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Demonstrators hold flags and placards as they march to protest against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restriction mandate in Vienna, Austria, December 11, 2021. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner - 

Tens of thousands of people rallied in Vienna on Saturday (Dec 11) in protest against restrictions introduced to halt the spread of coronavirus in Austria, including mandatory COVID-19 vaccines and home confinement orders for the unvaccinated.

Around 1,400 police officers were on duty to oversee the protest, which attracted an estimated 44,000 people, and followed a similar demonstration in the Austrian capital last week.

Police said three people were arrested for offences including the use of fireworks and disregarding the requirement to wear masks. Journalists covering the event, which began in Heldenplatz square, were attacked with snow balls and ice, and one reporter was the victim of an attempted assault, police said.

The crowd was addressed by Herbert Kickl, leader of the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party, who attacked the government's response to the pandemic. He said the public had not realised they were being "kicked in the arse" by the government, and said the protests would continue.

Separately, around 2,500 protested against the restrictions in Klagenfurt, while 150 people demonstrated in Linz.

Faced with surging daily infections, Austria last month became the first country in Western Europe to reimpose a lockdown and said it would make vaccinations mandatory from February.

Banners saying "No to compulsory vaccination" and "Hands off our children" were carried by protesters in Vienna, who chanted "We are the people," and "resistance".

Austria, which has a population of 8.9 million people, has reported 1.2 million coronavirus cases and more than 13,000 deaths since the pandemic began last year//CNA

FILE PHOTO: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia November 23, 2021. Sputnik/Evgeny Biyatov/Kremlin via REUTERS - 

Palestinians held municipal elections in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Saturday (Dec 11) in a rare democratic exercise and amid rising anger with President Mahmoud Abbas after he cancelled planned legislative and presidential votes earlier this year.

More than 400,000 Palestinians were eligible to cast ballots for representatives in 154 village councils in the West Bank, where Abbas' Palestinian Authority has limited self-rule. Municipal votes are typically held every four or five years.

Municipal elections are not being held in Gaza, whose Islamist rulers Hamas are boycotting the vote amid a rift with Abbas' Fatah party. The 86-year-old president postponed municipal votes in major West Bank cities, such as Ramallah, that could have been seen as a referendum on Abbas' rule.

"These elections cannot be an alternative to legislative elections," said Ahmad Issa, 23, outside a polling station in the West Bank village of Bir Nabala, adding that a legislative vote could offer "a horizon for the youth" and lead to reforms.

In the village of Beit Kahil, women and men lined up outside a polling station, some in facemasks to protect against COVID-19. Once inside, they placed voting papers in envelopes and dropped them into ballot boxes, dipping their fingers in ink as they left in a move to prevent people voting twice.

Abbas, whose support has sagged in opinion polls, drew widespread anger in April when he cancelled https://www.reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-politics-election-idUSKBN189066 legislative and presidential elections scheduled for the summer, citing Israeli curbs on Palestinian voting in East Jerusalem.

Abbas' rivals, including Hamas, accused him of using the Jerusalem voting dispute as an excuse to cancel elections that polls showed he and his party would lose to the Islamist group. Abbas, who has ruled by decree for over a decade, denies this.

A spokesman for Hamas, which boycotted previous municipal elections in 2012 and 2017, said the group "refuses to participate in partial elections that are tailored to Fatah, and conducted by the Palestinian Authority," calling on Abbas to reschedule the cancelled summer votes.

Hamas has enjoyed a surge in popularity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since fighting an 11-day war with Israel in May. The group won student council elections this year at several top West Bank universities, an important barometer of support.

The Palestinians seek statehood in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, territory Israel captured in a 1967 war. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognised internationally, and peace talks between the two sides broke down in 2014.

Hamas won the Palestinians' last legislative election in 2006. That victory laid the ground for a political rupture. Hamas seized Gaza after fighting a short civil war there with Fatah in 2007 and has ruled the coastal enclave ever since//CNA

Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wearing face masks to combat the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pose for a photograph before a bilateral meeting ahead of the G7 foreign ministers summit in Liverpool, Britain, Dec 10, 2021. (Photo: Olivier Douliery/Pool via REUTERS) - 

The world's wealthiest democracies on Saturday (Dec 11) sought to present a united front against Russian aggression toward Ukraine as Britain hosted a meeting of foreign ministers in the northern English city of Liverpool.

The G7 meeting, attended in person by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his counterparts from France, Italy, Germany, Japan and Canada, comes amid international concern that Russia could invade Ukraine. Russia denies planning any attack.

British foreign minister Liz Truss met Blinken on Friday night where they expressed deep concern about the build-up of Russian troops on Ukraine's border, the foreign office in London said in a statement.

Any incursion by Russia "would be a strategic mistake for which there would be serious consequences," it said.

"We need to defend ourselves against the growing threats from hostile actors and we need to come together strongly to stand up to aggressors who are seeking to limit the bounds of freedom and democracy," Truss told foreign ministers at the start of the meeting.

"To do this, we need to have a stronger united voice"

Ukraine is at the centre of a crisis in East-West relations as it accuses Russia of massing tens of thousands of troops in preparation for a possible large-scale military offensive.

Russia accuses Ukraine and the United States of destabilising behaviour, and has said it needs security guarantees for its own protection.

Washington is sending its top diplomat for Europe, Assistant Secretary Karen Donfried, to Ukraine and Russia on Dec 13 to Dec 15 to meet with senior government officials.

"Assistant Secretary Donfried will emphasise that we can make diplomatic progress on ending the conflict in the Donbas through implementation of the Minsk agreements in support of the Normandy Format," the US State Department said in a statement.

Ministers arrived at the Museum of Liverpool to a brass band playing Christmas carols, before convening the first formal meeting session which will look at geopolitical issues including nuclear talks with Iran and the military buildup in Iran.

The G7 meeting "is about a show of unity between like-minded major economies, that we are going to absolutely be strong in our stance against aggression, against aggression with respect to Ukraine," Truss told reporters ahead of the talks.

Britain, as current chair of the G7, is calling for its members to be more strident in their defence of what it calls "the free world".

Earlier this week, Truss said the "age of introspection" for the West was over and it needed to wake up to the dangers of rival ideologies. She has highlighted the economic risks of Europe's dependence on Russian gas and the wider security threat posed by Chinese technology as examples.

The G7 meeting is also expected to result in a joint call for Iran to moderate its nuclear programme and grasp the opportunity of ongoing talks in Vienna to revive a multilateral agreement on its nuclear development.

Both Truss and Blinken stressed the need for Iran to engage in the talks, according to the foreign office statement.

Germany, which takes over the rotating G7 leadership from Britain next year, is expected to set out its programme for 2022 at the meeting.

Ministers from the European Union, Australia, South Korea and India will take part in some sessions as guests of the G7, along with representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations//CNA

A storm ripped through a massive Amazon warehouse in the state of Illinois where about 100 workers were left trapped inside (Photo: AFP/Getty Images North America/Michael Thomas) - 

At least 50 people were killed after tornadoes tore through the southeastern US state of Kentucky, its governor told reporters early Saturday (Dec 11), as several storms ravaged swathes of the country.

A number of counties in Kentucky were left devastated with the strongest tornado tearing through 320km of the state, Governor Andy Beshear said.

On the same night, a storm ripped through a massive Amazon warehouse in the state of Illinois where about 100 workers were left trapped inside, local media reported.

"I fear that there are more than 50 dead ... probably closer to somewhere between 70 and 100, it's devastating," Beshear said, adding that it was the "most severe tornado event in Kentucky's history".

In one incident, the roof of a candle factory collapsed, resulting in "mass casualties" in the city of Mayfield, the governor added.

Pictures and videos shared on social media from Mayfield showed buildings ripped apart by the storm, with bent metal, trees and dislodged bricks scattered across the streets and only the remnants of houses left behind.

Images of the tornadoes from US news channels showed a black cylinder sweeping across the ground, illuminated by intermittent blasts of lightning.

"Before midnight I declared a state of emergency," Beshear said.

He added that scores of search and rescue officials had been deployed to save lives as power outages continued to hit the area.

The tornado came as storms wreaked havoc in multiple US states.

Hundreds of officials were working through the early hours of Saturday to rescue employees at the Amazon warehouse - a third of which was reduced to rubble - who were on the night shift processing orders ahead of the Christmas holidays.

The Collinsville Emergency Management Agency described it as a "mass casualty incident" with "multiple subjects trapped at Amazon Warehouse".

A tornado warning had been in effect in the area at the time.

Footage shared across US news channels and social media of the Amazon warehouse in the city of Edwardsville showed a large part of the facility's roof ripped off, while one of the walls had collapsed into the building, with rubble strewn across the site.

Edwardsville police said in a statement there were "confirmed fatalities".

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said: "My prayers are with the people of Edwardsville tonight."

"Our Illinois State Police and Illinois Emergency Management Agency are both coordinating closely with local officials and I will continue to monitor the situation," he added.

In a statement sent to local media, Amazon spokesperson Richard Rocha said: "The safety and well-being of our employees and partners is our top priority right now. We're assessing the situation and will share additional information when it's available."

In Arkansas, one person was killed and 20 others were trapped after a tornado struck the Monette Manor nursing home, US media reported, with another person killed elsewhere in the state.

Craighead county official Marvin Day told local news channels that rescuers had successfully pulled out those trapped in the building and the structure was "pretty much destroyed".

In Tennessee, the severe weather killed at least three people, Dean Flener, spokesman for the state's Emergency Management Agency, said in comments reported by the Washington Post according to Reuters.

The storms caused a CSX company freight train to derail in western Kentucky, although it said no injuries were reported, the New York Times said, based on a Reuters report. 

Bill Bunting, operations chief at the Storm Prediction Center, part of the National Weather Service, said at least five states were hit by the tornadoes, naming them as Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas, the Times reported according to Reuters.

Scientists have warned that climate change is making storms more powerful and increasing their frequency, posing a growing threat to areas where extreme weather events are already common//CNA