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QUITO — The heaviest flooding to hit Ecuador in two decades has killed at least 22 people in Quito, inundating homes, swamping cars and sweeping away athletes and spectators on a sports field, officials said on Tuesday.

Twenty people are missing and 47 injured, Ecuador’s SNGRE emergency service said on Twitter.

Video footage showed torrents of water carrying stones, mud and debris down streets in the Ecuadoran capital, as rescuers helped inhabitants wade through the fast-running currents to safety.

Many in the city of 2.7 million people were taken to shelters.

Rain that drenched Quito for 17 straight hours caused a deluge that damaged roads, agricultural areas, clinics, schools, a police station and an electric power substation.

Quito Mayor Santiago Guarderas said a downpour had overwhelmed a hillside water catchment structure that had a capacity of 4,500 cubic metres but was inundated with more than four times that volume.

The resultant failure sent a kilometre-long deluge through a sports field where volleyball players were practicing with spectators on the sidelines.

“People who were playing couldn’t get away. It grabbed them suddenly,” witness Freddy Barrios Gonzalez told AFP.

“Those who managed to run were saved [but] a family got buried” under a river of mud, added Gonzalez, his own clothes still muddy from the ordeal.

“There they died.”

It was not immediately known how many of the players or spectators were among the total number of dead and injured.

Soldiers with rescue dogs were scouring the area around the field for survivors.

Quito police chief Cesar Zapata did not rule out finding more bodies under thousands of cubic metres of mud and debris left behind by the flood.

‘Rivers of mud’ 

Rescuer Cristian Rivera said many people in Quito had to be treated for hypothermia.

The municipality has mobilised heavy machinery to clear roads and fix the failed water catchment system.

Resident Mauro Pinas said he heard “an explosion” when the structure burst, after which “rivers of mud” descended on the city — mainly in the northwest.

Power was lost in some parts after electrical poles were brought down.

Dozens of soldiers were deployed to assist in search and rescue efforts of the police and fire brigades.

The flooding began on the slopes of the Pichincha volcano, which overlooks the nation’s capital.

Guarderas said Monday’s rainfall brought down 75 litres per square metre following 3.5 litres on Saturday.

This is “a record figure, which we have not had since 2003”, he added.

President Guillermo Lasso, who travelled to China on Monday, offered his condolences on Twitter to those affected.

“We continue to work in search and rescue, containment actions, psychological care and the transfer of injured people to hospital,” he said.

Heavy rains have hit 22 of Ecuador’s 24 provinces since October, leaving at least 18 dead and 24 injured as of Sunday, according to the National Risk Management Service.

Scientists say climate change is intensifying the risk of heavy rain around the world because a warmer atmosphere holds more water.

COPENHAGEN-Denmark waved goodbye to facemasks and health passes on Tuesday as it became the first European Union country to lift all of its domestic COVID curbs despite record numbers of cases of the milder Omicron variant.

Only a few restrictions remain in place at the country's borders, for unvaccinated travellers arriving from non-Schengen countries.

After a first attempt at lifting restrictions between September and November, the Scandinavian country once again ditched its COVID checks and limited opening hours for bars and restaurants.

"For me, the best part is that we don't need to wear masks anymore," Natalia Chechetkina, a receptionist in Copenhagen, told AFP.

"At least now we have a choice — if we want to protect ourselves or we want to feel free."

Marie Touflet, a 23-year-old French student in the capital, said it was "pretty strange to take the metro without a mask, compared to France".

"It's really nice to be able to see people's faces and it feels like we're living normally again," she said.

The easing comes as Denmark registers around 40,000-50,000 new COVID cases a day, or almost one percent of the country's 5.8 million inhabitants.

Health officials believe those figures will soon start going down.

"There are strong indications that the infection has peaked in the areas where it has been most pronounced," Tyra Krause of Denmark's public health and research institution SSI told news agency Ritzau.

"So it's super good timing for the restrictions to be eased."

'Shift of responsibility' 

More than 60 per cent of Danes have received a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine — one month ahead of health authorities' schedule — compared to an EU average of just under 45 per cent.

Including those who have recently had COVID, health authorities estimate that 80 per cent of the population is protected against severe forms of the disease.

"With Omicron not being a severe disease for the vaccinated, we believe it is reasonable to lift restrictions," epidemiologist Lone Simonsen of the University of Roskilde told AFP.

Two years after the start of the pandemic, the Danish strategy enjoys broad support at home.

In a poll published on Monday by daily Politiken, 64 per cent of Danes surveyed said they had faith in the government's COVID policy, while the lifting of restrictions also has widespread support in parliament.

Going forward, Danes are being urged to exercise personal responsibility.

"Without a COVID pass there will be a shift of responsibility," Simonsen said.

Danes have increasingly used home tests to detect infection, but these are now being phased out and instead, anyone with symptoms is advised to stay home.

The Danish Health Authority currently "recommends" those who test positive to isolate for four days, while contact cases no longer need to quarantine.

Facemasks and the COVID pass are also recommended for hospital visits.

Denmark lifted restrictions as the World Health Organisation chief Tuesday warned it was too early for countries to either declare victory over COVID-19 or give up attempts to halt transmission.

'Bit of an experiment' 

One of the rare critics in Denmark was the country's Gout Association.

"We think it's important to continue using masks as long as the infection is spreading widely," Association Director Mette Bryde Lind told Ritzau.

Eskild Petersen, an infectious disease specialist, said the Danish strategy was "a bit of an experiment".

"I would have liked for us to wait 10-14 days after changing quarantine rules before abandoning masks and opening up nightlife" again, he told public television broadcaster TV2.

The government said it does not expect to have to revert to new closures but has remained cautious.

"We can't provide any guarantees when it comes to biology," Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said last week, announcing the country's return "to life as we knew it before corona".

This is the second time Denmark has tried to return to a pre-pandemic lifestyle.

On September 10, the country lifted all its restrictions before reintroducing some in November.

Museums, cinemas and theatre and concert venues then closed over Christmas and the New Year.

According to the World Health Organisation, 73 per cent of the European population has contracted COVID-19 at least once since January 2020.

Faced with a lower level of hospitalisations than in previous waves, several European countries have announced a reduction of their restrictions, despite record or very high cases.

"Populations in most countries have reached high levels of immunity, from vaccines or natural illness,” Simonsen said.

"This is how it ends."

BERLIN — Rising tensions with Moscow over Ukraine have exposed Germany’s problematic dependence on Russian gas, inflaming an already heated debate over soaring energy prices.

As Germany pursues its target to transition to cleaner energy sources over the next decade, Europe’s biggest economy has counted on gas temporarily filling the gap while it builds up its sun and wind energy capacity to replace nuclear and coal plants.

But with Russia now providing 55 per cent of Germany’s gas imports, up from 40 per cent in 2012, Berlin’s best-laid plans may well go awry if Moscow were to march on Ukraine.

With gas making up 26.7 per cent of Germany’s total energy consumption and heating one in every two households, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has admitted that if sanctions had to be imposed on Russia, they will also hit the German economy.

More precisely, the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was set to double supplies of cheap natural gas from Russia to Germany, now hangs in the balance.

In a warning hailed by the United States as “very, very strong”, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has said the pipeline will be part of a sanctions package if Russia made a move on Ukraine.

Energy security

Long viewed as a problem by Western allies and Ukraine, the 10 billion-euro pipeline had been seen by former chancellor Angela Merkel’s government as a key stop-gap option while Germany shifts to renewables.

But critics have repeatedly warned that it would only serve to increase German dependence on Russian energy, and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has branded it a “dangerous geopolitical weapon of the Kremlin”.

Yet, weaning Germany off Russian energy will be painful.

“If we give up Russian gas and Nord Stream 2, it won’t be lights out immediately, but it will be expensive, it will exacerbate unanswered gas supply questions for the future, and we’ll have a problem,” warned chairman of the mining, chemistry sector union IG BCE, Michael Vassiliadis.

With time pressing, the German government is launching a massive programme to build wind turbines covering 2 per cent of the country’s land surface, and require the installation of solar panels on roofs.

“Phasing out the burning of fossil fuels also strengthens Europe in geopolitical terms and protects the climate,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck said earlier this month.

But with the nuclear energy phase-out due to be complete by year’s end and coal power also to be halted by 2030, Germany will have to make up the difference by raising its gas capacity by a third over the next eight years, according to the Fraunhofer economic institute.

Already, Germany’s gas consumption is on the rise. In 2021, it made use of 1.003 billion kWh, an increase of 3.9 per cent on the previous year.

But the longer-term strategy does not solve the looming energy emergency at hand.

‘Alternative’

To reduce its dependency on Russia in the near future, the government is banking on diversifying its imports.

One “alternative” would be to exhaust the capacity of Europe’s liquified natural gas terminals, a source in the economy ministry said.

This solution, in which fresh imports could be delivered from the United States, Australia or Qatar, would, however, come at a price, the source indicated.

Higher costs could give a fresh push to inflation, which has hit multiyear highs in Germany and the eurozone in recent months.

The situation is not made any easier by Germany’s exceptionally low gas reserves, which currently sit below 42 per cent of full capacity.

Nevertheless, the government sought to put a brave face on the issue.

Dismissing the risk of an acute shortage, Baerbock said on Friday that sufficient supply was “assured”.

UNITED NATIONS, United States — The Taliban and their allies have killed more than 100 security and civilian personnel linked to the former US-backed Afghan government since seizing power in August, according to a new United Nations report.

The report, an advance copy of which was seen by AFP on Sunday, describes severe curtailing of human rights by Afghanistan's fundamentalist new rulers.

Taliban officials on Monday rejected the claims, insisting that the reported deaths were linked to "personal enmity" cases and were under investigation.

"The Islamic Emirate has not killed anyone since the amnesty was announced," the interior ministry said on Twitter.

The UN report said that, in addition to the political killings, women's freedoms and the right to protest had also been curbed.

Despite the Taliban's promise of general amnesties, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan "continued to receive credible allegations of killings, enforced disappearances, and other violations", the report said.

The UN said its Afghan mission had received more than 100 reports of killings that it deems credible.

More than two-thirds were "extra-judicial killings committed by the de facto authorities or their affiliates".

Additionally, "human rights defenders and media workers continue to come under attack, intimidation, harassment, arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment and killings," it said.

The report also detailed a government clampdown on peaceful protests, as well as a lack of access for women and girls to work and education.

"An entire complex social and economic system is shutting down," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.

Afghanistan is in the grip of a humanitarian disaster made worse by the Taliban takeover, which prompted Western countries to freeze international aid and assets worth billions of dollars held abroad.

The country was almost entirely dependent on foreign aid under the previous government, but jobs have dried up and most civil servants have not been paid for months.

No country has yet recognised the Taliban government, with most watching to see how the hardline Islamists, notorious for human rights abuses during their first stint in power, restrict freedoms.

With poverty deepening and a drought devastating farming in many areas, the United Nations has warned that half the 38 million population faces food shortages.

The UN Security Council last month unanimously adopted a US resolution to allow some aid to reach desperate Afghans without violating international sanctions.

But there are growing calls from rights groups and aid organisations forthe West to release more funds, particularly in the middle of a harsh winter.

WASHINGTON — The Russian and US foreign ministers are set to hold fresh talks on Tuesday after a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine, with Washington vowing to work with Western allies to beef up sanctions should Moscow decide to invade its neighbor.

The Security Council is due to convene later Monday over the crisis as fears of an imminent incursion grow, despite Kremlin denials.

Russia announced Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will speak with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"Lavrov and Blinken will have a telephone conversation on Tuesday," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a press briefing.

The upcoming call is the latest in a flurry of diplomatic meetings between senior diplomats from Moscow, Brussels and Washington over the conflict in Ukraine and disagreements over security concerns in Europe.

The United States and Britain on Sunday flagged new and "devastating" economic sanctions against Russia, as Washington and its allies step up efforts to deter any invasion.

With tensions soaring, the United States said it was prepared to push back against any "disinformation" Moscow put forward in what is expected to be one of the most closely watched United Nations sessions in years.

Russia on Monday is likely to try to block the 15-member council from holding its US-requested meeting, "but the Security Council is unified. Our voices are unified in calling for the Russians to explain themselves," Washington's UN envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield told ABC News.

"We're going to go in the room prepared to listen to them, but we're not going to be distracted by their propaganda," she said on Sunday. "And we're going to be prepared to respond to any disinformation that they attempt to spread during this meeting."

'Putin will not stop' 

US Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland told CBS a proposal on security issues presented last week by the US and NATO to Russia may have stirred interest in Moscow.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, meanwhile, took a tough stance, saying it was crucial Washington send a powerful message to President Vladimir Putin that any aggression against Ukraine would come at a very high cost.

“Putin will not stop with Ukraine,” Senator Bob Menendez said on CNN, indicating that penalities could be levied over actions Russia has already taken in Ukraine and warned of “devastating sanctions that ultimately would crush Russia” should Moscow invade.

Nuland said the White House was working closely with the Senate, and that any sanctions measures would be “very well-aligned” with those coming from European allies.

Putin “will feel it acutely”, she said.

In London, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Britain would unveil sanctions legislation targeting “a much wider variety” of Russian economic targets.

The Kremlin on Monday denounced Britain’s move as an “undisguised attack on business”.

“The Anglo-Saxons are massively ramping up tensions on the European continent.”

Analysts say an array of sanctions hitting Russian banks and financial institutions would not only affect daily life throughout Russia but could roil major economies in Europe and elsewhere.

Carrots and sticks 

Western leaders are pursuing a two-pronged approach, stepping up military assistance to Ukraine but also undertaking a full-court diplomatic effort to defuse the crisis.

Britain is preparing to offer NATO a “major” deployment of troops, weapons, warships and jets, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Saturday. At the same time, he is expected to speak with Putin next week.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday welcomed the increased military support while also endorsing London’s diplomatic initiative.

Canada on Sunday announced the temporary repatriation of all non-essential employees from its Kyiv embassy. And its defense minister, Anita Anand, said Canadian forces in Ukraine were protectively being moved west of the Dnieper river.

Security demands 

Relations between Russia and the West are at their lowest point since the Cold War.

But Russia has repeatedly denied posing a threat to the one-time Soviet republic and said on Sunday it wanted “respectful” relations with the United States.

Citing NATO’s presence near its border, Russia has put forward security demands to Washington and the US-led military alliance.

They include a guarantee that NATO will not admit new members, in particular Ukraine, and that the United States will not establish new military bases in ex-Soviet countries.

In the face of the Russian build-up, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on the West to tone down the rhetoric.

That plea, from a country also eager for Western support, particularly since Moscow seized Crimea in 2014 and began fuelling a deadly separatist conflict in the country’s east, has raised eyebrows in Washington.

MOSCOW — Russia said on Sunday it wants "mutually respectful" relations with the United States and denied posing a threat to Ukraine, as the UK said it was preparing fresh sanctions against Moscow. 

Tensions have soared between Moscow and Washington after Western governments accused Russia of amassing tens of thousands of troops on its border with ex-Soviet Ukraine.

The military build-up has sparked fears that Russia is planning an invasion, spooking NATO and its members in the region and prompting the Western alliance to explore bolstering its own deployments there.

"We want good, equal, mutually respectful relations with the United States, like with every country in the world," Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian TV on Sunday.

He added, however, that Russia doesn't want to remain in a position "where our security is infringed daily".

Citing the encroachment of NATO near its eastern border, Russia has put forward security demands to Washington and the US-led military alliance. 

These include a guarantee that NATO will not admit new members, in particular Ukraine, and the United States will not establish new military bases in ex-Soviet countries. 

Russia has also demanded a pullback of NATO forces deployed to eastern European and ex-Soviet countries that joined the alliance after the Cold War

Lavrov said that NATO’s line of defence “continues moving eastwards” and has come “very close” to Ukraine, which according to him, is “not ready” to joint NATO.

Western leaders have scrambled to diffuse the crisis by reaching out to Russian President Vladimir Putin, while also vowing unprecedented sanctions should Moscow launch an attack. 

 ‘We don’t want war’ 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on the West to avoid stirring “panic” in the face of the Russian troop build-up, while his Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said it was important to remain “firm” in talks with Moscow.

Britain said it is preparing to unveil sanctions against Moscow that would target companies close to the Kremlin. 

“There will be nowhere to hide for Putin’s oligarchs,” UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Sunday.

Putin on Friday held a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Boris Johnson is expected to speak with the Russian leader next week. 

Russia has repeatedly denied planning an attack and said it’s not looking to start a war. 

“We don’t want war. We don’t need it at all,” Nikolai Patrushev, head of Russia’s powerful Security Council, told reporters on Sunday. 

He added that Russia poses no threat to Ukraine.

“Even the Ukrainians, including officials say there is no threat,” Patrushev said. 

Following a flurry of diplomatic efforts over the past weeks, Washington and NATO presented Moscow with a written response to its security demands.

Russia said the replies, which were not made public, did not address its main concerns but did not rule out further talks.

Ukraine has turned increasingly to the West since Moscow seized the Crimea Peninsula in 2014 and began fuelling a separatist conflict in the east of the country that has cost over 13,000 lives. 

In the face of Russia’s latest build-up, some Western allies, led by the US, have stepped up deliveries of arms to Kyiv that could be used to ward off an attack.

SEOUL — North Korea on Sunday tested its most powerful missile since 2017, ramping up the firepower for its record-breaking seventh launch this month as Seoul warned nuclear and long-range tests could be next.

Pyongyang has never test-fired this many missiles in a calendar month before and last week threatened to abandon a nearly five-year-long self-imposed moratorium on testing long-range and nuclear weapons, blaming US “hostile” policy for forcing its hand.

With peace talks with Washington stalled, North Korea has doubled down on leader Kim Jong-un’s vow to modernise the regime’s armed forces, flexing Pyongyang’s military muscles despite biting international sanctions.

South Korea said Sunday that North Korea appeared to be following a “similar pattern” to 2017 — when tensions were last at breaking point on the peninsula — warning Pyongyang could soon restart nuclear and intercontinental missile tests.

North Korea “has come close to destroying the moratorium declaration”, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said in a statement following an emergency meeting of Seoul’s National Security Council.

South Korea’s military said Sunday it had “detected an intermediate-range ballistic missile fired at a lofted angle eastward towards the East Sea”.

The missile was estimated to have hit a maximum altitude of 2,000 kilometres and flown around 800 kilometres for half-an-hour, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

A lofted trajectory involves missiles being fired at a high angle instead of out to their full range.

“North Korea did similar tests with its emerging medium and long range missile technology in 2017,” tweeted Chad O’Carroll of specialist website NK News.

“So this would imply today’s test involves one of those missile types — or potentially something new. In other words, a big deal.”

The last time Pyongyang tested an intermediate-range missile was the Hwasong-12 in 2017, which analysts said at the time was powerful enough to put the US territory of Guam in range.

Japan’s top government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said Sunday that the ballistic missile “was one with intermediate-range or longer range”.

The United States condemned the launch, with a State Department spokesperson saying it was a “clear violation” of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.

‘Time is ripe’ 

Pyongyang has tested hypersonic missiles twice this month, as well as carrying out four launches of short-range ballistic and cruise missiles.

Washington imposed fresh sanctions over the tests, prompting Pyongyang to vow a “stronger and certain” response to any attempt to rein it in.

Last week, leader Kim was photographed by state media inspecting an “important” munitions factory that produces “a major weapon system”.

“Kim has been withholding his appetite for testing and provocations,” Soo Kim, an analyst at the RAND Corporation, told AFP.

Now, however, “the time is ripe, and North Korea’s continued missile firing will only throw another wrench into Washington’s already high plate of foreign policy challenges”, she added.

The frenzy of missiles aims to remind the world that “the Kim regime hears external discussions of its domestic weaknesses”, said Leif Easley, a professor at Ewha University.

“It wants to remind Washington and Seoul that trying to topple it would be too costly.”

The string of launches in 2022 comes at a delicate time in the region, with Kim’s sole major ally China set to host the Winter Olympics next month and South Korea gearing up for a presidential election in March.

Domestically, North Korea is preparing to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the birth of late leader Kim Jong-il in February, as well as the 110th birthday of founder Kim Il Sung in April.