German police have arrested one of the fugitive twin brothers wanted in connection with a dramatic heist that targeted one of Europe’s largest treasure collections. Officials said 21-year-old Mohammed Remmo was arrested in Berlin. He is the fourth suspect to be detained over last year’s heist at Dresden’s Green Vault museum. The suspects are accused of stealing more than a dozen diamond-encrusted items. Officials said it was impossible to value the items, simply calling them “priceless”. Saxony’s ruler, Augustus the Strong, created the collection in 1723 in what is one of the world’s oldest museums. Police said they arrested Mr Remmo in the German capital on Monday night, and that he was being brought to the eastern city of Dresden on Tuesday. The search for his twin brother, Abdul Majed Remmo, was continuing with “high intensity”, they said.(BBC)…[+]

A Canadian court has ruled that a man who threw a trailer hitch at an indigenous woman in 2017, leading to her death, is guilty of manslaughter. Brayden Bushby, then 18, threw the metal hitch from his vehicle, which struck Barbara Kentner, 34, in the abdomen and led to internal injuries. Bushby had earlier pleaded not guilty to manslaughter but guilty to aggravated assault.

He faces a maximum of life in prison and will be sentenced in February. Thunder Bay Superior Court judge Helen Pierce said on Monday that it was proven “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Bushby’s action “was a contributing cause of her death that is not trivial or insignificant and which accelerated her death”, CBC News reported. “This was not a snowball.” The attack occurred on the morning of 29 January 2017 in a Thunder Bay, Ontario, neighbourhood. Ms Kentner, an Anishinaabe woman, was walking down the street with her sister when she was struck by the hitch.(BBC)…[+]

Moderna’s vaccine is safe and 94% effective, regulators say, clearing the way for US emergency authorisation. The analysis by the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) means it could become the second coronavirus vaccine to be allowed in the US. It comes one day after Americans across the country began receiving jabs of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The news comes as the US coronavirus death toll passes 300,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. Endorsement of the Moderna vaccine by FDA scientists was announced on Tuesday, two days before the vaccine panel meets to discuss emergency approval. The 54-page document said there were “no specific safety concerns” and that serious adverse reactions were rare.  If approved by the team of experts later this week, and by the FDA’s vaccine chief, shipments could begin within 24 hours. The FDA found a 94.1% efficacy rate out of a trial of 30,000 people, according to the document they released.(BBC)…[+]

A man armed with two pistols has been shot dead by police after opening fire near a cathedral in New York. Officers say the incident happened at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in Manhattan on Sunday near a crowd gathered for a Christmas concert. As yet the man – who yelled “Kill me” as he began shooting – has not been identified. Police Commissioner Dermot F Shea said it was “by the grace of God” that nobody had been injured.

The carol service – held outside because of Covid restrictions – had just ended when the shooting began. Cathedral staff wrote on Facebook that the man had “set off a round of gunfire into the air” from the front steps.

A new variant of coronavirus has been found which is growing faster in some parts of England, MPs have been told. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said at least 60 different local authorities had recorded Covid infections caused by the new variant. He said the World Health Organization had been notified and UK scientists were doing detailed studies. He said there was “nothing to suggest” it caused worse disease or that vaccines would no longer work.

Members of the US electoral college have begun casting their votes in a process that will see Joe Biden formally designated president-elect. The Democrat won November’s contest with a projected 306 electoral college votes to Republican Donald Trump’s 232. Under the US system, voters actually cast their ballots for “electors”, who in turn, formally vote for candidates weeks after the election. Despite this process, President Trump is not expected to accept the result.

Normally the electors do not get that much attention but this year, due to Mr Trump’s persistent efforts to question and overturn the results – involving legal challenges which have been rejected by courts across the country – the state-by-state vote is in the spotlight. Vermont, New Hampshire, Indiana and Tennessee were among the first states where electors gathered in capitals (or in Washington DC) on Monday to formally cast their votes.(BBC)…[+]