Aleppo siege: Syria rebels lose 60% of territory and other top stories.

• Aleppo siege: Syria rebels lose 60% of territory

  

  Media captionThe children of eastern Aleppo have never known a life without war Close to two-thirds of rebel-held areas of east Aleppo have now fallen to the Syrian government after another district was seized.A UK-based monitor said the Tariq al-Bab district fell on Friday, opening up a link between government-held areas and Aleppo's airport.Swathes of east Aleppo held by rebels have been seized by government troops and militiamen in the past three weeks.Some 250,000 people remain trapped ..

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• Castro in Africa

  

  For nearly three decades, Fidel Castro devoted vast amounts of Cuba’s limited resources to the project of exporting his revolution to Africa, even as it stuttered at home. As leader of Cuba, Castro advocated a radical departure from the prevailing post-war liberal internationalism, premised more on the ideas of Frantz Fanon than those of Adam Smith. Decolonization seemed to offer a prime laboratory for that vision. Cuba volunteered doctors, nurses, military advisers, and troops to support what..

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• Iran condemns extension of nuclear-related sanctions by Senate

  

  In 2014, Secretary of State John F. Kerry helped negotiate a nuclear deal with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak) Iranian officials and clerics vowed retaliation Friday against the United States for congressional approval of an extension of nuclear-related sanctions, but Middle East analysts say they expect no substantive response from Iran in the waning weeks of the Obama administration. Instead, they said, the vote to keep sanctions on the books for ano..

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• China blasts 'petty' Taiwan call with Trump

  

  Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has not endorsed the idea of a unified China. (Taipei Photojournalists Association pool via AP) BEIJING — On Friday, President Xi Jinping told Henry Kissinger that he hoped for “stability” in U.S.-China ties under the new administration. Nobody told Donald Trump. The president-elect on Friday broke with four decades of diplomatic practice by talking on the phone to Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen, a breach of protocol that could disrupt U.S.-China ties before the in..

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• FEATURE: Visually impaired professor to light way forward on UN disability agenda

  

  2 December Governments, businesses must integrate biodiversity into their practices to halt degradation, UN conference hears Liberia ‘stable’ but needs continued attention, Security Council told UN refugee agency boosts winter assistance for displaced Iraqis in conflict-affected villages FEATURE: Visually impaired professor to light way forward on UN disability agenda Decade after global treaty's adoption, persons with disabilities still at ‘grave disadvantage’ – Ban UN agency urges Governments..

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• Europe|Election in London, Seen as Gauge of 'Brexit' Zeal, Jolts British Government

  

  Photo Sarah Olney of the Liberal Democratic Party defeated Zac Goldsmith, who had represented the London borough of Richmond as a Conservative since 2010. Credit Carl Court/Getty Images Europe LONDON — An election just contested here was supposed to be a referendum on the expansion of Heathrow Airport, and only of local interest. But it turned into something far more profound: a referendum on the referendum for Britain to quit the European Union, and its results sent tr..

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• Gambia President Jammeh Quits After Suffering Election Loss

  

  Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh said he’ll step down after losing a presidential election on Thursday in a remarkable about-face that prompted thousands of Gambians to celebrate the departure from office of a leader who had vowed to rule for a billion years.“Gambians have decided that I should take the backseat,” Jammeh said Friday on state television, hours after the election commission declared that opposition leader Adama Barrow, a virtual unknown six months ago, emerged as winner of the Dec. 1 poll. ..

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