SYRIA: Scores of US-backed Kurdish fighters left two neighbourhoods in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo yesterday as part of a deal with the central government in Damascus, which is expanding its authority in the country.

The fighters left the predominantly Kurdish northern neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh, which had been under the control of Kurdish fighters in Aleppo over the past decade.

BOLIVIA: A powerful explosion killed at least five people, including a pregnant woman and a one-year-old baby, during a standoff between rival groups of gold miners early on Thursday in north-west Bolivia, police said.