AUSTRALIA SAYS CHURCH STABBING TERRORIST ACT

SYDNEY: Australian police on Tuesday said a knife attack on an Assyrian church bishop and some followers in Sydney was a terrorist act motivated by suspected religious extremism. At least four people were wounded in the attack, including Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, when a teenager lunged at him with a knife during a service Monday.

Police said there was premeditation as the 15-year-old male attacker travelled to the church, far from his home, with a knife. Ten Network reported the boy had told churchgoers who restrained him, in Arabic: "If they didn't insult my Prophet, I wouldn't have come here."

Police stood guard around mosques in parts of Sydney after reports that text messages were circulating urging the Assyrian Christian community to retaliate against Muslims. Sydney's Lakemba Mosque, Australia's largest, has hired additional private security for the next week after receiving fire bomb threats.