Canada: Armed man detained near PM Justin Trudeau's residence
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Suspect 'breached main pedestrian entrance' to Rideau Hall in Ottawa
AFP
Canadian police stand guard outside Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Canada on July 2, 2020, after an armed man who entered the grounds was arrested in the property that is home to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the country's Governor-General.
Image Credit: AFP
Ottawa: Canadian police on Thursday arrested an armed member of the country's military who entered the grounds of an Ottawa estate that is home to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the country's governor-general.
The suspect "breached the main pedestrian entrance" to Rideau Hall with his vehicle at about 6.30am (2.30pm UAE), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.
The car was disabled on impact, so he entered the property on foot before being "rapidly contained" by RCMP officers on patrol and arrested a short time later without incident.
"The individual arrested by the RCMP is a member of the Canadian Armed Forces," police said, without immediately revealing his identity. Charges are pending.
The RCMP and the Canadian defence ministry said the two sides were collaborating on the investigation.
Rideau Hall is the official residence of Governor General Julie Payette. Trudeau and his family live on the property at Rideau Cottage.
"The Prime Minister and his family, as well as the Governor-General, were not present on site at the time of the incident," the RCMP said. The normal residence for the Prime Minister is being renovated.
It has become apparent that he was gunning for Trudeau whom he blamed for everything wrong in his life including Covid19 lockdown, having his truck repossessed, running a very anemic looking skeleton of Parliament, and running up spectacular debts. The last two are certainly valid complaints, but shooting the PM is not the Canadian way. We will just continue to give him all the rope he wants until he hangs himself with it.
It has become apparent that he was gunning for Trudeau whom he blamed for everything wrong in his life including Covid19 lockdown, having his truck repossessed, running a very anemic looking skeleton of Parliament, and running up spectacular debts. The last two are certainly valid complaints, but shooting the PM is not the Canadian way. We will just continue to give him all the rope he wants until he hangs himself with it.
The gate leading to the estate was damaged.
Payette is the official representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, Canada's formal head of state due to its membership in the Commonwealth.
Duterte signs Philippines anti-terrorism law,
giving sweeping powers to security forces
giving sweeping powers to security forces
FILE PHOTO © REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco
The Philippines president has signed into law a hotly debated anti-terrorism law weeks after he claimed insurgent groups fighting against the government have taken advantage of the Covid-19 epidemic.
Overwhelmingly supported by both houses of parliament earlier this month, the 2020 Anti-Terrorism Act has now been approved by Rodrigo Duterte, local media reported on Friday, citing presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.
The legislation sets up a new entity called the Anti-Terrorism Council, which will be able to permit security forces to arrest terrorist suspects without a court warrant and detain them without charge for up to 24 days. Existing laws prescribe that such detainees must be brought to court within three days.
It also outlaws“inciting others” to commit terrorism “by means of speeches, proclamations, writings, emblems, banners, or other representations tending to the same end.”
Members of law enforcement agencies will now be less accountable for misconduct – they will no longer be required to pay roughly $10,000 for every day of wrongful detention.
Duterte also vowed to be tougher on terrorism and insurgency. In June, he said that Abu Sayyaf – a local Islamic State offshoot – as well as the rebellious Communist Party of the Philippines had taken advantage of the Covid-19 crisis.
The counter-terrorism law has been met with stiff opposition from local rights groups and activists, who urged the government to reverse the measure. Critics argued the definition of terrorism is too vague and could herald a crackdown on those who simply “displeased the president.”
The Department of the Interior and Local Government, which oversees the national police force, dismissed those concerns, assuring the populace that “people have nothing to fear from this bill; it is only the terrorists and their supporters who should fear it.”
And maybe a few outspoken journalists?
French homegrown ISIS terrorist sentenced to 30 years for aggravated murder & leading group of jihadists
FILE PHOTO: Members loyal to the ISIL wave ISIL flags as they drive around Raqqa © Reuters / stringer
Tyler Vilus, 30, was found guilty of aggravated murder, being a member of a terrorist group, and heading up a group of Islamic State fighters in Syria.
The homegrown terrorist is believed to have been part of the Al-Muhajireen (the immigrants) brigade of foreign jihadists that carried out executions and torture, which he denied. Vilus was found to have overseen executions as a member of the religious police in the Syrian town of Ash Shaddadi.
A 2015 IS propaganda video shown in court features a man believed to be Vilus standing close to two blindfolded prisoners, a member of the Syrian Army and a Free Syrian Army fighter, who are shot in the head.
Public prosecutor Guillaume Michelin said that Vilus “hasn’t changed one bit” since his time in Syria. He asked the court to give him a life sentence with no chance of parole for 22 years, calling on the court to “put a definite end to the bloodshed.”
“All the steps in the accused’s journey are interlocked with the construction of the caliphate,” he said. The judge, however, said that he wanted to give Vilus a “glimmer of hope.” Vilus’s case is the first successful French prosecution of an Islamist militant for crimes committed in Syria.
Vilus was arrested at an Istanbul airport in July 2015 with a Swiss passport. He left France for Syria in 2012, not long after converting to Islam when he was 21 years old. He is thought to have known many French jihadists who were fighting in the so-called Caliphate. The IS fighter admitted to being in contact with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is understood to be the mastermind of the November 2015 terrorism attacks in Paris.
His mother, Christine Riviere, dubbed ‘Mama Jihad’ by the French media, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in June 2017 for her “unfailing commitment” to jihad. She visited her son in Syria three times and helped bring young girls there in an effort to find him a wife.
5 dead, 16 injured in attacks in Somalian cities
By Christen McCurdyJuly 4 (UPI) -- A car bomb attack and a land mine explosion killed five people and hurt 16 others in two major Somalian cities Saturday.
In Mogadishu, the country's capital, a suicide car bomber targeted a tax collection center. The car bomber died and six others were injured.
In Baidoa, five people were killed and 10 hurt after a land mine detonated on the outskirts of the city near a restaurant.
According to the BBC, al-Shabab claimed responsibility for both incidents. The militant group has carried out similar attacks in the recent past, including a suicide bombing on a Turkish military base in Somalia at the end of June.
The group, which is linked to al-Qaida, said they were targeting tax collectors and soldiers.
Somalia's government has been battling al-Shabab for control of the country for more than 10 years.
"The Somali government condemns in the strongest terms the attacks against the civilians," the Somali Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism said in a statement.
Karachi factory fire was an act of terrorism: JIT report
KARACHI (Dunya News) - Dunya News has obtained the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report of the Baldia factory tragedy while Sindh government will release a 27-page report tomorrow.
According to the JIT report, the factory fire was not an accident, it was an act of terrorism. The fire was started in the factory for non-payment of Rs. 200 million (roughly $2.7 mn USD) as extortion money.
I don't know how that makes it a terrorist act as opposed to an organized crime racket?
According to report, MQM s Hamad Siddiqui and Rehman Bhola demanded extortion money from the factory owner but the initial investigation had not mentioned about the extortion money anywhere in the FIR or in the investigation.
JIT has recommended withdrawing the previous FIRs and filing of new FIRs under terrorism provisions in its report and also recommended including the names of Rehman Bhola, Hamad Siddiqui, Zubair Charia in the new FIR.
JIT has also recommended including the names of Umar Hassan Qadari, Dr. Abdul Sattar, Ali Hassan Qadri, Iqbal Adib Khanum and four unknown persons in the FIR.
It has also recommended to cancel the passports of the accused and put their names on the ECL.
Police role has also been criticized in the JIT report as police had failed to investigate the case in the right direction.
Russian court fines journalist for column ‘justifying terrorism’
in high-profile controversial case
in high-profile controversial case
Svetlana Prokopyeva in front of the court house. ©Facebook / svetlana.prokopyeva.9
By Jonny Tickle
A military court in Pskov has handed a Russian journalist a $7,000 fine for an article in which she blamed police brutality for a bombing incident at a regional office of the FSB, Russia’s main security agency.
The case has provoked outrage from the journalist’s supporters, who believe that the criminal charge is an attack on free speech.
Svetlana Prokopyeva was found guilty of justifying terrorism after writing a 2018 story in which she speculated about the motives behind a bombing in Arkhangelsk.
The journalist argued that the 17-year-old assailant acted in response to the “repressive actions” of the government and the police. She claimed that the authorities are responsible for creating an environment that pushes citizens to fight back.
Just moments before the Archangelsk explosion, a user on messaging app Telegram wrote that he was going to bomb the local FSB office. Thought to be written by the perpetrator, the statement claimed that the FSB “fabricates cases and tortures people.”
The attack, which killed the bomber and injured three officers, was classified as an act of domestic terrorism.
Prosecutors asked that Prokopyeva’s crime be punished with a six-year prison term, but the Second Western District Military Court opted for a fine of 500,000 rubles ($7,000) instead.
Prokopyeva, who works as a freelance journalist for American state media RFE/RL, expressed her argument during an interview with Echo of Moscow, a leading Russian radio station, which later became a written text titled ‘Repression for the state’.
During the trial, she denied justifying terrorism and said her goal was to prevent future terrorist attacks, claiming in court that she “did nothing that goes beyond professional duty.”
Her supporters have called the case a landmark for freedom of speech in Russia, and have claimed that it was fabricated to intimidate critics of the government and law enforcement. In several cities, protestors staged rallies in support of the journalist, with some people being detained.
Syndicate-100, a group of self-proclaimed independent Russian media outlets, called the sentence “a warning to everyone who works in this profession.” The Russian Union of Journalists called the verdict “blatantly unfair,” demanding “its full justification.”
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