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German minister to resign over Afghan cover-up scandal (Extra)
Nov 27, 2009, 11:04 GMT
Berlin - Former German defence minister Franz Josef Jung is to resign his post as labour minister on Friday over an alleged cover-up of civilian casualties in an airstrike in Afghanistan earlier this year, a government spokesman said.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm was asked at a regular press conference if he did not know Jung would resign or if he was merely not saying at this point in time. He responded: 'The latter.'
Jung, who has been minister of labour since Chancellor Angela Merkel's new government took office in October, is to give a press conference later Friday in Berlin.
On Thursday it emerged that Jung had likely withheld his knowledge of civilian casualties in a German-ordered airstrike in Afghanistan on September 4, in which dozens of civilians are believed to have been killed.
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