QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The military claiming to be a mediator in the Thai conflict, that is all just nonsense.”
Pavin Chachavalpongpun, professor of Southeast Asian studies at Kyoto University in Japan, who has been summoned to Bangkok by the Thai military
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3 shot dead at Brussels’ Jewish Museum
BRUSSELS — Three people were killed and one seriously injured by gunfire Saturday at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, officials said. Police detained one suspect who was at the scene and are looking for a second.
The attack, which came on the eve of national and European Parliament elections, led officials to immediately raise anti-terror measures.
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, who was in the vicinity, said “you cannot help to think that when we see a Jewish museum, you think of an anti-Semitic act. But the investigation will have to show the causes.”
The three dead were two women and a man, and they were hit in the throat and face, said Ine Van Wymersch, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office. No further details were given.
Van Wymersch said a man was detained when he drove away from the museum around the time of the attack. A second person suspected of being involved apparently walked away from the scene.
Flooding in south China leaves 12 dead
BEIJING — The Chinese state news agency said 12 people have died in widespread flooding in southern China. The official Xinhua News Agency said the flooding affected 649,000 people in Qingyuan city in Guangdong province as of Saturday afternoon, with 3,300 houses collapsing. The report estimates the flooding has caused $293 million in losses. Also Saturday, Chinese authorities announced a security crackdown in China’s Muslim northwest after a deadly bombing raised questions about whether tightening Beijing’s grip might be feeding anti-Chinese anger and a rise of organized terrorism. Thursday’s bombing at a vegetable market in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, killed at least 43 people and left the region’s ethnic Chinese on edge. Police announced the names of five people blamed for the attack and said they were part of a “terrorist gang.” Based on their names, all appeared to be Uighurs, the region’s most populous Muslim minority. An anti-terrorism campaign with Xinjiang “as the major battlefield” will target religious extremist groups, underground gun workshops and “terrorist training camps,” Xinhua said. Beijing blames unrest on extremists with foreign ties, but Uighur activists say tensions are fueled by an influx of migrants from China’s dominant Han ethnic group and discriminatory government policies.
Raid in Somali capital targets lawmakers
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Militants in Mogadishu carried out a multipronged, complex attack Saturday against the country’s parliament building involving a car bomb, suicide bomber and gunmen on foot, police said. At least seven people were killed, including six attackers and one soldier who tried to stop a suicide bomber from entering the building, police Capt. Mohamed Hussein said. Other officials later indicated that more people died in the assault but gave no figures. Many members of parliament were inside the building as the attack unfolded, and they hurried to flee. Two were wounded by gunfire, legislator Mohamed Ali said. Al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked group, has carried out several such complex attacks in Mogadishu, including on the city’s main court complex and attempts against the presidential palace. The group was booted out of the capital in 2011 but still controls wide areas of southern Somalia.
Suicide bomber drops explosives; 3 die
JOS, Nigeria — A bungled bomb killed three people — including a suicide bomber — in Nigeria’s Jos city Saturday night, a police official said, four days after twin car bombs blamed on Islamic extremists killed at least 130 people in the central city. The senior police official said the bomber dropped a bag holding explosives at an outdoor theater crowded with people watching a European soccer cup final. He said the bomber and two others died. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not the official spokesman. The venue is not far from the bustling marketplace that was targeted in Tuesday’s attack. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the latest attack. But the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, which has been threatening to sell nearly 300 abducted schoolgirls into slavery, has been waging a two-pronged campaign of urban bombings and rural attacks on northeastern villages. Jos sits on a fault line where the two regions meet, and the attacks are seen as an attempt to ignite religious rivalries that have arisen with deadly frequency, though the city had been peaceful until recently. Many of those killed Tuesday were burned beyond recognition, and families and friends still were looking for missing loved ones.
A Section on 05/25/2014