NEWS OF THE DAY
1 Nazi guard: The trial of a former Nazi concentration camp guard collapsed Thursday due to questions about the 94-year-old defendant’s health. Johann Rehbogen, a former SS guard at the Stutthof concentration camp, has been hospitalized for heart and kidney issues, causing several recent hearings at the Muenster state court to be canceled. Due to German legal regulations preventing overly long gaps in trials, the court had no choice but to end the proceedings, said court spokesman Steffen Vahlhaus. Presiding Judge Rainer Brackhane ruled that a medical expert will re-examine Rehbogen in January to determine whether his condition has improved to the point where the trial can be restarted.
2 Train accident: A high-speed train hit a railway engine and crashed into a pedestrian overpass at a station in the Turkish capital of Ankara Thursday, killing nine people and injuring 47 others, officials said. The train collided head-on with the engine, which was checking the tracks at the capital’s small Marsandiz station, said Transport Minister Mehmet Cahit Turhan. At least two cars derailed, hitting the station’s overpass which then collapsed onto the train.
3 Jihadist attack: A Tuareg leader says suspected jihadists on motorcycles killed at least 42 people in Mali’s eastern Menaka region during a series of attacks on their nomadic camps. Moussa Ag Acharatoumane of the Tuareg self-defense group said Thursday that children as young as eight were among the victims of the attacks Tuesday and Wednesday. The region in the sprawling West African nation is home to a number of extremist groups, including those with links to Islamic State militants. Authorities also said at least four suspected jihadists were arrested last week by Malian special forces. They say the men were preparing to carry out attacks at the end of the year in Ivory Coast, Mali and Burkina Faso.
4 Yemen agreement: U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday announced that Yemen’s warring sides have agreed after week-long peace talks in Sweden to a province-wide cease-fire in Hodeida and a withdrawal of troops from the contested Red Sea port city. Guterres also said that the next round of talks is planned for the end of January. The brutal four-year-old civil war pits the internationally recognized Yemeni government, supported by a Saudiled coalition, against the Iran-backed rebels known as Houthis. The fighting has produced one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with 22 million of Yemen’s 29 million people in need of aid, according to the United Nations. The two sides have for months been locked in a stalemated fight over Hodeida.
5 Space probe: Japan’s space agency says more than 200 photos taken by two small rovers on an asteroid show no signs of a smooth area for the planned touchdown of a spacecraft early next year. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Thursday in Tokyo that the two solar-powered rovers are still responding to signals after three months. The Minerva II-1 rovers, which resemble circular cookie tins, were dropped by the unmanned Hayabusa2 spacecraft onto asteroid Ryugu, about 170 million miles from Earth, in September to collect data. The space agency says it has narrowed down potential landing spots and still plans to attempt the touchdown to collect samples. Asteroids, which orbit the sun but are much smaller than planets, are among the oldest objects in the solar system and may help explain how Earth evolved.