Off the wire
• Interview: UN to support women empowerment programs in Africa: official  • Nigerian troops recapture town from insurgents  • France, Morocco resume judicial cooperation  • Nigeria's party adopts President Jonathan as candidate for 2015 election  • Urgent: Ukraine peace negotiations start in Minsk  • Indian-controlled Kashmir separatist alliance condemns deadly mosque blast in Pakistan  • Heavy snow in S. Germany disrupts traffic, causes accidents  • AU vows sanctions on warring factions in South Sudan  • Profit of China's food sector edges up  • Death toll of south Pakistan's mosque blast rises to 61  
You are here: 　 Home

Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, Jan. 31

Xinhua, January 31, 2015 Adjust font size:

Trilateral Contact Group peace negotiations on Ukraine crisis started in Minsk with the hope to clinch a ceasefire agreement amid the escalation of conflicts between Ukrainian government forces and the militia in southeast Ukraine. (Ukraine-Peace Talks)

- - - -

ROME -- A constitutional judge was elected as Italy's new president on Saturday, in the fourth round of balloting held by Italian parliament in joint session.

Sergio Mattarella, 73, is a member of Italy's Constitutional Court since 2011. He had entered politics as Christian Democrat in the 1980s, after his brother was killed by the Sicilian mafia, and served as minister in several cabinets. (Italy-President)

- - - -

ADDIS ABABA -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday strongly condemned Thursday's terrorist attacks in Sinai, Egypt.

Ban told a press briefing on the sidelines of the African Union summit here that he strongly condemned the attacks in Sinai, which killed dozens of people and injured scores of others. (Ethiopia-Terrorist Attack)

- - - -

MEXICO CITY -- Death toll rose to three and the injured exceeded 70 in the gas blast happening Thursday at a maternity and children's hospital in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, authorities confirmed Friday.

The dead were a nurse and two infants. Of the 72 people injured in the blast and admitted to hospitals, 33 were discharged within 24 hours. Eighteen of the hospitalized remained in intensive care, including nine infants, according to Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera, who visited the site of the blast. (Mexico-Blast)

- - - -

ISLAMABAD -- The death toll of a bomb explosion in Pakistan's south Shikarpur district rose to 61 after several more people succumbed to injuries at hospitals on Saturday, local media and officials said.

Raja Umar Khitab, chief of Crime Investigation Department (CID), said Friday's explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber who blew himself up inside a mosque of Shiite Muslims in Lakhi Dar area of Shikarpur, a district in the southern Sindh province. (Pakistan-Bomb) Endi