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http://ift.tt/2rgKxkk German Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel (L) attends a round table about refugees and migration in Berlin on May 29, 2017. The round table about the migrant crisis is hosted by German Foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel, with UN representative for migration Louise Arbour, United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director-General William Lacy Swing and EU Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos. The topics of the meeting are, among others, improving cooperation with international organizations, internally displaced persons and consequences of natural disasters and climate change on refugee movements.Monika Skolimowska / dpa / AFP Germany unleashed a volley of criticism Monday against US President Donald Trump, slamming his “short-sighted” policies that have “weakened the West” and hurt European interests. The sharp words from Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel ...

http://ift.tt/2pemTk1 Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, the former head of a military junta who ruled Mauritania from 2005 until 2007, died Friday of a heart attack while on holiday, his family and an official news agency said. Born in 1953, Vall served as the head of a transition government that handed over to Mauritania’s first democratically elected president, Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi. Vall led a 2005 coup against dictator Maaouiya Ould Taya, but kept a promise to step aside for elections two years later. President Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz announced three days of mourning, the Mauritanian Information Agency (AMI) said, while a family source confirmed to AFP he had fallen ill and had a heart attack. Vall was a longtime critic of Aziz after the current president removed Abdallahi in a separate 2008 coup. Vía The Guardian Nigeria Newspaper http://ift.tt/2p5gM6g

http://ift.tt/2pecKnv Michel Kafando A former Burkina Faso president, Michel Kafando, has been appointed the new UN envoy for Burundi, where efforts to end a political crisis over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s rule have stalled. Kafando, 74, has “more than three decades of extensive experience in high-level international diplomacy and politics,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Friday in announcing the appointment. A former foreign minister and UN ambassador, Kafando was president from November 2014 to December 2015 during Burkina Faso’s transition to civilian rule following a military takeover and the resignation of long-serving leader Blaise Compaore. Kafando will replace Jamal Benomar, who held the post since November 2015 and who had come under heavy criticism and calls to resign from the Bujumbura government. Relations between Burundi and the United Nations nosedived after a report by UN rights experts in September blamed state police and security forces for the vi...

http://ift.tt/2pDUxms WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 4: House Speaker Paul Ryan leaves after voting in House chamber on Capitol Hill May 4, 2017 in Washington, DC. The House voted to pass the GOPs healthcare bill, which has been stalled since leaders pulled it off the floor almost two months ago. Eric Thayer/Getty Images/AFP<br />Eric Thayer / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP The US House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly passed a Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, delivering a welcome victory to President Donald Trump after early legislative stumbles. Following weeks of in-party feuding and mounting pressure from the White House, lawmakers voted 217 to 213 to pass a bill dismantling much of Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act and allowing US states to opt out of many of the law’s key health benefit guarantees. Some 20 Republicans voted in opposition, along with all Democrats, in the most contentious congressional vote of Trump’s young presidency. Eyeing a ...