Australia plans to build a permanent memorial to remember the victims of the Sydney cafe siege, officials said yesterday as they vowed never to forget the two hostages who died. The memorial is also to pay tribute to the police and emergency service officers who worked to end the 16-hour siege in mid-December.
The siege shocked Australians, with thousands of Sydneysiders laying bouquets at a large makeshift memorial near the cafe in the city’s financial hub.
“The outpouring of grief that was symbolized by a sea of flowers in Martin Place, and that moved hearts around the world, was the beginning of our recovery process,” New South Wales Premier Mike Baird said in a statement. “The unveiling of a permanent memorial, on or before the first anniversary of the siege, will be another significant step in that process, and will guarantee that the memory of Tori [Johnson] and Katrina [Dawson] lives forever in the heart of Sydney.”
Cafe manager Johnson, 34, barrister Dawson, 38, and gunman Man Haron Monis, 50, died in a bloody end to the siege. Several hostages were also injured.
News of the memorial, which is to include compost created from the floral tributes, came as reports said Dawson was struck by police bullets when officers stormed the cafe.
Multiple police sources told the Sydney Morning Herald that the mother-of-three was not hit directly but possibly from a ricochet.
The Daily Telegraph added that a ricochet struck Dawson in the heart as she lay on the ground, with a separate ricochet striking her in the shoulder.
The newspaper, citing police sources, said Johnson was shot in the back of the head by Monis, who had 20 shotgun rounds in his pocket when he was killed by police.
New South Wales Police are conducting an investigation into the siege, with a spokesman telling reporters they would not comment on the newspaper reports.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of