Police arrested a female suspect at Atlanta's international airport on Monday, ending an hours-long search after shootings in the city center that left two dead and a third wounded. The Atlanta Police Department said the shootings were not random and the victims were likely targeted. Responding to a report of a shooting at around 1:45 PM (1745 GMT), police found two people at an upscale condominium building near Colony Square, an office and shopping complex in Atlanta's Midtown area. One died and the other was taken to a hospital, police said. While officers were at the first location, police received another call about a shooting less than a mile to the southeast at a high-rise office building, where the third victim was found. That person also appeared to have been shot and later died at a hospital, police said. Officers were investigating the connection between the two locations. Initial information indicated that a female suspect was responsible for both incidents, police said.<br/>
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Porsches, Bentleys and other luxury cars with Russian licence plates are filling up the parking garage at Helsinki's airport as Finland becomes an important transit country for Russian tourists flying to Europe. The European Union shut its airspace to Russian planes after Moscow invaded Ukraine, forcing anyone who wants to travel to Europe to drive across the border or take a circuitous route using non-Western airlines. Since Russia's Covid-19 restrictions expired in July, there has been a boom in Russian travellers and a rising backlash in Europe against allowing in Russian tourists while the war continues. A quick stroll through the carpark at the Helsinki airport revealed dozens if not hundreds of high-end cars with Russian licence plates, including a new Mercedes-Benz S-class sedan and Porsche 911 Turbo S. "It boggles me," Finnish traveller Jussi Hirvonen said after leaving the garage. "I wish they weren't here before Ukraine's situation is solved." Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told AFP that the Nordic nation has become a "transit country" for Russian tourists. "Helsinki airport is seeing a lot of Russian tourism at the moment." Finland said last week it would limit Russian tourist visas to 10 percent of current volumes as of September 1 due to rising discontent over Russian tourism amid the war in Ukraine. But Russians continue to enter Finland with visas issued by other EU countries in the Schengen borderless travel area for their journeys. "They come here on Schengen visas issued by various different countries and then continue further via Helsinki airport," Haavisto said. According to a survey conducted by the Finnish border guard in August, around two-thirds of Russians crossing Finland's eastern border do so with a Schengen visa issued by a country other than Finland.<br/>
London’s Gatwick airport has warned that the UK’s economic slowdown threatens the aviation industry’s recovery from the pandemic, even as it forecast rising passenger numbers after a summer of disruption. The UK’s second busiest airport on Tuesday said it expected 32.8mn passengers in 2022, up from the 30.6mn it forecast in March. But it added that this could be affected by “macroeconomic uncertainty — including inflationary pressures on costs and passenger demand for the winter season”. And later on the same day there was a flare-up of disruption, with easyJet forced to cancel 26 flights to Gatwick because of staff absences at the airport’s control tower. Jim Butler, Gatwick’s chief financial officer, said the company is “under no illusions about the headwinds coming”, notably the potential for rising inflation and a weakening economy to hit demand. “Airlines haven’t showed us that is happening yet, but we are still in the peak season and we are being cautious about what we might see in the winter or next year,” he said. The caution follows a bumper summer that the industry struggled to cope with. Unlike Heathrow, Gatwick on Tuesday said it would not extend a cap on flight numbers that was introduced in the summer to try to reduce disruption. Gatwick cut its maximum number of daily flights to 825 in July and 850 in August, down from the 900 that airlines planned to operate at peak times, after a wave of last-minute cancellations and delays because of staff shortages. The airport hired an extra 400 security staff in response, and diverted its own staff to the stretched ground handling companies that provide services from check-in to baggage handling.<br/>
Around 26 EasyJet flights in and out of Gatwick have been cancelled at short notice, with the airport blaming staff sickness. A spokesperson said the London airport was facing staff shortages in its air traffic control tower. It came as Gatwick reported its half-year results, which said it was "now very much operating business as usual". Thousands of people have been hit by flight cancellations and airport delays this summer. The industry has struggled with staff shortages as demand for air travel has rebounded after the pandemic. Around a third of people have experienced disruption while travelling abroad over the past eight weeks, according to the Office for National Statistics. Out of those, four in five said their flights had been delayed or that they had faced longer waiting times on planes, while one in four reported flight cancellations. Gatwick confirmed that 13 arrivals and 13 departures had been cancelled, out of a total of 180 EasyJet flights scheduled for Tuesday.<br/>
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif invited Qatar to invest in Pakistan's energy and aviation sectors during a meeting with the Qatar Investment Authority in Doha on Tuesday, according to a statement from Sharif's office. Sharif travelled to Qatar earlier on Tuesday in hopes of attracting trade and investment for his country, his office and aides said. Sharif said earlier he planned to highlight sectors including renewable energy, food security, industrial and infrastructure development, tourism and hospitality. The South Asian country of 220m people is in economic turmoil with a balance of payment crisis as its foreign reserves have fallen as low as $7.8b, hardly enough for more than a month of imports. Pakistan also faces a widening current account deficit and a historic depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar. In July it posted inflation of 24.9%. "The Prime Minister invited the Qatari businessmen to invest in Pakistan's energy, aviation, agriculture and livestock, maritime, tourism and hospitality sectors," the statement said. Sharif's office did not give details of his agenda but two sources close to him said he was expected to offer Qatar shares in state-owned enterprises including the loss-making Pakistan International Airlines (PIAa.PSX) and the Roosevelt Hotel in New York.<br/>
A Philippine province is set to award a $10.9b airport project south of the capital Manila to a consortium led by Filipino tycoons, the provincial government said on Tuesday. The SPIA Development Consortium is composed of Philippine firms Cavitex Holdings, House of Investments , MacroAsia , and partners Munich Airport International Airport and South Korea's Samsung C&T Corp. No challengers or prospective bidders purchased documents to bid for the Sangley airport, the Cavite provincial government said in a document of notice to the consortium. Tentative awarding is set for Sept. 14. Holding firm House of Investments has been made aware of the impending formal award and is ready to proceed with the project, company CEO Lorenzo Tan told Reuters. The Sangley project is one of two planned multi-billion dollar airports intended to take pressure off Manila's ageing and congested airport. The second, north of the capital, is under construction.<br/>