Off the wire
• Cuba forms team for a friendly match against U.S.  • U.S. troops start training Syria fighters to combat Islamic State: Pentagon  • Tibetan basketball team to host NBL rivals at an altitude of 3,658m  • Netherlands seeks to expand ties with Cuba  • Results of Madrid Masters tennis tournament  • Canada introduces measures against high-risk travelers  • Ex-Man City midfielder extends Santos deal  • China's "new normal" brings new opportunities for Nordic countries: forum  • Serbia's EU path depends on dialogue with Kosovo: EU commissioner  • Huawei announces establishment of European Institute  
You are here: 　 Home

Xinhua world news summary at 0030 GMT, May 8

Xinhua, May 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

Britain's Conservative Party won most seats in the House of Commons but failed to gain an overall majority in the general election, a major exit poll commissioned by the BBC, ITV News and Sky News on Thursday night predicted.

The poll showed that the Conservatives would win 316 seats in the 650-member parliament, ahead of the Labor Party with 239. The Scottish National Party (SNP) stood in the third place with 58 seats. The UK Independence Party (UKIP) obtained 2 seats. (Britain-Election)

- - - -

UNITED NATIONS -- The UN special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, was in Riyadh on Thursday on his first visit to the region since he took office less than two weeks ago, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here.

"He met the crown prince and minister of interior, Mohammed Bin Nayef, as well as the deputy crown prince and minister of defense, Mohammed Bin Salman," Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here. "He also met with the G14 group of ambassadors at a lunch hosted by the Gulf Cooperation Council Secretariat." (UN-Saudi Arabia-Visit)

- - - -

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a bipartisan bill to allow Congress to review and potentially reject an international nuclear agreement with Iran.

The bill was approved 98-1 with Republican Tom Cotton being the only naysayer on the floor, as he wants a potential deal with Iran to be presented to Congress as a treaty. (U.S.-Senate Bill-Nuke Deal)

- - - -

HELSINKI -- Finland is now likely to have a ruling coalition comprising the Center Party, the Finns Party and the National Coalition Party (NCP), after attempts to include the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Left Alliance failed on Thursday.

Juha Sipila, leader of the Center Party and the would-be prime minister, told a press conference in an annex to the parliament building that he had tried to form a coalition comprising the four biggest parties including the SDP but it proved not feasible. (Finland-Ruling-Conservative)

- - - -

CAIRO -- A military court in Egypt's Suez province sentenced on Thursday 15 supporters of the currently-blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood group to 25 years in prison and two others to 10 years over inciting violence in late 2013, a few months after the ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in mid-2013, official MENA news agency reported.

The case dates back to December 2013 when clashes between pro-Morsi protesters and security men at an iconic square in Suez, about 120 km east of the capital Cairo, resulted in the death of two civilians. (Egypt-MB-Court) Endi