Germany pledges support to Afghanistan after combat troops leave
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged on Friday to support Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his new unity government after NATO combat troops withdraw from the country at the end of more than a decade of fighting Islamist insur…
U.N. Security Council members push to put North Korea rights on agenda
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Two-thirds of the U.N. Security Council’s members pushed on Friday for the human rights situation in North Korea to be added to the council’s agenda and for a formal meeting to be held this month, a move that cannot be blocke…
France to pay $60 million for Holocaust victims deported by state rail firm
PARIS (Reuters) – France said on Friday it had agreed to put $60 million into a fund managed by the United States to compensate Holocaust victims deported by French state rail firm SNCF to Nazi death camps, a deal that protects it from future U.S. liti…
Dozens of Chinese held in Kenyan cyber crime investigation
NAIROBI (Reuters) – More than 70 Chinese nationals have been detained by Kenyan police investigating allegations of cyber crime, operating private radio services and being in the country illegally, their lawyers said on Friday.
Angry families of MH17 crash victims seek U.N. investigation
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Relatives of MH17 crash victims, angered by what they see as Dutch mishandling of inquiries into the disaster, want a special U.N. envoy to launch an international investigation.
Hundreds of thousands evacuated from path of Philippine typhoon
MANILA (Reuters) – Around half a million people fled coastal villages and landslide-prone areas in the central Philippines on Friday, a day before a powerful typhoon was expected to hit the island nation where thousands died in a storm 13 months ago.
Kenya takes step toward recognizing intersex people in landmark ruling
NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A Kenyan court has ordered the government to issue a birth certificate to a five-year-old child born with ambiguous genitalia, in a landmark ruling that the child’s lawyer said was a first step toward recognizing …
Russia’s Lavrov says West wrong to blame Moscow over Ukraine
BASEL, Switzerland (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized the West on Friday for what he said were constant attempts to blame Russia for the crisis in east Ukraine and said Moscow was not isolated over the conflict.
U.N. rights experts seek review of U.S. police practices
GENEVA (Reuters) – United Nations human rights experts on Friday called for a halt to racial profiling by U.S. law enforcement officers and a review of laws allowing police to use lethal force.
U.S. training of Syrian rebels still months away: coalition chief
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Western plans to train and equip non-jihadi rebels in Syria will not start until at least late February, a leading opposition figure said on Friday, depriving them of support they need to counter both rival insurgents and Syrian …
