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Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, May 5

Xinhua, May 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

People in different parts of the earthquake-rattled Nepal have been struggling to restore their lives, as the Himalayan country remains in deep sorrow and mourning.

Nearly 90 percent of residential buildings in Sankhu, a town in the worst-hit Kathmandu Valley some 20 km east of the capital, were destroyed or damaged by the 7.9-magnitude earthquake on April 25. (Nepal-Quake)

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RIYADH -- Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it has suspended all schools and flights in the southern Najran area, near the Saudi-Yemeni border, citing security concerns, local Al Arabiya news reported.

The decision was made for security reasons after Yemen's Shiite Houthi militias shot mortar shells from a mountainous region on borders with Saudi Arabia, said the report, adding that the mortar shells fell on a hospital and several houses in Najran. (Saudi Arabia-Yemen-School Suspension)

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BAGHDAD -- Iraq on Tuesday dispatched reinforcement to Salahudin province to fight IS militants trying to take the country's largest oil refinery, security sources said.

Brigades from the federal police and allied militias, known as Hashd Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization, backed by tanks and armored vehicles, rushed to an airbase just north of the provincial capital city of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, a provincial security source said. (Iraq-IS-Fighting)

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NICOSIA -- The leaders of the long-estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities are committed to solving the Cyprus problem at last, a United Nations envoy said on Tuesday.

Espen Barth Eide, Norwegian former foreign minister who acts as a special advisor to the U.N. Secretary-General, completed a first round of talks with the community leaders and is preparing to announce a date for the resumption of long-stalled negotiations. (Cyprus-UN) Endi