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Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, April 21

Xinhua, April 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

A convoy of the United Nations mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was attacked by assailants and a driver was killed on Monday near Mali's northern town of Gao, a UN source said.

Preliminary reports said a driver had been killed and his truck burnt, according to a statement by the MINUSMA.(Mali-UN-Attack)

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RAMADI, Iraq -- Iraqi security forces on Tuesday retook control of more districts in the city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, after heavy clashes with the Islamic State (IS) militants, provincial security sources said.

The troops and allied Shiite and Sunni tribesmen covered by U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi aircraft regained control of Ramadi's Pediatric and Maternity Hospital in the central part of the city after fierce clashes overnight, leaving some 15 IS militants killed, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. (Iraq-IS)

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ANKARA -- Turkish coast guards rescued 30 illegal Syrian migrants from a sinking boat off Turkey's Aegean coast, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported on Tuesday.

The Turkish coast guards were in search for a missing person as they noticed the nine-meter-long rubber boat near Bodrum district of southwestern Mugla province, according to the report.(Turkey-Syria)

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CAPE TOWN -- Sporadic xenophobia violence flared up again in Durban, South Africa, on Tuesday despite relative calm in other places.

Some local South Africans attacked foreigners who wanted to reopen their businesses in Isipingo where the latest round of violence first erupted in late March, police spokesperson Daniel Dunia said.(S.Africa-Violence)

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KUNDUZ -- One person was killed and seven others were injured, all civilians, as a bomb blast targeted a police van in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz on Tuesday, a local official said.

"Terrorists planted the explosive device on a bicycle and detonated it next to the police vehicle in Kunduz city at 04:30 p. m. local time, killing a civilian and injuring seven more others," provincial police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini told Xinhua.(Afghanistan-Bicycle Blast)

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SKOPJE -- A group of armed men have entered and forcefully taken over the police station in Goshince, in north Macedonia on Tuesday morning. The armed people presented themselves as members of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

The Macedonian Ministry of Interior confirmed the incident with Xinhua. According to the ministry's spokesperson Ivo Kotevski, the attackers have taken over the police station disarming four police officers on duty and declaring that they demand forming an independent state.(Macedonia-Armed Men)

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CAIRO -- An Egyptian Court on Tuesday sentenced former Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to 20 years in prison over the killing of protesters in 2012.

Tuesday's ruling is the first against the ousted leader, who stands trials over charges of jailbreak, ordering the killing of protesters, spying and insulting the judiciary. (Egypt-Morsi-Court) Endi