World News
Shot at, they had no chance: six dead, including two police officers, in Australia
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Sylvie Claire / December 13, 2022
Six people, including two young police officers, died in a shooting and siege of a remote property in the Australian state of Queensland, police said Tuesday.
Four police officers arrived late Monday afternoon at a tree-lined property near the small eastern town of Wieambilla. “As soon as they entered the property, they were riddled with gunfire … they didn’t stand a chance,” said Queensland police union president Ian Leavers.
“Two police officers were executed in cold blood,” he added. Those killed have been identified as Rachel McCrow, 26, and Matthew Arnold, 29. Both had joined law enforcement within the past two years.
“These officers made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our community safe,” Queensland Police Commander Katarina Carroll said, holding back tears. A 58-year-old neighbor was also shot and “pronounced dead at the scene,” police said. An investigation was underway Tuesday.
Two other police officers survived the shooting and were taken to hospital with minor injuries. Among them was a policewoman whom the suspects had tried to dislodge from the brush where she had been hiding, sending desperate messages to her relatives, local media reported.
Aerial images of the scene show an ordinary bungalow with a zinc roof, a burnt vehicle and smoke still around the property.
After the first shots were fired, a special response team of more than a dozen members was dispatched to the scene, backed by air support.
Shortly after 10:30 p.m. local time, after a siege lasting several hours, three suspects – two men and a woman – died. Their identities have not been released by the police.
Law enforcement was conducting a search regarding the 2021 disappearance of a former elementary school principal, according to local media. The property was registered to the missing man’s brother and sister-in-law, according to local media.
The missing man’s brother was a regular contributor to conspiracy theory sites that denounced “secret societies” and the alleged conduct of “false flag operations” by secret intelligence agents, according to local media.
Shootings are rare in Australia, which has some of the strictest gun legislation in the world.
A ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons has been in place since a 1996 shooting in Port Arthur, Tasmania, when a lone gunman shot 35 people.
Premier Anthony Albanese called the events in Wieambilla “horrific” and said it was a “heartbreaking day for the families and friends of Queensland police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty. Queensland state officials ordered flags on government buildings to be flown at half-mast.
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Sylvie Claire / July 21, 2024
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on the phone on Friday, with the former US president claiming to have promised the Ukrainian president to “end the war” between Ukraine and Russia should he return to the White House. “As your next president of the United States, I will bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives,” said the Republican presidential candidate.
Donald Trump frequently claims that he would be able to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine very quickly on his return to power, but never provides details of how he would achieve this. Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the phone call, during which he congratulated the billionaire on his official nomination the previous day as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.
Donald Trump’s frequent praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as his criticism of other Nato countries, is causing concern among Ukraine’s Western allies. In February, he threatened that, if he returned to the White House, he would no longer guarantee the protection of Atlantic Alliance countries against Russia if they did not pay their share, even claiming that he would “encourage” Moscow to attack them. The former American president also used his power over the Republicans to block a $61 billion military aid package for Kiev for months in Congress, which was finally adopted at the end of April.
In his posting on X on Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky said he had “agreed with President Trump to discuss, in a face-to-face meeting, the steps to be taken towards a just and lasting peace” in Ukraine.
World News
Former Ukrainian far-right MP murdered in Lviv: “All leads are being investigated, including Russia”
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Steph Deschamps / July 21, 2024
In a message on Telegram, the Ukrainian National Police said she had succumbed to her injuries in hospital after being the target of an assassination attempt.
“I always say that no place is safe in Ukraine,” lamented Lviv mayor Andriï Sadovy, denouncing a ‘heinous murder’ and offering his condolences to the victim’s relatives.
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office, the attack took place on Friday evening, at around 7.30pm, when an unidentified individual fired at Irina Farion, seriously wounding her in the head. “All surveillance cameras are being checked, witnesses are being interviewed and several districts (of Lviv) are being examined. All leads are being investigated, including the one leading to Russia”, reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on X on Saturday.
Interior Minister Igor Klimenko told a briefing in Lviv on Friday evening that the suspected killer could have been lurking around Irina Farion’s home for several days.
According to him, investigators are currently focusing on the possibility of a murder motivated by a “personal grudge” linked to the victim’s activities, but are not ruling out a “commissioned assassination” either.
The 60-year-old language teacher and linguist was a member of parliament for the nationalist Svoboda party between 2012 and 2014.
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Sylvie Claire / July 18, 2024
At least six people died in a shopping mall fire on Wednesday in Zigong, southwest China, and thirty others were rescued, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said. “Rescue teams are continuing their search,” the media outlet added.
Images broadcast by the channel and others shared on social networks show thick black smoke rising from a building overlooking a shopping street in this city 1,600 kilometers from the capital Beijing, in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
The fire broke out in the early evening in a shopping mall at the foot of a 14-storey building, CCTV reported.
“At 8:20 pm, the fire was extinguished and 17 people were rescued. Others are still trapped, and rescue operations are continuing”, said the station in an initial report on the situation.
Fires and other fatal accidents are frequent in China, due to the sometimes lax application of safety standards. In January, at least 39 people perished in a store fire in central China. According to the authorities, the fire started in the basement of a store when workers “broke the rules” during construction work. At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for lessons to be learned from the disaster to prevent further tragedies. The same month, a fire in a residential building claimed at least 15 lives.
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