The Australian government was accused yesterday of rushing through anti-terror laws that allow police to use lethal force if they believe an attack is imminent.
Law Council of Australia president John North said the government was attempting to prevent the legal fallout experienced by British anti-terrorism police who shot dead Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes in a London subway station last July after mistaking him for a suicide bomber.
North said that under current laws police could only shoot to kill if they believed they were directly threatened, but draft legislation leaked on Friday also allowed for lethal force if it could protect the life of another person.
"Under this, there seems to be enough room to maneuver and it seems to be directly pointed at the London situation where the person was shot," he said.
North said the government was not conducting proper consultation over the proposed laws, which he said threatened basic Australian freedoms.
"The government is acting with indecent haste to bring in these laws," he told public radio.
The laws are due to be introduced to parliament on Oct. 31 and the government has given a Senate inquiry a week to scrutinize their contents.
It had kept details of the proposed legislation confidential but Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister John Stanhope published them on Friday, saying he wanted them to be properly debated by the public.
The leaked draft law includes seven-year jail terms for sedition, described as "promoting feelings of ill-will or hostility between groups" that threaten public order or "urging a person to assist the enemy."
It also includes life sentences for anyone who finances a terrorist organization and allows police to lock up terrorist suspects for two weeks without charge. Anyone who tells their family they are being held under the anti-terror laws can be jailed for five years.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not