A man who shot three people at a Zurich mosque on Monday is dead, police said on Tuesday, confirming that a body found near the scene was that of the assailant.

Zurich cantonal police said authorities had identified the suspect, but gave no details. A news conference was scheduled for 1300 GMT.

The gunman had stormed into the Islamic centre and opened fire on worshippers.

In hours following assassination of Russian ambassador to Turkey, both Russian President Putin and Turkish President Erdogan renew their commitment to improved relations, whilst Russia looks to exploit the murder to achieve its objective of setting up a Syrian peace conference co-hosted by Russia and Turkey in the Kazakh capital of Astana.

The murder of the Russian ambassador in Ankara has provoked statements from Russian President Putin and Turkish President Erdogan.

In his statement President Putin made it clear what he thinks was the intention behind the murder.

Report recommends national standard for Stingray cell phone tracker use

The Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department have spent collectively more than $95 million on secret cellphone tracking technology and own more than 400 cell-site simulators that can be used to zero in covertly on the locations of cellphones, according to a congressional report.

A report released Monday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee reveals a tally of how many cell-site simulators federal agencies own and recommends that lawmakers adopt a national standard to govern use of the devices by local and federal law enforcement agencies.

With 194 cell-site simulators, the FBI has the most of any of the agencies identified as owning the devices, which often are referred to by brand names including Stingray or Hailstorm.

The U.S. Marshals Service has 70; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has 59; U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Drug Enforcement Administration each has 33; U.S. Secret Service has 32; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has 13; the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations division has two; and the Treasury inspector general has one.

Earlier today President Obama commuted the sentences of another 153 federal prisoners bringing his total to 1,176, more than the previous 11 presidents combined. The president also pardoned another 78 individuals, bringing his total pardons over the course of his eight years in office to 148. Combined, these 231 acts of clemency sets a record for the most ever granted by a president in a single day in history.

This latest move is just further evidence of his stated intention to ramp up commutations throughout the remainder of his presidency. And, while the President often claims publicly that his commutations are only for "low-level" and "non-violent" criminals, 395 of the 1,176 commutations were offered to people serving life sentences...which typically aren't given to "low-level" criminals caught with a couple ounces of drugs on them.

Of course, in typical fashion, the President took to Twitter to brag about his latest "accomplishment."

Hours ago The Duran reported on anther horrific bus attack carried out by Wahhabi jihadists (supported by the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey), on civilians evacuating two Shia provinces in Syria's Idlib.

The Duran's headline makes it clear that western backed "moderate rebels" (aka Al Qaeda/Al Nusra/ISIS) are held accountable for the bus burnings: "BREAKING: "Moderate rebels" torch buses in Aleppo evacuating civilians"...

Demonstrating again their relentless sectarian agenda Al-Qaeda led Jihadis attack and burn buses tasked with evacuating Shiite fighters and civilians from besieged Shiite villages despite this putting the withdrawal of Jihadi fighters and civilians in Aleppo in jeopardy.

Reports from Syria confirm that buses which were due to evacuate civilians and wounded Shiite militia fighters from two Shia provinces in Syria's Idlib province have been attacked and burnt by the Al-Qaeda led Jihadis who are besieging these villages.

Unfortunately main stream media outlets that did report on the attack, refused to associate the "moderate rebel"misnomer to the terrible crime...that would be bad for optics and blow apart the "false news" narrative reported out of Syria by the establishment media.

Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage has visited Trump Tower in New York for the third time, in what is likely to be a major embarrassment to UK Prime Minister Theresa May, who has yet to meet the US president-elect. US news reporters confirmed Farage entered the lobby of Trump Tower in New York at 2:23pm (EST) and went up in the elevator which takes visitors to Donald Trump's office.

Farage was photographed grinning as he entered the foyer, but did not speak to reporters. Although it is unknown if Farage met with the president-elect, if he did it would be his third meeting since Trump won the US election last month.

The visit will further annoy the PM, who has yet to meet Trump and has only spoken to him briefly by phone. It comes after Farage reportedly went to a fancy dress party with Trump in Long Island New York earlier this month, where the British politician dressed as Lord Nelson.

Farage's burgeoning 'bromance' with Trump was raised to new heights last month, when the leader-in-waiting broke with diplomatic convention to suggest the former UKIP chief should be made ambassador to the United States.

Barack Obama has vowed to take retaliatory measures against Russia, both public and covert, accusing Moscow of compromising the "integrity" of the US elections through the DNC email hacks. US intelligence has yet to provide any evidence of Russian involvement.

"I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections ... we need to take action. And we will — at a time and place of our own choosing," President Obama said in an interview with NPR on Friday.

The US leader did not elaborate on whether the steps would be taken in the five weeks he has left in office.

Neither did he specify what type of action might be taken, saying only that "some of it may be explicit and publicized; some of it may not be."

While Obama spoke of the Russian government's alleged role in the hacking of Democratic National Committee (DNC) communications as a proven fact, he fell short of accusing Moscow of purposefully aiding US President-elect Donald Trump without a "final report" from US intelligence agencies.

Virtually every current headline unequivocally shows how US Empire and its Ministry of Propaganda are lying to the American people. Those in power have been so exposed by alt-media in 2016 that they are growing more desperate by the day. Right now their biggest lie is blaming Putin and Russia for being behind everything gone wrong in the world according to the Obama-Clinton-Bush-CIA-Rothschild crime cabal. The latest claims assert that Putin's hackers overturned the presidential election results in favor of Donald Trump and this whopper is currently being pushed as the flimsiest, last gasp excuse to spearhead its hollow "fake news" crusade in order to both outlaw the truth and derail Trump's January 20^th inauguration.

Longtime State Department veteran psychiatrist Steve Pieczenik, CIA/NSA whistleblower William Binney, CIA whistleblower Ray McGovern and former UK ambassador Craig Murray have all stated that there is zero evidence showing that the Russians "hacked" emails or interfered with the election outcome in any way. Credible former CIA officers emphatically state that the emails were leaked, not hacked, and that Putin had nothing to do with it. The 17 US intelligence agencies remain conflicted with the verdict still out, unable to even arrive at a consensus, despite the FBI's latest cave-in to pressures to feebly present a belated united front against Russia. Flip flopper Comey's at it again. Up until a day or so ago, the FBI maintained that there was not enough evidence to conclude the Russians hacked into DNC records or emails. The Clintons, Obama and their "intelligence" minions are fast growing irrelevant and impotent as the yearend days count down. What's perfectly clear is the CIA/MSM liars are acting on orders from the Clinton et al cartel deceitfully politicizing this meme because they cannot accept the fact that Hillary lost her "anointed" election. The feds' unending war agenda may soon be collapsing.

The rising hysteria about Russia is best understood as fulfilling two needs for Official Washington: the Military Industrial Complex's transitioning from the "war on terror" to a more lucrative "new cold war" - and blunting the threat that a President Trump poses to the neoconservative/liberal-interventionist foreign-policy establishment.

By hyping the Russian "threat," the neocons and their liberal-hawk sidekicks, who include much of the mainstream U.S. news media, can guarantee bigger military budgets from Congress. The hype also sets in motion a blocking maneuver to impinge on any significant change in direction for U.S. foreign policy under Trump.

Some Democrats even hope to stop Trump from ascending to the White House by having the Central Intelligence Agency, in effect, lobby the electors in the Electoral College with scary tales about Russia trying to fix the election for Trump.

A federal judge has ordered the unsealing of a search warrant that played a role in the controversial public renewal of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's email just before the presidential election.

The warrant was issued by a federal magistrate in late October, after the FBI requested permission to search emails contained on a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The FBI discovered the Clinton-related emails after initially seizing the laptop during a probe over Weiner's alleged sexually explicit online exchanges with a minor.

U.S. District Court Judge P. Kevin Castel issued an order Monday that the warrant linked to the Clinton probe and related records be unsealed at noon Tuesday, unless a higher court steps in. The judge acted after E. Randal Schoenberg, a California lawyer who mainly investigates art thefts, filed a suit seeking to force unsealing of the files.

The records to be unsealed will show how the FBI framed its arguments for the search warrant to access the emails. An affidavit submitted when seeking the warrant could reflect what the FBI told the magistrate involved about how likely the emails were to contain evidence of a crime.