Connect with us

World

An Iraqi man who carried out Quran burnings in Sweden is killed in a shooting

Published

on

An Iraqi man who carried out Quran burnings in Sweden is killed in a shooting

An Iraqi man who carried out several Quran burnings in Sweden has been killed in a shooting near Stockholm, authorities said Thursday.

Salwan Momika, 38, staged several burnings and desecrations of Islam’s holy book in Sweden in 2023. Videos of the Quran burnings got worldwide publicity and raised anger and criticism in several Muslim nations, leading to riots and unrest in many places.

THOUSANDS OF PROTESTERS RALLY ACROSS IRAQ FOR A 2ND DAY TO CONDEMN THE BURNING OF A QURAN IN SWEDEN

The Stockholm District Court said a verdict scheduled Thursday in a trial in which Momika was a defendant was postponed because one of the defendants had died. A judge at the court, Göran Lundahl, confirmed that the deceased was Momika. He said he didn’t have any information on when or how Momika died.

Salwan Momika speaks in Malmö, Sweden, Sept. 30, 2023.  (Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP)

Advertisement

Police said they were alerted to a shooting Wednesday night at an apartment building in Sodertalje, near Stockholm, and found a man with gunshot wounds who later died.

Broadcaster SVT reported that the victim was Momika.

Prosecutors said five people were arrested overnight on suspicion of murder. They said all were adults but gave no further details.

Prosecutor Rasmus Öman said the investigation is still in its early stages and that the suspects and others still have to be questioned.

Momika came to Sweden from Iraq in 2018 and was granted a three-year residence permit in 2021, according to SVT.

Advertisement

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Sweden’s security service was involved because “there is obviously a risk that there is a connection to a foreign power,” Swedish news agency TT reported.

Momika argued that his protests targeted the religion of Islam, not Muslim people. He said he wanted to protect Sweden’s population from the messages of the Quran. Swedish police allowed his demonstrations, citing freedom of speech, while filing charges against him.

 

Last March, he was arrested in neighboring Norway after stating that he would seek asylum there, and was sent back to Sweden, TT reported.

Momika and a co-defendant were charged in August with incitement to hatred because of statements they made in connection with the Quran burnings. A verdict was supposed to be handed down on Thursday morning.

Advertisement

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

World

Five key takeaways as Donald Trump hosts UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer

Published

on

Five key takeaways as Donald Trump hosts UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer

United States President Donald Trump has hosted British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the first time at the White House for talks about Ukraine’s security, trade relations and the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

But Thursday’s meeting hinted at simmering tensions between the US and its allies, as Starmer attempted to tip-toe around points of divergence with the notoriously prickly Trump.

At various points in their public appearances, Starmer offered views that conflicted with Trump’s own – though he was careful never to contradict Trump directly.

The US president seemed to acknowledge the pushback with a joke in his opening remarks at an afternoon news conference.

“You’ve been terrific in our discussions. You’re a very tough negotiator, however. I’m not sure I like that,” Trump quipped.

Advertisement

At times, however, the atmosphere turned brusque. When asked about Trump’s demand that Canada become a US state, Starmer started to press back on the question, only to be abruptly interrupted.

“I think you’re trying to find a divide between us that doesn’t exist,” Starmer began to say. “We’re the closest of nations, and we had very good discussions today, but we didn’t —.”

It was at that point Trump jumped in: “That’s enough. That’s enough. Thank you.”

Here are key takeaways from their get-together at the White House.

President Donald Trump greets British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he enters the White House [Brian Snyder/Reuters]

An invitation from the king

From the start, there was scrutiny over how Starmer – a former human rights lawyer from the centre-left Labour Party – would interact with the far-right Republican Trump.

Advertisement

But at their initial sit-down inside the Oval Office, Starmer offered an olive branch: a signed invitation from King Charles III to visit the UK.

Trump immediately accepted the offer. Typically, it is rare for US presidents to have two state visits with the British monarch. Trump’s last state visit came in 2019, under the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Starmer also addressed the differences in his and Trump’s backgrounds directly.

“It’s no secret we’re from different political traditions. But there’s a lot that we have in common,” Starmer said, embracing Trump’s populist streak. “ What counts is winning. If you don’t win, you don’t deliver.”

Trump revealed that he and Starmer had discussed trade behind the scenes, with the commerce between their two countries worth an estimated $148bn as of 2024. The Republican leader appeared hopeful that a deal could be struck “shortly”.

Advertisement

“ We’re gonna have a great trade agreement one way or the other. We’re going to end up with a very good trade agreement for both countries, and we’re working on that as we speak,” he said.

A close-up of King Charles's letter to Donald Trump
President Donald Trump holds a letter from the UK’s King Charles III [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]

Starmer offers gentle pushback on trade

But Trump’s repeated assertions that US-UK trade relations were unfair earned a gentle rebuke from Starmer.

“Our trading relationship is not just strong. It’s fair, balanced and reciprocal,” the Labour leader said.

Trump, meanwhile, gave space during the meeting for US Vice President JD Vance to revisit his criticism of free speech rights in the UK. Vance had previously irked tensions when – on February 14 at the Munich Security Conference – he blasted the UK and European countries for alleged democratic backsliding.

“I said what I said,” Vance replied on Thursday, as he reflected on his Munich remarks.

“We do have, of course, a special relationship with our friends in the UK and also with some of our European allies. But we also know that there have been infringements on free speech that actually affect not just the British.”

Advertisement

Starmer piped up in response, defending his country’s commitment to democratic ideals.

“We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in the United Kingdom, and it will last for a very, very long time,” Starmer said. “ In relation to free speech in the UK, I’m very proud of our history there.”

Keir Starmer and Donald Trump at podiums at the White House
President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer attend a news conference on February 27 [Brian Snyder/Reuters]

Trump commits to NATO mutual defence pact

Trump’s unconventional and sometimes disruptive approach to diplomatic relations, however, has fuelled fears that the Republican leader may withdraw the US from key alliances.

Chief among them is the NATO alliance, which has historically served as a bulwark against aggression from Russia and the Soviet Union before it.

Trump was asked directly if he still supported Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty, which requires all members to come to the aid of one another in case of a military attack.

“ I support it,” Trump replied, before adding: “I don’t think we’re going to have any reason for it.”

Advertisement

Starmer, meanwhile, appealed to history to shore up the US-UK alliance, one of the closest diplomatic bonds either country has. He noted that he and Trump would soon celebrate the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, when allied forces brought World War II’s European front to a close.

“ We remain each other’s first partner in defence. Ready to come to the other’s aid, to counter threats wherever and whenever they may arise,” Starmer said. “No two militaries are more intertwined than ours. No two countries have done more together to keep people safe.”

Still, he echoed Trump’s calls for European countries to invest more in NATO. Trump has pushed NATO allies to invest at least 5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) in bolstering their militaries.

The US, however, puts about 3.4 percent of its GDP into military spending, for a total of about $967bn.

“ I think it’s important for European countries, including the United Kingdom, to step up and do more in the defence and security of Europe and our continent,” Starmer said.

Advertisement
The press surround Keir Starmer, Donald Trump and other officials in the Oval Office.
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer [Carl Court/Pool via AP Photo]

Pushing for peace that does not reward ‘the aggressor’

Key among the security negotiations was the question of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Three years ago, in February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of the Eastern European country, expanding beyond the territories it had already seized in regions like Crimea and Donetsk.

The international community largely condemned the invasion. But in recent weeks, Trump has surprised political observers by blaming Ukraine for the war and denouncing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a “dictator” for not holding wartime elections.

Trump’s administration has also held peace negotiations directly with Russia, leaving European leaders feeling sidelined.

Starmer broached the deal by first lavishing the US president with praise for pushing peace negotiations forward.

“ You’ve created a moment of tremendous opportunity to reach a historic peace deal, a deal that I think would be celebrated in Ukraine and around the world,” Starmer said, before pivoting to a warning.

Advertisement

“That is the prize, but we have to get it right,” he continued. “It can’t be peace that rewards the aggressor or that gives encouragement to regimes like Iran.”

“History must be on the side of the peacemaker, not the invader. So the stakes, they couldn’t be higher, and we determined to work together to deliver a good deal.”

Trump is set to meet with Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, where the two leaders are expected to hammer out a deal that would give the US access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals at Trump’s behest.

It is unclear what security guarantees Ukraine would receive in return. But Trump on Thursday repeatedly described a future where Americans would be “dig-dig-digging” on Ukrainian soil to harvest minerals.

He also justified his negotiations with Russia, emphasising it was important to engage “both sides” of the conflict.

Advertisement

“I think we’re going to have a very successful peace, and I think it’s going to be a long-lasting peace, and I think it’s going to happen hopefully quickly,” Trump said. “If it doesn’t happen quickly, it may not happen at all.”

Keir Starmer pushes his glasses up his nose at podium.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer touches his glasses during a news conference on February 27 [Brian Snyder/Reuters]

Starmer reaffirms commitment to two-state solution

Another global conflict was briefly raised as well: Israel’s war in Gaza.

Since January, a delicate ceasefire has taken hold in the Palestinian enclave, which had been battered by 15 months of Israeli bombing, as well as a ground offensive.

More than 48,365 Palestinians have died, though the Gaza Government Media Office puts the estimate as high as 61,709, counting the bodies still buried under the rubble.

A United Nations special committee found that Israel has employed tactics in Gaza that were “consistent with genocide”. Even with the ceasefire, Palestinians continue to die as freezing temperatures ravage the territory, which has few structures left to shelter residents from the cold.

Trump prompted international outcry earlier this month when he announced the US would “take over” Gaza, permanently displacing its residents in favour of building a riviera-style resort.

Advertisement

While Trump posted an AI-generated video this week featuring a rendering of what that resort would look like, he has since backed away from his proposal to “own” Gaza, framing it as a suggestion.

On Thursday, Trump avoided saying anything as incendiary, speaking instead in broad terms.

“We’re working very hard in the Middle East and Gaza and all of the problems. And it’s been going on for years and years and centuries and centuries,” Trump said. “It’s a tough neighbourhood, but it could be a very beautiful neighbourhood, and I think we’re going to come up with some pretty good solutions.”

By contrast, Starmer offered firm support for a two-state solution, one that would acknowledge and guarantee Palestinian sovereignty.

“We have to do everything we can to ensure that the ceasefire continues so that more hostages can be returned, so that aid can be brought in that’s desperately needed. We need to allow Palestinians to return and to rebuild their lives, and we must all support them in doing that,” Starmer said.

Advertisement

“And yes, I believe that the two-state solution is ultimately the only way for a lasting peace in the region.”

Continue Reading

World

Actor Gene Hackman, prolific Oscar winner, found dead at home at 95 years old

Published

on

Actor Gene Hackman, prolific Oscar winner, found dead at home at 95 years old

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Gene Hackman, the prolific Oscar-winning actor whose studied portraits ranged from reluctant heroes to conniving villains and made him one of the industry’s most respected and honored performers, has been found dead along with his wife at their home. He was 95.

Hackman was a frequent and versatile presence on screen from the 1960s into the 20th century. His dozens of films included the Academy Award favorites “The French Connection” and “Unforgiven,” a breakout performance in “Bonnie and Clyde,” a classic bit of farce in “Young Frankenstein” and featured parts in “Reds” and “No Way Out.” He seemed capable of any kind of role — whether an uptight buffoon in “Birdcage,” a college coach finding redemption in the sentimental favorite “Hoosiers” or a secretive surveillance expert in the Watergate-era release “The Conversation.”

Although self-effacing and unfashionable, Hackman held special status within Hollywood — heir to Spencer Tracy as an every man, actor’s actor, curmudgeon and reluctant celebrity. He embodied the ethos of doing his job, doing it very well, and letting others worry about his image. Beyond the obligatory appearances at awards ceremonies, he was rarely seen on the social circuit and made no secret of his disdain for the business side of show business.

“Actors tend to be shy people,” he told Film Comment in 1988. “There is perhaps a component of hostility in that shyness, and to reach a point where you don’t deal with others in a hostile or angry way, you choose this medium for yourself … Then you can express yourself and get this wonderful feedback.”

He was an early retiree — essentially done, by choice, with movies by his mid-70s — and a late bloomer. Hackman was 35 when cast for “Bonnie and Clyde” and past 40 when he won his first Oscar, as the rules-bending New York City detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in the 1971 thriller about tracking down Manhattan drug smugglers, “The French Connection.”

Advertisement

Jackie Gleason, Steve McQueen and Peter Boyle were among the actors considered for Doyle. Hackman was a minor star at the time, seemingly without the flamboyant personality that the role demanded. The actor himself feared that he was miscast. A couple of weeks of nighttime patrols of Harlem in police cars helped reassure him.

One of the first scenes of “The French Connection” required Hackman to slap around a suspect. The actor realized he had failed to achieve the intensity that the scene required, and asked director William Friedkin for another chance. The scene was filmed at the end of the shooting, by which time Hackman had immersed himself in the loose-cannon character of Popeye Doyle. Friedkin would recall needing 37 takes to get the scene right.

“I had to arouse an anger in Gene that was lying dormant, I felt, within him — that he was sort of ashamed of and didn’t really want to revisit,” Friedkin told the Los Angeles Review of Books in 2012.

The most famous sequence was dangerously realistic: A car chase in which Det. Doyle speeds under elevated subway tracks, his brown Pontiac (driven by a stuntman) screeching into areas that the filmmakers had not received permits for. When Doyle crashes into a white Ford, it wasn’t a stuntman driving the other car, but a New York City resident who didn’t know a movie was being made.

Hackman also resisted the role which brought him his second Oscar. When Clint Eastwood first offered him Little Bill Daggett, the corrupt town boss in “Unforgiven,” Hackman turned it down. But he realized that Eastwood was planning to make a different kind of western, a critique, not a celebration of violence. The film won him the Academy Award as best supporting actor of 1992.

Advertisement

“To his credit, and my joy, he talked me into it,” Hackman said of Eastwood during an interview with the American Film Institute.

Eugene Allen Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, and grew up in Danville, Illinois, where his father worked as a pressman for the Commercial-News. His parents fought repeatedly, and his father often used his fists on Gene to take out his rage. The boy found refuge in movie houses, identifying with such screen rebels as Errol Flynn and James Cagney as his role models.

When Gene was 13, his father waved goodbye and drove off, never to return. The abandonment was a lasting injury to Gene. His mother had become an alcoholic and was constantly at odds with her mother, with whom the shattered family lived (Gene had a younger brother, actor Richard Hackman). At 16, he “suddenly got the itch to get out.” Lying about his age, he enlisted in the U.S. Marines. In his early 30s, before his film career took off, his mother died in a fire started by her own cigarette.

“Dysfunctional families have sired a lot of pretty good actors,” he observed ironically during a 2001 interview with The New York Times.

His brawling and resistance to authority led to his being demoted from corporal three times. His taste of show business came when he conquered his mic fright and became disc jockey and news announcer on his unit’s radio station.

Advertisement

With a high school degree he earned during his time as a Marine, Hackman enrolled in journalism at the University of Illinois. He dropped out after six months to study radio announcing in New York. After working at stations in Florida and his hometown of Danville, he returned to New York to study painting at the Art Students League. Hackman switched again to enter an acting course at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Back in New York, he found work as a doorman and truck driver among other jobs waiting for a break as an actor, sweating it out with such fellow hopefuls as Robert Duvall and Dustin Hoffman. Summer work at a theater on Long Island led to roles off-Broadway. Hackman began attracting attention from Broadway producers, and he received good notices in such plays as “Any Wednesday,” with Sandy Dennis, and “Poor Richard,” with Alan Bates.

During a tryout in New Haven for another play, Hackman was seen by film director Robert Rossen, who hired him for a brief role in “Lilith,” which starred Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg. He played small roles in other films, including “Hawaii,” and leads in television dramas of the early 1960s such as “The Defenders” and “Naked City.”

When Beatty began work on “Bonnie and Clyde,” which he produced and starred in, he remembered Hackman and cast him as bank robber Clyde Barrow’s outgoing brother. Pauline Kael in the New Yorker called Hackman’s work “a beautifully controlled performance, the best in the film,” and he was nominated for an Academy Award as supporting actor.

Hackman nearly appeared in another immortal film of 1967, “The Graduate.” He was supposed to play the cuckolded husband of Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), but director Mike Nichols decided he was too young and replaced him with Murray Hamilton. Two years later, he was considered for what became one of television’s most famous roles, patriarch Mike Brady of “The Brady Bunch.” Producer Sherwood Schwartz wanted Hackman to audition, but network executives thought he was too obscure. (The part went to Robert Reed).

Advertisement

Hackman’s first starring film role came in 1970 with “I Never Sang for My Father,” as a man struggling to deal with a failed relationship with his dying father, Melvyn Douglas. Because of Hackman’s distress over his own father, he resisted connecting to the role.

In his 2001 Times interview, he recalled: “Douglas told me, `Gene, you’ll never get what you want with the way you’re acting.’ And he didn’t mean acting; he meant I was not behaving myself. He taught me not to use my reservations as an excuse for not doing the job.” Even though he had the central part, Hackman was Oscar-nominated as supporting actor and Douglas as lead. The following year he won the Oscar as best actor for “The French Connection.”

Through the years, Hackman kept working, in pictures good and bad. For a time he seemed to be in a contest with Michael Caine for the world’s busiest Oscar winner. In 2001 alone, he appeared in “The Mexican,” “Heartbreakers,” “Heist,” “The Royal Tenenbaums” and “Behind Enemy Lines.” But by 2004, he was openly talking about retirement, telling Larry King he had no projects lined up. His only credit in recent years was narrating a Smithsonian Channel documentary, “The Unknown Flag Raiser of Iwo Jima.”

In 1956, Hackman married Fay Maltese, a bank teller he had met at a YMCA dance in New York. They had a son, Christopher, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Leslie, but divorced in the mid-1980s. In 1991 he married Betsy Arakawa, a classical pianist.

When not on film locations, Hackman enjoyed painting, stunt flying, stock car racing and deep sea diving. In his latter years, he wrote novels and lived on his ranch in Sante Fe, New Mexico, on a hilltop looking out on the Colorado Rockies, a view he preferred to his films that popped up on television.

Advertisement

“I’ll watch maybe five minutes of it,” he once told Time magazine, “and I’ll get this icky feeling, and I turn the channel.”

___

Bob Thomas, a longtime Associated Press journalist who died in 2014, compiled biographical material for this obituary.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

World

Red Cross receives bodies of 4 slain hostages during Israel-Hamas exchange

Published

on

Red Cross receives bodies of 4 slain hostages during Israel-Hamas exchange

Hamas released four dead hostages to the Red Cross on Thursday, marking another step in the first phase of the cease-fire between the terrorist group and Israel.

The exchange, which took place in the Gaza Strip, was confirmed by an Israeli security official. Egyptian mediators assisted in the delivery of the caskets, which Israeli officials have begun to identify.

At the same time, Israel released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in a move that was previously delayed. Red Cross convoys assisted with the transport of the detainees.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office previously confirmed the exchange on Wednesday, noting that it was likely to take place without the humiliating “ceremonies” that Hamas has engaged in prior.

ISRAEL’S UN AMBASSADOR SLAMS HAMAS’ ‘EVIL AND DEPRAVED’ DISPLAY OF HOSTAGES’ COFFINS

Advertisement

Red Cross vehicles, carrying the bodies of four Israeli hostages, leave pickup point after Hamas hands over the bodies without a ceremony in Gaza on February 27, 2025. (Abdallah F.s. Alattar/Anadolu via Getty Images)

On Saturday, Netanyahu temporarily delayed the seventh hostage-prisoner exchange in protest of Hamas’s release ceremonies, which were used to generate propaganda. In one ceremony, hostages were forced to pose with Hamas fighters and kiss militants on the head.

“In light of Hamas’s repeated violations, including the ceremonies that humiliate our hostages and the cynical exploitation of our hostages for propaganda purposes, it has been decided to delay the release of terrorists that was planned for yesterday until the release of the next hostages has been assured, and without the humiliating ceremonies,” Netanyahu’s statement said.

Hamas had called the delay a “serious violation,” though the militant group’s treatment of prisoners was condemned by international groups, including the United Nations.

FUNERAL HELD FOR SHIRI BIBAS AND HER SONS AFTER THEIR REMAINS HANDED OVER BY HAMAS

Advertisement
Red Cross vehicles carrying hostages' bodies

Red Cross vehicles, carrying the bodies of four Israeli hostages, leave pickup point after Hamas hands over the bodies without a ceremony in Gaza on February 27, 2025. The bodies were expected to be handed over in the first phase of the hostage swap agreement. (Abdallah F.s. Alattar/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Under international law, any handover of the remains of [the] deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families,” the United Nations Geneva said on X last week, attributing the quote to High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.

Israeli United Nations Ambassador Danny Danon told Fox News Digital that Hamas’ “ceremonies” were “evil and depraved.”

Buses in the West Bank

Buses carrying Palestinian security prisoners are greeted by a crowd after being released from an Israeli prison following a ceasefire agreement with Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

“For 16 months, Israel has been fighting a deranged terrorist organization that places no value on human life, especially if it is Israeli or Jewish — all while international institutions like the U.N. refrained from condemning Hamas and formally demanding the immediate return of our hostages,” Danon said.

The Associated Press and Fox News’ Rachel Wolf and Yael Rotem-Kuriel contributed to this report.

Advertisement

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending