JERUSALEM — Israeli commuters began their work week Sunday with massive traffic jams and a cancellation of train service along one of the country's busiest routes following a religious and political scuffle that had threatened to shake the governing coalition.

The crisis erupted over the weekend after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under pressure from ultra-Orthodox coalition partners, made an 11th-hour decision to halt routine railway repairs scheduled on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.

Orthodox Jewish law forbids work on the Sabbath, and a religious party in the coalition had threatened to quit the government unless Netanyahu halted the repairs.

Netanyahu's transport minister, Yisrael Katz, canceled a key train route on the Tel Aviv-Haifa line Sunday because of the delayed repairs. The government dispatched extra buses for some 90,000 affected commuters.

Netanyahu's office accused Katz, a senior figure in the ruling Likud Party, of orchestrating the crisis to undercut the prime minister.

Katz and Netanyahu's close relationship tanked last month when Katz, chairman of the Likud secretariat, held a vote to revoke some powers from Netanyahu to prevent him from being able to unilaterally appoint supporters to party positions.

Train maintenance work has long taken place on the Sabbath, without drawing the ire of the ultra-Orthodox.

But ultra-Orthodox news sites doggedly covered news of the Sabbath train work recently, and ultra-Orthodox constituents egged on their politicians on social media to do something to prevent it.

By evening, train service resumed and the tempest quieted down.

Nationalists overtake Merkel's party in German state election

BERLIN — A nationalist, anti-immigration party performed strongly in a German state election Sunday in the region where Chancellor Angela Merkel has her political base, overtaking her conservatives to take second place amid discontent with her migrant policies.

The 3-year-old Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won 20.8 percent of votes in the election for the state legislature in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, home to 1.6 million of the country's 80 million people. Merkel's Christian Democrats polled 19 percent, their worst result yet in the state.

The center-left Social Democrats, who led the outgoing state government in a coalition with the conservatives, remained the strongest party with 30.6 percent support.

Sunday's regional vote was the first of five before a national election expected next September.

Eastern gorilla gets added

to critically endangered list

HONOLULU — The world's largest living primate has been listed as critically endangered, making four of the six great ape species only one step away from extinction, according to a report released Sunday at the World Conservation Congress in Hawaii.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, cited illegal hunting in downgrading the status of the eastern gorilla on its Red List of Endangered Species.

The organization said an estimated 5,000 eastern gorillas remain in the wild, a decline of about 70 percent over the past 20 years.

For the gorillas of the Congo, where the majority of the population lives, conservation will be a struggle because of political instability, said primatologist Russell Mittermeier.

Oil pipeline protest turns violent in North Dakota

BISMARCK, N.D. — A protest of a four-state, $3.8 billion oil pipeline turned violent after tribal officials say construction crews destroyed American Indian burial and cultural sites on private land.

Morton County sheriff's office spokeswoman Donnell Preskey said four private security guards and two guard dogs were injured after several hundred protesters confronted construction crews Saturday afternoon at the site just outside the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. One of the security officers was taken to a Bismarck hospital for undisclosed injuries.

Tribe spokesman Steve Sitting Bear said protesters reported that six people were bitten by security dogs. At least 30 people were pepper-sprayed, he said. Preskey said authorities had no reports of protesters being injured.

Under pressure, S. Sudan OKs new peacekeepers

JUBA, South Sudan — South Sudan has agreed to allow a 4,000-strong regional protection force approved by the U.N. Security Council after first rejecting the peacekeepers as a violation of its sovereignty.

Sunday's announcement came after Security Council representatives met with South Sudan President Salva Kiir during a rare visit to the turbulent East African country.

The threat of an arms embargo loomed over the meeting, as the council has said it would pursue one if South Sudan didn't accept the additional peacekeepers. The U.N. already has 12,000 peacekeepers in the country, and South Sudan has been wary of giving it more authority.

Protecting civilians has become an even more critical issue after fighting erupted in the capital, Juba, in July, killing hundreds and sparking fears of a return to civil war.

Nigeria: Some in military are selling arms

to Boko Haram

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Nigeria's military says some officers are selling arms and ammunition to Boko Haram, indicating the corruption bedeviling the country's fight against the Islamic extremists continues despite government efforts to halt graft.

The admission comes three weeks after Nigerian army officials said a military tribunal is trying 16 officers and enlisted personnel accused of offenses related to the fight against Boko Haram, including the theft and sale of ammunition.

President Muhammadu Buhari has blamed corruption for the deaths of thousands in the seven-year Islamic uprising that has killed more than 20,000.

Children who escaped Boko Haram are dying of starvation in refugee camps in the northeast, where the government is investigating the alleged theft of food aid.

French minorities: Crowds rallied Sunday in Paris to urge an end to violence against the Asian community. The spark for the protest was the beating death of Chinese tailor Chaolin Zhangh last month after a robbery attempt. The Chinese immigrant community says it is often targeted by armed robbers and violence.

Kashmir protests: Around 100 people were injured Sunday as Indian government forces fired tear gas and shotgun pellets to quell thousands of protesters who hurled rocks and burned a government office in the Indian portion of Kashmir after authorities attempted to block marchers, police said.