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world news Diasabra 31 OctOber 2020

Partial lockdown imposed in Belgium, EU’s worst-hit country

breaking point. will be extended for an extra He said that the true total of
week. infections is higher than re-
“We have to make sure it After surpassing the spring ported because testing has
does not collapse," said Prime record on Thursday, the been reduced for specific cat-
Minister Alexander De Croo, number of hospital patients egories of people.
as he announced the mea- in Belgium, a nation of 11.5
sures. million, broke the 6,000- Patients in intensive care
mark and stood at 6,187, a units reached 1,057 from 993
The European Center for rise of 263 in a day. the day earlier, and virolo-
Disease Prevention and Con- gists have warned that un-
trol on Friday ranked Bel- “Unfortunately, we cannot less tougher measures have
gium as the worst affected yet see the long-expected a quick impact the saturation
nation in the 27-nation bloc, turnaround in figures,” said point of 2,000 patients will be
with 1,600 cases per 100,000 virologist Steven Van Gucht. reached on Nov. 6.
people. Hotspots like Spain
and Italy have less than a
third of that total, highlight-
(AP) — Belgium has im- minimum of one outside the ing how acute the crisis is.
posed a partial lockdown closest cluster for the next 6
in a new bid to gain con- weeks. Remote work will be France, with proportionally
trol of the pandemic that mandatory. fewer than half the cases, an-
has hit the country worse nounced a second, full na-
than any other in the Eu- Hospitals and experts have tionwide lockdown Wednes-
ropean Union. long complained that Bel- day. Belgium, however, will
gium's measures were too lax still allow people to travel to
As COVID-19 infections over the summer, when the their hotel or secondary resi-
continued their record rise pandemic eased, and warned dence, often on the coast or
on Friday, the government recently that unless there was in the verdant Ardennes hills.
moved to restrict travel and a drastic lockdown the na-
shopping. Family contact will tion's once-vaunted health The one-week school vaca-
also be reduced to an absolute system would soon face tion which started Friday

Ukraine's president moves to dissolve top court over ruling

(AP) — Ukraine faced a access to officials' income could cost the country West- The court's decision also their aspiration of a prosper-
new political crisis Friday declarations unconstitutional ern support. drew a negative reaction ous and democratic Ukraine.
as the president moved to and also outlawed criminal from the ambassadors of the Too much progress has been
dissolve the nation's top punishment for providing “We will have no money, no Group of Seven leading in- made. Ukraine must not go
court following its deci- false income information. support,” the president said dustrialized nations. back to the past.”
sion to freeze the coun- during a meeting with of-
try's anti-corruption re- The judges also ruled to strip ficials. “We will have a big “The G7 Ambassadors are The Constitutional Court's
forms. the National Anti-Corrup- hole in the state budget, and, alarmed by efforts to undo ruling was made on appeal
tion Agency of most of its key more importantly, we don't the anti-corruption reforms from the Opposition Plat-
President Volodymyr Zelen- powers. know what kind of surprise that followed the Revolu- form for Life, a pro-Russia
skiy's action came after the Zelenskiy, a former come- the Constitutional Court will tion of Dignity,” they said in political grouping that has
Constitutional Court ruled dian without prior political present for us tomorrow.” a statement, referring to the links with several top ty-
to annul key parts of anti- experience, was elected in He argued that the Constitu- 2014 upheaval that led to the coons.
corruption legislation that April 2019 on promises to tional Court's ruling lacked a ouster of one of Zelenskiy's Several hundred protest-
Ukraine approved under per- uproot endemic corruption. valid legal basis and violated predecessors. “We stand with ers rallied outside the court
sistent Western demands. He sharply criticized the legal procedures. the Ukrainian people as they building Friday, demanding
The court declared public court's ruling, warning that it continue to fight to realize the judges' ouster.

Alabama court refuses to reinstate man's suit over abortion

(AP) — The Alabama Su- overturn Roe v. Wade, the de- might reverse precedent and
preme Court refused to cision that legalized abortion allow states to ban the pro-
reinstate a lawsuit filed by in 1973, and a later decision. cedure. Mitchell encouraged
a man whose ex-girlfriend other courts to “raise their
ended her pregnancy, and While the legality of abor- judicial voices” against court
four members of the all- tion was not directly an is- precedents allowing abor-
Republican court used the sue in Magers' case, Mitchell tion.
decision Friday to argue said he wanted to state his Magers filed suit last year
the U.S. Supreme Court view — politically popular against the clinic in Hunts-
should overturn past rul- among Alabama Republicans ville where he said his former
ings that allowed abortion — “because abortion is a sub- girlfriend obtained an abor-
nationally. ject that does not frequently tion pill after she got preg-
come before our Court.” nant in 2017. Magers and the
Associate Justice Jay Mitchell, Three other justices con- woman, who were both teen-
in a special concurrence as the curred with Mitchell. agers at the time, later broke
nine-member court turned up.
away an appeal by Ryan Mag- Conservatives emboldened
ers in his suit against Alabama by an expanded majority on A judge dismissed the wrong-
Women’s Center Reproduc- the U.S. Supreme Court are ful death suit, which Magers Supreme Court upheld that a judicial rule so it had no
tive Alternatives, said the seeking ways to get abortion filed on behalf of himself and decision saying Magers' ap- reason to overturn the lower
U.S. Supreme Court should before the high court so it the embryo. The Alabama peal did not comply with court.