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Liberians still seek justice for war crimes
Peterson Sonyah was only 16 years old when he sought refuge in St Peterʼs Lutheran church on the outskirts of the Liberian capital, Monrovia. It was 1990, and Liberiaʼs first civil war had already been raging for a year. As rebels laid siege to Monrovia, an estimated 2,000 people crammed in the church, hoping to avoid the violence Troops loyal to then president Samuel K. Doe broke into the church killing, raping, setting fires, and sparing only the lives of those able to bribe them. 600 people died. "When the soldiers stormed the building, everyone was crying: men, women and children. They were killing innocent people. I lost my father, my uncle and my cousins, seven persons in all," Sonyah recalled. Like other survivors of Liberiaʼs two civil wars, which raged from 1989-1997 and 1999-2003, Peterson Sonyah is still waiting for justice.
Divers rescue all Thai boys and coach from cave Rescue workers have successfully brought out all the members of a local young football team from a cave in northern Thailand, ensuring a happy ending to a 17-day ordeal that had gripped the world. Earlier in the day, authorities sent rescue teams into Tham Luang Nang Non cave for the third and final stage of an against-the-odds operation to extract the remaining members of the "Wild Boars" football team. Skilled divers navigating tight, winding tunnels successfully brought eight boys from the flooded cave complex during missions on Sunday and Monday. Tuesdayʼs push aimed to free the four remaining children and their 25-year-old coach. "We are not sure if this is a miracle, a science, or what," a post on the Navy SEALs Facebook page read. "All the 13 Wild Boars are now out of the cave."
157/2018 • 12 JULY, 2018
German interior minister presents his migration master plan German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has presented his longawaited asylum master plan
Astronaut Maurer: Caves are ʼa completely different worldʼ DW: What was the most difficult aspect of caving for you? Matthias Maurer: There
are different aspects. One is the technical aspect. You have to learn the different skills so that you can climb. Basically caving is climbing, but underground. Itʼs also about teamwork because you have a task in a team and you can only be successful as a team. And you have to adapt to the environment which I have to say was also quite challenging. What correlations are
there between caving and exploration on the moon or drilling on Mars? What kind of practical things could you learn caving that would be potentially applicable on a planet or on a moon? We did two different training exercises at ESA. One is the caving for team-work fostering so that you be‐ come a good team member and you learn to interact with your colleagues.
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has presented his longawaited asylum "master plan." But he did not include the lastminute compromises made with coalition partners last week, which averted a government crisis. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer finally got to present his migration "master plan" to the press on Tuesday, a month after it was blocked at the last minute by Chancellor Angela Merkel, precipitating a crisis in theGerman government that almost cost them both their jobs. But the minister does not appear to have been out to calm the waters, calling reporters to a press conference in the Interior Ministry to present a plan that did not include the 11th-hour compromises made by the government last week, which averted his resignation. Instead, Seehofer, who is also head of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to Merkelʼs Christian Democratic Union (CDU), emphasized that "this isnʼt a master plan of the coalition, but a master plan of this house." He was referring to the Interior Ministry, but could also be presenting a plan by his party. The document published on Tuesday, he said, had been finalized on July 4, which meant that it did not include the compromises made last week with Merkel and with the coalitionʼs ju-
nior partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He also admitted that it was not yet clear which measures contained in the plan the center-left would agree to. Perhaps most provocatively, Seehoferʼs plan still contained the term "transit centers," which the SPD had vetoed in favor of "transit procedures," and which has already been ditched by the government he represents. Still, the interior minister refused to admit it was a provocation – at least not in so many words. "It is not a provocation, but if you like, you could also see it that way," he told the Bild newspaper elliptically. In its introduction, the plan also demands that "asylum seekers work actively on their asylum procedures. We want to stop people disappearing during or after their asylum procedures, or hide their real identities." Seehoferʼs "master plan," now effectively published after it has gone out of date, included so-called transit centers situated at the German-Austrian border, in which asylum seekers would be held if another country was found to be responsible for their applications.
Chinese dissident Liu Xia arrival in Germany: ʼA gift to the German governmentʼ Human rights activist Tienchi MartinLiao, editor of Liu Xiaoboʼs works, has been a friend of the Nobel Peace Prize winnerʼs family for years. With peace prize winner Liao Yiwu, Nobel Literature Prize winner Herta Müller and many other intellectuals in Germany, she has worked for the release of Liu Xia. Martin-Liao, an author, translator and publisher, lives in Cologne and heads the unofficial Chinese PEN organization helping writers at risk, a position she took on in 2009 after Liu Xiaobo was arrested.
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