BERLIN: Germany is calling up tens of thousands of reservists to help in the country’s battle against the coronavirus pandemic, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said Thursday.
The army began mobilizing its first batches of reserve troops over the weekend, said the minister, adding that it will next standby “other reservist troops in through very targeted calls, and through a general call.”
Europe’s biggest economy has a pool of 75,000 reservists for whom the army has updated contact details, the minister said.
Some 2,300 reservists responded to the weekend mobilization call, including more than 900 who can be deployed to health services, said Kramp-Karrenbauer.
Describing the fight against COVID-19 a marathon, the minister said soldiers can step in when the capacity of civil forces is exhausted.
“We can and will deliver what is needed from us,” she said.
The German government is accelerating efforts to ramp up capacity to treat patients, as official data show the number of infections soaring past 10,000.
The numbers, which also include 20 deaths, are compiled by the disease control agency Robert Koch Institute using information from regional authorities of cases tested for the virus.
But depending on an individual state’s policies, many other possible infections may not be reflected in the numbers because the patients have not been tested as they show only mild symptoms or have not been in contact with a known case.
Speaking at a separate press conference, Health Minister Jens Spahn said regulations will be eased for employees in medical services to help in hospitals, to take the pressure off qualified nurses and doctors.
Germany calls up reservists in coronavirus battle
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Germany calls up reservists in coronavirus battle
- The army began mobilizing its first batches of reserve troops over the weekend
- Europe’s biggest economy has a pool of 75,000 reservists for whom the army has updated contact details
Indian Islamic centre warns Muslims against felling trees
LUCKNOW: One of India's most influential Islamic centres has warned Muslims not to chop down trees or burn fields after harvesting to help stem climate change and surging temperatures.
Much of northern India has been gripped by a deadly heatwave with temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit), killing scores of people by heatstroke.
"Every Muslim must ensure no green trees and crops are set on fire," Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahal, chair of the Islamic Centre of India, told AFP.
Mahal, a top scholar in the northern city of Lucknow, issued the non-binding fatwa or ruling on Sunday, saying that the religious duty of Muslims to conserve greenery and water was "stated in the Koran".
"Burning trees and crops is forbidden in Islam and is considered a grave sin," read the fatwa, published in Urdu and Hindi.
He also urged Islamic clerics to encourage stewardship of the environment during their sermons -- telling people to take care of the trees around them.
"Instead of merely planting a sapling symbolically, it is more meaningful to take care of existing plants and trees," he said, urging Muslims to prevent pollution of waterways and the sea.
Last week, an Indian court urged the government to declare a national emergency over the country's ongoing heatwave, saying that hundreds of people had died during weeks of extreme weather.
The High Court in the western state of Rajasthan, which has suffered some of the hottest weather, said authorities had failed to take appropriate steps to protect the public from the heat.
India is no stranger to searing summer temperatures but years of scientific research have found climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.
Researchers say human-induced climate change has driven the devastating heat impact in India and should be taken as a warning.
Russia warns US against ‘fatal’ miscalculation in Ukraine
- Putin said the West would be directly involved in any use of its weapons by Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia
MOSCOW: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday the United States could face “fatal consequences” if it ignored Moscow’s warnings not to let Ukraine use weapons provided by Washington to strike targets inside Russia.
Ryabkov was commenting on President Joe Biden’s decision last week to approve the use of US-supplied weapons to hit targets inside Russia that were involved in attacks on Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
“I would like to warn American leaders against miscalculations that could have fatal consequences. For unknown reasons, they underestimate the seriousness of the rebuff they may receive,” state news agency RIA quoted Ryabkov as saying.
He referred to comments last week by President Vladimir Putin, who said NATO countries were playing with fire and risking a deeper global conflict — one of a series of warnings from Moscow about the risk of a serious escalation.
“I urge these figures (in the US) ... to spend some of their time, which they apparently spend on some kind of video games, judging by the lightness of their approach, on studying what was said in detail by Putin,” Ryabkov said.
Putin had delivered “a very significant warning and it must be taken with the utmost seriousness”, he added.
Putin said the West would be directly involved in any use of its weapons by Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia, because such attacks would require its satellite, intelligence and military help.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said last week that NATO had the right to help Ukraine uphold its own right to self-defense, and this did not make NATO a party to the conflict.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the weekend that Kyiv was grateful to Washington for allowing it to use US-supplied HIMARS rocket systems in the Kharkiv region, but this was not enough. Ukraine has long argued that restrictions on the way it can use Western-supplied weapons are seriously limiting its ability to defend itself.
Russian news agencies quoted Ryabkov as saying that attempts by Kyiv to attack Russian early-warning radar systems would be thwarted and Moscow may respond asymmetrically to such steps.
A Kyiv intelligence source said last week that a Ukrainian drone had targeted a long-range radar deep inside Russia that is part of Russia’s early-warning system to detect whether it is under nuclear attack.
Beijing accuses couple of spying for Britain’s MI6
- China’s main intelligence service says it uncovered a major espionage case involving a couple identified only by their surnames
- Couple worked for the Chinese government in a ‘central state agency’ and handled government secrets, which they passed to MI6
TAIPEI: Beijing has accused two Chinese citizens of spying for Britain, in the latest test of a relationship that has grown increasingly fraught.
China and the UK have clashed over Beijing’s clampdown on free speech and open elections in Hong Kong, a former British territory that was guaranteed its own economic and political freedoms for 50 years after its handover to Chinese rule in 1997.
In a message on social media on Monday, the Ministry of State Security, China’s main intelligence service, said it uncovered a major espionage case involving a couple identified only by their surnames, Wang and Zhou, who were allegedly recruited by Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, M16. It said Wang had gone to Britain as a student in 2015 and was later joined by his wife. It said Wang was given hotel rooms, trips around the country and financial incentives.
It said the couple worked for the Chinese government in a “central state agency” and handled government secrets, which they passed to MI6. No information was given about what specific information the couple may have provided. The ministry said the case was still under investigation and gave no word on the location of the couple.
There was no immediate comment from Britain.
Last month, Britain said two men would go on trial on suspicion of collecting sensitive information for Hong Kong authorities. A third suspect, 37-year-old Briton Matthew Trickett, was also charged in the case, but was found dead in a park under what police said were unexplained circumstances.
Turkiye arrests pro-Kurdish mayor two months after election
DIYARBAKIR: Police detained a pro-Kurdish party mayor in southeast Turkiye on Monday over alleged militant links and he has been replaced by the state governor, the interior ministry said, two months after the mayor won power in local elections.
After previous municipal elections, Turkiye detained pro-Kurdish mayors, removing virtually all from their posts to be replaced by state officials over charges of ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Mehmet Siddik Akis, mayor of Hakkari province bordering Iran and Iraq, was accused of having a high-level role in the PKK militant group, the ministry said in a statement on X.
A security source said police teams carried out a search at the Hakkari municipal building and kept out members of Akis’ pro-Kurdish DEM party, the third largest in Turkiye’s parliament.
Akis and his lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment but his party was set to hold a news conference regarding the situation. DEM has previously denied any association with the PKK.
“The government, which is defeated by the will of the people every time, has again resorted to the way it knows best: usurping (the people’s) will and conducting a coup,” DEM said in a statement about the mayor’s arrest.
In the March 31 local elections, DEM reaffirmed its regional strength, winning 10 provinces in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
Turkish authorities accuse DEM and its pro-Kurdish predecessors of ties to the PKK, which is designated a terrorist group by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union.
Over 40,000 people have been killed in the PKK’s separatist insurgency against the Turkish state, launched in 1984.
China calls on Iran, UAE to resolve differences, says Chinese foreign ministry
BEIJING: China calls on Iran and the United Arab Emirates to resolve their differences peacefully through dialogue and consultation, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday.
Iran's foreign ministry has summoned the Chinese ambassador in Tehran to protest about a China-UAE statement related to Iran's sovereignty over three islands also claimed by the UAE, Iranian state media reported on Sunday.
“China's position on the three islands is consistent,” said Mao Ning, when addressing a question on the issue at a regular press briefing.
