Plan envisaged ceasefire, national unity government and elections under UN supervision but collapsed over worries about Assad’s role, says report Iran and Turkey held secret talks on peace proposals for Syria in 2013 and as recently as this year, but the talks broke down amid mutual suspicions, according to a new report to be published on Tuesday. The report on ...

REPORTED BY KALAHAN DENG Trump’s transition team announced on Friday that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani has been withdrawn from consideration to become secretary of state – one of the most important positions in government. Mr Giuliani, a close friend of New York native Trump, was a key adviser to the incoming President during his hard-fought election campaign. Trump ...

REPORTED BY KALAHN DENG RUSSIA has launched a cyber campaign to take down Angela Merkel and promote far-right groups in the upcoming German elections, a US official has claimed. Moscow will escalate a decade long operation to boost support for the far-right and nationalist groups in Germany. It comes as a CIA probe confirms Moscow helped Donald Trump win the ...

REPORTED BY KALAHAN DENG THE Norwegian Prime Minister has demanded migrants arriving in her country must “work to sustain a living” and “cannot say no to jobs like working in a restaurant where they serve pork or alcohol” for religious reasons. Erna Solberg said while her country is happy to accept migrants they must not expect Norway will pay them ...

REPORTED BY KALAHAN DENG Australian-born Andrew Liveris, the Chief Executive of Dow Chemical Company said he was “tingling with pride” to accept the job as chief of the American Manufacturing Council, a private sector group which directly advises the US secretary of commerce and communicates with leaders of the manufacturing sector. As he accepted Trump’s job offer, Mr Liveris said: ...

REPORTED BY KALAHAN DENG At least one explosion has been heard outside Istanbul’s Besiktas sports stadium, Turkish media and witnesses say. There are reports of several people wounded, in what appears to have been an attack on riot police. Ambulances and police were seen rushing to the scene, and TV footage showed a fire burning outside the stadium. Turkey has ...

REPORTED BY KALAHAN DENG The South Carolina man accused of shooting dead nine black church-goers last year admitted the massacre, in a video shown to the jury. In a videotaped FBI confession aired at the death penalty trial, Dylann Roof laughed several times and made sweeping gun motions as he described the attack. The 22-year-old told interrogators he wanted the ...

REPORTED BY KALAHAN DENG Donald Trump said President Barack Obama had told him about a “big problem” for the US, but he wouldn’t say what it was. What could it be? “I was actually surprised a little bit,” said the president-elect when telling New York Times reporters about his private conversation with the outgoing White House incumbent. He said they ...

REPORTED BY KALAHAN DENG US intelligence agencies believe Russia acted covertly to boost Donald Trump in the election race, US officials have told leading newspapers. A report in the New York Times says the agencies had “high confidence” about Russian involvement in hacking. A CIA assessment reported by the Washington Post made similar findings. But Mr Trump’s team dismissed the ...

REPORTED BY KALAHAN DENG Gambian President-elect Adama Barrow has called on incumbent Yahya Jammeh to accept defeat in last week’s election. President Jammeh initially appeared to concede after results showed he had clearly been defeated, but on Friday said he rejected the results “totally”. Mr Barrow said the president had “no constitutional authority to reject the results” and demand another ...