{"id":28408,"date":"2019-01-09T07:23:15","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T07:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=28408"},"modified":"2019-01-09T07:23:15","modified_gmt":"2019-01-09T07:23:15","slug":"suspicious-packages-sent-to-foreign-missions-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=28408","title":{"rendered":"Suspicious packages sent to foreign missions in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"body-200771816342556199\" readability=\"110.657854985\">\n<p class=\"speakable\">Police in Australia say they are investigating several suspicious packages sent to embassies and consulates in the cities of Melbourne and Canberra.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">The packages were being examined by &#8220;attending emergency services&#8221;, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said in a short statement on Wednesday<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">&#8220;The circumstances surrounding the incidents are being investigated,&#8221; it added,\u00a0<span>, without providing additional details.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>There were no immediate reports of any harm to staff.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Police did not identify any of the missions involved, but\u00a0officials at the US and British consulates in Melbourne separately confirmed suspicious packages had been received.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\" readability=\"7.6\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">BREAKING: Police and emergency services have responded to suspicious packages to embassies and consulates in ACT &#038; VIC today (Wednesday, 9 January 2019). The packages are being examined by attending emergency services. The circumstances are being investigated.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 AFP (@AusFedPolice) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AusFedPolice\/status\/1082850303190298624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 9, 2019<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Domestic media reported more than a dozen foreign offices received the packages and that some staff said they contained asbestos, a material used in building that can cause cancers and other health problems.<\/p>\n<p>Other consulates in Melbourne reported by media to have received suspicious packages included those representing Greece, Italy, Spain, Thailand, India, Japan, Pakistan, Egypt, Denmark and Switzerland.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The reports could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n<p>There were no details of any possible motive and some of the targeted sites visited by reporters were open later on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for the British High Commission confirmed its office in Melbourne had received a suspicious package.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are liaising closely with the AFP and the local authorities regarding the situation,&#8221; the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All our staff are safe and accounted for.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The US consulate in the city said it also received a &#8220;suspicious&#8221; package, which a spokesperson said was handled in coordination with the Melbourne Fire Brigade and the AFP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div readability=\"32\">\n<p>\n            SOURCE:<br \/>\n            <span>Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Police in Australia say they are investigating several suspicious packages sent to embassies and consulates in the cities of Melbourne and Canberra. The packages were being examined by &#8220;attending emergency services&#8221;, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said in a short statement on Wednesday &#8220;The circumstances surrounding the incidents are being investigated,&#8221; it added,\u00a0, without providing&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":28409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}