Sweden urges inquiry into Israeli killings

Here is a round-up of global news developments:

• US President Barack Obama has warned against terrorist groups' danger, including Daesh, to Americans and people around the world. Delivering his last State of the Union speech, Obama said terrorist groups must be hunted down and destroyed. Obama also renewed his presidential campaign pledge to shut the Guantanamo prison.
  
• A joint poll by CBS and the New York Times shows nearly half of Americans disprove of Obama’s job performance in office. Obama’s approval rating has hovered in the low for most of his second term, especially on the issues such as economy and his dealing with terrorism.
  
• Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps says it has held two US navy boats with ten sailors after they entered Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The Pentagon says Washington has received assurances from Tehran that the vessels and the sailors will be released soon.
  
• Sweden’s foreign minister has called for thorough investigation into the killings of Palestinians by Israelis in recent months. Margot Wallstrom says it's essential to determine whether Israel was guilty of extrajudicial killings of Palestinians. At least 155 Palestinians have been killed in the upsurge of violence since October 2015.
  
• The European Court of Human Rights condemns Turkey for dissolving a pro-Kurdish political party in 2009 on charges of promoting violence. Turkey claimed that the party had ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party and worked against the unity of the nation.
  
• Oil giant BP says it will reduce the number of its staff from 24,000 to 20,000 by the end of 2017. The company announced that the decision was made in response to nose-diving oil prices. Last year, the company also slashed 4,000 jobs.
  
• US regulators have rejected a plan by German automaker Volkswagen to recall diesel cars equipped with devices used to cheat on emissions tests. Volkswagen has been engulfed in scandal since September after revelations that 11 million of its diesel cars worldwide were fitted with devices to cheat in pollution tests.
  
• Venezuela’s opposition-held National Assembly suspends its session a day after the Supreme Court ruled that all of the assembly’s actions were null and void. The Supreme Court issued the ruling after the parliament’s speaker swore in three lawmakers who had been barred from taking seats by the court.

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