Germans protest anti-Islam rallies
BERLIN – The square around the Cologne Cathedral was plunged into darkness Monday evening after the historical landmark in western Germany shut down its lights in a silent protest of weekly rallies in Dresden against the perceived “Islamization” of Europe.
The symbolic act came as thousands of Germans demonstrated in Cologne and several other cities against the ongoing protests by the group calling itself Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, which attracted its biggest crowd yet in Dresden on Monday night.
Cologne Cathedral provost Norbert Feldhoff, told n-tv that shutting down the lights was an attempt to make the PEGIDA demonstrators think twice about their protest.
“You’re taking part in an action that, from its roots and also from speeches, one can see is Nazi-ist, racist and extremist,” he said on n-tv.
PEGEIDA’s main demonstration in the eastern city of Dresden attracted some 18,000, according to police. The demonstrations there have been growing from an initial few hundred in October to around 17,500 at a rally just before Christmas.
Lebanon limits Syrians fleeing civil war
BEIRUT – Lebanon turned back Syrians trying to cross the border Monday under strict new visa regulations, saying it simply cannot handle any more people displaced by the ongoing civil war.
The policy, requiring Syrians to obtain visas that sharply limit the time they can stay in Lebanon, effectively narrows one of the few escape routes left from a conflict that has displaced a third of Syria’s pre-war population and shows no sign of ending.
Humanitarian groups dealing with Syrian refugees say authorities should not close the doors on people who are desperate to leave.
Leading politician Walid Jumblatt said there should be difference in dealing with “refugees who are fleeing death and destruction in Syria after they lost their homes,” and those who come to Lebanon for political activities.
Mayor’s wife charged with organized crime
MEXICO CITY – The wife of a Mexican mayor whose police force turned 43 students over to a drug gang that allegedly killed them has been charged with organized crime and money laundering.
Maria de los Angeles Pineda is the wife of Jose Luis Abarca, the former mayor of Iguala, a city in southern Guerrero state. Pineda’s brothers were leading members of the Guerreros Unidos drug gang, according to prosecutors. Federal prosecutor Tomas Zeron said Monday that Pineda has been charged with organized crime related to drug trafficking and use of illicit funds.
Abarca and Pineda were arrested Nov. 4, 2015, in Mexico City. Abarca was charged with organized crime, kidnapping and homicide in November, for events previous to the students’ disappearance. Pineda had been held under a form of house arrest but has now been transferred to a federal prison. It is unclear if the charges against her were related to the students’ disappearance.
Powerful quake jolts Christchurch
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – A powerful magnitude-5.6 earthquake Tuesday jolted awake many residents in the New Zealand city of Christchurch, but there were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries.
The quake struck at 6:48 a.m. local time, according to the United States Geological Survey. The epicenter was 63 miles northwest of Christchurch on the central South Island at a depth of 6.2 miles.
New Zealand earthquake monitoring agency GeoNet collected 2,600 reports of people in the Christchurch area feeling the quake, which some described on social media as long and rolling, others as short and sharp.
GeoNet reported a subsequent string of smaller earthquakes.
The quakes did not prompt any tsunami warnings in the region.
Jihadists seize base near Chad
BAUCHI, Nigeria – Islamic jihadists have seized the headquarters of a multinational military force near Nigeria’s border with Chad, just days after foreign troops abandoned the base, according to a community leader and residents who took to canoes to escape.
Following Saturday’s action in Baga, Nigerian troops on Monday began evacuating their families from the nearby town of Monguno, creating a panic and causing civilians to flee, according to Hussain Monguno, an official of the Borno-Yobe People’s Forum.
“The military has abdicated its responsibility to protect civilians,” he charged. “People are panicking and fleeing Monguno now because of the military pulling out.”
The developments raise fears that the way is now open for the insurgents to use Baga as a base to attack Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and the biggest city in Nigeria’s northeast. Monguno lies between the seized base at Baga and Maiduguri.
Scores of soldiers and civilians were killed in the attack on Baga, while others drowned in Lake Chad, Nigerians taking refuge in a Chadian village said.
Associated Press
