Australian police have urged the general public to stay away from beaches in Sydney and in the neighboring cities of Wollongong and Newcastle over the weekend because of the threat of continuing gang violence.
New South Wales state Police Commissioner Ken Moroney made the warning yesterday a day after he invited the public to return to Sydney beaches despite a spate of violence this week between white Australians and predominantly ethnic Lebanese gangs.
Police promised to mount the biggest security operation in Sydney's trouble-plagued southern suburbs this weekend since the city hosted the Olympic Games in 2000 after a mob of 5,000 white youths, many of them drunk, descended on Sydney's Cronulla Beach on Sunday, fought a series of skirmishes with police and attacked people who appeared to be of Arab descent.
Moroney said intelligence received from the public indicated gangs would target Cronulla again this weekend, as well as beaches north to Newcastle and south of Sydney at Wollongong -- a stretch of about 300km of coast.
The state parliament passed emergency laws on Thursday enabling police to crack down on race rioters after several days and nights of unrest in southern suburbs.
Police said yesterday that a task force had already used their extended powers overnight to stop traffic headed for Cronulla, searching more than 100 cars at check points on major roads.
Police also have new powers to cordon off entire suburbs and to stop bars from selling alcohol for up to 48 hours as well as to seize vehicles and mobile phones for up to seven days.
Australian Council for Civil Liberties secretary Cameron Murphy said the new police powers could be used as easily to prevent political protests as racial violence.
But Police Minister Carl Scully said the new laws were necessary because the government was taking seriously the threat of an escalation of violence this weekend.
Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett and former Midnight Oil front man turned federal lawmaker Peter Garrett led a group of Australian celebrities who appealed for racial tolerance yesterday at a media event at the beachside suburb of Coogee.
Meanwhile, two men arrested in Australia's biggest terror swoop discussed assassinating the prime minister, killing policemen and even attacking crowds at sports events, a court was told yesterday.
The men, one an Islamic cleric, were part of a group of 18 Muslims arrested in police raids in Melbourne and Sydney in November and charged with being members of a terrorist organization and/or plotting a terrorist attack.
Magistrate Reg Marron said the case against them was "not overwhelming", but the transcripts showed "disturbingly strong and reasonably assertive positions".
Prosecutor Nick Robinson said police intercepted discussions between preacher Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 45, and Abdullah Merhi, 20, where they discussed jihad.
Robinson said that in the conversation Merhi asked: "For example if John Howard kills innocent Muslim families do we ... do we have to kill him and his family ... his people like at the football?"
Benbrika allegedly replied: "If they kill our kids we kill little kids." Merhi then said "innocent ones" and Benbrika replied "innocent ones", according to transcripts of the discussions read out in court.
also see story:
How Australian 'mateship' has inspired rioters
SUPPORT: Elon Musk’s backing for the far-right AfD is also an implicit rebuke of center-right Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, who is leading polls German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a swipe at Elon Musk over his political judgement, escalating a spat between the German government and the world’s richest person. Scholz, speaking to reporters in Berlin on Friday, was asked about a post Musk made on his X platform earlier the same day asserting that only the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “can save Germany.” “We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said alongside Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain
Two US Navy pilots were shot down yesterday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the US military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of US targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Both pilots were recovered alive after ejecting from their stricken aircraft, with one sustaining minor injuries. However, the shootdown underlines just how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become over the ongoing attacks on shipping by the Iranian-backed Houthis despite US and European military coalitions patrolling the area. The US military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the
MILITANTS TARGETED: The US said its forces had killed an IS leader in Deir Ezzor, as it increased its activities in the region following al-Assad’s overthrow Washington is scrapping a long-standing reward for the arrest of Syria’s new leader, a senior US diplomat said on Friday following “positive messages” from a first meeting that included a promise to fight terrorism. Barbara Leaf, Washington’s top diplomat for the Middle East, made the comments after her meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus — the first formal mission to Syria’s capital by US diplomats since the early days of Syria’s civil war. The lightning offensive that toppled former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8 was led by the Muslim Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in al-Qaeda’s
Pulled from the mud as an infant after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and reunited with his parents following an emotional court battle, the boy once known as “Baby 81” is now a 20-year-old dreaming of higher education. Jayarasa Abilash’s story symbolized that of the families torn apart by one of the worst natural calamities in modern history, but it also offered hope. More than 35,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed, with others missing. The two-month-old was washed away by the tsunami in eastern Sri Lanka and found some distance from home by rescuers. At the hospital, he was
RSS