Manager of Sydney Cafe dies as hero in hostage siege

SYDNEY -- The manager of the Sydney cafe who was fatally shot in the siege was being praised as a hero on Tuesday for allowing others trapped in the cafe to escape.

Three people were killed, including the hostage taker, in the 17-hour siege which involved a lone gunman and 17 hostages and began on Monday morning.

Tori Johnson, 34, was wrestling a gun from hostage taker Man Haron Monis when he was killed, according to the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC).

According to reports from the hostages, it is understood the cafe manager decided to take action when Monis started to fall asleep at 2 a.m. on Tuesday after the siege had been ongoing for 17 hours.

Johnson lunged at the gunman's weapon, enabling others to flee.

The second hostage killed has been identified as mother-of- three Katrina Dawson, 38. Dawson was killed trying to defend her pregnant friend, the Australian Associated Press reports.

Media refused to be used

Various media have reported that Monis forced the hostages to call them to present his demands. All the media did not cooperate and did not relay these messages.

Before the police raided the cafe at around 2 a.m., a group of hostages ran out of the building. At that point police stormed the cafe using stun grenades and firing rifles.

The 50-year-old Monis, an Iranian refugee and self-styled sheikh on bail for an accessory to murder charge, was pronounced dead at hospital.

Four hostages were injured including two women, who have been taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries, another woman who suffered a gunshot wound to her shoulder and a police officer who was treated for a gunshot wound to the face.

Addressing the media on Tuesday morning, New South Wales (NSW) Commissioner Andrew Scipione said police were still trying to find out the exact details of siege. "We need to actually find out what's happened here and what's happened inside that cafe," he said.

Tribute to the hostages

NSW Premier Mike Baird has also addressed media, paying tribute to the families of the deceased and hostages, and rallying the people of NSW to "come together like never before."

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has released a statement this morning following briefings with the NSW premier and police commissioner.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the two deceased hostages, the wounded, and the other hostages," he said.

"I commend the courage and the professionalism of the New South Wales Police and other emergency services."

Abbott will travel to Sydney on Tuesday to be further briefed by NSW police and other security agencies.

The authorities have commenced an extensive investigation and cleared for risk of explosives.

Throughout Tuesday morning, the public have been laying flowers near the cafe in Martin Place.

Police have been reluctant to reveal details of what prompted them to storm the building, but it has been reported hostages took the opportunity to escape as their captor began to doze off.

Scipione said police had no choice but to enter the building, after hearing gunshots and feared hostages had been hit.

"They made the call because they believed at that time if they didn't enter it would have been many more lives lost," Scipione said.

Monis was also charged this year with indecent and sexual assault of women in 2002. He was hit with an additional 40 charges in October.

Monis, who was originally from Iran and lived in southwest Sydney, had previously sent offensive letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers, calling them "murderers," the Daily Telegraph said.

source: interaksyon.com

Australia to introduce tougher anti-terror laws

SYDNEY -- The Australian government will introduce tough new legislation in parliament next week to tackle terrorism, reports said Saturday, in the aftermath of the biggest crackdown in the country's history.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott will seek sweeping counter-terror powers when the proposals go before the house on Wednesday, NewsCorp Australia reported.

Thursday's unprecedented raids in Sydney and Brisbane had foiled a plot by Islamic State jihadists to carry out gruesome "demonstration executions" which could have taken place within days, Abbott said.

Security has also been stepped up in the capital Canberra, and at military bases, airports and sporting events after parliament and government officials had been mentioned as potential targets in "chatter" between extremist networks in the Middle East and Australia.

Fifteen people were arrested when hundreds of police officers raided dozens of homes in Sydney and Brisbane on Thursday, but only one person remained in custody on Saturday, officials said.

Omarjan Azari, 22, was charged with planning a terrorist act that prosecutors said was intended to "shock, horrify and terrify" the community and involved the "random selection of persons to rather gruesomely execute" on camera.

Federal police had for the first time used preventive detention orders to hold three of the 15 without charge, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. The men were released Friday.

The orders are designed to counter an imminent threat of attack and can be used to hold people for up to 14 days.

But Abbott says current legislation is inadequate to fight the threats to Australia from groups such as Islamic State, which he has described as the nation's greatest national security challenge.

Under the new powers, advocating a terrorist act will become illegal, The Weekend Australian said.

The new offence will carry a maximum five-year jail sentence and make it illegal for an individual to intentionally counsel, promote, encourage or urge a terrorist act, the newspaper said.

Police will also be given powers to secretly search the homes of suspects.

The government will further seek powers to proscribe visits to cities or regions where terror groups are active. People travelling to such areas without a valid reason could face prosecution.

"There's legislation that will shortly come before the Parliament to boost the range of offences," Abbott said Thursday without providing details.

"It's not always easy to prove that someone has been engaged in terrorist activity overseas.

"It's often very hard to get witnesses ... so we'll be strengthening offences in this area," he said.

The government believes up to 60 Australians are fighting alongside IS jihadists, while another 100 are actively working to support the movement at home.

Canberra has committed 600 troops and aircraft to the US-led coalition gearing up to destroy the IS organization in Iraq.

source: interaksyon.com

Abbott to Putin: back up MH17 assurances with action

SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott Monday hit out at the "shambolic" situation at the MH17 crash site as he demanded Russian President Vladimir Putin back up assurances with action.

"As anyone who has been watching the footage will know, this is still an absolutely shambolic situation," he said.

"The site is being treated more like a garden clean-up than a forensic investigation."

Abbott and Putin spoke by telephone overnight in their first conversation since the Malaysia Airlines plane, carrying 298 people, crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, apparently shot down by pro-Russian rebels with a surface-to-air missile.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, British counterpart David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande also piled pressure on Putin over the weekend in phone calls.

While Abbott would not divulge details of what was discussed, he said the onus was now on Moscow to act, using its influence with pro-Russian separatists to ensure experts can access the site of the crash.

"To President Putin's credit he did say all the right things. I want to stress what he said was fine," Abbott told a press conference.

"The challenge now is to hold the president to his word. That is certainly my intention, and it should be the intention of the family of nations to hold the president to his word."

Rutte talked with Putin on Sunday, with the Russian leader promising to help retrieve bodies and black boxes, a spokeswoman for Dutch government press service RVD told AFP.

Abbott has been particularly vocal among world leaders in his outrage at Russia's perceived lack of cooperation in the investigation into the disaster.

He has branded the plane's downing "a crime", and accused Moscow of trying to wash its hands of the tragedy while failing to properly secure the crash site.

Moscow denies any involvement in the disaster.

Twenty-eight Australian nationals and nine residents were among the 298 people from a dozen countries on board who died.

Abbott said every day that went by the bodies were deteriorating and the crash site was being further contaminated.

He added that his key goals were "to retrieve the bodies, we want to investigate the site, and we want to punish the guilty. That's what we want to do".

source: interaksyon.com