Police say they were preparing an emergency alert when police shot and killed the suspect in the worst mass shooting in Canada’s modern history. Authorities have been criticised for relying on social media to alert Nova Scotia residents the manhunt for the gunman.

At least 22 people were killed over 13 hours that spanned Saturday night to Sunday morning. Police are yet to determine a motive for the crime. The victims include a 17-year-old, a pregnant healthcare worker and a veteran Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer. Family members of some victims have spoken publicly about whether a province-wide alert sent to all residents of Nova Scotia could have prevented some of the deaths.

Nova Scotia Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Chief Supt Chris Leather said that from the time of the initial calls to emergency services on Saturday evening reporting gunshots in the rural community of Portapique, police officials were processing fast-moving information.(BBC)…[+]

A flaw in Apple’s mobile operating system may have left millions of iPhone and iPad users vulnerable to hackers.

Research published by ZecOps, a mobile security firm, said a bug in the Mail app made devices susceptible to sophisticated attacks. The firm said it had “high confidence” the bug has been used to exploited at least six high-profile victims. An Apple spokesperson told Reuters a fix would be included in upcoming software updates.

ZecOps reported the bug to Apple in March. The tech giant had not previously known about the issue. To exploit this flaw, hackers would send a seemingly blank message to an iPhone or iPad users Mail account – the email app on iOS devices. When the email was opened it would crash the app forcing the user to reboot. During the reboot, hackers would be able to access information on the device.(BBC)…[+]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says her country must remain “clever and cautious” in handling the coronavirus crisis, as “it’s not the end phase but still just the beginning”. “We will be with it for a long time,” she warned parliament, ahead of an EU video summit on the crisis.

She stressed the need for European cohesion in fighting the virus. And she said Germany should be ready to “make very different, meaning much higher contributions to the EU budget”. The extra funding should be provided “in a spirit of solidarity” and for a limited time, she said. Italy, at the epicentre of the pandemic in Europe, has been especially vocal in urging its EU partners to jointly guarantee debt, as part of a huge rescue package. But Germany, the Netherlands and Austria oppose any mutualisation of debt, in the form of so-called  “coronabonds”. Under current EU rules countries cannot be made liable for each other’s debts.(BBC)…[+]