El Paso shooting: 20 people killed at mall in Texas border town


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Twenty people have been killed and 26 others wounded after a man armed with a rifle opened fire at a shopping mall in the US border town of El Paso, Texas, on Saturday.

Many shoppers in the busy Walmart store were buying back-to-school supplies when they found themselves caught up in the latest US mass shooting, which came just six days after a teenage gunman killed three people at a summer food festival in Northern California.

Saturday's suspect was officially identified as a white male 21, from Allen, Texas, a Dallas suburb about 1,046km east of El Paso, which lies along the Rio Grande, across the US-Mexico border from Ciudad Juarez.

Citing law enforcement officials, several media reports named the suspect as Patrick Crusius.

El Paso police chief Greg Allen said authorities were examining a manifesto from the suspect indicating "there is a potential nexus to a hate crime". Officials declined to elaborate and said the investigation was continuing.

But a four-page statement posted on 8chan, an online message board often used by extremists, and believed to have been authored by the suspect, called the Walmart attack "a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas".

It also expressed support for the gunman who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

CNN reported that the FBI has opened a domestic terror investigation into the shooting.

The carnage ranked as the eighth-deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, after a 1984 shooting in San Ysidro, California, that claimed 21 lives.

Those injured in the shooting were taken to two separate hospitals, medical officials said. At least eleven victims were received at the Del Sol Medical Centre, a spokesman said. Others were taken to the University Medical Centre of El Paso.

City police issued a call for blood donations in a tweet. "Blood needed urgently. Multiple injured transported to various hospitals," the El Paso Police Department posted.

Law enforcement first received calls relating to an active shooter at the Cielo Vista Mall at about 10am local time. In the chaos of the shooting, there were also reports of a separate shooting several miles away but the scene at that mall was later deemed to be safe.

The FBI, the local sheriff’s department and other agencies were in attendance at the shopping mall to assist the authorities in El Paso.

The Associated Press reported US President Donald Trump was being updated on the situation as it unfolded. Mr Trump had also reportedly spoken with both Attorney General William Barr and Texas Governor Greg Abbot.

In a tweet the US president said many had been killed in the shootings. “Terrible shootings in El Paso, Texas. Reports are very bad, many killed. Working with State and Local authorities, and Law Enforcement. Spoke to Governor to pledge total support of Federal Government. God be with you all!” he wrote.

Mr Abbott called the shooting "a heinous and senseless act of violence," as he said he would travel to El Paso, which has about 680,000 residents and sits across the border from Juarez, Mexico.

At a Democratic presidential candidate forum in Las Vegas, former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, from El Paso, broke the news of the shooting to his audience and announced he would be returning home.

"El Paso is the strongest place in the world. This community is going to come together. I'm going back there right now to be with my family, to be with my home town," the Democratic presidential hopeful said.

Later, speaking to reporters outside a hospital in El Paso where he was visiting victims of the shooting, Mr O'Rourke accused Mr Trump of inciting hatred.

He said Mr Trump had proven himself a racist with his recent attacks on four ethnic minority congresswomen and his past branding of Mexicans as rapists.

"He is a racist and he stokes racism in this country. And it does not just offend our sensibilities, it fundamentally changes the character of this country and it leads to violence," Mr O'Rourke said.

"We've had a rise in hate crimes every single one of the last three years during an administration where you have a president who's called Mexicans rapists and criminals."

Mr O'Rourke was responding to questions about the manifesto purportedly written by the gunman.

More than 80 per cent of El Paso's population is Hispanic, according to US census figures.

Asked if any of the contents of the manifesto should "fall at the feet" of Mr Trump, Mr O'Rourke replied: "Yes."

"There are still details that we are waiting on but I'm just following the lead that I've heard from the El Paso police department where they say there are strong indications that this shooter wrote that manifesto and that this was inspired by his hatred of people here in this community."

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ESSENTIALS

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.

The hotels

Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.

The tours

A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages. 

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US households add $601bn of debt in 2019

American households borrowed another $601 billion (Dh2.2bn) in 2019, the largest yearly gain since 2007, just before the global financial crisis, according to February data from the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

Fuelled by rising mortgage debt as homebuyers continued to take advantage of low interest rates, the increase last year brought total household debt to a record high, surpassing the previous peak reached in 2008 just before the market crash, according to the report.

Following the 22nd straight quarter of growth, American household debt swelled to $14.15 trillion by the end of 2019, the New York Fed said in its quarterly report.

In the final three months of the year, new home loans jumped to their highest volume since the fourth quarter of 2005, while credit cards and auto loans also added to the increase.

The bad debt load is taking its toll on some households, and the New York Fed warned that more and more credit card borrowers — particularly young people — were falling behind on their payments.

"Younger borrowers, who are disproportionately likely to have credit cards and student loans as their primary form of debt, struggle more than others with on-time repayment," New York Fed researchers said.

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If you go

 

  • The nearest international airport to the start of the Chuysky Trakt is in Novosibirsk. Emirates (www.emirates.com) offer codeshare flights with S7 Airlines (www.s7.ru) via Moscow for US$5,300 (Dh19,467) return including taxes. Cheaper flights are available on Flydubai and Air Astana or Aeroflot combination, flying via Astana in Kazakhstan or Moscow. Economy class tickets are available for US$650 (Dh2,400).
  • The Double Tree by Hilton in Novosibirsk ( 7 383 2230100,) has double rooms from US$60 (Dh220). You can rent cabins at camp grounds or rooms in guesthouses in the towns for around US$25 (Dh90).
  • The transport Minibuses run along the Chuysky Trakt but if you want to stop for sightseeing, hire a taxi from Gorno-Altaisk for about US$100 (Dh360) a day. Take a Russian phrasebook or download a translation app. Tour companies such as  Altair-Tour ( 7 383 2125115 ) offer hiking and adventure packages.
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Western Region Asia Cup T20 Qualifier

Sun Feb 23 – Thu Feb 27, Al Amerat, Oman

The two finalists advance to the Asia qualifier in Malaysia in August

 

Group A

Bahrain, Maldives, Oman, Qatar

Group B

UAE, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia

 

UAE group fixtures

Sunday Feb 23, 9.30am, v Iran

Monday Feb 25, 1pm, v Kuwait

Tuesday Feb 26, 9.30am, v Saudi

 

UAE squad

Ahmed Raza, Rohan Mustafa, Alishan Sharafu, Ansh Tandon, Vriitya Aravind, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Karthik Meiyappan, Basil Hameed, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Ayaz, Zahoor Khan, Chirag Suri, Sultan Ahmed

ENGLAND TEAM

Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman, James Vince, Joe Root (captain), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Craig Overton, Stuart Broad, James Anderson