Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, Feb. 1

A senior Palestinian official on Sunday said that the Palestinian leadership's decision to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) is irreversible.

"All powers on earth will never bring the clock back," Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told "Voice of Palestine" Radio, adding that the Palestinian leadership is heading towards becoming a member in the ICC. (Palestine-ICC )

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MINSK -- The latest round of peace talks on Ukraine crisis on Saturday ended in the Belarusian capital of Minsk without an agreement.

The Ukrainian side blamed the delegates from the east regions for the failure of yielding any productive outcome of the meeting. While the eastern rebels accused Kiev of showing little respect to others. (Ukraine-Minsk Talks)

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DAMASCUS -- An explosive device ripped through a bus carrying Lebanese passengers at a gate of the old city of Damascus on Sunday afternoon, killing at least six people and injuring over 20 others, the pro-government Sham FM radio and witnesses said.

The explosive device tore through the bus near the gate of the ancient al-Hamidiyah Marketplace in the old city of the capital Damascus, the Sham FM radio and witnesses told Xinhua. (Syria-Explosion-Damascus)

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ABUJA -- Heavy shootings were heard Sunday as government forces repelled multiple attacks by Boko Haram in at least four different axis of the northern city of Maiduguri, capital of Nigeria's Borno State, local residents and security sources told Xinhua.

The Boko Haram fighters, armed with high-power weapons including two armored fighter vehicles, attacked the city through Njimtilo, a location on the outskirts of Maiduguri, from which it launched a similar attack exactly a week ago, according to Murtala Ahmed, a local resident. (Nigeria-Boko Haram-Crackdown)

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TIKRIT -- An Iraqi old man on Sunday shot dead seven Islamic State (IS) militants in revenge for the killing of his son by the extremists in Iraq's northern central province of Salahudin, a provincial security source said.

The incident took place in the morning when Basil Ramadan, in his 60s, opened fire from his AK-47 assault rifle on a group of IS militants at a checkpoint in the provincial capital city of Tikrit, and killed seven of them before they shot him dead, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. (Iraq-Revenge-IS)

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TOKYO -- Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference that the man beheaded by the Islamic State militants showed in a video posted on-line early Sunday is highly likely to be Japanese hostage Kenji Goto, local media reported. "There is a high possibility that the video is from the IS, and the hostage beheaded is likely to be Kenji Goto,"Suga was quoted by Japan's national broadcaster NHK.

The top government spokesman also released an alert, warning overseas Japanese nationals of safety hazards. (Japan-IS-Hostage) Endi