An escalating gun war in Sydney saw five overnight drive-by shooting attacks, Australian police said yesterday, as they struggled to bring the gangland violence under control.
There have been eight shootings across the city in four days and 19 so far this month, mostly in Sydney’s west and southwest.
Three homes and two tattoo parlors were sprayed with bullets in the latest attacks. No one was hurt, but five young children were lucky to escape injury in one of the houses.
Police believe a dispute between two biker gangs — the Nomads and Hells Angels — was behind four of the five attacks.
Australian Assistant Police Commissioner Frank Mennilli said the police were working on stamping out the violence.
“This is where we have just individuals who’ve got a total disregard for the law of this state and its community,” he told ABC radio.
“I can assure you and I can assure the community these people just better be ready, because we’ll be knocking on their door very shortly,” he said.
However, few arrests have been made in the rising wave of gun crime, with detectives frustrated by the reluctance of many victims to cooperate.
INFORMATION
New South Wales state opposition leader John Robertson urged the government to authorize police rewards of up to A$50,000 (US$51,700) to any person who provides information that leads to an arrest and conviction.
“This gangland war is going to continue and people in Sydney are going to continue to live in fear,” he told reporters.
New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell defended the police response.
“I share the public’s concern that even though these are clearly targeted shootings, only one stray bullet is needed to seriously injure or kill someone who is innocent,” he said.
“But what we need to do is also support and recognize the progress that police have made,” he said.
“Since the start of this year, 74 arrests state-wide in relation to firearm offenses, 147 weapons seized and 21,500 rounds of ammunition. I have great confidence in the New South Wales police,” he said.
ILLEGAL TRADE
Australian Federal Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said more needed to be done to halt the illegal trade in firearms, with more than 10,000 handguns on the streets of Australia.
He suggested a firearms unit be established to collate intelligence gathered by customs and federal and state police on the illegal gun trade.
“We already have that with drugs, and it works very well,” Clare said.
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on Monday met virtually with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) and raised concerns about “malicious cyber activity” carried out by Chinese state-sponsored actors, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement. The department last month reported that an unspecified number of its computers had been compromised by Chinese hackers in what it called a “major incident” following a breach at contractor BeyondTrust, which provides cybersecurity services. US Congressional aides said no date had been set yet for a requested briefing on the breach, the latest in a serious of cyberattacks
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RSS