Germany pledges to protect refugees after reported rape case

BERLIN (AP) — The German government says it would seek to ensure refugees fleeing conflicts in Ukraine and elsewhere don’t become victims of crime in the wake of a reported rape case that triggered a public outcry.  A spokeswoman for Germany’s Interior Ministry made the pledge Wednesday. Authorities in the western city of Duesseldorf confirmed that a young woman who was housed on a hotel boat on the Rhine river was allegedly sexually assaulted by two men earlier this month. The Duesseldorf prosecutors office said that both suspects are in detention but declined to confirm German media reports that the victim is an 18-year-old Ukrainian. Germany has so far registered more than 160,000 refugees arriving from Ukraine in the past month, many of them women, children and elderly people.