German police raids target group suspected of far-right plot to overthrow government - Sky News

Around 3,000 police officers have carried out raids across Germany to stop an alleged plot by a far-right terrorist group to overthrow the government.

Federal prosecutors said 25 suspected members and supporters of the Reichsburger group - the so-called Reich Citizens movement - were detained during the raids in 11 of the country's 16 states early on Wednesday.

Twenty-two German citizens were detained on suspicion of "membership in a terrorist organisation", and three others, including a Russian citizen, are suspected of supporting the group.

The Reichsburger movement brings together several far-right groups whose aim is to get rid of the current government and replace it with their own.

According to the authorities members of the group have been preparing to "carry out actions based on their ideology" since November 2021.

Armed police are reported to have stormed up to 100 properties across Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony, and Thuringia, as well as in the Austrian town of Kitzbuehel and the Italian city of Perugia.

A 71-year-old, who goes by the name Prince Heinrich XIII, and who is thought to come from the long-standing German aristocratic family of House Ruess, is believed to be central to the group's activities and was among those arrested.

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Prosecutors said the group planned to install him as Germany's new leader.

According to German news site, Bild, the group had also already selected who would be in charge of various ministries within its new government and he had contacted Russian officials with the aim of negotiating a new order in the country.

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Prince Heinrich XIII was allegedly assisted in this by a Russian woman, Vitalia B.

"According to current investigations there is no indication however that the persons contacted responded positively to his request," prosecutors said.

The Russian embassy in Berlin has since denied having links to the far-right group.

Image: Officers lead Prince Heinrich XIII to a police vehicle after searches at a house. Pic:DPA/AP

The current head of the House of Reuss-Greiz, Prince Heinrich XIV Reuss of Greiz, earlier this year distanced himself from his relative.

In an interview with the German news site OTZ in August, he described him as a "confused old man" and said he had not been in contact with the family for 14 years.

Meanwhile, Nancy Faeser, Germany's Federal Minister of the Interior and Homeland, said the department was "fighting back against the enemies of democracy".

In a post on Twitter, she wrote: "The investigations give us a glimpse into the abyss of a terrorist threat by Reichsbürger.

"The suspected terrorist organisation uncovered today is - according to the state of the investigation - driven by violent overthrow fantasies and conspiracy ideologies.

"The further investigations will provide a clear picture of how far the plans for overthrow had already progressed.

"Militant Reichsbürger are united by their hatred of democracy, of our state and of people who stand up for our community.

"That is why we are taking action against such endeavours with all the consequences of the rule of law. We will continue to take this hard line."

Der Spiegel reported that the barracks of Germany's special forces unit the KSK in the southwestern town of Calw was one of the locations raided.

It has in the past been scrutinised over alleged far-right involvement by some soldiers.

A female judge - identified by prosecutors as Birgit M-W - was also detained during the raids. She is said to have links with the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

Known by its German acronym AfD, the party has increasingly come under scrutiny by German security services due to its ties with extremists.

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2022-12-07 11:48:45Z
1678611087

Spanish train collision outside Barcelona injures scores - BBC

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By Matt Murphy

BBC News

At least 155 people have been injured after two trains collided on the outskirts of Barcelona, emergency services have said.

The crash, which occurred around 07:50 (06:50 GMT), took place at a station in Spain's north-eastern Catalonia region.

Local media reported that the trains had been travelling in the same direction and collided while one was parked at the station.

Catalan police are investigating how the incident occurred.

The crash happened at the Montcada i Reixac - Manresa station, about 12km (7 miles) from the city centre.

Emergency services official Joan Carles Gomez told reporters at the scene that 155 people had been injured in the collision, with 14 passengers transferred to a local medical centre for further treatment.

"We're talking about many bruises and some head injuries, but nothing serious," he said, adding that the passengers were being examined to "rule out any fractures".

Mr Gomez said the train was moving "very slowly (when the collision occurred) but people who were standing up fell over and hurt themselves".

A spokesman for the regional fire service said the moving train had collided with "the back part" of a stationary train at the station.

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Train traffic was briefly disrupted on several lines due to the accident, the regional government said.

Describing the moment of the collision, one passenger told the Ser Catalunya outlet that she had experienced "a tremendous blow" and said that "people were screaming".

Another passenger told the BBC that she had seen "people with blood on them, because they had suffered a gash from the blow".

Spanish Transport Minister Raquel Sánchez said she was closely monitoring the situation and wished a "speedy recovery" to the injured.

There have been several accidents on Catalonia's regional train system in recent years, with regional officials blaming them on a lack of rail funding from the central government.

The president of the Catalan regional government, Pere Aragonès i Garcia, called for urgent "explanations" into the causes of the crash from the rail operator Renfe and the Spanish government.

And the speaker of the regional assembly, Laura Borràs, said it was "imperative" that the incident was not repeated.

She wrote on Twitter that "Catalans deserve safe" rail transportation.

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2022-12-07 11:22:15Z
1688716957

China rolls back strict Covid rules after protests - BBC

By Frances Mao

BBC News

China is lifting its most severe Covid policies - including forcing people into quarantine camps - just a week after landmark protests against the strict controls.

People with Covid can now isolate at home rather than in state facilities if they have mild or no symptoms.

They also no longer need to show tests for most venues, and can travel more freely inside the country.

Citizens have expressed relief but also concern about the sudden changes.

"Finally! I will no longer worry about getting infected or being taken away as a close contact," one person wrote on Chinese social media.

Another said: "Can anyone explain to me what's happening? Why is the change all of a sudden and so major?"

The sweeping changes indicate China is finally moving away from its zero-Covid policy and looking to "live with the virus" like the rest of the world. This comes as the country is grappling with its biggest wave of infections - over 30,000 each day.

Some users online have questioned the accelerated opening-up - "The medical system will be overwhelmed and many elderly would be infected. It begins now," one user wrote.

But many others rejoiced at the loosening of a policy that had controlled their lives for nearly three years.

Until now, China had forced people with Covid and anyone who was a close contact to go to quarantine camps. This policy had been deeply unpopular because it separated families and removed people from their homes..

Some of the centres were also reported to have poor living conditions and inadequate staff.

Videos all year have shown guards dragging people out of their homes after they refused to go. Viral footage from Hangzhou last week showed a man fighting off officials.

China's National Health Commissioned announced a swathe of other new freedoms on Wednesday. They said:

• They aimed to decrease testing. Lateral flow tests would replace PCR tests in most scenarios where a result is needed, although PCRs are still needed for schools, hospitals and nursing homes
• Lockdowns would continue but should only apply to more targeted areas - for example, certain buildings, units or floors as opposed to whole neighbourhoods or cities being shut down
• Areas identified as "high-risk" should come out of lockdown in five days if no new cases are found. Several cities in China have endured months-long lockdowns this year even when there were only a handful of cases
• Schools can remain open with student attendance if there's no wider campus outbreak

The new guidelines also included a strict ban on blocking fire exits and doors and said people had to be able to access emergency medical treatment and escape routes unhindered by pandemic measures.

It follows reports of people being locked into their homes during an earthquake, and buildings being sealed under lockdown measures.

The recent protests were triggered by a deadly fire in the western Xinjiang region - critics said the victims had been unable to escape the building because of lockdown measures but Beijing denies this.

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There have also been repeated reports of delays to emergency medical care for people in locked down areas.

On Wednesday, authorities also stressed the need to accelerate the vaccination of elderly people.

"All localities should adhere to.... focus on improving the vaccination rate of people aged 60-79, accelerating the vaccination rate of people aged 80 and above, and making special arrangements," the National Health Commission said.

The loosening of measures come after the country saw its biggest protests in decades. Last week, crowds took to streets in several cities to criticise lockdowns and pandemic restrictions.

Protests in some places also escalated into direct criticism of President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party - a significant display of defiance given the country's intolerance for political dissent.

• Why have so few elderly Chinese been vaccinated?
• China's face-saving exit from zero-Covid

Since those protests on 24-26 November, Chinese authorities had begun to release some cities from lockdown. Officials had also begun to tone down language around the dangers of Covid.

The country's vice-premier, Sun Chunlan, flagged last week that China was entering "a new situation" in the pandemic and the virus' ability to cause disease was weakening.

Experts have warned any easing of zero-Covid in China would have to be done slowly - as the country of 1.4 billion people could see a huge jump in cases that could overwhelm its healthcare system.

Speeding up vaccination of its elderly population is key, health experts say.

"The main way for China to exit Covid with the least damage is via vaccination and three doses of vaccination is a must," Prof Ivan Hung at Hong Kong University told the BBC earlier this week.

"Hopefully before Chinese New Year [in January 2023] as there will be a large movement of the population travelling and returning home," he added.

China's international borders also remain closed to most foreigners, however some analysts say this rapid change shows the country could re-open next year.

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2022-12-07 08:12:33Z
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Germany arrests 25 accused of plotting coup - BBC

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By Paul Kirby

BBC News

Twenty-five people have been arrested in raids across Germany on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government.

German reports say the group of far-right and ex-military figures planned to storm the parliament building, the Reichstag, and seize power.

A German man referred to as a prince called Heinrich XIII, 71, is alleged to have been central to their plans.

According to federal prosecutors, he is one of two alleged ringleaders among those arrested across 11 German states.

The plotters are said to include members of the extremist Reichsbürger [Citizens of the Reich] movement, which has long been in the sights of German police over violent attacks and racist conspiracy theories. They also refuse to recognise the modern German state.

An estimated 50 men and women are alleged to have been part of the group who are said to have plotted to overthrow the republic and replace it with a new state modelled on the Germany of 1871 - an empire called the Second Reich.

"We don't yet have a name for this group," said a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office.

Raids took place in much of the country and two people were arrested in Austria and Italy, Germany's DPA news agency reported. Those detained were due to be questioned later in the day.

Justice Minister Marco Buschmann tweeted that a major anti-terror operation was taking place and a suspected "armed attack on constitutional bodies was planned".

The federal prosecutor said the group had been plotting a violent coup since November 2021.

Former members of the military were also a significant part of the coup plot, reports said. They included ex-elite soldiers from special units.

The plotters had already established plans to rule Germany, the federal prosecutor's office said. Members understood they could only realise their goals by "military means and violence against state representatives" and that included carrying out killings.

Public broadcaster ZDF reported that a former far-right member of the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, was also part of the plot and was lined up to be installed as the group's justice minister, with Prince Heinrich as leader.

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2022-12-07 08:06:23Z
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Ukraine war: US neither encouraged nor enabled Kyiv to strike inside Russia - Blinken - BBC

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By Jaroslav Lukiv

BBC News

Washington has "neither encouraged nor enabled" Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

He was speaking shortly after Moscow accused Kyiv of carrying out drone attacks on three Russian airfields, two of them hundreds of miles from Ukraine.

Ukraine has not commented on the issue.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned the US and its allies not to cross "red lines" by supplying long-range weapons to Ukraine.

The US-led Nato military alliance has ruled out providing such arms to Kyiv, amid concerns that this could lead to a major escalation with a nuclear-armed Russia that invaded Ukraine on 24 February.

Two Russian airfield explosions were reported on Monday, in the Ryazan and Saratov regions. The sites house strategic bombers used to carrying out regular missile attacks on Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure.

Russia said there was another attack was on Tuesday, in the Kursk region that borders Ukraine.

Russia's latest missile attack on Ukraine was on Monday, when 70 rockets were fired on targets across the country. Four people were killed, local officials said.

Millions of people across the country are now without electricity and running water, raising fears people may die of hypothermia in sub-zero temperatures.

• Is attacking Ukraine's power grid a war crime?
• Why millions of Ukrainians have no power as winter nears
• Learning to survive in town with no heating

At a briefing on Tuesday, Mr Blinken accused Russia of "trying to take out the civilian infrastructure that is allowing people to have heat, to have water, to have electricity".

He said Moscow was now "weaponising winter" and "that is the daily and nightly reality in Ukraine".

"We have neither encouraged nor enabled the Ukrainians to strike inside of Russia, but the important thing is to understand what Ukrainians are living through every day with the ongoing Russian aggression against their country.

He said he was determined that Ukrainians have "the equipment that they need to defend themselves, to defend their territory, to defend their freedom."

Speaking alongside him, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin stressed that the US would not prevent Ukraine from developing its own long-range strike capability.

"The short answer is no. We are absolutely not doing that," Mr Austin said, adding that Washington had already given Ukraine more than $19bn (£16bn) in security assistance.

In other developments on Tuesday:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited troops in the eastern Donetsk region where fierce fighting has been going for weeks
• In the evening, one person was injured in Russian strikes in the central-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, local officials said
• Russian-installed officials in the city of Donetsk - controlled by Moscow since 2014 - said six people were killed in Ukrainian shelling

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2022-12-07 06:01:22Z
1687285030

China rolls back strict Covid rules after protests - BBC

By Frances Mao

BBC News

China is lifting its most severe Covid policies - including forcing people into quarantine camps - just a week after landmark protests against the strict controls.

People with Covid can now isolate at home rather than in state facilities if they have mild or no symptoms.

They also no longer need to show tests for most venues, and can travel more freely inside the country.

Citizens have expressed relief but also concern about the sudden changes.

"Finally! I will no longer worry about getting infected or being taken away as a close contact," one person wrote on Chinese social media.

Another said: "Can anyone explain to me what's happening? Why is the change all of a sudden and so major?"

The sweeping changes indicate China is finally moving away from its zero-Covid policy and looking to "live with the virus" like the rest of the world. This comes as the country is grappling with its biggest wave of infections - over 30,000 each day.

Some users online have questioned the accelerated opening-up - "The medical system will be overwhelmed and many elderly would be infected. It begins now," one user wrote.

But many others rejoiced at the loosening of a policy that had controlled their lives for nearly three years.

Until now, China had forced people with Covid and anyone who was a close contact to go to quarantine camps. This policy had been deeply unpopular because it separated families and removed people from their homes..

Some of the centres were also reported to have poor living conditions and inadequate staff.

Videos all year have shown guards dragging people out of their homes after they refused to go. Viral footage from Hangzhou last week showed a man fighting off officials.

China's National Health Commissioned announced a swathe of other new freedoms on Wednesday. They said:

• They aimed to decrease testing. Lateral flow tests would replace PCR tests in most scenarios where a result is needed, although PCRs are still needed for schools, hospitals and nursing homes
• Lockdowns would continue but should only apply to more targeted areas - for example, certain buildings, units or floors as opposed to whole neighbourhoods or cities being shut down
• Areas identified as "high-risk" should come out of lockdown in five days if no new cases are found. Several cities in China have endured months-long lockdowns this year even when there were only a handful of cases
• Schools can remain open with student attendance if there's no wider campus outbreak

The new guidelines also included a strict ban on blocking fire exits and doors and said people had to be able to access emergency medical treatment and escape routes unhindered by pandemic measures.

It follows reports of people being locked into their homes during an earthquake, and buildings being sealed under lockdown measures.

The recent protests were triggered by a deadly fire in the western Xinjiang region - critics said the victims had been unable to escape the building because of lockdown measures but Beijing denies this.

This video can not be played

To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.

There have also been repeated reports of delays to emergency medical care for people in locked down areas.

On Wednesday, authorities also stressed the need to accelerate the vaccination of elderly people.

"All localities should adhere to.... focus on improving the vaccination rate of people aged 60-79, accelerating the vaccination rate of people aged 80 and above, and making special arrangements," the National Health Commission said.

The loosening of measures come after the country saw its biggest protests in decades. Last week, crowds took to streets in several cities to criticise lockdowns and pandemic restrictions.

Protests in some places also escalated into direct criticism of President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party - a significant display of defiance given the country's intolerance for political dissent.

• Why have so few elderly Chinese been vaccinated?
• China's face-saving exit from zero-Covid

Since those protests on 24-26 November, Chinese authorities had begun to release some cities from lockdown. Officials had also begun to tone down language around the dangers of Covid.

The country's vice-premier, Sun Chunlan, flagged last week that China was entering "a new situation" in the pandemic and the virus' ability to cause disease was weakening.

Experts have warned any easing of zero-Covid in China would have to be done slowly - as the country of 1.4 billion people could see a huge jump in cases that could overwhelm its healthcare system.

Speeding up vaccination of its elderly population is key, health experts say.

"The main way for China to exit Covid with the least damage is via vaccination and three doses of vaccination is a must," Prof Ivan Hung at Hong Kong University told the BBC earlier this week.

"Hopefully before Chinese New Year [in January 2023] as there will be a large movement of the population travelling and returning home," he added.

China's international borders also remain closed to most foreigners, however some analysts say this rapid change shows the country could re-open next year.

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2022-12-07 07:12:59Z
1679366256

Indonesia passes criminal code banning sex outside marriage - BBC

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By Frances Mao

BBC News

Indonesia's parliament has approved a new criminal code that bans anyone in the country from having extramarital sex and restricts political freedoms.

Sex outside marriage will carry a jail term of up to a year under the new laws, which take effect in three years.

The raft of changes come after a rise in religious conservatism in the Muslim-majority country.

Critics see the laws as a "disaster" for human rights, and a potential blow to tourism and investment.

Several groups of mainly young people protested against the legislation outside parliament in Jakarta this week. It's expected the new laws will be challenged in court.

They apply equally to locals and to foreigners living in Indonesia, or visiting holiday destinations such as Bali. Under the laws unmarried couples caught having sex can be jailed for up to a year.

They are also banned from living together - an act for which people could be jailed for up to six months. Adultery will also be an offence for which people can be jailed.

Supporters of the legislation say changes were made to accommodate concerns of critics - for prosecutions to start a complaint must be filed by the children, parents or spouse of the accused couple.

Ajeng, a 28-year-old Muslim woman living in the West Java city of Depok, said she was now at risk for living with her partner for the past five years.

"With the new law, both of us can go to jail if one of the family decides to make a police report," she told the BBC.

"What if there's one family member who has a problem with me and decides to send me to jail?

EPA

"I think living together or having sex outside of marriage is not a crime. In my religion, it's considered a sin. But I don't think the criminal code should be based on a certain religion."

She said she had joined the nationwide protests in 2019 when the law had first been broached. She took the sign: "For the right to cuddle, I took to the streets."

However on Tuesday, parliament unanimously approved the new code of over 600 articles.

Rights groups say the new provisions disproportionately affect women, LGBT people and ethnic minorities.

• Indonesia's Aceh flogs two men for having sex

Many businesses had also been opposed to the legislation, saying it discouraged visitors and investment. But lawmakers have celebrated overhauling laws dating back to Dutch colonial rule.

"It is time for us to make a historical decision on the penal code amendment and to leave the colonial criminal code we inherited behind," law minister Yasonna Laoly told parliament.

The new legislation contains scores of new clauses criminalising immorality and blasphemy and restricting political and religious expression.

Human Rights Watch's Asia Director Elaine Pearson told the BBC it was a "huge setback for a country that has tried to portray itself as a modern Muslim democracy".

The group's Jakarta-based researcher, Andreas Harsano, said there were millions of couples in Indonesia without marriage certificates "especially among Indigenous peoples or Muslims in rural areas" who had married in specific religious ceremonies.

"These people will be theoretically breaking the law as living together could be punished up to six months in prison," he told the BBC.

He added that research from Gulf states, where there are similar laws governing sex and relationships, showed women were punished and targeted by such morality laws more than men.

There are now also six blasphemy laws in the code, including apostasy - renouncing a religion. For the first time since its independence, Indonesia will make it illegal to persuade someone to be a non-believer.

New defamation articles also make it illegal for people to insult the president or criticise state ideology.

However legislators said they had added defences for free speech and protests made in the "public interest".

Indonesia is not a secular state. Atheism is unacceptable - technically you need to follow one of six prescribed religions. So it is a multi-religious state with an official ideology, Pancasila, which prioritises no faith over any other. That was Indonesia's post-independence leader Sukarno's idea, to discourage large parts of the archipelago where Muslims are not a majority from breaking away.

But since the fall of his successor Suharto - who ruthlessly suppressed political Islamic groups - there has been growing mobilisation around Islamic values, the sense that Islam is threatened by outside influences and more conservatism in many areas of the island of Java, where more than half of Indonesians live. Political parties have responded to this and demanded tougher laws to police morals.

Current leader Joko Widodo is from the syncretic Javanese tradition that adheres to a more flexible form of Islam, but his main preoccupation is his legacy of economic development rather than tolerance and liberal values. He has shown, for example in the jailing of former Jakarta governor Ahok on blasphemy charges, that he's willing to give hardline Muslims some of what they want.

By the time the new code comes into effect, Jokowi will have left office at the end of his second term.

Since Indonesia's democratic transition in 1998, strict religion-based laws on sex and relationships have been introduced in some parts of the country of 267 million people.

The province of Aceh already enforces strict Islamic law and has punished people for gambling, drinking alcohol and meeting members of the opposite sex.

Many Islamic civil groups in Indonesia have been pushing for more influence in shaping public policy in recent years.

A previous draft of the code was set to be passed in 2019 but sparked nationwide protests with tens of thousands taking part in demonstrations.

Many, including students, took to the streets and there were clashes with police in Jakarta.

Ajeng said many Indonesians who were not affected by the law had also protested in 2019 because "people don't want their taxes to be used to send people to jail just for sex".

"People are angry that their liberty is being taken. Indonesia has plenty of problems like poverty, climate change and corruption, but instead of solving a problem they've created a bill that only adds to the problem."

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2022-12-06 12:31:34Z
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