World News from the BBC

Yahya Jammeh has been declared the winner of Gambia's presidential election. The president, who won 72% of the vote, now begins his fourth term in office. This report from Thomas Fessy.

Yahya Jammeh said after the election on Thursday he couldn't be defeated unless Gambians had gone mad. It's no surprise that he won a

landslide

victory after 17 years in power. In fact, in a rare decision, the main regional body Ecowas condemns what it described as an atmosphere of

intimidation

and repression against his opponents, prompting Ecowas to cancel its observation mission.

Polls have closed in Morocco's parliamentary election - the first vote since King Mohammed introduced constitutional reforms in response to pro-democracy uprisings throughout the Arab world. The new constitution gives more powers to the parliament and prime minister, who must now be appointed from the party with the most seats. Correspondents say attention will be focused on the turnout after some pro-reform campaigners urged a boycott.

Iceland has rejected a bid by one of China's wealthiest entrepreneurs, Huang Nubo, to buy a 300-sq km block of land on the northern shores of the island. Officials said there was no precedent for such a large land sale to a foreign buyer. Mr Huang wanted the land to create a tourist nature reserve, but some critics feared the purchase would have given China a strategic foothold in the Arctic, where there's a growing international interest in exploiting the region's natural resources.