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Liberation and Societe Generale hit by Gun Attacks

A manhunt has been launched in Paris after a gunman attacked offices of the newspaper Liberation and fired outside the HQ of the bank Societe Generale.

A photographer, 27, was critically hurt at Liberation. The gunman later forced a motorist to drive him to the Champs Elysees before allowing him to go.

Police are looking for the same man who broke into the Paris offices of the 24-hour news channel BFMTV on Friday.

Police have now been stationed outside all the main media offices in Paris.

At a news conference, investigators held up two images, one of the suspect in a street and another taken from BFMTV surveillance cameras on Friday.

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Kim Philby The spy who went into the cold

Fifty years ago one of Britain’s most infamous spies, Kim Philby, defected to the Soviet Union. The unresolved questions surrounding his defection reveal blind spots in the British ruling class that made it vulnerable to KGB penetration.

On a stormy night in January 1963, Kim Philby skipped a dinner party in Beirut and boarded a freighter bound for the Soviet Union.

He had been working for the communists since he was 22, but instead of a hero’s welcome, he was shut away in a flat near Moscow city centre and allowed nowhere near the organisation he had served for so long. Even the Russians were suspicious that he had got away scot-free.

At the time, his defection made little news in Britain.

On the face of it, a middle-aged journalist with a tendency to drink too much had simply gone missing.

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A BBC correspondent’s notes on JFK’s assassination

The BBC’s Peter Watson was reporting from the UN in New York when the news broke of President John F Kennedy’s assassination. Within hours he was broadcasting from Dallas. His reports capture the atmosphere of a city in shock, and Texas’s shame – and the gloom that descended on the country. He typed this summary a few days later, on 29 November 1963. Peter Watson died last week.

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Australia spied on Indonesia President Yudhoyono

Indonesia is recalling its ambassador to Australia over allegations that Canberra spied on phone calls of the Indonesian president.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the first lady and Vice-President Boediono were reportedly amongst those targeted.

The allegations came from documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden which were published by broadcaster ABC and the Guardian newspaper.

Indonesia said the ambassador was being called to Jakarta for “consultations”.

It is the latest in a series of spying allegations that have strained relations between the two allies.

On 1 November Indonesia summoned Australia’s ambassador amid reports that Australia’s Jakarta embassy was used as part of a US-led spying network in Asia.

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Russian plane crash at Kazan airport

A passenger plane plunged vertically when it crashed onto an airport runway in the Russian city of Kazan, killing all 50 people on board, Russia’s transport minister says.

Investigators have found both of the flight recorders, or “black boxes”.

The Boeing 737 was arriving from Moscow and trying to land, but exploded on impact at about 19:20 local time (15:20 GMT) on Sunday, officials said.

The Tatarstan Airlines jet had 44 passengers and six crew on board.

The crash happened as the 23-year-old plane was making a second attempt to land. Earlier that day it had flown to the Armenian capital Yerevan and back to Kazan, then to Moscow.

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