World News Roundup: Ex-SS camp guard, aged 100, on trial for 3,518 deaths; NATO chief says Russia expulsions not linked to specific event and more

The China Mission Center was formed "to address the global challenge posed by the People’s Republic of China that cuts across all of the Agency’s mission areas," the CIA said in a statement. EU executive demands probe into alleged migrant pushbacks in Greece, Croatia The European Union's executive called for an investigation on Thursday into illegal migrant pushbacks after a report by German media outlets Der Spiegel and ARD documented what they said were Greek and Croatian officials carrying out such operations.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Ex-SS camp guard, aged 100, on trial for 3,518 deaths

A former SS guard, now 100 years old, hobbled into a German courtroom on a walking frame on Thursday to face charges of helping to send more than 3,000 people to their deaths in a Nazi concentration camp during World War Two. Prosecutors say Josef S., a member of the Nazi party's paramilitary SS, contributed to the deaths of 3,518 people at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp by regularly standing guard in the watchtower between 1942 and 1945.

NATO chief says Russia expulsions not linked to specific event

The expulsion of eight members of Russia's mission to NATO is not linked to a particular event, but the alliance needs to be vigilant in the face of "malign" Russian activity, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday. Stoltenberg said the eight, whose expulsion was announced on Wednesday, were "undeclared Russian intelligence officers".

Moscow invites Taliban to Afghanistan talks on Oct. 20

Russia will invite representatives of the Taliban to international talks on Afghanistan that it plans to host in Moscow on Oct. 20, President Vladimir Putin's special representative on Afghanistan said on Thursday. Zamir Kabulov, the representative, did not provide further details on the planned talks in comments carried by Russian news agencies.

Tanzania's Gurnah, the novelist of colonialism and refuge, wins 2021 Nobel

Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, 72, won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee," the award-giving body said on Thursday. Based in Britain, Gurnah is the first African writer to win the award since the Zimbabwean Doris Lessing in 2007, and only the second writer of colour from sub-Saharan Africa, after Nigeria's Wole Soyinka, who won in 1986.

Taiwan will ensure regional peace, the president tells French senators

Taiwan will continue to play its role as a member of the international community and ensure regional peace and stability, President Tsai Ing-wen told a visiting delegation of French senators on Thursday amid escalating tensions with China. The four senators, led by former defense minister Alain Richard, arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday despite the strong objections of China, which views the island as its own territory and is always angered by visits of foreign officials.

Two Haitian families, two diverging fates at U.S.-Mexico border

Alie Sajous and Macdalla Renois both left Haiti years ago seeking a new life in South America but struggled there. This summer, both decided to set out on a harrowing journey through a dozen countries to seek a new life in the United States. Renois was heavily pregnant when she trekked for days through the jungle area between Colombia and Panama. After Sajous' family crossed the same dangerous stretch, her toddler had to be hospitalized for several days.

Exclusive-U.N. expert calls for N.Korea sanctions to be eased as starvation risk looms

North Korea's most vulnerable risk starvation after it slipped deeper into isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and U.N. sanctions imposed for its nuclear and missile programs should be eased, a U.N. rights investigator said in a report seen by Reuters. The worsening humanitarian situation could turn into a crisis and it is coinciding with a global "creeping apathy" about the plight of North Korea's people, said Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Pakistan quake kills at least 20, injures hundreds

An earthquake of magnitude 5.7 hit southern Pakistan in the early hours of Thursday, killing 20 people, most of them women and children, and injuring about 300, at a time when many victims were asleep, authorities said. The earthquake struck at a shallow depth of about 20 km (12 miles), with its epicentre 102 km (62 miles) east of the city of Quetta, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.

CIA forms new mission to address challenges from China

The Central Intelligence Agency said on Thursday it has created a new group to focus solely on China and the national security challenges it poses, calling it the most important threat the United States faces. The China Mission Center was formed "to address the global challenge posed by the People’s Republic of China that cuts across all of the Agency’s mission areas," the CIA said in a statement.

EU executive demands probe into alleged migrant pushbacks in Greece, Croatia

The European Union's executive called for an investigation on Thursday into illegal migrant pushbacks after a report by German media outlets Der Spiegel and ARD documented what they said were Greek and Croatian officials carrying out such operations. The joint report said Greek and Croatian special forces sometimes concealed their identity during such operations, which at times were violent.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)