IN BRIEF (Page 7)

GERMANY

Govt probes suspect, pledges better security

German investigators puzzled on Thursday over how the suspect in a botched attack on a synagogue on the Jewish people's holiest day managed to amass at least 4 kilograms of explosives and acquire four firearms, an arsenal they said he planned to use in a massacre. While many questions remain about the suspect, German officials sought to reassure a shaken Jewish community after Wednesday's attack in the eastern city of Halle. They invoked Germany's historical responsibility from the Holocaust as they vowed better security and urged the nation to stand behind its Jews. The attacker, a German identified by prosecutors as Stephan B, tried but failed to force his way into the synagogue as up to 80 people were inside. He then shot and killed a 40-year-old German woman in the street outside and a 20-year-old man at a nearby kebab shop.