German minister commits suicide after 'virus crisis worries'
Frankfurt Am Main: Thomas Schaefer, the finance minister of Germany's Hesse state, has committed suicide apparently after becoming "deeply worried" over how to cope with the economic fallout from the coronavirus, state premier Volker Bouffier said Sunday.
Schaefer, 54, was found dead near a railway track on Saturday. The Wiesbaden prosecution's office said they believe he died by suicide.
"We are in shock, we are in disbelief and above all we are immensely sad," Bouffier said in a recorded statement.
Hesse is home to Germany's financial capital Frankfurt, where major lenders like Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank have their headquarters. The European Central Bank is also located in Frankfurt.
A visibly shaken Bouffier recalled that Schaefer, who was Hesse's finance chief for 10 years, had been working "day and night" to help companies and workers deal with the economic impact of the pandemic.
"Today we have to assume that he was deeply worried," said Bouffier, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel. "It's precisely during this difficult time that we would have needed someone like him," he added.
Popular and well-respected, Schaefer had long been touted as a possible successor to Bouffier. Like Bouffier, Schaefer belonged to Merkel's centre-right CDU party. He leaves behind a wife and two children
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Etihad Airways resumes operations with eight passenger flights from Abu Dhabi; two bound for India
Abu Dhabi: Days after air operations were disrupted due to airspace closure, Etihad Airways reportedly resumed limited operations on Monday, with eight passenger flights taking off from Abu Dhabi International Airport at 2:00 pm (GMT 11:00), according to global flight tracking service Flightradar24.
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Flight tracking data showed that a total of eight passenger services departed from Abu Dhabi after 2:00 pm local time. Of these, one flight was bound for Delhi and another for Mumbai. The remaining flights were reported to have resumed operations to their respective destinations.
Air traffic in the region had been disrupted following rising tensions in the Middle East after a joint US-Israeli attack on Iran.
8 passenger flights have been able to take off from Abu Dhabi since 14:00 local time. pic.twitter.com/4eYs3ReJaJ
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 2, 2026
