Minors allowed off migrant ship

ROME (AP) — Italy’s hard-line interior minister buckled under pressure Saturday and agreed to let 27 unaccompanied minors leave a migrant ship after two weeks at sea, temporarily easing a political standoff that has threatened the viability of the populist government.

In recent days, Premier Giuseppe Conte had written to Interior Minister Matteo Salvini demanding that minors be allowed off the boat. After initially refusing, Salvini wrote back Saturday with a three-page missive of his own saying he would do so but made clear it was Conte’s choice and that it didn’t set a precedent.

Spanish aid group Open Arms said the decision concerned 27 unaccompanied minors who were picked up off Libya earlier this month and were brought with other migrants aboard the ship near the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. The disembarkation was getting underway Saturday, ANSA news agency reported. The fate of more than 100 other migrants remained uncertain.

3 rockets fired from Gaza at Israel

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military says three rockets have been fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip into southern Israel.

Israeli aerial defense batteries intercepted two of the missiles Saturday, the military said.

Israeli media reported that shrapnel from the Iron Dome defense system landed on the patio of a house. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

It was the second incident of rocket fire from Gaza in the past 24 hours.

Early on Saturday, Israeli aircraft hit two underground Hamas targets.

Israel blames the Islamic militant group for any attack originating from the Palestinian enclave.

2 die in knife attack at train station

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German police say a man and a woman were fatally stabbed at a crowded train station in the town of Iserlohn in what was described as an “act of relationship violence.” The incident was the third fatal attack at a German train station within a month.

The dpa news agency reported Saturday that police had arrested a 43-year-old man in connection with the attack on the woman, 32, and another man, who was 23. The station was full of people at the time, police said, including a wedding party of around 20 people. The suspect surrendered to police at the scene without resisting.

Police said in a statement that investigators found no reason to consider the attack as anything other than a case of domestic violence.

The killings follow two other widely reported homicides at train stations in Germany. An 8-year-old boy died July 29 after being pushed in front of a train in Frankfurt; police say the suspect, a 40-year-old Eritrean residing in Switzerland, had been under psychiatric treatment.