BBC news with Marion Marshall.

The former Director of National Intelligence in the United States James Clapper has denied there was any wiretap on President Trump or his election campaign team. President Trump has asked Congress to examine the issue. He claimed his phones were tapped by the Obama administration but provided no evidence.

The French conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon has given a fighting speech to thousands of his supporters in Paris and insisted he will not withdraw his candidacy, but he admitted to misjudgments in dealing with allegations of corruption.

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Germany of Nazi practices after several towns banned political rallies at which Turkish ministers were due to speak. The meeting aims to encourage support for constitutional changes in Turkey.

Iraqi government forces and the Islamic State militant in western Mosul have been engaged in what one Iraqi commander has described as the heaviest clashes since an operation to recapture the western half of the city began two weeks ago. Aid agencies say they can barely cope with a number of people displaced.

The Nigerian government says its predecessor wasn’t serious about protecting the lives of civilians, following accusations that it turned down the British offer to rescue school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants. There’s been no response from the former government of President Goodluck Jonathon.

The Hungarian news movement that scuttled Budapest’s bid to host the Olympics is to become a fully-fledged political party. Momentums hope to fuel candidates in next year’s parliamentary election.

A senior Russian politician has called for football hooliganism to be recognized as a sport with written rules. Igor Lebedev, the deputy speaker of the Lower House of Parliament, who’s also on the Russian Football Union executive, said his country could be a pioneer in this new team competition.

BBC news.