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Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, Feb. 5

Xinhua, February 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and his Greek counterpart Yanis Varoufakis acknowledged lack of progress at their first meeting on Thursday in Berlin as new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Varoufakis are lobbying across Europe for a solution to the country's debt problem.

"We agreed to disagree," said Schaeuble at a joint press conference, adding a haircut of Greece's debt was not on the table. (Greece-Germany-Debt)

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AMMAM -- Jordan Air Force warplanes on Thursday launched air strikes against several targets of the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, the state-run Jordan TV reported.

The air strikes came after the IS released a video earlier this week showing a Jordanian pilot, who was captured by the group after his fighter jet crashed in Raqqah over Syria last year, was burnt alive in a cage. (Jordan-IS-Air Strikes)

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KIEV -- The Ukraine conflict can only be stopped when there is a ceasefire and weapons are withdrawn, while all the parties should sit down together at the negotiation table, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday.

This is the only way for Russia to avoid international isolation, Interfax news agency quoted a joint statement issued after Kerry's meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev. (Ukraine-Crisis)

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PARIS -- French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are due in Kiev in a new attempt to resolve peacefully the Ukrainian crisis amid rising tensions in the region, Hollande told reporters on Thursday.

"Ukraine is at war. Heavy weapons are being used, and civilians are killed every day. I decided, with Angela Merkel, to take a new initiative. We go to Kiev this afternoon," the French president said. (France-Ukraine-Crisis)

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BRUSSELS -- The meeting of the NATO-Georgia Commission (NGC) reaffirmed that Georgia is a very close and strong partner of NATO, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday.

NATO is committed to helping Georgia make its defense more modern, and thereby enable Georgia to move closer to NATO membership, Stoltenberg said in a statement at the press conference following the meeting. (NATO-Georgia-Meeting) Endi