United Nations

Germany has sent a team of specialist investigators to Istanbul following the Jan. 12 blast in the city's historic Sultanahmet Square where 10 Germans were killed when an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-linked suicide bomber blew himself up.

Ten Germans were killed in the suicide bombing that ripped through the historic heart of Istanbul, Germany's foreign ministry said Jan. 13.
 
"I must relay the sad news that we now have 10 dead Germans among the victims" from Jan. 12 attack, ministry spokeswoman Sawsan Chebli told reporters.
 

Germany's consulate-general to Turkey's Aegean province of ?zmir has started collecting bids to sell its former historic building, where it resided 82 years.

The mission had evacuated the building in ?zmir's central Kordon neighborhood and moved to the new facility in Balçova in 2007. 

The stone building had served as the consulate-general building since July 14, 1925. 

United States spy chief James Clapper's personal online accounts have been hacked, his office confirmed on Jan. 12, a few months after CIA director John Brennan suffered a similar attack.

Clapper's Office of the Director of National Intelligence confirmed the hack but refused to provide details.

Norwegian international footballer Martin Linnes arrived in Istanbul on Jan. 12 to sign a contract with Galatasaray.

"I know Galatasaray is a big club," right-back Linnes told the Istanbul side's official broadcaster on arrival at the airport. 

One person has been detained over the Jan. 12 Sultanahmet attack that killed 11 people, Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala has announced.

Ala said a total of 3,318 people have been detained until now within the context of the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and other radical organizations.

Donors have pledged $250 million to educate over one million Syrian children this year but an additional $500 million is urgently needed to fund the program in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, the U.N. envoy for global education said on Jan. 12.

An Istanbul court imposed a ban on reporting the investigation into the Jan. 12 attack in Turkey's largest city, including "all kinds of news, interviews, criticism and similar publications in print, visual, social media and all kinds of media on the Internet."

Aid trucks have reached three besieged towns in Syria, while negotiations to evacuate some 400 Syrians on the brink of death are being conducted. 

Aid workers found the 400 Syrians suffering from starvation, malnourishmnt and other illnesses during a visit to a hospital in Madaya, said U.N. Aid Chief Stephen O'Brien.  

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticised the continuing Russian airstrikes in Syria and in particular the recent attack on the city of Aleppo, which reportedly resulted in the death of thirty civilians.

Cavusoglu also called on the international community to condemn Russian airstrikes targeting civilians in Syria, Daily Harriyet informs.