United Nations

Turkey has announced its decision to continue to remove its troops from the Bashiqa camp near Mosul after nearly 10 days of tension with the Iraqi government and upon insistent appeals from Washington, which included a phone call from U.S. President Barack Obama to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.
 

Two Bulgarians might turn out to be the main rivals for the United Nations Secretary General's seat that will be vacated by Ban Ki-moon late next year, Russian news outlet Nezavisimaya Gazeta has said.

The United Nations (UN) Security Council adopted unanimously on Friday a resolution on initiating a process of political transition in Syria.

The resolution gave the UN an enhanced role in guiding the opposing sides to talks for a political transition, with a timetable for ceasefire, a new consitution and elections all under the auspices of the UN.

Eighteen people have drowned off the southwestern coast of Turkey when a vessel carrying refugees sank late on Dec. 18, according to the Turkish Coast Guard. 

The wooden boat - packed with refugees, including Syrians and Iraqis - was seeking to reach the Greek island of Kos when it sank in Bodrum Bay.

The United Nations Security Council on Dec. 18 unanimously approved a resolution endorsing an international road map for a Syria peace process, a rare show of unity among major powers on a conflict that has claimed more than a quarter million lives. 

Turkey accused Iraq on Dec. 18 of undermining the global fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) by taking its complaint about the deployment of Turkish troops in northern Iraq to the United Nations Security Council. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu traveled to New York to take part in a new round of talks focused on ending the more than four-year-old conflict in Syria, where he met his counterparts from Saudi Arabia and Qatar in a trio meeting.

Former Serbian state security officers Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic pleaded not guilty at the UN court in The Hague at their retrial for war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia.

Michelin-starred French chef Marc Veyrat, chosen to cook for world leaders at the U.N. climate talks in Paris, was on Dec. 18 served a 100,000-euro fine for destroying the forest around his Alpine restaurant.

Some 45,000 Christians who fled Syria and Iraq are forced to hide their religious identity in the Turkish provinces of Yozgat, Aksaray and Çorum.