Uniquely Nelson

At least 12 civilians have been killed in an air strike on a religious school in the northern Afghan province of Takhar, local officials say. A BBC reporter confirmed he says children at the hospital. Photo: BBC They said the strike on the madrassa in the village of Hazara Qurluq killed 11 children and their prayer leader. The Afghan government disputed the account, saying it had killed 12 Taliban fighters in the village. The strike came after more than 30 security force members were killed in a major Taliban ambush in the province. Local officials said 14 others were wounded in the strike late last night. The imam of the mosque attached to the seminary, Abdul Awal, who was among the wounded and was admitted to hospital, told the BBC that only he and children were in the mosque at the time of the strike. Takhar province Doctors at a hospital close to the site of the air strike in the provincial capital Taloqan said the majority of victims brought in were children, and Mohammad Jawad Hejri, a spokesman for the provincial governor, also said the strike had killed children. But Afghan government officials denied the reports that children had been killed, saying only Taliban fighters died. The Ministry of Defence did not deny that the strike hit a school. A spokesperson said an investigation team had been appointed to "assess allegations about civilian casualties resulting from this attack". The fighting the previous day, which reportedly began with a Taliban attack in Baharak district some 15km (nine miles) from Taloqan, came despite assurances from Taliban officials to the US that violence would be scaled back to facilitate historic peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Violence between government forces and the Taliban has worsened in recent weeks in Afghanistan and threatens to imperil the talks, which have stalled on preliminary issues. It is estimated that about 40,000 civilians have fled their homes in recent weeks in the southern Helmand province as fighting has intensified. The battle over Helmand's provincial capital Lashkar Gah marks the first big Taliban offensive since the peace talks began last month. More than 220,000 Afghans have been displaced by the conflict so far this year, according to the UNHCR, taking the total since 2012 to about 4.1 million. -BBC

The Australian government is being urged to create a new visa for Pacific Islanders to relocate permanently to Australia, in a bid to manage the impact of climate change in the region. Tuvalu is highly susceptible to rises in sea level brought about by climate change. Photo: UNDP/LUKE MCPAKE The recommendation was outlined in a new policy paper released today by the University of New South Wales' Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law. The paper urges the government to do more to help neighbouring countries, with several Pacific island nations facing an existential threat from rising sea levels. Co-author Jane McAdam said it was a roadmap for Australia to deal specifically with the displacement of Pacific Islanders as a result of climate change and natural disasters. "What we do know is that because disasters are likely to increase, both their intensity and their frequency, it means that people's normal adaptation capacity is being almost overtaken," she told the ABC's Pacific Beat programme. "Things are happening too quickly for them to be able to respond and avoid displacement altogether. The Carteret Islands were the first place in the world to require population relocations due to climate change, with predictions they would be submerged by 2015. "If you look at where the trajectory is, unless you have major changes in mitigation and adaptation efforts, we're likely to see more displacement occurring." Co-author Jonathan Pryke, from the foreign affairs think tank the Lowy Institute, told the ABC he recommended about 3000 permanent residencies for Pacific Islanders each year. He said relocating even a small number of people on a voluntary basis would help ease pressure on vulnerable countries. "We are advocating for a real drop in the ocean here with regards to our overall migration scheme," he said. "This is not a radical proposal, we're not suggesting opening the gates to the region. It's an important component of helping improve welfare in the region but also being an important mitigating tool for climate change displacement." Australian prime minister Scott Morrison speaks to kids at a climate change display in Tuvalu ahead of the Pacific Islands Forum leaders summit on Funafuti. August 2019 Photo: Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat The Department of Home Affairs did not directly respond to the ABC's question of whether it would consider a new visa scheme, but highlighted Australia's existing migration pathways. "Supporting our Pacific neighbours is a key focus for the government," a spokesperson said in a statement. "Australia welcomes the contribution that people from Pacific Island nations have made to Australia for generations. "There are opportunities for individuals from Pacific countries to apply for a visa to permanently migrate to Australia through the skilled or family migration programme." Pacific visa could be a 'win-win', paper argues An Oxfam briefing paper last year found climate change displaces 20 million people each year within their own countries. The non-profit organisation said one person was internally displaced due to climate change every two seconds, and people were three times more likely to flee their homes due to climate-fuelled disasters than conflict. Australia was criticised last year for thwarting efforts by small island states to get consensus on a declaration for stronger action on climate change and a rapid phase-out of coal. Australia's prime minister is welcomed upon his arrival in Tuvalu for the Pacific Islands Forum leader's summit. August 2019 Photo: Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Pryke said the move would be in Australia's national interest for a "stable and prosperous" region, adding the Pacific visa proposal was a "win-win". "These people come in and they are actually a boon to the Australian economy," he said. "They fill the labour shortage needs, they get fruit off the vine, they help in aged care and child care and other sectors. These people can remit money home, they can improve the wealth and prosperity of the nations they're coming from. "So it's a win-win policy that comes at a very low expense to the taxpayer." NZ visa model recommended The paper suggests Australia could use New Zealand's Pacific Access visa as a model, which has 1750 places for permanent residency each year, selected by a ballot. But the paper found demand was high, finding that "in the five years to 2014-15, the ratio of application numbers to available places was 16:1". Professor McAdam acknowledges the merits of Australia's existing visa programmes, which allow Pacific Islanders to live and work in Australia on a temporary basis. But she said offering permanent relocation would not only help at-risk Pacific countries adapt to climate change by taking the pressure of stretched resources, but it would also supplement Australian aid to the region. "If only 1 percent of the Pacific's population were permitted to work permanently in Australia, this would bring more benefits to the Pacific than Australia's aid contribution," the paper said. Australia's recent budget papers outlined $A4 billion in foreign aid, with more than $1.44 billion slated for the Pacific. Professor McAdam said migration could be one way to tackle climate change, but said disaster risk reduction policies, climate adaptation development and other strategies are essential as well. "This is a way of giving people options, a way of choosing their own destiny," she said. "The last thing that we are advocating for is the forcible movement of people to Australia. It's not about that, it's about giving people choices and arming them with the possibility to move in a dignified manner." - ABC

Former US president Barack Obama has returned to the campaign trail with a blistering attack on Donald Trump with less than two weeks to go before the Republican president's Election Day face-off with Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Photo: AFP Speaking at a drive-in rally in Philadelphia on behalf of Biden, his former vice president, and Democratic running mate Kamala Harris, Obama offered his fiercest critique yet of his successor. He took aim at Trump's divisive rhetoric, his track record in the Oval Office and his habit of re-tweeting conspiracy theories. "With Joe and Kamala at the helm, you're not going to have to think about the crazy things they said every day," Obama said. "And that's worth a lot. You're not going to have to argue about them every day. It just won't be so exhausting." Obama, who governed for two terms and remains one of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party, blasted Trump for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, noting that the president himself had fallen victim to the virus. "Donald Trump isn't suddenly going to protect all of us," he said. "He can't even take the basic steps to protect himself." "This is not a reality show. This is reality," Obama said in a nod to Trump's past as a reality TV host. "And the rest of us have had to live with the consequences of him proving himself incapable of taking the job seriously." Obama's appearance filled a gap left by Biden, who has stayed at home in Delaware since Monday for meetings and preparation ahead of tomorrow's debate with Trump in Nashville, Tennessee. The drive-in rally was held in the parking lot of Citizens Bank Park, the baseball stadium in Philadelphia, the city's skyline visible in the distance. With nearly 280 vehicles spread throughout the lot, it was the largest event of its kind that the Biden campaign has staged during the pandemic. Photo: AFP Don't be complacent, Obama warns With a Reuters/Ipsos poll showing Biden with just a 4 percentage point edge in Pennsylvania, Obama warned Democrats against complacency. "We've got to turn out like never before," he said. "We cannot leave any doubt in this election." Americans are voting early at a record pace this year, with more than 42 million ballots cast both via mail and in person ahead of 3 November Election Day on concerns about the coronavirus and to make sure their votes are counted. The early vote so far represents about 30 percent of the total ballots cast in 2016, according to the University of Florida's US Elections Project. Four years ago, Obama participated in a rally in Philadelphia with then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton the day before the election, only to see Trump narrowly take the state. The Biden campaign considers winning there a top priority. In remarks at an evening rally in Gastonia, North Carolina, Trump briefly mentioned Obama, noting that he had supported Clinton in her losing effort. "It was nobody who campaigned harder for Crooked Hillary than Obama, right?" Donald Trump won the state of Pennsylvania in the 2016 election. (file pic) Photo: AFP North Carolina is another battleground state where opinion polls show a tight race. Harris was also in the state today to mobilise voters in Asheville and Charlotte. Obama won North Carolina in 2008, but lost it in his 2012 campaign. Trump won it in 2016. Trump argued that coronavirus-related restrictions were harming the state's economy and complained that Democrats and the news media were overly pre-occupied with the pandemic. "All you hear is Covid, Covid," the president said. "That's all they put on because they want to scare the hell out of everyone." Top ally Even though today marked Obama's 2020 campaign debut, his support has been essential for Biden. He has appeared at joint fundraisers with Biden and Harris, and his network of well-connected former aides has been instrumental in helping the campaign outpace Trump in bringing in donations. Biden's team said Obama would campaign in Miami on Saturday (US time) for the Democratic ticket. Photo: AFP The last days of campaigning are taking place during a surge in cases of Covid-19 and hospitalisations in battleground states, including North Carolina and Pennsylvania but also Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan. Pennsylvania has averaged 1500 new cases a day over the past week, a level it has not seen since April, according to a Reuters analysis. North Carolina is averaging 2000 new cases a day over the past week, its highest level yet. The virus has killed more than 221,000 people in the United States. Polling shows a majority of voters are disappointed in the way Trump has handled the pandemic, which he has repeatedly said would disappear on its own. Biden and Trump are scheduled to meet in their second and final debate tomorrow, giving the Republican an opportunity to change the trajectory of a race that Biden is leading in national opinion polls. -Reuters

A drink driver has pleaded guilty to four charges of manslaughter after his car crashed into four children and killed them in Sydney's north west in February. Photo: Supplied. Samuel Davidson was intoxicated when he lost control of his four-wheel drive and killed siblings Antony, 13, Angelina, 12, Sienna Abdallah, 9, and their cousin, Veronique Sakr, 11. Davidson had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit as well as cocaine and MDMA in his system at the time of the crash. The 30-year-old was wearing prison greens and was freshly shaven as he appeared before the Parramatta Local Court today. He pleaded guilty to four manslaughter charges, two counts of grievous bodily harm by misconduct in charge of a motor vehicle, and one of aggravated dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm while under the influence of drugs. The family of the children who were killed were not present at court today but have previously said they have forgiven Davidson. The mother of three of the children, Leila Abdallah said she "couldn't hate" Davidson but wanted the court "to be fair". The children were on their way to the shops to get ice cream when they were struck by Davidson on Bettington Road in Oatlands. Charbel Kassas, 11, was badly injured in the crash and spent two months in a coma at The Children's Hospital at Westmead before waking up in April this year. Davidson and a 24-year-old male passenger were both uninjured in the crash. Davidson's parents, retired police detective Allan Davidson and his wife Kay previously said their son was heartbroken over the deaths. "We're absolutely devastated for the loss of those children, " Allan Davidson said. "Those poor families have lost their children; no words can help them and I'm so sorry to them." NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Michael Corby has previously said there were several witnesses to the crash and police had a "very strong case" and would be prosecuting the charges to the fullest extent of the law. A total of 34 charges were levelled against Davidson with all but seven of them dropped. Davidson will appear before the NSW District Court on 20 November. - ABC

Spain has become western Europe's first country to surpass one million coronavirus cases. Spanish healthcare workers protest in Madrid over their increased workload due to Covid-19 Photo: AFP Today the country reported 16,973 infections and 156 deaths in the previous 24 hours. Since its first diagnosed case on 31 January, Spain has recorded a total of 1,005,295 infections. It is the sixth nation worldwide to report one million cases after the US, India, Brazil, Russia and Argentina. Europe has seen a surge in new infections over the last few months, forcing governments to bring in strict new regulations to try and control outbreaks and ensure hospitals do not become overwhelmed. Increase in hospital admissions, deaths Spain was hit hard by coronavirus in the first months of the pandemic, and brought in some of the strictest measures to tackle it - including banning children from going outside. Like most European countries, the country lessened its regulations as case numbers dropped. Politicians highlighted the need to bring back tourists as a way to boost the struggling economy. By the end of August new daily case numbers were rising by 10,000 a day. Hospital admissions have ticked up by 20 percent in the past two weeks alone, while deaths have also begun to rise, with the toll climbing by 218 yesterday. In total, 34,366 Covid-related deaths have been recorded. Intensive care staff chat as they prepare to receive patients at a hospital in a suburb of Madrid. Photo: AFP Many blame impatience to be rid of state-imposed restrictions meant to contain the virus, or weariness with social distancing guidelines. "We are less responsible, we like partying, meeting with family," said banker Carolina Delgado. "We haven't realised the only way... is social distancing, simple things like not gathering with many people, wearing masks even if you meet friends." A hurried exit from confinement before tracing systems were in place let transmission get out of hand faster than in other countries, said Dr Rafael Bengoa, co-founder of Bilbao's Institute for Health and Strategy. Lawmakers are bitterly divided over how to handle the situation. Politicians in the national parliament were debating a no-confidence motion in Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez today filed by the far-right Vox Party, while central government has clashed repeatedly with regional leaders over how best to proceed. "These politicians are only comfortable with the simplicity of short-term..., ideologically motivated debates, but the virus doesn't care about ideology," Dr Bengoa said. Earlier this month, Madrid's centre-right authorities successfully had a partial lockdown imposed on the capital overturned in court. But the Spanish government then ordered a 15-day state of emergency in the city. The health minister will meet with regional leaders later today to discuss next steps. In other European Covid news: From midnight on Wednesday, Ireland will move to its highest level of coronavirus restrictions, similar to those brought in during the spring Italy has recorded 15,199 new infections, its highest one-day increase since the pandemic began The royal family in the Netherlands has apologised for taking a holiday abroad despite the government bringing in strict new regulations to tackle soaring case numbers in the country Germany's health minister Jens Spahn has tested positive for coronavirus and is self-isolating In the UK, South Yorkshire will move into the strictest tier three measures from Saturday Trials of AstraZeneca and Oxford University's Covid-19 vaccine will continue following the death of a volunteer in Brazil who the BBC understands did not receive the vaccine itself - BBC / Reuters

The maker of OxyContin painkillers has reached an $US8.3bn ($NZ12.5bn) settlement and agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges to resolve a probe of its role in fuelling America's opioid crisis. Photo: Handout / US Drug Enforcement Administration / AFP Purdue Pharma will admit to enabling the supply of drugs "without legitimate medical purpose". The deal with US Department of Justice (DoJ) resolves some of the most serious claims against the firm. It still faces thousands of cases brought by states and families. Purdue called the deal an "essential" step to wider resolution of the matter. "Purdue deeply regrets and accepts responsibility for the misconduct detailed by the Department of Justice," said Steve Miller, who joined Purdue's board as chair in July 2018, shortly before the firm sought protection from the litigation by filing for bankruptcy. The settlement with the DoJ must receive court approval to go forward. The judge overseeing the bankruptcy case will be weighing how it will affect negotiations with other states and cities that have filed lawsuits against Purdue, many of which have already objected to the terms. They say it lets the company and its owners, the Sackler family, off too lightly for their roles creating a crisis that has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 Americans since 1999. "DoJ failed," said Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey after the settlement was announced. "Justice in this case requires exposing the truth and holding the perpetrators accountable, not rushing a settlement to beat an election. I am not done with Purdue and the Sacklers, and I will never sell out the families who have been calling for justice for so long." Justice Department officials defended the deal as "significant", noting that the department would forego much of the $US8bn in fines, allowing the money to be directed to other creditors in the bankruptcy case - such as the communities ravaged by opioid abuse that have sued the company. They said they continue to review possible criminal charges against executives at the company and the Sackler family. "This resolution does not provide anybody with a pass on the criminal side," Rachel Honig, federal prosecutor for New Jersey said at a press conference. What did Purdue do? The settlement follows years of investigation into claims that Purdue and other drug makers encouraged overprescription of opioids, leading to overdoses and addiction which strained public health and policing resources in cities and towns across the US. Under the terms of the settlement, Purdue will admit to conspiring to defraud the US and violating anti-kickback laws in its distribution of the addictive painkillers. Those included payments the firm made to healthcare companies and doctors to encourage prescribing the drugs, which were ultimately paid for by public health programmes. What will Purdue actually pay? Purdue will pay $US225m to the Justice Department and a further $US1.7bn towards addressing claims made in other lawsuits. The settlement also includes a $US3.54bn criminal fine and $US2.8bn civil penalty, which will compete with other claims in bankruptcy court - such as those made by communities affected by the opioid crisis. It is unclear how much of that sum will actually be collected. The Sackler family has also agreed to pay $US225m and give up ownership of the firm. The company would reorganise as a new company run by a trust for the "public benefit". It would continue to produce OxyContin and other drugs aimed at treating addiction, with the government likely having a significant role. Purdue backed that idea in an earlier settlement proposal but it is opposed by many states, including Massachusetts. What about the other claims? Along with the reorganisation as a "public benefit" firm, Purdue has proposed to settle the wider claims against it with a deal worth more than $US10bn. But critics of the plan want to see the company sold and greater effort made to recover money from the Sackler family. Court documents revealed last year that the family had transferred more than $US10bn out of the company between 2008 and 2017, as scrutiny of its conduct increased. The Sackler family, which would commit $US3bn to the wider settlement, said in a statement that members that had served on the Purdue board of directors had acted "ethically and lawfully" and that "all financial distributions were proper". "We reached today's agreement in order to facilitate a global resolution that directs substantial funding to communities in need, rather than to years of legal proceedings," the family said. -BBC

Two students were paid to identify a teacher to the man who beheaded him last Friday in an attack that shocked France, prosecutors have alleged. People look at flowers laid outside the Bois d'Aulne secondary school in homage to slain history teacher Samuel Paty. Photo: AFP or licensors Samuel Paty was targeted close to his school near Paris for showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in class. His killer, 18-year-old Abdullakh Anzorov, was shot dead by police shortly after the attack. On Wednesday, prosecutors said Anzorov had paid two teenage students around €300 (NZ$534 ) to identify Paty. The killer told the students he wanted to "film the teacher [and] make him apologise for the cartoon of the Prophet [Muhammad]", anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-François Ricard said at a press conference. He said Anzorov had told them he wanted "to humiliate him, to hit him". The students, aged 14 and 15, are alleged to have described Paty, 47, to Anzorov and stayed with him for more than two hours outside the school until the teacher appeared, Ricard said. The pair, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are two of seven people the French authorities are seeking to prosecute over the brutal attack. Online hate campaign The prosecutor also said there was a "direct causal link" between the killing and an online hate campaign that was orchestrated against Paty. The campaign was allegedly launched by the father of one of his pupils. The man, 48, who has been named in French media only as Brahim C, is accused of issuing a "fatwa" against the teacher. On Wednesday, Ricard confirmed reports that Brahim C, who is also facing prosecution, had exchanged a number of text messages with Paty's killer prior to the attack. He also posted videos denouncing Paty after he showed the cartoons in two lessons about free speech earlier this month But Ricard said the father's anger and statements in the videos were based on "inaccurate facts" because his daughter had not been in the relevant lessons. Macron to attend national memorial The prosecutor's revelations come ahead of a national memorial service in Paris for Paty. President Emmanuel Macron will attend the event at the Sorbonne University on Wednesday evening, along with the teacher's family and some 400 guests. He is expected to posthumously give Paty France's highest award, the Legion d'Honneur, Earlier, the president held a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and urged co-operation in fighting terrorism. Putin described the attack as a "barbarous murder". French president Emmanuel Macron. Photo: AFP Paty's killer, Anzorov, was born in Moscow and his family is from Russia's Muslim-majority Chechnya region in the North Caucasus. He had lived in France since 2008. Macron said he wanted to see a "strengthening of Franco-Russian co-operation in the fight against terrorism and illegal immigration", the French presidency said. Russia has played down any association with the attacker. "This person had lived in France for the past 12 years," a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Paris told the Tass news agency on Saturday. Mosque closed amid mass raids Police have raided some 40 homes following the attack, and the government also ordered a mosque to close for six months. The Pantin mosque, just north of Paris, was closed after it emerged it had shared videos on Facebook calling for action against Paty. In one clip, posted just days before the attack, it also shared his school's address. The mosque later expressed "regret" over the videos, which it has deleted, and condemned the teacher's killing. Meanwhile, mosques in the south-western cities of Bordeaux and Beziers were put under police protection after they reported threats. "Such actions are unacceptable on the soil of the Republic," Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said in a tweet on Wednesday. On Tuesday, President Macron said the Sheikh Yassin Collective - an Islamist group named after the founder of the Palestinian militant group Hamas - would be outlawed for being "directly involved" in the killing. He said the ban was a way of helping France's Muslim community from the influence of radicalism. Why was Samuel Paty targeted? Ricard said Paty had been the target of threats since he showed the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a class on 6 October. The history and geography teacher advised Muslim students to leave the room if they thought they might be offended. Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad can cause serious offence to Muslims because Islamic tradition explicitly forbids images of Muhammad and Allah (God). The issue is particularly sensitive in France because of the decision by satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. A trial is currently under way over the killing of 12 people by Islamist extremists at the magazine's offices in 2015 following their publication. France's Muslim community, which is Europe's largest, comprises about 10 percent of the population. Some French Muslims say they are frequent targets of racism and discrimination because of their faith - an issue that has long caused tension in the country. - BBC

At least 11 women have been killed and many more injured in a stampede in a stadium in Afghanistan where people were applying for visas, officials say. Afghans gather to collect token needed to apply for visas to Pakistan near the Pakistani consulate at an open stadium in Jalalabad city, Afghanistan. Photo: AFP / 2020 Anadolu Agency The incident happened after "thousands of people" gathered to request permits to Pakistan, a local spokesman said. The crowd had been redirected to a sports stadium instead of the usual visa centre in the city of Jalalabad. Visa applications to Pakistan have just resumed after a seven-month pause due to the pandemic. "The visa applicants jostled to secure their token from the consulate officials," an official in Jalalabad said, according to Reuters. "The crowd got out of control, leading to a stampede." Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, Mansoor Ahmad Khan, said he was "deeply saddened" by the incident and that his country was "engaged with Afghan authorities for better facilitation of visa applicants". In the conservative Muslim society of Afghanistan, it is common that women and men queue separately. It is thought a number of other women and elderly people have also been injured. Many Afghans travel each year to neighbouring Pakistan to visit relatives, seek medical treatment, find jobs or escape the ongoing violence in their own country. Expecting a large number of applicants after the long pause of the visa service, the Pakistani consulate in the eastern province of of Nangarhar, directed the crowd to a nearby football stadium. "Unfortunately this morning tens of thousands of people had come to the football stadium which led to the tragic incident," the provincial governor's spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told AFP news agency. - BBC

By Bart H. Meijer and Luis Felipe Castilleja Europe's hospital systems are at risk of buckling under the strain of soaring numbers of Covid-19 infections that have put the continent once again at the centre of the global pandemic. Medical staff transfer from the Garbagnate Milanaise hospital a patient with Covid-19 in a bio-containment stretcher for infectious diseases to Varese hospital. Photo: AFP or licensors With case numbers that were brought largely under control by the unprecedented lockdowns in March and April now resurging relentlessly, authorities in countries from Poland to Portugal have expressed mounting alarm at the renewed crisis confronting their health infrastructure. Belgium, struggling with what its health minister called a "tsunami" of infections, is postponing all non-essential hospital procedures, and similar measures are looming in other countries where case numbers have been rising relentlessly. "If the rhythm of the past week continues, rescheduling and suspending some non-priority activities will become unavoidable," said Julio Pascual, medical director at Barcelona's Hospital del Mar. To complicate the situation, widespread coronavirus fatigue and the frightening economic impact of the crisis have eroded broad public support for the lockdowns ordered earlier in the year to stop health services from being overwhelmed. Unwilling to shut down their countries again, governments have sought less drastic measures to limit public gatherings and balance the need to keep their economies turning with holding back the pandemic. According to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Europe has registered more than 5 million cases and 200,000 deaths, with new cases beginning to spike sharply from the end of September. While well below levels at the peak of the crisis six months ago, Covid-19 hospital admissions and occupancy are again high - defined as at least 25 percent of the peak of the pandemic - or rising in 20 countries, its latest weekly summary said last week. European countries boast some of the world's best health services and doctors say that with the benefit of almost a year's experience with the new coronavirus, they are much better equipped to treat individual patients clinically. But the capacity of hospitals to handle a wave of Covid patients, as well as people suffering from cancer, heart disease and other serious conditions, is still vulnerable. Dutch health authorities said that if the number of Covid patients in hospital wards continues to grow, three quarters of regular care may have to be scrapped by the end of November, and there were similar warnings from Czech authorities. "We have hit a wall on clinical beds," said Wouter van der Horst, spokesman for the Dutch hospital association NVZ. 'We couldn't get to everyone' As hospital admissions have spiralled, much attention has been focused on intensive care units, which came close to being overwhelmed in many areas during the first wave of the crisis. Authorities in Lombardy, the Italian region at the centre of the earlier wave, on Wednesday ordered the reopening of special temporary intensive care units set up in Milan and Bergamo that were shut down as case numbers receded. Already, a number of regional health authorities in Germany, one of the countries that dealt with the first wave most effectively, have agreed to take in intensive care patients from other countries. The ECDC said that some 19 percent of patients diagnosed with Covid-19 are estimated to have ended up in hospital and 8 percent of those could require intensive care, but variations are wide both across Europe and within individual countries. On Wednesday, Poland's health minister said up to 30 percent of new cases there could end up being hospitalised. There has also been concern over the track and trace systems meant to keep local outbreaks of the disease under control but which have proven ineffective in many areas. On Wednesday, authorities in Ireland, where the five-day case average has tripled since the start of October, said there were no longer enough officials to keep the system working. Niamh O'Beirne, national lead for testing and tracing, told RTE radio that contact tracing centres had seen "unprecedented demand" with exponential growth in the number of cases, "and over the week we simply couldn't get to everyone." - Reuters

Pope Francis has said that he thinks same-sex couples should be allowed to have "civil unions". Photo: AP He made the comments, which observers say are his clearest remarks yet on gay relationships, in a documentary directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. "Homosexual people have a right to be in a family," he said in the film, which premiered on Wednesday. "They are children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or made miserable over it. "What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered." He added that he "stood up for that", apparently referring to when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires and, although opposing same-sex marriages in law, he supported some legal protections for the rights of same-sex couples. The film Francesco, about the life and work of Pope Francis, premiered as part of the Rome Film Festival. As well as the Pope's comments on civil unions, the film also shows him encouraging two gay men to attend church with their three children. Under current Catholic doctrine, gay relationships are referred to as "deviant behaviour". In 2003, the Vatican's doctrinal body, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that "respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions". What has he said about homosexuality in the past? The Pope's comments, and actions, are a departure from previous statements he has made on LGBTQ rights. In 2013, in the book On Heaven and Earth, the Pope said that legally equating same-sex relationships to heterosexual marriages would be "an anthropological regression". He also said then that if same-sex couples were allowed to adopt, "there could be affected children... every person needs a male father and a female mother that can help them shape their identity". That same year, he reaffirmed the Church's position that homosexual acts were sin, but said homosexual orientation was not. "If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?," he asked. In 2014 it was reported that Pope Francis had expressed support for civil unions for same-sex partners in an interview, but the Holy See's press office denied this. Then in 2018, Pope Francis said he was "worried" about homosexuality in the clergy, and that it was "a serious matter". - BBC