Australian police shoot dead a boy, 16, armed with a knife after he stabbed a man in Perth

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said Sunday.

The incident occurred in the parking lot of a hardware store in suburban Willetton on Saturday night.

The teen attacked the man and then rushed at police officers before he was shot, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook told reporters on Sunday.

“There are indications he had been radicalized online,” Cook told a news conference.

“But I want to reassure the community at this stage it appears that he acted solely and alone,” Cook added.

A man in his 30s was found at the scene with a stab wound to his back. He was taken to a hospital in serious but stable condition, a police statement said.

Police and Australian Security Intelligence Organization agents have been conducting a counterterrorism investigation in the east coast city of Sydney since another 16-year-old boy stabbed an Assyrian Orthodox bishop and priest in a church on April 15.

That boy has been charged with committing a terrorist act. Six of his alleged associates have also been charged with a range of offenses, including conspiring to engage in or planning a terrorist act. All remain in custody.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had been briefed on the latest stabbing in Perth by Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw and ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess, who heads the nation’s main domestic spy agency.

“I’m advised there is no ongoing threat to the community on the information available,” Albanese said.

“We are a peace-loving nation and there is no place for violent extremism in Australia,” he added.

Police received an emergency phone call after 10 p.m. from a teenager saying he was going to commit acts of violence, Western Australian Police Commissioner Col Blanch said.

The boy had been participating in a program for young people at risk of radicalization, Blanch added.

“I don't want to say he has been radicalized or is radicalized because I think that forms part of the investigation,” he said.

Police said they were later alerted by a phone call from a member of the public that a knife attack was underway in the parking lot. Three police officers responded, one armed with a gun and two with conducted energy devices.

Police deployed both conducted energy devices but they failed to incapacitate the boy before he was killed by a single gunshot, Blanch said.

Blanch said members of the local Muslim community had raised concerns with police about the boy's behavior before he was killed on Saturday.

The Imam of Perth’s largest mosque, the Nasir Mosque, condemned the stabbing.

"There is no place for violence in Islam,” Imam Syed Wadood Janud said in a statement.

“We appreciate the effort of the police to keep our communities safe. I also want to commend the local Muslim community who had flagged the individual prior with the police,” Wadood added.

Some Muslim leaders have criticized Australian police for declaring last month's church stabbing a terrorist act but not a rampage two days earlier in a Sydney shopping mall in which six people were killed and a dozen wounded. The 40-year-old attacker in the mall attack was shot dead by police. Police have yet to reveal the man's motive.

The church attack is only the third to be classified by Australian authorities as a terrorist act since 2018.

In December 2022, three Christian fundamentalists shot dead two police officers and a bystander in an ambush near the community of Wieambilla in Queensland state. The shooters were later killed by police.

In November 2018, a Somalia-born Muslim stabbed three pedestrians in downtown Melbourne, killing one, before police shot him dead.

In this image from a video, Western Australian Police Commissioner Col Blanch speaks at a press conference in Perth, Australia Sunday, May 5, 2024. A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said Sunday. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation via AP)

This image from a video, shows a parking lot where an incident occurred in Perth, Australia Sunday, May 5, 2024. A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said Sunday. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation via AP)

In this image from a video, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook speaks at a press conference in Perth, Australia Sunday, May 5, 2024. A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said Sunday. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation via AP)

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Georgia’s president on Saturday vetoed the so-called “Russian law” targeting media that has sparked weeks of mass protests.

The law would require media and NGOs to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad. Critics of the bill say it closely resembles legislation used by the Kremlin to silence opponents, and that it will obstruct Georgia’s bid to join the EU.

President Salome Zourabichvili, who is increasingly at odds with Georgia’s ruling party, said on Saturday that the law contradicts Georgia’s Constitution and “all European standards,” and added that it “must be abolished.”

The ruling party, Georgian Dream, has a majority sufficient to override Zourabichvili’s veto, and is widely expected to do so in the coming days.

The Georgian government insists that the law is intended to promote transparency and curb what it deems harmful foreign influence in the country of 3.7 million. Many Georgian journalists and campaigners fiercely dispute this characterization, saying they are already subject to audit and monitoring requirements. They say that the law's true goal is to stigmatize them and restrict debate ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for October.

The EU offered Georgia candidate status last December, while making it clear that Tbilisi needs to implement key policy recommendations for its membership bid to progress. The recommendations concern, among other areas, elections that must be remain free and fair, fighting disinformation “against the EU and its values," and safeguarding the independence of public institutions such as the central bank and anti-corruption bodies.

The opposition United National Movement and many protesters accuse Georgian Dream of trying to scupper the EU integration process, and to instead drag Georgia into Russia’s sphere of influence — allegations the ruling party vehemently rejects. Georgian Dream was founded by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a former prime minister and billionaire who made his fortune in Russia.

The bill is nearly identical to one that the party was pressured to withdraw last year after street protests. Renewed demonstrations have rocked Georgia for weeks, with demonstrators scuffling with police, who used tear gas and water cannons to disperse them. An opposition lawmaker earlier this month spoke in Parliament with a bandaged face, visible bruises and cuts. His allies said he had been assaulted by police during the protests.

EU officials and Western leaders have repeatedly expressed concerns over the law, as well as Tbilisi's heavy-handed response to dissent. The EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, issued a statement Wednesday in support of the Georgian protesters, and to condemn what he described as a wave of violence against opposition politicians, activists, journalists and their families.

European Council President Charles Michel said Tuesday that if Georgians “want to join the EU, they have to respect the fundamental principles of the rule of law and the democratic principles.”

Zourabichvili told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that it was hard to say whether the bill was Georgian Dream’s initiative or if Moscow had played any role in its passage, but she emphasized that the Kremlin is unhappy with Georgia’s pro-Western aspirations.

“It’s clear that Moscow is not seeing with lots of appreciation this accelerated pace of Georgia towards the European Union,” she said.

Russia-Georgia relations have been strained and turbulent since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and Georgia’s departure from its role as a Soviet republic.

In 2008, Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which had made a botched attempt to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Moscow then recognized South Ossetia and another separatist province, Abkhazia, as independent states and strengthened its military presence there. Most of the world considers both regions to be parts of Georgia.

Tbilisi cut diplomatic ties with Moscow, and the regions’ status remains a key irritant even as Russia-Georgia relations have improved in recent years.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili gestures while speaking during an interview with The Associated Press, in Tbilisi, Georgia, Thursday, May 16, 2024. Zourabichvili said Thursday that a "foreign influence" bill passed by parliament that critics call a threat to free speech is "unacceptable." (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)