Suspect arrested in stabbing at mosque
LONDON -- A man was arrested after an official at one of London's biggest mosques was stabbed during afternoon prayers on Thursday, police and mosque authorities said.
The city's Metropolitan Police force said detectives are investigating the stabbing as attempted murder and do not think it was terror-related. Police did not speculate on a possible motive.
Witnesses said the muezzin -- the person who calls Muslims to prayer -- was attacked as prayers began at London Central Mosque, which is near Regent's Park.
The police force said officers called to the mosque found a man in his 70s with stab wounds. Paramedics treated the man and took him a hospital, where his injuries were judged as not life-threatening.
Police said the suspect is a 29-year-old who is believed to have been attending prayers at the mosque.
The mosque confirmed in a statement that the wounded man was the mosque's muezzin. It said the suspect was restrained by worshippers until police arrived.
One witness, Abi Watik said the arrested man had attended the mosque for several months.
Derailment in Australia claims 2 lives
A train from Sydney to Melbourne derailed on Thursday, killing two people on board and injuring several more of the estimated 160 passengers, authorities said.
Ambulance and police services were called to Wallan, a rural town 30 miles north of Melbourne, on Thursday evening where five carriages of a long-distance express passenger train had left the tracks.
One person was being taken to Melbourne in a stable condition and 11 people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, the local state ambulance service said in a statement.
In footage and photos from the scene, train carriages lay on their side off the tracks as passengers looked on. Some said the driver had been injured in the crash.
Paramedics used a nearby gas station as a temporary site to treat the injured and the scene was being investigated by rail officials, the Country Fire Authority said.
Earlier in the day, the train line said an equipment fault near Wallan had delayed trains, though it was unclear if the crash was related to the fault.
Other train services on the line between Sydney and Melbourne were canceled.
Lawyer denies captain smuggled arms
ROME -- Cesare Fumagalli, a lawyer for the captain of a cargo ship jailed in Italy on accusations that he transported embargoed armaments to Libya said Thursday that there is absolutely no proof the Lebanese-flagged Bana plied Italian waters with arms aboard, and therefore Italy has no jurisdiction over the case.
Italian authorities sequestered the vessel, which is used to transport vehicles among Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East, in the northern port of Genoa earlier this month.
Prosecutors have alleged the Bana transported tanks, motor vehicles fitted with rocket launchers and machines guns as well as explosives from Turkey to Libya in defiance of international embargoes. They also contend Turkish soldiers accompanied the shipment.
Fumagalli said his client, Capt. Youssef Tartoussi, is in a "calm" state of mind.
Italian prosecutors contend that the ship repeatedly, and for extended periods of time, turned off its transponders, including when the ship was approaching the ports of Mersin, Turkey, and Tripoli, Libya. In seeking the captain's arrest, they contend he acted in conjunction with still-to-be identified other people, "indicated as Turkish soldiers," in the arms trafficking.
Pompeo meets with Saudi Arabia royals
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Saudi Arabia's King Salman and the crown prince on Thursday to discuss shared security interests in the Persian Gulf and threats from Iran. He also toured a desert air base in Saudi Arabia where a few thousand U.S. troops are deployed as part of a wider effort by the Trump administration to stymie Iran's regional reach.
Ahead of his arrival in the capital, Riyadh, Pompeo said that he would raise with the Saudi leadership concerns about human rights and the cases of dual Saudi-American citizens.
Some of these American citizens have been imprisoned in the kingdom as part of a wider crackdown on perceived critics of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. They include Badr al-Ibrahim, a writer and physician, and Salah al-Haidar, whose mother is prominent women's-rights campaigner Aziza al-Yousef who faces trial for her activism.
Others are barred from leaving Saudi Arabia, like Walid Fitaihi, a Boston-area physician who was swept up in the crown prince's anti-corruption campaign in late 2017.
"The Saudis share our strategic objectives. They are an important ally and partner," Pompeo said Thursday. "At the same time we continue to make clear our expectations with respect to a broad range of human-rights issues."
In between his meetings with the king and crown prince, Pompeo met with U.S. military commanders at a Saudi air base. Pompeo departs today for Oman.
A Section on 02/21/2020