Florists in Pirna Germany

Police see mental illness behind deadly German van attack - Channel NewsAsia

AK47 assault rifle and canisters of gas and other fuel.The driver, reportedly a wealthy industrial designer, had two other flats in the eastern cities of Dresden and Pirna which were also being searched.The daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung said police had found an 18-page missive in his Pirna home in which he wrote of his anguish due to serious problems with his parents, "repeated nervous breakdowns" and "explosions of aggression" as well as a botched medical operation.'NO ISLAMIST CONNECTION'Armed police cordoned off a wide area around the scene of the attack Saturday, urging residents to avoid the city centre to allow investigators to get to work amid initial fears the country had suffered another extremist assault."It's still unbelievable for me, but these days anything can happen," said Hubert Reckermann, a local man in his late 60s on Sunday."You can't really defend yourself against people with psychiatric problems."The two victims killed in Muenster were a 51-year-old woman and a 65-year-old man, both from northern Germany.As well as the dead, police said 20 were hurt - some with life-threatening injuries.The foreign ministry in the Netherlands said two of the injured were Dutch, one of whom was in a critical condition."It's still unbelievable for me, but these days anything can happen. You can't really defend yourself against people with psychiatric problems."Germany has been on especially high alert for militant attacks after several claimed by the Islamic State group.But "we know with high probability that it was a lone perpetrator, it was a German, not a refugee," said North Rhine-Westphalia state interior minister Herbert Reul."We know with high probability that there was no Islamist background" to the Saturday afternoon attack, inflicted as locals and tourists enjoyed a sunny spring day, he added.'DEEPLY SHAKEN'Merkel said she was "deeply shaken" by the incident and pledged that "everything possible will be done to determine what was behind this act and to help the victims".The presidents of Russia and France, Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron, as well as Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sent their condolences.The attack is the latest in a string across Europe in which vehicles have been used to attack crowds of people in public places.In a Berlin assault in December 2016, Tunisian asylum-seeker Anis Amri hijacked a truck and murdered its Polish driver before killing another 11 people and wounding dozens more by ploughing the heavy vehicle through a Christmas market.He was shot dead by Italian police in Milan four days later while on the run.In France, the Islamic State group claimed a 2016 t...

Germany crash studied for clues - Arkansas Online

Police were told about the email and went to the man's Muenster home but he was not there. They then told local authorities at the man's other homes in Dresden and Pirna in eastern Germany about the note, but he could not be found there either.In a joint statement Sunday, police and prosecutors said the suspect didn't mention any intention to harm other people in his email. The city's health services had also been in touch with the man, but authorities didn't say why. Germany has very strict privacy laws on medical issues.Authorities still appeared stumped about the man's motive for the attack."We have no indications that there is a political background or that others were involved" in Saturday's deadly crash, prosecutor Elke Adomeit told reporters. "But he was well known to the police."She said the man had three previous court procedures in Muenster and two in nearby Arnsberg in 2015 and 2016. His run-ins with the law regarded threats, property damage, fraud, a hit-and-run and domestic conflicts with his family, but Adomeit said that all charges were dismissed.Authorities have identified the two victims killed by the van crash as a 51-year-old woman from Lueneburg county, 186 miles to the northeast, and a 65-year-old man from nearby Borken county. Their names were not released, as is customary in Germany.Early Sunday, all three bodies were taken from the crash scene in front of the well-known Kiepenkerl pub. The silver-grey van that crashed into the crowd was hauled away hours later, after explosives experts had thoroughly checked it.Inside the van, police found illegal firecrackers that were disguised as a fake bomb, a fake pistol and the real gun that the driver used to kill himself.Inside the apartment where the man was living, which was near the crash scene, police found more firecrackers and a "no-longer usable AK-47 machine gun." Police also found several gas bottles and canisters containing gasoline and bio-ethanol, but did not know yet why they were stored there."We are now focusing our investigations on getting a comprehensive picture of the perpetrator's behavior in the weeks [before the crash] to find out his motivation for this horrible act," Kuhlisch said in the statement.Officials said some of the 20 injured were still in life-threatening condition Sund...http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/apr/09/germany-crash-studied-for-clues-2018040/

Chemnitz: Syrian asylum-seeker convicted of killing that sparked far-right riots - DW (English)

Daniel H.'s death, took another 8% and now has five of the 60 seats in the city council. Karsten Hilse, an AfD Bundestag member for Saxony, says last year's demos have been misrepresented. "Of course there were some far-right extremists there," he said. "But a young man was murdered, and then citizens got together who weren't far-right extremists, but just normal people like you and me, who said, 'right, this is enough now'." "What annoyed a lot of Chemnitzers is that hardly anyone talked about the murder afterwards, but only about the people who demonstrated," he argued. "But if you're a normal citizen, you go to work, you pay your taxes, and then you say ok, now I'm going on the street to say: 'I just don't...https://www.dw.com/en/chemnitz-syrian-asylum-seeker-convicted-of-killing-that-sparked-far-right-riots/a-50120472

German Man Arrested After Failed Attack on Synagogue - The Wall Street Journal

Halle’s university hospital. A senior security official identified the suspect as Stephan Balliet, 27, a German citizen from the state of Saxony-Anhalt, where Halle is located, and said he wasn’t previously known to authorities. German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said prosecutors had enough information to assume a far-right motivation behind the attack, even though it was too early to make a final determination. The 35-minute video of the assault was streamed live on Twitch, a streaming platform owned by Amazon.com Inc., according to Storyful, a social-media intelligence company owned by News Corp, which also owns The Wall Street Journal. Christiane Prinz, 49, who owns a hairdressing salon opposite the synagogue, said she saw the suspect, dressed in a dark-green military outfit, launch a projectile over the synagogue’s gate into its front yard and cemetery, after which there was a loud bang. .webui-slideshow-inset a:link, .webui-slideshow-inset .webui-slideshow-inset a:visited { color: initial; } div...https://www.wsj.com/articles/two-killed-in-shooting-in-eastern-germany-11570621267

German conservative politician resigns over far-right ties - DW (English)

Now, the local lawmaker has left Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union. Robert Möritz, a local politician from the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, surprisingly announced his resignation from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on Friday, saying he wanted "to shield the party from further harm" and calm the political uproar. It recently emerged that Möritz had ties to Germany's right-wing extremist milieu, and has a symbol tattooed on his arm associated with neo-Nazism. Möritz said his resignation was about sending a signal, and that "sometimes, life is about focusing on one's true priorities." He added that he nevertheless fully subscribes to the conservative CDU's values. News of Möritz' links to Germany's far-right milieu had brought Saxony-Anhalt's government — a coalition between the CDU, center-left Social Democrats and environmentalist Greens — to the verge of collapse. On Thursday, the state's CDU issued an ultimatum to Möritz, demanding that he distance himself from the far-right or face repercussions. Read more: Right-wing extremists in Germany to face amped up intelligence The CDU governs Saxony-Anahlt in a coalition with the So...https://www.dw.com/en/german-conservative-politician-resigns-over-far-right-ties/a-51756713

Green party politician remains most popular head of federal state in Germany: poll - Xinhua | English.news.cn - Xinhua

With an approval rate of 66 percent, Daniel Guenther, Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein, was the second most popular head of a federal state in Germany, followed by Stephan Weil of Lower Saxony who was ranked third with 60 percent. At the bottom of the ranking was Berlin's governing mayor, Michael Mueller (SPD), whose work was only rated positively by 27 percent of people living in the German capital's federal state. Following a big win in the European Parliament elections in May, where the Green party in Germany won 20.5 percent of votes and became second strongest political force, support for the Green party in Germany is at a historic high. According to last week's Trendbarometer, the Greens would gain the same number of votes as the governing conservative union CDU/CSU if elections were to be held. With regards to a first Green German chancellor, Winfried Kretschmann recently told the Funke Media Group that a German government led by the Greens would not involve a radical change of policy. "Nobody needs to be afraid of a Green Chancellor. We are not trumps or Erdogans or Orbans who throw everything overboard," Kretschmann told the German newspapers. The head of Baden-Wuerttemberg noted that he did not see "big differences" in alliances with the CDU/CSU and the SPD. "In socio-political issues, we make progress with the social democrats, in economic policy with the CDU/CSU". http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-07/16/c_138229413.htm