Drug check turns into melee in Germany
FRANKFURT, Germany -- Police in the German city of Stuttgart said Sunday that 24 people were arrested and 19 officers injured after a check for drugs sparked attacks on officers and police vehicles followed by widespread vandalism of storefronts in the city center. Police said several hundred people were involved.
The disturbance started after officers stopped a 17-year-old on suspicion of drug possession as several hundred people partied outside about 11:30 p.m. Saturday, police said. Bystanders started throwing stones and bottles, and smaller groups ran through surrounding streets breaking shop windows, according to police.
Police said 40 businesses were vandalized and nine were looted, while 12 police vehicles were damaged before officers brought the situation under control about 4 a.m.
Police officials said the violence had no apparent political motivation. They said the teen suspect initially stopped was a white German citizen. Of the two dozen people arrested, half held German passports and half were citizens of other countries.
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Stuttgart Mayor Fritz Kuhn, a member of the environmentalist Greens party, called the attacks on police "unacceptable." He said more people were on the street because many clubs and discos remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and that the party scene in a central park had drawn people from the surrounding area.
"One cause was likely alcohol, another the addiction to social media film clips," Kuhn said.
Serbian ruling party claims election win
BELGRADE, Serbia -- Serbia's president declared a landslide victory for his right-wing party Sunday in a parliamentary vote held amid concerns over spread of the coronavirus and a boycott by much of the opposition.
Aleksandar Vucic told jubilant supporters that his Serbian Progressive Party won more than 60% of the vote, or about 190 seats in the 250-seat parliament.
The initial unofficial results indicate that Serbia will have a unique assembly, with virtually no opposition and only three or four parties out of the 21 that were running. Vucic's allied Socialists are expected to get 10% with second place in the vote.
"I have been long in politics, but I never experienced such a moment," Vucic said. "I'm talking about a historic moment in which one party can find itself. We have won everywhere, where we have never been winning in the past."
Turnout among the nearly 6.6 million eligible voters was lower than in previous elections.
Vucic dominated the campaign through the mainstream media that he controls, denouncing and ridiculing his critics -- and rejecting allegations that he was abusing his ceremonial powers.
Girl reported killed in Kashmir shelling
MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan -- Indian troops backed by artillery and long-range guns fired on villages along the border in the Pakistani-administered side of the Kashmir region, killing a 13-year-old-girl and wounding her mother and brother, local officials and Pakistan's military said Sunday.
The military blamed the Indian army for initiating Saturday night's "unprovoked ceasefire violation" in the villages of Hajipir and Bedori. It said Pakistani troops "effectively responded" to the Indian fire, without elaborating.
Mortars fired by Indian troops also damaged several homes, according to local media reports and government officials. In neighboring India, the local police blamed Pakistani troops for initiating the fire, saying Pakistani mortar shelling wounded five Indian civilians on their side of Kashmir, which is divided between the two countries and claimed by both in its entirety.
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Pakistan and India often trade fire in the disputed Himalayan region, blaming each other for initiating the fire. The latest incident comes days after Indian fire killed four villagers in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
Tensions have soared between Pakistan and India since August, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist-led government revoked Muslim-majority Kashmir's decades-old semi-autonomous status, touching off anger in Indian-controlled Kashmir and in Pakistan.
Ash, gas pour out of Indonesian volcano
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia's most volatile volcano Sunday spewed ash and hot gas in a column nearly 4 miles into the sky.
Mount Merapi's clouds of ash, accompanied by a rumbling sound heard miles away, blanketed several villages on the main island of Java.
Indonesia's Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center did not raise Merapi's alert status, which already was at the third-highest level since it began erupting in August.
Villagers living on Merapi's fertile slopes are advised to stay about 2 miles from the crater's mouth and should be aware of the peril of lava, the agency said.
The 9,737-foot mountain is the most active of 500 Indonesian volcanoes. It has rumbled and generated dark hot clouds since last year.
Its last major eruption in 2010 killed 353 people.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
