Colombia's government and FARC guerrillas reached agreement Wednesday on the rebels' future participation in politics, a deal that brings the country closer to ending a half-century of civil war.

The accord was a much-needed boost to year-long peace talks that had appeared to be close to stalling in recent months, with President Juan Manuel Santos repeatedly warning the process was dragging on without progress.

The military judge in the September 11 trial ordered the U.S. government Wednesday to hand over correspondence on Guantanamo prison conditions and lifted restrictions on lawyers' communications with detainees.

The judge, Colonel James Pohl, will review years of reports by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the only human rights group to access the U.S. naval base in Cuba since it opened in 2002, according to one of two rulings revealed by defense lawyers.

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday called for a "thorough and impartial investigation" into allegations U.S. special forces were complicit in the torture and killings of Afghan civilians.

The U.S.-based rights group cited a report published Wednesday in Rolling Stone that raised fresh questions about the role of U.S. Army Green Berets in the deaths of 18 men in 2012-2013 in the Nerkh district of Wardak province, outside the capital Kabul.

Thousands of Mauritanians rallied in the capital Nouakchott on Wednesday to protest against nationwide elections later this month that have been dismissed by the opposition as a sham.

"Unilateral elections kill democracy," the demonstrators chanted, as they marched through the city center, an Agence France Presse reporter saw. No incidents were reported during the protest, which was closely watched by security forces.

The German government will study whether U.S. fugitive leaker Edward Snowden can be questioned in Russia, as it sought Wednesday to calm tensions with London and Washington over spy allegations.

Members of a German parliamentary committee overseeing the secret services agreed to ask the government to examine the possibility of Snowden answering questions in Moscow, provided it does not create "difficulties" for him there, its chairman Thomas Oppermann said.

The far-right Sweden Democrats party on Wednesday proposed forbidding foreigners from begging in the country under penalty of jail time or expulsion.

"Make begging in Sweden an offence for foreigners and impose the punishment of expulsion or an entry ban" for a certain amount of time, the party wrote in a political program.

Washington is willing to offer Iran limited sanctions relief if it agrees this week to take a "first step" to stop advancing its nuclear program, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

Speaking on the eve of a fresh round of talks between Iran and world powers in Geneva, the U.S. official told journalists there had been a "key shift" and that Tehran seemed serious about negotiations.

The United States indicated Wednesday it was ready to lift sanctions against Rwanda if Kigali cuts all ties with Congolese M23 rebels.

Washington has distanced itself from its ally Rwanda since July 2012 by freezing its modest $200,000 military aid and imposed sanctions in a bid to urge President Paul Kagame's regime to end its support of the mainly Tutsi rebels of M23, who surrendered on Tuesday.

Sudanese officials in a region bordering Eritrea told European diplomats Wednesday that they need help to combat human trafficking, an issue highlighted when hundreds of Eritrean migrants died off Italy.

"We are confronted by organised (criminal) groups," the governor of Kassala state, Mohammed Yousef Adam, told European Union ambassadors visiting from Khartoum.

U.N. troops will help reinforce Democratic Republic of Congo's borders to stop rebels and arms getting into other countries after the defeat of M23 mutineers, a top U.N. envoy said Wednesday.

France, the United States and other leading U.N. Security Council members widely welcomed the rout of M23 at talks on the conflict-stricken country.