Demands coming from the gunman the other hostages either on their phones or social media. There is more from the New South Wales lease commissioner police commissioner. Certainly, they will be working with us to assist. The one thing that i can say is if people are being contacted by hostages, particularly the media , we would ask that you would put those people and ask them to ensure that the manning side speaks to police and trains negotiators, who can resolve this situation that the man inside speaks to police and trained negotiators, who can resolve this situation. For the latest on the situation, lets bring in Kristin Edwards in Christian Edwards. The police are being rightly tightly tightlipped. The fact that they are waiting out the gunman suggests there has been, if not a breakthrough in negotiations, a little bit of to and fro. It suggests an endgame. What more do we know, what details are there about the gunman himself and what he wants, exactly . Some photos emerged almost by chance. You can clearly see images of this character. We have no idea who he is or what he wants. I think the head of australias secret service suggests that, in september, there could be a danger of a loan wolf attacks, someone who could be a domesticbased ideologue, who has no connections outside his own belief. There were suggestions and martins place was named as a potential target for this kind of action. We have seen images of this guy in a white shirt, black jacket. The police wont say whether he is a person of interest from their own files, whether he has come up with a specific list of demands other than those that he has spoken through the Australian Broadcasting corporation. Its a mystery to us. I suspect they are keeping the cards close to their chest because were not entirely sure of what is happening because we are not entirely sure of what is happening inside the cafe. Are they watching themselves on telly . I think they are trying to play this as carefully and as much in a controlled environment as they can. Thank you for that, Christian Edwards reporting from 6 sydney. Joining me on the phone, from our International Affairs desk you are australian. You worked for several years in sydney. Tell us about this area. Martin place is a wellknown location within what is referred to as the Central Business district, what americans would call the downtown area. Its the area where the headquarters of the reserve bank are, where a large number of commercial banks have their headquarters. Its less than 15 meters away. Its also intersecting with the number of busy streets in the downtown area. It is the main shopping precinct , where a lot of the Large Department stores are. You can imagine on a monday morning what it must have been like. Leading into christmas, rush hour is just around 9 00 a. M. Which is peak time in terms of pedestrian traffic. Also, the rail service that connects the downtown area to the Eastern Suburbs go through barton place. Its one of the busiest rail stations in the city. It was a busy time. In terms of a time to make such attack, it could not have been better in that sense. In addition to that, we have to talk about the shock for the australian people, the first attack of its kind in australia for decades. The last attack was back in 1978, what was known as it was a bomb that went off at the meeting of the heads of government. One person was killed, 11 others were injured. In terms of terrorist attacks on australia, it has been quite minimal. The big worry is the number of australians who are fighting for the Islamic State in syria and iraq. Security and Intelligence Services estimating its around 70 estimating it is around 70. This is a point of major worry for the government. Another issue is the impact it has had on Australias Muslim communities, which numbers around 2. 2 of the population. It has caused very front tensions within very fraight fraught tensions within the community. A number of those who have gone off to fight had been predominantly born in australia from middleclass families, from members of the Muslim Community who have obviously become radicalized. This has obviously been a cause of great concern. , has there been any kind of official reaction from the Muslim Community has there been any kind of official reaction from the Muslim Community . There has been a letter condemning what is happening. There was a warning that the government policy against isis could have blowback and could cause this sort of activity. But, of course, in terms of the relationship between the Muslim Community and the rest of australia, certainly, this doesnt help. Having a hashtag illtakearide australians offering a lift to young muslims who are afraid of taking public transport in and out of sydney tomorrow because of whats happened this is the sad reaction to what happens when you have this sort of activity in any metropolis. Thank you for that. Back here in france, police have dismantled a network reportedly sending jihadist fighters to syria. Antiterror police units launched raids across the country early this morning. Most of the targets were around to lose around toulouse, but there was also a strike in paris. Hundreds have joined the terrorists, some openly calling for attacks. More from the interior ministry. They carried out a number of rays across france in the early hours of monday morning, as far south as tuoulouse, as far north as normandy, and around the paris capital. There were between 10 and 15 objectives. It was an investigation they had been looking at his december of 2013. We believe looking at since december of 2013. We believe they are very young people born in the late19 80s or early19 90s late 1980s or early1990s. Candidates for jihad from france have gone up some 80 this year. There are thought to be 400 french nationals fighting on the front lines in iraq and syria. 120 have already returned from there, and 200 more want to go out and fight with those jihadists in those two countries. The palestinian leadership has said it plans to submit a resolution to the Un Security Council setting a twoyear deadline for israel to end its occupation. Secretary of state john kerry is launching a series of meetings to help revive the stalled these process stalled peace process. They plan to push for a Un Security Council vote this week on a draft resolution that sets the 2016 deadline for israel to pull out of the west bank. Her treating you the jordanianbacked document is set to be submitted wednesday. There is a deadline for two years of two years for talks to resume. Israel warned it would bring radical islamic elements to the heart of jerusalem. We are facing the possibility of a political offensive, on attempt to force an attempt to force a withdrawal within a timeframe of two years. Let there be no doubt, this will be rejected. U. S. Secretary of state john kerry is scheduled to meet the israeli Prime Minister in rome on monday, where it is expected they will discuss the you ended the un bid. U. S. Brokered peace talks broke down in april. Since then, the palestinians have sought recognition for statehood. Adding to the pressure on israel sweden has recognized palestine as a state. Parliaments elsewhere half past nonbinding resolutions elsewhere have passed nonbinding resolutions in support of the same. Leaders in hong kong have declared an official end to more than 11 weeks of prodemocracy protests. That comes as police cleared the final barricades that have been blocking the city streets. A small group of protest leaders stood by chanting we will be back here go they are chuck we will be back. They are calling for the citys chief executive to step down. There will be no more uberpop in france. That segment that uses nonprofessional drivers will be forgiven starting january 1. Will be forbidden starting january 1. Taxi unions are holding a oneday strike against uber. The people who are supposed to represent us need to say we have a problem. It cant continue like this. It is the straw that will break the camel back the camels back. We must change things. We must move forward in a positive direction. Youre watching france 24. Lets look at the headlines. Police in australia are negotiating with the hostage taker who is holding a group of people at gunpoint inside a cafe in sydney. Thats been going on for over 12 hours the gunman has reportedly demanded among other things, a flag from the Islamic State group. Palestinians are set to present a draft resolution to the u. N. That would set a twoyear deadline or israel to end its occupation deadline for israel to end its occupation. No comment from the israeli Prime Minister. Close to 10 people arrested in a french crackdown on a network sending would be jihadists to syria. Our top story today is that hostage crisis in sydney, australia. For more on that and how it is being covered worldwide what has the International Press been saying about this so far . Its been getting a lot of reaction online. In this age of 24hour rolling News Coverage we are uptodate as much as possible, particularly on social networks. This is where the information is being covered. There are live updates under the sydneysiege martinplacesiege. This is causing problems for the authorities. It goes live so quickly. There is no control. It is difficult to keep standards up. We are seeing a lot of speculation. You see the top of the head of one of the female hostages fleeing. A lot of people are commonly commenting that their identities should be protected. There could be family members nearby watching this. We are seeing a lot of people in the early hours of this crisis tweeting the hostages have been speaking to police. One person is pointing out that channel 10 news was one of the first to break the selfimposed embargo. They want a flag from the Islamic State group. He wants to speak to the Prime Minister. There is not that kind of filter. People are quite concerned about this. Pointing out the real danger here is the fact that widespread rumors make it much harder for the authorities to do their job. Mass panic is just what the terrorists want. Terrorism expert jeff lewis points out this is exactly what the terrorists want, to induce mass panic and get maximum exposure. Certainly, the situation in australia is an example of that. You have mentioned the lack of an editorial filter. There is a lot of or judgment, not just from the media. Its important to point out out. One of the hashtags going viral was uber. Ubersydney was trending after some hapless person was tweeting there is a massive price hike because the company was concerned about events. The company is not completely to blame for that. There is an algorithm which pushes prices up automatically. But they are very concerned and putting prices up. To make up for what they call an idiotic response, they have been offering free rides. A lot of social Network Users coming under pressure here. A lot of people posting selfies from the scene. Some people saying this is narcissism reigns. People are happy to report on it. There are examples of questionable judgment coming into play here. Lets go back to the traditional media and the responsibility there is for them to resort report the story properly. To be fair, media have been treating this with a lot of care and attention. It is very difficult in this time of social media. We have someone talking about News Corporation australia having internal conflict. One person says we have changed forever. Another says we havent changed at all. Its not just the australian media. Others are playing fast and loose with the facts. One said there were three bombs on the loose. It isnt just the australian media. Publications like the guardian have been publishing rebuttals. It is a tabloid. They are calling it a death cuollt. They are saying that this is evidence of it being a work of the Islamic State. They are pointing out this is irresponsible and correcting the facts. Lets talk more about the assumptions linking whats happening in the knee to the Islamic State group in sydney to the Islamic State group. It will have a knock on effect. The flag is a standard islamic creed, that all muslims ascribed to. There are a lot of muslims unhappy to be linked to terrorism. Their faith has essentially been hijacked. We had a statement from 40 Muslim Community groups in australia, explaining this is not the work of Islamic State. We condemn what is happening. The authorities of australia as well, weve heard in press calls and press conferences, they want to make sure there are no reprisals. They are keen to make that distance. We are seeing another knock on effect, which is actually quite touching. It restores faith in humanity, illridewithyou, which has also been going viral under the sydneysiege hashtag. This started when a user made an offer to someone taking public transport. If you are in religious attire and you dont feel safe, i will ride with you. This was in response to a story she heard about a muslim woman who had to take off her hijab because she felt so afraid. She felt touched by that. Not that hashtag then went viral. We are seeing it trending worldwide. It really is a very touching message, one of the more positive things in this very horrific series of events this morning in australia. Time now for business here on france france 24. Lets start with the latest controversy about the car hire app, uber, and the frustration it is provoking among traditional taxi drivers. France 24 it will ban uberpop from january 1. They use amateur drivers. Taxi drivers are staging a go slow protest. Mms for station from mass frustration from taxi drivers. I am here to claim back my profession. Other people from the likes of uber have the right to do the same job as me and they dont have the same disadvantages. I have to have a blank criminal record. Each year it keeps coming, new competition. We are being more strictly regulated while others are getting off lightly. Taxi drivers say uber, a company which matches private drivers with clients in their vicinity, is unfair competition. A paris court refused to ban uberpop sparking mondays protests. As the drivers rallied, the French InteriorMinistry Announced uberpop would be banned from january 1. It can have inadequately insured drivers. Uber is battling lawsuits in several countries for unfair competition and Security Issues linked to nonvetted drivers. Passenger accused drivers of a passenger accused a driver of rate in new delhi of rape in new delhi. Uber currently operates in more than 250 cities and 50 countries and was recently valued at 40 billion. Next, we go to japan and talk about the victory of Prime Minister shinzo abes party. Abenomics hit a speed bump recently when the worlds thirdlargest economy slid back into recession, after government rates failed taxpayers in april. Thank you for joining us. We see shinzo abes party was more seats but a record low turnout. Is this an endorsement of abenomics . I think it was more to do with convincing the japanese to take this snap election. When you do this, people dont question your actions. The fact is that the government had to convince them to prolong another rise of the consumption tax increase. This was already a done deal. There is no surprise here. What is next for abenomics . Will Prime Minister shinzo abe have to push ahead that sales tax increase anyway . He has until april of 2017. He has expressed he would do this regardless of economic conditions. He has to get the economy back in line. Quantitative easing has resulted in a lot of breathing room for japanese exporters. What we have to see now is the domestic sector as well. That has to be accommodated by several policies. Structural reform will take years. We have to see signs of this starting to bear fruit. Thats one of the difficult things we are seeing right now. Investors are disappointed. The nikkei is down 1. 5 in trading. Using japan will improve in 2015 you think do you think japan will see it improve in 2015 . With earning rises and pay rises, you will see consumption with a much better factor kicking in. If we dont witness a comeback of that in the next few months then i think we got trouble. Thank you for your analysis from london. Talk us through whats happening on the markets. While prices have been the big factor moving the markets in recent weeks oil prices have been the big factor moving the markets in recent weeks. Brent crude had slumped to about 52. It is up to about 62 15 about 62. 50. Shares of technet have seen a rise of about 5 . n