World

TORONTO, (Reuters) – Any talks to renew the North American Free Trade Agreement would involve all three member nations, a top Canadian official said yesterday, dampening speculation the United States might seek to sit down with Canada first and then Mexico.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The US military is “not in Iraq to seize anybody’s oil”, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said, distancing himself from remarks by President Donald Trump, as he held talks with Iraqi leaders yesterday.

BERLIN (Reuters) – The German government has drafted a law to allow authorities to tap into the phone and computer data of asylum-seekers if there are doubts about their nationalities – an unusual move in a country where data protection is sacred.

OSLO, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Norway has joined an international initiative to raise millions of dollars to replace shortfalls left by US President Donald Trump’s ban on US-funded groups worldwide providing information on abortion.

  GENEVA/KINSHASA (Reuters) – Democratic Republic of Congo must investigate credible reports of atrocities including summary executions by the armed forces, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said yesterday.

MOSCOW/PODGORICA,  (Reuters) – The Kremlin today rejected “irresponsible” allegations by Montenegro that Russia was involved in a plot to assassinate its prime minister Milo Djukanovic.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri used some of his harshest language yet against Venezuela’s socialist government in comments to Spanish media published yesterday ahead of his trip to Madrid.

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba said on Friday the United States had deported 117 migrants back to the island nation since ending its policy granting automatic residency to almost every Cuban who reached US soil as part of the normalization of relations.

KINSHASA (Reuters) – Democratic Republic of Congo’s government is investigating a video that appears to show Congolese troops shooting dead a group of apparent militia members armed with slingshots and wooden batons, the human rights minister said.

MUNICH (Reuters) – A new version of a Trump administration travel ban will not stop green card residency holders or travellers already on planes from entering the United States, US Secretary for Homeland Security John Kelly said yesterday.

By Tim Weiner Tim Weiner is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter. His books include Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysian police said yesterday they had arrested a North Korean man in connection with the murder of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as a diplomatic spat over his body escalated.

(Reuters) – New versions of Monopoly will no longer give players the option of using a tiny silver-colored thimble as their pawn on the board, after fans voted to drop the piece that had featured in the game since its introduction in 1935.

MUNICH (Reuters) – One month into the unusual presidency of Donald Trump, his most senior cabinet members were deployed to Brussels, Bonn and Munich this week to reassure nervous Europeans that everything would be okay.

(Reuters) – Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt were ranked as the top three U.S.

  MUNICH, Germany, (Reuters) – Republican Senator John McCain broke with the reassuring message that U.S.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuela’s government is pushing forward with measures that could exclude some opposition political parties from future elections, potentially paving the way for the ruling Socialists to remain in power despite widespread anger over the country’s collapsing economy.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Prosecutors from 10 Latin American countries will form a task force to share evidence in the investigation of bribes paid by Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht on construction projects across the region, a Brazilian prosecutor said yesterday.

(Jamaica Observer) Energy Minister Dr Andrew Wheatley returned from Caracas early Thursday morning happy and relieved that Jamaica and Venezuela had finally arrived at an agreement on the long-awaited upgrade of the Petrojam refinery in Kingston.

SEATTLE,  (Reuters) – A federal judge in Seattle yesterday ruled that a Mexican immigrant with a work permit who is being held by immigration officials must be allowed to argue for his release from U.S.