US political thinker Jim Bovard has called for unveiling Washington's crimes and dirty secrets in Syria to the American public opinion, particularly the US continuous attacks against the Syrians, the US occupation of parts of Syria and the support  being provided by the US to terrorist organizations since the beginning of the terrorist war on the country.

In an article published recently by the Consortium News Website, Bovard said that the best hope to prevent a new round of US mistakes, lies and atrocities is to disclose the mistakes, lies and atrocities of the past American crimes in Syria. He called on the outgoing US President Donald Trump to open the "dirty" US secret files on Syria, saying that this would "provide an effective weapon in the hands of a huge number of Americans who vehemently reject new wars."

Greece’s Foreign Ministry has urged Turkey to revoke an “illegal” Navtex extending the activities of its Oruc Reis research vessel in the Eastern Mediterranean through November 29.

In a statement Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said that the Turkish Navtex had reserved an area overlapping Greece’s continental shelf in violation of the international law of the sea.

Turkey’s moves, the ministry said, undermine peace, security and stability in the region.

The ministry warned that Turkey was once again disregarding calls by the international community and the European Council to refrain from illegal actions that fuel tensions in the region.

It added that actions of this sort undermine prospects for an improvement in EU-Turkey ties at a time when Turkish officials assert that bloc membership remains Ankara’s “strategic” priority. The remark was an apparent reference to comments made by Ibrahim Kalin, the Turkish president’s spokesman, during talks with EU officials in Brussels Saturday.

Twitter said Friday it will hand control of the @POTUS account to the new Biden administration on Inauguration Day.

The @POTUS account is the official account of the President of the United States and is separate from the @realDonaldTrump account that Trump uses to tweet.

This will also apply to about a dozen White House accounts, including the @FLOTUS and @PressSec accounts, Nick Pacilio, a Twitter spokesperson told CNN Business.

"Twitter is actively preparing to support the transition of White House institutional Twitter accounts on January 20th, 2021. As we did for the presidential transition in 2017, this process is being done in close consultation with the National Archives and Records Administration," Pacilio said in a statement.

Turkey has to cease provocations in the eastern Mediterranean if it wants to avoid new discussions about European Union sanctions against Ankara at an EU summit in December, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Thursday.

"It is up to Turkey what decision will be taken at the EU summit in December," Maas said ahead of a meeting with his EU counterparts.

LONDON- Britain will likely follow the United States in reducing troop levels in Afghanistan but it will continue to work with its government and the U.S. to protect the country’s security, Britain’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said on Thursday, according to Reuters.

The Pentagon said on Tuesday President Donald Trump would sharply reduce the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan from 4,500 to 2,500 by mid-January.

Wallace said the Americans were not totally pulling out at this stage, and neither was Britain.

But he said: “I expect if they (the U.S.) are reducing at some stage, we will come down.”

Wallace said Britain had limited scope to act independently of its largest ally, but an increased funding settlement he had agreed with the finance ministry would in the future give the country greater options.

Some countries, member of the G20, have exported more than US$17bn worth of arms to Saudi Arabia since it became involved in the conflict in Yemen in 2015 but have given only a third of that amount in aid to people caught in the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, Oxfam said today.

The G20 heads of state are due to meet virtually later this week at a summit hosted by Saudi Arabia. Arms sales to the Gulf nation could come under fresh scrutiny as the US president-elect, Joe Biden, is on the record as saying he would stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia that fuel the war in Yemen.

After five years of conflict, Yemen was already suffering the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis with 10 million people going hungry, the largest cholera outbreak on record and only half of hospitals fully functioning. Oxfam reported in August that there has been one air raid every ten days on hospitals, clinics, wells and water tanks throughout the war.

The death toll in the powerful earthquake that levelled buildings across Greece and Turkey has risen to 26.

The quake struck late Friday afternoon, causing a mini-tsunami on the Aegean island of Samos and a sea surge that turned streets into rushing rivers in a town on Turkey's west coast.

The US Geological Survey said the 7.0 magnitude tremor hit 14 kilometres (nine miles) off the Greek town of Karlovasi on Samos.

The quake was felt in both Istanbul and Athens.

Much of the damage occurred in and around Turkey's Aegean resort city of Izmir, which has three million residents and is filled with high-rise apartment blocks.

Aerial footage showed entire city blocks turned to rubble.