ISIS claimed responsibility for Monday's deadly shooting rampage in Vienna as Austria's interior minister called for an inquiry into 'missed' opportunities by its homeland security service.
At least four people died and 22 more were wounded when the convicted 20-year-old ISIS sympathiser opened fire at about 8pm on Austria’s last night before lockdown.
He was shot dead by police following the 20 minute rampage as officers later arrested 14 others in sweeping raids across the country.
On Wednesday, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer revealed there had been a problem with Austria's handling of information provided by Slovakia after the attacker attempted to buy ammunition in the neighbouring country.
Slovakian intelligence revealed they had told their Austrian counterparts in July.
“Something apparently went wrong with the communication in the next steps,” Mr Nehammer said.
He is calling for an independent commission to look into the work of Austria's domestic intelligence agency to investigate why the crucial information was not acted upon.
Police in Slovakia said they had received information during the summer about “suspected persons from Austria” trying to buy ammunition.
“They failed to make the purchase,” they said. “We immediately sent the information to our Austrian colleagues.”
Austrian public security director Franz Ruf said intelligence officials received the information and asked questions of their Slovak counterparts but said it is unclear “whether the process went optimally.”
Questions have already been raised over why the security services were not monitoring the attacker, who has been identified as Kujtim Fejzulai.
Fejzulai, a dual citizen of Austria and North Macedonia, had been jailed in April 2019 for trying to travel to Syria to join ISIS.
He was released early from his 22-month sentence last December after “fooling” his way through a deradicalisation programme.
When he carried out the attack he was heavily armed and wearing a fake suicide vest.
The authorities said on Wednesday that video evidence has confirmed he acted alone.
On Tuesday night, ISIS, which has claimed numerous attacks in Europe, said a “soldier of the caliphate” was responsible for the Vienna attack, according to its Amaq News Agency.
The propaganda arm also published a photo and a video purporting to show the gunman.
The picture, released on the messaging app Telegram, showed a bearded man identified as “Abu Dagnah Al Albany”.
Albany carries a pistol, a machine gun and a machete and is wearing a ring stamped with a sentence saying “Mohammed is the messenger of Allah”.
Amaq posted a video of Albany minutes later in which he pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim Al Hashemi Al Quraishi.
Albany would normally be used to refer to someone with Albanian origins. The statement did not identify the man by any other name.
ISIS provided no evidence to back up its claims.
It was also unclear whether the group directly ordered Fejzulai to carry out the attack.
Security expert Matteo Pugliese, from the University of Barcelona, told The National on Tuesday that ISIS had made a rallying call to its followers to commit attacks on Europe using its latest social media platforms.
But he said it was too early to say what had motivated the Vienna attacker.
“He was very young and it’s more likely he was radicalised online or with some peers. He probably was fascinated by ISIS digital propaganda. For sure, he didn’t do this completely alone – he had some logistics support for weapons,” he said.
“ISIS recently asked its followers to carry out attacks in Europe, but it seems this terrorist decided to take action autonomously and to pledge allegiance to ISIS just before the attack.
“The attacker was among at least 90 individuals stopped by the authorities from travelling to Syria.”
Fejzulai was born in Vienna but had dual Austrian and North Macedonian citizenship.
In an interview with North Macedonia’s Klan Macedonia TV, a man identified as Fejzulai’s grandfather said his grandson visited the tiny mountainous village of Cellopek every year.
An Islamic cleric from the village, Nuri Ganii, said: “I know his family and here everyone speaks well about the family ... only today we have learned that a person [from that family] was involved in terrorism.
“I want to say that terrorism has no link to Islam.”
Another villager, Fadil Limany, said: “I only know good things of his parents and his family.
“He was born there and lived there [in Austria] ... he is from a good family. How it came to his mind I don’t know.”
Meanwhile, Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz urged European nations to take more decisive action against terrorism.
He called on the EU to fight "political Islam", saying it was an ideology that represented a danger to the model of the European way of life, in an interview published in Germany's Die Welt newspaper.
Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said Monday’s attack was “home-grown terrorism” and that authorities were not expecting it.
He said the attacker had duped supervisors on a deradicalisation course.
“The perpetrator managed to fool the deradicalisation programme of the justice system, to fool the people in it, and to get an early release through this,” he said.
Section 375
Cast: Akshaye Khanna, Richa Chadha, Meera Chopra & Rahul Bhat
Director: Ajay Bahl
Producers: Kumar Mangat Pathak, Abhishek Pathak & SCIPL
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
Kandahar%20
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TECH%20SPECS%3A%20APPLE%20WATCH%20SERIES%208
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England World Cup squad
Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wkt), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Types of bank fraud
1) Phishing
Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.
2) Smishing
The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.
3) Vishing
The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.
4) SIM swap
Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.
5) Identity theft
Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.
6) Prize scams
Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.
AS%20WE%20EXIST
%3Cp%3EAuthor%3A%20Kaoutar%20Harchi%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EPublisher%3A%20Other%20Press%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EPages%3A%20176%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EAvailable%3A%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
The biog
Hometown: Cairo
Age: 37
Favourite TV series: The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror
Favourite anime series: Death Note, One Piece and Hellsing
Favourite book: Designing Brand Identity, Fifth Edition
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Director: Peyton Reed
Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas
Three stars
