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Local/state briefs

Top German spy ousted after clash with Merkel over migrants

BERLIN (AP) — The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency lost his job Tuesday after his remarks downplaying anti-migrant violence became a battleground between Chancellor Angela Merkel and her conservative critics.

The ouster of Hans-Georg Maassen is the latest political aftershock resulting from the influx of more than a million refugees into Germany since 2015, which has boosted right-wing populism in Germany and beyond.

Critics have long questioned whether Maassen, who took charge of the BfV spy agency in 2012, was still suitable for the post over his handling of the 2016 Berlin Christmas market attack and his contacts with the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

Maassen’s decision to openly contradict Merkel in an interview with the mass-circulation daily Bild this month appears to have sealed his fate.

Responding to violent right-wing protests following the killing of a German man, allegedly by migrants, in the eastern city of Chemnitz, Maassen said his agency had no reliable evidence that foreigners were “hunted” down in the streets — a term Merkel had used.

He added that “according to my cautious evaluation, there are good reasons for thinking that it is deliberate misinformation, possibly in order to distract the public from the murder in Chemnitz.”

World court opens preliminary probe into Rohingya expulsions

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor announced Tuesday that she is launching a preliminary investigation into deportations of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar into Bangladesh.

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a written statement and video message that she has begun a probe formally known as a preliminary examination to establish if there is enough evidence to merit a full-blown investigation.

Bensouda said she will look at reports of “a number of alleged coercive acts having resulted in the forced displacement of the Rohingya people, including deprivation of fundamental rights, killing, sexual violence, enforced disappearance, destruction and looting.”

Myanmar’s military has been accused of widespread rights violations, including rape, murder, torture and the burning of Rohingya villages — leading about 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh since August last year.

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