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Xinhua Asia-Pacific news summary at 0800 GMT, April 1

Xinhua, April 1, 2015 Adjust font size:

Unknown armed men intercepted several passenger vehicles in Saripul province with Saripul city as its capital, 350 km north of Kabul and abducted 13 travelers on Wednesday, a member of Saripul provincial council, Hayatullah Alamai said.

"The ill-fated passengers were going from provincial capital the Saripul city to Balkhab district Wednesday morning when a group of armed people, presumably Taliban militants intercepted their vehicles in Damarda area and took 13 passengers to unknown locations," Alami told Xinhua. (Afghanistan-Attack)

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HANOI -- The 132nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union ( IPU-132) and related meetings concluded Wednesday afternoon in Vietnam's capital Hanoi with the adoption of Hanoi Declaration.

The document, themed "the Sustainable Development Goals: Turning Words into Action," is adopted by parliamentarians from 133 countries and 23 international regional parliamentary organizations after reviewing the emerging sustainable development goals and considering the parliamentarians' role in attaining them, reads the Hanoi Declaration, which will be submitted as an official document to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015. (Vietnam-IPU-Assembly)

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JAKARTA -- A shallow undersea-quake measuring 6.0 Richter scale jolted eastern parts of Indonesia on Wednesday, but there was no potential for tsunami, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said here. (Indonesia-Earthquake)

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BANGKOK -- Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will pay a visit to Thailand on April 7-8, which will be the first trip to Thailand by a Russian PM in the last 25 years, the Thai Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

This visit is aimed at strengthening cordial relations and deepening cooperation between Thailand and Russia, based on the mutual benefits of both countries, the ministry said in a statement.

Medvedev and Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha will hold bilateral talks which will encompass a wide range of topics from bilateral cooperation in all dimensions, such as politics, economics, energy, culture to regional and international issues of mutual concern, it said. (Thailand-Russia-Visit) Endi