ATHENS (Reuters) - A Greek two-seat F-4 Phantom fighter jet crashed on Saturday during an air show at Tanagra airport, near Athens, a Greek Air Force official told Reuters. Video footage from public broadcaster ERT, which first reported the crash, showed a column of black smoke rising a few hundred meters from spectators watching the air show. Two helicopters were battling the fire on the spot. The fate of the pilots was not immediately known, and it was unclear whether anyone in the crowd had been injured, the official said. “A search and rescue operation is under way,” the official added. Loudspeakers at the air base were urging people to leave the area, according to ERT.

 

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ZAGREB (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people gathered in Zagreb’s central square on Saturday to protest the government’s failure to begin cleaning up more than 30,000 tons of waste in central Croatia that environmentalists say is polluting the drinking water in the area. The protest, one of the biggest in Croatia in several years, was dubbed “Walk for Lika”, after the mountainous region where the waste is stored. Authorities last year uncovered between 34,000 and 37,000 tons of waste, much of it imported from Italy in 2023 and 2024, at a site near the town of Gospic in Croatia’s Lika region. The government pledged to clean up the site, but environmental groups say little progress has been made.

 

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LA PAZ (Reuters) - At least two people were killed and dozens injured on Friday after an explosion at a military barracks in the Bolivian municipality of Viacha, about 30 km (20 miles) from La Paz, Defense Minister Ernesto Justiniano said. His ministry said in a statement that 14 people were missing. The blast occurred at around 2:30 p.m. (1830 GMT) in an area used to store pyrotechnic material, authorities said. While the cause has yet to be established, officials said the blast originated from the defense ministry’s fireworks stockpile.

 

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KINSHASA (AP) - At least 22 people were killed in a fire at a wedding party in Congo ‘s capital, Kinshasa, the regional mayor said Saturday. Several other people were injured in the fire that started overnight Friday and continued into early Saturday morning in a building in Lingwala in northern Kinshasa. The mayor of Lingwala, Norbert Mushinga, told the Congolese Press Agency that the provisional toll is 22. He noted the toll could rise further. The exact cause of the fire is unconfirmed. “It is a tragedy,” Jacquemin Shabani, Congo’s deputy prime minister and interior minister, said. The minister visited the site Saturday morning.

 

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JAKARTA) - Nearly 2,000 people, most of them students, fell ill in suspected food poisoning outbreaks linked to President Prabowo Subianto ’s flagship Free Nutritious Meals program this week, raising fresh concerns about food safety as the government rapidly expands the multibillion-dollar initiative nationwide, officials said Saturday. The incidents, reported between Tuesday and Thursday in East Java, Central Java, West Sumatra, Aceh and South Sulawesi, affected about 1,950 students, teachers and Islamic boarding school pupils who became sick after consuming meals distributed under the government program, known by its Indonesian acronym MBG.