New Zealand attacker 'brainwashed' by radical neighbours, mother says - The Straits Times

COLOMBO (AFP) - A Sri Lankan man who went on a knife rampage in a New Zealand mall was "brainwashed" by neighbours from the Middle East, his mother said on Saturday (Sept 4).

Ismail Fareeda spoke to a local TV channel about her son as the Sri Lankan government promised to work with New Zealand authorities to investigate Friday's attack.

Ahamed Adil Mohamed Samsudeen, who was shot dead by police after stabbing seven people, had been on a terror watchlist and was under surveillance. New Zealand authorities said he had been inspired by the Islamic State militant group.

Samsudeen's mother accused neighbours she said were from Syria and Iraq of radicalising her son in an interview with the Hiru TV network from her home in Kattankudy, 330km east of Colombo.

She said Samsudeen was injured in a fall in 2016 and that the neighbours, whom she did not name, seized the opportunity to influence him, adding they "were the only people who helped him as he recovered".

"Those neighbours from Syria and Iraq are the ones who brainwashed him," she said, adding her son had started posting radical views on social media after meeting the neighbours.

"We knew there was a change in him. The change came after he left the country" and settled in New Zealand in 2011, she said.

She added her two other sons had reprimanded the 32-year-old over his radical views.

Brother questioned

Sri Lankan police said Samsudeen was born in Kattankudy and brought up in Colombo where he went to a Hindu secondary school and studied maths and computer science.

His father is a retired school principal currently in Toronto, Canada.

Kattankudy is a majority Muslim town in eastern Sri Lanka. It was also the home of some of the attackers who staged suicide bombings in Colombo on Easter Sunday in 2019.

Authorities were investigating if Samsudeen had any links with those who killed 279 people in the attacks on three churches and three hotels.

The 2019 bombings were blamed on a group that pledged allegiance to the then-Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The government said it would work with New Zealand over the case.

"Sri Lanka condemns this senseless violence, and stands ready to cooperate with New Zealand authorities in any way necessary," foreign ministry spokesman Kohularangan Ratnasingam said in the government's first comment on the incident.

Ratnasingam commended the quick response by New Zealand police in dealing with the attacker.

Sri Lankan police sources said criminal investigators had interviewed the attacker's brother, who lives in Colombo.

"We are collecting information about him as well as anyone else who may have had contacts with him," a top police official said.

Sri Lanka's Muslim Council has condemned the Auckland attack as a "barbaric act of terrorism".

"This reminds all of us to come together and be united and fight against terrorism and violent extremism locally and internationally for the betterment of everybody," council member Mohamed Hisham told AFP.

Sri Lankan Muslim legislator Mujibur Rahman said his community was saddened by the attack, while lauding New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for easing public sentiment.

"Her statement soon after the incident defused the situation and ensured there was no harm to the Sri Lankan community (in New Zealand)," Rahman told AFP.

Ardern insisted no one community should be singled out for the violence.

"It was carried out by an individual, not a faith, not a culture, not an ethnicity," Ardern said.

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2021-09-04 18:35:16Z
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At least 17 killed in celebratory gunfire in Kabul: Reports - The Straits Times

KABUL (REUTERS) - At least 17 people were killed in celebratory gunfire in Kabul, news agencies said on Saturday (Sept 4), after Taliban sources said their fighters had seized control of Panjshir, the last province in Afghanistan holding out against the Islamist group.

Leaders of opposition to the Taliban have denied that the province has fallen.

Former vice-president Amrullah Saleh, one of the leaders of the opposition forces, said his side had not given up.

"There is no doubt we are in a difficult situation. We are under invasion by the Taliban," he said on a video clip posted to Twitter by a BBC World journalist. "We have held the ground, we have resisted."

Several other resistance leaders also dismissed reports of the fall of Panjshir, where thousands of fighters from regional militias and remnants of the old government's forces had massed.

The Shamshad news agency said "aerial shooting" in Kabul on Friday killed 17 people and wounded 41. Tolo news agency gave a similar toll.

At least 14 people were injured in celebratory firing in Nangarhar province east of the capital, said Mr Gulzada Sangar, spokesman for an area hospital in the provincial capital of Jalalabad.

The gunfire drew a rebuke from the main Taliban spokesman, Mr Zabihullah Mujahid.

"Avoid shooting in the air and thank God instead," Mr Mujahid said in a message on Twitter.

"Bullets can harm civilians, so don't shoot unnecessarily."

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2021-09-04 09:11:08Z
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New Zealand was unable to keep supermarket attacker locked up: PM Ardern - The Straits Times

WELLINGTON (AFP) - The radical responsible for a supermarket knife rampage in New Zealand was watched for five years and jailed for three before the authorities exhausted all avenues to keep him detained, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed on Saturday (Sept 4).

The 32-year-old Sri Lankan, who was inspired by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria extremist group, was freed only in July and had been under police surveillance since.

On Friday, he grabbed a knife off a supermarket shelf in Auckland and attacked seven people, leaving three critically wounded, before he was shot and killed by the armed police officers tasked with tailing him.

Court suppression orders meant Ms Ardern could not explain why the terrorist had not been deported, but she said measures were already under way to strengthen New Zealand's terrorism suppression laws.

The man, who arrived in New Zealand on a student visa in 2011, came to the attention of police in 2016 after expressing sympathy on Facebook for terrorist attacks.

He was arrested in 2018 on charges of possessing a knife and objectionable material, and was considered to be planning a "lone wolf" knife attack.

While in custody, he was further charged with assaulting guards, but attempts to have him charged under New Zealand's Terrorism Suppression Act were unsuccessful.

Although the man was found guilty on some charges, by then he had spent three years in prison on remand and "all avenues to continue his detention had been exhausted", Ms Ardern said, although "risk mitigation was already under way".

Ms Ardern added that changes to New Zealand's counter-terrorism legislation were expected to be approved by Parliament before the end of the month.

"In late August, officials, including the commissioner of police, raised the possibility of expediting the amendments," she said.

Many details about Friday's attacker, including his name, were suppressed in an earlier court ruling.

Although this was lifted by a judge late on Friday night, his family members have been given at least 24 hours to appeal "the release of certain information", Ms Ardern said.

"So while I can provide details concerning the individual's criminal history, there are issues relating to his immigration status, and actions taken by Immigration New Zealand, in particular, which I cannot share just yet."

Commissioner of Police Andrew Coster said there had been nothing unusual about the man's actions in the lead-up to the attack, and he had appeared to be doing normal grocery shopping.

As the man had a "high level of paranoia" around surveillance, Mr Coster said the police kept their distance, and it took more than two minutes to reach the man and shoot him after he started his frenzied stabbing spree.

"We have had no legal grounds to detain this subject. Monitoring his actions has been entirely dependent on the surveillance teams being able to maintain their cover as they watched him over an extended period," the police chief said.

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2021-09-04 06:20:53Z
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No exams, no tuition - will Chinese kids be stress-free? - The Straits Times

As part of efforts aimed at relieving pressure on children and parents, China has announced a slew of measures such as banning exams for young kids and prohibiting private tuition as it looks to reform its hyper-competitive education system. India is also reforming its system. Asian Insider looks at how feasible the changes are.

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Less tuition and no exams? Chinese children and parents grapple with education reforms

Eight-year-old Wang Baofeng has been able to sleep in a little more after the new school term started on Wednesday (Sept 1).

The Primary 2 pupil now goes to school at 8.20am, half an hour later than before.

New school timings are part of sweeping reforms to China's education system announced by the government.

Described as historical changes, they target everything from after-school tuition classes to changes in syllabus to even the amount of time students should spend on eye exercises.

READ MORE HERE

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Online gaming takes another hit as Beijing acts to protect China's youth

Ahead of the new school year, Beijing issued a series of guidelines recommending that mobile gaming companies limit the amount of screen time for children under 18 to no more than three hours a week.

The stricter guidelines are the latest move in a decades-long effort to tackle gaming addiction.

On Monday (Aug 30), the National Press and Publication Administration, the regulatory body for video games in China, announced that minors should be restricted to mobile-phone gaming for only an hour on Fridays, weekends and public holidays - from 8pm to 9pm.

It is a significant tightening of guidelines introduced in 2019 that allowed up to 13.5 hours of gaming a week.

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New policies affecting students in China

China has ordered sweeping reforms to level the playing field in education and to prevent individuals from turning learning into a business.

Here are some of the changes.

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Changes in India education system to lower students' exam stress

India is in the process of rolling out its most comprehensive education reforms in recent years to reduce the stress on students and move away from rote learning.

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 was introduced last year to reform a highly competitive education system that puts extreme exam pressure on children and has led to a proliferation of coaching institutions.

Changes will include introducing exams for pupils in Class 3 - which covers seven- to nine-year-olds - to gauge their development of language and numeracy skills.

READ MORE HERE

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2021-09-03 21:00:00Z
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New Zealand terror attack: Police kill "extremist" who stabbed 6 people in supermarket - CNA

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2021-09-03 12:23:27Z
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Taliban battle for final holdout province of Panjshir - CNA

FIGHTING BRAVADO

Panjshir fighters - and their media-savvy leaders - are full of fighting bravado.

"We are ready to defeat them, if they dare to invade," one Panjshir fighter said.

But despite their confidence, the odds seem increasingly stacked against them.

Geography at least is on the side of the Panjshir's fighters, said Motwani, and while the Taliban claim to have blocked roads into the valley, that is "very different" from controlling all sides.

The 115km-long valley surrounded by jagged snow-capped peaks offers a natural military advantage, since defending units can use high positions to ambush attacking forces below.

But the conflict appears to be escalating, Martine van Bijlert, of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, warned.

"Taliban forces have been massing around the entrance to the valley but have been hit in ambushes and have sustained casualties," Van Bijlert wrote in a recent analysis.

"Whereas both sides mainly seemed to be trying to hurt each other in order to strengthen their hand in negotiations, without starting an all-out battle, according to the latest reports, the Taliban are now summoning forces from other provinces."

The Panjshir - mainly inhabited by ethnic Tajik people - has immense symbolic value in Afghanistan as the area that has resisted occupation by invaders in the past.

For Afghans opposed to the Taliban, the holdout province stands as a symbol to show that the hardline Islamists are not the welcome rulers of all of Afghanistan, Motwani said.

"It gives hope to those Afghans who have lost almost everything in a blink of an eye," he said. "It is somewhere where people can go outside Taliban rule."

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2021-09-03 11:54:14Z
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China's new stock exchange plans fuel fears of a bourse war - CNA

SHANGHAI : China's plans to launch a new exchange in Beijing, announced by President Xi Jinping on Thursday, boosted shares in Chinese brokerages but knocked down Shenzhen start-up board ChiNext and shares of Hong Kong's bourse amid fears of rising competition.

Although China's securities regulator said the planned Beijing stock exchange is based on the city's existing New Third Board, and complements Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses, some fear a rivalry for listing resources is inevitable.

"The Beijing stock exchange has equal footing with Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses. If it prospers, the three will share the market in tripartite confrontation," wrote Rock Jin, economist and CEO of investment adviser PopEton.

Although it was good news for the economy, it boded ill for the market in the short term because "after all, it diverts capital away from Shanghai and Shenzhen markets."

Xi unveiled plans for the new exchange in a video address at the opening of a conference late on Thursday. The bourse will serve innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and is part of a reform of Beijing's New Third Board.

Neither Xi nor the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said if the Beijing stock exchange would attract overseas-listed firms. If that is the case, "it would increase the competition" in listings for the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEx), Jefferies said in a note.

HKEx shares dropped more than 2per cent on Friday and Shenzhen's ChiNext fell over 1per cent, both underperforming the broader market.

But shares of brokerages, including Northeast Securities Co, Dongxing Securities Co and Shenwan Hongyuan Group Co jumped, as investors bet they will benefit from more initial public offerings (IPOs).

"This is a step forward in capital market reforms, as it enhances the multi-layered capital market system and direct financing," Morgan Stanley said in a note.

The bank added that the implementation of a registration-based IPO mechanism on the Beijing exchange paves the way for the rollout of the listing system on China's main boards. Currently, only Shenzhen's ChiNext, and Shanghai's tech-focused STAR Market adopts the U.S.-style IPO system.

FUNDING DIFFICULTY

China is launching the new exchange as part of efforts to channel more household savings into the stock market to fund innovation and economic recovery, while reducing the economy's reliance on bank lending. It also comes as U.S.-listed Chinese companies face the risk of delisting amid Sino-U.S. tensions.

"Funding difficulty is the main challenge facing SMEs," wrote Liu Hui, fund manager at Invesco.

"Supporting SMEs with direct financing helps promote China's consumption, as SMEs employ most of the labour force in China."

CSRC said on Friday that the new exchange will be based on the current "select tier" of Beijing's New Third Board, meaning all the 66 companies listed in that tier will be transferred to the Beijing exchange.

CSRC also announced draft rules for share sales, trading and delisting on the new venue. Companies to be listed on the Beijing exchange are "smaller and newer" than those listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen, and eligible ones can also migrate to the other two bourses seamlessly, CSRC official Zhou Guihua told a press conference on Friday.

In addition, only qualified investors can trade on the Beijing exchange, which sets higher bar in line with the higher risks involved in investing in SMEs, he said.

Zhou also vowed to crack down on insider trading, stock manipulation and false disclosures, in order to promote long-term, rational investing on the new board.

The New Third Board, which was set up in 2013, currently houses a total of 7,299 SMEs, mostly in the "base tier" and "innovation tier".

The board once attracted more than 10,000 companies listed in 2013-16, but the market has suffered from poor liquidity since China's spectacular 2015 market boom and bust.

Economist Jin said it was a big question mark whether the new exchange would thrive, as "the city of Beijing doesn't have the right culture for an exchange."

(Reporting by Samuel Shen and Andrew Galbraith; Editing by Stephen Coates and David Evans)

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2021-09-03 09:52:25Z
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