Condolences are streaming in from across the US after the four Marines killed in Thursday’s shooting in Chattanooga were identified. Authorities are still guessing at the motives of the attacker, who they say had no known links to international terrorism.

Officials and families have confirmed the names of the four Marines gunned down in the attack: Gunnery Sergeant Thomas J. Sullivan, Staff Sergeant David Wyatt, Sergeant Carson Holmquist, and Lance Corporal Skip Wells.

Sullivan, 40, was a veteran with two combat tours in Iraq under his belt. Wells, 21, was a fresh graduate of Georgia Southern University who had just completed US Marine Corps basic training. Wyatt, 37, was from Arkansas but lived in Chattanooga with his wife and two children. Holmquist, 27, was from Wisconsin, and leaves behind a wife and 2-year-old son.

The four men belonged to an artillery reserve unit that served three tours in the Iraq War. During its first deployment in 2004-2005, the unit took part in the Battle of Fallujah, firing more rounds than any artillery battery since Vietnam, according to the Times Free Press.

Visiting Chattanooga, Tennessee governor Bill Haslam called Thursday “a horrible day for and a tragic day for all of Tennessee.”

He has ordered flags at the state capitol and state government buildings across the state to be lowered to half-mast in honor of the fallen Marines.

“I think I join all Tennesseans in being both sickened and saddened by this,” Governor Haslam said.

Federal law enforcement officials say they are still trying to determine the motive of the shooter, identified yesterday as 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a native of Kuwait who also had Jordanian citizenship. One source close to the investigation told the Wall Street Journal that Abdulazeez spent about seven months in Jordan last year, and had visited the country several times before.

Abdulazeez came to the US in 1996. He lived in the upscale Chattanooga neighborhood of Hixson for at least 17 years, and attended Red Bank High School before getting an engineering degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

In his high school yearbook entry, Abdulazeez had written, “My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do?”

“The American Muslim community is shocked and outraged by this senseless attack – particularly on the eve of Eid, our biggest holiday of the year,” said the Muslim Public Affairs Council in a statement Thursday.

Friday marked the feast of Eid-al-Fitr, the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In Chattanooga, however, all Eid activities and prayers were canceled “in light of the tragedy that took place today in our city,” said a sign posted at a mosque. “The families of the victims are in our thoughts and prayers.”

While condemning the attack and expressing solidarity with the families of the slain, US government officials also cautioned against a rush to judgment.

The Navy called Thursday’s shooting a “tragedy” that was both “devastating and senseless.”

“It is a heartbreaking circumstance for these individuals who have served our country with great valor to be killed in this fashion,” said President Barack Obama, speaking at the White House on Thursday afternoon.
“We caution that, at this time, there are many unconfirmed and possibly false reports about events. Department officials are actively supporting the local response to this incident,” said Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, however, called the attack “heinous” and a “shameful and cowardly act of violence,” instructing the FBI to take the lead in the national security investigation into the shooting.

Germany’s Bundestag has supported a third bailout package to Greece in a majority vote, paving the way for further negotiations of fresh money being provided to Athens of up to €86 billion.  439 MPs voted in favor, 119 – against, while 40 abstained.

The details of the three-year aid package are now set to be thrashed out between Greece and its partners in the eurozone. The process is expected to last around four weeks.

The Austrian parliament also approved the new Greek bailout at a special session Friday following heated debate.

The third bailout package to Greece was agreed between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the Troika of international creditors on Monday. The loan is for the next three years and could reach €86 billion.

On Wednesday, eurozone ministers agreed to unlock a €7 billion bridging loan to Greece. This money will help Athens to pay its debt to the IMF and the ECB, while it will also help to keep the economy afloat while the bigger sum of money is debated.

Ahead of the decision, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel was among those who urged Bundestag to vote in favor of the third bailout program intended to aid cash-strapped Greece.

“We are making the last attempt in difficult negotiations among the 19 members of the eurogroup, in spite of all the blows of the last six months and all the skepticism, to create preconditions for the Greek request to fall in line with the ESM,“ she said.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has repeatedly been saying that the Greek debt of €316 billion cannot be restructured within the eurozone. The Hellenic Republic should temporarily leave it to settle its problems, he says.

On Wednesday, the Greek parliament voted in favor of the austerity measures, which are a mandatory requirement from the eurozone. This renewed the talks on the financial aid to Greece.

The vote split the Syriza party, 39 members of which voted against the agreement, regarding tax hikes, an increase in the retirement age, cuts in military spending and pension reforms that the deal includes are contradicting the results of the July 5 referendum, in which 61 percent of the population voted against austerity.

Among the rebels was former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who said the bailout deal was “a new Versailles Treaty,” the agreement that demanded huge reparations to be paid by Germany after its defeat in World War I.

More than 100 people have been injured from the collision of two trains near South Africa’s Johannesburg on Friday. There yet have been no confirmed fatalities reported.

One of the trains derailed as result of the collision that took place between Booysens and Crown Mines stations, according to a local paramedic service. “It is believed that two trains collided causing one to derail,” ER24 spokesperson Russel Meiring told eNCA.

“Rescue vehicle and personnel are on the scene. They are helping over a hundred people lying on the platform, with minor to serious injuries,” he added.

The injuries range from minor to serious, according to ER24.

A new survey has found that US heroin addiction more than doubled over the space of 10 years among white people and women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overdose levels also soared to 8,200 – twice as many as in 2011.

CDC health officials said that the US is in the grip of a heroin epidemic, with abuse of the drug doubling among 18-25 year olds, doubling for women, and rising among white people by 114 percent over a decade from 2002 to 2013. The survey also found heroin use to have increased across America within most demographics – men, women, most age groups and all income levels.

Researchers also noted a 60 percent uptick in the abuse of the drug among people with higher incomes. Overall, the number of people using heroin grew by 300,000 between 2002 and 2013.

There are currently about 500,000 people addicted to the drug in the US, the CDC stated in its Vital Signs report. The data comes from an annual national face-to-face survey the CDC conducted with 67,000 Americans, and includes comparisons with data from The National Survey on Drug Use and Health. “Not only are people using heroin, they are also abusing multiple other substances, especially cocaine and prescription opioid painkillers,” said CDC health officials in the report.

The survey found that more than nine in 10 people were using heroin alongside at least one other drug, and 45 percent of people who used heroin were addicted to prescription opioid painkillers.

The survey found that the increased availability and lower price of heroin has been identified as a potential contributor to the rising rates of use. The Drug Enforcement Administration said the amount of heroin seized each year has quadrupled, from 500 kilograms from 2002-2008 to 2,196 kilograms in 2013. The increase of supply also led to a decline in price and an increase in purity. Heroin currently costs five times less than painkillers do, while having many of the same active ingredients.

The other factor driving use is legislation enacted concerning prescription opioids. Fatal poisonings and emergency room visits from prescription opioids more than doubled to 300,000 nationwide between 2004 and 2008, leading to a rush of laws to limit use. Under the new rules, primary care doctors consult with board-certified pain specialists before prescribing daily morphine-equivalent doses of 120mg or greater, and this marked the first dosage threshold of its kind in the United States. As a result, people began looking for other alternatives.