6 Established 1961 International Wednesday, October 21, 2020 France closes Paris mosque in a clampdown over beheading Police launch a series of raids targeting Islamist networks

PARIS: French authorities said yester- Online campaign teacher. Yesterday, the head of the Pantin day they would close a Paris mosque in a Education Minister Jean-Michel mosque, M’hammed Henniche, said he clampdown on radical Islam that has Blanquer said yesterday that Paty would had shared the video not to “validate” yielded over a dozen arrests following be posthumously bestowed France’s the complaint about the cartoons, but the beheading of a teacher who had highest order of merit, the Legion of out of fear that Muslim children were shown his pupils cartoons of the Prophet Honor, for having been “martyred” singled out in class. Four pupils suspect- Mohammed. The mosque in a densely- because of his profession. The murder ed of accepting payment for pointing populated suburb northeast of Paris had was preceded by a fierce online cam- Paty out to his killer were also taken into published a video on its Facebook page paign against Paty and the school, led by custody Monday. days before Friday’s gruesome murder, the father of a schoolgirl who accused railing against teacher Samuel Paty’s the teacher of disseminating “pornogra- ‘Carried out by thugs’ choice of material for a class discussion phy” for showing a cartoon of the Junior interior minister Marlene on freedom of expression, said a source prophet naked. The school said Paty had Schiappa was to meet the French bosses close to the investigation. of social media networks yesterday to The interior ministry said the discuss bolstering the “fight against mosque in Pantin, which has some cyber-Islamism”. Paty’s killing has 1,500 worshippers, would be shut drawn parallels with the 2015 mas- today night for six months. Interior Many arrested sacre at French satirical magazine Minister Gerald Darmanin has Charlie Hebdo, where 12 people, PANTIN, France: Muslim men gather for midday prayers at the Grand Mosque de Pantin in the vowed there would be “not a over beheading including cartoonists, were gunned northeastern suburbs of Paris yesterday. — AFP minute’s respite for enemies of the down for publishing cartoons of Republic”. The order came after of teacher Mohammed. were wounded outside the publication’s yesterday denied there had been any fail- police on Monday launched a series Tens of thousands of people took former offices. A silent march is planned ure on the part of intelligence services. of raids targeting Islamist networks, part in rallies countrywide on Sunday for Conflans-Sainte-Honorine yesterday “This is an insidious war,” he told France mainly in the Paris region. to honor Paty and defend freedom of evening in homage to Paty, while parlia- Inter. “There is organized terrorism that is Paty, 47, was attacked on his way expression, while Muslim leaders gath- ment will observe a minute of silence in monitored by our services, and then there home from the junior high school where given Muslim pupils the choice to leave ered at his school Monday to offer con- the afternoon. Macron will attend an is a young man of 18 who was not on the he taught in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, 40 the classroom. dolences and distance their religion from official homage with Paty’s family radar of the intelligence services and who kilometers northwest of the capital. A The father who posted the video the atrocity. French President Emmanuel Wednesday at the Sorbonne university. committed this abominable act in the photo of the teacher and a message con- shared by the Pantin mosque is among 15 Macron threatened that “fear is about to Blanquer added that schools country- name of misguided religion.” Meanwhile, fessing to his murder was found on the people arrested after the killing, along change sides” in the new anti-Islamist wide will observe a minute’s silence for Paris prosecutors said they had opened mobile phone of his killer, 18-year-old with a known Islamist radical and four campaign. Paty’s beheading was the sec- Paty when pupils return after the autumn an investigation into a French neo-Nazi Chechen Abdullakh Anzorov, who also members of Anzorov’s family. Darmanin ond knife attack since a trial started last break, and a special lesson on the recent website hosted abroad that republished posted images of the decapitated body on accused the father and the radical of month over the Charlie Hebdo killings. events will be taught in all classes. the photo of Paty’s decapitated corpse Twitter. Anzorov was shot dead by police. having issued a “fatwa” against the In the September attack, two people Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti posted to Twitter by the killer. —AFP ‘Trump Heights’ a symbol of US shift on Mideast policy Hunter Biden: : On a dusty plain consensus, including recognizing What we know in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and giving a golden-lettered sign with Israeli and Netanyahu the green light to build American flags stands before a rusty settlements deemed illegal under WASHINGTON: Trailing Joe Biden in the wire fence as the gateway to “Trump international law. polls two weeks ahead of the election, Heights”. But this is no luxury hotel or Along with Trump’s backing for President appears to be trying golf course set up by the property normalization deals between Israel, the to make up ground by flinging accusations developer turned president. Instead, it UAE and Bahrain-lamented by without evidence that his Democratic opponent is an , inaugurated in Palestinians as a “stab in the back”- An eagle statue is seen placed on a menorah sculpture donated by the Jewish is a “criminal” and attacking his son, Hunter American Society for Historic Preservation (JASHP) dedicated to US President Donald June 2019 by Prime Minister Benjamin Trump has changed the dynamics of Biden. Asked by a reporter on Monday if this Netanyahu as a celebration to mark the dispute between the Jewish state Trump by the entrance to Trump Heights, an Israeli settlement in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sept 21, 2020. — AFP was his strategy in the final stretch of the cam- US President Donald Trump’s recogni- and the Palestinians. As he battles to paign, Trump said: “Joe Biden is a criminal and tion of the Golan as Israeli territory. stay in the White House for a second he’s been a criminal for a long time.” For residents, it is the most visible term, Trump’s strongly pro-Israel thousands of Jewish people emigrated aim of 20 families arriving each year Trump also lashed out at the media “for not legacy Trump has had here. stance has further endeared him to to Israel. One group of around 15 fam- for the next decade, said Shai Toni reporting it.” He offered no evidence to back “There is indeed a big change,” evangelical Christians, a powerful vot- ilies carved out a Jewish settlement Yeheskel, from the local Golan council. up his allegation other than to say “read his said Haim Rokach, head of the Golan ing bloc. The most ardent evangelical here, but the associated farming life is “For the first time in almost 30 years laptop,” presumably a reference to a computer regional council, his eyes sparkling at faithful believe the state of Israel was tough. Many struggled to make ends they have hope,” Yeheskel said. “It’s once allegedly owned by Hunter Biden that has the mention of the US president’s established in line with biblical meet, and just five families of Israeli going to become one of the centers of been the subject of recent stories in the Rupert name. “Since Trump’s declaration and prophecy and as a prerequisite for the settlers remain, many of them elderly. the Golan.” Living in run-down hous- Murdoch-owned New York Post. Here’s what the decision to build the place, we see second coming of Christ. Naming the settlement after Trump es, the ageing residents have steered we know about Hunter Biden, the 50-year-old a lot of interest from investors.” The has given Israeli authorities an oppor- clear of outsiders who have visited the son of the former senator from Delaware and Golan Heights, a strategic military Settlement expansion tunity to revive the community, and 20 settlement since it was renamed. But a Democratic presidential nominee: zone, was seized by Israel from Syria While the Trump Heights sign is Jewish families are due to move to the group of teenagers live in the commu- in the Six-Day War of 1967. Trump’s new, the settlement is not. It was remote spot by the end of November. nity, where they are put through a six- Ukraine recognition of Golan was the latest in founded in 1991, following the collapse Diggers were recently leveling the month program ahead of national From 2014 to 2019, while his father was vice a string of steps away from global of the Soviet Union when hundreds of land ready for their homes, with the service. —AFP president, Hunter Biden, a lawyer and lobbyist, served on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company. Trump has accused Joe Biden, when he was president Barack Obama’s deputy, Hopeless in Baltimore, Espionage in Australia of seeking the removal of Ukraine’s top prose- cutor to protect Burisma-and his son-from a ground zero of US at higher levels than corruption investigation. Joe Biden has acknowledged publicly that he did indeed push for the dismissal of the prosecutor but the ‘urban apartheid’ Cold War: Spy chief European Union and IMF had also sought his removal-not because of a Burisma probe but because he was seen as not being aggressive BALTIMORE: Demon Lane says his east SYDNEY: Espionage in Australia had eclipsed Cold enough in pursuing corruption. Hunter Biden, in War levels, the country’s spymaster told parliament Baltimore neighborhood will still be blighted by an interview with ABC News, has said he may yesterday, in a speech warning that citizens were being drug dealing, deadly gunfire, rat-infested vacant have displayed “poor judgment” in his past monitored and harassed by foreign powers. Several houses and hopelessness, no matter who wins business dealings but had not engaged in any politicians across the ideological spectrum have America’s presidential election in November. His wrongdoing. area is overwhelmingly Black, deeply poor and become embroiled in investigations into suspected overseas influence operations - most notably from devastated by decades of neglect, which stands in Impeachment China. stark contrast to the pricey condos, new stores and Democrats in the House of Representatives Australia’s normally tight-lipped spy chiefs have safe streets a few miles away in overwhelmingly opened an impeachment inquiry in September become increasingly outspoken about the threat. white and affluent areas. BALTIMORE: Charles Owens rests in front of an abandoned 2019 after a whistleblower revealed that Trump “There are more foreign spies and their proxies oper- Baltimore is nearly two-thirds Black, yet it’s also row home in the Broadway East neighborhood block had sought to pressure the Ukrainian president ating against Australian interests than there were at the been ranked one of the nation’s most segregated where he has lived since 1986, on Oct 14, 2020. —AFP into launching an investigation of the Bidens. height of the Cold War,” said Australian Security cities, where experts say the poorest African The Democratic-majority House approved arti- Intelligence Organization chief Michael Burgess. He Americans are expected to live about two decades cles of impeachment against Trump for abuse of a 25-year-old Black man, Freddie Gray, and this warned that diaspora groups living in Australia were less than people in the wealthiest white districts. “It of power and obstruction of Congress but the year’s nationwide Black Lives Matter protests being monitored and harassed by foreign governments. didn’t make a difference with the last three presi- Republican-controlled Senate acquitted him of found a strong resonance in the city. Some areas, to An AFP investigation has shown ethnic Uighur exiles dents. So it ain’t going to make a difference with both charges. A report released last month by the east and west of downtown Baltimore, were from China’s Xinjiang region have been targeted while this next one,” 27-year-old Lane told AFP from the Senate Republicans into Hunter Biden’s Ukraine over 90 percent Black with median incomes as low living in Australia and other democratic countries. stoop of the rowhouse he shares with his three dealings did not find any evidence of any as $14,000 per year, according to 2016 city figures. Students from Hong Kong enrolled in Australian uni- young children and wife. Some of Baltimore’s wealthiest areas, with medi- wrongdoing by Joe Biden. Across the street, trash was piled waist-high and versities have also reported intimidation and threats to an incomes as high as $110,000, were over 85 per- family back home after last year’s pro-democracy most of the next block was covered in grass New York Post cent white, the same figures said. It’s a division that protests in the financial hub. Burgess did not refer to because its abandoned houses had been bulldozed, The New York Post last week revived the experts said was born of an ugly past of racism in China by name in his speech to lawmakers in Canberra. some of the thousands of empty buildings in a city Hunter Biden allegations with a story claiming the city. “Baltimore actually is ground zero for But he said the foreign surveillance and intimidation of that has been shrinking for years. Down the road, it had obtained documents from a laptop urban apartheid in America,” researcher and diaspora groups was “nothing less than an attack on past another block of vacant homes, was a drug owned by the former vice president’s son which activist Lawrence Brown said in an interview post- Australia’s sovereignty.” “It is unacceptable that people was brought in for repairs in April 2019 but dealing spot Lane called “crack central.” During the ed to YouTube earlier this year. He noted that in Australia are being intimidated, simply for advocat- never picked up. The Post claimed that emails warmer months of the year, he estimated he hears Baltimore’s leaders passed the first residential racial ing for democratic reforms or criticizing human rights found on the laptop showed that Hunter Biden gunfire three times a week. “I have no hope. The zoning law in America’s history in 1910, which said abuses,” he said. introduced his father to a Burisma advisor, only thing I have hope in is my own self - what I Black people could not move onto white-majority In recent years, several Australian politicians have Vadym Pozharskyi, in 2015 and contradict Joe can do for my family”, he added. blocks and vice-versa. The US Supreme Court been embroiled in scandals after taking cash donations Biden’s claims that he never spoke to his son struck the law down seven years later, but other from Beijing-linked donors or being accused of partici- about his overseas business dealings. The Post ‘Ground zero for urban apartheid’ measures like “restrictive covenants” in property pating in Chinese propaganda efforts. Burgess warned said the shop owner handed the laptop over to Baltimore’s troubles have been a political tool deeds that barred Black ownership or rental, that the country’s politicians were prominent targets in the FBI and also made a copy of the hard drive for President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly remained enforceable for decades more. Brown efforts “to steal our secrets and manipulate our deci- and gave it to former New York mayor Rudy attacked the city that has been Democrat-led for coined the phrase “Black Butterfly” to describe sion making.” “We see evidence of intelligence servic- Giuliani. Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, has decades, most recently calling it the “WORST IN how African Americans are concentrated in poor es deceptively cultivating politicians of all levels of a record of dispersing disinformation about the NATION.” Frustration at racial inequality boiled areas east and west of Baltimore’s downtown, while government to advance the interests of the foreign Bidens and Ukraine. — AFP over in 2015 following the death in police custody a strip of affluent white areas run between. — AFP countries,” he added. — AFP