A homemade bomb exploded outside the Indonesian embassy in Paris early yesterday, causing some serious damage, but no injuries, a source close to the inquiry said.
Witnesses saw three men leave a package near the building in the west of the French capital.
Somebody noticed the package and moved it about 10m away, before fleeing, a source close to the inquiry said.
The bomb exploded minutes later at about 5:45am, “an hour or so before people would be out on the streets,” causing significant damage, including blowing out windows within a 50m radius, the source said.
No group or individual immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Police and fire fighters were rushed to the area and sealed off the road.
In Jakarta, Indonesian presidential spokesman on foreign affairs Teuku Faizasyah said the government there had been informed of the incident.
“However, it’s not clear whether it was only a bomb threat or a bomb explosion. We’re still looking for clarity on whether we were the target or not,” he said. “I don’t want to speculate, but there was a remote case in Paris before, which was a local issue. In the mid-2000s there was a case of a small bomb explosion at the Indonesian embassy in Paris. It turned out to be a local incident and nothing to do with a national threat.”
Indonesian Coordinating Security Minister Djoko Suyanto said: “This is being investigated by the Indonesian embassy in Paris in coordination with the local authorities. We don’t know the target of the bomb. The ambassador is at the location, but he can’t go near. The windows were broken, but there’s no report yet of Indonesian or staff casualties.”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese