Germany thwarts terror plot: Teenage suspects reportedly planned attacks on churches
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German police cars (file image) / Mike Baumeister via Unsplah (CC0)CNA Newsroom, Apr 12, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).German authorities have reported the arrest of four suspects allegedly planning terror attacks in Germany. According to Bild newspaper, the group intended to target Christians attending church services and police stations with knives and Molotov cocktails.The Düsseldorf public prosecutor's office revealed that the suspects, who are between 15 and 16 years old, were apprehended over the Easter weekend."The suspects are strongly suspected of having planned an Islamist-motivated terrorist attack and of having agreed to commit it," authorities stated, as reported by CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner.The arrests were conducted following an investigation by the Public Prosecutor General's Office and the anti-terror unit, ZenTer NRW. North Rhine-Westphalia's interior minister, Herbert Reul, detailed the case at a press conference in Düsseldorf on Thursday, notin...
German police cars (file image) / Mike Baumeister via Unsplah (CC0)
CNA Newsroom, Apr 12, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).
German authorities have reported the arrest of four suspects allegedly planning terror attacks in Germany. According to Bild newspaper, the group intended to target Christians attending church services and police stations with knives and Molotov cocktails.
The Düsseldorf public prosecutor's office revealed that the suspects, who are between 15 and 16 years old, were apprehended over the Easter weekend.
"The suspects are strongly suspected of having planned an Islamist-motivated terrorist attack and of having agreed to commit it," authorities stated, as reported by CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner.
The arrests were conducted following an investigation by the Public Prosecutor General's Office and the anti-terror unit, ZenTer NRW. North Rhine-Westphalia's interior minister, Herbert Reul, detailed the case at a press conference in Düsseldorf on Thursday, noting that the suspected terror plans were "quickly and purposefully thwarted."
Reul mentioned that it took only five days from the initial findings by German security authorities to the arrest. "We succeeded in preventing worse things from happening," he stated, as quoted by FAZ newspaper.
These arrests are not isolated incidents. In November 2023, two teenagers, aged 15 and 16, were arrested on suspicion of terrorism. They reportedly sympathized with the Islamic State and were believed to have planned a Christmas market attack using a vehicle, CNA Deutsch reported.
In December and early January, several of Europe's most renowned cathedrals, including those in Cologne and Vienna, were on high alert due to concerns about a planned attack for New Year's Eve. Authorities detained but later released three suspects; the men were reportedly members of the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), the same group linked to the March 25 Moscow concert hall attack.
In July 2023, German police arrested seven members of an alleged Islamist terror cell in the same region. According to public broadcaster ZDF, similar arrests were made simultaneously in the Netherlands. The men of Tajik and Turkmen origin reportedly traveled to Western Europe via Ukraine.
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null / Credit: Juthamat8899/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, May 1, 2024 / 17:05 pm (CNA).The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a new report on Wednesday highlighting the countries with the worst religious persecution in the world.From this report, which is released annually, USCIRF makes recommendations to the State Department on how to best advocate for religious freedom. The suggestions typically translate into sanctions from the U.S. against violating countries to pressure them to improve their religious tolerance. This year, the countries topping USCIRF's list of the world's most egregious religious freedom violators were Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, India, Iran, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam.USCIRF recommends these nations be designated as "countries of particul...
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Catholics in the Archdiocese of Baltimore pack the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen during a concluding listening session on the archdiocese's major parish restructuring plan on April 30, 2024. / Credit: Matthew BalanBaltimore, Md., May 1, 2024 / 18:10 pm (CNA).Hundreds of Catholic residents of Baltimore packed the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen on Tuesday evening to give their often-impassioned reactions to a process that could lead to the closure of nearly two-thirds of the city's parishes.Several parishes from the state's largest city organized large contingents to attend the April 30 meeting, which was the final of three listening sessions for the Archdiocese of Baltimore's "Seek the City" parish restructuring proposal. They made their presence known with custom-made T-shirts or ethnic attire, with some even carrying large banners that begged Archbishop William Lori to spare their churches.Parishioners from the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in the Mount Washington neighborhood of...