QUEBEC CITY: Said El-Amari doesn’t usually go to the mosque on Sundays. But he made an exception on Jan. 29 to attend evening prayers at the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec.
That was the day a gunman opened fire inside, killing six people and leaving Canada’s Muslim community reeling.
“The images still haunt me,” says El-Amari, who was wounded in the shooting.
It began minutes after the prayers ended. The 40-year-old father of four was heading toward the exit when he heard the shots and quickly sought refuge in a corner.
“Several others had crammed in there to hide,” he said. “I was the last one.”
When he felt a bullet hit his stomach, he remained standing, his body limp, leaning against a wall.
“I knew I was in the killer’s sights,” he says. “I didn’t move, hoping the shooter would think I was already dead.”
It worked. After emptying a cartridge of bullets on the worshippers, the gunman fled.
“I heard people moving in the mosque and I collapsed to the ground,” El-Amari said.
The alleged shooter, Alexandre Bissonnette, 27, has been charged with 11 counts of murder and attempted murder.
A court hearing is scheduled for Monday in which the prosecution will hand over evidence to the defense. Bissonnette is not expected to attend.
Five were seriously injured in the shooting in addition to the six people killed, including a man who remains in intensive care in the hospital after he was shot seven times, including once in the neck.
El-Amari spent two months in the hospital, including four weeks in a medically induced coma. When he awoke, he was told the names of the victims and details of what happened at the mosque that evening.
“It was very difficult,” he says.
He had undergone surgery and now has limited mobility, preventing him from returning to his job as a taxi driver.
He is set to see a psychologist to assess his mental trauma.
Within days of the shooting, the mosque’s blood soaked carpets were cleaned and the faithful started returning.
But their worries linger. Some may never come back, the center’s president, Mohamed Labidi, said.
“One man saw his friend shot and killed, it traumatized him,” he said. “He finds it too difficult to come alone, without him.”
El Amari has returned only three times since the shooting. “It took me several weeks” to work up the courage the first time, he said.
“We still feel ambivalent, it’s like a yo-yo every day,” the mosque’s co-founder Boufeldja Benabdallah said.
“Our fellow citizens have been very generous, and their goodness had done us good,” he added.
Security at the mosque has been increased. During each prayer, a man sits close to the entrance and keeps an eye on video from a dozen newly installed security cameras.
Members now need an electronic key to enter the premises and other security measures are also in the works.
“The extra security helps a little,” El Amari says. “But there is always this fear.”
Quebec City mosque attack victim: ‘The images still haunt me’
Quebec City mosque attack victim: ‘The images still haunt me’
Vietnam village starts over with climate defenses after landslide
- Last year, Typhoon Yagi’s rains unleashed a landslide that engulfed much of Lang Nu village in mountainous Lao Cai province
She and dozens of survivors have been relocated to a site that authorities hope will withstand future climate change-linked disasters, with stronger homes, drainage canals and a gentler topography that lessens landslide risks.
It is an example of the challenges communities around the world face in adapting to climate change, including more intense rains and flash floods like those Typhoon Yagi brought last September.
Kim lost 14 relatives and her traditional timber stilt home when Yagi’s rains unleashed a landslide that engulfed much of Lang Nu village in mountainous Lao Cai province.
The storm was the strongest to hit Vietnam in decades, killing at least 320 people in the country and causing an estimated $1.6 billion in economic losses.
It is unlikely to be an outlier though, with research last year showing climate change is causing typhoons in the region to intensify faster and last longer over land.
Climate change, caused largely by burning fossil fuels, impacts typhoons in multiple ways: a warmer atmosphere holds more water, making for heavier rains, and warmer oceans also help fuel tropical storms.
Kim remains traumatized by the landslide.
She says everything is painful, especially the memory of the moment a torrent of mud swept away her and her two-year-old daughter.
“This disaster was too big for us all,” she said recalling the moment the pair were pulled from the mud hours later.
“I still cannot talk about it without crying. I can’t forget,” the 28-year-old said.
Yagi hit Vietnam with winds in excess of 149 kilometers (92 miles) per hour and brought a deluge of rain that caused destructive flooding in parts of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
In Lang Nu, 67 residents were killed, and authorities vowed to rebuild the homes of survivors in a safe spot.
By December, 40 new houses were ready at a site around two kilometers away.
It was chosen for its elevation, which should be less impacted by adjacent streams, and its relatively gentle slope gradient.
“Predicting absolute safety in geology is actually very difficult,” said Tran Thanh Hai, rector of Hanoi University of Geology and Mining, who was involved in choosing a new site.
But the site is secure, “to the best of our knowledge and understanding.”
Lao Cai is one of Vietnam’s poorest areas, with little money for expensive warning systems.
However, a simple drainage system runs through the new community, diverting water away from the slope.
This should reduce soil saturation and the chances of another landslide, scientists who worked on the site said.
The village’s new homes are all built of sturdier concrete, rather than traditional wood.
“We want to follow our traditions, but if it’s not safe any longer, we need to change,” Kim said, staring out at the expanse of mud and rock where her old village once stood.
Months later it remains frozen in time, strewn with children’s toys, kitchen pans and motorcycle helmets caught up in the landslide.
Like Kim, 41-year-old Hoang Thi Bay now lives in the new village in a modern stilt house with steel structural beams.
Her roof, once made of palm leaves, is now corrugated iron and her doors are aluminum glass.
She survived the landslide by clinging desperately to the single concrete pillar in her old home as a wall of mud and rocks swept her neighborhood away.
“I still wake up in the night obsessing over what happened,” she said.
“Our old house was bigger and nicer, with gardens and fields. But I sleep here in the new house and I feel much safer,” she said.
Even at the new site, home to around 70 people, there are risks, warned Hai.
Development that changes the slope’s gradient, or construction of dams or reservoirs in the area could make the region more landslide-prone, he said.
Building more houses or new roads in the immediate area, or losing protective forest cover that holds earth in place, could also make the site unsafe, added Do Minh Duc, a professor at the Institute of Geotechnics and Environment at the Vietnam National University in Hanoi.
Yagi wiped out large areas of mature natural forest in Lao Cai and while private companies have donated trees for planting, it is unclear whether they can provide much protection.
“In terms of landslide prevention, the only forest that can have good (protective) effects is rainforest with a very high density of trees, so-called primary forest,” explained Duc, an expert on disaster risk maps who also helped choose the new site.
Leaving the old community was hard for Kim, whose family had lived and farmed there for nearly half a century.
But she is grateful that she and other survivors have a second chance.
“I believe this is the safest ground for us.”
Indian army kills two gunmen in Kashmir
- Kashmir has been divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947
- Rebel groups have fought for decades demanding independence for Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan
SRINAGAR, India: India’s army said they had killed two gunmen in Kashmir close to the contested frontier with Pakistan, a day after attackers massacred at least 26 people in separate violence.
The army’s Chinar Corps reported Wednesday a “heavy exchange of fire” with gunmen they said were part of an “infiltration bid” at Baramulla, saying it had seized large quantities of weapons and ammunition.
“Two terrorists have been eliminated,” the army said.
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the territory in full.
India has an estimated 500,000 soldiers permanently deployed in the territory.
Rebel groups have fought for decades demanding independence for Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan.
Security forces are undertaking a major manhunt after gunmen in the popular tourist spot of Pahalgam slaughtered at least 26 people on Tuesday, the region’s deadliest attack on civilians since 2000.
Fighting has decreased since 2019, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government canceled the partial autonomy of the territory and imposed direct control from New Delhi.
Thousands evacuate as fire spreads in US state of New Jersey
- Jones Road Wildfire was raging across Ocean County and was 10 percent contained
- Local media said the blaze had begun in a massive, rural coastal ecosystem known as the Pine Barrens
NEW YORK: Some 3,000 residents were evacuated in the US state of New Jersey after a wildfire exploded in size, scorching thousands of acres and threatening hundreds of structures, the state’s fire service said Tuesday.
As of 10:30 p.m. (0230 GMT) the Jones Road Wildfire was raging across Ocean County and was 10 percent contained, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said in a post on social media platform X.
It put the size of the blaze at 8,500 acres (3,440 hectares), just two hours after reporting the fire had hit 3,200 acres.
The fire service said “numerous” fire and rescue personnel had been deployed along with fire engines, bulldozers and ground crews.
It said the cause of the fire was “under investigation.”
Local media said the blaze had begun in a massive, rural coastal ecosystem known as the Pine Barrens, one of the largest protected land areas on the US East Coast.
New Jersey had been under an official drought warning, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection said in March.
Power was knocked out to roughly 25,000 customers, Jersey Central Power & Light said in a post on X.
The blaze also forced the closure of a section of the Garden State Parkway, a major highway through the state.
Ocean County, south of New York City, is a popular tourist destination that is part of the Jersey Shore and contains sights such as the Six Flags amusement park.
The fire service said it would hold a press conference on Wednesday.
Japan PM to visit Vietnam, the Philippines from Sunday
- The April 27-30 trip follows a Southeast Asia tour by Chinese President Xi Jinping
- Some Japanese companies are increasingly shifting production to Vietnam and its neighbor Cambodia
TOKYO: Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will visit Vietnam and the Philippines next week, officials said Wednesday, as Tokyo seeks to ramp up regional ties after Donald Trump’s tariff onslaught.
The April 27-30 trip follows a Southeast Asia tour by Chinese President Xi Jinping, with Beijing trying to position itself as a stable alternative to the United States as leaders confront Trump’s levies.
“Strengthening relations with Southeast Asia, a global growth center and strategic location, is one of the top priorities of Japanese diplomacy,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.
“Relations with Vietnam and the Philippines are of particular importance, with their populations exceeding 100 million and as they continue their strong economic growth.”
Xi last week urged Vietnam to join forces with China to “oppose unilateral bullying and uphold the stability of the global free trade system.”
Hours later, Trump said Xi’s visit to Hanoi had been aiming to “screw” the United States.
Despite being a key US ally and the biggest investor into the United States, Japan has been pinched by steep tariffs imposed by Trump on imports of cars, steel and aluminum.
Some Japanese companies, reportedly including gaming giant Nintendo, are increasingly shifting production to Vietnam and its neighbor Cambodia, partly because of the fallout from the last US-China trade war.
An official statement from Manila said that Ishiba would visit the Philippines on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.
A meeting between Ishiba and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos “will aim to deepen and improve economic and development cooperation, political and defense engagements, and people-to-people exchanges,” it said.
Japan is a key security partner of the Philippines, and an agreement that would allow them to deploy troops on each other’s territory is awaiting ratification by Tokyo.
The two countries in January vowed to strengthen cooperation to counter China’s actions in the disputed South China Sea – with Japan pledging to enhance the Philippines’ “maritime security” and “maritime safety capabilities.”
Trump: No plans to fire Fed Chair Powell, but wants lower rates
- “I have no intention of firing him,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he has no plans to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, but said he wants interest rates to be lower, remarks that could defuse tensions over the central bank chief’s future that have rattled investors.
“I have no intention of firing him,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “I would like to see him be a little more active in terms of his idea to lower interest rates,” he added.
Trump’s statement was the first de-escalation after days of withering criticisms he has lobbed at Powell for not further cutting interest rates since Trump resumed office in January.
The broadsides were often accompanied by threatening remarks, such as last week’s social media posting that Powell’s termination as Fed chair “cannot come fast enough,” that spooked financial markets that view the Fed’s independence as underpinning its credibility on the global financial stage.
But while he seems to have set aside those threats for now, his criticisms of Fed rate policy remain just as pointed.
“We think that it’s a perfect time to lower the rate, and we’d like to see our chairman be early or on time, as opposed to late,” Trump said.
