BERNBURG, Germany >> Officials in Germany were trying Sunday to piece together the complicated profile of the man in custody suspected of killing five people by driving an SUV into a crowd at a Christmas market two days earlier, an attack that has stunned the country.
Authorities have described the suspect as a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who had been living in Germany for nearly two decades. They say they are still trying to determine his motives. The Salus Clinic in Bernburg, a town about a half-hour drive from Magdeburg, said that the man worked as a psychiatrist in its closed ward, treating offenders who suffer from drug addiction.
The victims in the assault, which took place in the eastern city of Magdeburg, were a 9-year-old boy and four women aged 45 to 75, police said in a statement Sunday.
More than 200 others were wounded, 41 of them seriously.
Mourners on Sunday visited a memorial to the victims set up on the steps of a church across the street from the market in Magdeburg, and a service was held Saturday night. At the same time Saturday, in a square nearby, several hundred people attended a rally where demonstrators chanted, “Deport! Deport!”
The suspect, identified as Taleb A. in keeping with German privacy laws, was questioned Saturday, security officials said. On Sunday, a judge ordered him to remain in detention as authorities continued their investigations.
Holger Münch, head of Germany’s domestic security agency, the Federal Criminal Office, said that authorities had been aware of the suspect and had received a warning about him from Saudi Arabia in November 2023. But the tipoff was “so unspecific” that German authorities did not treat it as a signal that the man was plotting an attack, he said.
State police in Saxony-Anhalt, which includes Magdeburg, said they had opened an investigation after that warning and had questioned the Saudi doctor but had then closed the inquiry. Authorities said they had not categorized him as a potential threat.
In social media posts, the doctor had criticized Germany for what he called authorities’ tolerance of radical Islam. He also expressed support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party and reposted comments by the group’s leaders warning of the threat of Islamic law being imposed in Germany. But Münch said the doctor’s activity did not fit into the description of a far-right extremist either, describing him as “atypical.”
Canadian Liberals seek Trudeau’s exit
More than 50 Liberal Party members of parliament from Ontario came to a “consensus” during a conference call Saturday that Justin Trudeau must step down as prime minister, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
That would represent about a third of the Liberal caucus, which has 153 seats in Canada’s House of Commons. However, there’s no formal mechanism for Liberal lawmakers to eject their leader or trigger a contest.
While the Liberals comprise the largest group in parliament, they lack a majority and have relied on votes from members of other parties — primarily the New Democratic Party — to pass legislation and stay in power.
Trudeau’s government has been in turmoil since Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigned on Dec. 16, saying she and the prime minister were at odds over the direction of the government. Then NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said on Friday that his 25 members will join two other opposition parties in voting to bring down the government early next year.
Son: Congresswoman has ‘dementia issues’
Retiring U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, has missed votes in Congress since the summer and her son said she has been “having some dementia issues late in the year.”
The last time the 81-year-old congresswoman cast a vote on the House floor was the morning of July 24.
In a statement from her office, Rep. Granger expressed gratitude for the public’s concern and said that since early September, her health issues have made frequent travel to Washington, D.C., “both difficult and unpredictable.”
“As many of my family, friends, and colleagues have known, I have been navigating some unforeseen health challenges over the past year,” the statement said.
She added she was able to return to Washington in November to hold meetings and oversee the closure of her office.
From South Carolina, Brandon Granger, 52, told The Dallas Morning News Sunday morning, “It’s been a hard year,” adding it has been a surprise how quickly it progressed.
Brandon said his mother is living at Tradition Senior Living in Fort Worth, but she is not in a memory care facility, as some media reports have stated. He said that while the facility has a memory care community on the same property, Rep. Granger resides in the independent living facility.
2 U.S. pilots survive friendly fire incident
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates >> Two U.S. Navy pilots were shot down Sunday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the U.S military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of America targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Both pilots - who were on the same plane - were recovered alive after ejecting from the stricken aircraft, with one suffering minor injuries. But the shootdown underlines just how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become, with ongoing attacks on shipping by the Iranian-backed Houthis despite U.S. and European military coalitions patrolling the area.
The U.S. military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the time of the friendly fire incident, though the U.S. military’s Central Command did not elaborate on what the pilots’ mission was and did not respond to questions from The Associated Press.
The F/A-18 shot down had just flown off the deck of the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, Central Command said. On Dec. 15, Central Command acknowledged the Truman had entered the Mideast, but hadn’t specified that the carrier and its battle group was in the Red Sea.
Ukraine drones strike Russian fuel depot
KYIV, Ukraine >> Ukrainian drones struck a major Russian fuel depot for the second time in just over a week on Sunday, according to a senior Russian regional official, as part of a “massive” cross-border attack on fuel and energy facilities that Kyiv says supply Moscow’s military.
The strikes came days after Russia launched sweeping attacks on Ukraine’s already battered energy grid, threatening to plunge thousands of homes into darkness as winter tightens its grip over the region, and as Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor nears the three-year mark.
A fire broke out at the Stalnoy Kon oil terminal in Russia’s southern Oryol region, local Gov. Andrey Klychkov said in a post on the Telegram messaging app, adding Russian forces downed 20 drones targeting “fuel and energy infrastructure” in the province.
Russian independent news outlet Astra shared video of what it said was an explosion at the site, showing a massive orange blaze lighting up the night sky. While the clip could not be independently verified, it was later shared by a Ukrainian security official who described it as footage from Oryol.
The official, Andriy Kovalenko of the Council of National Security and Defense, claimed the Oryol fuel depot supplies Russian forces fighting in Ukraine and southern Russia, including the Kursk province where Ukrainian troops have dug in following a lightning incursion in August.
Putin holds talks with Slovakian leader
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday hosted Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, in a rare visit to the Kremlin by an EU leader since Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Fico arrived in Russia on a “working visit” and met with Putin one-on-one on Sunday evening, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s RIA news agency. According to Peskov, the talks were expected to focus on “the international situation” and Russian natural gas deliveries.
Russian natural gas still flows to some European countries, including Slovakia, through Ukraine under a five-year agreement signed before the war that is due to expire at the end of this year.
At a summit in Brussels on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told EU leaders that Kyiv has no intention of renewing the deal, something Fico insisted will harm his country’s interests.
Fico said on Facebook after meeting with Putin that he informed European Union leaders about his trip on Friday.
He said the talks in Moscow were a reaction to what Zelenskyy told him on Thursday in Brussels, that he is against any gas transit to Slovakia through Ukraine. Fico also said that Zelenskyy is in favor of sanctions against Russia’s nuclear program, which he said was unacceptable and against the interest of his country that relies on nuclear energy.
Suspect held in fire death on N.Y. subway
New York City Police announced Sunday they have in custody a “person of interest” in the early morning death of a woman who they believe may have fallen asleep on a stationary subway train before being intentionally lit on fire by a man she didn’t know.
Transit police apprehended the suspect after receiving a report from three high school students who had recognized the man. They had seen images of the suspect taken from surveillance and police body cam video and widely distributed by police.
“New Yorkers came through again,” said New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who described the case as “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being.”
Tisch said the suspect and the woman, both of whom have not been identified, were riding a subway train to the end of the line in Brooklyn at around 7:30 a.m.
After the train came to a stop, surveillance video from the subway car showed the man “calmly” walk up to the victim, who was seated and possibly sleeping, and set her clothing on fire with what appeared to be a lighter. The woman’s clothing then “became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds,” Tisch said.
Police do not believe the two knew one another.
Small plane crash in Brazil leaves 10 dead
A small plane crashed into a Brazilian town that’s popular with tourists on Sunday, killing all 10 passengers on board and injuring more than a dozen people on the ground, Brazil’s Civil Defense Agency said.
The agency in a post on X said the plane hit the chimney of a home and then the second floor of a building before crashing into a mobile phone shop in a largely residential neighborhood of Gramado. More than a dozen people who were on the ground were taken to hospitals with injuries including smoke inhalation, with two said to be in critical condition.
It is not immediately clear what caused the crash.
Death toll up to 32 in Nigeria stampedes
ABUJA, Nigeria >> The death toll from stampedes during two Christmas charity events in Nigeria has increased from 13 to 32, police said Sunday. The victims, including at least four children, collapsed during crowd surges as people grew desperate for food items while the country grapples with the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.
The dead included 22 people in southeastern Anambra state’s Okija town, where a philanthropist on Saturday organized a food distribution, local police spokesman Tochukwu Ikenga said. Ten others died in the capital, Abuja, during a church-organized similar charity event.
Police said they were investigating the two incidents, only days after another stampede in which 35 children were killed.
Africa’s most populous country is seeing a growing trend by local organizations, churches and individuals to organize charity events ahead of Christmas to ease economic hardship caused by a cost-of-living crisis.
Pope Francis urges Christmas ceasefires
Pope Francis called for a ceasefire on all war fronts in his Sunday Angelus prayer ahead of Christmas, condemning the “cruelty” of bombing schools and hospitals taking place in Ukraine and Gaza.
“Let the weapons fall silent and let the Christmas carols ring out!” Francis said, delivering his Sunday blessing from indoors due to a cold and as a precaution ahead of a busy Christmas period.
“Let us pray that at Christmas there will be a ceasefire on all war fronts, in Ukraine, in the Holy Land, throughout the Middle East and throughout the world,” the pope said.
— From news services