Timely action by Canadian police foils a mass shooting bid in Halifax

#halifax #massshooting #canada #timberlea The Canadian police have revealed that they have foiled a plot to carry out a mass shooting in the Halifax area on Saturday as informed in bbc.com dated 14 February 2015.
It seems at least two suspects had plans to go to a public venue with the intention of opening fire and kill citizens, and then themselves. As per the opinion of the police, it did not appear to have links to terrorism.
Three suspects were arrested and a fourth apparently committed suicide after police surrounded his home. Two of the suspects are a 19-year-old man from the Halifax suburb of Timberlea and a 23-year-old woman from the US state of Illinois and both of them had access to firearms.
When they had gone to arrest the 19-year-old man from the Halifax suburb of Timberlea, he killed himself. However, a 20-year-old Canadian man was arrested along with the woman at Halifax Stanfield International Airport while the fourth suspect, a 17-year-old Canadian boy, was arrested at a house. Investigators are trying to find out what the roles of the latter two suspects were.
The suspects appeared to have been obsessed with killing and death and had been on a chat stream and also had many photos of mass killing.

2014 – The year of terrorism, bloodshed and violence

#bokoharam #crimea #ISIS #PakTaliban 2014 was a year of bloodshed, terrorism and violence from Syria to Ukraine and the atrocities of the ISIS in Iraq, the Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Pakistani Taliban in Pakistan.
While the civil population revolted against the authoritarian rule of its President Bashar al-Assad and the US and Russia took sides for and against President Assad, other countries were divided on which side to support. It became a daily war on the streets and loss of innocent lives with refugees spilling over to neighboring countries. Till the ISIS descended on the scene.
This was the new face of terror and its brutal methods sent shock waves throughout the world. In order to prove its intentions, it beheaded a number of American and British captives and sent across the videos. Then there were the atrocities committed on women with reports of them slaughtering the women en-masse if they refused to get converted to Islam or get married to members of the ISIS. Many women had been kept as sex slaves. As a result, the US and Europe began attacking ISIS hideouts and eliminating its leaders. The nature of bloodshed unleashed by the ISIS has no parallels in history.
The Boko-Haram in Nigeria is another dreaded terror setup - in April, it kidnapped a group of 250 schoolgirls from a school in Chibok. The girls are believed to have been kept prisoners in a jungle and, while a few of them have managed to escape, the fate of the others ae not known even after nine months. Unconfirmed reports have indicated that they might have been sold off as sex slaves. Recently, the terror group attacked a village and took away women and children as hostages after killing the men and burning down the village.
And, of course, the annexation of Crimea by Russia led to a fight with Ukraine in which Europe sided with Ukraine and imposed sanctions on Russia, it was a fight between the government forces of Ukraine against the pro-Russian supporters who had installed their own rule in Crimea and took over important towns. This fight has led to death of hundreds and thousands have been displaced from their homes.

Another hostage crisis - armed men storm into apparent in Ghent and take hostage

#Ghent Coming in the wake of #sydneysiege in Australia, four gunmen are reported to have stormed into an apartment located on Pilorijnstraat in the Belgian city of Ghent today and taken at least one hostage as confirmed by the state prosecution service.
The police have cordoned off a wide perimeter around the scene in the Dampoort area of the city in the working-class neighborhood and have asked the local residents to remain indoors. The incident has sparked fears in the region that the siege could be related to terror activities.
This fear is because of the incident in Sydney where an Islamist fanatic took a number of hostages in a cafe today. However, as per initial reports, there is no evidence that it is linked to terrorism but could be related to some drug ring. Two persons have been taken in custody without violence. It has been clarified by a federal police spokeswoman Annemie Serlippens that there appears to be nothing political about the incident.
Incidentally, this is the second instance in six weeks’ time that #Ghent has seen a hostage situation – earlier, on October 23, a man was taken hostage on the top floor of an apartment building at Charles de Kerchovelaan – that involved an unpaid debt.