to the president.

A wide range of national security experts with experience in government, all of whom asked for anonymity in anticipating initial chaos in the new administration, predicted clashes not only within the White House but between Flynn — most of whose experience is in counterterrorism — and James N. Mattis, the nominee to be defense secretary, as well as Tillerson. The experts also expect early departures.

The multiple national security power centers within the White House alone indicate a large number of staffers, although the Trump transition has indicated a desire to streamline the NSC.

Congress also has mandated an NSC policy staff of no more than 200. Under Obama, it ballooned to more than more than 400, more than half in policy positions and the rest in technologyAdvertising Read more

Paris (AFP)

France has charged eight men, including three minors, following an investigation into far-right activists allegedly plotting to target politicians and mosques, prosecutors announced Saturday in Paris.

The men -- aged between 17 and 29 -- are accused of being party to a "criminal terrorist conspiracy", and of links to Logan Alexandre Nisin, a militant who was arrested near Marseille in June.

Nisin is the founder of a group dubbed OAS. He was detained after posting that he planned to attack blacks, jihadists, migrants and "scum".

The 21-year-old had earlier come to the attention of French authorities as the administrator of a Facebook page glorifying neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bomb and gun rampage in 2011 in Norway.

The prosecutor's office in Paris said that