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ATHENS — Greece's prime minister on Sunday asked for forgiveness from the families of the 57 dead in the nation's worst rail disaster as thousands of furious protesters rallied in Athens and clashed with police.

"As prime minister, I owe it to everyone, but especially to the victims' relatives, [to ask for] forgiveness," Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote in a message addressed to the nation.

"For the Greece of 2023, two trains heading in different directions cannot run on the same line and no one notice," Mitsotakis said in the message posted on his Facebook page.

The crash between passenger and freight trains near the city of Larissa on Tuesday has sparked widespread outrage across Greece.

Thousands of angry demonstrators gathered outside the parliament in Athens on Sunday following a call by students, rail workers and public sector employees.

AFP journalists saw violent clashes erupt between police and the protesters.

They had released hundreds of black balloons into the sky in memory of the dead, with some holding signs reading "Down with killer governments", while train and metro services were paralysed by strike action.

Michalis Hasiotis, head of the chartered accountants' union, told AFP they felt "an immense anger", blaming "the thirst for profit, the lack of measures taken for the passengers' protection" for the disaster.

Relatives and loved ones of those killed were also expected to gather Sunday for a memorial outside Larissa station, central Greece, near the site of the accident.

The station master implicated in the disaster was due in court on Sunday, a hearing postponed from the previous day, where he may face charges of negligent homicide.

Hellenic Train, the rail company that has become the focus of some of the anger expressed in the wake of the crash, released a statement late Saturday defending its actions.

Hundreds of people had demonstrated during the week outside their Athens headquarters, and one legal source has said that investigators are looking at the possibility of bringing charges against senior members of the company.

Over the last few days, rail union officials have insisted they warned the company about the safety issues on the line. Hard questions are also being asked of the government over its failure to pursue rail safety reforms.

The demonstrations and vigils across Greece have expressed a combination of grief and anger at the disaster, which happened when a passenger train and a freight train collided.

Syntagma Square, next to the Greek parliament in Athens, was the scene of clashes between police and angry protesters on Friday night.

Candle-lit marches and ceremonies have also been held in memory of the victims, many of them students who were returning from a weekend break.

"What happened was not an accident, it was a crime," said one protester, Sophia Hatzopoulou, 23, a philosophy student in Thessaloniki.

"We can't watch all this happen and remain indifferent."

At least nine young people studying at Thessaloniki's Aristotle University were among those killed on the passenger train.

'New elements' in case 

The station master at Larissa, whose identity has not been made public, has admitted responsibility for the accident, which happened after the two trains ran along the same track for several kilometres.

The 59-year-old man, if he is charged with negligent homicide, faces life in jail if convicted.

But his lawyer Stefanos Pantzartsidis insisted on Saturday: "In the case, there are important new elements that need to be examined."

Details have emerged in Greek media of the station master's relative inexperience in the post and the fact that he was left unsupervised during a busy holiday weekend.

Safety warnings 

"These are particularly difficult days for the country and for our company," Hellenic Train said in a statement late Saturday, pointing out that it had lost nine of its own employees in the crash.

Its staff were quick to reach the scene of the disaster and had been working closely with rescue teams and the authorities ever since, the company added.

Kostas Genidounias, the head of the train drivers' union OSE, has said they had already warned the authorities about safety failings on the line where the crash happened.

And union leaders at Hellenic Train sounded the alarm just three weeks ago.

"We are not going to wait for the accident to happen to see those responsible shed crocodile tears," they said at the time.

ROME — Under-fire Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Saturday rejected any responsibility of her government for a devastating shipwreck off Italy’s southern coast last weekend which left at least 69 people dead.

“The situation is as simple as it is tragic: We received no emergency signals from Frontex,” the European border and coast guard agency, Meloni insisted, dismissing claims authorities were slow to react.

“We did everything possible to save lives as soon as we were alerted to a problem... we were not forewarned,” said Meloni, whose far-right government takes a hardline stance on migration, during a visit to the United Arab Emirates.

The government is under pressure as it faces opposition calls for Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi to resign.

The Italian judicial system is investigating the time it took for rescue services to reach the vessel, which left Turkey with some 200 migrants and went down off Steccato in the southern region of Calabria.

The death toll earlier reached 69 after authorities found the body of an infant aged around three.

Prosecutors in Crotone opened an investigation on Thursday into what went wrong in the rescue operation.

Two patrol boats dispatched by the Italian authorities were unable to intercept the wooden vessel owing to bad weather after Frontex reported spotting it the previous evening before it sank in stormy seas.

In an open letter to Meloni, the mayor of Crotone, Vincenzo Voce, slammed Meloni.

“The community of Crotone, struck by immense pain, awaited on your part a message, an appeal, a sign -- which was not forthcoming,” wrote Voce.

“I am seeking solutions. Italy cannot resolve the problem alone — but in order to prevent more people dying we must stop illegal departures,” Meloni retorted.

Rome has been accusing its EU partners of not showing enough solidarity with Italy for years, after dealing with arrivals of tens of thousands of migrants.

The country’s interior ministry says more than 14,000 migrants, including 1,700 minors, have reached Italian shores so far this year — more than twice as many as for the same period last year.

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has come under fire for his party’s proposal to reduce student debt for those who have children, as the country struggles to raise its low birthrate.

Kishida has pledged “unprecedented” measures to tackle the country’s perennially low birthrate, and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is reportedly drafting a set of policy recommendations on the issue for the government.

But the reported debt forgiveness plan has sparked anger.

“Scholarship debt reduction and whether an individual would have a baby or not are completely different issues, aren’t they?” opposition lawmaker Noriko Ishigaki asked Kishida at an upper house session Friday.

“This is a policy that requires a child in return for reducing scholarship debts, [it’s]... a bad, unprecedented measure to tackle the low birthrate,” Ishigaki said.

Kishida said little on the substance of the proposal, insisting only that “free and vigorous debate should be respected”.

“This is like saying ‘pay with your body!’, ‘give birth to a child if you want to reduce debts’. I wonder what they are thinking. Childbirth can risk your life. So cruel,” one Twitter user said.

“The LDP’s policies [are] always treating humans as if they are livestock,” history writer Masahiro Yamazaki said in another tweet.

Others called the plan “incomprehensible” and “abnormal”, and wrote that “whether to have a child or not is a matter of personal decisions in the first place”.

Masahiko Shibayama, an LDP lawmaker who heads a team discussing the issue, told private broadcasters TBS and TV Asahi that the plan was aimed at financially supporting families with children, not punishing those without them.

“We are discussing this as an expansion of support for child-rearing rather than a policy linked to childbirth,” he told TV Asahi.

“It is extremely regrettable that this was taken in a context that it wouldn’t give benefits unless giving birth.”

The LDP is expected to submit its policy recommendations to Kishida’s government by the end of this month, according to local media.

In a policy address in January, Kishida said Japan’s low birth rate and ageing population posed an urgent risk to society, adding that “focusing attention on policies regarding children and child-rearing is an issue that cannot wait and cannot be postponed”.

Birth rates are declining in many developed countries, but in Japan the issue is particularly acute.

The country has the world’s second-highest proportion of people aged 65 and over, after the tiny state of Monaco, according to World Bank data.

LARISSA, Greece — The station master involved in Greece's worst-ever train disaster had his court appearance postponed by a day on Saturday as the country braced for more mass protests over the crash that killed at least 57 people.

Thousands of protesters have demonstrated across the nation since Tuesday's collision between a passenger train and a freight train, with public anger mounting over government failure to manage the rail network.

More demonstrations were expected in several major cities Saturday evening, and a large rally of students and railway employees was set for Sunday in the capital's Syntagma Square, adjacent to parliament.

The emotionally charged first burials of victims of the crash began Saturday.

Relatives of the dead were also expected to gather for a memorial outside a Larissa station on Sunday.

"What happened was not an accident, it was a crime," said Sophia Hatzopoulou, 23, a philosophy student in Thessaloniki.

"We can't watch all this happen and remain indifferent."

The train was carrying many students returning from a holiday weekend and at least nine young people studying at Thessaloniki's Aristotle University were among the dead, while another 26 others were injured.

The station master at Larissa, central Greece, has admitted responsibility for the accident, which saw the two trains run along the same track for several kilometres.

The 59-year-old had been due to appear in court on Saturday where he could face charges of negligent homicide but will now appear on Sunday, his lawyer said.

He risks life in jail if found guilty, but his lawyer has argued that other factors were at play.

"In the case, there are important new elements that need to be examined," his lawyer Stefanos Pantzartsidis said.

Public broadcaster ERT reported the station master had been appointed to the post only 40 days earlier — and after just three months' training.

The man, whose identity has not been made public, was apparently alone at the station without any supervisor, according to the Kathimerini Daily, despite it being a holiday weekend with high demand and heavy rail traffic.

Legal sources suggested that investigators were also considering criminal charges against members of the management of train operator Hellenic Train, which took over network operations in 2017.

Police seized audio files and other items during a raid on the Larissa train station in central Greece, where the crash happened, a judicial source told AFP.

And the government has set up a committee to investigate the causes of the accident.

Hundreds of people observed a minute of silence outside the Greek parliament Friday, but riot police and a small group of protesters later clashed in central Athens.

At the rally in Syntagma Square, officers fired tear gas and stun grenades at protesters throwing stones and Molotov cocktails, an AFP reporter said. 

A similar number demonstrated in Thessaloniki — Greece’s second largest city — where police had reported clashes on Thursday with demonstrators throwing stones and petrol bombs.

Greece’s train services were paralysed on Thursday by striking workers arguing that successive administrations’ mismanagement of the network had contributed to the fatal collision.

That strike continued into Friday and was set to last another 48 hours.

‘Complete evaluation’ 

Survivors described scenes of horror and chaos. Some relatives were still desperately awaiting news of missing loved ones.

The clean-up operation continued Saturday with technical crews sifting through scattered debris and removing train carriages from the site.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is seeking re-election this spring, has blamed the disaster on “tragic human error”. 

But rail unions say safety problems on the Athens-Thessaloniki railway line had been known for years.

For decades, Greece’s 2,552-kilometre rail network has been plagued by mismanagement, poor maintenance and obsolete equipment.

MOSCOW — Russia's defence minister has inspected troops in frontline regions in east Ukraine, after the United States offered more support to Kyiv, whose forces are struggling in eastern Bakhmut.

Sergei Shoigu inspected an advance command post in the direction of the south of the Donetsk region, the defence ministry said, without specifying exactly where or when.

It put out a rare video of Shoigu travelling in a helicopter and talking to a soldier in front of damaged buildings.

Shoigu handed state awards to some servicemen and held a meeting with his deputies "on organising the uninterrupted provision of troops with armaments, military hardware and ordnance", his ministry later said.

The visit came with fighting ongoing around Bakhmut, in the longest battle of the invasion that has revealed rivalries between the conventional army and the Wagner paramilitary group.

Wagner chef Yevgeny Prigozhin said Friday his fighters had "practically encircled" Bakhmut, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict.

Well-versed in social media, Prigozhin has for weeks been publicising the advances of his men towards the eastern city, whose symbolic importance outstrips any military significance.

Prigozhin regularly posts videos of himself alongside mercenaries, on the ground or even in a fighter jet, in contrast with Russian generals criticised for shirking the frontline.

In the latest video on Friday, Prigozhin directly called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to abandon Bakhmut, which Russia is determined to seize as part of the wider aim of capturing the entire Donetsk region.

'As long as it takes' 

Zelensky has pledged to defend "fortress Bakhmut" for as long as possible, and called on allies to intensify their support to help his men do so.

On Saturday the president of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola visited Ukraine, where she called for the country to be allowed to begin its EU membership negotiations this year.

US President Joe Biden on Friday hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for his first visit since the offensive, in a display of partnership after friction over supplying tanks to Ukraine.

Ahead of the meeting, the Kremlin warned weapon deliveries would only “prolong the conflict and have sad consequences for the Ukrainian people”.

The United States responded to Moscow’s warning against further arming Ukraine by offering another $400 million in security assistance.

When Biden and Scholz last met “Russia was amassing its troops” on the border, the US president said, adding the West had vowed to respond and “together we made good on that promise”.

In reply, Scholz said it was important to send a message to Ukraine that “we will continue to [support it] as long as it takes and as long as it necessary”.

The new security package features ammunition — including for the HIMARS precision rocket system that Ukrainian forces have used to devastating effect against Russian troops and supply dumps.

‘Severe pressure’ 

Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov praised the package as “a solid investment in the future success of the Ukrainian army on the battlefield,” where Western military aid has been key to Kyiv’s ability to hold out and to even regain ground.

In the east however, Zelensky and several Ukrainian officials recognised an increasingly difficult situation around Bakhmut this week.

Sergiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukrainian forces, said Saturday the situation was “difficult but under control” in the city that he described as a “priority target for the enemy”.

The British defence ministry’s intelligence update on Saturday said Ukraine was “under increasingly severe pressure, with intense fighting taking place in and around the city... Ukrainian-held resupply routes out of the town are increasingly limited”.

It also said Wagner and the regular army advanced in the northern suburbs of the city, now “vulnerable to Russian attacks on three sides”.

While the epicentre of the fighting is in the east of Ukraine, the death toll from a strike this week on an apartment block in southern Zaporizhzhia has now risen to 10.

Moscow says its regions bordering Ukraine are routinely shelled by Ukrainian forces, but on Thursday it reported a rare instance of fighting inside Russia.

Russian security services said a group of Ukrainian combatants had crossed into the southern Bryansk region and opened fire on a car, killing two civilians and injuring a child.

Kyiv dismissed the claims as a “deliberate provocation.”

KINSHASA — Brussels said on Saturday it was setting up a “humanitarian air bridge” to deliver aid to conflict-hit eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as the visiting French president said all sides had given support to a ceasefire next week.

The air bridge will link with Goma, the capital of the DRC’s eastern North Kivu province, where fighting with the rebel group M23 has displaced more than 600,000 people.

The operation will “deliver humanitarian support in the form of medical and nutritional supplies along with a range of other emergency items”, a European Commission statement said.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron, visiting the country on the last leg of his African tour aimed at renewing frayed ties, said that all sides would support a ceasefire in the fighting.

During talks with Angolan President Joao Lourenco and DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, as well as Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Macron said all had “given clear support” to a ceasefire next Tuesday, as envisaged in the timeline mediated by Angola.

The EU said it was also releasing some 47 million euros to be channelled through humanitarian partners for immediate needs such as nutrition, healthcare, shelter and water.

“The EU stands ready to mobilise all the necessary means to support humanitarian workers, including logistics and air, to meet the needs of the population in Democratic Republic of Congo,” said the EU’s commissioner for crisis management Janez Lenarcic.

The DRC government has accused Rwanda of backing the militia group M23, which re-emerged from dormancy in late 2021, subsequently occupying swathes of territory in North Kivu.

Independent UN experts, the United States and other western countries — including France  — agree with Kinshasa’s assessment, but Rwanda denies the charge.

‘Strategic partner’ 

Anti-French sentiment runs high in some former African colonies as the continent becomes a renewed diplomatic battleground, with Russian and Chinese influence growing.

On Thursday Macron said the era of French interference in Africa had ended and there was no desire to return to the past.

The French President met on Friday with President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the neighbouring Republic of Congo, after visiting Angola and Gabon.

In the Angolan capital Luanda, Macron held talks with his counterpart Joao Lourenco, calling the oil-rich country a “strategic partner in the region”.

Macron, who chaired an economic forum attended by more than 50 French companies, said the “heart of this visit is the strengthening of agricultural partnerships” with Angola.

France has for decades been involved in the petroleum industry in the Portuguese-speaking southern African country, which is one of the continent’s top crude producers.

Before leaving Luanda, the French president thanked Lourenco for his work to restore stability to the region, highlighting his diplomatic efforts in conflict-torn eastern DRC.

He added that there are “legitimate hopes” for a de-escalation in the turbulent region.

Macron also met with Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera in Gabon on Thursday, after relations had deteriorated as Russian influence increased in Bangui and French troops left the troubled country last year.

LARISSA, Greece — The Greek government on Thursday acknowledged failures in state management of its rail system, following a train collision that killed 48 and has triggered angry protests.

As crews continued to work in the charred wreckage at the crash site, the local station master admitted negligence in Greece's worst-ever rail disaster and the government has apologised.

An investigation would examine the "chronic delays in implementing railway works, delays caused by chronic public sector malaise and decades of failure", said government spokesman Yiannis Economou.

The crash happened late Tuesday when a freight and passenger train were allowed to speed towards each other for several kilometres before colliding near a tunnel outside Larissa in central Greece.

The 59-year-old station manager was arrested after officials determined "human error" was involved in the collision in which two carriages were demolished and a restaurant car caught fire, trapping many victims inside.

"I believe the responsibility, the negligence, the error has been confessed by the station master," Economou told reporters in Athens.

Five years after the state-owned Greek rail operator Trainose was privatised and sold to Italy's Ferrovie Dello Stato Italiane and became Hellenic Train, safety systems on the Athens-Thessaloniki line are still not fully automated.

Train unionists have said safety shortcomings for the Athens-Thessaloniki railway line had been known for years.

The country's transport minister resigned Wednesday amid claims that safety warnings on the line had been neglected for years, and his replacement on Thursday offered his "apologies" to families of the victims and vowed a "complete evaluation of the political system and the state".

"I want to say, while looking these people straight in the eye, that there will be an inquiry and everything will be presented to Greek citizens," Giorgos Gerapetritis said.

A fire department spokeswoman told AFP that rescue crews had worked all night in search for survivors, but chances of finding more were dwindling.

"Time is not on our side," she said.

After visiting the site on Wednesday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that "Everything shows that the drama was, sadly, mainly due to a tragic human error".

Passengers described scenes of horror and chaos from the crash, many dodging smashed glass and debris as the train keeled over, and breaking windows to climb out.

The train's restaurant car erupted in flames after the collision, with temperatures inside reaching 1,300 degrees Celsius, the fire department said.

For hours after the crash it was not immediately clear how many people were on board, complicating efforts to determine how many are missing.

Roubini Leontari, the chief coroner at Larissa's general hospital, told state broadcaster ERT on Thursday that over 10 people were still unaccounted for, including two Cyprus nationals.

TV footage from the wreck site showed a crane lifting the mangled remains of a carriage, under which a body was believed to be trapped.

"It was a student train, full of kids... in their 20s," Costas Bargiotas, a senior orthopaedic doctor at Larissa General Hospital, told Skai TV.

"It was truly shocking... the carriages crumpled like paper," he said.

Many bodies were charred beyond recognition and some victims were being identified only from their remains.

Seventeen biological samples have been collected from remains, and from 23 relatives seeking a match, the police said.

Angry demonstrators rallied outside the Athens office of Hellenic Train on Wednesday evening, as police used tear gas to disperse protesters who threw rocks at the building.

Earlier in Larissa, demonstrators held a silent vigil and brought white roses to form the word Tempe, the name of the valley where the accident took place.

Nikos Savva, a medical student from Cyprus, told AFP that the disaster was only a matter of time.

"The rail network looked problematic, with worn down, badly paid staff," he said.

Authorities have declared three days of national mourning.

Hospitals in three cities — Larissa, Thessaloniki and Katerini — were treating the dozens of wounded, six of whom are in intensive care.

Hundreds of people also gathered in Larissa to donate blood needed to treat the injured.

The tragedy will loom large in the coming reelection bid by Prime Minister Mitsotakis, who was expected to announce an election for April.