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At least one police car was set on fire (Photo: ANP/AFP/Killian LINDENBURG) - 

Dutch police fired warning shots, injuring several people, after rioters against a partial COVID-19 lockdown torched a police car and hurled stones in Rotterdam on Friday (Nov 19).

Chaos broke out after a protest in the port city against the coronavirus restrictions and government plans to restrict access for unvaccinated people to some venues.

Dozens of people were arrested and seven people were injured in total, including police officers, during the nighttime rampage on one of Rotterdam's main shopping streets.

The Netherlands went back into Western Europe's first partial lockdown of the winter last Saturday with at least three weeks of curbs on restaurants, shops and sports.

Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb described the riots as an "orgy of violence".

"The police have felt the need to draw a police weapon in the end to defend themselves," he told reporters.

Police said in a statement that the demonstration that started on the Coolsingel street "has resulted in riots. Fires have been set in several places. Fireworks were set off and police fired several warning shots."

"There are injuries related to the fired shots," they added. They did not give a number but public broadcaster NOS said two people were hurt.

Dutch media said several hundred protesters shouted slogans including "freedom", then threw stones at police and firefighters and set fire to several electric scooters.

The situation had largely calmed later but the smoking wreckage of a burned-out police car and dozens of smashed bicycles littered the scene, an AFP reporter said.

Riot police carrying shields and batons were directing groups of people away from the area. Officers on horseback and in police vans patrolled the streets.

Police also cordoned off several scenes to comb for evidence, with a human finger visible on the ground at one of them, the AFP correspondent said.

"Most of the demonstrators are now gone. There only remain a few groups in a few places," police spokesman Jesse Brobbel told AFP.

Dutch police said units from around the country were brought in to "restore order" to Rotterdam.

"Dozens of arrests have now been made, it is expected that more arrests will follow. Around seven people have been injured, including on the side of the police," a police statement said.

Rotterdam authorities issued an emergency order banning people from gathering in the area "to maintain public order", while its main railway station was closed.

"This is a very serious situation which requires action with the highest priority," said the emergency order by the Rotterdam municipality.

Tensions will now be high ahead of planned demonstrations in Amsterdam and the southern city of Breda on Saturday. Local media say thousands of people are expected to attend.

Like much of the rest of Europe, the Netherlands has seen COVID-19 cases soar to record levels in recent days, with more than 21,000 new infections reported on Friday.

The latest restrictions were announced on Nov 12, and sparked clashes between demonstrators and police outside the justice ministry in The Hague.

In January the Netherlands suffered its worst riots in four decades, including in Rotterdam, after a night-time COVID-19 curfew came into force.

But the most controversial measure could be yet to come.

The Dutch government is considering excluding the unvaccinated from bars and restaurants -- the so-called 2G option -- limiting admittance to people who have been vaccinated or who have recovered from the disease.

However there was significant opposition to the plan during a debate in parliament this week.

Similar measures have already been taken in neighbouring Germany, while Austria initially did so but has now gone into full lockdown.

Earlier Friday the Dutch government outlawed traditional fireworks over New Year for a second year in a row "to prevent an extra burden on care workers," the government said//CNA

FILE - In this Nov. 25, 2019 file photo, highway BR-163 stretches between the Tapajos National Forest, left, and a soy field in Belterra, Para state, Brazil. The number of deforestation alerts in the Brazilian Amazon rose for the second straight month in October 2021, compared to 2020, ending a streak of encouraging data at a moment when the government has promised to curb illegal logging. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File) - 

Diplomats expressed shock and disappointment on Friday (Nov 19) at new data revealing higher-than-expected deforestation in Brazil's Amazon this year, saying it increases pressure on President Jair Bolsonaro's government to do more to stop the destruction.

Evidence that Brazil sat on the data for three weeks before announcing it also drew outrage from non-governmental organizations.

The government released the report, which was dated Oct 27, after this month's high-profile UN COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, where Brazil signed up to a global pledge to end deforestation by 2030 and made more climate commitments.

Brazil's environment minister, Joaquim Pereira Leite, told reporters that he only gained access to the data on Thursday when it was announced. He called the data "unacceptable" and vowed more forceful action to fight deforestation.

The data showed deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rose to the highest level since 2006 with an area larger than the state of Connecticut being cleared, according to Brazil's national space research agency, Inpe.

Preliminary data from Inpe released earlier in the year had indicated deforestation might decline slightly, but the more accurate final data showed a 22 per cent increase.

The Amazon's trees absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide that would otherwise warm the planet.

One European diplomat told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity, that he was "very disappointed with the latest figures."

A second European diplomat, from a different country, said the numbers were "vastly worse" than what was expected.

While the increase drew surprise, Brazil has not shown that environmental policy is moving in the right direction, the person said.

"All the political signals coming from the government through Congress or other means clearly do not show any political will toward reducing deforestation," the diplomat said.

Pressure from the private sector and foreign governments "is only increasing" for Brazil to show a concrete plan for how it will get deforestation under control, they added.

Brazil's presidency and its environment and foreign ministries did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the criticism.

A Brazilian diplomat, who participated in the COP26 Glasgow summit, told Reuters that negotiators did not know about the data during the UN talks and acknowledged that it would increase pressure on Brazil.

But the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Brazil at the negotiations had already admitted that deforestation was a problem and the new deforestation goals had been welcomed.

"We have to admit to it and resolve it to maintain our ability to negotiate and influence," the person said.

Valentina Sader, assistant director of the Latin America center at the Atlantic Council, a think tank, said the data combined with Brazil's targets at COP could increase international scrutiny.

"Commitments made publicly in Glasgow will be essential for holding Brazil accountable," Sader said//CNA

Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev attend a meeting of heads of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan October 11, 2019. Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via REUTERS

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet in Brussels in mid-December to discuss tensions that have led to border clashes with several troops, the European Union said on Friday (Nov 19).

"Leaders have agreed to meet in Brussels to discuss the regional situation and ways of overcoming tensions for a prosperous and stable South Caucasus, which the EU supports," a spokesman for Charles Michel, the president of the European Council representing EU member states, said in a statement.

The meeting is to take place in the margins of the EU's Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels on Dec 15.

The announcement came after talks between Michel and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev as well as Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Friday.

"During the phone calls, the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders have also agreed to establish a direct communication line, at the level of respective Ministers of Defence, to serve as an incident prevention mechanism", the EU said.

The European Union had urged both countries on Wednesday to disengage their troops and respect the ceasefire agreed the previous day, after reports that seven Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in border clashes.

On Tuesday, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a ceasefire at their border after Russia urged them to step back from confrontation following the deadliest clash since a war last year over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave that killed at least 6,500 people//CNA

Munich, the Bavarian state capital, became the first major German city to cancel its Christmas market for the second year in a row. Now the rest of the state has followed suit (Photo: AFP/File/Christof STACHE) 

The German states of Bavaria and Saxony on Friday (Nov 19) cancelled all their Christmas markets and unveiled drastic curbs on public life as the country scrambles to contain soaring coronavirus infections.

"The situation is very, very serious and difficult," Markus Soeder, premier of the southern state of Bavaria, said as he also announced a shutdown of clubs, bars and night service at restaurants.

The eastern state of Saxony unveiled similar measures and went even further by closing all sporting and cultural venues, banning tourism, public consumption of alcohol and barring the unvaccinated from non-essential shops and hairdressers.

Saxony premier Michael Kretschmer - whose state has Germany's lowest vaccination rate at just under 60 per cent of the population - admitted that many of the restrictions would affect the vaccinated as well.

But he said tough action was needed to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed and called for "solidarity" from all citizens. "We need more 'we' and less 'I' in this pandemic," he told reporters.

Bavaria and Saxony are among the hardest hit regions in the ferocious fourth COVID-19 wave sweeping Germany.

While Germany had a weekly incidence rate of 340.7 recorded infections per 100,000 people on Friday, according to the Robert Koch Institute health agency, the figure was far higher in Saxony (593.6) and Bavaria (625.3).

The Bavarian state capital of Munich on Tuesday had become the first major German city to cancel its Christmas market for the second year in a row. Saxony's cancellations means the famed Dresden Christmas market is also scrapped.

Germany hosts some 2,500 Christmas markets each year, cherished by visitors who come to savour mulled wine and roasted chestnuts, and shop for seasonal trinkets among clusters of wooden chalets.

In pre-pandemic times, they drew about 160 million domestic and international visitors annually who brought in revenues of three to five billion euros (US$3.4 billion to US$5.6 billion), according to the BSM stallkeepers' industry association.

"It's a catastrophe for us," Eleonore Stiegel, who operates a stand at the Christmas market in the historic town of Bamberg, told AFP.

"We have already bought our wares and now are left with nothing for the second year in a row."

Konrad Friedrich, who also plies his trade at the Bamberg market, said he could understand the decision given the explosion in infections.

"What's more important? The market or health?" he said. "Health, of course."

In addition to the new nightlife restrictions, Bavarian sport and culture venues will be subject to a 25-percent capacity limit and retail outlets will have to restrict customer flows, Soeder said.

Parts of Bavaria with incidence rates above 1,000 - eight districts on Friday - will face even stricter curbs with only daycare facilities, schools and shops allowed to continue operations until at least mid-December.

In Saxony, such hotspots will see a curfew for the unvaccinated from 10:00pm, the state's health minister Petra Koepping said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and the leaders of Germany's 16 states agreed Thursday to shut the unvaccinated out of restaurants, sporting events and cultural shows nationwide after new cases soared to an all-time daily high of more than 65,000.

However the director of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wieler, told reporters Friday that with the exponential rise in infection levels, the curbs would be insufficient to contain the latest surge//CNA