BERLIN – German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed Friday she hopes that Britain will vote to remain in the European Union in a June 23 referendum that her finance minister labelled a “wake-up call.”
Britain and Germany have traditionally been allies in the EU on matters such as free trade.
“From my point of view, Great Britain remaining in the European Union is the best and most desirable thing for us all,” Merkel said in a speech to a group representing family-owned businesses.
Germany has the biggest economy in the 28-nation bloc, and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told Der Spiegel magazine that a British exit, known as Brexit, would be bad for both Britain and the EU.
LIMA, Peru – The daughter of imprisoned ex-President Alberto Fujimori conceded defeat to conservative economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on Friday, ending five days of suspense in which ballots trickled in from Peru’s closest presidential election in decades.
In a short statement, Keiko Fujimori wished Kuczynski good luck and vowed to lead a responsible opposition in congress, where her party controls 73 of 130 seats.
But she also had harsh words for politicians, business leaders and members of the media whom she accused of a “hate-filled” campaign to discredit her candidacy, which many Peruvians feared would revive the corruption and criminality of her father’s authoritarian rule in the 1990s.
BEIRUT – Kurdish-led fighters completed their encirclement Friday of a key town held by the Islamic State group in northern Syria, part of a Western-backed offensive that could see a major strategic victory over the militants.
The advance on Manbij, near the Turkish border, coincided with a Syrian army offensive supported by Russian airstrikes that brought troops closer to the city of Raqqa, the ISIS extremists’ de facto capital.
Two years after their blitz across the Euphrates River valley, the ISIS militants are coming under increasing pressure on territory they control in Syria and Iraq, as well as on a stronghold in chaotic Libya.
ISTANBUL – A Kurdish militant group on Friday claimed responsibility for a car-bomb attack in Istanbul this week that killed 11 people, saying it was just the beginning of a war.
In a statement posted online, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons also warned tourists that Turkey was no longer secure for them.
“You are not our targets, but Turkey is no longer safe for you,” it read. “We have just started the war.”
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons is considered an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and has carried out several attacks in the past.
Associated Press
