European Union strengthens control on external border

Dozens of artists, writers, musicians and other cultural figures, including singer Charles Aznavour, journalist Anne Sinclair and former French Culture Minister Jack Lang, urged people to turn on their lights, light candles and play music at 9:20 p.m., around the time the attacks began on November 13.

Marking a week since the carnage, some Parisians lit candles and paid tribute to the victims with silent reflection. “But France is at war elsewhere in the world… and now it’s here, in the city of Paris”. Seven were released without charges and two remained in detention. Prosecutors said a total of three people were killed in the pre-dawn operation.

The death of suspected ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian national slain in a police assault on his hideout in a Paris suburb, is highlighting the EU’s problems in tracking jihadis’ movements as interior ministers gather in Brussels.

On Friday, the Paris prosecutor’s office said three bodies had been found in the apartment, including Abaaoud and his cousin Hasna Aitboulahcen, 26.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said: “We are here to show our French colleagues, and the French people, that we stand by them”.

The top suspect behind last week’s Paris attacks was watched by police being led into a building by a woman suicide bomber the evening before they both died there during a raid by special forces, a police source said on Friday. That man carried a Syrian passport naming him as Ahmad Al-Mohammad, though it’s unclear whether it was authentic.

The passport was found next to the body of a suicide bomber at the French national stadium and investigators are trying to ascertain whether it was genuine.

In response to the attacks, police carried out raids across France for a fifth night.

The ministers also pushed for more co-ordination between Frontex, the European Union border agency, and Europol, its joint police agency.

Khaled and Abdallah Saadi, whose two sisters were killed at the Belle Equipe bar, were among the mourners paying their respects there Friday.

The deadly attacks in Paris, seen as the work of the Islamic State militant group, and the impact of thousands of migrants into Europe fleeing conflict and hardship in the Middle East, have triggered an internal debate on the merits and disadvantages of the Schengen area.

The chairman of an influential European Parliament committee believes the EU can finally seal a deal by the end of next month on sharing air passenger information.

Amid widespread concerns that extremists are returning from fighting in Syria and Iraq to Europe unchecked, Mr Cazeneuve said further delay was unacceptable.

Hours before the UN Security Council passed the resolution on Friday authorising countries to “take all necessary measures” against IS, gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Mali’s capital, taking more than 100 people hostage in a siege that left at least 27 dead. “This is urgent”, he said. Michel also called for stronger border controls – an appeal that highlights wider debates across the European Union on how to reconcile its policies of control-free travel with demands to combat the Islamic State and other militant factions.

“We have to make sure that border controls at the external border are working”, Mr. Schneider said.

“I would like to see all member states committed to improving the measures and penalties for dealing with those who traffic in firearms”. “The negotiations have taken too long and that must be concluded”. That must be concluded. “But the U.K. will be going ahead with obtaining records from those who were operating to and from the United Kingdom”.

French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that data retention of PNR should be one year, not one month.

Prosecutors earlier identified one of the others killed in Wednesday’s raid in Saint-Denis as suspected mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud.