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WORLD NEWS Monday 23 noveMber 2020
IS attack hits Afghan capital as Pompeo joins peace talks

By KATHY GANNON and ghanistan's beleaguered
TAMEEM AKHGAR security forces since the
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) start of peace talks in Sep-
— Mortar shells slammed tember.
into a residential area of The announcement this
Afghanistan's capital and week that the United States
killed eight people Satur- will accelerate its planned
day, hours before outgoing troop withdrawal has lent
U.S. Secretary of State Mike greater urgency to the
Pompeo held what are like- intra-Afghan negotiations
ly his last meetings with the and to the calls for a re-
Taliban and Afghan gov- duction in violence. Wash-
ernment negotiators trying ington announced it would
to hammer out a peace withdraw another estimat-
deal. ed 2,500 troops before the
The attack in Kabul, middle of January, leaving
claimed by Islamic State about 2,000 soldiers in Af-
militants, also wounded 31 ghanistan as part of Ameri-
people. ca's longest war.
The assault came as peace The Taliban have, however,
talks were underway in Qa- held to their promise not
tar, where Pompeo told Af- to attack U.S. and NATO
ghan government negotia- troops. The U.S., alongside
tors that the U.S. will "sit on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepares to board a plane at Old Doha International Airport, coalition forces, invaded
the side and help where Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020, in Doha, Qatar. Afghanistan in 2001 in the
we can" in the negotia- Associated Press wake of al-Qaida's Sept.
tions with Taliban militants. 11 attacks, masterminded
Meanwhile, the U.S. mili- to journalists, did not elabo- Green Zone in Kabul, which ther prisoner releases were by Osama bin Laden, then
tary announced a sudden rate. houses foreign embassies, discussed in the meeting, a guest of the Taliban gov-
visit to the Mideast by long- In Kabul, at least one of the presidential palace in addition to those that ernment.
range, nuclear-capable B- the 23 mortar rounds hit and Afghan military com- the two sides committed to The United States has been
52H bombers, underlining inside the Iranian Embassy pounds, according to SITE ahead of peace talks un- pressing in recent weeks
America's continuing pres- compound. No one was Intelligence Group. der the U.S. deal. for a reduction in violence,
ence in the region. wounded, but it damaged In Doha, Pompeo met with Naeem said the Taliban while the Afghan govern-
Two Taliban officials told the main building, the em- the co-founder of the Tal- also repeated their de- ment has been demand-
The Associated Press that bassy said. At least 31 peo- iban, Mullah Abdul Ghani mand that their leaders be ing a cease-fire. The Tal-
the warring sides have ple were hurt elsewhere in Baradar, who signed the removed from the United iban have refused, saying
found common ground on the city, according to the peace agreement with Nations sanctions list. a cease-fire will be part of
which to move forward the Interior Ministry. Washington in February For most Afghans, the over- negotiations.
stalled talks. The officials, The local Islamic State af- ahead of the so-called riding concern has been a There are many within the
who spoke on condition of filiate issued a statement intra-Afghan talks. Taliban sharp rise in violence this Afghan government who
anonymity because they claiming the attack that spokesman Mohammad year and a surge of attacks want February's peace
are not authorized to speak targeted the so-called Naeem tweeted that fur- by the Taliban against Af- deal scrapped. q

Confrontation at German coronavirus protest goes viral

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER northern city of Hannover, "a trivialization of the Ho-
BERLIN (AP) — A video went telling fellow protesters "I locaust." He was ushered
viral Sunday in Germany of feel like Sophie Scholl, since away by security and she
a confrontation at a coro- I've been active in the re- threw down the mic in an-
navirus protest, where a sistance, giving speeches, ger.
young woman compared going to protests, distribut- German Foreign Minister
herself to a famous Nazi ing flyers." Heiko Maas tweeted Sun-
resistance fighter and then Scholl fought the Nazis day that the comparison
was accused by a secu- with her brother and other with Scholl "mocks the
rity guard of "trivializing" the members of the resistance bravery that was needed
Holocaust. group White Rose. After dis- to take a stand against the
Several people protest- tributing flyers at a Munich Nazis."
ing coronavirus restrictions university, she was convict- "Nothing connects the co-
in Germany that seek to ed of high treason and was rona protests with the re-
tamp down new infections executed at age 22 by the sistance fighters. Nothing!"
have tried to depict them- Nazis in 1943. Maas wrote. Counter demonstrators shows a poster reading: 'shame on you'
as the protest against a so called 'silent march' against the co-
selves as victims of govern- While the female protester The Nazis orchestrated the rona policy of the federal government, at the district Prenzlauer
ment persecution. Some was talking, a young se- genocide of six million Eu- Berg in Berlin Germany, Sunday, Nov. 22, 2020.
have even put on Stars of curity guard approached ropean Jews during the Associated Press
David, symbols that the Na- the stage, saying repeat- Third Reich. They also killed
zis forced Jews to wear dur- edly that "I'm not going to tens of thousands of other resistance fighters. ropean Union nation has
ing the Third Reich before be a security guard for this people who opposed their German officials, mean- reported over 14,000 coro-
they killed them. kind of idiocy." The woman regime, such as commu- while, have been generally navirus-related deaths, a
The woman spoke on stage looked at him in disbelief nists, Social Democrats, praised for their handling toll only one-fourth that of
Saturday evening in the while he called her speech members of the church or of the pandemic. The Eu- Britain's.q