Enlarge this imageA damaged car is seen after a storm in Paderborn, Germany, on Friday.Lino Mirgeler/dpa via APhide captiontoggle captionLino Mirgeler/dpa via APA damaged car is seen after a storm in Paderborn, Germany, on Friday.Lino Mirgeler/dpa via APBERLIN A storm that swept acro s parts of Germany generated three tornadoes, the country’s weather service said Saturday. One of them left a trail of destruction and more than 40 people injured in a western city. Meteorologists had warned of heavy rainfall, hail Carlos Baerga Jersey and strong gusts of wind in western and central Germany on Friday, and people in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia were advised to stay home. Storms on Thursday had already disrupted traffic, uprooted trees that toppled onto rail tracks and roads, and flooded hundreds of basements in western Germany. The German Weather Service confirmed three tornadoes in North Rhine-Westphalia in Paderborn, in nearby Lippstadt, and on the edge of Abraham Almonte Jersey the town of Hoexter, news agency dpa reported. Forty-three people were injured in Paderborn as the tornado tore acro s the city’s downtown area on Friday afternoon, 13 of them seriously, Mayor Michael Dreier said. Trees in a park and stop lights “snapped like matches,” roofs were ripped off buildings and windows smashed, he told reporters on Saturday, and the storm left a roughly 300 meter (yard) -wide trail of destruction. A tree hit the windshield of a fire truck, but the occupants weren’t hurt.Police urged people to stay home or stay out of the city on Saturday so as not to get in the way of recovery work. They said they still expected po sible risks Mike Clevinger Jersey from high wind. Further south, authorities in Bavaria said 14 people were injured Friday when the wooden hut they were trying to shelter in collapsed during a storm at Lake Brombach, south of Nuremberg. Extreme weather hits the continent Elsewhere in Europe, Spain was sweltering Saturday under unusually high temperatures for late spring, with a ma s of hot, dry air carrying dust from North Africa. The mercury rose to 42.3 degrees Celsius (108 Fahrenheit) on Friday afternoon in Andujar, in the southern Andalucia region, after reaching 39.5 degrees Thursday. Two of the region’s provincial capitals, Cordoba and Sevilla, also saw similar temperatures. At least 13 regions were on alert Saturday due to heat, Spain’s State Meteorological Agency AEMET said, and the temperatures could provoke storms Danny Salazar Jersey in five of them. The “unusual and extreme” temperatures are expected to peak Saturday.
Enlarge this imageThe Iraqi Taha Al-J. is led into the courtroom at Frankfurt’s Higher Regional Court before the verdict is pronounced in Frankfurt, Germany, on Tuesday.Frank Rumpenhorst/APhide captiontoggle captionFrank Rumpenhorst/APThe Iraqi Taha Al-J. is led into the courtroom at Frankfurt’s Higher Regional Court before the verdict is pronounced in Frankfurt, Germany, on Tuesday.Frank Rumpenhorst/APBERLIN A former member of the Islamic State group was convicted by a German court on Tuesday of genocide and committing a war crime over the death of a 5-year-old Yazidi girl he had purchased as a slave and then chained up in the hot sun to die.The Frankfurt regional court sentenced Taha Al-J., an Iraqi citizen whose full last name wasn’t released because of privacy rules, to life imprisonment and ordered him to Willie McGee Jersey pay the girl’s mother 50,000 euros ($57,000). German news agency dpa quoted the presiding judge, Christoph Koller, saying it was the first genocide conviction worldwide over a person’s role in the systematic persecution by IS of the Yazidi religious minority. Life After ISIS: The Struggle And Survival Of Yazidis With No Options, Displaced Iraqi Yazidis Return To Homes Destroyed In ISIS Fight The defendant’s lawyers had denied the allegations made against their client. His German wife was sentenced last month to 10 years in prison over the girl’s death. The girl’s mother, who survived captivity, testified at both trials and took part as a co-plaintiff.Yazidis and their supporters praise the acknolwedgment of genocide “This is the moment Yazidis have been waiting for,” said lawyer Amal Clooney, who acted as a counsel for the mother. “To finally hear a judge, after seven years, declare that what they suffered was genocide. To watch a man face justice for killing a Yazidi girl because she was Yazidi.” Stan Musial Jersey Zemfira Dlovani, a lawyer and member of Germany’s Central Council of Yazidis, also welcomed the verdict.Editors’ Picks ‘We Will Never Break': In Iraq, A Yazidi Women’s Choir Keeps Ancient Music Alive “We can only hope that it will serve as a milestone for further cases to follow,” she told The A sociated Pre s, noting that thousands of Yazidi women were enslaved and mistreated by the Islamic State group. “This should be the beginning, not the end.” The United Nations has called the IS a sault on the Yazidis’ ancestral homeland in northern Iraq in 2014 a genocide, saying the Yazidis’ 400,000-strong community “had all been displaced, captured or killed.” Of the thousands captured by IS, boys were forced to fight for the extremists, men were executed if they didn’t convert to Islam and often executed in any case and women and girls were sold into slavery.Life After ISIS: The Struggle And Survival Of Yazidis ‘Nothing Left In The World Except These Bones': Yazidis Search For Mothers’ Remains Grim details revealed during the trial According to German prosecutors, Al-J. bought a Yazidi woman and her 5-year-old daughter Reda as slaves at an IS base in Syria Jedd Gyorko Jersey in 2015. The two had been taken as prisoners by the militants from the northern Iraqi town of Kocho at the beginning of August 2014 and had been “sold and resold several times as slaves” by the group already. The defendant took the woman and her daughter to his household in the Iraqi city of Fallujah and forced them to “keep house and to live according to strict Islamic rules,” while giving them insufficient food and beating them regularly to punish them, according to the indictment.Life After ISIS: The Struggle And Survival Of Yazidis A Yazidi Survivor’s Struggle Shows The Pain That Endures After ISIS Attack Prosecutors allege that toward the end of 2015, Al-J. chained the girl to the bars of a window in the open sun on a day where it reached 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) and she died from the punishment. The punishment was allegedly carried out because the 5-year-old had wet the bed.Al-J. was arrested in Greece and extradited to Germany two years ago.German authorities took on the case under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows the country to try particularly serious crimes even if they were committed elsewhere and there is no direct link to Germany.World Why European Countries Are Reluctant To Repatriate Citizens Adolis Garcia Jersey Who Are ISIS FightersNobel Peace Prize Laureate Nadia Murad, who is herself a survivor of atrocities committed by IS, said the verdict was “a win for survivors of genocide, survivors of sexual violence, and the entire Yazidi community.” “Germany is not only is raising awarene s about the need for justice, but is acting on it,” she said in a statement. “Their use of universal jurisdiction in this case can and should be replicated by governments around the world.”
Enlarge this imageDefendant Anwar Raslan (right) and others involved in his trial stand in the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, Germany, at the start of a trial se sion last month. Raslan was put on trial in April 2020 in a landmark case in Germany.Thomas Frey/Pool/AFP via Getty Imageshide captiontoggle captionThomas Frey/Pool/AFP via Getty ImagesDefendant Anwar Raslan (right) and others involved in his trial stand in the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, Germany, at the start of a trial se sion last month. Raslan was put on trial in April 2020 in a landmark case in Germany.Thomas Frey/Pool/AFP via Getty ImagesKOBLENZ, Germany The world’s first criminal trial over torture in Syria Jose Urena Jersey ‘s prisons ended Thursday with a guilty verdict and life sentence for a former Syrian intelligence officer. The ruling came in a German case against Anwar Raslan, who was accused of more than 30 counts of murder, 4,000 counts of torture and charges of sexual a sault from when he oversaw a notorious prison in Damascus in 2011 and 2012. The landmark trial marked the first time a high-ranking former Syrian official has faced Syrians in open court in a war crimes case.World Suspects In Syrian Crimes Against Humanity Trial Will Face Accusers In German Court Raslan, a 58-year-old former colonel, was stoic as the five judges strode into a silent courtroom. The judges remained standing to deliver the verdict and sentence. They then read out the names of Syrian torture survivors who were in the courtroom. Witne ses and the lawyers who worked on their behalf deemed it a rare succe s in prosecuting a war crimes case in which the crimes were committed under a government that remains in power the regime of Syrian President Bashar A sad. “This is the first step in a very long way to achieve justice,” says Wa sim Mukdad, a Syrian torture survivor and co-plaintiff who now lives in Germany. “To experience the verdict against a former colonel in the intelligence forces, it’s history being written in front of our eyes.” World Mounting Syrian War Crime Cases Raise Hopes For Justice Against A Brutal Regime In more than 100 court se sions from April 2020 to this month, five federal judges heard over 100 witne ses, including 50 torture survivors, to examine state-sponsored torture in A sad’s Syria. German authorities arrested Raslan in February 2019, four years after after he defected from the Syrian government and fled to Germany. The courtroom was packed with Syrian lawyers and activists who had worked for this moment for years. The harrowing testimony was noted by the judges. The brutality of Syria’s A sad regime Jeff Locke Jersey was also on trial. German prosecutors launched the criminal case under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which means a country can prosecute alleged crimes against humanity committed elsewhere. The trial is a blueprint for future war crimes prosecutions Mukdad testified in August 2020, a few months after the trial began. He also gave a statement in the trial’s closing days about the atrocities committed in Syria. The verdict sends a me sage of accountability to the Syrian regime, he says, after more than 100,000 people were disappeared and thousands were systematically tortured, accelerating in 2011 after a civil uprising against the regime touched off Syria’s war.World Syrians Have Stared Down Threats To Testify Against A sad’s Regime In A Landmark Trial “We feel that we achieved something. Our pain and our suffering is not in vain,” Mukdad says. Nuran al-Ghamian, one of the few female torture survivors to testify, said she Deven Marrero Jersey collapsed in court after seeing Raslan for the first time since 2012, when she was released from prison in Damascus. “It was hard for me to take,” she recounts about her day in court, but her testimony was a relief, she said. In a closing statement this month, she hailed the German judges for adding sexual violence as a crime against humanity.The trial is a blueprint for future prosecutions, says Patrick Kroker, a senior legal adviser with the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. Kroker represented some of the Syrian torture survivors.World Syrian Filmmaker Speaks Out On Torture: ‘I Was Holding This Pain For A Long Time’ Syrian witne ses’ testimony was key to the case, he says, and the bravery they showed was “very, very inspiring and a very powerful moment.” The torture survivors delivered their remarks to the German judges but aimed them mostly at the defendant, who appeared visibly discomfited, according to those in the courtroom. Raslan said that torture took place in Syria but denied personally taking part in it. The A sad regime has consistently denied there is torture in Syrian prisons, despite evidence to the contrary. Some Syrian exiles have criticized the trial Despite Thursday’s verdict, not everyone in Germany’s 800,000-strong Syrian community was happy with the trial. Raslan was too low-level, some complained and serving officials of the A sad regime remain free. The trial, held far from where most of the Syrian community lives in Berlin, was largely inacce sible to the community. The court provided no transcript of proceedings. Judges rejected a petition to allow audio recordings of the trial and had to be forced by another court following a lawsuit by Arabic-speaking journalists and human rights organizations to provide Arabic translations of the German proceedings. There was no witne s protection, even as the A sad regime was threatening the families of witne ses back home.In a closing statement, attorney Anna Oehmichen, who represented four Syrian plaintiffs, praised the judges for their objectivity. But she also criticized the court for a “failure to inform those actually affected,” referring to the Syrian exile community in Germany as well as those who remain in Syria. Oehmichen warned that ”an information vacuum creates ideal conditions for misunderstandings” that could undermine the Syrian exile community’s trust in the German legal system. “It plays right into the hands of those who should actually be brought to justice,” she said, referring to Syrian regime officials who can twist their own version of the trial’s outcome. The German decision to hold the trial came at a time when international tribunals have been politically blocked in the United Nations by China and Ru sia, allies of the Damascus regime. Germany was the first to bring charges in a national court. There are now cases pending against Syrian officials and loyalists acro s Europe. Ideally, this case should have been tried in Syria, says ECCHR general secretary Sergio Romo Jersey Wolfgang Kaleck, but that was impo sible. “Those who criticized the Koblenz trial, fair enough,” says Kaleck. “The decision [to hold a trial in Germany] was nothing or this. And, you know, it was a promising start with more to come.”Correction Jan. 13, 2022 An earlier version of this story mi spelled Nuran al-Ghamian’s name as Nuran al-Ghamain.
Enlarge this imageAfghan evacuees sit on a bus at the U.S. air base in Ramstein, Germany, on Aug. 26. Ramstein Air Base, the largest U.S. Air Force base in Europe, has hosted thousands of Afghans.Armando Babani/AFP via Getty Imageshide captiontoggle captionArmando Babani/AFP via Getty ImagesAfghan evacuees sit on a bus at the U.S. air base in Ramstein, Germany, on Aug. 26. Ramstein Air Base, the largest U.S. Air Force base in Europe, has hosted thousands of Afghans.Armando Babani/AFP via Getty ImagesThe Dulles Expo Center outside Washington, D.C., is usually reserved for home and garden or gun shows. Now the cavernous center hosts thousands of Afghan refugees. It’s wall to wall with cots and now includes a medical center and cafeteria serving halal food for the steady stream of people.There are stacks of pillows and blankets, and soldiers and government workers walk through the crowd of men and women in traditional garb. In the days since the U.S. military left Afghanistan in what ended up being a hasty and chaotic exit to a 20-year war, thousands of Afghans have been airlifted to proce sing centers in the United States. NPR got an exclusive look inside the largest one, near Dulles International Airport in Virginia. This welcoming center Mariano Rivera Jersey is the first step of a long journey of starting their lives in the U.S. “There are hundreds of State Department, DOD, USAID and TSA in this building at any one time,” says Tre sa Rae Finerty, deputy executive secretary at the State Department, who runs the ma sive effort. “They’re running three shifts a day 24/7. So we’re really running a small village here.” At the Dulles Expo Center in Virginia, a special corner is reserved just for kids, where they can play, color and draw with crayons and pads, supervised by aid workers from the humanitarian organization Save the Children.Monika Evstatieva/NPRhide captiontoggle captionMonika Evstatieva/NPRFinerty calls a wall plastered with crayon drawings her favorite spot. A huge cardboard box has been flattened and laid out to serve as a drawing board.”My favorite use of recycled boxes,” Finerty says. “Probably the best I’ve ever seen.” After landing at Dulles International Airport, the refugees are given a coronavirus test. If they test negative, they are bused to the center. They stream into the building and head toward a line of tables for proce sing. Everyone is given a wristband based on their medical condition or immigration status. The flow of people is constant. “We had approximately 29,000 Afghans come through the Dulles space and move on to their forward bases,” says Finerty, referring to the eight U.S. military bases where they will go for further proce sing. “There are still more than 30,000 still to come.” Refugees board buses that will take them to a proce Greg Bird Jersey sing center after they arrive at Dulles International Airport after being evacuated from Kabul following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan August 27, 2021 in Dulles, Virginia.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Imageshide captiontoggle captionChip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesSome have worked for the U.S. military or its NATO partners and were granted a special immigrant visa and a path to citizenship like 52-year-old Fauzia from Kabul. All last names are being withheld for security reasons. Fauzia had a career in telecommunications, and her husband and sons worked for years with the U.S. military.An Afghan family shares a meal at the Dulles Expo Center in Virginia, where thousands of Afghan refugees arrive daily for proce sing and rest before they are sent to U.S. bases around the country.Tom Bowman/NPRhide captiontoggle captionTom Bowman/NPR”My two sons and my husband, they served America for 22 years, they help them,” Fauzia says. “Now I want a better, more peaceful life here for my kids and for myself.” Other Afghans at the center might have a long wait and an unknown future, arriving in the U.S. on humanitarian grounds. There are young adults separated from their parents with no paperwork. Others have just scraps of paper. They can apply for asylum or wait until Congre s offers a special legal status as it did for those fleeing the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Despite the unknowns, some of the young Afghans are hopeful.Hamidullah left a good life in Kabul, but his dad worked for the Americans and it was no longer safe. The 22-year-old says he hopes he can continue his education in electrical engineering, but if Afghanistan gets better, he wants to return. Leaving home After leaving Afghanistan DJ LeMahieu Jersey , refugees traveled through the Middle East before arriving at one of several U.S. bases in Europe. That’s where the top U.S. officer, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, visited in recent days, stopping in Germany, Italy and Spain and watching as Afghans were screened before heading to the U.S. Enlarge this imageAfghan evacuees line up at the U.S. air base in Ramstein, Germany, on Aug. 26. After leaving Afghanistan, refugees traveled through the Middle East before arriving at one of several U.S. bases in Europe.Armando Babani/AFP via Getty Imageshide captiontoggle captionArmando Babani/AFP via Getty ImagesAfghan evacuees line up at the U.S. air base in Ramstein, Germany, on Aug. 26. After leaving Afghanistan, refugees traveled through the Middle East before arriving at one of several U.S. bases in Europe.Armando Babani/AFP via Getty ImagesU.S. officials say of the thousands who went through Ramstein Air Base in Germany, only a small number are being detained and sent to a U.S. base in Kosovo because they were flagged as po sibly having ties to terrorist groups.”How many real, actual suspected members of some sort of terrorist or criminal group, those numbers have been really low so far,” says Milley. “And I have confidence in the FBI, I have confidence in the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) system.” Milley spent years commanding troops in Afghanistan. He acknowledges that the war didn’t turn out as many of them hoped. “One is a feeling of disappointment of the outcome,” he says. “Painful questions of was it all worth it? What it was all about. And the other side. The idea that we just liberated 124,000 people and are giving them an opportunity to be free.” Milley Don Mattingly Jersey walks through the line of cots at Ramstein, stopping to talk with refugees to ask about the food and medical services and to ask where they are from and what jobs they had back in Afghanistan. Gen. Mark Milley visited U.S. air bases in Germany, Italy and Spain over the weekend, where Afghans were screened before heading to the United States. Milley talked with refugees, asking about the food and medical services and their lives back in Afghanistan.Tom Bowman/NPRhide captiontoggle captionTom Bowman/NPRAnd he walks up to a picnic table where a cluster of young girls are putting together a puzzle. One of them is 21-year-old Mahiri, from Kabul. She recalls how she fled the city and got into the airport. “So much rush,” Mahiri says. “There were so many people. So many gunfires and these things. But we tried our best, me and my two friends. We tried our best to enter the airport. But our family, they could not make it.” She and dozens of other children and young adults left their parents behind. She has spoken with her mother and father, she says, but wonders how they will reconnect. And where. That will be a challenge for the U.S. government, and it’s one that nobody seems to be able to answer. In the sea of green cots at the Dulles Expo Center, a small, shy girl approaches us. She’s wearing a pink sweater with gold stars. Her hair is in a neat bun held together by a baby blue scrunchie. She says her name is Mones. She’s 10 years old and her parents were able to get out with her. Mones came from Mazar-e-Sharif, a large city close to the Uzbekistan border. She tells us she likes it here. She draws butterflies and says those are her favorites. When we ask her what she wants to tell us most, she has a clear me sage. She wishes the Taliban will go away. “So our country will be in peace forever,” she says.Fauzia Tamanna contributed to this report.