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BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday lauded her party's candidate Armin Laschet as the best choice to succeed her, as polls showed the gaffe-prone Rhinelander still trailing badly ahead of this month's election.

Laschet, the chancellor candidate for Merkel's conservative CDU/CSU bloc, was long the favourite to be the next German leader, but his ratings have plummeted following a series of missteps.

The frontrunner is now Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, whose centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) are enjoying a late spurt in the final weeks before the September 26 vote.

"It is a special election, not only because no incumbent chancellor is running for reelection for the first time since 1949," the outgoing Merkel said in what was likely her last speech in parliament ahead of the vote.

"It is also a special election because it is a decision on the direction of our country in difficult times, and it is not irrelevant who governs this country," she said.

"The best way for our country is a CDU/CSU-led federal government with Armin Laschet as chancellor, because his government would stand for stability, reliability, moderation and centrism."

Merkel to the rescue 

Merkel, who is retiring after 16 years in power, did not get involved in the race to pick a candidate from her party to run in the elections.

But with the Christian Democrats' poll ratings plummeting to their lowest in the post-war period, the party is now encouraging as many joint appearances as possible between Merkel and Laschet.

A poll for the NTV broadcaster published on Tuesday showed the conservative alliance on just 19 per cent, with the SPD out ahead on 25 per cent and the Greens, an early favourite in the race, on 17 per cent.

The CDU/CSU bloc won 33 per cent at the last election in 2017 under Merkel, who remains immensely popular with the public.

Merkel appeared alongside Laschet at a digital summit on Monday, and also accompanied him at the weekend on a tour of two towns hit hard by deadly floods in July.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, where Laschet is the regional premier, Merkel told reporters he was “leading the largest state in Germany very successfully”.

Downward slide 

Laschet’s reponse to the floods in his state was the beginning of a downward slide for the 60-year-old, after he was caught on camera joking with local officials during a tribute to flood victims.

If the alliance’s fortunes don’t improve soon, it could crash out of government in favour of an SPD-led alliance — most likely with the Greens and either the liberal FDP or the far-left Die Linke.

Scholz has been under pressure to rule out working with Die Linke, which refuses to recognise NATO and voted against the German army’s recent rescue effort in Afghanistan.

The SPD leader on Tuesday insisted that “we have to work for a strong sovereign Europe that is able to take its own affairs into its own hands”, which he said would “only be possible in the NATO alliance”.

But Laschet called on him to go further and reject collaborating with Die Linke, saying voters had a right to know whether he intended to “call these people into a potential federal government”.

The CDU-CSU would “do everything to ensure that there is no red-red-green alliance in Germany”, he said, referring to the colours of the SPD, Die Linke and the Greens.

Merkel also urged voters not to choose a left-wing coalition.

“Citizens will have the choice of either a government of the SPD and the Greens that accepts the support of the Linke Party, or at least does not rule it out, or a federal government that leads our country into the future with moderation and balance,” she said.

KABUL — The Taliban on Monday claimed total control over Afghanistan as they said they had won the key battle for the Panjshir Valley, the last remaining holdout of resistance against their rule.

Following their lightning-fast victory in mid-August over the former Afghan government's security forces and the withdrawal of US troops after 20 years of war, the Taliban had turned to fight the forces defending the mountainous Panjshir Valley.

As the hardliners claimed victory, their chief spokesman warned against any further attempts to rise up against their rule, while he also urged former members of the security forces to join their regime's ranks.

"With this victory, our country is completely taken out of the quagmire of war," chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a press conference in Kabul.

"The Islamic Emirate is very sensitive about insurgencies. Anyone who tries to start an insurgency will be hit hard. We will not allow another," he added.

An image posted on social media by the Taliban showed its fighters at the governor's office of Panjshir province, the site of resistance to Soviet forces in the 1980s and the Taliban in the late 1990s.

The National Resistance Front (NRF) in Panjshir, made up of anti-Taliban militia and former Afghan security forces, on Sunday acknowledged suffering major battlefield losses and called for a ceasefire.

On Monday, the group said in a tweet that its fighters were still present in “strategic positions” in the valley, as it vowed to keep up the fight.

The NRF includes local fighters loyal to Ahmad Massoud, the son of the famous anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, as well as remnants of the Afghan military that retreated to the Panjshir Valley.

The Taliban are yet to finalise their new regime after rolling into Kabul three weeks ago at a speed that analysts say likely surprised even the hardline Islamists themselves.

As they undertake the major transition into governing major institutions and cities of hundreds of thousands of people, Mujahid said an interim government would first be announced, allowing for later changes.

“Final decisions have been taken, we are now working on the technical issues,” he said at a press conference.

Afghanistan’s new rulers have pledged to be more “inclusive” than during their first stint in power, which also came after years of conflict, first the Soviet invasion of 1979, and then a bloody civil war.

They have promised a government that represents Afghanistan’s complex ethnic makeup, though women are unlikely to be included at the top levels.

Women’s freedoms in Afghanistan were sharply curtailed under the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule.

This time, women will be allowed to attend university as long as classes are segregated by sex or at least divided by a curtain, the Taliban’s education authority said in a lengthy document issued on Sunday.

But female students must also wear an abaya (robe) and niqab (face-veil), as opposed to the even more conservative burqa mandatory under the previous Taliban regime.

As the Taliban come to grips with their transition from insurgency to government they are facing a host of challenges, including humanitarian needs for which international assistance is critical.

UN Humanitarian Chief Martin Griffiths has arrived in Kabul for several days of meetings with the Taliban leadership, which has promised to help.

“The authorities pledged that the safety and security of humanitarian staff, and humanitarian access to people in need, will be guaranteed and that humanitarian workers, both men and women, will be guaranteed freedom of movement,” a statement from UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The Taliban spokesman tweeted that the group’s delegation assured the UN of cooperation.

The international community is coming to terms with the new Taliban regime with a flurry of diplomacy.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due Monday in Qatar, a key player in the Afghan saga.

Qatar, which hosts a major US military base, has been the gateway for 55,000 people airlifted out of Afghanistan, nearly half the total evacuated by US-led forces after the Taliban takeover on August 15.

Blinken will also speak to the Qataris about efforts alongside Turkey to reopen Kabul’s airport, which is necessary for flying in badly needed humanitarian aid and evacuating remaining Afghans.

Blinken will then head Wednesday to the US air base in Ramstein, Germany, a temporary home for thousands of Afghans moving to the United States, from which he will hold a virtual 20-nation ministerial meeting on the crisis alongside German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

MOSCOW — A court in Belarus sentenced one of the country's most prominent opposition figures, Maria Kolesnikova, to 11 years in prison on Monday after she led unprecedented protests against President Alexander Lukashenko last year.

A defiant Kolesnikova smiled and made her signature heart-shaped hand symbol during the court hearing in Minsk, where lawyer and fellow opposition activist Maxim Znak was also handed a 10-year sentence.

During the closed-door trial authorities had accused the pair of violating national security and conspiring to seize power.

Kolesnikova, 39, is the only major leader of last year's mass protests still in Belarus and has been in custody for a year after resisting deportation by ripping up her passport.

Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has been cracking down on opponents since the protests, which erupted when he claimed victory in a disputed election.

A video from inside the courtroom showed the handcuffed pair grinning in the defendant's cage ahead of the ruling.

Kolesnikova, who wore her trademark dark red lipstick and a black dress, made the heart-shaped symbol with her hands, which she often did at protest rallies.

Standing next to her, Znak pretended he was inviting an audience into a theatre.

“Dear spectators, we are happy to see you,” said the 40-year-old said.

Germany called the sentencing “unjustified” and the European Union condemned it as a “blatant disrespect” of rights.

Amnesty International said it was “designed to crush the hopes” of a generation of Belarusians.

Kolesnikova, a former flute player in the country’s philharmonic orchestra, has become a symbol of the protest movement in Belarus.

She had danced inside the court when the trial, which authorities said had to be closed because it contained state secrets, opened last month.

Last, September KGB agents put a sack over her head, pushed her into a minibus and drove her to the Ukrainian border.

She resisted the attempt to throw her out of the country by reportedly jumping out of the car.

Kolesnikova was part of a female trio of protest leaders along with Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Veronika Tsepkalo, both of whom fled the country.

Tikhanovskaya, who stood for president in place of her jailed husband and claims she won the election, called the pair “heroes” after the sentencing.

“The regime wants us to see them crushed and exhausted. But look: They are smiling and dancing,” Tikhanovskaya, who is now based in Lithuania, said on Twitter.

The press service of onetime presidential hopeful Viktor Babaryko, whose campaign was managed by Kolesnikova, published photos of some of her supporters lining up outside the Minsk court.

Kolesnikova and Znak had worked for Babaryko, who in July was jailed for 14 years on fraud charges.

“Maria and Max went through all the stages of political persecution with dignity,” Babaryko’s office said in a statement.

Impassioned address 

It quoted Kolesnikova’s lawyer saying she delivered an impassioned final address to the court last week about the “future of a free Belarus”.

Kolesnikova and Znak were part of a seven-member coordination council set up in response to the disputed August election to oversee a peaceful transition of power.

Western countries have piled sanctions on Lukashenko’s regime over the treatment of opposition activists at home and abroad.

According to local rights group Viasna there were 659 political prisoners in Belarus as of Monday, including Znak and Kolesnikova.

Lukashenko faced a global outcry in May when a passenger plane was forced to land in Minsk and a dissident onboard was arrested.

Belarus was again in the international spotlight in August, after an athlete said her team tried to force her to leave the Tokyo Olympics and an exiled opposition activist was found hanged in a park in Ukraine.

Lukashenko has shown no signs of stepping down and maintains the backing of key ally and creditor Russia.

NEW YORK — Lucelly Gil is one of the forgotten victims of 9/11: An immigrant cleaner who spent months clearing up rubble from the World Trade Centre and developed cancer apparently from the toxic dust, but who remains unrecognised.

At 7:00am on September 15, 2001, the Colombian entered the immense ash cloud left by the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York. She would collect debris there for up to 12 hours a day, every day, for six months.

Twenty years later, the 65-year-old is still a undocumented migrant and lives with the consequences of that herculean effort: she is a breast cancer survivor, a common illness for women who worked at the site, has lost movement in one arm and suffers depression.

For eight months after the attacks, tens of thousands of people, many of them immigrants, cleaned Ground Zero and nearby damaged buildings.

They removed 1.8 million tonnes of rubble from the area and were paid between $7.50 and $10 an hour, just above the minimum wage at the time.

They didn't know it then but the exposure to asbestos and other toxic materials brought the risk of cancer, asbestosis and a host of respiratory illnesses, as well as post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression.

"I don't like to remember Ground Zero anniversaries," Gil said tearfully at a recent session of the 9/11 Latino cleaners support group Fronteras de Esperanza, or Borders of Hope, which still meets two decades on.

She remembers that after working so many hours, sometimes finding human remains, she would go home and thought she was still cleaning.

"I almost freaked out," Gil recalled.

Gil, like all the cleaners spoken to by AFP, cannot work because of illnesses believed to be derived from the 9/11 operation. They dream of becoming legal residents so they can receive benefits and live without the threat of deportation.

In 2017, a then-Democratic representative from New York even introduced a bill regarding this but it was never debated in Congress.

“That the people who cleaned do not have papers is an injustice because they lost the most precious thing, which is health,” Rubiela Arias, another cleaner, told AFP in the modest room she rents in Queens with the help of her son.

The now 57-year-old Colombian has been fighting for years for the Hispanic cleaners to be legally recognised.

She herself was at the site and has since suffered from various respiratory and stomach illnesses, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental ailments.

More than 2,000 cleaners, rescuers and police officers died from illnesses linked to 9/11, according to the federal victims’ compensation fund.

Many undocumented cleaners, including some who were ill, have been deported in recent years, according to social worker Rosa Bramble, who has led Fronteras de Esperanza on a voluntary basis since 2010 from her office in Queens.

Others returned to their countries to die, because they were sick and could not work to support themselves.

“Here they couldn’t pay rent,” said Bramble, a professor at Columbia University and who is of Venezuelan origin.

Most of the 9/11 cleaners have full medical coverage through the World Trade Centre’s (WTC) federal health programme, but many have not received compensation for their illnesses.

That is the experience of Franklin, a 50-year-old undocumented Peruvian cleaner with various respiratory ailments who decided to return from New York to Lima in 2019 to say goodbye to his ill mother, whom he had not seen for two decades.

When he tried to return to the United States to take up the medical treatment guaranteed by the WTC health programme in which he had been accepted, and to claim financial compensation, the US embassy in Lima denied him a visa.

In June he twice tried to cross the border between Mexico and the United States illegally with the help of traffickers, but was deported to Mexico both times.

“I practically gave my life to clean Ground Zero and I don’t think it is fair that they are repaying me this way,” he told AFP by phone from Juarez city where the traffickers kept him before his third attempt, which was successful.

Some workers who sued New York City and the companies that employed them were able to get compensation. Additionally, in 2011, Congress approved maximum payments of $250,000 for a cancer linked to 9/11.

Gil received $40,000 in 2018, but without being able to work, the money quickly ran out.

“We as Latinos were discriminated against in relation to the other workers on 9/11,” she said.

Rosa Duque, a 56-year-old Guatemalan cleaner who has difficulty breathing, says the cleaners are “in oblivion” and must be given permanent residency.

“When we volunteered to go to work they didn’t ask, ‘Are you a citizen?’ ‘Are you a resident?’” she said.

WELLINGTON — New Zealand had been trying for years to deport a Daesh-inspired radical who went on a frenzied stabbing attack, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed on Saturday, saying it was “frustrating” he was allowed to stay free.

The lifting of suppression orders showed the attacker, Sri Lankan Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen, was served a deportation notice in April 2019 after his refugee status was revoked.

While the legal process dragged on, Samsudeen grabbed a knife off a supermarket shelf in Auckland on Friday and injured seven people, leaving three critically wounded, before he was shot dead by police who were tailing him.

Ardern, who referred to Samsudeen as “the terrorist” and did not mention his name, was able to outline steps New Zealand had taken to try to deport him after the legal suppressions were removed late Saturday.

Samsudeen arrived in New Zealand as a 22-year-old in 2011 on a student visa and was granted refugee status two years later.

In 2016, he came to the attention of the police and intelligence agencies after expressing sympathy on Facebook for terrorist attacks.

During their investigations it became evident the refugee status was fraudulently obtained and the process began to cancel his right to stay in New Zealand, Ardern said.

The following year he was arrested at Auckland Airport, when it was suspected he was on his way to Syria and a police search of his home had revealed a large hunting knife and “material related to ISIS propaganda”, court documents said, using another acronym for Daesh.

Ardern said deportation notices were served in April 2019.

‘Disappointing and frustrating’ 

Samsudeen, who described himself as a Tamil Muslim, appealed the deportation and told a court he faced “arrest, detention, mistreatment and torture” if sent back to Sri Lanka.

“He was still in prison at this time, and facing criminal charges. For a number of reasons, the deportation appeal could not proceed until after the conclusion of the criminal trial in May 2021,” Ardern said.

“In the meantime, agencies were concerned about the risk this individual posed to the community,” she added, noting officials knew he could be released and that the appeal, “which was stopping his deportation, may take some time”.

The country’s immigration agency looked into ways of detaining Samsudeen during the appeal process through the Immigration Act, according to Ardern.

“It was incredibly disappointing and frustrating when legal advice came back to say this wasn’t an option,” she said.

Samsudeen at that stage had been held in custody for three years and authorities had exhausted all avenues to keep him detained.

Attempts to have him charged under New Zealand’s Terrorism Suppression Act were unsuccessful and Ardern said changes to New Zealand’s counter-terrorism legislation were expected to be approved by parliament before the end of the month.

“In late August, officials including the commissioner of police raised the possibility of expediting the amendments,” she said.

Police commissioner Andrew Coster said there had been nothing unusual about the man’s actions in the lead up to the attack, and he had appeared to be doing normal grocery shopping.

Because he had a “high level of paranoia” around surveillance, Coster said the police kept their distance, and it took more than two minutes to reach the man and shoot him after he started his stabbing spree.

‘Barbaric act’ 

The day after the attack, Sri Lankan authorities said they would cooperate with New Zealand’s investigation “in any way necessary”, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Kohularangan Ratnasingam.

Sri Lankan police sources said criminal investigators had already interviewed the attacker’s brother, who lives in the capital Colombo.

“We are collecting information about him as well as anyone else who may have had contacts with him,” a top police official said.

In an interview on Saturday, Samsudeen’s mother said her son had been “brainwashed” by neighbours she said hailed from Syria and Iraq.

“We knew there was a change in him,” she told Hiru TV from her home in Kattankudy, east of Colombo.

Sri Lanka’s Muslim Council has condemned the Auckland attack as a “barbaric act of terrorism”.

“This reminds all of us to come together and be united and fight against terrorism and violent extremism,” council member Mohamed Hisham told AFP.

Sri Lankan Muslim legislator Mujibur Rahman said his community was saddened by the attack, while lauding Ardern for easing public sentiment.

“Her statement soon after the incident defused the situation and ensured there was no harm to the Sri Lankan community [

in New Zealand],” Rahman told AFP.

Ardern insisted no one community should be singlled out for the violence.

“It was carried out by an individual, not a faith, not a culture, not an ethnicity,” she said.

KABUL  — Fresh fighting was reported Saturday between the Taliban and resistance forces in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley, even as the hardline Islamists finalise a new government that will set the tone for their rule.

Facing the challenge of morphing from insurgents to rulers, the Taliban appear determined to snuff out the Panjshir resistance before announcing who will lead the country in the aftermath of Monday's US troop withdrawal, which was supposed to end two decades of war.

But Panjshir, which held out for nearly a decade against the Soviet Union's occupation and also the Taliban's first rule from 1996-2001, is stubbornly holding out.

Fighters from the so-called National Resistance Front (NRF), made up of anti-Taliban militia and former Afghan security forces, are understood to have stockpiled a significant armoury in the valley, around 80 kilometres north of Kabul and guarded by a narrow gorge.

'Under invasion' 

Celebratory gunfire rang out in the capital Kabul overnight as rumours spread the valley had fallen, but the Taliban made no official claim Saturday and a resident told AFP by phone that the reports were false.

The Emergency Hospital in Kabul said two people were killed and 20 wounded by the salvos, as the Taliban tweeted a stern admonishment warning its fighters to stop.

“Avoid firing in the air and thank God instead,” said chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, tipped to become the new regime’s information minister.

“The weapons and bullets given to you are public property. No one has the right to waste them. The bullets can also harm civilians, don’t shoot in vain.”

In Panjshir, former vice president Amrullah Saleh, holed out alongside Ahmad Massoud, the son of legendary anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, admitted the perilous position of the NRF.

“The situation is difficult, we have been under invasion,” Saleh said in a video message.

Usually known for his sharp Western suits, Saleh was filmed wearing a traditional shalwar kameez tunic and a flat woollen pakol cap favoured by Panjshiris.

“The resistance is continuing and will continue,” he added.

Taliban and resistance tweets suggested the key district of Paryan had changed hands several times in the last few days, but that also could not be independently verified.

Aid talks 

Away from the valley, the international community was coming to terms with having to deal with the new Taliban regime with a flurry of diplomacy.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due on Sunday in Qatar, a key player in the Afghan saga and the location of the Taliban’s political office, though he is not expected to meet with the militants.

He will then travel to Germany, to lead a virtual 20-nation ministerial meeting on Afghanistan alongside German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

Pakistan’s intelligence chief Faiz Hameed was in Kabul, meanwhile. Hameed was reportedly in the city to be briefed by his country’s ambassador but is also likely to meet top Taliban officials with whom Islamabad has historically had very close relations.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is also set to convene a high-level meeting on Afghanistan in Geneva on September 13, to focus on humanitarian assistance for the country.

The United Nations has already restarted humanitarian flights to parts of Afghanistan, while the country’s flag carrier Ariana Afghan Airlines resumed domestic flights on Friday and the United Arab Emirates sent a plane carrying “urgent medical and food aid”.

Western Union and Moneygram, meanwhile, said they were restarting cash transfers, which many Afghans rely on from relatives abroad to survive.

China has already confirmed it will keep its embassy in Kabul open.

Afghanistan’s new rulers have pledged to be more accommodating than during their first stint in power, which also came after years of conflict — first the Soviet invasion of 1979, and then a bloody civil war.

That regime was notorious for its brutal interpretation of Islamic law, and its treatment of women, who were forced inside and denied access to school and work.

This time around, the Taliban have made repeated declarations that they will not carry out revenge attacks on opponents, and women will have access to education and some employment.

They have promised a more “inclusive” government that represents Afghanistan’s complex ethnic makeup, though women are unlikely to be included at the top levels.

In Kabul, dozens of women protested for a second day Saturday to demand the right to work and inclusion in the government.

Social media clips showed Taliban fighters and officials attempting to disperse the protesters and stopping people from filming with mobile phones.

HAVANA — Cuban authorities on Friday launched a national campaign to vaccinate children aged two to 18 against COVID-19, a prerequisite set by the Communist government for schools to reopen amid a spike in infections.

Children aged 12 and older will be the first to receive one of the two domestically produced vaccines, Abdala and Soberana, followed by younger kids.

Schools have mostly been closed in Cuba since March 2020, and students have been following lessons on television. With the school year starting Monday, they will continue learning remotely until all eligible children are vaccinated.

Laura Lantigua, 17, got the first of three injections at Saul Delgado high school in the Cuban capital Havana.

"I always wanted to be vaccinated," Lantigua told AFP. She said that doctors measured her blood pressure and temperature before giving her the shot, then told her to wait for an hour to ensure she didn't have any side effects.

"I felt normal, fine," Lantigua said.

Late Friday, the Medicines Regulatory Agency (Cecmed) announced that it authorised the emergency use of the Soberana 2 vaccine for minors between the ages of two and 18.

The composition of Cuban vaccines, which are not recognised by the World Health Organisation, is based on a recombinant protein, the same technique used by the US company Novavax.

With the Delta variant spreading across the island of 11.2 million, the country's healthcare system has been pushed to the brink.

Of the 5,300 novel coronavirus deaths recorded since the outbreak started, nearly half were in August, as were almost a third of all reported cases.

The government said it plans to gradually reopen schools for in-person instruction in October after the vaccination campaign among children is completed.