The UN has denied it covered up allegations of child abuse by French troops in the Central African Republic, after it suspended a senior UN official for leaking an internal report detailing the abuse.

A UN spokesperson said the report was not supposed to be made public in order to protect the identity of victims and witnesses.

Rupert Colville, a spokesperson for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, said publication of the internal report risked making those named "extremely vulnerable to reprisals", the AFP news agency said.

The question of Kurdish self-determination and the war against Islamic State militants will be discussed by a high level Kurdish delegation heading to meet the US president and other officials at the White House.

The Kurdish delegation, led by President Masoud Barzani, will meet American officials, US President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday, reports Rudaw.

The Kurdish president’s chief of staff, Faud Hussein, outlining details of the visit, said,

Taliban militants met with Afghan political figures for a second day in Qatar and failed to agree on ceasefire, reports Reuters.

A statement released by the Taliban at the end of the informal talks indicated a shift in position on foreign presence in Afghanistan.

The Taliban, using their formal name in a statement made on Sunday, said,

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan once again as a policy clearly states that it does not want to harm others and also won't allow anyone to use Afghan soil against others.”

The curfew which has been in place in Baltimore over the last 5 nights, after protests caused by the death of a black man while in police custody, has been lifted.

Troops with the National Guard have begun withdrawing from the city.

On Sunday morning, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she did not want to maintain it longer than necessary.

"My goal has always been to not have the curfew in place a single day longer than was necessary," she tweeted. "I believe we have reached that point today."

Thousands of people took to the streets, a day after the officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray were charged with homicide, with many exuberantly celebrating the move, while demanding justice to be served.

"We will gather in peace and we will march in peace and we will march until police brutality ends in the United States," Malik Shabazz, president of Black Lawyers for Justice which helped organise Saturday's march, told the crowd, according to Reuters.

Using social media hashtags #BlackLivesMatter and #BlackSpring, rallies were also planned on Saturday in more than 20 US cities including Dallas, New York and Los Angeles.

At the rally at City Hall, protesters held signs that said, "Running black is not a crime in Baltimore" and "Who's policing the Baltimore City police?", the Baltimore Sun reported.

Mark-Anthony Montgomery of the group Hearts with Promise said the protesters are fighting a "war on poverty" and a "war on injustice."

Around 300 Yezidi captives have been killed by Islamic State near Mosul, according to a statement from the Yazidi Progress Party.

Thousands of Yazidis were captured by IS militants last year, when they took over huge swathes of land in northern Iraq.

The Yazidi Progress Party's statement, quoted by the Kurdish Shafaq News website, condemned the killings as a "heinous crime" and urged Iraqi forces to free those still held by the militants.

Credible evidence indicates that the Saudi led coalition used banned cluster munitions supplied by the US during airstrikes against Houthi militant advances, said Human Rights Watch in a statement on Sunday.

The arms director at Human Rights Watch, Steve Goose, said, 

Nigeria’s army secured the release of 234 that were held captive in Boko Haram’s stronghold in the Sambisa forest.

The Nigerian defence headquarters, said the hostages were rescued on Thursday evening. A total of 500 women and children have been rescued over the past few days, reports the Guardian.

Amnesty International called on authorities, “to ensure that the trauma of those ‘rescued’ is not exacerbated by lengthy security screening in detention.”