Obama slows down US troop pullout from Afghanistan

Here is a round-up of global news developments:

• US authorities have launched a probe into a fatal police shooting of an African American man in the state of Louisiana. A video, purported to show the killing, sparked outrage in the city of Baton Rouge where 37-year-old Alton Sterling was fatally shot.
• President Barack Obama has announced a slowdown in the US troop pullout from Afghanistan. He says eight-thousand four-hundred soldiers will stay there into next year. U-S troop numbers were to be reduced to 5-500 by year-end. Obama says the Taliban remain a threat in Afghanistan 15 years after the U-S invasion.
• A long-awaited inquiry into the Iraq invasion says Britain's decision to go to war in 2003 had a "far from satisfactory" legal basis. The inquiry, known as the Chilcot report, says the military action was NOT the last resort. It also said ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair's case for military action was over-hyped.
• U-K’s Labour Party leader has called the country’s war against Iraq in 2003 an act of military aggression. Former British prime minister Tony Blair has reacted to the Chilcot report, taking full responsibility for the mistakes made over the Iraq War.
• With the Chilcot report out, the families of the British troops who were killed in the Iraq war have condemned Tony Blair's actions. They have long pushed for those responsible for the British involvement to be held to account. Nearly 180 British soldiers were killed during the war.
• France’s right-wing labor code has finally become law. This is while it had sparked massive protests across the country. During the four-month protests, the government made thousands of arrests. Critics say the new law drastically curtails the rights of workers and it will have negative political and social consequences.
• South Korean activists have held a demonstration in the capital Seoul against new biochemical tests by U-S forces in the country. The protesters said they are suspicious of the claim that the tests are done for the sake of Korean citizens’ lives and safety.
• Israel has issued a tender for the construction of more settler units in the occupied West Bank. Tel Aviv says it will press ahead with more constructions in response to deadly attacks against Israeli settlers. Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law.

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