German president steps down

BERLIN - In a surprise announcement, German President Horst Koehler resigned on Monday after being criticized for remarks in which he appeared to link military deployments abroad with the country's economic interests.

Koehler's decision came only a year into his second term as the largely ceremonial head of state.

Koehler, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, is a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats and has been president since 2004. In explaining his reasoning, he cited a week of "intense criticism" over a radio interview he gave following a visit to German troops in Afghanistan.