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Xinhua world news summary at 0030 GMT, March 12

Xinhua, March 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

Utah is expected to become the only U.S. state to allow firing squad executions for death penalty convictions, as a Senate bill that passed Tuesday headed to the governor's desk for signing.

"We need options and if (European) drug companies don't like firing squads then they can sell us the drugs," the bill's sponsor, Republican Paul Ray from Clearfield, a suburb north of Salt Lake City, told Xinhua. (U.S.-Utah Legislation-Firing Squads)

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HAVANA -- Cuba and the United Stated have restored direct telephone communications that were most recently cut off in 1999, the state-run Telecommunications Company of Cuba announced Wednesday.

The company said it reestablished direct interconnection between the two countries, initially for international calls, as a result of an agreement between the firm and U.S. service provider Domestic Telecom. (Cuba-U.S.-Relations)

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ROME -- Italy's former premier Silvio Berlusconi said Wednesday that with his acquittal of two legal charges by the supreme court, "all fractures are healed, even in the (Forza Italia) party".

According to local media, Berlusconi made the remarks when meeting party loyalists to celebrate Tuesday's binding acquittal on charges of buying sex from an under-age prostitute and abusing his office to cover it up. He completed a community-service sentence 10 days earlier from a definitive tax fraud conviction. (Italy-Berlusconi-Acquittal)

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PARIS -- A tourism plane crash has left four people dead in Orne, northwest France, local media reported Wednesday.

The plane, a Robin DR 400, fell down at 17:30 local time (1630 GMT) while it was landing in Argentan airfield, the daily Ouest France said on its website. (France-Plane-Crash)

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CHICAGO -- Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson resigned Wednesday, after a federal report pointed out a culture of racism within the police department and municipal offices in the Missouri town.

Jackson said in an interview with local media that he felt it was time for the city to move on. He said an interim chief will be appointed from within the department. (U.S.-Ferguson-Resignation)

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DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania -- At least 42 people were killed and 23 others seriously injured after an overloaded bus collided head-on with a lorry in Tanzania's southern highland region of Iringa, local officials say.

Iringa regional commissioner Amina Masenza, who arrived at the scene of the accident in Mufindi district, said the bus which carried most of the victims, was damaged beyond recognition. (Tanzania-Bus-Collision) Endi