German parties agree on key point of migrant policy
Reuters, Berlin
Germany’s would-be coalition parties have agreed on transitional rules to extend the suspension of family reunions for migrants in Germany until July 31, a source told Reuters on Tuesday, potentially opening the way to a full deal on migrant policy.
Under the agreement, up to 1,000 family members a month will be allowed to join people who are allowed to stay in Germany even though they do not have full refugee status. Spiegel Online had initially reported the agreement.
Colombia freezes peace talks with rebels
AFP, Bogota
Colombia’s president on Monday froze peace negotiations with the ELN rebel group and ordered a stepped-up military response after weekend bomb attacks blamed on the guerrillas killed seven police officers.
The developments threw into peril efforts to definitively end Colombia’s half century of conflict that until recently had appeared close to resolution.
China calls AU spying report ‘preposterous’
AFP, Addis Ababa
China’s ambassador to the African Union on Monday denounced as “absurd” a report by French newspaper Le Monde alleging that Beijing has been spying on the continental body.
The report published last week claims technicians at African Union (AU) headquarters in the Ethiopian capital discovered last year that the contents of their computers had been regularly copied to servers in Shanghai since 2012, citing several unnamed AU sources.
Bomb kills 8 Shiites in Pakistan
AFP, Peshawar
A roadside bomb on Tuesday killed eight people including three women and a child in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border, in the latest attack apparently targeting Shiite Muslims.
The improvised explosive device exploded in the Shiite-dominated Maqbal area of Kurram tribal district as a van carrying nine people drove by.
