Foreign News
New Jersey siege ends after US gunman kills three in Pennsylvania
A suspected gunman in a series of deadly shootings in Pennsylvania has been captured alive in neighbouring New Jersey, US police said.
The police said the suspect shot three people dead in Levittown on Saturday before fleeing across state lines to the home in nearby Trenton.
Residents were home when the suspect entered the house but they were later safely evacuated, police added. Police said Andre Gordon surrendered peacefully and unharmed to officers.
The 26-year-old suspect, who was known to the victims, had barricaded himself inside a home before turning himself in to police. The Trenton police said he had left the house and had been spotted by police nearby. The suspect is thought to be homeless, but primarily stays in the Trenton area, according to Philadelphia police.
Earlier, Philadelphia’s Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn told a news conference people related to Mr Gordon were among the victims in Levittown, including a child. Levittown is part of the Philadelphia metropolitan area.
Gordon allegedly shot and killed his 52-year-old stepmother, Karen Gordon, as well as his 13-year-old sister, Kera Gordon, after breaking into a house in Levittown. Shortly after, officials say, he broke into another home about two miles away, where he allegedly shot and killed the mother of his children, 25-year-old Taylor Daniel. He allegedly also bludgeoned her mother with the butt of his rifle, and she is now recovering in hospital.
The Bucks County DA’s Office said following the shootings, Gordon allegedly carjacked an individual at a dollar store before making his way to the home in Trenton, where he barricaded himself.
Images captured the police response to the siege in Trenton, and appeared to show hostages climbing out a first floor window before being cared for by police. The weapon used by Gordon is believed to be an AR-15-style assault rifle, officials told the news conference.
(BBC)
Foreign News
Trump threatens to take back control of Panama Canal over ‘ridiculous fees’
United States President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to demand control of the Panama Canal after accusing Panama of charging excessive rates on US ships passing through one of the busiest waterways in the world.
“Our Navy and Commerce have been treated in a very unfair and injudicious way. The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
He later doubled down during a speech in Arizona on Sunday, saying the US was “being ripped off at the Panama Canal like we’re being ripped off everywhere else”.
The US largely built the canal in 1914 and administrated territory surrounding the passage for decades. But Washington fully handed control of the canal to Panama in 1999 after a period of joint administration.
Trump also hinted at China’s growing influence around the canal, which connects the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans.
“It was solely for Panama to manage, not China, or anyone else,” he said in the original post. “We would and will NEVER let it fall into the wrong hands!”
“It was not given for the benefit of others, but merely as a token of cooperation with us and Panama. If the moral and legal principles of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question,” Trump said.
Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino firmly responded to Trump on Sunday.
“Every square meter of the Panama canal and the surrounding area belongs to Panama and will continue belonging so,” Mulino said in a recorded message posted on social media.
He further denied that China or any other country has direct or indirect influence over the canal. He added that fees were not decided on a “whim”.
The canal is key to Panama’s economy and generates about one-fifth of the government’s annual revenue.
[Aljazeera]
Foreign News
At least 13 people killed in Nigeria stampedes at charity events
At least 13 people, including four children, have been killed in two incidents in Nigeria as large crowds gathered to collect food and clothing distributed at annual Christmas events, police say.
In the capital, Abuja, at least 10 people died on Saturday and many more were injured in a scramble to receive gifts of charity being distributed by the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Maitama district.
“This unfortunate event, which took place around 6:30am [05:30 GMT], resulted in a stampede that claimed the lives of 10 individuals, including four children, and left eight others with varying degrees of injuries,” said Josephine Adeh, a police spokesperson.
In a separate incident in Okija in Anambra State in southern Nigeria, three people were killed in a crush at a charity event organised by a philanthropist, state police said.
“The event had not even started when the rush began,” police spokesman Tochukwu Ikenga said. There could be more deaths recorded as officers investigate, he said.
In both incidents, the victims were mostly women and children who were trampled as crowds tried to reach the provisions being offered.
[Aljazeera]
Foreign News
Nine-year-old among five killed in attack on German Christmas market
A nine-year-old child and four adults have been killed, and more than 200 injured after a car drove into a crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on Friday, officials say.
At least 41 people were critically injured after the incident which lasted around three minutes, police said.
The arrested suspect has been named in local media as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had worked as a doctor.
Reiner Haseloff, the premier of Saxony-Anhalt state, said a preliminary investigation suggested the alleged attacker was acting alone.
He added that he could not rule out more deaths due to the number of injured.
The suspect is currently being questioned and prosecutors expect to charge him with murder and attempted murder in due course, the head of the local prosecutor’s office said on Saturday.
Prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens added that the investigation was ongoing but suggested the background to the crime “could have been disgruntlement with the way Saudi Arabian refugees are treated in Germany”.
The suspected attacker has no known links to Islamist extremism – social media and posts online appear to suggest he had been critical of Islam.
Footage from the scene showed numerous emergency services vehicles attending while people lay on the ground.
Further footage then emerged of armed police confronting and arresting a man who can be seen lying on the ground by a stationary vehicle.
Unverified video on social media purports to show a car ploughing into the crowd at the market.
City officials said around 100 police, medics and firefighters, as well as 50 rescue service personnel rushed to the scene.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who travelled to the city on Saturday, described the attack as a “dreadful tragedy” as “so many people were injured and killed with such brutality” in a place that is supposed to be “joyful”.
He told reporters that there were serious concerns for those who had been critically injured – which German media reports is in the dozens – and that “all resources” will be allocated to investigating the suspect behind the attack.
There would be a memorial service for the victims at the Magdeburg Cathedral later on Saturday, he added.
[BBC]
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