Thousands protest plan to raze German village for coal mine

BERLIN (AP) — Thousands of people are protesting against plans to bulldoze a village in western Germany for a coal mine that environmental activists say should be shut down, not expanded. The German news agency dpa quoted police Saturday afternoon as saying the demonstration in Luetzerath, west of Cologne, passed by peacefully. It came weeks after the village’s last farmer lost a court case against his eviction and sold his property to the utility company RWE. The village is still inhabited by activists, some of whom have built tree houses to stop the Garzweiler mine from being expanded. Climate activists argue this village and others should not be demolished because burning coal that’s still in the ground undermines Germany’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.