GERMANY: A man armed with a machete was arrested after threatening to kill officers at a police station in western Germany this morning, prosecutors said. 

The Albanian citizen arrived at the police station in the small town of Linz am Rhein at about 2.40am. Prosecutors said he repeatedly shouted “Allahu akbar” — “God is great” in Arabic — and said he wanted to kill police officers.

SOUTH AFRICA: Justice minister Thembisile Nkadimeng denied today corruption allegations against her related to the VBS Mutual Bank where thousands of retirees lost their life savings.

Police investigations showed that more than 2 billion rand (£85 million) stolen from the bank was used to purchase luxury houses and vehicles, among other things, and to distribute financial gifts to various people and organisations, including political parties.

HUNGARY: Budapest’s anti-immigration government signalled today that it is serious about implementing a plan to provide asylum-seekers with free one-way travel to Brussels, a measure meant to pressure the European Union into relenting on heavy fines against the country for its restrictive asylum policies.

State secretary Bence Retvari claimed that the EU wanted to force Hungary to allow “illegal migrants” across its borders, and said the country would “offer these illegal migrants, voluntarily, free of charge, one-way travel to Brussels.”

KOSOVO: The European Union envoy for the Western Balkans, Miroslav Lajcak, today urged Kosovo and Serbia to step up their efforts at normalisation talks, saying these are decisive on their path toward membership into the bloc.

Mr Lajcak was on a visit to Kosovo’s capital Pristina where he met with Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi.