206/2018 • 08 SEPTEMBER, 2018 WEEKEND ISSUE
DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
Italy’s League party faces bankruptcy over embezzlement Party leader Matteo Salvini was defiant, saying the fraud was now history
A court has ruled that millions of euros in assets can be seized from the far-right League party, now part of Italy’s ruling coalition.
Aunt of Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi calls for compassion The aunt of 3-year-old refugee Alan Kurdi, whose lifeless body was famously photographed washed up on a Greek beach in 2015, wants his image his to be a permanent reminder of the suffering of refugees. Tima Kurdi told DW she struggled to look at the photo of her deceased nephew, but that she and her family must "swallow our pain" to bring awareness to the world. "Thousands of children continue to die until today and the world is silent. This image should be a permanent reminder,"Kurdi told DWʼs What Happened Next show, speaking from Iraq.
Ministers visit Istanbulʼs German school on fencemending mission Top German and Turkish diplomats took theirbid to repair deeply eroded relationsto Istanbulʼs Alman Lisesi (German School) on Thursday to mark 150 years since its founding. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the audience that if bilateral ties between Ankara and Berlin were "as good as at this school, [the two sides] would have accomplished a lot." Maas, who is on Turkey ahead of astate visit to Berlinby Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, expressed hopes of reviving a "close and constructive" partnership following multiple standoffs between the two countries.
Italyʼs right-wing Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini appeared to shrug off the news that a court had authorized the seizure of €49 million ($59 million) from the League party on Thursday. "Iʼm not the least bit upset because the trial regards things that happened eight, nine years ago," Salvini said after an appeals court in Rome accepted demands from a court in Genoa to be able to seize whatever funds they can until the full amount is recouped. "It is a thing of the past ... if they want to strip us of everything, they can go ahead, weʼll calmly continue to do politics; we have Italians behind us." Salvini, who has turned the party into a national political force since he took over in 2013, has repeatedly said that he has never seen the missing money. "I hope that the Genoa court will spend more of its time on the matter of the collapsed bridge," Salvini said after the decision, referring to thePonte Morandi disasterlast month, which killed 43 people. Read more: Italy populists backtrack on Genoa bridge fears ‘fairytale’ The money was embezzled between 2008 and 2010 from public funds to finance political parties. Former League Leader Umberto Bossi and a former party treasurer were bothfound guilty of the fraud last year, but the Genoa court that convicted them was only able to track down €3 million. League lawyers insist the party only has €5.5 million, which comes from dona-
tions. Judicial sources say the other funds may have been moved abroad. The Leagueʼs popularity has soared since it formed a coalition government with the populist Five Star Movement in June, with Salvini — who also serves as interior minister — taking a tough line on immigration byrefusing NGO migrant rescue ships accessto Italian ports. Conte: Novice at the helm Giuseppe Conte, a little-known law professor with no political experience, was picked by the League and 5-Star Movement (M5S) as their candidate for prime minister. He was forced to temporarily give up his leadership bid after the partiesʼ cabinet selection was initially blocked. However, after the two parties struck a deal with President Sergio Mattarella, Conte was eventually sworn in on June 1. Mattarella: President with the final say President Sergio Mattarella faced calls for his impeachment after he prevented the populist alliance from taking office. He singled out its choice for finance minister, Paolo Savona, warning that an openly euroskeptic minister in that position went against the partiesʼ joint promise to simply "change Europe for the better." After the parties agreed to replace Savona, Mattarella gave the go-ahead. Di Maio: Anti-austerity advocate M5S chief Luigi Di Maio secured his party 32 percent of the vote in the March election.
Thuringia AfD could face surveillance over right-wing Chemnitz protests
South Sudan jails soldiers for aid worker rape, journalist murder
The Thuringia branch ofthe far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) partyis being officially reviewed by local security services, officials announced on Thursday. Thuringiaʼs arm of the domestic intelligence service, the BfV, which monitors extremist activities, will take a closer look at the Thuringia AfD as a "test case" to probe the party for unconstitutional, right-wing extremist activities.
Ten South Sudanese soldiers have been given prison sentences over a brutal assault on foreign aid workers in 2016. Rights groups say troops need to be held accountable for crimes committed during the countryʼs civil war. A South Sudanese military judge on Thursday jailed 10 soldiers over the gang-rape of five international aid workers and the murder of a journalist in a 2016 attack on a hotel in the capital, Juba. The trial was widely seen as a test for President Salva Kiirʼs ability to hold the army to account for its actionsduring the countryʼs five-year conflict.