29 May, 2017
Mr Burnham told BBC's Newsnight that police had made a decision to take a "cautious approach" to releasing information "and yet the first reports were coming seemingly out of the United States".
Gerard Colombo, the French interior minister, said Paris had been told by United Kingdom officials that Abedi - whose parents came to Britain from Libya - carried out the attack after visiting Libya and "then probably Syria".
"Rage was the main reason", for the blast that killed 22 at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on Monday, she said, speaking by telephone from Libya.
The news comes as specially trained armed officers, for the first time, are patrolling trains in England with the national threat level at critical.
Another sibling, 18-year-old brother Hashim, and Abedi's father were arrested in Tripoli on Wednesday. Based on what the bomber's brother has told the militia, "everything was prepared in Manchester" since the end of 2016, he said.
Grande went on to praise her supporters and the people of Manchester. Eight people remain in custody.
Police talk to people affected by the deadly terror attack at Manchester Arena in Manchester, northwest England on May 23, 2017.
Eight people are now being held by police in connection with the bombing, which killed 22 people.
Her spokesman later confirmed that May had discussed the matter with Trump, as the pair gathered for a photo with other leaders at the summit.
"From the day we started putting the Dangerous Woman Tour together", Grande wrote in her letter, "I said that this show, more than anything else, was meant to be a safe space for my fans".
Security was also being stepped up ahead of the BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend music festival in the city of Hull, a two-hour drive east of Manchester.
He said many experts including British intelligence professionals see a connection between wars Britain has supported, such as the one in Libya, and terrorism in Britain.
France's interior minister says Abedi was believed to have travelled to Syria, and U.S. Rep. Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he was part of "a cell of ISIS-inspired terrorists".
"That assessment in no way reduces the guilt of those who attack our children", he said.
"We have to be unequivocal, that no amount of excuses, no amount of twisted reasoning about a foreign policy here, a foreign policy there, can be an excuse".
British police have stopped sharing information on the suicide bombing in Manchester with the United States, a British counter-terrorism source told Reuters on Thursday after police said leaks to USA media risked hindering their investigation.
Defending its decision to publish the pictures, the New York Times said: "The images and information presented were neither graphic nor disrespectful of victims, and consistent with the common line of reporting on weapons used in horrific crimes". Britain responded Thursday by temporarily halting intelligence sharing on the investigation with the United States.
"People in the community expressed concerns about the way this man was behaving and reported it in the right way using the right channels", Mr Shafiq told the paper.