VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

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

European Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders expressed concern about the inderpendence of the judiciary (Photo: AFP/Wojtek RADWANSKI) 

The European Commission wrote to Poland and Hungary on Friday (Nov 19) to launch a process that could lead to them being deprived of funds over threats to the EU legal order.

The move came as the European justice commissioner visited Warsaw, expressing concern about the independence of the judiciary and urging the government to respect EU court rulings.

"The Commission services sent administrative letters to Hungary and Poland," a Commission spokesperson said, adding that they "have now two months to send the requested information".

A European source told AFP that Brussels demanded Warsaw explain measures it has taken to limit the independence of its judiciary and to challengee the supremacy of EU law.

In Hungary's case, the commission will raise concerns over public contracts, conflicts of interest and corruption in the spending of EU funds, the source said.

Poland and Hungary are the first states to be targeted under the EU's new "conditionality mechanism".

The new process entered into force in January and is separate from the bloc's infringement procedures for members deemed in breach of EU rules.

Under it, national governments can eventually find themselves cut off from EU funding if they fail to bring their practics in line with EU law.

Both Warsaw and Budapest have contested the legality of the mechanism and appealed to the European Court of Justice, which could rule within months.

The European Commission, which oversees the use of the mechanism, has said it will not take formal action until the court has ruled whether it is in bounds.

But officials have begun assembling the evidence necessary to proceed -- hence Friday's requests for information.

"We don't start concretely the formal procedure today," Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said in Warsaw, calling the letters "a mechanism of clarification".

Reynders urged Poland to abolish a "disciplinary chamber" for judges - a central part of judicial reforms pushed through by the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party despite EU objections.

Reynders said Poland must also reform the disciplinary system for judges and re-install judges removed by the reforms, which the government says are needed to root out corruption.

"The main concern that we have in Poland is about the independence of the judiciary," Reynders told reporters.

Poland has ignored an EU court order to scrap the disciplinary chamber and its Constitutional Court last month issued a ruling challenging the primacy of EU law.

Reynders also commented on two photographs of the devastation in Warsaw after World War II given to him by Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro during their meeting.

Ziobro had tweeted that the photos showed "the destruction that the Germans made, implementing the ideology of the segregation of nations".

"They show that Poles are and will be sensitive to the principle of equal treatment of countries, also in the EU," Ziobro said.

The current Polish government complains that it is being unfairly treated in the EU.

Asked about the photos, Reynders commented that "after the Second World War, it was possible to build the European Community and then the European Union... to have a real peaceful continent in Europe"//CNA

Gulf Clan leader Dairo Antonio Usuga was captured by Colombian authorities on October 23 (Photo: Colombian army/AFP/Handout)

Colombia's President Ivan Duque on Friday (Nov 19) declared the "end" of the Gulf Clan drug cartel, formerly the country's largest, after the capture of its leader and dozens of other members.

Dairo Antonio Usuga, also known as Otoniel, was arrested on Oct 23 in a raid involving 500 police and military personnel.

The 50-year-old is waiting to be extradited on drug trafficking charges to the United States, which had offered a $5-million reward for his capture.

In recent days, authorities arrested another 90 suspected members of Colombia's largest cocaine cartel, which operates in concert with Mexican drug gangs in almost 30 countries.

"The Gulf Clan as a monolithic structure has reached its end," Duque told Colmundo Radio.

"The chain of command was completely broken and it was highly concentrated in the person of 'Otoniel,'" he said.

The president also warned remaining members of the Clan to "surrender, or we will hit them hard."

Otoniel, the subject of 26 Colombian arrest warrants for murder, terrorism, child recruitment and kidnapping, among other crimes, was arrested in the country's northwestern forests, where he also fought with far-right paramilitary forces.

Four soldiers have been killed in what authorities said was retaliation for the crackdown on the Gulf Clan.

Police say the group was responsible for a third of all cocaine exports from Colombia -- the world's biggest producer of the drug.

The United States is the main destination.

The Indepaz research institute estimates that the Clan has a force of some 1,600 men, while authorities say it has about 3,800 fighters and members.

Colombia is officially at peace after signing a pact with the FARC guerilla group in 2016 to end more than half-a-century of armed conflict.

But it has seen a flareup of violence in recent months due to fighting over territory and resources by dissident guerillas, the ELN rebel group, paramilitary forces and drug cartels//CNA