Briefly

FRANCE

Le Pen threatens to withdraw govt support

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen issued a new threat on Monday to bring down France's coalition government in a no-confidence vote after talks with Prime Minister Michel Barnier failed to satisfy her party's demands for budget concessions. Le Pen said she was not optimistic a compromise on the belt-tightening 2025 budget bill could be reached. Reflecting the growing risk that Barnier's government could fall, the premium investors' demand to hold French bonds over German ones flirted with highs not seen in over 12 years.

LITHUANIA

Spain, Germany to join DHL plane crash probe

Investigators from Germany and Spain will join the Lithuanian authorities to find out what caused a DHL plane crash in Vilnius, Laurynas Naujokaitis, director of the Lithuanian Justice Ministry's Transport Accident and Incident Investigation Division, said on Monday. The Boeing 737-476 plane was owned by Spanish airline Swift Air. While flying from Leipzig, Germany, on behalf of German shipping company DHL, it crashed into a residential building near the Vilnius airport. A pilot was killed, and three others were injured in the incident.

JAPAN

Rocket engine test halted after explosion

Japan's space agency aborted an engine test for the Epsilon S rocket on Tuesday after it exploded and caught fire, a repeated failure that will likely push the rocket's debut launch beyond the March-end target and delay the national space program. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the combustion test resulted in an explosion of the second-stage motor 49 seconds after the ignition, causing a fire at the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan. While no one was injured, the blast damaged the facility, and the cause remains unclear.

RUSSIA

Official says Moscow seeks long-term peace

Russia opposes simply freezing the conflict in Ukraine because Moscow needs a "solid and long-term peace" that resolves the core reasons for the crisis, President Vladimir Putin's foreign intelligence chief said on Tuesday. Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, said that Russia had the initiative on the battlefield. Naryshkin said Russia was categorically opposed to the "freezing of the conflict" and that Russia is open for talks.

Agencies - Xinhua