Afghan goes on trial over deadly knife attack on German policeman

Defendant (L) arrives in the courtroom of the Higher Regional Court in Stuttgart-Stammheim, southern Germany, on February 13, 2025, before the start of his trial. (AFP)
Defendant (L) arrives in the courtroom of the Higher Regional Court in Stuttgart-Stammheim, southern Germany, on February 13, 2025, before the start of his trial. (AFP)
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Updated 13 February 2025
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Afghan goes on trial over deadly knife attack on German policeman

Defendant (L) arrives in the courtroom of the Higher Regional Court in Stuttgart-Stammheim, southern Germany, on February 13.
  • Even as the proceedings were opening, another Afghan man was arrested Thursday on suspicion of ramming a car into a crowd in Munich, with at least 28 injured
  • Knifeman initially attacked a speaker and other demonstrators, then stabbed a police officer

STUTTGART: An Afghan man with suspected extremist motives went on trial in Germany on Thursday over a knife attack that killed a policeman and wounded five others at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim last year.
The opening of the trial comes at a time of heated debate about migration in Germany ahead of a snap election on February 23 and following a spate of deadly attacks blamed on asylum seekers.
Even as the proceedings were opening, another Afghan man was arrested Thursday on suspicion of ramming a car into a crowd in Munich, with at least 28 injured.
The defendant in the Mannheim trial, only partially named as Sulaiman A., allegedly used a large hunting knife in a stabbing rampage targeting a rally by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam.
The knifeman initially attacked a speaker and other demonstrators, then stabbed a police officer who rushed in to help, and who died two days later of his wounds.
Sulaiman A. appeared apathetic as the indictment was read out at the higher regional court in Stuttgart.
His defense lawyers Axel Kuester and Mehmet Okur said that during the trial, he would only provide information about himself and not about the charges.
The lawyers declined to comment on whether their client might have a psychiatric disorder, but Kuster said he had learned to speak perfect German and “comes across as extremely pleasant and nice.”
Judge Herbert Anderer said the trial would focus only on whether the suspect was guilty and would avoid getting dragged into wider social or political issues.
“That means we may only briefly touch on some questions and aspects that may be of greater interest to certain people,” he said.
Sulaiman A., who was aged 25 at the time of the May 31 attack, was shot and wounded at the site before he was also arrested.
Many Germans were especially shocked as a video circulating online showed the 29-year-old police officer being repeatedly stabbed in the back of the head.
While the suspect is not being tried on terrorism charges, prosecutors say he sympathized with the Islamic State (IS) group.
According to German media reports, he arrived in Germany in 2013 aged just 14, together with his brother but without their parents.
They were denied asylum but, as unaccompanied minors, granted stays of deportation and permanent residency, and initially placed in care facilities, reports have said.
Several recent attacks have inflamed debate on the influx of several million refugees and migrants to Germany over the past decade.
In August, three people died and five were wounded in a knife rampage claimed by Daesh in the western city of Solingen, in which the Syrian suspect had been slated for deportation but evaded law enforcement.
An attack targeting a group of kindergarten children in the southern city of Aschaffenburg claimed two lives in January, including that of a two-year-old child.
A 28-year-old Afghan man, whom officials describe as having a history of mental health issues, was arrested close to the scene.
The attacks have driven rising support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is polling at around 20 percent ahead of the election.
In the wake of the Aschaffenburg attack, the center-right CDU, currently leading in polls on around 30 percent, demanded a crackdown against irregular migration.
But CDU leader Friedrich Merz sparked outrage by bringing a resolution on the issue to parliament which passed with AfD votes, breaching a long-standing taboo against cooperating with the far right.


US trade officials to visit India for trade talks from Tuesday

US trade officials to visit India for trade talks from Tuesday
Updated 19 sec ago
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US trade officials to visit India for trade talks from Tuesday

US trade officials to visit India for trade talks from Tuesday
  • Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch will lead the group
  • President Trump’s plans to impose reciprocal tariffs from April 2 are causing alarm among Indian exporters

NEW DELHI: A delegation of officials from the United States will visit India from March 25 to 29 for trade talks with Indian officials, a US embassy spokesperson said on Monday.

Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch will lead the group. “This visit reflects the United States’ continued commitment to advancing a productive and balanced trade relationship with India,” the spokesperson said.

Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal spent nearly a week in the United States earlier this month where he held trade discussions, and as US President Donald Trump’s plans to impose reciprocal tariffs from April 2 causing alarm among Indian exporters. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US last month, both nations agreed to work on the first phase of a trade deal by autumn 2025, with a target of reaching $500 billion in bilateral trade by 2030. India and the US are engaged in discussions to resolve tariff-related issues, and finalize a framework for a bilateral trade pact, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman for India’s external affairs ministry, said last week.

“We value our ongoing engagement with the Government of India on trade and investment matters and look forward to continuing these discussions in a constructive, equitable, and forward-looking manner,” the US embassy spokesperson said.


UN seeks nearly $1 billion in aid for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

UN seeks nearly $1 billion in aid for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
Updated 48 min 43 sec ago
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UN seeks nearly $1 billion in aid for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

UN seeks nearly $1 billion in aid for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
  • UN and its more than 100 partners launching a 2025-26 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya crisis
  • Around a million members of the persecuted and mostly Muslim minority live in squalid relief camps in Bangladesh

GENEVA: The UN said Monday it and partners were seeking nearly $1 billion to provide life-saving aid this year for some 1.5 million Rohingya refugees and their hosts in Bangladesh.
The United Nations said that it and more than 100 partners were launching a 2025-26 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya crisis, amid “dwindling financial resources and competing global crises.”
The appeal, it said in a statement, “seeks $934.5 million in its first year to reach some 1.48 million people including Rohingya refugees and host communities.”
Around a million members of the persecuted and mostly Muslim minority live in squalid relief camps in Bangladesh, most of whom arrived after fleeing the 2017 military crackdown in neighboring Myanmar.
“In its eighth year, the Rohingya humanitarian crisis remains largely out of the international spotlight, but needs remain urgent,” Monday’s statement said.
It stressed that “any funding shortfalls in critical areas, including reductions to food assistance, cooking fuel or basic shelter, will have dire consequences for this highly vulnerable population.”
It could, it added, “force many to resort to desperate measures, such as embarking on dangerous boat journeys to seek safety.”
The UN said that more than half of the refugee population in the camps are women and girls, “who face a higher risk of gender-based violence and exploitation.”
And it highlighted that a third of the refugees are aged between 10 and 24, warning that “without access to formal education, adequate skills building and self- reliance opportunities, their futures remain on hold.”
“Until the situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State is peaceful and conducive to returning safely and voluntarily, the international community must continue to fund life-saving assistance to refugees in the camps.”


China says it has not received any asylum application from Philippines’ Duterte

China says it has not received any asylum application from Philippines’ Duterte
Updated 24 March 2025
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China says it has not received any asylum application from Philippines’ Duterte

China says it has not received any asylum application from Philippines’ Duterte
  • Philippines’ former President Rodrigo Duterte’s trip to Hong Kong was for his personal holidays

BEIJING: China has not received any application for asylum from Philippines’ former President Rodrigo Duterte and his family, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday.
Duterte’s trip to Hong Kong was for his personal holidays, ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a regular press conference.
The former president was arrested on March 11 at Manila’s main airport on his arrival from Hong Kong at the request of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as part of its probe into a “war on drugs” that defined his presidency.


UK’s Heathrow defends decision to shut airport amid blame game

UK’s Heathrow defends decision to shut airport amid blame game
Updated 24 March 2025
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UK’s Heathrow defends decision to shut airport amid blame game

UK’s Heathrow defends decision to shut airport amid blame game
  • Airport’s 18-hour closure cost airlines tens of millions of pounds and stranded thousands of passengers
  • Both National Grid and Heathrow agreed that the failure of the transformer was an unprecedented event

LONDON: Britain’s Heathrow defended its decision to shut down operations at Europe’s busiest airport last Friday as the blame game intensified over an 18-hour closure which cost airlines tens of millions of pounds and stranded thousands of passengers.
As questions mounted over how such a critical part of Britain’s infrastructure could fail and whether all Heathrow’s four terminals needed to shut, both National Grid and Heathrow agreed that the failure of the transformer was an unprecedented event.
But the airport was forced to defend its closure after the boss of National Grid told the Financial Times that the electricity transmission network remained capable of providing power to the airport throughout the crisis.
Heathrow said the fire at a nearby substation late on Thursday interrupted its operations, forcing it to shut while it reconfigured systems and switched to power from an alternative substation.
“Hundreds of critical systems across the airport were required to be safely powered down and then safely and systematically rebooted,” a Heathrow spokesperson said.
“Given Heathrow’s size and operational complexity, safely restarting operations after a disruption of this magnitude was a significant challenge.”
John Pettigrew, the CEO of National Grid, said there were two other substations able to provide power to Heathrow, showing that the grid was resilient.
“Two substations were always available for the distribution network companies and Heathrow to take power,” he told the FT.
While airlines such as British Airways, the worse affected, add up the bill for the closure, the government and Heathrow have both commissioned reviews into what happened.
“It’s really important that we do learn the lessons from this, and that’s why I think those two reviews...are going to be really critical,” Transport Minister Heidi Alexander told Sky News on Monday.
Asked on LBC Radio about whether she had confidence in Heathrow’s CEO Thomas Woldbye, Alexander said she wanted to see the results of the reviews.


Greenland leaders lambast US delegation trip as Trump talks of takeover

Greenland leaders lambast US delegation trip as Trump talks of takeover
Updated 24 March 2025
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Greenland leaders lambast US delegation trip as Trump talks of takeover

Greenland leaders lambast US delegation trip as Trump talks of takeover
  • The delegation will visit an American military base and watch a dogsled race
  • Delegation will be led by Usha Vance, wife of Vice President JD Vance

COPENHAGEN/WASHINGTON: Greenlandic leaders criticized an upcoming trip by a high-profile American delegation to the semi-autonomous Danish territory that President Donald Trump has suggested the US should annex.
The delegation, which will visit an American military base and watch a dogsled race, will be led by Usha Vance, wife of Vice President JD Vance, and include White House national security adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
Greenland’s outgoing prime minister Mute Egede called this week’s visit a “provocation” and said his caretaker government would not meet with the delegation.
“Until recently, we could trust the Americans, who were our allies and friends, and with whom we enjoyed working closely,” Egede told local newspaper Sermitsiaq. “But that time is over.”
The Greenlandic government, Naalakkersuisut, is currently in a caretaker period after a March 11 general election won by the Democrats, a pro-business party that favors a slow approach to independence from Denmark.
Jens-Frederik Nielsen, leader of the Democrats, called for political unity and said the visit by the US delegation during coalition talks and with municipal elections due next week, “once again shows a lack of respect for the Greenlandic people.”
Waltz and Wright plan to visit the Pituffik space base, the US military base in Greenland. The White House said they will get briefings from US service members there.
They will then join Vance to visit historical sites and attend the national dogsled race.
Brian Hughes, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said the US team is “confident that this visit presents an opportunity to build on partnerships that respects Greenland’s self-determination and advances economic cooperation.”
“This is a visit to learn about Greenland, its culture, history, and people and to attend a dogsled race the United States is proud to sponsor, plain and simple,” Hughes said.
Trump has made US annexation of Greenland a major talking point since taking office for a second time on January 20. Greenland’s strategic location and rich mineral resources could benefit the US It lies along the shortest route from Europe to North America, vital for the US ballistic missile warning system.
The governments of both Greenland and Denmark have voiced opposition to such a move.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a written comment reacting to news of the visit that “this is something we take seriously.” She said Denmark wants to cooperate with the US, but it should be cooperation based on “the fundamental rules of sovereignty.”
She added that dialogue with the US regarding Greenland would take place in close coordination with the Danish government and the future Greenlandic government.