Bondi | Pakistan

Australia’s lower house of parliament has passed new laws for a national gun buyback, tighter background checks for gun licences and a crackdown on hate crimes, in response to the country’s worst mass shooting in decades at a Jewish festival last month. Two bills for stricter gun control and anti-hate measures passed on Tuesday by the House of Representatives in a special parliament session will now go to the upper house Senate for debate. The gun control laws are expected to pass with the support of the Greens party despite opposition from the conservative Liberal-National coalition. The anti-hate laws are likely to pass with support from the Liberal party. Introducing the gun reforms, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said individuals with “hate in their hearts and guns in their hands”, carried out the December 14 attack at Bondi Beach that killed 15 people. “The tragic events at Bondi demand a comprehensive response from government,” Burke added. “As a government, we must do everything we can to counter bot...

Flowers were laid on Tuesday in front of the shuttered shop of Ahmed al Ahmed, the 43-year-old tobacco shop owner who locals hailed as the Bondi hero after he wrestled a gun from one of the attackers during a mass shooting on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. Ahmed was identified on social media as the bystander who hid behind parked cars before charging at the gunman from behind, seizing his rifle and knocking him to the ground. The act saved several lives, authorities have said. View this post on Instagram “I think he’s a role model for us all and it really encompasses the Aussie spirit and I’m incredibly proud to live in the area and I think everybody is, it blows me away, absolutely blows me away,” said Adam Pogorzelski, a local resident in Ahmed’s neighbourhood, in the suburb of Sutherland, about 26 kilometres from the centre of Sydney. Ahmed, a father of two, remains in a Sydney hospital with gunshot wounds. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited him earlier on Tuesday and told media that Ahmed will undergo more s...