Murdered backpacker Grace’s funeral held It’s actually Obama’s fault, Pompeo says
GRACE Millane, the British backpacker who was travelling the world when she was murdered in New Zealand, has been farewelled with mourners singing Amazing Grace at her funeral service.
Friends and family and mourners by the hundreds gathered at Brentwood Cathedral in England at 11.30am Thursday (12.30am yesterday NZ time) before her burial in her hometown of Ramsden Bellhouse.
Her coffin was carried into the cathedral by six pallbearers, including brothers Michael and Declan and father David, the BBC reported.
Father John Corbyn, who led the Mass, said the Millanes were ‘‘a very strong family’’.
‘‘You can perceive a great deal of love and bonding and strength within that family, and they have many friends who will, I believe, help them.’’
The 22yearold had only been in New Zealand a little more than a week when she disappeared. A week later, on December 9, her body was found in the Waitakere Ranges, 10m off Scenic Dr in thick bushland.
She was last seen on December 1 when she was caught on CCTV entering CityLife Hotel with the man accused of murdering her.
The 26yearold appeared in the Auckland District Court last month and will reappear in the Auckland High Court on January 23.
He was granted interim name suppression, sparking a worldwide outcry. — NZME/BBC CAIRO: United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday accused Barack Obama of sowing chaos by abandoning the Middle East to Islamist militants and Iranian influence, even as Pompeo’s boss, President Donald Trump, moved to pull American troops out of Syria.
In a blistering speech at the American University in Cairo, Pompeo dispensed with a US diplomatic tradition of not airing domestic disputes abroad by blasting Obama at the site of a landmark 2009 speech by Trump’s predecessor aimed at improving relations with the Islamic world.
Pompeo presented America as ‘‘a force for good in the Middle East’’ and suggested Obama saw the United States as ‘‘a force for what ails the Middle East’’.
He accused Obama of underestimating ‘‘the tenacity and viciousness of radical Islamism’’ and failing to adequately support the 2009 ‘‘Green Movement’’ mass protests against a disputed election in Iran, and faulted him for not bombing Syria in retaliation for chemical weapons use by government forces in its civil war.
‘‘What did we learn from all of this? We learned that when America retreats, chaos often follows. When we neglect our friends, resentment builds. And when we partner with our ene mies, they advance,’’ he said.
Pompeo did not mention Obama by name but called him ‘‘another American’’ who had given a speech in the capital. Obama’s office declined comment on the speech.
Pompeo is touring the region to try to explain US strategy after Trump’s surprise announcement last month of an abrupt withdrawal of all 2000 US troops stationed in Syria.
He sought to reassure allies that Washington remained committed to the ‘‘complete dismantling’’ of the threat posed by Islamic State and to ending Iranian influence in Syria, despite Trump’s decision to withdraw.
Some Middle East experts and officials who served under Obama accused Pompeo of violating the American tradition that ‘‘politics stops at the water’s edge’’.
‘‘It feels a little bit as if the approach is to ‘talk loudly and carry a small stick’,’’ said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East programme at Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies thinktank.
‘‘You could read this as obscuring a continued US retrenchment from Middle Eastern commitments,’’ he said.
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, mocked Pompeo’s speech, tweeting: ‘‘Whenever/wherever US interferes, chaos, repression and resentment follow.’’
Pompeo received support from United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash, who tweeted that ‘‘Washington, through its secretary of state, is asserting the importance of its alliances and supporting its friends.’’ — Reuters