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Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, March 6

Xinhua, March 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

A total of 57 people were arrested across the United Kingdom this week in a nationwide operation against cyber crime, the British National Crime Agency (NCA) said Friday.

The NCA said the arrests took place in 25 separate operations from March 2 to 6, and the crimes included networking intrusion and data theft from multinational companies and government agencies, cyber-enabled fraud, and malicious software and virus development, among others. (Britain-Cyber-Criminals)

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MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Friday to reduce salaries of the country's major officials by 10 percent in response to economic hardships faced by the country, the TASS news agency reported.

The wage reduction targets Putin himself, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, head of Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin as well as Cabinet members and Kremlin officials, according to the report. (Russia-Salary Cut)

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TIKRIT, Iraq -- Iraqi security forces on Friday liberated the town of Dour from the Islamic State (IS) militants who have captured the town for months, as part of a major offensive in Iraq's northern central province of Salahudin, provincial security sources said.

The troops and allied Shiite and Sunni militias, covered by Iraqi aircraft, entered the town of Dour, in south of the provincial capital city of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, from all directions after heavy bombardment on the central neighborhoods, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"Most of Daash (IS militant group) foreign fighters have fled the town earlier and only few local fighters remained," the source said, adding that the troops were still fighting sporadic clashes in small pockets inside the town. (Iraq-IS)

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ADDIS ABABA -- South Sudan's government and rebels failed to strike a peace deal after days of talks in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, mediators said Friday.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said in a statement that he regretted "the talks did not produce the necessary breakthrough." (South Sudan-Peace Talks) Endi