Horst Koehler, a former president of Germany, has died.
Koehler, who was the head of state from 2004 to 2010, passed away on Saturday aged 81 years old due to a brief illness.
In a brief statement, the German president said, “Koehler passed away early this morning in Berlin after a short, serious illness, surrounded by his family.”
Horst Köhler was born on February 22, 1943, in Skierbieszów, Nazi-occupied Poland.
His family was of German descent and settled in Leipzig, East Germany, until migrating to West Germany in 1953.
The former president grew up in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg.
He studied economics and political science at the University of Tübingen, where he earned his PhD in 1977.
Prior to his stint as German president, Koehler held a number of notable international roles, including Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund between 2000 and 2004.
Köhler resigned as Germany’s president in 2010 due to backlash over his comments about the country’s military involvement.
In other news, Alban Bagbin, Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament, has suspended four members for two weeks following a violent incident during a cabinet vetting session.
The disruption occurred Thursday evening, when members of the ministerial vetting committee, which is in charge of screening nominees for the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), clashed during the process.
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The confrontation grew to the point where furniture in the parliamentary chamber was destroyed.
The committee, which included representatives from numerous political parties, was in charge of examining the qualifications of ministerial nominees.
However, tensions rose when NDC MPs accused their New Patriotic Party (NPP) counterparts of purposefully stalling the proceedings by asking excessively long questions.
Samuel Nartey George, the NDC’s choice for communications minister, faced more than five hours of grilling.
This protracted interview enraged NDC members, who believed it was part of a ploy to postpone the process for political reasons.
