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
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion