamid Abaaoud could be in a safe house apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
Molins said the information was collected from tapped telephone conversations, surveillance and witness accounts.
He told reporters in Saint-Denis after the operation was over that authorities are still working to determine who was inside. Seven people were arrested and two suspects were killed.
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12:05 p.m.
A White House official says President Barack Obama has been briefed on the law enforcement operation in a suburb of Paris. This is a French law enforcement operation, but the president asked to be updated, the official said.
Obama is in Manila for an economic summit. The official was not authorized to discuss the briefing further.
A French government spokesman says a seven-hour police operation north of Paris targeting the mastermind of the deadly Paris attacks and his accomplices, has ended. He says two people were killed in the operation and seven arrested.
- Kathleen Hennessey in Manila.
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noon
Turkey's state-run news agency says authorities have detained eight people at Istanbul's main airport who they suspect could be Islamic State militants planning to make their way to Germany, posing as refugees.
The Anadolu Agency said Wednesday the eight arrived in Istanbul from Casablanca, Morocco, and were interviewed by criminal profiling teams at Ataturk Airport. Citing police sources, the agency said one of the suspects had a hand-drawn picture of a planned route from Turkey to Germany, via Greece, Serbia and Hungary.
Anadolu said the eight claimed to be tourists visiting Istanbul but a hotel refuted claims they had reservations there.
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11:50 a.m.
French government spokesman Stephane Le Foll says a seven-hour police operation north of Paris targeting the mastermind of the Paris attacks and his accomplices, has ended.
Le Foll spoke to reporters in the presidential palace after a Cabinet meeting, saying ''the operation is over.''
Police say two people were killed in the operation Wednesday including a female suicide bomber. Several police were injured and seven people were arrested.
The fate of the suspected mastermind, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, is unclear.
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11:40 a.m.
Police say a police dog was killed in the siege of an apartment where some of the Paris attackers are thought to be holed up.
The National Police said in a tweet that a 7-year-old Belgian Malinois named Diesel, a SWAT team assault dog, was ''killed by terrorists'' during the raid in Saint-Denis, north of Paris.
Police say two suspects have died in the ongoing assault, one of them a female suicide bomber. Seven people have been arrested in the apartment building. Several police officers were slightly injured.
The raid is targeting perpetrators of Friday's deadly gun-and-bomb attacks in Paris that killed 129 people.
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11:30 a.m.
Police have escorted out children and others from the scene of a big police standoff with suspects in last week's Paris attacks.
A woman in a purple headscarf wept while carrying a child. A man next to her carried another child wearing pink, and an older boy walked near them.
It is unclear whether they had been in the building where two people have been killed, several police slightly injured and seven people arrested since the standoff began seven hours ago.
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11:20 a.m.
Armed security officers have fanned out around the historic Paris suburb of Saint-Denis during an hours-long standoff with police.
Journalists, cameramen, police and curious residents waited nervously in the central Place Victor Hugo, as sirens echoed around the neighborhood.
It contrasted with the serenity of the Saint-Denis Basilica - one of the world's most majestic gothic churches - that towers over the area. Its famed stone tower was lit up beautifully in the unusually sunny November morning.
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11:15 a.m.
Officials say seven people have been arrested in a raid on an apartment building where suspects in last week's Paris attacks were holed up.
A senior police official and the Paris prosecutor's office say that the seven were arrested Wednesday in the building in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
They did not identify those detained.
Authorities believe there may still be someone still hiding in an apartment.
A loud bang rang out in the streets adjacent to the building around the time of the latest arrests.
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11 a.m.
The governor of Lower Saxony is reassuring Germans after the cancellation of a soccer game over terrorism concerns that ''the security situation is stable'' in the northern state.
Stephan Weil said Wednesday he knew people were worried, but asked ''all to trust in the security authorities.''
State Interior Minister Boris Pistorius said Tuesday night's Germany vs Netherlands match in Hannover was nixed at short notice after ''vague'' information that solidified late in the day.
He wouldn't give details, saying the ''more concrete information we give the more likely it is to reveal the source.''
He says it's possible no arrests were made and no explosives were found because the plot was called off after the game was canceled.
Pistorius says ''we won't know what would have happened if we didn't cancel it.''
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10:40 a.m.
A bill to extend France's state of emergency for three months is being presented to a Cabinet meeting.
French president Francois Hollande declared a state of emergency for 12 days following Friday night's attacks. Parliament must approve extending it.
The bill is to be debated in the Cabinet on Wednesday, the lower house on Thursday and at the Senate on Friday.
The state of emergency extends some police powers of search and arrest and limits public gatherings, among other changes.
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10:25 a.m.
Austria's interior ministry says a Belgian suspect sought in the Paris attacks was on an EU-wide police list when he was stopped in Austria in September, and his presence in the country was reported back to Belgian authorities.
Ministry official Karl-Heinz Gruendboeck says Belgium had registered Salah Abdeslam in the Schengen Information System on suspicion of unidentified criminal activity.
He said Wednesday Austrian police reported his presence to Belgian police.
Officials earlier said Abdeslam entered Austria from Germany Sept. 9 with two unidentified companions and they were stopped for a routine traffic check. They said they were planning a vacation in Vienna,
Abdeslam, 26, is the suspected driver of a group of gunmen in the Paris attacks. His brother, Brahim, was among the suicide bombers and killed one civilian after blowing himself up outside a restaurant.
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10:10 a.m.
French President Francois Hollande is holding an emergency meeting at the Elysee Palace to monitor the raid on a suburban Paris apartment.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Justice Minister Christiane Taubira are meeting with the president.
A Cabinet meeting is to be held on Wednesday morning as previously scheduled, according to the French presidency.
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9:30 a.m.
A police official says that one person is still holed up in an apartment north of Paris after an hours-long standoff with police in which two have been killed and five arrested.
The official, not authorized to be publicly named according to police rules, said the standoff is still going on after some five hours.
The person's identity has not been released. Authorities say the operation is targeting the mastermind of last week's Paris attacks that killed at least 129 people.
- By Philippe Sotto
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9:20 a.m.
Denmark's National Police say it has raised its internal alert level, adding the Scandinavian country's intelligence agency's overall terror threat assessment has not been changed and remains ''serious.''
Police says the reason for stepping up the alertness to ''significant elevated preparedness'' is ''a result of the current uncertain situation in several European countries.''
In Wednesday's statement, the police said the change is only internal, and citizens will not notice any changes.
In February, a lone gunman attacked a free speech event and a synagogue that left two people dead and wounded five in Copenhagen. The shooter Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein was killed in a shootout with a SWAT team.
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9 a.m.
The Paris prosecutor's office says that SWAT teams have arrested three people in an apartment where police are in a standoff with suspects in last week's Paris attacks.
In a statement, the prosecutor's office says that the three haven't been identified yet.
Another man and woman were detained near the apartment, the statement says. It says the standoff is ongoing.
Two people have been killed in the standoff, including a woman suicide bomber who blew herself up, the prosecutor said.
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8:40 a.m.
A French police official says a woman wearing an explosive suicide vest has blown herself up in a standoff between police and suspects in last week's Paris attacks.
The official said she is among two people killed in the ongoing standoff in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. The official, not authorized to be publicly named because of police rules, said four police officers have been injured. No hostages are being held.
Police have said the operation Wednesday is targeting the suspected orchestrator of last week's attacks, holed up in an apartment in Saint-Denis with other armed people.
-By Jamey Keaten
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8:20 a.m.
Police say two suspects in last week's Paris attacks - a man and a woman - have been killed in a police operation north of the capital.
An official with the Paris police department who was not authorized to be publicly named said two people have been detained, and two police officers injured in the standoff Wednesday in Saint-Denis.
Police have said the operation is targeting the suspected mastermind of last week's attacks, believed to be holed up in an apartment in Saint-Denis with several other heavily armed suspects.
- By Jamey Keaten
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7:55 a.m.
A senior French police official says a large police operation north of Paris is targeting the suspected mastermind of last week's attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud.
The official says authorities believe Abaaoud is holed up in an apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, along with up to five other heavily armed people.
The official, who was not authorized to be publicly named according to police rules but is informed routinely about the operation, says that scores of police who stormed the building early Wednesday were met with unexpectedly violent resistance. Reinforcements were summoned and several people were injured.
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7:45 a.m.
Authorities in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis have evacuated about 20 residents from a building where suspects linked to the Paris attacks are holed up in a standoff with police.
A city official not authorized to be publicly named told The Associated Press the residents were brought to city hall for protection. City hall is about 200 meters (yards) from the apartment building where the standoff is taking place on rue du Cornillon, in the heart of the historic, multicultural town just north of Paris.
The site is less than 2 kilometers (about a mile) from the Stade de France national stadium. Three suicide bombers blew themselves up Friday near the stadium during an international soccer match with French President Francois Hollande in attendance.
Saint-Denis is one of France's most historic places. French kings were crowned and buried through the centuries in its famed basilica. Today it is home to a vibrant and very ethnically diverse population and sees sporadic tension between police and violent youths.
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7:35 a.m.
At least seven explosions have been heard at the scene of a police standoff with suspects in last week's deadly Paris attacks.
Associated Press reporters at the scene could hear what sounded like grenade blasts from the direction of the standoff in the heart of the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
The source of the blasts is unclear. Police say several people are holed up in an apartment and several police have been injured in an operation that has lasted at least three hours on Wednesday morning.
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7:20 a.m.
A resident of the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis describes intense gunfire and explosions during a police operation near the site of one of last week's deadly attacks.
Baptiste Marie, a 26-year-old independent journalist who lives near the scene of the standoff, tells The Associated Press: ''It started with an explosion. Then there was second big explosion. Then two more explosions. There was an hour of gunfire.''
Resident Amine Guizani, 21, says: ''There were grenades. It was going, stopping. Kalashnikovs. Starting again.''
Riot police were clearing the streets early Wednesday, pointing guns at curious residents to move them off the roads.
Marie said the officers seemed nervous.
''You could see it in their eyes, '' Marie said.
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6:55 a.m.
Police say anti-terrorist officers are raiding an apartment in a north Paris suburb where several men are holed up.
The Paris police department says officers have exchanged gunfire with the suspects and several police have been injured. The extent of their injuries is unknown.
It's unclear whether there are injuries among the suspects.
Police reinforcements are arriving at the scene in Saint-Denis.
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6:27 a.m.
Police vans and fire trucks are rushing to the scene of a SWAT team operation in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis that is linked to the deadly Paris attacks.
A helicopter is flying overhead at dawn Wednesday.
French television BFM and i-Tele say that the suspects are inside an apartment building.
Police have cordoned off the area nearby, including a pedestrian zone lined with shops and 19th-century apartment buildings.
Neighborhood resident Fabien Crombe said on BFM television that gunshots have repeatedly broken out since the police operation began, punctuated by silence and the sound of sirens.
Saint-Denis Mayor Didier Paillard said transport has been stopped and schools in the center of town will not open Wednesday.
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6:15 a.m.
Authorities in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis are telling residents to stay inside during a large police operation near France's national stadium that two officials say is linked to last week's deadly attacks.
Deputy Mayor Stephane Peu told i-Tele television that there have been many gun shots and detonations in the operation that began at 4:25 a.m. (0325 GMT) Wednesday on rue de la Republique in the center of Saint-Denis.
The site is less than two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the Stade de France, targeted by three suicide bombers during Friday's attacks.
He urged residents to stay home, saying ''it is not a new attack but a police intervention.''
Two officials say police operation now under way is connected to the investigation into Friday's attacks that killed 129 people.
