World

MAGDEBURG, Germany — The suspect in Germany's deadly car-ramming attack on a Christmas market held strongly anti-Islam views and was angry with Germany's migrant and asylum policy, officials said Saturday.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the "terrible, insane" attack that killed five people and shocked the nation, days before Christmas and eight years after an extremist drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin.

Police were puzzling over the motive of Taleb Al Abdulmohsen, the main suspect after an SUV ploughed at high speed through a dense crowd in the eastern city of Magdeburg Friday.

As well as killing five people, the vehicle wounded 205 others. A nine-year-old child was among the dead and casualties were being treated in 15 regional hospitals.

Germany has been hit by multiple deadly extremist attacks, but evidence gathered by investigators and his past online posts painted a different picture of Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old doctor of psychiatry.

Interior Minister Nancy Fraser said he held "Islamophobic" views. And a prosecutor said that "the background to the crime... could have been disgruntlement with the way Saudi Arabian refugees are treated in Germany".

Taha Al-Hajji of the Berlin-based European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights told AFP Abdulmohsen was "a psychologically disturbed person with an exaggerated sense of self-importance".

Call for unity

In his online posts, Abdulmohsen spoke about his troubles with and suspicions of German authorities.

Last August, he posted on social media: "Is there a path to justice in Germany without blowing up a German embassy or randomly slaughtering German citizens?... If anyone knows it, please let me know."

Die Welt daily reported, citing security sources, that German state and federal police had carried out a "risk assessment" on him last year but concluded that he posed "no specific danger".

A sombre Scholz, dressed in black, visited the attack site Saturday together with national and regional politicians laying flowers outside the main church in Magdeburg.

Local people have left candles, flowers, cards and children's toys at the Johanneskirche church, where Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier later joined a memorial service.

Scholz pledged the state would respond "with the full force of the law" to the attack. But he also called for unity as Germany has been rocked by a heated debate on immigration and security ahead of elections in February.

It was important "that we stick together, that we link arms, that it is not hatred that determines our coexistence but the fact that we are a community that seeks a common future", he said.

US President Joe Biden later joined other world leaders in voicing his condolences "to the people of Germany grieving the terrible attack".

"No community -- and no family -- should have to endure such a despicable and dark event, especially just days before a holiday of joy and peace."

Pope Francis also offered condolences to the German president in a telegram.

Scholz said he was grateful for the expressions of solidarity from around the world. "It is good to hear that we as Germans are not alone in the face of this terrible catastrophe."

 'Sad and shocked'

Surveillance video footage of the attack showed a black BMW racing straight through the crowd, scattering bodies amid the festive stalls that were selling traditional handicrafts, snacks and mulled wine.

On Saturday, debris and discarded medical materials blew across the cordoned-off site, the stalls now empty around a giant Christmas tree.

This year's fair has been cancelled out of respect for the victims.

The leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Alice Weidel, which has focused on jihadist attacks in its campaign against immigrants, wrote on X: "When will this madness stop?"

"What happened today affects a lot of people. It affects us a lot," Fael Kelion, a 27-year-old Cameroonian living in the city, told AFP.

"I think that since[(the suspect]is a foreigner, the population will be unhappy, less welcoming."

Michael Raarig, 67 and an engineer, feared the attack "will play into the hands of the AfD" which has had its strongest support in the formerly communist eastern Germany.

Security was stepped up Saturday at Christmas markets elsewhere in Germany with more police out in Hamburg, Leipzig and other cities.

Church bells rang in Magdeburg and across the region at 7:03 pm (1803 GMT) the time of Friday's attack.

WASHINGTON — Incoming US President Donald Trump on Saturday slammed what he called unfair fees for US ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand control of the waterway be returned to Washington.

He also hinted at China's growing influence around the canal, a worrying trend for American interests as US businesses depend on the channel to move goods between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

"Our Navy and Commerce have been treated in a very unfair and injudicious way. The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous," he said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

"This complete 'rip-off' of our Country will immediately stop."

The Panama Canal, which was completed by the United States in 1914, was returned to the Central American country under a 1977 deal signed by Democratic president Jimmy Carter.

Panama took full control in 1999

"It was solely for Panama to manage, not China, or anyone else," Trump said. "We would and will NEVER let it fall into the wrong hands!"

He continued that if Panama could not ensure "the secure, efficient and reliable operation" of the channel, "then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question."

Authorities in Panama did not immediately react to Trump's post.

Although he does not officially take office until next month, Trump has nevertheless been flexing his political influence in the waning days of President Joe Biden's administration.

The real estate mogul boasted on the campaign trail that as an entrepreneur, he was uniquely positioned to fight for US business interests.

An estimated five percent of global maritime traffic passes through the Panama Canal, which allows ships travelling between Asia and the US East Coast to avoid the long, hazardous route around the southern tip of South America.

The main users of the passage are the United States, China, Japan and South Korea.

The Panama Canal Authority reported in October that the waterway had earned record revenues of nearly $5 billion in the last fiscal year.

MOSCOW — Russia said Sunday it had captured two more villages in east Ukraine, the latest territorial gains for Moscow's advancing army.

The defence ministry said on Telegram that its troops had "liberated" the villages of Lozova in the north-eastern Kharkiv region and Krasnoye , called Sontsivka in Ukraine.

The latter is close to the resource hub of Kurakhove, which Russia has almost encircled and would be a key prize for Moscow's attempt to capture the entire Donetsk region.

Russia has accelerated its advance across eastern Ukraine in recent months, looking to secure as much territory as possible before US President-elect Donald Trump comes to power in January.

The Republican has promised to bring a swift end to the nearly three-year conflict, without proposing any concrete terms for a ceasefire or peace deal.

Moscow's army claims to have seized more than 190 Ukrainian settlements this year, with Kyiv struggling to hold the line in the face of manpower and ammunition shortages.

MAGDEBURG, Germany — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday visited the site of a deadly car-ramming attack on a crowded Christmas market that shocked the nation, to pay tribute to the victims.

Police arrested a 50-year-old doctor of psychiatry at the scene where two people were killed and 68 injured when an SUV ploughed through the festive crowd on Friday night.

A sombre Scholz, dressed in black, was joined by national and regional politicians and a security detail in the eastern city of Magdeburg, where they laid flowers outside the main church.

Mourning and bereaved residents had already left candles, flowers and children's toys at the Johanneskirche church, where a memorial service was planned at 7:00 pm (1800 GMT).

As Germany was reeling from the shocking attack, which came eight years after a jihadist strike on a Berlin Christmas market claimed 13 lives, more details emerged about the Saudi man under arrest.

Named by German media as Taleb A., he was a doctor who had lived in Germany since 2006 and held a permanent residence permit, working in a clinic near Magdeburg.

He had long also worked as a rights activist who supported Saudi women and described himself as a "Saudi atheist". The man voiced strongly anti-Islam views, echoing the rhetoric of the far-right, according to his social media posts and past interviews.

As his views expressed online grew more radical, he accused Germany's past governments of a plan to "Islamise Europe" and voiced fears he was being targeted by authorities.

The Bild daily reported that an initial drug test had proved positive, after police officers on Friday used a so-called test that can detect narcotics ranging from cannabis to cocaine and methamphetamines.

 'Terrible deed' 

Surveillance video of the attack showed a black BMW driving at high speed straight through a dense crowd, running over or scattering bodies amid the festive stalls selling snacks, handicrafts and traditional mulled wine.

Police said the vehicle drove "at least 400 metres across the Christmas market" leaving behind destruction, debris and broken glass on the city's central town hall square.

The attack came eight years after Tunisian man drove a truck through a Berlin Christmas market, killing 13 people in Germany's deadliest jihadist attack.

One woman told Die Welt daily: "I don't know what world we're living in, where someone would use such a peaceful event to spread terror."

The sorrow and anger sparked by the latest attack, in which a child was killed, seemed set to inflame a heated debate on immigration and security as Germany heads for February 23 elections.

The leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Alice Weidel, which has focused on jihadist attacks in its campaign against immigrants, wrote on X: "When will this madness stop?"

"What happened today affects a lot of people. It affects us a lot," Fael Kelion, a 27-year-old Cameroonian living in the city, told AFP.

"I think that since (the suspect) is a foreigner, the population will be unhappy, less welcoming," he said.

Michael Raarig, 67 an engineer, expressed his sorrow at the site, telling AFP that "I am sad, I am shocked. I never would have believed this could happen, here in an east German provincial town."

He added that he believed the attack "will play into the hands of the AfD" which has had its strongest support in the formerly communist eastern Germany.

Series of attacks 

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had recently called for vigilance at Christmas markets, although she said that authorities had not received any specific threats.

Domestic security service the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had warned it considers Christmas markets an "ideologically suitable target for Islamist-motivated people".

Germany has in recent time seen a series of suspected Islamist knife and other violent attacks which have inflamed public opinion.

Three people were killed and eight wounded in a stabbing spree at a street festival in the western city of Solingen in August. Police arrested a Syrian suspect over the attack that was claimed by IS.

In June, a policeman was killed in a knife attack in Mannheim. An Afghan national was detained.

The German government this year imposed new border controls with European neighbours and pledged to step up deportations of rejected asylum-seekers.

Germany's conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz, who is ahead in pre-election opinion polls, has pledged in his campaign to show "zero tolerance" on crime and "stop illegal migration".

SAO PAULO — At least 22 people died early Saturday when a bus crashed into a truck and then caught fire in southeastern Brazil, officials said, adding that the death toll is likely to rise.

Around four in the morning, the bus traveling from Sao Paulo blew a tire near the town of Lajinha, in the state of Minas Gerais, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle and hit a truck, the state's fire department said in a statement.

The bus went up in flames and at least 22 passengers died, the statement said. Thirteen people survived and sought medical help.

Another vehicle rammed into the bus from behind, but its occupants survived.

"After hours of work, firefighters managed to extinguish the flames and have removed 22 charred bodies of victims who were trapped" inside, the fire department said in a statement.

In a video released Saturday morning, Lieutenant Alonso Vieira Junior with the Minas Gerais fire department said a crane would be needed to clear the wreckage, and that "there are still more victims to be removed."