NATO ships to help with refugee mission
BRUSSELS – In a dramatic response to Europe’s gravest refugee crisis since World War II, NATO ordered three warships to sail immediately Thursday to the Aegean Sea to help end the deadly smuggling of asylum-seekers across the waters from Turkey to Greece.
“This is about helping Greece, Turkey and the European Union with stemming the flow of migrants and refugees and coping with a very demanding situation ... a human tragedy,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
Yet even after the ships were told to get underway, NATO officials acknowledged uncertainties about the precise actions they would be performing – including whether they would take part in operations to rescue drowning migrants.
Death toll increases in German train crash
BERLIN – Police in southern Germany said Thursday that the death toll from a head-on train collision in Bavaria has risen to 11, after a man succumbed to his injuries two days after the crash.
Authorities are still trying to determine why the crash happened, a task made more difficult by the complicated process of removing the wreckage of the two trains involved.
“Sadly one of the crash victims died in hospital Thursday, raising the number of dead to 11,” Bad Aibling police said in a statement, identifying the man only as a 47-year-old from the Munich area.
Associated Press
