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Afghan man in Oklahoma City arrested for plotting Election Day attack for Daesh — indictment

Afghan man in Oklahoma City arrested for plotting Election Day attack for Daesh — indictment
An American flag waves outside the US Department of Justice Building in Washington, US, December 15, 2020. (REUTERS/File)
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Updated 09 October 2024

Afghan man in Oklahoma City arrested for plotting Election Day attack for Daesh — indictment

Afghan man in Oklahoma City arrested for plotting Election Day attack for Daesh — indictment
  • Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, has been living in Oklahoma City after entering the US in 2021 on a special immigrant visa
  • Tawhedi and co-conspirator arrested on Monday after they met with FBI assets to buy two AK-47 rifles and ammunition

WASHINGTON: An Afghan man was arrested in Oklahoma for allegedly plotting an election day “terrorist attack,” the US Department of Justice said on Tuesday.
The man, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, living in Oklahoma City after entering the US in 2021 on a special immigrant visa, was plotting the attack in the name of Islamic State, according to the indictment. The Special Immigrant Visa program, which admits up to 50 people a year, is available to people who worked with the US armed forces or under chief of mission authority as a translator or interpreter in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The indictment did not indicate whether Tawhedi worked as translator or interpreter in Afghanistan. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tawhedi searched online for information on how to access cameras in the capital, Washington, D.C., and for states that did not require a license to get a firearm, according to the indictment. He also visited the White House and Washington Monument webcameras.
Tawhedi and an underage co-conspirator, who is his brother-in-law, were arrested on Monday after they met with FBI assets to buy two AK-47 rifles and ammunition.
In his post-arrest interview, Tawhedi said the attack planned to target large gatherings of people, during which he and his co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs.
“We will continue to combat the ongoing threat that Daesh and its supporters pose to America’s national security, and we will identify, investigate, and prosecute the individuals who seek to terrorize the American people,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Last week, in a “homeland threat assessment,” the Department of Homeland Security said the US threat environment was expected to remain high in the coming year due to factors including the 2024 election cycle and the war in Gaza.
“Lone offenders and small groups continue to pose the greatest threat. Meanwhile, foreign terrorist organizations, including the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda maintain their enduring intent to conduct or inspire attacks in the Homeland,” the department said in an assessment released on Oct. 2.
The Islamic State militant organization killed and executed thousands of people in the name of its extreme religious interpretation before it was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and Syria in 2019.


Snowstorm traps hundreds of hikers on Mount Everest during China’s national holiday

Snowstorm traps hundreds of hikers on Mount Everest during China’s national holiday
Updated 8 min 7 sec ago

Snowstorm traps hundreds of hikers on Mount Everest during China’s national holiday

Snowstorm traps hundreds of hikers on Mount Everest during China’s national holiday
BEIJING: Rescuers were helping hundreds of hikers trapped by heavy snow at tourist campsites on a slope of Mount Everest in Tibet, Chinese state media said.
About 350 hikers had reached a meeting point in Tingri country and rescuers were in contact with another 200, state broadcaster CCTV said late Sunday. There was no immediate update on rescue efforts on Monday.
The hikers were trapped at an elevation of more than 4,900 meters (16,000 feet), according to an earlier report from Jimu News, a Chinese online site. Mount Everest is about 8,850 meters (29,000 feet) tall.
A hiker who rushed to descend before snow blocked the way told Jimu News that others still on the mountain told him the snow was 1 meter (3 feet) deep and had crushed tents.
Hundreds of rescuers headed up the mountain Sunday to clear paths so that trapped people could come down, the Jimu report said. A video shot by a villager showed a long line of people with horses and oxen moving up a winding path in the snow.
The snowstorm struck during a weeklong national holiday in China, when many travel at home and abroad.
In another mountainous region in western China, one hiker died of hypothermia and altitude sickness and 137 others were evacuated in the north part of Qinghai province, CCTV said Monday.
The search in an area in Menyuan county with an average altitude of more than 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) was complicated by the terrain, unpredictable weather and continuous snowfall, a CCTV online report said.
Mount Everest, known as Mount Qomolangma in Chinese, straddles the border between China and Nepal, where recent heavy rains have left more than 40 people dead.
Climbers attempt to scale the world’s tallest peak from base camps in both countries. The base camp for climbers is separate from the tourist camp where hikers were trapped by the snowfall.
A strong earthquake killed at least 126 people in the same area in January.
The Chinese side of Everest is in Tibet, a remote western region where the government has cracked down harshly on dissent and poured in funds for economic development including roads and tourism.
The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, fled during a failed uprising in 1959 and lives in India, where some Tibetans have set up a government in exile.

French Prime Minister resigns after only 2 weeks in office

French Prime Minister resigns after only 2 weeks in office
Updated 51 min 9 sec ago

French Prime Minister resigns after only 2 weeks in office

French Prime Minister resigns after only 2 weeks in office

PARIS: France’s new prime minister Sébastien Lecornu resigned Monday, just a day after naming his government and after only two weeks in office.
The French presidency said in a statement that President Emmanuel Macron has accepted his resignation.


Drone sighting temporarily disrupts flights at Norway’s Oslo airport, NTB reports

Drone sighting temporarily disrupts flights at Norway’s Oslo airport, NTB reports
Updated 06 October 2025

Drone sighting temporarily disrupts flights at Norway’s Oslo airport, NTB reports

Drone sighting temporarily disrupts flights at Norway’s Oslo airport, NTB reports
  • Several arriving flights were delayed or diverted after police received a report around midnight that a Norwegian Air pilot thought he saw three to five drones

STOCKHOLM: Norway’s Oslo airport temporarily paused landings early on Monday after a report of a drone sighting near the airport, news agency NTB reported.
Several arriving flights were delayed or diverted after police received a report around midnight that a Norwegian Air pilot thought he saw three to five drones during an approach to the airport, the Norwegian news outlet reported, citing police.
NTB reported that the observation remained unverified and that all operations had resumed at the airport.
European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent weeks by drone sightings and air incursions, including at airports in Copenhagen, Oslo and Munich.


Hospital fire kills at least six patients in India’s Jaipur, officials say

Hospital fire kills at least six patients in India’s Jaipur, officials say
Updated 06 October 2025

Hospital fire kills at least six patients in India’s Jaipur, officials say

Hospital fire kills at least six patients in India’s Jaipur, officials say
  • Jaipur Police Commissioner Biju George Joseph said an investigation by the forensic science laboratory would determine the exact cause of the fire

NEW DELHI: At least six patients were killed after a fire broke out in the trauma center of the main government-run hospital in the northwestern Indian city of Jaipur, officials said on Monday.

The blaze, suspected to have been caused by a short circuit, started in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Sawai Man Singh Hospital and quickly spread to a nearby ward at the sprawling medical complex, “releasing toxic gases,” hospital official Anurag Dhakad told ANI news agency.

“Five patients are still critical,” he said, while 13 others have been safely evacuated from the two wards at the largest government-run medical facility in Rajasthan, which serves as a major referral center for patients from across the state.
Jaipur Police Commissioner Biju George Joseph said an investigation by the forensic science laboratory would determine the exact cause of the fire.
The government of Rajasthan state, where Jaipur is located, has also formed a committee to probe the causes of the fire, ANI reported.
The subjects of investigation will include the hospital management’s response to the blaze, the firefighting arrangements at the hospital, and the measures in place to prevent the same situation in future, the agency said.
India has seen similar fires at hospitals in the past, some of which have been blamed on short circuits in electronic equipment. Ten newborn babies died from burns and suffocation after a fire broke out at a neonatal intensive care unit in the northern Uttar Pradesh state in November. Six newborn babies similarly died in a fire at a baby care hospital in New Delhi last May.


Over a dozen wounded in rare Sydney mass shooting

Over a dozen wounded in rare Sydney mass shooting
Updated 06 October 2025

Over a dozen wounded in rare Sydney mass shooting

Over a dozen wounded in rare Sydney mass shooting
  • A large contingent of police swarmed the area and locked down the street, before entering the property above a business and arresting the man

SYDNEY: A 60-year-old man was in custody in Australia Monday after police said he shot up to 50 bullets into a busy Sydney street, wounding more than a dozen people.
Police were called on Sunday evening to the city’s Inner West, where the alleged gunman was firing from his property at random at passing cars and police.
A large contingent of police swarmed the area and locked down the street, before entering the property above a business and arresting the man. They seized a rifle from the scene.
Office worker Joe Azar said he was working across the road when he heard what he thought were fireworks or rocks being thrown at the windows.
“Some guy’s windshield blew up, then the bus stop glass shattered,” Azar told The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
“The surreal feeling kicked in like, ‘Oh, this is what’s happening’,” he said.
“It was frantic. It all happened so quick, so I couldn’t comprehend what was going on,” he added.
Police had initially said up to a hundred bullets were fired and 20 people were wounded.
But on Monday, New South Wales Police Acting Superintendent Stephen Parry revised the number of shots to around 50 and the toll of wounded to 16.
“In my 35 years in the police, there’s been very few incidents of this nature where somebody is randomly targeting people in the street,” he added.
The accused shooter was taken to hospital and treated for minor injuries to the area around his eyes sustained during his arrest.
No charges have been laid against the alleged gunman yet. A police investigation is ongoing.
One man self-presented to hospital with a gunshot wound following the incident, but would likely survive, police said.
The remaining people were treated by ambulance staff for minor injuries, including shattered glass as bullets hit their car windows.

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New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon on Monday described the shooting as “serious and terrifying.”
The gunman’s motive was unclear but there were “no known links to terrorism activity or any gang activity,” he told local radio station 2GB.
One witness who gave his name as Tadgh told the national broadcaster ABC he had been watching rugby when he first heard the gunshots.
“It was very loud and ‘bang, bang, bang’ and flash-bangs and sparks and smoke and the whole works. It was something out of a movie, really,” he said.
Mass shootings are relatively rare in Australia.
A ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons has been in place since 1996, when a lone gunman killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania.
In August, alleged gunman Dezi Freeman went on the run in the bush after being accused of killing two police officers. He remains at large.
And in 2022, six people including two police officers were killed in a shooting near the small Queensland town of Wieambilla.