US issues worldwide travel alert over terror threat

Americans will be informed of any credible terror threat on home soil, the US president has said.

In a speech following a security briefing, Barack Obama advised Americans to go about their business as usual ahead of the Thanksgiving holidays which start tomorrow.

He told reporters at the White House: "We know of no specific and credible intelligence indicating a plot on the homeland.

"But in the event of a specific credible threat, the public will be informed."

French President Francois Hollande will meet Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday to discuss the fight against so-called Islamic State.

Speaking before Hollande's Washington trip, French officials made no secret of their desire to see the United States contribute more to tackle the ongoing conflict in Syria.

The two leaders will also discuss the investigation into the deadly terror attacks in Paris on November 13.

The meeting comes after the US State Department issued a global travel alert to its citizens.

Citing "increased terrorist threats" from militant groups in various regions of the world, the agency said potential attackers could target private or government interests.

The US has issued a worldwide travel alert to its citizens, citing terrorist threats from Isis, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and "other terrorist groups".

The alert from the US State Department urges US citizens to exercise caution in public places and during holidays and public events.

The alert will expire on 24 February next year, the State Department said.

David Cameron and Francois Hollande have visited the Bataclan concert hall where 89 people were killed during deadly terror attacks in Paris.

"President Hollande and I stood shoulder to shoulder outside the Bataclan Cafe in Paris," the prime minister tweeted.

David Cameron will hold talks with Francois Hollande on the fight against so-called Islamic State on Monday.

The Prime Minister is in Paris to meet the French President, 10 days after the capital city was terrorised by a series of deadly attacks.

France has stepped up its campaign against IS since the attacks, which left 130 people dead.

The meeting comes after the UN Security Council called on all "able states" to join the fight against IS militants in Syria and Iraq and redouble their efforts to prevent further attacks by the group.

Militants who attack civilians around the world suffer from an "intellectual and psychological disease" and use religion as a front, Egypt's most senior Muslim cleric has declared.

Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the head of the al-Azhar centre of Islamic learning in Egypt, condemned the recent bloodshed in Paris, Mali and elsewhere committed under the banner of Islam during a meeting of the Muslim Council of Elders.

He said the violence had "no link" to authentic Islam. Terrorism was a "life philosophy", he said, but was not the by-product of any of the Abrahamic faiths, which include Judaism and Christianity.

Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak has condemned the so-called Islamic State group as "evil" terrorists, and says his Muslim-majority country is ready to join others to defeat it.

But he warned that a military solution alone was not enough, arguing their ideology needed to be "vanquished".

"This is how Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King won the hearts and minds of their enemies. They won by transforming their foes into friends."

His comments come after a number of attacks claimed by the group and other Islamist militants, responsible in recent weeks for the downing of a Russian plane, attacks on Paris and Beirut and an armed raid and hostage situation in a popular hotel in Mali on Friday.