News in Brief

Date: 15 April 2023 - 22:19

News ID: ۱۱۳۹۹۰

MINNEAPOLIS (Anadolu) – Minneapolis has become the first major U.S. city to allow all five Muslim calls to prayer, or adhans, to be played on loudspeakers. The Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously 12-0 to allow the adhan to be played from mosques, despite current noise ordinances. The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Muslim advocacy group said the decision “is a historic victory for religious freedom and pluralism”. “We thank the members of the Minneapolis City Council for setting this great example, and we urge other cities to follow it,” CAIR’s State Director, Jaylani Hussein, said in a statement welcoming the decision. CAIR had urged the Council to approve the measure. Observant Muslims pray are alerted to prayer times by a muezzin, who issues the adhan. The speaker often sings “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is Great” in Arabic. Minneapolis, last year, limited the times the adhan could be recited, and the sound levels at which it could be played, according to CBS News. Mosques will now be allowed to issue the adhan from 3:30 am until 11 pm. City Mayor, Jacob Frey, is expected to sign the measure into law within a week, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune newspaper.

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TOKYO (AFP) – Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was evacuated unharmed from the scene of a campaign speech Saturday after a blast sounded and white smoke filled the air, local media reported. The incident in Wakayama came less than a year after the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, which traumatized the country and forced a security shake-up for public officials. Kishida was in the western city to deliver remarks in support of a ruling party candidate and had just finished sampling fish at a port when a disturbance rippled through the crowd gathered to hear him speak. Footage from national broadcaster NHK showed the prime minister turning to look backwards as a person was detained by security and people moved away, some shrieking. Seconds later, a blast was heard and white smoke filled the air. NHK said a man had been arrested at the scene on suspicion of obstruction of business. There was no immediate official confirmation of the incident, with local police declining to comment. People at the scene described moments of panic. “I ran frantically, and then, 10 or so seconds later, there was a loud sound and my kid started crying. I was stunned, my heart is still beating fast,” one woman told NHK.

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BEIJING (AP) — China says it carried out a successful ground-based mid-course missile interception test in an apparent sign of progress in its ability to bring down weapons incoming from space. The Defense Ministry says the operation was carried out late Friday night within Chinese territory and achieved “the desired test objective.” The test was “defensive in nature and not targeted against any country,” the ministry said, giving no other details such as whether it actually struck an object, how many interceptors were fired and where they landed. Such systems, which consist of ground-based interceptor missiles and a huge array of radars and fire control systems, aim to bring down ballistic missiles, including ICBMs carrying nuclear or other warheads, while they are flying in space midcourse on the way to their targets. Referred to by the U.S. as ground-based mid-course defense, or GMD, such systems are hugely complex and expensive to build, test and maintain, and China’s capabilities in the field are not well known.

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TUNIS (Reuters/AP) – The Tunisian coast guard has recovered eight more bodies from a migrant boat that sank off the country’s shores this week, raising the death toll to 33, the coast guard says. A wooden boat packed with about 110 African migrants sank on Wednesday off the city of Sfax. Seventy-six people were rescued. The coastguard said four other decomposing bodies were also recovered, apparently from old shipwrecks. Drowning accidents off Tunisia have increased in recent weeks, leaving dozens dead and missing, amid a sharp rise in migrant boats heading toward Italy from the Tunisian coast. The Tunisian National Guard said this month that more than 14,000 migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, were intercepted or rescued in the first three months of the year while trying to cross to Europe, five times more than figures recorded in the same period last year. European countries rely on countries in North Africa to police migration, and Italy on Thursday pledged Tunisia a host of investments and help negotiating an International Monetary Fund bailout as the Italian government seeks to stem the number of migrant arrivals.

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WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – U.S. authorities have released bodycam footage of an April 5 shooting when three police officers opened fire and murdered a resident after they showed up at the wrong address in response to a domestic violence call this week. The videos from body cameras worn by the officers and released by the Farmington Police Department show the officers arriving at a residence and announcing themselves before they start their gunfire. New Mexico police had received a phone call regarding a domestic violence incident after which the officers mistakenly arrived at Robert Dotson’s home, just across the street from where the incident was reported, according to local and state police. In the video, one of the officers could be heard knocking at the door of the homeowner, after which Dotson opens the door armed with a handgun. The officers immediately begin shooting and firing multiple rounds toward Dotson, leading him to fall to the ground. About a minute afterward, a woman can be heard screaming inside the home, prompting more shots to ring out. According to authorities, Dotson’s wife, not knowing who is at the door, returns fire from the doorway, which prompts the officers to fire again. Dotson’s wife is heard pleading with officers in the video. “Help! Somebody shot my husband. Please! Please! My kids are upstairs,” she yells. After the gunfire stops, sirens can be heard blaring as more officers arrive. It still remains a mystery why the officers landed up at the wrong address.

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WARSAW (Reuters) – The Polish government has decided to ban imports of grain and other food from Ukraine to protect the Polish agricultural sector, the leader of the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS), Jaroslaw Kaczyński, said on Saturday. Large quantities of Ukrainian grains, which are cheaper than those produced in the European Union, have ended up staying in Central European states amid logistical bottlenecks, hitting prices and sales for local farmers. “Today, the government has decided on a regulation that prohibits the entry, importation of grain into Poland, but also dozens of other types of food (from Ukraine),” Kaczyński said during the PiS party convention. The list of these goods will be included in the government regulation, and there are goods “from grain to honey products, very, very many things,” he added. Kaczyński said Poland was ready to start talks with Ukraine to settle the grain issue and the Ukrainian side had already been notified of the decisions of the Polish government.