The American actor and political activist George Clooney has called for the freezing of assets held by the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who's wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges. Mr Clooney, a UN messenger of peace, has just returned from a visit to Sudan. He told the BBC that freezing President Bashir's foreign bank accounts would be an effective way of putting pressure on the Sudanese government and that negotiators from North and South Sudan could benefit from an American-led diplomatic effort to resolve their differences before another war broke out.
"We were a big help in the 2005 peace agreement, so we know that there is a road map to doing this. At some point, you're going to have to sit down and negotiate a deal. Now you can do it after a bunch of people are killed, you can do it after a war, or you can do it now and we have an opportunity now."
A senior Nato official says international forces in Afghanistan have helped facilitate contact between the Taliban and the Afghan government. He suggested that safe passage have been granted to some Taliban representatives, including to the capital Kabul, in what were described as preliminary contacts between the two sides. The Afghan government had spoken previously of contacts with the insurgents.
The board of the English football club Liverpool has been meeting to discuss three offers that had been made to buy the team. Earlier on Wednesday, a judge ruled against the sides, current American owners who were trying to block its sale to the owners of the Boston Red Sox baseball team. Two further bids for Liverpool have also emerged.