World

MADRID — Spain’s King Felipe VI on Thursday swore in the country’s new pro-EU government, with women holding the majority of ministerial posts.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez named 11 women to top posts including defence and economy in a Cabinet with six male ministers.

That makes it the European government with the highest ratio of female Cabinet ministers, ahead of Sweden’s, which has 12 women and 11 men.

But Sanchez’s administration risks not lasting until the end of the current mandate in 2020, however, given the fragmented state of Spain’s political parties.

His Socialist Party holds just 84 seats in the 350-seat congress, the smallest parliamentary presence of any Spanish government since the return to democracy in the 1970s.

Sanchez, 46, ousted conservative veteran Mariano Rajoy as prime minister last Friday in a parliamentary no-confidence vote.

The vote was sparked by corruption convictions against former officials from Rajoy’s Popular Party (PP), which had governed for six years.

Equality a priority 

At Thursday’s ceremony, the ministers broke with tradition by taking their oaths on the constitution rather than the Bible. 

They followed the example set by Sanchez, who became the first Spanish prime minister to forego religious symbols during his own swearing-in on Saturday.

The first minister to take the oath was veteran Socialist Carmen Calvo, a former culture minister, who became deputy prime minister and will also be in charge of equality.

Equality is a priority for Sanchez’s government in a country where women staged an unprecedented strike to defend their rights in March.

Calvo said her government would work to “build the greatest equality, that between men and women”.

The first measure the Socialists will propose to congress concerns gender violence training for judicial officials, the head of the party’s parliamentary group, Adriana Lastra, told reporters.

 An ordeal’ 

With its parliamentary minority, the government will rely on the votes of far-left party Podemos as well as Basque and Catalan nationalist lawmakers who supported his confidence motion.

Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias wished the new government “good luck”, adding during a TV interview that trying to govern with such a small minority “would probably be an ordeal” for Sanchez.

Podemos is pushing for greater social spending — a delicate issue given the European Union’s demands on budgetary discipline.

Sanchez has said the “main priority” will be to respect Madrid’s deficit reduction commitments to the EU.

Spain has promised to reduce its deficit to 2.2 per cent of GDP in 2018, which would bring it at last under the three per cent limit set by Brussels.

To maintain “stability”, Sanchez has also pledged to implement the 2018 budget crafted by the previous conservative government which includes pensions hikes and a salary increase for civil servants.

Sonia Lopez, a 40-year-old pastry chef, said she was not “expecting anything” from the new government.

“Before the government only looked after bosses, this one says it will look after workers. But if it does, it’s because it’s already competing for election next time round,” she said as she smoked a cigarette outside the luxury Madrid hotel where she works.

Pro-EU government 

EU Budget Manager Nadia Calvino was sworn-in as economy minister in a move welcomed by the EU Commission, and former European parliament president Josep Borrell became foreign minister.

The new Spanish executive’s pro-EU credentials sets it apart from certain other parts of Europe.

They contrast with the eurosceptic stance of the populist government about to take office in Italy and the Brexit process in Britain.

Anti-terror prosecutor Dolores Delgado became justice minister and former supreme court judge Margarita Robles defence minister.

Other women have been put in charge of budget, education, employment and health.

The new interior minister is Fernando Grande-Marlaska, an openly gay former judge at Spain’s top-level national court.

He has handled cases against Basque separatist group ETA.

New foreign minister Borrell, who fiercely opposes the independence movement in his home region of Catalonia, will be tasked with defending abroad his government’s commitment to Spanish unity.

Meritxell Batet, another Catalan, has been put in charge of relations with Spain’s regions.

She will have the prickly task of trying to ease the situation in her own deeply divided home region.

Sanchez’s new team also includes a minister in charge of science — Spain’s first astronaut, Pedro Duque.

PARIS — A Frenchman has won a million euros twice in the last eighteen months on the same lottery, media reported on Wednesday, a feat mathematicians said carried odds of around 16 trillion to one.

Le Parisien newspaper said the unnamed player, from the eastern Haute-Savoie region, held winning tickets on both 11 November 2016 and May 18 this year through My Million.

The lottery is linked to the Euro Millions franchise, which is offered in 12 European countries twice a week and carries enormous jackpots, sometimes worth more than 100 million euros.

French players who buy a Euro Millions ticket get automatically entered into the My Million draw which carries a lower top prize of one million euros ($1.2 million).

Unlike Euro Millions, players cannot choose their numbers for their My Million ticket. They are randomly generated instead.

Le Parisien quoted mathematicians as saying the odds of winning My Million was around 19 million to one while the harder to win Euro Millions was 140 million to one.

The French player’s luck mimics that of an Australian man who last month won a local lottery twice in the same week.

The unidentified man, in his 40s and from the suburb of Bondi, picked up Aus$1,020,487 ($770,000) and then scooped another Aus$1,457,834 just five days later.

ALOTENANGO, Guatemala — Rescue workers pulled more bodies on Monday from under the dust and rubble left by an explosive eruption of Guatemala’s Fuego volcano, bringing the death toll to at least 65.

Disaster Relief Agency spokesman David de Leon told a briefing that after hours of searching for survivors, the number of dead had hit at least 65.

In addition, there are 46 people injured, most of them seriously, more than 1.7 million being hit by the disaster, including 3,271 ordered evacuated and 1,787 in shelters in the departments of Escuintla, Sacatepequez and Chimaltenango since Sunday’s eruption.

The 3,763-metre volcano erupted early Sunday, spewing out towering plumes of ash and a hail of fiery rock fragments with scalding mud.

Authorities had warned the death toll could rise after searches resumed for survivors in communities on the mountain’s southern flank.

After an initial toll of 25 dead, it was revised upwards within hours as bodies were recovered from villages razed by the tumbling mud.

“There are missing persons, but we do not know how many,” said Sergio Cabanas of Guatemala’s disaster management agency. A roll call of communities on the slopes of the volcano was under way.

The speed and ferocity of the eruption took mountain communities by surprise, with many of the dead found in or around their homes.

Cabanas said those who were killed had been overrun by fast-moving burning material discharged by the volcano on Sunday. Communities located on its southern slope were the worst hit. Several of the dead were children. 

An AFP journalist saw at least three bodies burned in the rubble of the village of San Miguel Los Lotes, where rescue workers, soldiers and police were desperately searching for survivors.

Dead dogs, chickens and ducks also lay among the mud and ash, much of it still smoking.

“I do not want to leave, but go back, and there is nothing I can do to save my family,” a weeping Eufemia Garcia, 48, told AFP. She was searching for her three children, her mother, nephews and siblings.

Garcia, from Los Lotes, said she escaped with the help of her husband.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was deeply saddened by the “tragic loss of life and the significant damage caused by the eruption”, and said the UN was ready to assist national rescue and relief efforts.

National mourning 

President Jimmy Morales, who has declared three days of national mourning, visited the disaster zone.

“The volcano has erupted before, but never like this,” said Gustavo Larius, a 27-year-old bricklayer searching the streets of his village for missing family and friends, a handkerchief pressed over his mouth and nose.

The eruption sent ash billowing over the surrounding area, turning plants and trees gray and blanketing streets, cars and people.

Farmers covered in ash fled for their lives as civil defence workers tried to relocate them to shelters.

“This time we were saved; in another [eruption] no,” said Efrain Gonzalez, 52, sitting on the floor of a shelter in the city of Escuintla, where he arrived with his wife and one-year-old daughter.

Gonzalez was overwhelmed with despair, as two more of his children, aged ten and four, are missing. They were trapped in their home, which was flooded with hot mud that descended from the volcano.

Dense ash blasted out by the volcano shut down Guatemala City’s international airport, civil aviation officials said.

The eruption ended after 16.5 hours, but “there is a likelihood that it will reactivate”, warned the Institute of Volcanology.

Surprising speed 

The speed of the eruption took locals by surprise, and could be explained by it producing pyroclastic flows, sudden emissions of gas and rock fragments, rather than lava, said volcanologist David Rothery of Britain’s Open University.

“A lava flow rarely travels fast enough to engulf people,” he said.

“The videos and still images I’ve seen suggest instead one or more pyroclastic flows. This is when a violently erupted mass of rock fragments and hot gas finds itself too dense to rise as an ash column and instead cascades down the volcano’s slopes.

“Pyroclastic flows or surges can move at over 100 kilometres per hour, and may be hot enough to glow like molten lava. They can travel further, as well as much faster, than lava flows,” said Rothery.

Fuego has been erupting since 2002, and was continuously active in 2017. There were explosions and ash plumes and a volcanic mudflow last month. 

ALOTENANGO, Guatemala — Emergency workers were due to resume the search on Monday for Guatemalans missing after the eruption of the Fuego volcano, which belched out clouds of ash and flows of lava and left at least 25 people dead.

The volcano expelled hot muddy material that caused the deaths — including of several children — in communities located on its southern slope, disaster agency spokesman David de Leon said in a WhatsApp group.

Search and rescue operations were suspended due to low light and dangerous conditions, but were to resume early on Monday morning, he said.

The Institute of Volcanology said the eruption ended after over 16 hours of activity, but warned that it could resume again and recommended precautionary measures be maintained.

The eruption of the 3,763-metre  volcano sent ash billowing over the surrounding area, turning plants and trees gray and blanketing streets, cars and people.

Farmers covered in ash fled for their lives as civil defence workers tried to relocate them to shelters during the event.

"This time we were saved; in another [eruption] no," said Efrain Gonzalez, 52, sitting on the floor of a shelter in the city of Escuintla, where he arrived with his wife and one-year-old daughter after fleeing the hard-hit El Rodeo community.

Gonzalez was overwhelmed with despair, as two more of his children, aged ten and four, are missing. They were trapped in their home, which was flooded with hot mud that descended from the volcano.

National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (Conred) chief Sergio Cabanas did not rule out the number of dead increasing, as there are "missing persons, but we do not know how many".

Thousands evacuated, airport closed 

Cabanas said that the eruption also left 20 injured and affected more than 1.7 million people.

President Jimmy Morales and his government declared three days of mourning and a state of emergency for Escuintla, Chimaltenango and Sacatepequez, which must still be ratified by congress.

Hundreds of personnel from the police, Red Cross and military have been dispatched to support emergency operations, Morales said.

Cabanas said that the dead included a civil protection official.

Some 3,000 people were evacuated due to the eruption, which affected rural communities around the volcano as well as Antigua Guatemala, a colonial-era town very popular with tourists in the Central American country, he said.

Dense ash blasted out by the volcano shut down Guatemala City's international airport, civil aviation said.

People were working to clean ash off the runways to get the airport operating again.

The eruption is the second major one this year from the peak, following another that subsided at the beginning of February after sending ash towering 1.7 kilometres into the sky.

A September 2012 eruption of the volcano saw 10,000 people evacuated, while another in February 2015 forced the closure of the capital's main airport.

Apart from the Fuego volcano, there are two other active volcanos in Guatemala. One of them, Pacaya, is just 20 kilometres from Guatemala City.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Nearly half of all children in Afghanistan are out of school due to conflict, poverty, child marriage and discrimination against girls, with the number rising for the first time since 2002, humanitarian organisations said in a report on Sunday.

Spreading violence has forced many schools to close, undermining fragile gains in education for girls in a country where millions have never set foot in a classroom.

Some 3.7 million children between the ages of seven and 17, or 44 percent, are out of school, 2.7 million of them girls, Education Minister Mirwais Balkhi told a seminar, explaining a study conducted by UNICEF, USAID and the independent Samuel Hall think tank.

The Taliban, seeking to oust the US-backed government and return the country to strict Islamic rule after their 2001 ouster, are adamantly opposed to education for girls and threats from Daesh have forced the closure of dozens of schools.

Without mentioning the Taliban or Daesh, Balkhi said there were "many reasons" for children not going to school.

"Education of children is the most important development in all human communities," he said. "It is the most important tool in fighting war, poverty and unemployment."

In the worst affected provinces, up to 85 per cent of girls are not going to school, the aid groups said. They did not give specific time periods or comparisons.

In April this year, militants set ablaze two schools and widespread violence had led to closure of hundreds of private schools. 

"Business as usual is not an option for Afghanistan if we are to fulfil the right to education for every child," said Adele Khodr of UNICEF in the report.

"When children are not in school, they are at increased danger of abuse, exploitation and recruitment."

One teenage girl, Ziwar, from central Daikundi, one of the safest provinces in the country, said she had been at school until she was 14.

"I can read and write. I can write a letter," she told seminar delegates. "I learn from books. I want to continue my studies. I want to become a doctor in the future."

In Mazar-i-Sharif, capital of the northern province of Balkh, one girl was killed and 20 were injured in a stampede at a school as they rushed to collect their university entrance exam passes on Sunday.

MADRID — Socialist Pedro Sanchez took over as Spain's prime minister on Friday, after outgoing leader Mariano Rajoy lost a parliamentary confidence vote triggered by a long-running corruption trial involving members of his centre-right party.

Socialist Party head Sanchez becomes Spain's seventh prime minister since its return to democracy in the late 1970s following the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

But Rajoy's departure after six years in office casts one of the European Union's top four economies into an uncertain political landscape, just as another — Italy — pulled back from early elections.

Sanchez won Friday's no-confidence motion with 180 votes in favour, 169 against and 1 abstention.

He suggested on Thursday he would try to govern until the scheduled end of the parliamentary term in mid-2020. But it is unclear how long his administration, with only 84 Socialist deputies in the 350-member legislative assembly, can last.

With most Spanish parties and Sanchez himself being pro-European, investors however see less broader political risk there than in Italy.

Anti-establishment parties in Rome revived coalition plans on Thursday, ending three months of turmoil by announcing a government that promises to increase spending, challenge European Union fiscal rules and crack down on immigration.

"We've had a rude awakening of European political risks this week... but the situation in Spain is very different from Italy," said Michael Metcalfe, head of global macro strategy, State Street Global Markets.

"The parties leading in the polls in Spain are centrists so we're not getting the proposals for fiscal extremes as we have in Italy."

Many observers said Sanchez was in any case unlikely to call any vote until after European, local and regional elections take place in May next year.

He has already committed to respecting a budget passed by Rajoy, and the fragmented parliament means Sanchez will find it hard to row back on structural reforms passed by his predecessor, including new labour laws and cuts in healthcare and education.

Leftist Podemos, which will offer parliamentary support to Sanchez's government, is also unlikely to gain big influence over the new prime minister, who is keen to differentiate his Socialist Party from its anti-austerity ally and win back centrist voters.

Rajoy had conceded defeat prior to the no-confidence vote, earlier telling deputies: "Mr Sanchez will be the head of the government and let me be the first to congratulate him."

Rajoy's position had become increasingly untenable, undermined by his status as head of a corruption-tinged minority government as well as a divisive independence drive in the wealthy region of Catalonia.

The Basque Nationalist Party, whose five seats were key to Sanchez securing enough parliamentary backing, withdrew support from Rajoy after dozens of people linked to his centre-right People's Party were sentenced to decades in jail in a corruption trial.

Two Catalan pro-independence parties as well as Podemos also backed Sanchez. Market-friendly Ciudadanos, leading in the national opinion polls, was the only major party that supported Rajoy.

Sanchez has promised to start talks with the Catalans but said he will not give them an independence referendum.

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump on Thursday said he expects a letter from Kim Jong-un confirming plans for their historic nuclear summit, as their top envoys thrashed out details at New York talks.

As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held talks in a New York apartment with the North Korean leader's right-hand man, Kim Yong-chol, back in Washington Trump expressed optimism.

"I look forward to seeing what's in the letter," Trump said, adding that Pompeo's high-stakes diplomatic encounter, which began over dinner on Wednesday, appeared to be going "very well". 

"They will probably be coming to Washington DC on Friday to deliver the letter so I look forward to that," he said.

Neither Kim nor Pompeo acknowledged questions from reporters as they met in a senior US diplomat's apartment in the Corinthian, a luxury high-rise condo with a dramatic view over UN headquarters and mid-town Manhattan.

But, after their morning of discussions, Pompeo tweeted: "Substantive talks with the team from #NorthKorea. We discussed our priorities for the potential summit between our leaders."

Pompeo was due to hold a news conference, and a North Korean official told AFP the delegation was making a decision on when to head to Washington.

Washington has demanded that the North agree to a "complete, verifiable and irreversible" end to Pyongyang's nuclear programme, which is close to the point where it could threaten US cities with missile strikes.

Pyongyang is seeking international recognition and security guarantees and it is far from clear whether its own vision of the "denuclearisation" of the Korean Peninsula can be brought in line with Washington's.

Nevertheless — after a wobble earlier this month when Trump briefly cancelled the planned summit — US diplomats are negotiating with the North in New York and a summit planning team is in Singapore.

Kim Yong-chol is the most senior official from Pyongyang to visit the United States in 18 years and Pompeo, in his former role as CIA chief, met secretly earlier this year with Kim Jong-un to launch the summit process. 

On Wednesday, Pompeo tweeted: "Good working dinner with Kim Yong Chol in New York tonight. Steak, corn, and cheese on the menu."

US officials have been tight-lipped about the talks, but one senior figure said: "They are meeting to see what needs to be done in the two weeks that remain.

"Between now and if we're going to have a summit, they're going to have to make clear what they're willing to do."

US and North Korean envoys have also been meeting in Panmunjom in the Demilitarised Zone between North and South Korea.

Washington wants North Korea to quickly give up all its nuclear weapons in a verifiable way in return for sanctions and economic relief.

But analysts say North Korea will be unwilling to cede its nuclear deterrent unless it is given security guarantees that the US will not try to topple the regime.

Russia urges caution 

Meanwhile, Russia's foreign minister arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday for talks with Kim Jong-un and warned against setting expectations too high, urging all sides to "avoid the temptation to demand everything and now".

"We believe it is very important to treat these contacts in a very delicate manner, not to make any abrupt movements, to artificially speed up the process that requires a significant amount of time," Lavrov said, according to a transcript released by the Russian foreign ministry.

"We call on all involved sides to fully appreciate their responsibility for not allowing this very important but still fragile process to break down," he said, adding that Russia was ready to contribute to ongoing diplomatic efforts.

Photos and video released by Russian state media showed Kim and Lavrov, who was making his first visit to the North since 2009, shaking hands.

Lavrov passed on greetings from President Vladimir Putin to Kim and invited him to visit Russia, the Russian foreign ministry said.

Russia is the latest major nation to reach out to North Korea since Trump accepted Kim's proposal for a summit to defuse tensions. Kim has already had two meetings each with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Lavrov spoke with Pompeo by telephone for the first time Wednesday, ahead of his Pyongyang trip.

KIEV — "Murdered" anti-Kremlin journalist Arkady Babchenko appeared alive and well at a press conference in Kiev on Wednesday as Ukraine admitted it had faked his death to expose an alleged Russian plot to kill him.

Onlookers gasped and applauded as Babchenko appeared, introduced by the head of Ukraine's security service, who said the murder had been staged in order to foil an attempt on his life by Moscow.

Less than 24 hours before, Ukraine said the reporter had died from three gunshots to the back in the stairwell of his apartment building in a contract-style killing in a case that provoked an outpouring of grief and a diplomatic spat.

"Thanks to this operation we were able to foil a cynical plot and document how the Russian security service was planning for this crime," Security Service Head Vasyl Grytsak said at the press conference.

Grytsak announced authorities had arrested the alleged mastermind of the plot, saying a Ukrainian citizen named only by the initial G. had offered to pay a hitman to carry out the killing after being recruited by Russian special forces and paid $40,000.

Put wife through 'hell' 

Grytsak also thanked Babchenko and his family, who he said were in the loop about the secret operation.

The reporter, however, apologised to his wife for putting her through "this hell she had to live through for three days...but there was no other option".

News of the "death" of the prominent Russian war correspondent and former soldier set off a series of recriminations between Kiev and Moscow, and pictures and flowers were laid by mourners at the Russian embassy in Kiev.

Ukrainian officials led by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman accused Russia of being behind the killing of the Kremlin critic, a charge that Moscow batted back.

'Pathetic stunt' 

After the truth of the reported assassination came to light, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it was "great news" that Babchenko was alive. 

But on Twitter, she slammed the "propagandistic effect" of the set-up.

Reporters Without Borders also condemned the faked death.

"It is pathetic and regrettable that the Ukrainian police have played with the truth, whatever their motive... for the stunt," Christophe Deloire, the head of the Paris-based media watchdog, told AFP.

Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov, a former colleague of Babchenko, also questioned the value of the operation.

"To me, it's crossing a line big time. Babchenko is a journalist not a policeman, for Christ sake, and part of our job is trust, whatever Trump & Putin say about fake news," he wrote on Twitter. 

"I'm glad he is alive, but he undermined even further the credibility of journalists and the media," he added.

 'Repeated 

death threats' 

A number of Kremlin critics have been killed in Ukraine in recent years, with one gunned down on a Kiev street in broad daylight and another whose car exploded.

Babchenko fought in Russia's two Chechen campaigns in the 1990s and early 2000s before becoming a war correspondent and author. He repeatedly said he faced death threats.

He has contributed to a number of media outlets including top opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta and is an avid blogger, accusing Russian authorities of killing Kremlin critics and unleashing wars in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere.

He wrote about his experience as a young soldier in the Chechen campaigns in a book published in English under the title "One Soldier's War".

Babchenko left Russia in February 2017 after receiving threats, living first in the Czech Republic, then in Israel, before moving to Kiev. 

He has hosted a programme on the Crimean Tatar TV station ATR for the past year.

Babchenko made a name for himself with his poignant reportages from the frontlines, including the conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 10,000 people.

In recent years, his increasingly bombastic posts pushed the boundaries of good taste and some of his colleagues and followers stopped reading him on Facebook.

LIEGE, Belgium — A gunman on Tuesday shot dead two female police officers with their own weapons before killing a bystander in a brazen suspected terror attack in Belgium, briefly taking a hostage at a school before being killed by police.

The carnage in the gritty eastern industrial city of Liege began around 10:30am (08:30 GMT) when the attacker armed with a knife repeatedly stabbed the two officers before using their own firearms to kill them, prosecutors said.

Federal prosecutors said they had launched a terror investigation into the incident, which comes as Belgium remains on high alert after a string of attacks including twin suicide bombings in Brussels in 2016 claimed by the Daesh terror group.

“Armed with a knife, the suspect followed and attacked two police officers, and used their own firearms to kill them,” prosecutor Philippe Dulieu told a news conference. 

“He continued on foot, attacking a parked vehicle where he opened fire on a 22-year-old man in the passenger seat. The young man died.

“He then continued and entered the Leonie de Waha school. He took a woman working there as hostage. Police intervened, he came out firing on the police officers, wounding several before he was killed.”

Eric Van Der Sypt, spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office, told AFP there were “elements that point in the direction that this is a terrorist act”, while police confirmed that both officers killed in the attack were women.

According to Belgian broadcaster RTBF, the shooter was released from prison on Monday and was only known for minor infractions with no known links to extremism.

Liege, a major city in Belgium’s former industrial heartland, was the scene of another bloody shootout in 2011 when a former convict armed with grenades and an automatic rifle killed six people and wounded more than 120.

‘Cowardly violence’ 

Prime Minister Charles Michel denounced what he called “cowardly and blind violence”.

“All our support for the victims and their loved ones. We are following the situation with the security services and the crisis centre,” Michel Tweeted.

There was support from other European countries, with French President Emmanuel Macron condemning the incident as a “terrible attack” and expressing the “solidarity of the French people”.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the UK “stands resolute with our Belgian allies against terror”.

Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon said Belgium’s Federal Crisis Centre was monitoring the situation.

“Our thoughts are with the victims of this horrible act. We are in the process of establishing an overview of exactly what happened,” Jambon wrote on Twitter. 

A major security cordon was set up around the area, while panicked parents came to collect their children from the school complex.

The governor of Liege province said all the children and staff were safe and unhurt.

“All the children are fine, those of the primary and kindergarten saw nothing, they were evacuated through the back of the school,” Julie Fernandez, mother of a 7-year-old child at the school, told AFP.

“They were cared for by staff and psychologists, and high school students were cared for in a nearby park,” added Fernandez, who is also an MP.

Terror alert 

Belgium has been on high alert since the smashing of a terror cell in the town of Verviers in January 2015 that was planning an attack on police.

The cell also had links to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind of the November 2015 Daesh attacks on Paris that killed 130 people. 

Belgium further raised its terror alert level after the Paris attack and placed the capital Brussels on lockdown for a week. 

The country was then hit by its own Daesh suicide attacks on Brussels airport and a metro station, which killed 32 people in March 2016.

In August that same year, a machete-wielding man shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) attacked two policewomen in the industrial town of Charleroi before being shot dead. 

The country’s law enforcement agencies and intelligence services came under intense scrutiny for apparently missing a series of leads after the Paris attacks that could have led to the Brussels bombers.

ROME — Italy's president set the country on a path back to fresh elections on Monday, appointing a former International Monetary Fund official as interim prime minister with the task of planning for snap polls and passing the next budget.

The decision to appoint Carlo Cottarelli to form a stopgap administration sets the stage for elections that are likely to be fought over Italy's role in the European Union and the eurozone, a prospect that is rattling global financial markets. 

The eurozone's third-largest economy has been seeking a new government since inconclusive March elections, with anti-establishment forces abandoning their efforts to form a ruling coalition at the weekend after a standoff with the president.

President Sergio Mattarella vetoed the parties' choice of a eurosceptic as economy minister, prompting the 5-Star Movement and far-right League Party to accuse him of betraying voters and to drop their plan to take power.

Cottarelli told reporters after his appointment that elections would be held in the autumn or early next year. He also tried to reassure investors on the Italian economy.

"Speaking as an economist, in the past few days the tensions on the financial markets have increased," said Cottarelli, who had served as a cost-cutting tsar to a previous government.

"Nonetheless the Italian economy is still growing and the public accounts remain under control. I can absolutely guarantee that a government led by me would assure a prudent management of our public accounts," he added.

The prospect of fresh elections raised fears among investors that the vote could become a de facto referendum on Italy's euro membership. The euro hit a fresh six-month low and yields on Italian debt climbed, increasing the extra borrowing costs or spread that Italy pays in comparison with Germany.

Already Italian politicians are back in campaign mode.

A 5-Star source said it was considering an election alliance with the League. In March, 5-Star ran its own campaign, while the League campaigned as part of a right-wing coalition, including with the party of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

"This is not a democracy, this doesn't respect the popular vote," League chief Matteo Salvini said in a statement after Cottarelli accepted his appointment by the president.

Salvini characterised the move as the political establishment lashing out in its death throes, intent on keeping Italy enslaved and afraid of the reaction of financial markets.

"The next elections will be a plebiscite — the population and real life against old political castes and the 'lords of the spread'," Salvini added. 

Failure likely 

Cottarelli must try in the coming hours to form a government with majority support from parliament. He seems almost certain to fail — Berlusconi's Forza Italia Party refused to back Cottarelli even before he was appointed — at which point the president would swear in him and his proposed Cabinet, to serve until the next election.

He has been tasked with passing the 2019 budget by the end of this year, a challenge that may prove impossible without the confidence of parliament. In those circumstances, elections could be held as soon as September.

Voters at a Rome market criticised 5-Star and the League. 

"It is ridiculous. They had so much time to sort themselves out and they also had an electoral campaign to explain their policies which did not include leaving the euro," pensioner Nuccio Lugini told Reuters.

Shopper Irene Teramo also backed the president in his decision to veto the economy minister. "I am a mother of a boy who has to travel the world and so I am convinced an anti-European minister is not the right thing for Italy," she said.

Fundamental choice

In a televised address on Sunday, Mattarella said he had rejected the coalition's candidate for the crucial economy portfolio, 81-year-old Paolo Savona, because the economist had threatened to pull Italy out of the euro zone.

"The uncertainty over our position has alarmed investors and savers both in Italy and abroad," Mattarella said, adding: "Membership of the euro is a fundamental choice. If we want to discuss it, then we should do so in a serious fashion."

The League and 5-Star, which had spent days drawing up a coalition pact aimed at ending the stalemate that has lasted since March, responded with fury to Mattarella, accusing him of abusing his office.

5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio called on parliament to impeach the mild-mannered Mattarella. League chief Salvini threatened mass protests unless snap elections were called.

"If there's not the OK of Berlin, Paris or Brussels, a government cannot be formed in Italy. It's madness, and I ask the Italian people to stay close to us because I want to bring democracy back to this country," Salvini told reporters.

However, Salvini later dismissed Di Maio's call. "We need to keep cool. Some things cannot be done in the throes of anger... I don't want to talk about impeachment," he told Radio Capital.