Luxembourg becomes first country to provide free public transport
AFP, Luxembourg
Luxembourg will become the first country in the world on Saturday to offer a free public transport system as the government tries to reduce particularly dense car traffic.
Some cities have already taken similar partial measures but the transport ministry said it was the first time such a decision would cover an entire country. The free transport, which is being flagged as “an important social measure”, will affect approximately 40 per cent of households and is likely to save each one around 100 euros ($110) per year.
Russian opposition to protest Putin’s
‘leader-for-life’ reforms
AFP, Moscow
Russia’s opposition on Saturday holds its first major protest since President Vladimir Putin in January announced plans which critics fear will help him stay in power after his mandate ends in 2024.
The rally marks five years since the assassination of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov but its organisers want the event to also send a message to Putin after he proposed major constitutional changes.
Slovaks vote as journalist’s murder drives ‘desire
for change’
AFP, Bratislava
Slovaks voted Saturday in a general election where the governing populists risked being punished amid popular outrage over the 2018 gangland-style murder of a journalist whose stories exposed high-level corruption in the eurozone country.
Allegedly a hit ordered by a businessman with connections to politicians, the killing of Jan Kuciak, which also took the life of his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, has become a lightning rod for public outrage at graft in public life.
Anti-Congo regime protesters set fires in Paris
AFP, Paris
Paris police arrested dozens of protesters on Friday who burnt scooters and bins outside a concert venue hosting a Congolese singer they accuse of giving a voice to the Kinshasa regime.
The nearby Gare de Lyon train station was partially evacuated during the chaos and police warned Parisians to stay away as a thick, black column of smoke billowed over the city centre.
