Pakistan: Gunmen kill 11 minority Hazara coal miners in Baluchistan

The victims were from the minority Shiite Hazara community. Pakistan's prime minister, Imran Khan, condemned the attack as a "cowardly inhumane act of terrorism."

Many ethnic Hazara live in Pakistan's Baluchistan region

Attackers in southwestern Pakistan have killed at least 11 workers at a remote coal mine, officials said Sunday.

The victims were from the minority Shiite Hazara community, Khalid Durrani, a government official, told French news agency AFP.

The Islamic State extremist group later claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place in the mountainous Machh area of Baluchistan province.

Ethnic Hazara make up most of the Shiite population in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan.

It is the country's largest and poorest region, rife with ethnic, sectarian and separatist insurgencies.

Hazara are often targeted by Sunni militants, who consider them heretics.

Watch video 00:36 Hazara rally blast in Kabul

What do we know about the attack?

The attack took place before dawn on Sunday near the Machh coal field, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) southeast of Quetta.

Moazzam Ali Jatoi, an official with the Levies Force, a paramilitary gendarmerie, said armed men took the coal miners to nearby mountains before shooting them. He said six of the miners died at the scene, while another five died of critical injuries on the way to hospital.


Hazara are often targeted by Sunni militants, who consider them heretics

The assailants fled after the attack. Officials said police and members of the local paramilitary force were on the scene, where a search operation had been launched to trace the attackers.

It remains unclear why the mine was targeted. Though Pakistan's mines are notorious for poor safety standards, such attacks against miners are rare.

In a tweet, Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned "the killing of 11 innocent coal miners in Machh" as a "cowardly inhumane act of terrorism."

"The families of the victims will not be left abandoned by the government," he added.

News of the killings prompted members of the Hazara community to take the streets of Quetta in protest. Shiite cleric Nasir Abbas said demonstrations against the incident would be organized across the country. 

kmm/nm (AP, AFP)

IS gunmen kill 11 minority Shiite coal miners in SW Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan — Gunmen opened fire on a group of minority Shiite Hazara coal miners after abducting them, killing 11 in southwestern Baluchistan province early Sunday, a Pakistani official said.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its website. The Sunni militant group has repeatedly targeted Pakistan’s minority Shiites in recent years.

Moazzam Ali Jatoi, an official with the Levies Force, which serves as police and paramilitary in the area, said the attackers identified the miners as being from the Shiite Hazara community and took them to up into nearby mountains for execution, leaving others unharmed. He said six of the miners died at the scene, and five who were critically wounded died on the way to a hospital.

Police video of the bodies revealed the miners were blindfolded and had their hands tied behind their backs before being shot. The attack took place near the Machh coal field, about 48 kilometres (30 miles) east of the provincial capital Quetta.

News of the killings quickly spread among the Hazara community and members took to the streets in Quetta and surrounding areas to protest, blocking highways with burning tires and tree trunks. Officials closed the affected roads to traffic.

The violence was largely condemned across the country, with Prime Minister Imran Khan saying the perpetrators would be taken to task and the affected families would be cared for.

Shiite cleric Nasir Abbas said protests over the incident would be organized nationwide. Political and religious leaders from different segments of the population also expressed their grief and sorrow over the killings.

Pakistan’s Hazara community has been targeted many times in recent years by Sunni militant groups, including the Islamic State group. IS has also declared war on minority Shiites in neighbouring Afghanistan, and has claimed a number of vicious attacks since emerging there in 2014.

A suicide bombing at an open-air market in Quetta in April 2019 killed twenty people. At the time, IS said it had targeted Shiites and elements of the Pakistani army.

Last January, IS claimed responsibility for a powerful explosion that ripped through a mosque in Quetta during evening prayers. The blast killed a senior police officer and 13 others, and wounded another 20 worshipers.

Baluchistan is the scene of a low level insurgency by Baluch separatist groups who also have targeted non-Baluch labourers, but they have no history of attacks on the minority Shiite community.

Abdul Sattar, The Associated Press

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY
Germany approves over €1 billion in arms deals to Middle East

Last year, the German government signed off on weapons exports to countries involved in the deadly conflicts in Yemen and Libya. Germany is among the world's top five weapons exporters.


Germany is signing off on arms deals to countries that are backing deadly conflicts in Yemen and Libya


The German government approved a total of €1.16 billion ($1.41 billion) in arms exports during 2020 to countries involved in both the Yemen and Libya conflicts, reported news agency dpa citing the country's Economy Ministry.

Germany, by December 17, had signed off on permissions to export weapons and military equipment worth €752 million to Egypt.

Permission was also granted to German arms companies for deals worth over €305.1 million to Qatar, over €51 million to the United Arab Emirates, €23.4 million for Kuwait and around €22.9 million to Turkey.

Licenses were granted to Jordan totaling €1.7 million and Bahrain amounting to €1.5 million.

The breakdown was provided by the ministry in response to a request from lower house parliament member Omid Nouripour from Germany's Green Party.
Ties to Yemen, Libya

The countries mentioned are all involved in either or both of the years-long conflicts in Yemen and Libya.

In Yemen, a Saudi Arabia-led alliance has been fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels alongside the government since late 2014. The alliance includes the UAE, Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain.

The United Nations humanitarian office puts the number of those who have died as a result of the 6-year-old war in Yemen at an estimated 233,000.

Watch video 03:24 German weapons for Saudi-Arabia

This includes 131,000 from indirect causes such as lack of food, health services and infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the Libyan civil war has been raging since 2014 and thousands have died. Qatar and Turkey are intervening on the side of the internationally-recognized Government of National Accord led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj in Tripoli.

Rival military strongman General Khalifa Haftar is supported by the UAE and Egypt. Currently, there is a cease-fire in Libya, raising hopes for an end to the conflict.
Germany among top weapons exporters

Germany is one of the top five arms exporters worldwide, along with the US, Russia, France and China, according to new data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Together, they accounted for 76% of all arms exports in 2015–19, SIPRI reports.

500 years after Martin Luther's excommunication: 

A chance for ecumenical Christianity

The first major schism of the Catholic Church was made official in 1521. The pope excommunicated the initiator of the Reformation, Martin Luther. The monk had referred to the pontiff as the "Antichrist."



The German city of Worms is scheduled to become the setting for multimedia events throughout the year marking 'The Luther Moment'

The German city of Worms is preparing for a major centennial. To mark the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's appearance at the Diet of Worms on the night of April 17/18 1521, the southern German town on the banks of the Rhine is planning an extensive commemorative program in conjunction with the Lutheran Church. More than 80 events are scheduled, despite COVID-19. The only item to fall victim to the pandemic so far is the central exhibition entitled "Hier stehe ich. Gewissen und Protest — 1521 bis 2021" (Here I Stand. Conscience and Protest — 1521 to Today), which was postponed from April to July.

The title is a reference to the words with which, according to popular legend, Luther concluded his defense at Worms: "Here I stand. I can do no other."

To mark these historic days of April 17 to 18, a church in Worms will become the setting for multimedia events throughout the year marking "The Luther Moment." The title is intended as a projection of key moments in everyday people's lives, a reflection of courage and integrity. This key moment in European history in mid-April 1521 continues to reverberate to this day, not least among Catholic and Protestant theologians.


This room in the Wartburg in Eisenach is where Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German

The Church in crisis

It was in the early months of 1521 that the criticism of Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk born in Eisleben in the region of Wittenberg on the banks of the Elbe in 1483 — excoriating the Church practice of selling indulgences — resulted in a full-blown schism of Christianity in Germany. To this day, Christianity is marked by two central pillars of the dispute: On January 3, 1521, Pope Leo X issued a papal bull in Rome excommunicating Martin Luther and his supporters. Luther, for his part, had referred to the pope as the "Antichrist."

At the Diet of Worms, Luther was given an opportunity to recant his criticism of the pope and the synod in the presence of his contemporary political leaders. Yet, he risked his life by sticking to his criticism and escaped the following night while the deliberations continued, ultimately taking refuge in Wartburg Castle, near Eisenach.

Over the years, decades, and centuries, theologians of all Christian denominations have discussed and debated the schism. Many differences have been settled but the core divisions remain: The excommunication of Luther and his followers by the Catholic Church and the designation of the pope by Lutheran dogma as the "Antichrist."

Watch video 04:42 Luther in Eisenach and at Wartburg Castle

'The time is ripe'

In 2020, some 30 theologians who formed a group founded in 1999 calling itself the Altenberg Ecumenical Roundtable, presented a plea covering just a few pages: It called for a revocation of the excommunication bull by the pope and a statement that the allegations against Luther contained therein "do not apply to members of today's PfLinkrotestant and Lutheran Churches." In return, they called on the Lutheran World Federation to abolish Luther's designation of the pope as the Antichrist — on the grounds that it no longer applies to the current papacy and those who hold the office. "The time for this is ripe," read the appeal.

A recently published book about the schism features a historic image of the young Luther beside a photograph of a smiling Pope Francis. The book, entitled "In alle Ewigkeit verdammt?" (Damned for all eternity?) was edited by two members of the group, the Lutheran priest Hans-Georg Link (81), long-serving secretary of the Commission for Faith and Church Dogma in Geneva and Josef Wohlmuth (82), a retired theologian based in Bonn. They agree that "this burning point of contention still requires urgent treatment to this day, so that ecumenical faith can become a reality, hopefully not in the all-too-distant future."

The Altenberg Ecumenical Round Table calls on religious communities in Germany to take a stand, for example, through ecumenical services on the first weekend in January or joint prayers calling for divine intercession on behalf of reconciliation. And all this in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.


The city of Worms you can find images of Luther everywhere

'Stand together for faith'

The pandemic, however, is not only getting in the way of ecumenical efforts. "In this year 2020, it once again became clear how important it is to take a stand for the joint faith in God made human through Christ, for neighborly love and the protection of the weak," said Thies Gundlach, one of the leading theologians of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), in an interview with Deutsche Welle. He added, "We are grateful for the positive developments towards ecumenism between the Evangelical and Catholic churches, which have led to a deeper sense of community between them in recent years."

For Gundlach, the events surrounding the Diet of Worms "are of great relevance to Church history and the history of the Reformation. With regard to modern ecumenism, we are grateful that the disputes of the past have been overcome." He went on to say that the ecumenical movement had made great contributions to mutual understanding and reconciliation in recent years through constructive theological deliberations.



REBEL OR RUFFIAN: WHO WAS MARTIN LUTHER?
Luther with hammer and nails
Did Luther really nail his 95 theses to the main door of the Wittenberg Castle church? Reformation historians are still discussing this point 500 years later. In fact, Luther himself never mentioned the theses. Belgian historical painter Ferdinand Pauwels didn't seem to care - he painted Luther with hammer and nails anyway. PHOTOS 1234567

Hans-Georg Link, the Protestant priest who has devoted so many decades to ecumenism, warned, however: "Without eliminating the issues of the excommunication and the designation as Antichrist, a closer community between the Evangelical and Catholic churches is unthinkable. The year 2021, 500 years after the schism, would be a good juncture for officials on both sides to draw a line under the dispute."

The ball is now on both sides of the court at once. Both the pope in Rome and the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva must move toward each other. Meanwhile, in Germany, where it all began, the Churches are planning — to the extent that existing dogmatic regulations allow it — to hold a joint open-air service on Sunday, April 18, on the market square in Worms, under the motto "Here I Stand." The service will be led by the chair of the Council of the German Evangelical Church, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, and the head of the German Catholic Bishops' Conference, Georg Bätzing.

This text was translated from German.

The Peasant War in Germany by Frederick Engels 1850

www.marxists.org › archive › marx › works › peasant-...

Jul 15, 2020 — The Peasant War in Germany was the first history book to assert that the real motivating force behind the Reformation and 16th-century peasant ...

‎The Twelve Articles · ‎Comments by D. Riazanov · ‎Notes

DW RECOMMENDS

What Donald Trump and Reformer Martin Luther have in common

In the exhibition "From Luther to Twitter," Berlin's Deutsches Historisches Museum explores the connection between media and politics — from the printing press to social media.

How Martin Luther influenced Martin Luther King Jr.

That Martin Luther King Jr. bore the name of Martin Luther is the most obvious link between them. But the influence of the German reformer on the American civil rights leader was more profound than that.

Jewish heritage along the Rhine might be named a World Cultural Heritage

Speyer, Worms and Mainz, regarded as the cradle of Jewish life in Europe, were also known as "Jerusalem on the Rhine." The three cities are applying to UNESCO for the title World Cultural Heritage. 

AUDIOS AND VIDEOS ON THE TOPIC

Wartburg Castle

Tracing Luther's footsteps in Thuringia

AFRICA
Female genital mutilation: The woman fighting Sierra Leone's ritual

Sierra Leone has one of the highest rates of female genital mutilation in Africa. Despite decades of campaigns, the traditional practice has hardly declined. This doesn't deter Rugiatu Turay from fighting cutting.

Rugiatu Turay has been campaigning against FGM since 2002

Campaigner Rugiatu Turay sets up the film screen and projector in the dusty meeting center of Magbanabon village about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Matotoka Town in the north of Sierra Leone.

She's here to screen a documentary about female genital mutilation (FGM), commonly known as "cutting" in the region.

As night falls, around a hundred men, women and children from the village seat themselves for the screening under the community center's thatched roof.

Many in the audience scream in shock at a scene detailing the cutting, which is normally done without anesthetic using knives, razor blades or even pieces of glass.

Some of the knives used to perform female genital mutilation in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone has one of the highest rates of FGM in Africa. According to UNICEF figures from 2017, the practice has been performed on an estimated 86% of women and girls in the country. FGM involves the partial or total removal of the female genital organs, such as the clitoris or labia.

Besides severe bleeding, FGM can cause a variety of health issues from infections and cysts to infertility and complications in childbirth.

Among those in Magbanabon watching the documentary are soweis, elderly women who carry out the circumcision as part of girls' initiation into the Bondo society, a secret women's society with an entrenched role in the county's tribal and political life.

Some soweis scream at the cutting scene, others look away, placing their heads in their hands to avoid the graphic footage.

After the screening, Turay sounded out the community's views on what they had seen and offered men and women the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the way forward.
Tackling FGM by listening with respect

Turay is one of Sierra Leone's most well-known anti-FGM campaigners. She founded the grassroots anti-FGM group the Amazonian Initiative Movement in 2002, is a former deputy minister of social welfare, gender and children's affairs and in 2020 won a German human rights prize, the Theodor Haecker award, for her work.

Above all, she has a reputation for talking to all of those involved in cutting, including the soweis, parents, girls and village chiefs.

"One of the things you always have to do as a campaigner is to make sure you are honest to yourself, speak frankly and give respect to people," Turay told DW. "You can see that they look at me as any one of them. I behave like them."

Magbanabon Town Chief PaKapri Kargbo, who attended the documentary screening, said he appreciates Turay's message.

"She didn't threaten us," Kargbo told DW, instead she "simply explained what we didn't know in the past."

But he still questions what comes next for the soweis, who depend on the ritual cutting for their livelihoods.

Finding alternative incomes for elderly cutters

Girls' families supply the soweis with food, clothing, cloth, jewelry and money during the initiation period and still give them occasional gifts long after that.

"If our people eventually agree with her ideas, what would the repercussion be or what would be done for the soweis?" Kargbo asked.

Turay is keenly aware that fighting FGM also means finding alternative sources of income for the soweis.

Her experience being cut as a girl made Rugiatu Turay determined to fight the traditional practice

Later in the week, Turay meets with a group of soweis who have promised to stop practicing FGM during a special Bondo initiation she organized in 2019 that didn't involve any cutting.

The Bondo initiation rituals, which confer womanhood on girls, often occur in isolated forested areas referred to as a Bondo bush. As well as being cut, young girls are taught ritual dances and chants and how to confront spirits, as well as learning how to do domestic chores and be prepared for a husband.

Now, Turay wants to hear how the former soweis are getting on.

She always loved the drumming, dancing and singing part of the Bondo bush, admits former solwei Salamatu Kanu. But over time, she came to dread doing the circumcision, she said, and had to "be highly intoxicated to do the cutting."

"Now that I have experienced Turay's campaign and the effects it is having on me and my peers, there's no reason to return to our old habits," Kanu told DW. "Some of us are now training in tailoring [through Turay's organization] and I consider that more beneficial than what we were engaged in."

Creating new, bloodless Bondo rituals

To break to cycle of FGM, Turay wants to create alternative Bondo rituals to cutting.

"The challenge is to eliminate female genital mutilation but not the Bondo culture, which plays an important role in society," Turay told DW.

Around 100 girls took part in Turay's first "No Blade, No Blood, No Pain" Bondo. One of them was Ramatu S. Bangura, who was 19 at the time.


Ramatu Bangura went through Rugiatu Turay’s 'No Blade, No Blood, No Pain' Bondo bush initiation

Bangura had previously refused to take part in the Bondo bush because she didn't want to endure FGM. This led to enormous teasing from her friends at school and in her community for not being an initiate, she said.

But she jumped at the chance to be part of Turay's special Bondo, she told DW, "because they are not dealing with blood."

"The same people who used to mock at me now think that we are the same because I'm now a member of the Bondo society."

Aminata M. Kamara, who lives in the Port Loko District in Sierra Leone's north, also took part. She is outspoken in what she sees as the advantages of not having endured FGM.

"Most of our female parents went through that society," she explained to DW. "Some of them weren't able to give birth anymore. Some of their husbands left them because they were not able to enjoy their sex life anymore, because they had removed their clitoris."

"Any man that I have sex with, that man will really enjoy me. And as time goes on, when I get my own pregnancy, I'll be able to give birth easily."

Cuba: Church opens its doors to LGBTQI+ people

Being part of the LGBTQI+ community and a church congregation at the same time is not accepted everywhere, and particularly not in Cuba. But one church there is breaking new ground.

Many LGBTQI+ people are rejected by churches

While most churches in Germany, the US and other Western countries now welcome gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersexual people, that is an exception in Cuba. And that exception is called Iglesia de la Comunidad Metropolitana, a Protestant free church.

"Once I went to a Reformed Church in which they kept talking about homosexuality as a sin," recounts Fernando Cepero Romero in the congregation's social media network. "But as a homosexual, I have never seen it that way. For me, it has always been about love."

He relates that he had heard about the free church from his friends and that he thanks God for it.

His statement forms part of the church's advertising campaign "Christ loves my colors." The congregation forms part of the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), which was founded at the end of the 1960s in Los Angeles as somewhere for the gay and lesbian scene to find a spiritual refuge. At that time, people who did not correspond to the heterosexual norm were badly discriminated against even in California.

Now, almost all major Protestant communities of faith recognize same-sex partnerships in one way or another, granting them their blessing or placing them on a par with a heterosexual marriage. In Germany, homosexual couples can have their partnership blessed in almost all churches belonging to the national Protestant Church (EKD). In about half of the EKD's regional branches, homosexuals can marry in church just like heterosexuals.

The Catholic Church retains great influence in Cuba

A difficult relationship

In Cuba, it is a different matter. For centuries, the religions followed by indigenous peoples and African slaves mixed with the Catholicism of the Spanish rulers. This occurred more strongly in Cuba than in most other countries in Latin America. Under the influence of the US, the role of Protestant churches also grew.

When Fidel Castro was in power, the practice of religion was initially banned. It was not until 1992 that the communist regime enshrined religious freedom in the constitution.

But even today, many believers feel they are being patronized. At the same time, the Catholic Church in Cuba is seen as an important bridge builder between Cuban civil society and the regime.

But the Vatican still views homosexuality as a sin, despite the presence of Pope Francis, who is seen as much more liberal than his predecessors. And other communities of faith in Cuba, too, are far less open to the LGBTQI+ community than elsewhere.

But even in Cuba, the MCC remains faithful to its worldwide credo of providing people with a spiritual home regardless of their sexual orientation or identity, as the chair of the Cuban MMCC branch, Yivi Cruz, told DW. "Our church is open to all people, but above all to those who have been excluded from or even hurt by other churches," she said.

According to the parent organization, there are MCC congregations in 37 countries on all the inhabited continents. In Cuba, there are three, with the first established in 2015. The only condition that members have to fulfil to be accepted into the congregation is baptism.

But at the MCC church, even people who are unbaptized can take part in Communion, the main sacrament of Protestant communities of faith. In Cuba, these are mostly adherents of African Cuban faiths like Santeria, a widespread religion that has roots in voodoo. "We are a radically inclusive church," says Cruz. "We don't exclude anyone — not because of their gender, not because of their skin color and not because of their religion, either."


The Santeria religion combines Christian elements with African spiritism

Going against the political tide

"I believe that the MCC is an example of respect and community spirit in society even beyond religious issues," said the Cuban journalist Eileen Sosin Martinez, who has written about the MCC in Cuba for the government-critical website openDemocracy. "It offers a space for resistance and hope by including all people" at a time when religious fundamentalism is experiencing a boom in Cuba, she told DW.

Martinez was alluding to the debate about same-sex marriage that is currently going on in Cuba. Before the reform of the constitution in 2019, the Cuban LGBTQI+ community had hoped that the Havana regime would make marriage for all a constitutional right. Various churches objected to the idea; the MCC supported it. In the end, the issue was not included in the constitution. Now the community hopes that same-sex marriage will be enshrined in the Family Code, which is to be amended in 2021.

Whatever decision is taken, the MCC will not let itself be restricted, says Yivi Cruz. "We celebrate weddings for all those who want them, because love must not be a privilege," the pastor says. The congregation also campaigns on other social and political issues, such as education on sexual health and environmental protection.

Cruz says the aim is to found more congregations in Cuba. "We want to be present wherever our liberating theology is needed," she said.

This article was adapted from German

Germany's COVID vaccine procurement labeled a 'gross failure'

The Berlin government is under increasing fire from experts and politicians for not buying enough doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to quickly roll out its immunization program.



Germany's health minister is under increasing fire for not buying enough vaccine doses

Experts and politicians slammed the German government on Saturday for failing to ensure a sufficient supply of vaccine doses ahead of the country's coronavirus vaccination drive.

As a member of the EU vaccine procurement scheme, Germany is reliant on regulators at the European level granting authorization of the vaccine to prevent COVID-19 infection.

But the EU has taken longer than countries like the UK, US and Canada to give the go-ahead.

So far, only the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine is permitted in EU member states, but the block as a whole only made an order for 300 million doses during the summer, in the belief that more vaccine alternatives would be available.

Frauke Zipp, a neurologist and member of the advisory Leopoldina Academy of Sciences, on Saturday slammed German lawmakers for their lack of foresight over vaccine procurement.

"I consider the current situation a gross failure," she told Die Welt newspaper. "Why didn't they order much more of the vaccine during the summer just to be safe?"

Watch video 01:59 Germany kicks off coronavirus vaccination drive

The BioNTech founders said on Friday that they were scrambling to boost production after being pressured to fill the gaps caused by the EU's blunder.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn has shrugged off any suggestion the government has been lackadaisical in its approach towards vaccinating the country. "Things are going exactly as it was planned," he told broadcaster RTL.

Spahn said he anticipated a shortfall at the beginning and that the government would have to "prioritize" who would be vaccinated but that all nursing home residents would receive the inoculation by the end of January.

Vaccination is a 'race against time'

Luxembourg's foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, defended the EU's vaccine strategy on German radio broadcaster RBB, saying that the Commission had secured almost two billion doses with six different manufacturers.

However, Karl Lauterbach, health expert for the center-left Social Democrats, told the Rheinische Post newspaper that the failure by Brussels to buy more of the Moderna vaccine was "regrettable."

"It was clear early on that the Moderna vaccine had a strong efficacy and could be used by GPs."

Lauterbach thinks it's too late for the Moderna vaccine to play any major role in Germany's short-term vaccination needs. He also criticized the EU for not having ordered more BioNTech-Pfizer vaccines early on.

Watch video 02:13 Will Germans get vaccinated against the coronavirus?

Bernd Riexinger, co-chair of the socialist Left Party, called on Health Minister Jens Spahn directly to ensure the further production of BioNTech-Pfizer jabs.

He said given the spread of the new COVID-19 variant in the UK, "a successful vaccine strategy is also a race against time."

Lockdown must not end too early

Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to meet with state premiers on Tuesday to discuss a probable extension of the current lockdown — which is set to end on January 10.

Ahead of those talks, Uwe Janssens, president of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, called for the government to rethink its plans.

He told the Rheinischer Post that tough curbs should remain in place, even if the government reaches its infection-rate goal of 50 per 100,000 people.

"We intensive care physicians strongly advise that no relaxation should be considered until the incidence value is below 25 new infections per 100,000 population per week," Janssens said.

The current infection rate in Germany is 141.2 according to the Robert Koch Institute. However, this number varies hugely across the country, with some regions of Saxony recording rates of over 500.

US officials defend troubled vaccine rollout

Issued on: 03/01/2021 -

Number of deaths officially linked to Covid-19 in 2020, by age group,
according to provisional US CDC data. Patricio ARANA AFP

Washington (AFP)

US officials on Sunday defended the stumbling campaign to vaccinate millions of Americans against the coronavirus, saying they expected much more to be done in coming weeks after delays.

"There have been a couple of glitches, that's understandable," top US scientist Anthony Fauci said on ABC. He said there would always be challenges in "trying to get a massive vaccine program started and getting off on the right foot."

Some 4.2 million Americans have received initial doses of the two-dose vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, but that is far below official predictions of 20 million by the new year.

Part of the problem, Surgeon General Jerome Adams said on CNN, is that "this virus also occurred in the midst of a surge, and a lot of the local capacity to be able to vaccinate was being used for testing and responding to surges."

President Donald Trump has placed the onus on the states to orchestrate vaccine distribution once they receive their supplies.

"The vaccines are being delivered to the states by the Federal Government far faster than they can be administered!" he tweeted Sunday.

- Trump dismisses death toll -

Fauci said he saw "some little glimmer of hope" in the fact that 500,000 people are now being inoculated a day, a far better number than when the program started last month, and "I think we can get there if we really accelerate, get some momentum going."

Adams said he, too, expects vaccinations to "rapidly ramp up in the new year."

Troubling reports have emerged of vaccine going bad due to poor organization, lack of healthcare professionals to administer it and, in one isolated case, sabotage.

Some people have also waited in line for hours only to be turned away.

In Tennessee, elder citizens, some with walkers, were reported standing along a busy highway while waiting for their vaccinations.

Health officials also rejected unsubstantiated suggestions by Trump that the Covid-19 toll -- total deaths now surpass 350,000 -- has been exaggerated.

The president tweeted Sunday that "the number of cases and deaths of the China Virus is far exaggerated in the United States because of @CDCgov's ridiculous method of determination compared to other countries, many of whom report, purposely, very inaccurately and low. 'When in doubt, call it Covid.' Fake News!"

But Adams, who was nominated by Trump, said he saw no reason to question the numbers from the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Fauci said that "those are real numbers, real people and real deaths."

© 2021 AFP

Norway landslide: Seventh body found among collapsed houses

Rescue workers are still searching for three people who remain unaccounted for after a landslide swallowed homes in the Norwegian town of Ask.



Rescue teams have been working day and night in difficult conditions in the hope of finding survivors

Norwegian rescue teams discovered a seventh body on Sunday, four days after a landslide buried several homes in a small village near the capital, Oslo.

A police statement announced that the body had been found at about 5.30 p.m. local time. A sixth body had been recovered just before 1 p.m.

Rescue teams again worked through the night in the village of Ask, where a landslide swallowed homes on Wednesday. Three people are still believed to be missing. 

"We are working hard in the depression created by the landslide," the head of the rescue operation, Goran Syversen, told journalists.

"We have five teams working at the same time. They are doing very difficult work which is not without risk. Nevertheless, we are making good progress."


During the winter months Norway has a limited number of daylight hours which has furthered hampered rescue efforts

A fifth body was discovered earlier on Sunday. Police uncovered three bodies on Saturday and one on Friday.

The first deceased person found on Friday has been identified as a 31-year-old man, while the identities of the other victims have not been released.

Search teams have been hindered by unstable ground, poor weather conditions and a limited number of daylight hours.

As such, they have resorted to the use of heat-sensitive drones, helicopters and rescue dogs.

Authorities say the chances of a second landslide are relatively low.

Norway's second-biggest earthfall

On Wednesday morning, a torrent of mud buried parts of the Ask village, 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of the capital Oslo.

At least 10 people were injured, one of which had to be transported to Oslo for treatment.

Norway's King Harald V and his family visited the village on Sunday to pay their respects. "I'm having trouble finding something to say, because it's absolutely horrible," the king said after the visit.

"This terrible event impacts us all. I sympathize with you who are beginning the new year with sadness and uncertainty," he added in a televised statement. 

Prime Minister Erna Solberg called it one of the biggest landslides in the country's history.

Experts explained that the disaster was caused by a "quick clay slide" measuring around 800 by 300 meters (2624 by 984 feet).

There had been warnings of potential accidents due to the clay since 2005.

More than 1,000 people from the 5,000 living in the village were evacuated and authorities said that up to 1,500 may have to be relocated.

nm,ab/mm (dpa, AFP, LUSA)

Death toll continues to rise days after major landslide in Norway

Issued on: 03/01/2021 - 

Rescue crews work in the area at Ask in Gjerdrum, Saturday Jan. 2, 2021, 

after a massive landslide smashed into a residential area near the 

Norwegian capital on Wednesday. AP - Tor Erik Schroeder

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Rescue workers have uncovered a sixth body from a landslide that buried homes in a village near Norway's capital Oslo, police said Sunday, with four people still missing.

The body was recovered just before 1 pm (1200 GMT), a police statement said. Rescue teams still hope to find survivors four days after the tragedy occurred.

A torrent of mud shifted houses hundreds of metres (yards), destroying many of them, in the village of Ask, 25 kilometres (15 miles) northeast of Oslo, on Wednesday.

The head of the rescue operation, Goran Syversen, told journalists earlier Sunday: "We are working hard in the depression created by the landslide.

"We have five teams working at the same time. They are doing very difficult work which is not without risk. Nevertheless, we are making good progress."

Search and rescue teams have been using sniffer dogs, helicopters and drones in a bid to find survivors.

"We are searching where we believe we might still find survivors," said the head of the team of firefighters, Kenneth Wangen, adding that the search zone had been expanded.

The teams, who are also seeking to rescue family pets, were digging channels in the ground to evacuate casualties.

Police said earlier that a fifth body had been found just before 6 am on Sunday. Three were discovered on Friday and one on Saturday.

The first person found on Friday was identified as 31-year-old Eirik Gronolen, while the identities of the four other dead have not been released.

But police have published the names of all 10 people, including a two-year-old and a 13-year-old, who went missing on Wednesday.

Ten people were also injured in the landslide, including one seriously who was transferred to Oslo for treatment.

About 1,000 people of the town's population of 5,000 have been evacuated, because of fears for the safety of their homes as the land continues to move.

"It is a completely surreal and terrible situation," one of the evacuees, Olav Gjerdingen, told AFP, adding that his family were sheltering at a hotel.

Royal visit

The rescuers received a visit Sunday from King Harald, his wife Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon, who lit candles for the victims in a local church.

"I'm having trouble finding something to say, because it's absolutely horrible," the king said after the visit.

"This terrible event impacts us all. I sympathise with you who are beginning the new year with sadness and uncertainty," he said in a televised statement.

The authorities have banned all aircraft from the disaster area until 3 pm Monday as they conduct aerial searches.

The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) said the disaster was a "quick clay slide" of approximately 300 by 800 metres (yards).

Quick clay is a sort of clay found in Norway and Sweden that can collapse and turn to fluid when overstressed.

(AFP)

 DEC 30, 2020

Fifth body found in Norway mudslide, five still missing

Issued on: 03/01/2021 -

Oslo (AFP)

Rescue workers have uncovered a fifth body four days after a landslide buried homes near Norway's capital, police said Sunday, as the search goes on for five people still missing.

The tragedy occurred in the early hours of Wednesday when houses were destroyed and shifted hundreds of metres under a torrent of mud at the village of Ask, 25 kilometres (15 miles) northeast of Oslo.

"Just before six am a deceased person was found," a police statement said.

The discovery of a fourth body had been made Saturday after three were recovered the day before at the bleak, snow-covered scene at Ask, in Gjerdrum municipality.

Police on Saturday identified the body of the first person found on Friday as 31-year-old Eirik Grønolen.

The identities of the four other dead have not been released.

But police on Friday published a list of the names of all the eight adults, a two-year-old and a 13-year-old child who went missing on Wednesday.

Ten people were also injured in the landslide, including one seriously who was transferred to Oslo for treatment.

About a thousand people have been evacuated out of a local population of 5,000, because of fears for the safety of their homes as the land continues to move.

Search and rescue teams have been using sniffer dogs, helicopters and drones in a bid to find survivors.

The search teams were also digging channels in the ground to evacuate casualties.

Experts say the disaster was a "quick clay slide" of approximately 300 by 800 metres (yards).

Quick clay is found in Norway and Sweden and notorious for collapsing after turning to fluid when overstressed.

The royal court said in a statement that King Harald, his wife Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon were to visit the disaster area later Sunday morning.

© 2021 AFP

Brazil wildfires surge again in 2020
Issued on: 03/01/2021 - 

Burnt areas of the Amazon rainforest, near Boca do Acre, Brazil, 

in 2019 -- the number of wildfires in Brazil increased 12.7 percent 

in 2020 Lula SAMPAIO AFP/File

Rio de Janeiro (AFP)

The number of wildfires in Brazil increased 12.7 percent last year to a decade-high, according to official figures likely to add to pressure on President Jair Bolsonaro's government over the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

There were a total of 222,798 wildfires across Brazil in 2020, the highest number since 2010, according to the Brazilian space agency, INPE.

That included more than 103,000 fires in the Brazilian Amazon, an annual increase of nearly 16 percent, said INPE, which uses satellite images to track fires and deforestation.

It also included more than 22,000 fires in Brazil's share of the Pantanal, the world's largest wetlands, which were devastated last year by an annual increase of more than 120 percent.

The Amazon and Pantanal are two of Earth's most valuable ecosystems.

The Amazon, the world's biggest rainforest, is considered vital to curbing climate change because of the carbon dioxide it absorbs from the atmosphere.

About 60 percent of the rainforest is in Brazil.

The Pantanal, further south, is a paradise of biodiversity that stretches from Brazil into Bolivia and Paraguay.

Nearly a quarter of the Brazilian Pantanal was devastated by fires last year, amid the region's worst drought in nearly half a century.

Images of charred landscapes strewn with animal carcasses shocked the world, drawing criticism of Bolsonaro's government for failing to stop the destruction.

Bolsonaro, a far-right climate change skeptic, also faces attacks over the sharp rise in Amazon deforestation on his watch.

Activists say his push to open protected Amazon lands to agribusiness and mining and his government's funding cuts for environmental protection programs are fueling the destruction.

Deforestation wiped out an area larger than Jamaica in the Brazilian Amazon in the year to August, a 12-year high, according to the space agency's PRODES monitoring program.

Experts say the fires in the Amazon are mostly set by people clearing land for farming and ranching.

The number of fires in the Brazilian Amazon had already risen by 48.7 percent in 2019, Bolsonaro's first year in office, triggering global outcry.

© 2021 AFP

Woman Brilliantly Trolls Anti-Vaxxer Facebook Group

By James Felton  28 DEC 2020

A woman has brilliantly trolled an anti-vaxxer Facebook group named "vaccines exposed".

Anti-vaxxers have infiltrated much of social media in a way that's of concern as the new COVID-19 vaccines are rolled out. Between July and August alone, engagement with anti-vaccine Facebook posts trebled, according to analysis from the Guardian.

Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook have all promised to take measures to deal with misleading content about vaccines and vaccine safety, from removing posts to deleting groups and users in violation of the rules.

Of particular concern are closed Facebook groups where only those who have been allowed to join can view the posts, making it difficult for others to counter any misinformation therein. One such group, "vaccines exposed", contains a lot of misinformation you've probably seen screenshots of elsewhere. Think 5G causes COVID-19 (which, as we've pointed out before, is as non-sensical as saying the radio causes super gonorrhea or Tom Cruise causes bread), or the vaccine contains a tracking chip.

Fortunately, there are heroes out there who will correct people within these groups, or at least annoy them thoroughly. An Internet user that goes by the name of Deb Deblinger (actually seasoned troll Ben Palmer) falls into the latter category and is quite effective at it.

In a troll for the ages, she managed to join the group by telling them that she was one of the participants in the Pfizer vaccine, and had a "horrible experience" that she needed to share with everyone.

Like a classic troll, she waited patiently for somebody to ask her what had happened, before leaping into some nonsense now that she'd got them on the hook.

"So when I first got there, there was absolutely NO place to park," the post read. "Then, I left my keys in the locked car. So I had to call Triple A and wait for them to get there. And of course that took forever. Then, as I was waiting, some guy walked by me and gave me a rude look like I was loitering or something.

Then when Triple A got there I found out the doors weren't even locked. Ugh. So then I was like an hour late for the study and so I was last in line to get the vaccine. I got vaccinated though so now I have a decreased chance of contracting COVID. So that's cool. But it was one of the worst experiences I've ever had."

Well played, Deb (by which we mean Ben).