U.S. authorities on Wednesday released audio recordings of emergency calls made to police from the elementary school in Newtown where a lone gunman shot dead 20 children and six adults last year.

Recordings of a series of 911 calls made from within and nearby the school were released nearly a year after the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012.

Human rights activists Wednesday urged the U.S. government to be more consistent in its approach toward repressive regimes, warning that muddled responses sent the wrong message to democracy campaigners.

America's over-arching focus on security concerns and the fight against terrorism is obscuring the need to hold governments accountable for rights abuses, activists said at the start of a two-day seminar organized by the Washington-based group Human Rights First.

Ukrainians should be allowed to choose their own future, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday, after Kiev's decision to put a key EU pact on hold sparked mass street protests in the former Soviet state.

Kerry praised Moldova for initialing an EU agreement during a visit to that country, saying that "The United States believes deeply that European integration is the best road for both security and prosperity for Moldova."

Italy's first black minister Cecile Kyenge, who has been deluged with racist slurs since her appointment in April, urged Europe's leaders on Wednesday not to spread populism or use it to win votes.

"There has a been a rise in episodes of racism in many countries, probably linked to the economic crisis but also to a lack of knowledge about what European values really stand for," Kyenge said at a press conference.

Canada's military was investigating Wednesday the apparent suicide of a fourth soldier in a week, all of them after returning from tours in Afghanistan.

Master Corporal Sylvain Lelievre was found dead in his home in Chandler, Quebec on Monday. He was 46.

Police in Montenegro said they arrested 22 people Wednesday on suspicion of smuggling hundreds of migrants into Schengen, Europe's visa-free travel area.

The networks busted with arrests in the capital Podgorica and two northern towns of Danilovgrad and Rozaje consisted of locals and four people from Sudan, Pakistan and Morocco, spokeswoman Tamara Popovic told reporters.

Turkey said Wednesday it will sign a long-awaited deal with the EU to repatriate those who enter the bloc illegally from its territory, in exchange for talks on visa-free travel for its citizens.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told journalists in Brussels the readmission accord would be signed on December 16.

The accord with Iran to curb its nuclear program means a planned NATO anti-missile system in Europe, hotly opposed by Moscow, is no longer necessary, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov argued Wednesday.

Moscow fears the system would compromise its own defenses while NATO says the project is meant only to protect Europe from Iranian development of long-range missiles.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Wednesday said the gates of Europe were still open for Ukraine, after mass protests against the government's decision to walk away from a deal with the European Union.

"The gates of the European Union are still open. Ukraine has to be on board in Europe and the offers from Europe are still valid," Westerwelle told reporters, before heading to the heart of the protests on Independence Square.

A man accused of hacking a soldier to death on a London street told police he was a "soldier of Allah" fighting a war against Britain but that the killing brought him little joy, a court heard Wednesday.

Michael Adebolajo, who is on trial with Michael Adebowale for the brutal murder of Lee Rigby near his barracks in the south London district of Woolwich in May, made the comments during interviews with police after his arrest.