MADRID (REUTERS) - Schools in Madrid were shut, some supermarkets ran out of fresh produce and few cars except emergency service vehicles were on the city streets on Monday (Jan 11) after a huge snow storm hit the Spanish capital and several regions over the weekend. Most flights and trains, including the high-speed link to Barcelona, have resumed operations, however. While many people enjoyed the rare snowfall by skiing in the centre of Madrid and holding mass snowball fights, a further cold spell was set to turn the snow into ice this week and authorities rushed to clear more streets. They said, though, that it could take one or two weeks to complete, and on Monday snow ploughs only managed to clear a single lane on some avenues because of fallen trees blocking their path. Residents of Madrid, which saw its heaviest snowfall in at least 50 years, helped police open paths through deep banks of snow using plywood boards or trays, and poured salt on the underlying ice. With blocks of melting snow occasionally falling from rooftops, police have cordoned off some pavements, and residents took to walking in the middle of the road.
SARAJEVO (AFP) - Two police officers and a UN migration agency official were injured on Wednesday night (Jan 20) in clashes at a camp for thousands of migrants near the Bosnian capital, police said. Several police vehicles were flipped on their backs during the scuffles at the overstretched 'Blazuj' centre outside Sarajevo, where more than 3,000 EU-bound migrants are currently housed. Police said they stepped in to break up a fight between two groups of migrants. "During the intervention, migrants attacked police officers and damaged several police and International Organisation for Migration (IOM) cars, as well as IOM offices," police spokesperson Mirza Hadziabdic told AFP. He confirmed that two police officers and an employee with IOM, the United Nations' migration agency, were injured. The IOM issued a statement explaining that "a skirmish between two migrants quickly escalated into a bigger fight". Since 2018, Bosnia has struggled to manage a large influx of migrants, mainly from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, who have been crossing the Balkan state's territory in hopes of reaching Western Europe. The poor country is currently at loggerheads with the EU, which is pressuring Bosnia to
Since last May, numerous Pennsylvanians have wanted Dr. Rachel Levine removed as health secretary for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. At the height of the COVID surge last spring, a number of politicians and pundits throughout the state called for Levine’s resignation because of the health secretary’s disastrous decision to move COVID-infected patients into Pennsylvania nursing homes, where the death rate exploded to levels worse than even in the state of New York. But Levine did not go. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, a cultural radical, refused to let Levine go. Instead, liberals rallied to Levine as nothing short of a transgendered hero being victimized by the brute sin of “relentless misgendering.” They sought to make Levine a martyr. Levine’s critics protested that their objections had nothing to do with “misgendering” Levine but rather with Levine misdirecting COVID patients into nursing facilities. Their objections fell on deaf ears — or at least Wolf’s deaf ears. Levine stayed. But alas, coming to the rescue of Pennsylvanians is an unlikely ally: President-elect Joe Biden. The day before his inauguration, Biden heralded a new era for “transgender” rights when he tapped Rachel Levine to be his incoming assistant health secretary. So Pennsylvanians’ demands that Levine
