SERBIA: Hundreds of Serbian students and others briefly blocked traffic throughout the country today as political tensions continue to simmer following last month’s collapse of a concrete canopy that killed 15 people.

The 15-minute traffic blockades have taken place every Friday at 11.52 am, the exact time on November 1 when tons of concrete came crashing down on people standing underneath outside a railway station building in the northern city of Novi Sad.

UNITED NATIONS:  More than 40 million people are now struggling to feed themselves across west and central Africa with that number set to rise to 52 million by the middle of next year, the United Nations food agency said today.

According to a new report, the World Food Programme said 3.4 million people are currently facing “emergency levels of hunger” in the region, representing a 70 per cent increase in such cases since the summer.

GREECE: A speedboat carrying refugees capsized this morning off the eastern Greek island of Rhodes, leaving eight dead and 18 rescued, Greek authorities said.

The coast guard said the incident occurred while the speedboat was carrying out “dangerous manoeuvres” to try to evade a patrol vessel, causing passengers to fall in the sea.

CROATIA: A knife-wielding teenager walked into a school in Croatia’s capital Zagreb today, killing a seven-year-old student and injuring three more children and a teacher, authorities said.

Authorities said the knife attack happened at the Precko Elementary School in the neighbourhood of the same name. They described the attacker as a 19-year-old male and said he had been detained after inflicting injuries to himself.