Donald Trump has congratulated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his victory in Sunday's referendum that gave him sweeping new powers. The narrow victory was ruled valid by Turkey's electoral body, despite claims of irregularities by the opposition. It said the two leaders "agreed on the importance of holding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accountable". Turkey views the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) as a terror group linked to Kurdish separatists waging an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984. But the head of Turkey's electoral body, Sadi Guven, said the unstamped ballot papers had been produced by the High Electoral Board and were valid.

Source: The Star April 18, 2017 05:26 UTC