• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2015 Sword man school attack was ‘racist’ TROLLHATTAN: A sword-wielding man who killed two people at a Swedish school with many immigrant pupils was motivated by racism, police said yesterday, as hostility towards refugees mounts across Europe. Investigators in the southwestern Swedish town of Trollhattan confirmed that Thursday’s school attack was a “racially motivated” hate crime, based on the 21-year-old assailant’s “attire, his behavior at the scene of the crimes”. Police investigator Thor Haraldsson said the assailant targeted “those with dark complexions”. The killer, identified in the media as Anton Lundin-Pettersson, went from classroom to classroom at the school for six to 15-year-olds. He killed one teacher and a student, and injured another teacher and student who both remained in hospital yesterday. On his social media accounts, the attacker comes across as a loner fascinated by Hitler, Nazi Germany and Sweden’s far-right Sweden Democrats party, which is critical of Islam and rising immigration to Sweden. A country of 9.8 million, Sweden expects to receive up to 190,000 asylum applications this year-putting it among the EU states with the highest proportion of refugees per capita as the continent struggles with a massive influx of migrants. Support for the far-right has mounted as Sweden’s ability to house and integrate the new arrivals comes under strain. An opinion poll yes- terday showed the Sweden Democrats garnering 15.7 percent of voter sympathies, up from the 12.9 percent it won in the 2014 election when it became the country’s third-largest party. Other polls have in recent months suggest it has become Sweden’s biggest party. The Sweden Democrats recently said they wanted a referendum to VIENNA: (From left) Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Feridun Sinirlioglu, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Saudi be held on the government’s generous immigration policy, though they Arabia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Arabia Adel Al-Jubeir and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pose for a photo, have little chance of obtaining such a vote. More than a dozen arson during a meeting. — AFP attacks this year have targeted refugee reception centres and apart- ments in Sweden, reducing some of them to cinders. Swedish anti- racism magazine Expo said a “rhetoric of hatred” was blowing across the Russia hold Syria talks with Scandinavian country. “The risk is that we will see an escalation, legit- imized by doomsday rhetoric and fomented in hatred’s digital echo- chamber,” editor-in-chief Daniel Poohl wrote. US, Saudi Arabia and Turkey Attacks on refugees Chilly atmosphere, scant hope for progress The rising anti-immigration trend can be seen across Europe, as more than 600,000 migrants and refugees-mainly fleeing violence in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan-have made the dangerous journey this year, VIENNA: Top diplomats from Russia, the US, the dynamics of the brutal four-and-a-half ism, to battle terror, and to help President according to the UN. Saudi Arabia and Turkey held talks in a frosty year war-allowing Assad’s battle-weary forces Assad claim victory over terror,” Putin said In Germany, which is bracing for up to a million asylum requests this atmosphere yesterday on how to end the to go on the offensive and overshadowing a Thursday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. year, officials said Thursday they had foiled an extremist plot to torch Syrian conflict, with the sides sharply at odds US-led coalition bombing the Islamic State (IS) Speaking the same day, Kerry said that while two asylum centers, arresting 13 members of a far-right movement. on the future of Bashar Al-Assad. The Vienna group. all sides agreed on the need to find a political Reports have also emerged of assaults on boats carrying migrants from meeting took place three weeks after Moscow The US and its regional allies have decried solution and battle IS, only “one thing stands Turkey to Greece in the Aegean Sea. thrust itself into the heart of the crisis by Russia’s strikes, insisting Moscow is not focus- in the way... Bashar Al-Assad”. In Switzerland, the rightwing populist SVP registered a record score launching a bombing campaign in support of ing on IS as it claims, but on other groups While Syria is set to dominate the Vienna in recent elections, and Austria’s far-right posted its best-ever election the Syrian president that has drawn sharp fighting the regime in Damascus, and that the talks, Lavrov and Kerry will also discuss the lat- result in Vienna earlier this month. With at least 9,000 people landing on condemnation from the west. Kremlin’s intervention will only prolong the est Israeli-Palestinian violence with represen- Europe’s beaches every day, European Commission chief Jean-Claude And Russia and Jordan said they had bloodshed. Russia has been frantically trying tatives from the European Union and United Juncker has urged EU nations to share the burden for helping those in agreed to “coordinate” their military opera- to get the US and its coalition partners to Nations. The talks are part of a flurry of diplo- need. “Let’s not write poems or make promises, let’s act because there is tions in Syria. The crunch talks at a Vienna cooperate with its bombing campaign in matic activity to end more than three weeks urgency,” he said. “We must be conscious of our responsibility,” he hotel brought together Russian Foreign Syria, and Putin on Thursday stressed the of bloodshed which has raised fears of a new added. Yesterday, some 5,000 people arrived overnight at the Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of need for “joint work” to defeat “terrorism” in Palestinian intifada, or uprising. Berkasovo border crossing between Serbia and Croatia and had to wait State John Kerry with their Saudi counterpart Syria. in fog and freezing temperatures to enter Croatia, the UN refugee Adel Al-Jubeir and Turkey’s Feridun In a potential step forward, Lavrov Strikes kill nearly 450 agency said. Sinirlioglu. announced that Russia and Jordan-another Meanwhile, Russian air strikes in Syria have People lit fires to warm themselves, while some slept on the ground Washington, Riyadh and Ankara-which all member of the US-led coalition-had agreed to killed at least 446 people, more than a third of under blankets. Children could be heard crying in their tents. “So many back groups battling against Assad-were “coordinate” their military actions in Syria and them civilians, the Syrian Observatory for children, (this is) a catastrophe!” a police officer said. The EU is to hold a sounding out Lavrov after the embattled set up a “mechanism” to facilitate that end. Human Rights monitoring group said yester- mini summit on Sunday with Balkan countries situated on the migrant Syrian strongman made a surprise visit to While the scope of the coordination was not day. Russia launched an air war on opponents route, as Slovenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Croatia have Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin this clear, it appears to outstrip the limited under- of the Syrian regime of President Bashar Al- demanded financial help to cope with the large influx. Buckling under week. But the atmosphere appeared chilly, standings Russia has with Israel and the US to Assad on September 30 and says it is target- the surge of refugees, Slovenia yesterday threatened to copy Hungary and there was scant hope for progress on avoid accidental air collisions over Syria. “I ing the Islamic State jihadist group and other and erect a wall to keep migrants out. — AFP resolving almost five years of war with the hope this mechanism will be effective in fight- “terrorists”. Of the total killed since then, 151 sides at loggerheads over the future of Assad. ing all terrorism in Syria and beyond,” are civilians and include 38 children and 35 At an impromptu press conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said. women, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh Rahman said. The strikes have also killed 295 before the four-way talks began, Lavrov reiter- Assad’s fate combatants, including 75 IS jihadists and 31 ated the need to ramp up the fight against Assad’s fate remains a major stumbling members of Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, Al- “terrorism” in Syria and the need for a political block for ending the conflict in Syria. His sur- Nusra Front, Abdel Rahman said. solution. He made no mention of his bilateral prise visit to Moscow on Tuesday-his first The Britain-based Observatory says it relies talks with Kerry earlier in the morning. known trip abroad since the start of the con- on a network of activists, medical staff and flict in 2011 — has now made the Kremlin a fighters on the ground who identify Russian ‘Full-scale talks’ key link to the strongman and placed it at the warplanes based on model, flight patterns “Our common position is that we need to centre of the equation after 15 months of and ammunition types. Russia has been criti- boost efforts for the political process in the Western isolation over Ukraine. Washington cized by rebel groups and their backers for Syrian settlement,” Lavrov said. “This foresees and its regional allies have long insisted Assad targeting non-jihadist groups and inflicting the start of full-scale talks between represen- has to go for there to be any chance of a polit- civilian casualties. It has been also accused of tatives of the Syrian government and the full ical solution to fighting that has cost more hitting hospitals and field clinics.

Load more

  1

Copy Link