A high-level North Korean delegation has arrived in Kuala Lumpur as Malaysia announced it will charge an Indonesian and a Vietnamese woman with the murder of Kim Jong-nam, the exiled half-brother of North Korea’s leader. The killing, described by the US and South Korea as a political assassination, has led to a diplomatic meltdown between Malaysia and North Korea, which has repeatedly tried to block the investigation and denied that Kim Jong-nam was murdered.

The visiting delegation includes Ri Tong-il, the former North Korean deputy ambassador to the United Nations. He told reporters on Tuesday that the diplomats were in Malaysia to seek the retrieval of the body and the release of another arrested suspect, a North Korean national. Ri Tong-il added that the delegation also sought the “development of friendly relationships” between North Korea and Malaysia.(the guardian)…[+]

A mosque used by the Berlin Christmas market truck attacker, Anis Amri, has been shut down by German authorities amid a series of police raids in the hunt for other radical Islamists. The prayer rooms of the Fussilet 33 mosque in the central district of Moabit was a known meeting place for men and women who moved in Islamist circles.

More than 460 police officers swept 24 other locations across the city in the early hours of Tuesday morning in raids linked to activities at the mosque, where it is suspected money was regularly collected to fund terror attacks in Syria.Amri, who carried out the attack on 19 December in which 12 people died and more than 50 were injured, was a regular visitor to Fussilet 33, along with other Islamists police believe were willing to carry out further terrorist attacks. (The guardian)…[+]

Leaked court documents raise concerns that the murder of the Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres was an extrajudicial killing planned by military intelligence specialists linked to the country’s US–trained special forces, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

Cáceres was shot dead a year ago while supposedly under state protection after receiving death threats over her opposition to a hydroelectric dam. The murder of Cáceres, winner of the prestigious Goldman environmental prize in 2015, prompted international outcry and calls for the US to revoke military aid to Honduras, a key ally in its war on drugs.Eight men have been arrested in connection with the murder, including one serving and two retired military officers. Officials have denied state involvement in the activist’s murder, and downplayed the arrest of the serving officer Maj Mariano Díaz, who was hurriedly discharged from the army.(the guardian)…[+]