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News in Brief(16-5-2018)

May 16, 2018 00:00:00


Random ID checks at Australia airports due to terror fears

SYDNEY, May 15: Australian police will be able to conduct random identity checks at airports under sweeping new security laws, the government said Tuesday, amid heightened terror fears following an alleged plot to bring down a plane. There has been growing concern over attacks by radicals inspired by Islamic State and other groups, with a foiled effort last year in Sydney to target an Etihad flight with a crude bomb. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the new powers-which mean officers at airports would no longer need a reason to ask for ID-were necessary in "dangerous times". — AFP

Putin opens 19-km-long bridge linking Crimea to Russia

MOSCOW, May 15: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday was set to unveil a 19-kilometre-long bridge linking southern Russia to the Crimean peninsula annexed from Ukraine, a highly symbolic project he has personally championed. Known as the Crimean Bridge, at nearly 12 miles it will be the longest not only in the country but also in Europe, overtaking the Vasco da Gama Bridge in Lisbon. — AFP

Anti-abortion posters spark anger in Rome

ROME, May 15: "Abortion is the prime cause of femicide in the world," declare the black-and-white posters that have appeared in several areas of Rome. But the campaign has provoked widespread anger and led to appeals to the mayor to get the posters removed. One feminist group condemned the posters as "disgraceful" while others objected to the use of a word often used for the killing of women by men. Italy is about to mark 40 years since abortion was made legal. — BBC

Investigators extend detention of Paris attacker's parents

PARIS, May 15: French prosecutors have extended the detention of the parents and a close friend of Paris knife attacker Khamzat Azimov for another 24 hours as they work to establish whether he received any help in planning his stabbing spree. Azimov, a naturalised French citizen of Chechen origin from Strasbourg, was shot dead by police on Saturday night after stabbing a 29-year-old man to death in the busy Opera district of central Paris and wounding four others in an assault claimed by the Islamic State group. — AFP

Sudanese President orders major cabinet reshuffle

CAIRO, May 15: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has ordered a major Cabinet reshuffle, including seven ministers of state and eight regional governors. In filling the most important posts, Bashir named Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid as interior minister, Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed as foreign minister and Mohamed Ahmed Salim as justice minister. — AP

Bahrain strips nationality of 115

DUBAI, May 15: A Bahrain court Tuesday sentenced 115 Bahrainis to jail terms ranging from three years to life and stripped them of their nationality for forming an Iran-linked "terrorist" group, the public prosecutor said. The defendants were found guilty of forming the "Zulfiqar Battalions", which the court said had received training in Iran and Iraq from Iran's Revolutionary Guard with "the intent to commit hostile acts" against Bahrain. — AFP


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