Berlin (AFP) - German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt faced sharp criticism Monday from his Social Democratic coalition partners and the opposition Left Party after blaming ‘migrant troublemakers’ for riots that followed largely peaceful youth demonstrations over the weekend. Dobrindt, of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), told the Bild newspaper that such groups had hijacked Saturday’s peaceful daytime protests. “The rioters and looters will be identified and held accountable. Hard penalties must follow this breach of the peace,” he said, praising police for preventing ‘violent excesses like those in Paris.’

 

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BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever handed in his resignation on Monday as a long-simmering budget crisis boiled over, but King Philippe has not yet decided whether to accept it. De Wever, a conservative Flemish nationalist, took office determined to tackle heavily indebted Belgium’s budget problems but failed to win the support of the other members of his five-party government for his proposals. Belgium’s Royal Palace confirmed that De Wever had resigned “following the failure of budget negotiations within his government.” The King, who oversees the formation of national governments, is “withholding his decision” on whether to approve.

 

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WASHINGTON (AFP) – A plane carrying nine people crashed in a residential neighborhood in Florida on Sunday, killing all those on board, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said. At 12:50 pm Eastern Time, a Learjet 60 crashed in a neighborhood near Cresthaven, FLorida, Duffy said in a post on X. ‘All nine people on board were killed.’ The aircraft departed from Austin, Texas and was bound for the Bahamas, he added, calling the crash a ‘horrific tragedy’. The Federal Aviation Administration is sending a team to the scene to support the National Transportation Safety Board investigation, Duffy said. Minutes before the crash, the pilot of the plane reported ice accumulating on the aircraft and moderate turbulence, according to a recording of air traffic control radio calls captured by LiveATC.net.

 

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ADIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia’s rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) claimed Monday that its fighters killed 500 soldiers and wounded 800 others during clashes with federal government forces and allied militias in the country’s northern Tigray region. The rebel group said the casualties occurred during fighting Saturday near the historic city of Aksum, where its forces launched a counteroffensive against Ethiopian troops and fighters from the allied Tigray Peace Forces (TPF). According to the TPLF-affiliated Dimtsi Weyane television station, the rebel group killed 500 combatants, including two regiment commanders, and seriously wounded another 800 in the Daero Hafash and May Tmqet areas of Naeder district. The broadcaster said government troops had advanced from Aksum and Mahbere Dego before encountering resistance from TPLF fighters.

 

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MADRID (Reuters) - A blackout left more than 50,000 customers without electricity on Spain’s Canary Island of La Palma early Monday as torrential rain battered the island, authorities said. Power had been restored to about 75% of those affected by midmorning, roughly four and a half hours after the outage began, according to national grid operator Red Electrica. The Canary Islands government said the island lost electricity at 6.42 am local time (0642GMT). A lightning strike hit an electrical substation around 4 am, sparking a fire that knocked out medium- and low-voltage lines. Although service was initially restored, a subsequent failure at the Los Guinchos power plant triggered the island-wide outage. The cause of the disconnection remained unclear.