‘Bookkeeper of Auschwitz’s’ plea rejected BERLIN, January 17 (Reuters): A plea for clemency from a 96-year-old German convicted over his role in the murders of 300,000 people at the Auschwitz death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland has been rejected, German media cited prosecutors as saying on Wednesday. Oskar Groening, known as the “bookkeeper of Auschwitz”, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2015 for being an accessory to murder at Auschwitz. But he has not yet started his sentence due to a dispute about his health. In December Germany’s constitutional court ruled Groening must go to jail, rejecting arguments from his lawyers that imprisonment at his advanced age would violate his right to life. US holds back $65m aid to Palestine Washington, January 17 (IANS): The US has announced that it will withhold more than half of the funding it provides for a UN agency that supports Palestinians, about two weeks after President Donald Trump threatened to pull funding for the group. Washington will withhold $65 million out of its scheduled $125 million payment to the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides humanitarian aid, education, social services and medical care to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, CNN reported. UN officials expressed deep concern and refugee groups worried about the humanitarian impact, particularly the potential for further destabilisation of a region already reeling from conflict in Syria. Ethiopia opposition leader freed ADDIS ABABA, January 17 (BBC): Jailed Ethiopian opposition leader Merera Gudina has been freed after more than a year in detention. Prison authorities told his family that he was released on Wednesday morning and allowed to go back home. He has been in prison since December 2016 and was facing multiple charges. The Ethiopian govt announced on Monday that it would drop charges against more than 500 suspects. Merera was arrested in November 2016 at the airport in the capital, Addis Ababa, after he flew in from Brussels. He had violated Ethiopia’s state of emergency by having contact with “terrorist” and “anti-peace” groups, state-linked media reported at the time by criticising the state of emergency in an address to the European parliament.
