Nightclub attack in Istanbul kills 39, injures 69 others.

No less than 39 individuals, including 16 foreigners, have lost their lives in a attack on a dance club in Turkey, Istanbul's senator said.

Among the dead at the Istanbul club is one police officer, Vasip Sahin said, including that it was a terror attack.

Another 69 were injured in the attack which occurred in the Reina nightclub, in the Ortakoy region, at around 01:30 local time (22:30 GMT).

The Turkish government have forced a media  outage on reporting the attack.

One assailant was included, said the governor , while CNN Turk reported he was wearing a Santa Claus outfit.

"A terrorist with a snipers weapon … fiercely and brutally did this episode by shooting at persons who were there exclusively to celebrate the New Year and have a ton of fun," Sahin told reporters at the scene of the nightclub,

The club was prominent with Turks, as well as with foreigners too, says BBC's Selin Girit in Istanbul.

She said it was hazy what had happened to the shooter at this stage – adding that a few observers talked about there being not one but rather two attackers.

There were purportedly upto of 700 individuals in the club at the point of the attack, some of whom have jumped into the water to get away.

Dogan news office reported that a few witnesses asserted the attackers were "communicating in Arabic" while Turkish TV station NTV said special police officers searched the club. 

US President Barack Obama, who is on vacation in Hawaii, was among the first worldwide leaders speak about the attack in the wake of being informed by his group. 

"The president showed sympathies for the honest lives lost, guided his group to offer fitting help to the Turkish government, as essential, and keep him up to date as warranted," White House representative Eric Schultz said in an announcement. 

The Turkish government has requested a brief media power outage in the wake of the assault, referring to security and open request concerns. 

This is not the first run through such a request has been made. 

Istanbul was at that point on high caution with exactly 17,000 police on duty in the city, taking after a string of fear assaults as of late. 

Many were done by purported Islamic State (IS) or Kurdish attackers

Boko Haram's Shekau Shows up: Group is not Crushed.

According to reports on Nigerian Daily (Vanguard) Ibrahim Shekau, the embattled Leader of the Boko Haram sect has come out in a new video to dispute claims by the Federal Government and the Nigerian Army that the Jihadist group has been ousted out of sambisa forest.

"We are very safe and sound, we have not been ousted out of anywhere. No strategy or tactics can reveal our location except Allah wills by his decree" says Shekau in a 25 minutes video surrounded by armed fighters

FG Denies Report About the release of CHIBOK Girls.

The Nigerian government has denied reports claiming the release of another set of 21 Chibok school girls abducted by Boko Haram.

Reports had claimed that the girls, who were kidnapped in April 2014, had been transported to Yola, Adamawa State, after their release on Thursday.

Presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu denied that more girls had been released.

“No new girls have been released,” Shehu tweeted.

“To my friends spreading the news of a further release of Chibok Girls, we are not there yet. But, by God’s grace, they will be. Happy Christmas, everyone.”

Shehu said the 21 girls reported Thursday were those released in October. He said they were being escorted by security to Yola on their way home to celebrate the Christmas with their families.

“Today, the DSS took the 21 Girls already secured to Yola, Adamawa State on their way home to celebrate the Christmas with their families.

“The negotiations are ongoing and the Department of State Service, DSS is full of optimism that they will be successful,” he wrote.

More than 200 girls were seized from their school in April 2014 in Chibok in Borno state, where Boko Haram has waged a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state, killing thousands and displacing more than 2 million people.

Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds of men, women and children but the abduction of the Chibok girls – some 200 of whom are still missing – prompted outrage worldwide and their plight was publicised using a Twitter hashtag, #bringbackourgirls.

The first of the Chibok girls to be released by Boko Haram, Amina Ali, was freed in May. Ali has since been held in a house in Abuja for what the state has called a “restoration process”. She said in August that she “just wanted to go home”.

Boko Haram controlled a swathe of land around the size of Belgium at the start of 2015, but Nigeria’s army has recaptured most of the territory.

The group still stages suicide bombings in the northeast, as well as in neighbouring Niger and Cameroon.