Rules

That’s what U.S. President barack obama’s security adviser ben rhodes said tuesday (local time) about afghan president hamid karsai’s visit to washington. "We don’t want to leave any options."

Nato plans to end its combat mission in the hindu kush at the end of 2014, but will actually continue to assist the afghan forces with trainers and advisers after that date. A total withdrawal of the americans had a massive impact on planning. With 68,000 soldiers, the u.S. Still provides two-thirds of the soldiers in the isaf international protection force. The german army still has around 4300 soldiers in afghanistan. Experts previously assumed that at least 1,000 german soldiers would remain in the hindu kush after 2014.

Karzai will first meet with secretary of defense hillary clinton and defense secretary leon panetta in washington on thursday; on friday he will be received by obama at the white house. The focus of the conversation was allowed to be a bilateral security agreement, which is to regulate, among other things, how many bases and soldiers the us should keep until 2024. What is disputed is the future status of the international squads. So far, they have enjoyed immunity from afghan prosecution, as is customary in international deployments.

While the two-legged population is still preoccupied with the coronavirus, another viral disease has put an end to domestic pig populations: african swine fever (ASF) has been making its way through eastern europe for many years, and has now also arrived in germany. A wild boar was found dead of ASF in brandenburg; this friday, the friedrich loffler institute confirmed a total of 13 positive wild boars. The disease is not contagious for humans or other animals, but it kills most domestic pigs and wild boar.

Countries that do not yet have ASF are doing everything they can to keep it that way. Sudchorea and china impose import bans on german pork for safety’s sake. With exports, market prices have also collapsed. The association of producer groups (VEZG) set the price per kilogram of slaughter weight down 20 cents. The recommended price per piglet has been reduced by twelve euros to 27 euros – the peak price this year was around 80 euros. "At the moment, it’s a "pay-as-you-go" business, explains pig breeder johannes dorfler from waldau. It was only on friday morning that he received a call from a customer. He has no place for new piglets, because he can not sell his fattening pigs at the moment.

And so the pigs stand in the barns of the farmers, become coarser and heavier, and thus the sale becomes more and more difficult. "No one wants to do it anymore", dorfler explains. He had already heard of a company that slaughters half of its breeding sows. Regarding the drop in prices, he says: "I can’t understand it. Our pig herds are healthy, there is nothing contaminated."

In the conflict over the elimination of thousands of jobs in germany, the metalworkers’ union IG metall is now threatening the siemens group with strikes.

"If the board of management sticks to its plans, we will continue with the means available to us as a union," said supervisory board member and IG metall board member jurgen kerner to the "suddeutsche zeitung" (monday). "Then we would not rule out industrial action, i.E., strikes, as a last resort."New demonstrations are to take place as early as this monday.

The company, on the other hand, is counting on the willingness of employee representatives and works councils to talk to each other. "I hope that the union will move from protest to dialogue and that we can achieve a reconciliation of interests," personnel manager janina kugel told the "tagesspiegel" (saturday). Kerner replied: "we will then negotiate with the siemens management about the closure plans if they are withdrawn. Nothing to discuss beforehand."

Police react to mass brawl: after an operation in flensburg’s city center on monday afternoon, the flensburg police will significantly increase their presence in the coming days. The main aim is to increase the sense of security among the citizens and to prevent crime. The aim is to identify cyclists by means of targeted checks and to bring the runners out of anonymity.

No fixed structures

In the past few weeks, incidents involving young people have been piling up around the ZOB in flensburg. Involving young people of different nationalities. The main cyclists are known to the police. Some have already made several appearances. As a rule, confrontations are sought between the groups. Inconspicuous occasions, enriched by provocations, develop into bodily injury offenses. Bystanders usually do not come to any harm. Fixed structures within the groups are not recognizable.

The cyclists, however, consciously gather around them fellow cyclists who are experience-oriented and are not a priori bent on criminal acts. However, they could be influenced by the known offenders. In addition, numerous onlookers appeared at yesterday’s operation.