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141/2018 • 23 JUNE, 2018 WEEKEND ISSUE

DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH

Horst Seehofer warns Angela Merkel against dismissing him amid migration spat Horst Seehofer has warned Angela Merkel against firing him as interior minister

If sheʼs unhappy with his work, Seehofer said Merkel should dissolve her governing grand coalition.

Date set for reunions of war-separated Korean families

Turkish economy facing major challenges

North and South Korea on Friday agreed that reunions for families who were separated by the Korean War would resume in August. The meetings will be thefirst to occur since 2015, as the two Koreas continue to try to ease tensions amid the Northʼs commitment to denuclearization. The decision to continue the reunions was among the agreements reached between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-inat their landmark summit in April.

When President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power back in 2002, the Turkish economy was in a miserable state and had just received a badly needed bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Thereʼs no denying that the Turkish economy made huge strides on Erdoganʼs watch, be it during his years as prime minister or later as president of the country, with lots of towns, production sites and businesses experiencing nothing short of a boom.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer warned Chancellor Angela Merkel against dismissing him for a possible lone wolf approach to immigration. Seehofer said in an interview with the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper on Friday that it would be the first time "looking after and taking care of the security and order of the country is the reason given for firing a minister." Merkel and Seehofer are currently arguing over Germanyʼs migration policy. As part of a still unpublished "migration master plan," Seehofer called for rejecting asylum-seekers at the German border if they have registered in another EU state or have been refused asylum in Germany in the past. Merkel has rejected the suggestions, insisting instead a Europe-wide solution to migration. Read more: Angela Merkel buys time in government crisis over asylum During a parliamentary meeting at the German Bundestag last week, Seehofer reportedly told Merkel that he would use a "ministerial authorization" to institute his plan alone if a compromise was not found. Merkel is keen not to rile other EU member states by taking unilateral action on migration ahead of a meeting of some EU leaders on Sunday and a larger EU summit next week. EU Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger has also called on Seehofer not to go it alone with regard to refugee policy. "That would mean that a new, significant stage of escalation would be reached that would call [Merkelʼs con-

servative bloc] into question," he said in comments carried by the daily Handels‐ blatt on Friday. He added that the CSU was "damaging Germanyʼs ability to act within the EU."The EU needed a stable German government, especially in view of the fact that stability was no longer guaranteed in other member states, Oettinger said. But Seehofer seems prepared for his stance to possibly lead to the end of Germanyʼs coalition government. He said his Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to Merkelʼs Christian Democratic Union (CDU), backed his position on migration, adding that Merkel might as well dissolve the government rather than fire him. "I hear from many people day to day: ʼStay firm. Donʼt give in!ʼ Itʼs about credibility," Seehofer said, adding that support from his party is "more important than any office." "I am the leader of the CSU, one of the three coalition parties, and act with the full support of my party. If the chancellery is not satisfied with the interior ministerʼs work, then the coalition should end," he said. Read more: CSU leader Horst Seehofer: The man who could bring down Angela Merkel? Bavarians are set to vote in state elections in October, and the CSU is facing competition on the political right from Germanyʼs far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD). "The CSU is fighting for its beliefs," Seehofer said. "That is more important than positions."

Romaniaʼs Liviu Dragnea

UN calls for human rights

sentenced over fake jobs scandal

probe in Venezuela

Dubbed Romaniaʼs most powerful politician, the ruling PSD party leader has been found guilty of abuse of office. Romania has struggled against a concerted campaign to change the countryʼs anti-corruption laws. Liviu Dragnea, considered Romaniaʼs most influential politician, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison on Thursday over a fake jobs scandal. Romaniaʼs top court found Dragnea, who leads the ruling leftwing Social Democratic Party guilty of keeping two women on the payroll of a child protection state agency.

A UN report is calling for the Venezuelan government to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice. The UN human rights chief said "impunity must end" in the crisis-stricken country. The United Nations human rights chief Zeid Raʼad Al Hussein on Friday called for an internal investigation into human rights violations in Venezuela. The report appealed to the government to bring perpetrators to justice, citing what it said were shocking accounts of extrajudicial killings of young men during crime-fighting operations conducted without arrest warrants in poor neighborhoods.


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