US authorities capture Tennessee shooting suspect

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US authorities capture Tennessee shooting suspect

Breaking News April 24, 2018 10:23

By Agence France-Presse
Chicago

Tennessee police captured Monday the man suspected of gunning down four people at a restaurant in Nashville, America’s country music capital.

Travis Reinking — who exhibited “mental instability” and was arrested last year for trying to enter the White House grounds — was captured in the early afternoon after a more than 24-hour manhunt.

“A tip from the community is what led to the arrest,” Nashville Mayor David Briley told a news conference.

The 29-year-old faces four counts of criminal homicide charges for Sunday’s pre-dawn shooting that also wounded two people.

Held in lieu of a $2 million bond, he is due in court Wednesday.

Reinking was captured without incident in a wooded area near his home, refused to speak with authorities and asked for a lawyer, police said, adding that they found a semi-automatic weapon and ammunition in a backpack he was carrying.

After his arrest, police posted photos of Reinking in the back of a police car, looking disheveled and wearing a ripped maroon shirt and jeans.

“He looked like he was tired,” said Nashville police lieutenant Carlos Lara.

Reinking is accused of using an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle to rain bullets at the Waffle House restaurant while wearing nothing but a jacket.

He was stopped by James Shaw, 29, a restaurant patron hailed as a hero for wrestling away the rifle.

Reinking then shed his jacket, returned to his nearby apartment home, put on clothes and fled, according to police.

The Nashville metropolitan area of 1.8 million people was on edge for more than a day as armed federal, state and local police looked for the suspect.

Gunman’s past

As the manhunt ended, the actions of Reinking’s father came into sharper scrutiny.

Reinking was arrested at the White House in July 2017, when he entered a restricted area of the presidential grounds.

He demanded to see Donald Trump and declared himself a “sovereign citizen,” a designation used by anti-government extremists, according to The Tennessean newspaper.

Police rescinded Reinking’s firearms ownership authorization in the Midwestern state of Illinois, where he lived at the time.

They seized his four weapons and handed them to his father. But his father returned the weapons to his son, according to police.

“From our perspective, after the incident at the White House… we were able to effectively neutralize what we felt was the threat at the time by ensuring that he did not have the ability to purchase or own weapons,” said FBI Special Agent Matt Espenshade.

Reinking’s father could face charges for his actions, said Marcus Watson of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“If you transfer weapons to a person that is knowingly prohibited, that could be a violation of federal law,” Watson said.

Reinking’s mental health was also under scrutiny.

Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron confirmed that Reinking “exhibited mental instability over many months,” but said investigators did not have a motive for the attack.

Reinking recently had been fired from a job at a construction crane company for exhibiting signs of paranoia, according to The Tennessean.

Family members had told police he believed singer Taylor Swift was stalking him, according to The New York Times.

Authorities confirmed that Taurean Sanderlin, 29, Joe Perez, 20, and DeEbony Groves, 21, were killed at the restaurant.

A fourth victim, 23-year-old Akilah Dasilva, died at a hospital.

Australia and France remember key WWI battle, a century on

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Australia and France remember key WWI battle, a century on

ASEAN+ April 24, 2018 10:15

By Agence France-Presse
Villers-Bretonneux, France

The prime ministers of Australia and France will on Tuesday inaugurate a high-tech museum casting light on the role of Australian troops in World War I, as they mark a century since a key battle in the conflict.

The Sir John Monash Centre, in the Somme region of northern France which became synonymous with slaughter during the 1914-18 war, uses lifesize videos of soldiers and a 360-degree cinema to bring the role of Australian troops to life.

“It’s designed for visitors to leave with a better understanding of the role of Australians on the Western Front, right here where they fought,” said its director Caroline Bartlett.

Australian premier Malcolm Turnbull and France’s Edouard Philippe will officially open the museum at the Australian National Memorial, 100 years to the day since the Battle of nearby Villers-Bretonneux.

On Wednesday — Anzac Day, Australia’s national day of remembrance — Britain’s Prince Charles will join the two leaders and nearly 8,000 other people at a solemn dawn ceremony to remember the dead.

German troops seized the town of Villers-Bretonneux on April 24, 1918 on a major westwards push towards the end of the war.

But Australian and British troops, backed by French forces, pulled off a dangerous counter-offensive, stopping a German advance towards the highly strategic neighbouring city of Amiens.

Australia sent more than 295,000 soldiers to France and Belgium to help allied forces between 1916 and 1918.

Some 46,000 of them died and more than 130,000 were injured — huge losses for a nation that had a population of only five million at the time.

More than 2,000 of the young Australians who lost their lives in the war — the average soldier sent to the Western Front was 23 years old — are buried at the National Memorial in what is now peaceful countryside.

The site’s new museum, which cost 63 million euros ($76 million) to develop and opened to the public earlier this month, is named after Australian general John Monash.

Along with hundreds of screens projecting archive footage, it will display soldiers’ diaries, photographs and letters, while visitors will be able to enter a recreation of the trenches.

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson advised on the filming of new scenes for the museum’s video displays shot in Australia, France and New Zealand to bring the experience of trench warfare to life.

He also lent the museum two World War I planes from his personal collection for the films, which took more than a year to produce.

At least 18 dead in China karaoke lounge fire

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At least 18 dead in China karaoke lounge fire

ASEAN+ April 24, 2018 08:33

By Agence France-Presse
Beijing

A fire tore through a karaoke lounge in southern China on Tuesday, killing 18 people and injuring another five in a suspected arson case, police and state media said.

The blaze took place after midnight in a three-storey building in Qingyuan City, Guangdong province, and was put out shortly before 1:00 am local time, according to the police.

A preliminary investigation found that the fire was caused by arson, the Qingyuan public security department said on its Weibo social media account.

“The public security authorities are stepping up their investigation,” it said.

The police statement did not describe the location of the fire but the official Xinhua news agency said it occurred in a KTV house, or karaoke lounge.

Deadly fires are common in China, where safety regulations are widely flouted and enforcement is often lax.

A blaze that killed 38 people at a nursing home in 2015 sparked soul-searching about safety standards in China. Courts jailed 21 people, including firefighters and government staff, over the fire last year.

In the days following the accident, China’s top safety watchdog said the facility had poorly-designed fire exits, while safety checks, fire and electricity management, and the emergency response system were all found lacking.

More than two dozen people were killed in two fires in Beijing’s migrant neighbourhoods late last year. The first blaze, which killed 19 people in November, prompted authorities to begin tearing down unsafe buildings in the capital, driving residents out in the middle of winter.

Van plows into Toronto crowd, killing nine

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Police work the scene on Yonge St. at near Finch Ave., after a van plowed into pedestrians on April 23, 2018 in Toronto, Canada./AFP
Police work the scene on Yonge St. at near Finch Ave., after a van plowed into pedestrians on April 23, 2018 in Toronto, Canada./AFP

Van plows into Toronto crowd, killing nine

ASEAN+ April 24, 2018 06:55

By Agence France-Presse
Toronto, Canada

A man plowed a white rental van into a crowd of pedestrians in Canada’s biggest city Toronto on Monday, killing at least nine people and wounding 16, police said.

The incident took place in broad daylight around 10 miles (16 kilometers) from a conference center hosting a meeting of G7 ministers, but officials said they had no evidence of a link to the event.

Police arrested a suspect at the scene, but said it was too soon to say whether the attack in Toronto — which has a population of about 2.8 million people — had been deliberate, and if so, what the driver’s motivation might have been.

“This is going to be a complex investigation,” deputy police chief Peter Yuen told reporters. “We have one person in custody and the investigation is ongoing.”

“We can confirm for you tonight right now we have nine people that are dead, 16 injured.”

At the scene, an AFP reporter saw at least three bodies under orange sheets and a long stretch of road sealed off with police incident tape.

Dan Cass of Sunnybrook hospital said 10 injured people had been brought in. Two of them were pronounced dead on arrival and five were in critical condition.

Television images showed the man and a police officer facing off, their guns drawn. The suspect eventually surrendered his weapon and was taken into custody.

Vehicle attacks have been carried out to deadly effect by extremists in a number of capitals and major cities, including London, Paris, New York and Nice, heightening fears of a deliberate ramming.

Canada’s minister for public safety, Ralph Goodale was asked at the G7 meeting whether the government had received any threats or information to suggest that the talks might be targeted.

“No, not to my knowledge,” he said.

Standing alongside him, Canada’s foreign minister Chrystia Freeland said the G7 meeting would continue as planned into Tuesday, with officials discussing ways to secure democratic societies from foreign interference.

“The work of the ministers obviously goes on. This is a very sad day for the people of Toronto and the people of Canada,” she said.

– ‘Really fast’ –

Officers were called to the scene — on Yonge Street at the corner with Finch Avenue — at about 1:30 pm (1730 GMT), police said.

A white rental van with a dented front bumper was stopped on the sidewalk of a major intersection, surrounded by police vehicles.

“He was going really fast,” witness Alex Shaker told CTV television.

“All I could see was just people one by one getting knocked out, knocked out, one by one,” Shaker said. “There are so many people lying down on the streets.”

Another witness, Jamie Eopni, told local Toronto television station CP24: “It was crashing into everything. It destroyed a bench. If anybody was on that street, they would have been hit on the sidewalk.”

– ‘It’s frightening’ –

Canada has only rarely been the scene of terror attacks.

In October, a man stabbed a police officer in the western city of Edmonton before slamming his van into a group of pedestrians, injuring four people.

And in Quebec in October 2014, a Canadian man ran over two soldiers in a parking lot with his car, killing one of them. The driver was shot dead by police when he attacked them with a knife.

In March 2016, a Canadian who claimed to have radical Islamist sympathies attacked two soldiers at a military recruitment center in Toronto.

Kim’s ‘bitter sorrow’ as N. Korea bus crash kills 32 Chinese tourists

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Kim’s ‘bitter sorrow’ as N. Korea bus crash kills 32 Chinese tourists

Breaking News April 24, 2018 06:49

By Agence France-Presse
Beijing

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed his “bitter sorrow” after dozens of Chinese tourists were killed when a bus they were travelling in plunged off a bridge.

Thirty-two Chinese tourists and four North Koreans perished in the accident south of the capital Pyongyang Sunday night, Chinese officials and state media said. Two other Chinese nationals were injured.

In a rare admission of negative news from North Korea’s tightly-controlled propaganda network, the state-run KCNA news agency ran a report early Tuesday saying Kim met personally with the Chinese ambassador in Pyongyang and later visited crash survivors in hospital.

“He (Kim) said that the unexpected accident brought bitter sorrow to his heart and that he couldn’t control his grief at the thought of the bereaved families who lost their blood relatives,” KCNA reported.

The agency quoted the North Korean leader as saying his people “take the tragic accident as their own misfortune”.

Xinhua news agency reported that the bus had fallen from a bridge in North Hwanghae province.

China’s state broadcaster showed images of a large overturned vehicle, with light rain falling on rescue vehicles at night and doctors attending to a patient.

KCNA said the crash was “an unexpected traffic accident that claimed heavy causalities among Chinese tourists”. It gave no breakdown on the numbers killed or injured.

The vast majority of foreign tourists to North Korea are Chinese, with the Cold War-era allies sharing a long land border and operating flights between the two countries.

Western visitors to the North once averaged around 5,000 a year, but numbers have been hit recently by a US travel ban — Americans accounted for around 20 percent of the market — and official warnings from other countries.

Tens of thousands of Chinese tourists are believed to visit the North every year, with many crossing via train through the Chinese border city of Dandong.

For some, North Korea provides a window into what Communist China may have looked like decades ago.

Chinese tourism to the North has continued even though Beijing has enforced a slew of United Nations sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

Despite those sanctions, it remains North Korea’s sole ally, providing an important economic and political buffer against international opprobrium.

‘All necessary means’

President Xi Jinping urged China’s foreign ministry and embassy in North Korea to take “all necessary means” to handle the accident, and called for an “all-out” effort to help the injured and deal with the deceased, according to Xinhua.

North Hwanghae province lies south of Pyongyang and stretches to the border with South Korea. It includes the city of Kaesong, an ancient Korean capital with historical sites.

More recently, the area hosted a manufacturing complex operated with the South.

The tour group was travelling by bus from Kaesong to Pyongyang when the accident happened, according to the independent Seoul-based website NK News, which cited an unnamed source.

North Korean roads are largely poor and potholed, and in many areas they are dirt rather than tarmac. Vehicles are sometimes forced to ford rivers or take detours when bridges are unpassable.

But the route from Pyongyang to Kaesong, where the accident reportedly happened, is one of the best in the country.

It runs north-south from the Chinese border to the Demilitarized Zone on the border with South Korea but has little traffic, like all North Korean highways.

Tank traps have been installed along the road in many locations — sets of high concrete columns on either side of the road that can easily be blown up to create an obstruction for invading armoured vehicles.

George H.W. Bush hospitalized days after wife’s death: office

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George H.W. Bush hospitalized days after wife’s death: office

Breaking News April 24, 2018 06:47

By Agence France-Presse
Washington

Former president George H.W. Bush was being treated for a blood infection on Monday, hours after laying his wife Barbara to rest, his office said.

A statement stressed that Bush, 93, was responding to treatment. He was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital early Sunday, just a day after bidding a final farewell to his wife of 73 years during her funeral. Barbara Bush had died on Tuesday.

The 41st president greeted and shook hands with numerous attendees during the invitation-only funeral attended by four former presidents, including himself and his son George W. Bush.

“President Bush was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital yesterday morning after contracting an infection that spread to his blood,” a statement read.

“He is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering. We will issue additional updates as events warrant.”

Bush, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and is wheelchair-bound as a result, has been repeatedly hospitalized for pneumonia. His is a less-common version of Parkinson’s that only affects the lower body.

He is the oldest of the five living former US presidents, having served as commander-in-chief from 1989 to 1993.

Bush is father to former president George W. Bush (2001-2009) and former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who was a contender in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries.

Prince William’s wife Kate gives birth to son: palace

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File: Britain's Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (L) and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (2-R) walk with their children Prince George (2-L) and Princess Charlotte.//EPA-EFE PHOTO
File: Britain’s Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (L) and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (2-R) walk with their children Prince George (2-L) and Princess Charlotte.//EPA-EFE PHOTO

Prince William’s wife Kate gives birth to son: palace

ASEAN+ April 23, 2018 19:27

By Agence France-Presse
London

Kate, the wife of Britain’s Prince William, has given birth to a baby son, Kensington Palace announced Monday.

“Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 11:01 (1001 GMT),” the palace said in a statement. The baby boy weighs eight pounds and seven ounces (3.8 kilogrammes).

Stock photo agencies cash in on Khmer Rouge tragedy

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  • People look at portraits of S-21 inmates at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh in 2014.// Eli Meixler
  • A screenshot from the Alamy website featuring S-21 prisoner portraits.

Stock photo agencies cash in on Khmer Rouge tragedy

ASEAN+ April 23, 2018 12:48

By Quinn Libson
The Phnom Penh Post
Asia News Network

2,153 Viewed

A woman with short-cropped hair stares directly into the camera, her head cocked slightly to the side. On her lap is a sleeping infant just barely in the frame.

People look at portraits of S-21 inmates at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh in 2014.

People look at portraits of S-21 inmates at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh in 2014. Eli Meixler

​​​​​​​The woman was the wife of a Khmer Rouge officer who fell out of favour, and one of the thousands of prisoners at S-21 whose photograph was taken on arrival at the infamous torture centre.

Shortly afterwards, her baby was taken from her and killed. The portrait is among dozens of S-21 photographs for sale by at least two international stock-image companies. For $199.99 a business can purchase this image of the mother and her baby from UK-based photo site Alamy for use in a “marketing package”. The webpage notes that no model release form was signed by the subject of the image.

Alamy is not alone – at least one other company, US-based Sprague Photo Stock, is also selling S-21 prisoner intake portraits on its website.

Regional magazine Mekong Review first called attention to the sale of the portraits on Tuesday, and in several tweets called into question the practice of selling the images for commercial use on legal and moral grounds.

“These portraits were taken by Khmer Rouge cadres, before they tortured and killed these people. This is wrong,” they wrote on Twitter.

The photos being sold on both stock-image sites appear to have come from photographers who took them while inside the museum where the images are displayed. The museum forbids visitors from capturing any pictures while inside the former prison, and it is unclear if the photographers were visiting with press permissions.

The director of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Chhay Visoth, said he was not previously aware that these photographs were being sold online.

“Selling or using the victim’s pictures for commercial purposes is legally and morally unacceptable because they were already victimised in that regime, and they should not be victimised again by such selfish purposes,” Visoth said.

Youk Chhang, the director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, and a Khmer Rouge survivor himself, said in a message to The Post that the sale of the photographs “is very perplexing”.

“It is a memory of the nation and should be properly used with respect.”

Youk noted that these photographs have been copied and disseminated widely for educational purposes, in part to keep the memory of victims alive.

“Documents and photographs of the regime have been duplicated and flooded across the globe because we as the victims want to tell the world of the millions of Cambodians who have perished brutally under the Khmer Rouge. And we want justice for both those who have passed away and those who have survived the regime,” he said.

Nonetheless, who uses the photos, and for what purpose, is a major concern. As an example of proper use, Youk cited his own organisation’s archive of S-21 prisoner photographs, created with permission.

Neither Alamy nor Sprague responded to requests for comment, though the former appeared to be in the process of removing the photographs from its site on Friday. One of the photographers that Alamy credits for the S-21 prisoner portraits, John Lander, said via email that he would take the image down as it “shows peoples’ faces – which I can well imagine are sensitive to some people”.

A screenshot from the Alamy website featuring S-21 prisoner portraits.

A screenshot from the Alamy website featuring S-21 prisoner portraits.

This isn’t the first time the question of ownership of these harrowing photographs has been raised.

The original photographer who took many of the portraits, a former low-ranking Khmer Rouge cadre, is still alive and contends the rights should be his. Nhem En, now 58, worked as a photographer for three years at S-21, and it was his job to capture images of the prison’s detainees.

“I took those pictures so the copyright should belong to me, but copyright just does not matter in Cambodia,” he said. “My pictures are used by media all over the world, but no one give me credit for that. Foreigners may not know about me, but the government should do something about it.”

According to a 2001 sub-decree, the Cambodian government has legal control over the images to protect them from exactly this sort of misuse. The sub-decree extends to historical documents – maps, blueprints and photos, for example – that it describes as “priceless assets of the country for generations”.

Museum Director Visoth cited this ownership arrangement in an email to The Post, saying that to publish the images a person “must submit a request to MoC [Ministry of Culture], informing them how they will be used and agreeing not to give them to anyone without permission”. In that instance, the credit for the photograph would go to the museum.

When reached for comment, Culture Ministry spokesman Thai Norak Satya called the issue “a very small matter” and did not appear to know for sure which entity retains legal control, by way of copyright, of the S-21 images.

Visoth said he would study further what might be done to address the situation. “No matter what,” he said, “we will show the willingness for negotiation and ask the sellers to stop doing that.”

“If they won’t,” he said, “we will monitor our capacity for legal enforcement.”

Mekong Review founding editor and publisher Minh Bui Jones said it was clear the agencies are “treading on thin ice, both legally and ethically”, and questioned if the images would be up for sale if they depicted victims from a Western country.

“If anyone owns them, it’s the people of Cambodia. If those companies had sought and were given permission by the Cambodian government to sell them, then they’re legally clear,” he said. “But if they haven’t, then they’re simply thieves, or grave robbers. You can’t sink any lower than this.”

Police’s anti-terrorism movie triggers weekend jam in Jakarta

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On alert: On Jan 14, 2016, Jakarta was rocked by multiple explosions, including one at a police post, and a subsequent gunfight in front of Sarinah between police and multiple assailants. (Shutterstock.com/ardiwebs )
On alert: On Jan 14, 2016, Jakarta was rocked by multiple explosions, including one at a police post, and a subsequent gunfight in front of Sarinah between police and multiple assailants. (Shutterstock.com/ardiwebs )

Police’s anti-terrorism movie triggers weekend jam in Jakarta

ASEAN+ April 23, 2018 12:34

Motorists In Jakarta have complained about unusual traffic congestion around Jl. Sudirman and Jl. M.H. Thamrin, Central Jakarta, over the past two weekends, which was caused by the shooting of a counterterrorism film spearheaded by the National Police.

The film crew behind 22 Minutes, which is reportedly inspired by the Thamrin attack two years ago, has been shooting scenes involving critical explosions and a shoot-out at the intersection in front of Sarinah department store since April 14.

To secure the area, the Jakarta Police closed Jl. M.H. Thamrin from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The closure will continue until filming is completed on May 6.

Ghoida Rahmah, 24, a resident of Rawa Belong, West Jakarta, said she was trapped in traffic for about two hours traveling to Akmani Hotel on Jl. KH. Wahid Hasyim in Menteng, Central Jakarta, despite taking an ojek (motorcycle taxi).

The congestion started from the Tanah Abang overpass in Central Jakarta, she added. She had tried to take a shortcut through Jl. Kampung Bali and Jl. Kebon Kacang Raya to avoid the traffic jam, but to no avail.

“I was annoyed by the traffic diversion. I understand that the police want to make a movie, but they should film it early in the morning, not when the streets are crowded,” Ghoida told The Jakarta Post on Sunday, adding that the street closure should have been announced much earlier.

Putri Marcellia, 24, a resident of Bekasi, West Java, did not know about the traffic diversion.

Driving her own car, she spent about an hour on Jl. Sudirman to get to Grand Indonesia mall last Saturday. She thought the traffic jam had been due the capital’s ongoing MRT construction.

She said the police should have filmed the movie on Sunday morning during Car Free Day to avoid causing traffic.

National Police spokesperson Insp. Gen. Setyo Wasisto has issued an apology.

“We wanted to show the real conditions of the scene [during the actual attack]. On behalf of the movie producer, I want to apologize [for the traffic jam],” Setyo said.

The movie, which is directed by Eugene Panji and Myrna Paramita, is part of the police’s counterterrorism campaign, he added.

It features actor Ario Bayu and is being financed by the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program of a company, Setyo said, without revealing its name.

On Jan. 14, 2016, Jakarta was rocked by multiple explosions, including one at a police post, and a subsequent gunfight in front of Sarinah between police and multiple assailants.

At least eight people, including four terrorists, were killed. Twenty-six others, including police officers, were injured.

National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian, who led the Jakarta Police at the time, was lauded for the force’s swift actions.

Aman Abdurrahman, the alleged mastermind of the attack, has been tried at the South Jakarta District Court.

According to the prosecutors’ indictment, Aman had been inspired by the Paris terror attack in November 2015.

A month after the incident, Aman reportedly ordered four people to carry out a similar assault on Jl. Sabang, Central Jakarta, an area popular among foreigners. However, the plan changed when the perpetrators instead bombed Starbucks cafe and a police post.

Murder grabs global attention

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 Fighters of Ezz al-Din Al- Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas movement make their condolences, to the family of engineer Fady Al-Batsh near his family house in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, on April 21.//EPA-EFE
Fighters of Ezz al-Din Al- Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas movement make their condolences, to the family of engineer Fady Al-Batsh near his family house in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, on April 21.//EPA-EFE

Murder grabs global attention

Breaking News April 23, 2018 11:05

2,386 Viewed

KUALA LUMPUR: The brutal slaying of Hamas member Dr Fadi Albatsh has grabbed global attention, especially in the Muslim world.

The 35-year-old Palestinian lecturer, who had been living in Malaysia with his wife and three children for 10 years, was shot dead in Setapak here by two assailants as he was on his way for subuh prayers at 6am on Satur-day.

The world media, including international wires as well as Palestinian and Israeli news outlets, picked up the news.

While many parties pointed to Israeli intelligence agency Mossad as being behind the assassination, theories abound about the hit, including Dr Fadi’s expertise in weapons and links to the Islamist organisation Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.

News portals also quoted a family friend as claiming that Dr Fadi, who was active in several NGOs, was killed to stop aid to Palestine.

While Hamas has confirmed Dr Fadi as a member, Palestinian websites say he was related to a senior official of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Khaled Albatsh, who accused Mossad of carrying out the attack.

Dr Fadi’s father, too, told Al Jazeera that he believes Mossad to be behind his son’s killing.

He called on the Malaysian authorities to act swiftly and find the culprits.

Dr Fadi, who had permanent resident status in the country, received his doctorate from Universiti Malaya in 2015 and was a senior lecturer at the British Malaysian Institute.

His official biography states that his research interests include power converters, power qua­lity and renewable energy.

Israeli media repor­ted that he was also deeply involved in the Hamas drone development project.

Mossad, known for its meticulous clandestine operations against “enemies” of Israel, is said to have been responsible for the slayings of various Hamas members.

In January 2010, Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed by a team of assassins at a hotel room in Dubai.

In December 2016, Hamas-linked drone expert Mohammed Zawahri was shot dead in southern Tunisia.

According to a news portal, a woman claiming to be a Tunisian journalist who contacted Mohammed for an interview might have had ties to Mossad. The woman reportedly disappeared a day before the killing.

Meanwhile, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun told a press conference yesterday that police were awaiting the results of a post-mortem on Dr Fadi’s body which was sent to the Selayang Hospital.

“No arrests have been made and the murder weapon has not been recovered.

“We are still investigating all angles. We cannot confirm yet that the killers are European as claimed by some witnesses,” he said.