Australia & Pacifics

18 Mar 2019; AFP: New Zealand will tighten gun laws in the wake of its worst modern-day massacre, the government said Monday, as it emerged that the white supremacist accused of carrying out the killings at two mosques will represent himself in court.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her coalition was unified on the need to reduce the availability of the kind of weapons used by Brenton Tarrant as he went room to room shooting Muslims gathered for Friday prayers.

CANBERRA, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Opposition Leader has backed calls for the creation of a national database of hate crimes following the attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Bill Shorten, leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), told Fairfax Media that the proposal makes perfect sense, saying that hate crimes were often a stepping stone to attacks like that which rocked New Zealand on Friday.

17 Mar 2019; AFP: A man whose wife was killed in the Christchurch attack as she rushed back into a mosque to rescue him said he harbours no hatred toward the gunman, insisting forgiveness is the best path forward.

"I would say to him 'I love him as a person'," Farid Ahmad told AFP. "I could not accept what he did. What he did was a wrong thing."

WELLINGTON, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the terror attacks on two mosques in New Zealand's Christchurch has risen to 50 as one more victim was found at one of the shooting scenes, the police said on Sunday.

Investigators found the victim while removing bodies from the Masjid Al Noor Mosque where more than 40 people were killed as a gunman stormed the mosque and went on a shooting rampage on Friday afternoon, Police Commissioner Mike Bush told a press conference.

Christchurch, Mar 16; PTI/GANASHAKTI : The Bangladesh cricket team Saturday left New Zealand, hours after escaping death by a whisker in the deadliest terror attack in the country's history.

Leaving behind Friday's scary experience in Christchurch, the Bangladesh cricketers were relieved to be boarding the flight back home.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — Several of those killed or wounded in the shooting rampage at two New Zealand mosques on Friday were from the Middle East or South Asia, according to initial reports from several governments.

The live-streamed attack by an immigrant-hating white nationalist killed at least 49 people as they gathered for weekly prayers in Christchurch. Another 48 people suffered gunshot wounds in the attacks.

16 Mar 2019; DW: Australia's government plans to censure a far-right senator who claimed Muslim immigration was to blame for the New Zealand mosque attacks. The Islamophobic comments also caught the attention of a teenager with an egg.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Saturday that the government would censure Senator Fraser Anning over his "appalling" comments about the mosque shootings in southern New Zealand.

Syed Mazharuddin, A survivor of Friday's deadly mass shootings in New Zealand, told New Zealand Herald about how a young guy saved lives of many worshippers in Christcurch’s Linwood mosque.

As reported to the New Zealand Herald, Syed Mazharuddin was praying at the Linwood mosque in Christchurch on Friday around lunchtime when a man wearing protective gear entered and began shooting at men, women and children inside.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, March 16 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Saturday that the suspect of the deadly mosque attacks used modified semi-automatic weapons.

She told a press conference that there were still 39 people in hospital, 11 of whom in critical conditions.

The prime minister said the two police officers who arrested Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian man, deserved plaudits for their bravery.

Tarrant was charged with murder and appeared in court briefly on Saturday morning.

The unprecedented terrorist attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, a coastal city of around 400,000 people on New Zealand's South Island, in which at least 49 people died, have left a peaceful nation reeling.

New Zealanders have been leaving tributes to the victims of Friday's terrorist attacks near the Christchurch Botanical gardens, close to the Al Noor mosque.

Some have left flowers, while other have written on the pavement in colored chalk.