{"id":35552,"date":"2014-12-15T23:34:32","date_gmt":"2014-12-15T15:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=35552"},"modified":"2014-12-15T23:34:32","modified_gmt":"2014-12-15T15:34:32","slug":"canada-closely-monitors-apparent-hostage-taking-situation-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/12\/15\/canada-closely-monitors-apparent-hostage-taking-situation-in-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada closely monitors apparent hostage taking situation in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/sydney.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-35498\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/sydney.jpg\" alt=\"sydney\" width=\"545\" height=\"345\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/sydney.jpg 545w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/sydney-300x189.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 545px) 100vw, 545px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>OTTAWA &#8212; Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other Canadian government officials were closely watching what was being described as an apparent hostage taking in Australia&#8217;s largest city.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Canada&#8217;s thoughts and prayers are with our Australian friends,&#8221; Harper tweeted.<\/p>\n<p>Police in Sydney said they were dealing with &#8220;an armed incident,&#8221; but wouldn&#8217;t confirm hostages were being held inside the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Sydney.<\/p>\n<p>Television footage shot through the cafe&#8217;s windows showed several people with their arms in the air and hands pressed against the glass.<\/p>\n<p>TV footage showed two people inside the cafe holding up what appeared to be a black flag with white Arabic writing on it.<\/p>\n<p>Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott refused to speculate on whether the incident was linked to terrorism.<\/p>\n<p>Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird tweeted late Sunday that he was in touch with his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We continue to monitor the situation in Sydney closely,&#8221; Baird tweeted.<\/p>\n<p>The situation in Australia came nearly two months after Harper and Baird were at the centre of a crisis that gripped Ottawa, where a lone gunman killed a Canadian soldier and then stormed the Parliament Buildings before being gunned down by security.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for Baird said late Sunday that the government is in close contact with its diplomatic posts in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We urge all Canadians in Sydney to use extra precaution and limit their movements as authorities handle this situation,&#8221; Rick Roth said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have offered Australia any assistance Canada can provide.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Canada has a consulate in Sydney that is roughly one kilometre from where the cafe involved, but Baird&#8217;s office said all staff at the mission are safe and accounted for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OTTAWA &#8212; Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other Canadian government officials were closely watching what was being described as an &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":35498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ca","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}