Thirty-five people, including 18 children, remained in the hospital Tuesday, the day after a man drove his car into a crowd celebrating Carnival in central Germany. Police continued to look for a motive for his action, which they believe was deliberate.
    
North Hesse state police said in addition to those people kept overnight in the hospital, a further 17 were treated and could go home after the Monday afternoon crash in the town of Volkmarsen.
    
The driver, a 29-year-old man from the area, was also injured in the incident and is himself hospitalized with serious head injuries, Germany’s Bild newspaper reported.
    
Because of his condition, he has not yet been able to be questioned, Bild reported, citing Frankfurt prosecutors.
    
“The motive of the perpetrator is still not clear,” North Hesse police said on Twitter.
“The investigation is continuing.”
    
The crash in Volkmarsen, a town of about 7,000 near Kassel, about 280 kilometers (175 miles) southwest of Berlin, came at the height of Germany’s celebration of Carnival, with the biggest parades in Cologne, Duesseldorf and Mainz.
    
All other Carnival parades in the central state of Hesse were ended Monday as a precaution.
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The field of candidates hoping to take over leadership of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party narrowed Tuesday, as one top contender announced that he was bowing out of the race to support another in his bid.Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters that it is a pivotal time for Germany and the Christian Democratic Party amid broad global challenges like climate change and migration, and that he hoped his decision to back North Rhine-Westphalia governor Armin Laschet would lead to a quick decision and a clear course.”It is about the future of the country and the future of our party,” he said.The leader of the CDU will be chosen at a special party convention in Berlin on April 25, and would be the presumptive candidate to run for chancellor for Merkel’s conservative bloc in 2021 since Merkel has said she will not run again.Spahn said Laschet’s track record as governor of Germany’s most populous state had convinced him that he was the right choice. Spahn would serve as deputy CDU leader if Laschet is elected.”Armin Laschet has demonstrated, and demonstrates every day in North Rhine-Westphalia, his liberal, social and conservative leadership,” Spahn said.Laschet said despite Germany’s low unemployment rate and current prosperity, there is growing concern over rising rents, climate change, migration, digitalization and other issues, and a rise in “hate and anger” against many groups, including increasing anti-Semitism.”We cannot allow that,” he said.He pledged to work to bridge gaps between older and younger Germans, between people in the former East Germany and West Germany, to push ahead with Germany’s energy plan to end the use of nuclear and coal power in favor of renewable energies, and to work on a European level with other nations so as to be an anchor of stability for Europe.”We need more Europe,” he said.The decision to work together suggests Laschet and Spahn learned a lesson from the internal competition that saw outgoing party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer narrowly elected to succeed Merkel as party leader in 2018. Since then the CDU has had a string of poor showings in state elections and Kramp-Karrenbauer has struggled to establish her authority over the party, leading to her decision earlier this month to step down.Former environment minister Norbert Roettgen, announced last week that he would seek the CDU leadership.The third main contender to replace Kramp-Karrenbauer, former parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz, was expected to announce his candidacy later Tuesday. Merz, who has been in the private sector in recent years, is widely thought to have the support of the conservative side of the CDU.
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The death toll in Italy from the coronavirus outbreak stands at seven with more than 200 cases confirmed. At least 10 towns in the north are in lockdown mode and the army is ensuring no one enters of leaves them during a quarantine period.Italian authorities are working around the clock putting in place unprecedented measures in an effort to curb the surge in coronavirus cases. In at least six regions in Italy’s industrial north, schools and universities are closed. People have been told to stay away from their offices and remain indoors as much as possible.Theaters and museums have also been closed as have bars and discos. Venice carnival events have been cut short for the first time ever.Tourists are wearing protective masks against coronavirus in Venice, Italy, Feb. 23, 2020. (S. Castelfranco/VOA)Authorities have banned all demonstrations and public gatherings, including sporting events and church services as Italy deals with the biggest outbreak in Europe. The head of Italy’s civil defense department, Andrea Borrelli, said authorities were surprised by how fast the virus has spread. He said a plan is in place to house people who have contracted the virus and for those in quarantine.
Borrelli says thousands of beds are available throughout the national territory and that army barracks and hotels have been made available. He also says extra food and medical supplies will be taken to the towns in lockdown in northern Italy.Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte says residents in affected towns could face weeks in lockdown.In Milan over the weekend, many residents raided supermarkets, leaving empty shelves, fearing they would not be able to go to the shops. The Lombardy region is Italy’s hardest hit region and streets are deserted. Many people have been told to stay home and work from there. Those who venture out have been wearing surgical masks. One vendor outside a Milan railway station said he was selling the masks for $11 each.University students in affected areas were unable to sit for their exams.
This student says she had three exams this week and all of them have been canceled. The student says she does not know when she will be able to take them.According to the student, the Milan mayor said for the moment, colleges will be closed for a week but that this closure could be extended to a fortnight or more.Italians have been told to avoid traveling to affected areas. At the airports, passengers are being checked for symptoms of the virus with heat sensors. Some regional train lines have canceled service, but fast trains between the major cities are still operating normally.
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Turkish forces have suffered more casualties in the latest round of fighting in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province. But despite Russia backing Syrian government forces in the ongoing attacks on Turkish forces, Ankara has refrained from confronting Moscow — a sign, analysts suggest, of the considerable economic leverage Russia retains over Turkey.Officials say a Turkish convoy in Idlib was hit Monday in an airstrike that caused several injuries. During the weekend, a Turkish soldier was killed in another attack, bringing the number of deaths to at least 18 since Turkey sent significant reinforcements to counter a Damascus government offensive against Syria’s last rebel enclave.  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Istanbul, Jan. 8, 2020.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, facing growing domestic pressure over the number of casualties in Syria, spoke Friday with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Erdogan described the talks as productive, but analysts say the latest casualties indicate little was achieved in ensuring the safety of Turkish forces.”Putin just doesn’t keep his promises, but we [Turkey] seem to be beholden to him,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of New York-based Global Source Partners.Moscow robustly defends the Damascus government offensive against rebels and accuses Ankara of failing to fulfill a commitment to disarm radical groups in Idlib.  Despite Moscow’s defense of Damascus’ increasing number of deadly attacks on Turkish forces, analysts believe Erdogan is avoiding a confrontation with Putin, maintaining that Turkish-Russian relations remain intact.  Experts say Erdogan is well aware of the significant economic clout Moscow possesses.”Russians do have a lot of leverage over Turkey,” said international relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.  “Tomatoes may no longer cross the border,” he added, “along with other fruits and vegetables. Russian charter flights out to Antalya [a Turkish Mediterranean resort] may become rarer or may stop.”Russia is a significant market for Turkish produce, along with Russian tourists being among the most numerous for Turkey’s large tourism industry.  Following Turkey’s 2015 downing of a Russian bomber operating in Syria, Moscow banned Turkish tomato imports and dramatically curtailed Russian tourists as part of significant economic sanctions, eventually forcing Erdogan into apologizing to Putin.  Five thousand tons of Turkish tomatoes are stranded on the Russian border. Officially the Russians cite regulation anomalies, but Ankara sees the delays as Moscow again flexing its economic muscle. Earlier this month, a Turkish ship carrying tomatoes was sent back from Russia.  People walk in central Istanbul’s Istiklal Avenue, the main shopping road of Istanbul, Aug. 22, 2018.Last year’s record numbers of Russian tourists helped to contribute to a historically high number of visitors to Turkey, surging to 45 million in 2019 from 39 million in the previous year.Tourism is a labor-intensive industry, as well as a critical source of foreign currency, vital, analysts say, to support a lira that increasingly is under pressure.The Turkish economy is still struggling to recover from a currency crash of 2018, with sluggish growth and youth unemployment running at around 25%. Analysts suggest Erdogan will be reluctant to risk a new economic war with Moscow.Energy, however, is where Moscow can especially inflict pain on Ankara.”Turkey is engaged in the construction of a Russian nuclear power station due to come on stream in 2023,” said Mehmet Ogutcu, chairman of the London Energy Club. “Turkey is already buying through Russia’s Blue Stream [pipeline] almost 16 bcm [billion cubic meters] of gas. There are two other projects from Russia.  “Turkey wants to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, which is running at 52% because we have experienced Turkey shooting down a Russian plane; this was a cold shower. What if Russia cuts off supply during winter?” asked Ogutcu.  Ankara is taking steps to reduce its dependence on Russia’s energy by seeking alternative gas supplies. Turkey is increasing its capacity to receive and store liquid natural gas. Last year saw record amounts of LNG imported by Turkey, much of it from the United States.  Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center, attends the opening ceremony of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline, a key pipeline that will carry natural gas from Azerbaijan’s gas fields to Turkish markets.Rising Russian-Turkish tensions are putting the spotlight on the number and nature of energy deals Ankara agreed to with Moscow. With Turkey paying among the highest gas prices in the world, criticism is growing that the deals greatly favor Russia. At the same time, Ankara has committed to buying gas it doesn’t need.”We don’t need that gas; look at Turkish gas consumption. It’s been declining for three years,” said Yesilada. “We just agreed to get 4 billion new cubic meters per annum plus 6 billion from Tanap [a pipeline from Azerbaijan]. We are suddenly stuck with 10 billion cubic meters of gas at the same time our gas power stations are all going bankrupt due to lack of demand and high gas prices.”In the next two years, several long-term Russian gas contracts are due for renewal. Their renewal is seen as an opportunity for Ankara to rebalance its relationship with Moscow.”I think the Turks are quite aware of the fact that they depend heavily on Russian gas and that it has to be at a manageable level,” said Ogutcu.”There is an asymmetric relationship between Russia and Turkey, that Turkey does whatever Russia wants. But there needs to be a change, a rebalancing of the relationship. The renewing of the contracts will be one step,” he added.
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Germany’s center-right CDU said Monday it would choose a new leader at a special congress on April 25, as the crisis-racked party hopes to halt a slide in the polls and end speculation about who could succeed veteran Chancellor Angela Merkel.Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union has been in turmoil after her heir apparent, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, resigned as party leader this month over her supposed failure to stop regional MPs from cooperating with the far right.Speaking after talks with party grandees in Berlin, Kramp-Karrenbauer said they had agreed to hold an extraordinary congress to elect the next leader of the CDU, a party that has dominated politics in Germany for 70 years.The winner is then also expected to be the CDU’s candidate for the chancellery in a general election set for 2021, when Merkel plans to bow out after 14 years at the helm of Europe’s top economy.Kramp-Karrenbauer, widely known as “AKK,” told reporters the leadership vote would send “a very clear signal,” adding: “It answers the question of who will be the CDU’s candidate for the chancellery.”For the first time, AKK also named the four party members expected to throw their hat in the ring, confirming widespread media speculation.They include Merkel’s longtime rival Friedrich Merz, popular with the CDU’s more conservative factions, and the centrist state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia Armin Laschet.Monday’s top-level talks in Berlin came a day after the CDU suffered its second-worst result ever in a regional election, coming third in Hamburg with just 11.5 percent of the vote.The party is also engulfed in an internal debate as to how it should position itself against the extremes of right and left that have reshaped Germany’s political landscape.Far-right crisisAfter barely a year as head of the party, AKK announced her resignation on February 10 after regional lawmakers in the eastern state of Thuringia voted with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), defying an edict from Berlin not to ally with the extremes.It was another sign that the defense minister had failed to stamp her authority on the CDU and become a credible candidate to succeed Merkel, who according to polls is still Germany’s most popular politician.But AKK’s downfall also laid bare the challenge for her potential successor: how to make their mark while Merkel remains chancellor.”The CDU is a party in the stranglehold of a lame-duck leader,” the Bild newspaper wrote.The next chancellor candidate “must first of all pull the CDU back from the abyss, otherwise they can forget about winning the next election,” it added.In the starting blocks are two politicians who promise to break with Merkel’s centrist course and lead the CDU rightwards, in a bid to win back voters from AfD.While the pro-business Merz recently described her fourth government as “abysmal,” young Health Minister Jens Spahn is a rising party star.Facing them are two centrist candidates: Merkel loyalist Laschet who wants Germany to take a leading role in closer EU integration and Norbert Roettgen, a former environment minister dismissed by Merkel in 2012.’Self-destruction’
The choice of leader will set the tone for the future of the party as polls highlight the urgent need for action, with only 27 percent saying they would back the CDU, ahead of 23 percent for the Greens and 14 percent for the far right.Beyond the high-profile personalities, the conservatives also need to clarify what they stand for in an increasingly splintered political landscape that hinders stable majorities, be it in Berlin or the 16 state parliaments.Top of the list is whether the CDU will stick to its rigid policy of refusing to cooperate with either the far right or the far left, an increasingly difficult position to maintain.Thuringia is a textbook case, as last year’s regional elections produced no clear governing majority following a surge by the AfD.CDU state lawmakers voted with the far right, breaching a historic political taboo, to install a liberal state premier.But after a nationwide outcry, the regional CDU retreated — only to be publicly rebuked by Berlin chiefs for its plan to “tolerate” a minority government led by radical-left successors of the one-party state in communist East Germany.Der Spiegel magazine labeled the CDU’s zig-zagging as “self-destruction” by “a party without direction or a strategic center.”
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The U.S. government began outlining its extradition case against Julian Assange in a London court on Monday, arguing that the WikiLeaks founder is not a free-speech champion but an “ordinary” criminal who put many lives at risk with his secret-spilling.
U.S. authorities want to try Assange on espionage charges that carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison over the 2010 publication of hundreds of thousands of secret military documents and diplomatic cables. Assange argues he was acting as a journalist entitled to First Amendment protection.
Lawyer James Lewis, representing the U.S. government, called WikiLeaks’ 2010 document deluge “one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States.”
“Reporting or journalism is not an excuse for criminal activities or a license to break ordinary criminal laws,” he said.
Dozens of Assange supporters protested outside the high-security courthouse,chanting and setting off a horn as District Judge Vanessa Baraitser began hearing the case. Just before the lunch break, Assange complained that he was having difficulty concentrating and called the noise from outside “not helpful.”
Assange, 48, watched proceedings from the dock in the courtroom at Woolwich Crown Court — brought there from Belmarsh Prison next door, where he has been imprisoned for 10 months. He spoke to confirm his name and date ofbirth. He nodded towards reporters before taking his seat.
The extradition hearing follows years of subterfuge, diplomatic dispute and legal drama that have led the Australian computer expert from fame as an international secret-spiller through self-imposed exile inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to incarceration in a maximum-security British prison.
Assange has been indicted in the U.S. on 18 charges over the publication of classified documents. Prosecutors say he conspired with U.S. army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to crack a password and hack into a Pentagon computer and release secret diplomatic cables and military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange says the leaked documents exposed U.S. military wrongdoing. Among the files published by WikiLeaks was video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.
But Lewis said Assange was guilty of “straightforward” criminal activity in trying to hack the computer. And he said WikiLeaks’ activities created a “grave and imminent risk” to U.S. intelligence sources in war zones, who were named in the documents.
 “What Mr. Assange seeks to defend by free speech is not the publication of the classified materials, but he seeks to defend the publication of sources — the names of people who put themselves at risk to assist the U.S. and its allies,“ the lawyer said.
Lewis said some informants who had been assisting the Americans had to be relocated after the leak, and others “subsequently disappeared.”
He said it wasn’t the role of the British court to determine whether Assange was guilty.
“This is an extradition hearing, not a trial,” he said. “The guilt or innocence of Mr. Assange will be determined at trial in the United States, not in this court.”
Journalism organizations and civil liberties groups including Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders say the charges against Assange set a chilling precedent for freedom of the press.
Among the supporters outside court was fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, who wore a headband with the word “angel” on it and said she was “the angel of democracy.”
 “It is not a crime to publish American war crimes,” she said. “It’s in the public interest, it is democracy, that he is allowed to do this.”
Assange’s legal saga began in 2010, when he was arrested in London at the request of Sweden, which wanted to question him about allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women. He refused to go to Stockholm, saying he feared extradition or illegal rendition to the United States or the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In 2012, Assange sought refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he was beyond the reach of U.K. and Swedish authorities.
For seven years Assange led an isolated and increasingly surreal existence in the tiny embassy, which occupies an apartment in an upscale block near the ritzy Harrod’s department store. The relationship between Assange and his hosts eventually soured, and he was evicted in April 2019. British police immediately arrested him for jumping bail in 2012.
Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November because so much time had elapsed, but Assange remains in London’s Belmarsh Prison as he awaits a decision on the U.S. extradition request.
For his supporters around the world, Assange remains a hero. But many others are critical of the way WikiLeaks has published classified documents without redacting details that could endanger individuals. WikiLeaks has also been accused of serving as a conduit for Russian misinformation, and Assange has alienated some supporters by dallying with populist politicians including Brexit-promoter Nigel Farage.
An end to the saga could still be years away. After a week of opening arguments, the extradition case is due to break until May, when the two sides will lay out their evidence. The judge isn’t expected to rule until several months after that, with the losing side likely to appeal.
If the courts approve extradition, the British government will have the final say.
The case comes at delicate time for trans-Atlantic relations. The U.K. has left the European Union and is keen to strike a trade deal with the U.S.  
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More often than not they have been bitter geopolitical foes rather than friends. The fledgling — and now increasingly fragile — alliance that Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have been building, irking in the process Ankara’s NATO allies, has been rubbing against the grain of the history, say analysts.If the two countries end up fighting each other over the fate of northern Syria, it would in fact be a return to their traditional historical enmity — one which has seen them wage war against each other in every century since the 16th. The first erupted in 1569 when the Ottoman army besieged the Volga delta town of Astrakhan, but was forced to retreat by the Russia’s Ivan the Terrible.In all but one of a subsequent series of wars, which were fought over access to the Black Sea, the ownership of the steppe lands of Ukraine and control of the Balkans, has Turkey come off worse, losing territory and influence as a consequence. The clashes in the 19th century shrunk the Ottoman Empire, dubbed the “sick man of Europe,” hastening its collapse, say historians.History says odds against TurkeyOnly in the Crimean War of 1854 to 1856 did the Turks triumph — and that was in large part thanks to the support they received from France and a reluctant Britain. “I despise the Turks for I consider their government the most evil and most oppressive in all the World,” George Hamilton-Gordon, the 4th earl of Aberdeen, and Britain’s prime minister, told friends during the war.Russian Czars, including Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, eagerly took advantage of Ottoman decline to encourage Balkan and Slav nationalism and to expand Russian territory in Central Europe and the Caucuses. In the war of 1768–1774, another conflict that saw Russian arms largely victorious against the Ottomans, Moscow grabbed part of Moldavia and Crimea as well as the Pontic–Caspian steppe, a vast swathe of land stretching from the northern shores of the Black Sea as far east as the Caspian Sea.And Russia emerged from the war as one of Europe’s primary military powers.FILE – This image released by the Syrian Presidency shows Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, in Damascus, Syria, Jan. 7, 2020.But if the history of defeats should make Ankara highly wary in its standoff in northwestern Syria with the nuclear-armed Moscow and its client Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Western powers should also worry about what the possible wider and longer-term ramifications could be of a 21st-century Russo-Turkish military clash.The Crimean War, made infamous by the hubristic Charge of the Light Brigade and other dreadful military blunders and blessed by the nursing of Florence Nightingale, “set in train the succession of European wars and power-struggles which dominated the second half of the nineteenth century,” writes the British military historian Trevor Royle in his book “Crimea.”Those conflicts “paved the way for the greater conflagration of 1914,” the first of the 20th century’s shattering worldwide conflicts, he adds. As with the Crimean War, so, too, one now between Moscow and Ankara would likely threaten the stability of Europe. Analysts say a war between Russia and Turkey could place NATO in a difficult and possibly terminal dilemma.The Article Five dilemmaAnkara, they say, would likely invoke the principle of collective defense enshrined in Article Five of NATO’s founding treaty. The article says the alliance sees an attack on one member as an attack on all and is the very bedrock of the alliance and reason for the alliance’s existence.FILE – A man stands outside NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Jan. 6, 2020.Doubts have already been cast in recent years by NATO members about their commitment to Article Five, leaving a cloud of ambiguity hanging over the principle of the bloc’s collective defense pledge. U.S. President Donald Trump has at times questioned whether he would be prepared to respond to an Article Five appeal, notably at a NATO summit in 2017 during which he refrained from explicitly endorsing the principle of mutual aid.FILE – President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 13, 2019, in Washington.Two weeks later, Mr. Trump reversed course, saying in impromptu remarks that the U.S. would indeed come to the defense of a NATO ally. But in an interview with Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson in 2018 the U.S. leader equivocated again on whether Washington would come to a NATO ally’s defense, if attacked, citing as an example the Balkan country of Montenegro, which has recently joined the military alliance, and worrying aloud that Montenegro might unleash a third world war.Not just TrumpBut President Trump isn’t the only Western leader to question Article Five, which has only been invoked once, in 2001 after the September 11 terror attacks. In November, France’s Emmanuel Macron sounded less than enthusiastic about the collective-defense pledge. When asked in an interview with Britain’s The Economist magazine whether he believed in the effectiveness of Article Five, he replied: “I don’t know,” adding, but what will Article Five mean tomorrow?”In a poll conducted this month by the Pew Research Center, many in alliance member countries expressed reservations about fulfilling collective-defense obligations. The Center reported that despite NATO’s largely favorable ratings among member states, there is widespread skepticism about Article Five. When asked if their country should defend a fellow NATO ally against a potential Russian attack, a median of 50% across 16 NATO member states say their country should not, compared with 38% who said their country should abide by Article Five.FILE – In this June 14, 2015 photo taken from the Turkish side of the border between Turkey and Syria, in Akcakale, Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey, thousands of Syrian refugees walk in order to cross into Turkey.Ankara would likely threaten to open the refugee floodgates once again, if NATO failed to leap to Turkey’s defense, say analysts, risking further intolerable strain on EU solidarity. But there is little enthusiasm for Erdoğan among Europe’s leaders, who have chafed at Turkey’s slide towards authoritarian rule and bristled at the Turkish leader’s playing habit of playing Europe off against Russia and vice versa in his efforts to get what he wants.The rising tensions between Moscow and Ankara is not a surprise to Jonathan Schanzer, analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank. Last month, in an interview with VOA, he predicted that the Russian-Turkish relationship is weighted with geopolitical conflicts that risked undermining it.“The Turks have been gravitating to the Russians, even as their vision of Syria directly conflicts with that of Putin,” he said. He forewarned that the fledgling partnership risked collapse because of the grandness of the geopolitical ambitions of the two key players, Putin and Erdoğan, with one wanting to revive Russia as a superpower, and the other envisaging restoration of Ottoman greatness.
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Authorities in northern Italy have banned tourism and ordered closures of many public places in Lombardy and Veneto provinces to stop the spread of coronavirus which has killed three people and infected at least 152 people in the country. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Italy now has the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Europe. 
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