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  • Germany seeks motive after van crashes into crowd

    A van crashed into people drinking outside a popular bar Saturday in the German city of Muenster, killing two people and injuring 20 others before the driver of the vehicle shot and killed himself in

    MUENSTER, Germany (AP) — A van crashed into people drinking outside a popular bar Saturday in the German city of Muenster, killing two people and injuring 20 others before the driver of the vehicle shot and killed himself inside it, police said.

    A top German security official said there was no indication of an Islamic extremist motive but officials were investigating all possibilities in the deadly crash that took place at 3:27 p.m. on a warm spring day.

    Witnesses said people ran away screaming from the city square after the crash. Police quickly set up a large cordoned-off area for their investigation and ambulances rushed to the site.

    Six of the 20 injured were in severe condition, according to police spokesman Andreas Bode.

    Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, where Muenster is located, said the driver of the gray van was a German citizen. He stressed that the investigation was at an early stage but said “at the moment, nothing speaks for there being any Islamist background.”

    “We have to wait, and we are investigating in all directions,” Reul said, adding that it was clearly not an accident.

    Reul said two people were killed in the crash and the driver killed himself — lower than the earlier police toll of three dead plus the driver.

    Police spokesman Peter Nuessmeyer told The Associated Press that he could not confirm German media reports that the perpetrator reportedly had psychological issues.

    Bode told reporters that police were checking witness reports that other perpetrators might have fled from the van at the scene. Hours later, police spokeswoman Vanessa Arlt said “we didn’t find anything (to those reports) but we’re still investigating in all directions and not excluding anything.”

    Police tweeted that residents should “avoid the area near the Kiepenkerl pub” in the city’s historic downtown area where a large-scale police operation was underway.

    Police also said they found a suspicious object in the van that they were examining to see if it was dangerous. They told German news agency dpa that was the reason authorities cordoned off such a large area.

    The Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper said the suspect’s apartment was being searched Saturday night for possible explosives.

    The Muenster University Hospital put out an urgent call for citizens to donate blood — and so many people rushed to help that long lines of donors formed. Jan Schoessler, who was among those in line, said dozens of people were waiting shortly after doors opened at 7 p.m.

    The university cancelled the call after only an hour and thanked everyone on Twitter “for your overwhelming support.”

    Muenster, a major university city, has about 300,000 residents and an attractive medieval city center that was rebuilt after World War II. TV footage showed a narrow street sealed off Saturday with red-and-white police tape. Dozens of ambulances were near the cordoned-off area and helicopters were flying overhead.

    The Kiepenkerl is not only one of the city’s best-known traditional pubs, but also the emblem of the city, depicting a traveling salesman with a long pipe in his mouth and a big backpack on his back.

    Ugur Hur was working at a nearby cafe in downtown Muenster when the crash took place.

    “I heard a loud bang, screaming. And the police arrived and everyone was sent out,” he said. “A lot of people were running away screaming.”

    Lino Baldi, who owns an Italian restaurant near the scene of the crash, told Sky TG24 that the city center had been packed with people out enjoying a Saturday market and summer-like temperatures, which had risen to 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) from just 12 degrees (54 degrees F) a day earlier.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was “deeply shocked by the terrible events in Muenster.”

    “Everything conceivable is being done to investigate the crime and to support the victims and their relatives,” Merkel said in a statement. “My thanks go to all the responders at the scene.”

    ___

    Grieshaber reported from Berlin. Geir Moulson and Frank Jordans in Berlin and Colleen Barry in Munich contributed reporting.

  • 14 die when truck collides with hockey team’s bus in Canada

    Canadians were moved to tears on Saturday after fourteen people were killed and 15 others injured when a truck collided with a bus carrying a junior hockey team to a playoff game.

    NIPAWIN, Saskatchewan (AP) — Canadians were moved to tears on Saturday after fourteen people were killed and 15 others injured when a truck collided with a bus carrying a junior hockey team to a playoff game.

    The bus driving the Humboldt Broncos had 29 passengers, including the driver, when it crashed at about 5 p.m. Friday on Highway 35 in Saskatchewan, Canadian police said.

    Among the dead are Broncos head coach Darcy Haugan, team captain Logan Schatz and radio announcer Tyler Bieber.

    Three people are in critical condition.

    “An entire country is in shock and mourning,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement. “Our national hockey family is a close one, with roots in almost every town – small and big – across Canada. Humboldt is no exception, and today the country and the entire hockey community stands with you.”

    In a tweet, U.S. President Donald Trump said he called Trudeau to offer his condolences to the families of victims.

    Darren Opp, president of the Nipawin Hawks, who the Broncos were set to play against, said a semi T-boned the players’ bus – an account police confirmed.

    “It’s a horrible accident, my God,” Opp said.

    Kelly Schatz, Logan’s father, says his 20-year-old son played for the Broncos for just over four years and had served as team captain for the past 2 ½ years. Meanwhile, tributes poured in online for Darcy Haugan, a father of two who was described as an amazing mentor to young players.

    The names of others killed have not been confirmed. STARS air ambulance said it sent three helicopters to the scene.

    Hassan Masri, an emergency room doctor at Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital who has done work in war-torn Syria, said the crash reminded him of an airstrike.

    Dramatic images from the scene appeared to show the bus torn in two by the force of the impact. Debris was scattered on the highway, and a large tractor-trailer lay overturned on the pavement.

    The tragedy brought to mind an accident in 1986, when the Swift Current Broncos team bus slid off an icy highway and crashed in late December, killing four players.

    The Humboldt Broncos are a close-knit team from the small city of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, which has a population of about 6,000. Many gathered at the community center at the hockey arena there after word of the horrific crash began to circulate.

    Humboldt Mayor Rob Muench, wearing a green and yellow Broncos team jersey, hugged people Saturday morning as they came to the Elger Petersen Arena in the Saskatchewan town to comfort each other and learn more.

    “It’s overwhelming. It’s been tough on everybody,” Muench said in a phone interview. “We’re a small community, some of those kids have been on the team for a number of years. A lot grew up in the community and everybody knows each other.”

    The team was on its way to play in Game 5 of a semi-final against the Nipawin Hawks.

    “Hockey was what brought us all together and we had two communities that were rivals in the rink. To find out that it was their first responders that aided our boys just warms your heart,” the mayor said as his voice cracked.

    Many people wandered in and out of the arena throughout the morning. In a separate area, multiple crisis workers were assisting.

    “Everybody is just so devastated. These poor young boys,” said Penny Lee, the communications manager for the town of Humboldt

    The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League is a junior ‘A’ hockey league under Hockey Canada, which is part of the Canadian Junior Hockey League. It’s open to North American-born players between the ages of 16 and 20.

    Team President Kevin Garinger said parents from across western Canada were struggling to cope with the tragedy and were rushing to the scene.

    “Our whole community is in shock, we are grieving and we will continue to grieve throughout this ordeal as we try to work toward supporting each other,” he said.

    Michelle Straschnitzki, who lives in Airdrie, Alberta, said her 18-year old son Ryan was transported to a hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

    “We talked to him, but he said he couldn’t feel his lower extremities so I don’t know what’s going on,” she said. “I am freaking out. I am so sad for all of the teammates and I am losing my mind.”

    Opp, the president of the Hawks, said the coaching staff and players from their team were waiting to help.

    “They are sitting in the church just waiting to hear any good news,” he said.

    Pastor Jordan Gadsby at the Apostolic Church in Nipawin said more than a hundred people had gathered at the church – including parents and grandparents of the players who were on the bus.

    “Lots of them are waiting for information,” he said.

    Garinger said he still didn’t know the fate of one of the players living in his home.

    “We don’t know who has passed and we don’t expect to know right away,” he said.

    Garinger said all the team can do now is help the players and their families.

    “We just need to try to support each other as we deal with this incredible loss to our community, to our province, to our hockey world.”

    Kevin Henry, a coach who runs a hockey school in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, said he knows players on the team.

    “This is I would think one of the darkest days in the history of Saskatchewan, especially because hockey is so ingrained in how we grow up here,” he said.

    Much of the hockey world issued messages of condolences, including National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman and Saskatchewan native Mike Babcock, who is the Toronto Maple Leafs coach. Babcock said that “it’s got to rip the heart out of your chest.”

    ___

    Rob Gillies contributed to this report from Toronto and Ivan Moreno contributed from Milwaukee.

  • praised for Russian sanctions

    U.S. lawmakers on Sunday applauded the Trump administration’s most recent move to sanction Russian oligarchs for the country’s “malign” influence around the globe and said the economic pressure is esp

    U.S. lawmakers on Sunday applauded the Trump administration’s most recent move to sanction Russian oligarchs for the country’s “malign” influence around the globe and said the economic pressure is especially important now in the wake of an apparent chemical attack in Syria — a key Russian ally.

    Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, Maryland Democrat, said that although the president could have acted faster on the sanctions, the targeting of oligarchs was “very important.”

    “I really applaud the people in the State Department and in Treasury for taking this action,” said Mr. Cardin, his party’s ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

    The Trump administration Friday slapped sanctions on Russian senior officials, oligarchs and the companies they own, going after those closest to President Vladimir Putin to punish Moscow’s activities around the world.

    In a significant escalation of the sanctions, President Trump targeted oligarchs and companies in the energy sector, which is the lifeblood of the Russian economy.

    Sen. Susan M. Collins, Maine Republican, said that stepping up pressure on Russia is particularly important after images shot around the world of a suspected chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of people in Syria over the weekend.

    Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose government has been battling rebel forces in a bloody civil war in the country for seven years.

    “Last time this happened, the president did a targeted attack to take out some of the facilities — that may be an option that we should consider now,” Ms. Collins said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

    “But it is further reason why it is so important that the president ramp up the pressure and the sanctions on the Russian government, because, without the support of Russia, I do not believe that Assad would still be in office,” she said.

    The sanctions also hit Mr. Putin’s son-in-law, who became a major energy sector player after marrying into the Putin family.

    The sanctions froze all assets for seven Russian oligarchs and 12 companies they own or control, 17 senior Russian government officials, and a state-owned Russian weapons trading company and its banking subsidiary.

    The Trump administration said the sanctions are intended to punish Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from the country’s “corrupt” system.

    They follow sanctions on Russian officials and expulsions of 60 Russian diplomats last month over Moscow’s nerve agent assassination attempt in Britain on a former Russian double agent and his daughter.

    The U.S. now has hit around 200 Russian individuals and entities with various sanctions.

    The latest sanctions brought a swift condemnation from senior Russian officials, who accused the Trump administration of lashing out to mask America’s own mounting problems.

    The Russian Foreign Ministry is looking at possible responses to the sanctions, said spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

    “The response will be given. We always do it. We have drawn an entire list of possible measures we are looking at,” she said, according to the state-owned Tass news agency.

    “It has nothing to do with some virtual meddling with elections, it has nothing to do with either Crimea or Ukraine. It is a strategy, a knock-down-Russia game,” Ms. Zakharova said Sunday in an interview on Rossiya-1 TV.

    Before the sanctions were officially announced, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the phrase “Russian oligarchs” inappropriate.

    “It’s been a long time since Russia had oligarchs. There are no oligarchs in Russia,” he said, according to The Moscow Times.

    Mr. Trump, dogged by special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, also has struggled to shake the perception that he is soft on Mr. Putin, though he did criticize the Russian president by name on Sunday for supporting the Assad regime.

    “President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad,” the president tweeted.

    Mr. Cardin said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he was pleased by the president’s Syria tweets. He said the specific mention of Mr. Putin’s name was a significant change for Mr. Trump.

    “He has not done that in regards to the sanctions imposed against the oligarchs. And he certainly has not done that in regards to Mr. Putin’s interference in our own country,” Mr. Cardin said.

    The administration would not say why Mr. Putin was not included on the sanctions list but stressed that he would feel the impact.

    “This will be noticed far and wide,” said a senior administration official.

    The Treasury has been preparing the sanctions for a long time, and they are directed at the “full range of Russian activities,” said another senior official.

    The official said the moves are not a direct response to the recent assassination attempt in Britain, which triggered punitive action from governments around the world.

  • Kim Jong-un to meet to discuss denuclearization

    North Korea has informed the U.S. in talks that it is willing to discuss denuclearization at an upcoming summit, a senior administration official confirmed Sunday.

    North Korea has informed the U.S. in talks that it is willing to discuss denuclearization at an upcoming summit, a senior administration official confirmed Sunday.

    “The United States and North Korea have been holding talks in preparation for a summit,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

    The official also told The Washington Times that North Korea “has confirmed its willingness to talk about denuclearization.”

    The message comes as the two countries prepare for a historic meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, probably in May. A date and location for the summit haven’t been announced.

    South Korean officials had told the U.S. weeks ago that North Korea was willing to discuss denuclearization with the Trump administration. But the development this weekend was the first time that U.S. officials heard the commitment directly from North Korea.

    The U.S. official didn’t say when and how the U.S.-North Korea communications had taken place. But the two sides had held multiple direct contacts, Reuters reported.

    Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo and a team at the CIA have been working through intelligence back-channels to make preparations for the summit, CNN reported, citing administration officials.

    The report said U.S. and North Korean intelligence officials have spoken several times and have even met in a third country, with a focus on agreeing on a location for the talks.

    It’s not clear how North Korea defines “denuclearization,” although the Trump administration has said Pyongyang must abandon its nuclear weapons program. North Korea has pushed for the U.S. to remove its troops from the Korean peninsula as part of any agreement.

  • Israel bombed Hamas military positions

    The Israeli army bombed one of the positions of Hamas’s military wing Izzeddin al-Kassam Brigades yesterday evening. Israel has been identified in the Israeli authorities where the al-Kassam Brigades have not been involved in any rocket attacks in subsequent investigations despite the bombing of Gaza, as the Iron Dome defense systems gave a rocket attack alert from al-Qassam Brigades. & Nbsp; >

    On the other hand, it is reported that the Israeli Iron Dome defense system was acted upon by the al-Qassam Brigades in the city of Beyt Lahya in northern Gaza. & nbsp;

    Muhammed Rabah

  • Test of US cowboys with Turkish horses

    Five people from the culture embassy who came to introduce the cowboy culture learned to play oud and law in Bursa. The American cowboy gave a description of how to make good coffee.

    In order to promote the cowboy culture in the US, 5 cowboys from Bursa came to horse riding on a horse farm. Members of the growing group of farms in the Wyoming state of the United States continued to show their shows with traditional songs and dances followed by games with lasso-binding and horses.

    I was impressed with the Turkish culture

    > In Bursa, where they came to introduce the cowboy culture, they had the opportunity to examine musical instruments such as cowboys, law, ud and darbuka, who were fascinated by Turkish culture. The cowboys gave the recipe of making good coffee, indicating that cowboy coffee and Turkish coffee are very similar. The cowboys who lecture the ladder to the children and youngsters in the farm later stepped on. Admired by the horses on the farm, the cowboys had a hard time because the horses did not obey the obedience. & nbsp;

    Süleyman Aydın

  • Kosovo Ya illegal Serbian official detained

    The detention took place in the northern part of Serbia, where the majority of Serbs are located. Zeljko Jovic was also detained along with Djuric who entered illegally into Kosovo.

    Kosovo Serbs, gathered in the city center, were detained in Kosovo during a raid on a meeting hall by special operations units linked to the Kosovo police, after Djuric was taken into custody. The police threw slogans against him. The Serbs, protesting the arrest of Marko Djuric, by organizing action. Serbia’s Kosovo Office Chief Marko Djuric, who entered the northern unauthorized state despite all the excuses of the Kosovo Government, was brought to Pristina after his arrest by the special team. Djuric, who was brought to Pristina with high security measures, was detained in detention center. After the legal procedures, Serbian official Djuric was deported. & Nbsp;

    According to informed sources, Djuric entered Kosovo last night. Djuric was detained by the Kosovo police when he addressed representatives of the Serbian public in a meeting room in northern Mitrovica.

    While Kosovo President Hashim Thaci calls on the people to restraint, it is estimated that the detention will cause tensions between Kosovo and Serbia to become even more tense.

    Ercan Kasap

  • NATO annulls accreditation of 7 Russian diplomats

    In a statement made by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), it has been reported that the seven Russian diplomats in the region have canceled accreditation. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that the decision at the press conference was an open message to Russia and that the number of Russian employees in the alliance would be reduced from 30 to 20. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov: Sure </ strong> March 27, 2018 16:42 </p> <p> Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: “We will respond,” we will respond “width =” 150 “height =” 100 “/> , Saying that Russia will not approve the actions of the western sea and will respond. </ p> <img src =

    27 March 2018 14:02

    Support for Russia from Chinese Foreign Affairs: “We must give up building the front line” The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said, “After the agent crisis, I would like to ask some countries to remove them from the countries of Russian diplomats.”

    The US, Germany and France declared that they will expel Russian diplomats in the country due to the agent crisis.

    Tags: agent crisis, NATO, russia < / p>

  • Saudi Arabia 9/11 lawsuit can proceed, judge rules

    A lawsuit accusing the Saudi Arabian government of complicity in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and seeking billions of dollars in damages, can go forward, a judge ruled Wednesday.

    A lawsuit accusing the Saudi Arabian government of complicity in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and seeking billions of dollars in damages, can go forward, a judge ruled Wednesday.

    U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan dismissed Saudi Arabia’s motion to dismiss the case on the grounds of lack of proof of official complicity.

    But Judge Daniels said the plaintiffs — victims’ relatives and their families — can “narrowly articulate a reasonable basis for this Court to assume jurisdiction under [the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act] over Plaintiffs’ claims against Saudi Arabia.”

    Judge Daniels said he would “allow Plaintiffs limited jurisdictional discovery” of evidence against Saudi Arabia.

    JASTA, passed by Congress in 2016 over President Barack Obama’s veto and Saudi warnings of damage to international relations, created an exception under U.S. law to claims of sovereign immunity by foreign governments. The new law allows U.S. citizens to sue foreign governments in federal court for acts that kill Americans on U.S. soil.

    James Kreindler, a lawyer for many of the plaintiffs, told Reuters news agency he was “delighted” by the judge’s letting the lawsuit go ahead.

    “We have been pressing to proceed with the case and conduct discovery from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, so that the full story can come to light, and expose the Saudi role in the 9/11 attacks,” he told the British wire service.

    On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 Al Qaeda terrorists — 15 of them Saudi citizens — hijacked four planes and slammed two of them into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. One crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, apparently ditching a planned attack on Congress because of a passenger uprising. All told, nearly 3,000 people were killed.

    The 9-11 Commission absolved the Saudi government of official or direct complicity in the attacks, but said it could not rule out the possibility that “charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to Al-Qaeda.”

    Judge Daniels did limit the plaintiffs’ case on the facts though.

    He said he would allow the 9-11 families to argue that Saudi Arabia was responsible for the activities of an imam at King Fahd Mosque in California, and Omar al-Bayoumi, said to be an intelligence officer.

    Mr. al-Bayoumi and imam Fahad al Thumairy purportedly helped two of the terrorists integrate into U.S. life and prepare for the attacks.

    But he threw out as beyond his jurisdiction claims that two Saudi banks — National Commercial Bank and Al Rajhi Bank — and the construction company owned by the estranged family of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, had helped finance the attacks.

  • Amanda Hall, Madison council member, opposes armed bank guards

    A city-council member in Madison, Wisconsin, extrapolating arguments about school security, is argued that armed guards make banks less safe and that she fears “an arms race with would-be robbers.”

    A city-council member in Madison, Wisconsin, extrapolating arguments about school security, is arguing that armed guards make banks less safe and that she fears “an arms race with would-be robbers.”

    Amanda Hall, the alderman for District 3, made the comments in a blog post concerning a request from a Chase Bank branch on Milwaukee Street to have an off-duty Madison police officer work the bank as armed security, at the bank’s expense.

    The bank in the university town had been hit been by several armed robberies in the past year, one of them deadly, according to Madison TV station WMTV, channel 15.

    But Ms. Hall said in a blog post on her pages of the City of Madison Common Council site that adding armed guards just encourages violence.

    “Current events have forced us to consider is how guns impact safety in all aspects of our lives … [including] having more armed guards to defend us, whether in our schools, or our neighborhood bank branches,” she explained.

    She applied common anti-gun arguments to the particular case of a bank and said having more people armed encourages crossfire and gunfights.

    “I do wonder if an armed guard at this location truly makes us safer,” Ms. Hall said. “I am concerned that if there is one armed guard at the branch, that instead of one person trying to rob the bank without an actual weapon, as we saw frequently before now, that we might see a group of assailants, armed with powerful guns, attempt a robbery.”

    Arming guards encourages criminal to arm themselves even more, according to Ms. Hall.

    “We do an okay job setting up our officers with weapons, but we don’t need to get into an arms race with would-be robbers. That would be terribly unsafe for everyone in the vicinity, not least our officers,” she explained.

    Ms. Hall elaborated that the bank has residential neighbors and a day-care and senior-care facility across the street and crossfire from the “good guy with a gun” is equally dangerous.

    “By the same token, I continue to be concerned with the possibility of gunfire in a residential area, regardless of who is firing the shots,” she said. “There is no such thing as a perfect shot, and a bullet from a good guy’s gun travels the same way as a bullet from a bad guy’s gun. You know me, I’m not scared of much, but I would fear everyday that an attempted robbery and a stray bullet from either an assailant or even an officer would lead to tragedy in our district.”