Sydney mall attacker identified, ‘nothing’ to suggest terror motive

Update People are led out from the Westfield Shopping Centre where multiple people were stabbed in Sydney, Saturday, April 13, 2024. (AP)
People are led out from the Westfield Shopping Centre where multiple people were stabbed in Sydney, Saturday, April 13, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 14 April 2024
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Sydney mall attacker identified, ‘nothing’ to suggest terror motive

People are led out from the Westfield Shopping Centre where multiple people were stabbed in Sydney, Saturday, April 13, 2024.
  • The assailant — who was shot dead by a senior police officer at the scene on Saturday — was Queensland man Joel Cauchi

SYDNEY: Australian police on Sunday said a 40-year-old itinerant with mental illness was behind a Sydney shopping center stabbing rampage that killed six people, including a new mum whose nine-month-old baby is still in hospital with serious wounds.

New South Wales police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said the assailant — who was shot dead by a senior police officer at the scene on Saturday — was Queensland man Joel Cauchi.

Five women and one male security guard were killed in the attack as Cauchi roved through a packed shopping center in the city’s Bondi Junction neighborhood with a large knife. Twelve more people are still in hospital.

“The sound of people screaming was horrific,” said eyewitness Daphi Kiselstein, who was shopping at the time of the attack and took refuge in a store with other terrified people.

Cooke said there was no evidence to suggest Cauchi was “driven by any particular motivation, ideology or otherwise.”

“We know that the offender in the matter suffered from, suffers from, mental health,” he added.

Cauchi was tracked down and shot dead by solo senior police officer Amy Scott, who was instantly hailed by Australia’s prime minister as a “hero” who had saved countless lives.

Cauchi’s parents said their son had been living in a vehicle and hostels of late, and was only in sporadic contact via text messages.

Police said he was diagnosed with a mental health issue at age 17, but they had no indication about why he may have become violent.

His parents issued a statement through police offering condolences to their son’s victims and their families.

They had also sent a message of “support” to the officer who shot him dead, “expressing their concerns for her welfare.”

Queensland police said Cauchi had been in contact with police several times over the last four to five years but has never been arrested or charged with any offense.

He is believed to have traveled to Sydney about a month ago and hired a small storage unit in the city. It contained personal belongings, including a boogie board.

The attack has caused sorrow, outrage and shock in Sydney, where residents are relatively unaccustomed to violent crime.

The shopping center is the focal point of a well frequented suburb near the famed beach, and is always filled with shoppers and families going for meals or to the cinema.

Among the victims was 38-year-old mother Ashlee Good, who succumbed to her injuries after desperately passing her baby to two strangers in the hope they could save the child’s life.

Good’s family described her as “a beautiful mother, daughter, sister, partner, friend, all round outstanding human and so much more.”

“To the two men who held and cared for our baby when Ashlee could not — words cannot express our gratitude,” they said in a statement to Australian media.

The baby, named Harriet, was said to be recovering well after lengthy surgery.

Two of the victims are said to have no family in Australia and attempts are being made to contact relatives overseas.

A Facebook profile said Cauchi came from Toowoomba, near Brisbane, and had attended a local high school and university.

A distinctive grey, red and yellow dragon tattoo on his right arm was used to help identify him.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australians were struggling to understand an “unspeakable” attack that is “really just beyond comprehension.”

“People going about their Saturday afternoon shopping should be safe, shouldn’t be at risk. But tragically, we saw a loss of life, and people will be grieving for loved ones today,” he said.

“We also know there are many people still in hospital dealing with recovery, and our thoughts and prayers are with them.”

Albanese said he had received messages from US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon among others.

Outside the shopping center early on Sunday, a collection of flowers started to build.

Families embraced as they lay flowers. One man stood silently and wiped away tears, before moving on.

Sydney resident Paul Hoolahan said he came to pay his respects to those who died at the shopping center, where he often has coffee with his grandchildren.

“It is emotional,” Hoolahan told AFP. “It shouldn’t happen. It hit here,” he said pointing to his chest.

New South Wales premier Chris Minns flew back from Japan on news of the attack.

He said it had been “incredible to see complete strangers jump in, run toward the danger for their own lives in harm’s way to save someone that they’ve never met before.”

“We’ve got some wonderful people in our city,” he said.


UK’s Tom Fletcher named head of UN humanitarian agency

Updated 6 sec ago
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UK’s Tom Fletcher named head of UN humanitarian agency

UK’s Tom Fletcher named head of UN humanitarian agency
The organization grapples with unprecedented crises and budget pressures

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations named British diplomat and academic Tom Fletcher as head of its humanitarian agency on Wednesday, as the organization grapples with unprecedented crises and budget pressures.
“United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres today announced the appointment of Tom Fletcher of the United Kingdom as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),” the UN said in a statement.

Polish, Czech leaders urge tougher EU migration rules

Polish, Czech leaders urge tougher EU migration rules
Updated 09 October 2024
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Polish, Czech leaders urge tougher EU migration rules

Polish, Czech leaders urge tougher EU migration rules
  • Calling the pact “insufficient” after talks with his Polish counterpart, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said Prague and Warsaw “want a stricter and faster asylum policy“
  • “We want to step up the combat with smugglers and illegal migration organizers“

PRAGUE: Poland and the Czech Republic on Wednesday called for hardening the European Union’s migration policy and boosting the bloc’s external border against what they argued was externally orchestrated migratory pressure.
Both Central European countries have in the past months campaigned for “new ways” to handle irregular migrants and toughening the landmark overhaul of EU migration policies coming into effect from 2026.
Calling the pact “insufficient” after talks with his Polish counterpart, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said Prague and Warsaw “want a stricter and faster asylum policy.”
“We want to boost the repatriation policy, which is inefficient. We want to step up the combat with smugglers and illegal migration organizers,” Fiala said.
Poland’s premier Donald Tusk urged “very serious debate” on migration during the next summit of the bloc leaders in Brussels.
“Together we have to convince the other partners in the EU, and we will do so, that the task of the EU is to protect the external border and to reduce illegal migration to a minimum,” Tusk told reporters in Prague.
He added that the bloc had to be protected “from the wave of illegal migration, increasingly organized by external forces.”
Poland is one of the countries on the EU’s eastern flank that has been dealing with a migration influx it has described as a “hybrid” attack by Belarus and its ally Russia.
Since summer 2021, thousands of migrants and refugees, mainly from the Middle East, have crossed or attempted to cross the border between Belarus and Poland.
“Every day, thousands of Polish soldiers, policemen, border guards are not guarding but fighting against the pressure organized by the Lukashenko regime,” Tusk said.
“This resembles a war landscape rather than a normal border policy. Shots are heard every day,” he added.
Warsaw has accused Moscow of smuggling people from Africa into Europe by sending them to the Polish border through Belarus.
In May, Warsaw announced it would spend more than 2.3 billion euros ($2.5 billion) to boost border protection.


Air France opens internal probe after plane flew over Iraq during Iranian attack on Israel

Air France said it has opened an investigation after one of its planes flew over Iraq during an Iranian missile attack on Israel
Air France said it has opened an investigation after one of its planes flew over Iraq during an Iranian missile attack on Israel
Updated 09 October 2024
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Air France opens internal probe after plane flew over Iraq during Iranian attack on Israel

Air France said it has opened an investigation after one of its planes flew over Iraq during an Iranian missile attack on Israel
  • Flight AF662 from Paris to Dubai was traveling at the time of the attack through a special corridor used by all airlines in southern Iraq
  • Fifteen minutes later it left the country’s air space, which was not closed to airplane traffic until 1756 GMT

PARIS: Air France said on Wednesday it had opened an internal investigation after one of its planes flew over Iraq on Oct. 1 during an Iranian missile attack on Israel.
The company said flight AF662 from Paris to Dubai was traveling at the time of the attack through a special corridor used by all airlines in southern Iraq and fifteen minutes later it left the country’s air space, which was not closed to airplane traffic until 1756 GMT.
“Without waiting for instructions from the Iraqi authorities, Air France has decided to suspend overflight of the country’s airspace by its aircraft from 1700 GMT,” the airline said.
“An internal investigation has been launched into this event,” it added.
Air France also said that another flight returned to Paris, while a third, from Singapore to Paris, made an additional stop in Delhi to get more fuel to take a longer route.
The story was first reported by TV channel TF1 Info.


3 protesters are killed in clashes with police after Pakistan banned an ethnic rights group

3 protesters are killed in clashes with police after Pakistan banned an ethnic rights group
Updated 09 October 2024
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3 protesters are killed in clashes with police after Pakistan banned an ethnic rights group

3 protesters are killed in clashes with police after Pakistan banned an ethnic rights group
  • Officers fired tear gas and swung batons to disperse hundreds of protesters who had gathered in the town of Jamrud
  • Footage on social media showed police firing in the air, unleashing tear gas and wielding batons among the crowd

PESHAWAR: At least three people were killed in clashes Wednesday between Pakistani police and supporters of a rights group advocating for the Pashtun ethnic minority, angered by a government ban imposed on the organization this week, local officials said.
Officers fired tear gas and swung batons to disperse hundreds of protesters who had gathered in the town of Jamrud, near the city of Peshawar to denounce the ban. Roohul Ameen, a doctor at a main local hospital said they received three bodies brought in following the clashes and about a dozen injured protesters.
Footage on social media showed police firing in the air, unleashing tear gas and wielding batons among the crowd, which responded by throwing stones at the officers.
The violence came after the government on Monday banned the Pashtun Protection Movement, saying it supports the Pakistani Taliban, an outlawed militant group.
It also banned rallies by the group in the restive northwest, allegedly because the demonstrations are against the interests of Pakistan. The Pashtun Protection Movement denies backing the Pakistani Taliban.
The group was founded in 2014, after its leaders accused the Pakistani military and local police of abuses against the Pashtuns in their war against militants.
The group also says Pakistani security forces have been illegally detaining its members. The military and the government have denied all the allegations, saying their operations only target insurgents.
The group has since been waging a campaign to force the military to leave the former tribal regions in the northwest that border Afghanistan. Ethnic Pashtuns live mainly in eastern and southern Afghanistan but also all across Pakistan, in particular in parts along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
The Pakistani Taliban are a militant group that is separate but also a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. They have stepped up attacks in recent years mainly targeting Pakistani security forces but hundreds of civilians have also been killed in the crossfire.
Manzoor Pashteen, who heads the Pashtun Protection Movement, said the group does not accept the government ban and was determined to hold a peaceful meeting of elders on Friday in the town of Regi, a former militant stronghold in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Amnesty International on Wednesday also asked Pakistan’s government to revoke the ban on the Pashtun group.
The “latest arbitrary ban under over-broad powers of the terror law is only the tip of the iceberg,” said Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for South Asia, accusing the authorities of “resorting to unlawful use of force, enforced disappearances, and media bans on the coverage of protests or rallies.”


Indian doctors go on hunger strike, demand justice in rape-murder of Kolkata medic

Indian doctors go on hunger strike, demand justice in rape-murder of Kolkata medic
Updated 09 October 2024
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Indian doctors go on hunger strike, demand justice in rape-murder of Kolkata medic

Indian doctors go on hunger strike, demand justice in rape-murder of Kolkata medic
  • Junior doctors in West Bengal resumed months-long protest on Monday
  • Senior doctors at hospital where murder took place resign in solidarity

NEW DELHI: Doctors across India went on hunger strike on Wednesday in solidarity with their colleagues in West Bengal who have been demanding justice and safer working conditions after the gruesome murder of a female medic in Kolkata.

Thousands of young medics have been taking to the streets after a 31-year-old trainee doctor was raped and murdered on Aug. 9 at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in West Bengal’s capital, where she worked.

While the protests were concentrated in Kolkata, where junior doctors have been on strike demanding justice for the victim and better safety measures in hospitals, other medics across India have been regularly holding solidarity demonstrations with them.

In late September, doctors agreed to return to work to help with emergency services amid floods, and after the West Bengal government agreed to some of their demands, including sacking the Kolkata police chief and two top Health Ministry officials.

But the demands for accountability for the murder, removal of the state’s health secretary, and increased police protection in hospitals have not been addressed, and the junior doctors resumed their protest on Monday. As seven of the protesters have been on indefinite hunger strike, the Federation of All India Medical Association symbolically joined them.

“The hunger strike is in solidarity and support of the junior doctors of West Bengal and their demands,” said Dr. Rohan Krishnan, chairman of the organization that represents over 100,000 resident doctors across the country.

“This hunger strike is for a day. At least one representative from each resident doctors’ association is on strike across India. I feel at the minimum it would be 1,000 doctors on strike.”

Krishnan told Arab News that the incidence of violence against doctors has been increasing in India and “what has happened in Bengal requires immediate measures and actions,” which until now have not been undertaken.

The federation sent a 10-member delegation to Kolkata to join the protesting junior doctors.

“We are here for the symbolic protest with the junior doctors, and we are having multiple meetings,” Dr. Suvrankar Datta, FAIMA president who is leading the delegation, told Arab News.

“The state government is ignoring the rational and genuine demands of the doctors who are on indefinite hunger strike. We have to ensure that the state government shows some kind of intent to come to the table at least. What the doctors are demanding can be done in a single day. The demands are all very just and very genuine.”

The probe into the murder has been moved from Kolkata Police to India’s federal Central Bureau of Investigation, which announced on Monday it had charged with rape and murder a suspect who was arrested soon after the incident.

The CBI charges came on the basis of interviews, CCTV footage, and autopsy, which revealed the doctor had 25 internal and external injuries as a result of the attack and had died by strangulation.

The brutality of the rape and murder sent shockwaves across India, which were further compounded by reports that senior hospital staff and local police had tried to cover up the incident.

“Our demand has been, first, justice to the victim and, second, to ensure that such an incident does not take place (again),” said Dr. Aqeeb Ashraf, member of the West Bengal Junior Doctors Front.

“Our movement is basically based on these two demands. We have met the chief minister many times and still no solution is coming out … Many people are joining our movement. Doctors are putting their lives at stake to save the medical system in Bengal.”

On Tuesday, 50 senior doctors from RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, where the murder took place, resigned in support of their striking colleagues.

“Our seniors are giving mass resignations to stand by us to address the government, so that they come and listen to us,” Dr. Paramita Thander, junior doctor at the RG Kar Medical College, told Arab News.

“If they don’t listen and (if) anything happens to the people on hunger strike, then we will go for escalation.”