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SATURDAY, JULY 25, 2015
WORLD White gunman kills two in Louisiana cinema attack It was not yet clear how John Houser — a 59-year-old white male with a criminal record — obtained his gun. Police said he tried to flee after shooting 13 rounds from a single handgun in Lafayette on Thursday evening
CHICAGO: The author of the latest mass shooting in the United States was a drifter who tried to escape after killing two women in a movie theatre, then took his life as police closed in, authorities said on Friday. The incident came just hours after President Barack Obama said an inability to enact “common sense” gun controls was one of the greatest frustrations of his time in office. It was not yet clear how John Houser -- a 59-year-old white male with a criminal record -- obtained his gun. Nor was his motive immediately known. Police said Houser tried to flee after shooting 13 rounds from a single handgun into the crowded cinema in Lafayette, Louisiana Thursday evening. Nine people were wounded. “What happened is that the quick law enforcement response forced him back into the theatre, at which time he shot himself,” Lafayette police chief Jim Craft told reporters. Houser had been staying at a nearby motel where authorities found glasses and wigs apparently intended for disguises. “He’s kind of a drifter,” Craft said, adding that Houser -- who he said had acted alone -- had arrived in Louisiana recently from Alabama. Craft later told CNN that Hous-
RAMPAGE: A member of police, front, stands outside a movie theatre where a man opened fire inside a crowded movie theatre in Lafayette, Louisiana on Thursday.— Reuters
er had a criminal record, including previous arrests for arson and a misdemeanor charge for selling alcohol to a minor. Louisiana state police chief Michael Edmonson said they were investigating Houser’s motive, and had spoken to his friends and family. It is possible that he may have been inspired by a 2012 theatre massacre in Colorado that left 12 dead and 70 injured, Craft said. Almost exactly three years ago, James Holmes opened fire on a packed screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colorado, in a meticulously-planned attack during which he wore body armour and used tear gas to prevent victims from escaping. Jurors are currently considering whether Holmes, 27, should receive the death penalty. More than 100 people were in the Louisiana cinema when Houser began shooting indiscriminately into the
S C A N D A L I N V O LV I N G P R I M E M I N I S T E R
audience about 30 minutes into a screening of “Trainwreck.” Seven people remained in hospital on Friday, one of whom is in critical condition. Random act of violence Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said on Friday it did not appear that the victims were targeted and said residents were coming to grips with the “random act of violence.” “There’s never a good explanation. In this case, the explanation will be less than in other cases based on what they learned by talking to family members and processing that hotel room and car,” Jindal said on CNN. He praised the “selfless heroism” of two wounded teachers. The first threw herself in front of her friend to shield her from the bullets. The second, who was shot in the leg “had the presence
of mind to pull the fire alarm” to warn others of the danger. Jindal, who is also vying for the Republican presidential nomination, said it was not the right time to discuss gun control and that the focus should remain on the victims. The shooting came just hours after Obama said the issue he felt “most frustrated and most stymied” was gun control. “If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it’s less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it’s in the tens of thousands,” Obama said in an interview with the BBC taped before the shooting. “And for us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing,” he said. The White House said the president was briefed late Thursday while en route to Kenya about
America’s latest mass shooting tragedy. This latest incident also comes a week after Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, 24, opened fire on two military centers in Chattanooga, Tennessee and killed four US Marines and a Navy sailor before dying in a shootout without police. Television images from Lafayette showed a hectic scene at the cinema, surrounded late Thursday by dozens of emergency medical vehicles and police cars. “It was crazy, chaos everywhere,” Jacob Broussard, who was watching a movie across the hall, told CNN. Police said Mayci Breaux, 21, died at the scene. Jillian Johnson, 33, died in hospital. Houser’s apparent LinkedIn profile showed a varied career, with experience in investment management, real estate and short stints as a cafe owner. — AFP
LIFE TERM
Russia jails politician for hate killings MOSCOW: A Russian court on Friday sentenced a nationalist leader to life imprisonment for organising a string of hate killings including the shooting of a prominent rights lawyer in broad daylight. Moscow City Court jailed Ilya Goryachev, a former journalist and pro-Kremlin activist, after he was found guilty of ordering the murder of 34-year-old lawyer Stanislav Markelov on a busy Moscow street in 2009 as he walked from a news conference. A 25-year-old reporter at opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Anastasia Baburova, was also shot dead as she accompanied Markelov. “Goryachev has been sentenced by the court to a term of life imprisonment,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement. A nationalist activist, Nikita Tikhonov, is serving a life sentence for shooting Markelov, while his co-accused, Yevgenia Khasis, was sent to a penal colony for 18 years. “It was Goryachev who gave Tikhonov the assignment to murder lawyer Stanislav Markelov,” investigators said. Anti-fascist view Goryachev felt “ideological hatred and enmity” towards Markelov due to his “professional activities in defending the rights of victims with anti-fascist views,” they added. Russian investigators said Goryachev and Tikhonov were among the founders in 2008 of a “highly organised” and heavily armed group called the Battle Organisation of Russian Nationalists, or BORN. Goryachev, 33, studied history at a Moscow university before founding with Tikhonov a radical group called Russian Image, inspired by a Serbian ultra-nationalist movement. He worked for a time on an Orthodox television channel and wrote articles for several newspapers. He also claimed to have worked as an assistant to two Russian lawmakerss. BORN committed dozens of crimes including eight murders, investigators said. Their victims included a judge, several anti-fascist campaigners and members of ethnic minorities. — AFP
H A R D L I N E FA C T I O N O F M A O I S T R E B E L S
Malaysia suspends Nepal protest against constitution top publications change turns violent; 250 arrested over graft reports KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian government’s crackdown on the media and dissenters widened on Friday, as the home ministry suspended publication of two leading financial newspapers over their reporting of alleged graft at the country’s troubled state investment fund. The Edge Weekly and The Edge Financial Daily were suspended for three months from July 27, just days after authorities blocked access to a website that has covered the scandal and has been critical of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government. Two opposition lawmakers said this week that they had been issued travel bans in connection with investigations into the debtladen state fund 1MDB. Legal action Najib has also been weighing legal action against the Wall Street Journal which reported earlier this month that investigators looking into 1MDB had traced close to $700 million of deposits moving into his personal account. Reuters has not verified the WSJ report. Najib has denied taking any money for personal gain and said the corruption allegations are part of a malicious campaign to force him out of office. The Edge Media Group, which has a staff of around 350 people in Malaysia, has been reporting extensively on the allegations directed at 1MDB. 1MDB, with debts of over $11 billion, is being investigated by authorities in Malaysia for financial mismanagement and graft. The state-owned firm’s advisory
‘The Edge Weekly’ and ‘The Edge Financial Daily’ were suspended for three months from July 27, just days after authorities blocked access to a website that has covered the scandal and has been critical of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government board is chaired by the prime minister. The Edge Media Group said in a statement on Friday that the ministry issued a notice that claimed the two publications’ reporting of 1MDB was “prejudicial or likely to be prejudicial to public order, security or likely to alarm public opinion or is likely to be prejudicial to public and national interest”. Billions of ringgit “We don’t see how exposing the scam to cheat the people of Malaysia of billions of ringgit can be construed as being detrimental to public and national interest,” said The Edge Media Group publisher and CEO Ho Kay Tat. “This is nothing more than a move to shut us down in order to shut us up.” Ho said the matter would be taken to court in a bid to lift the suspension. — Reuters
KATHMANDU: Nepalese police arrested nearly 250 demonstrators on Friday as they torched vehicles and forced schools, shops and businesses to shut down in protest over government plans to pass a new constitution. Police said they had arrested 247 Maoist activists over the violence and deployed heavy security during the first national strike since a devastating quake hit the country in April. “Seven vehicles have been torched and another 19 vandalised,” police spokesman Kamal Singh Bam told AFP, adding that no casualties had been reported so far.
Bitter disagreement Nepal’s Maoists struck a deal with rival parties on a new constitution last month after years of bitter disagreement, spurred by an earthquake that killed more than 8,800 people in the Himalayan nation. But a breakaway faction of the party says the deal betrays the principles of the Maoists, who fought a decade-long civil war with the state that ended in 2006 and led to the abolition of a centuriesold feudal monarchy. ‘People’s war’ “The draft is against the people and the spirit and hopes of the people’s war,” their spokesman Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma told AFP, referring to the conflict. “The constitution does not address the problems of the ethnic, racial and gender discrimination that we fought against.” Dozens have been injured this week in clashes between police and protesters angered by the terms of the draft constitution, after a public consultation process
GENERAL STRIKE: People gather around a damaged taxi burned by demonstrators during a general strike called by the hardliner faction of former Maoist rebels, who are protesting against the first draft of the new constitution that has been published, in Kathmandu on Friday. — Reuters
The opposition is pushing for new provinces to be created along lines that could favour historically marginalised communities
began on Monday. The opposition is pushing for new provinces to be created along lines that could favour historically marginalised communities. Other parties have attacked this
model, calling it a threat to national unity. Friday’s strike emptied Kathmandu’s usually packed roads of traffic and many Nepalis expressed frustration over the impact on
livelihoods already devastated by the quake. “I am tired of strikes. It is people like us who suffer... whenever there is a strike, there is no work and we go hungry,” said daily wage labourer, Karma Tamang. Earthquake Bank official Nisha Shrestha told AFP she was on her way to work in defiance of the strike. “It makes me angry that at a time when we are trying to recover from an earthquake, these people want to trouble us more with strikes,” the 28-year-old said. — AFP