Xinhua world news summary at 0200 GMT, March 8
Xinhua, March 8, 2015 Adjust font size:
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday strongly condemned a deadly terrorist attack in Bamako, the capital of Mali, and called for "a swift investigation" to bring those responsible for the attack to justice. (UN-Condemnation)
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CANBERRA -- Exactly one year ago, a Malaysia Airline aircraft took off from Kuala Lumpur airport and disappeared in the darkness of the sky, leaving the world with one of the greatest aviation mystery in history. Twelve months on, search vessels are working non-stop in the heart of the southern Indian Ocean, wishing to bring an answer to the tragedy.
Four ships, with a crew of 35 people each, are working in 12- hour shifts scanning the ocean floor. Every 45 days, the ships go back to Freemantle, Western Australia, for supply. It takes them 6 days of sailing from where they are conducting the search to Freemantle and another 6 days to go back. (Malaysia-Flight-Searching)
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SELMA, United States -- Half a century after the violent civil rights movement -- known as the "Bloody Sunday" - - shocked the United States into awareness and provoked changes in equal rights for African-Americans, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday that the racial history still casts its shadow on the nation.
"A more common mistake is to suggest that racism is banished, that the work that drew men and women to Selma is complete, and that whatever racial tensions remain are a consequence of those seeking to play the 'race card' for their own purposes," said Obama at the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday", the day in 1965 when police attacked activists demonstrating for voting rights for the black community. (US-Obama)
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HAVANA -- The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels announced Saturday that they reached an agreement to remove landmines from the battlefields during their peace talks in Havana.
The announcement came at the latest round of peace talks that began in Cuba's capital since November 2012, with the support of Cuba and Norway, and the "accompaniment" of Chile and Venezuela. (Colombia-FARC) Endi