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Xinhua world news summary at 0030 GMT, May 19

Xinhua, May 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan said Monday that it is deeply concerned about a new cycle of violence in South Sudan, where humanitarian crisis is already dire after over one year of conflict.

The South Sudan opposition forces launched an attack in Malakal in Upper Nile State on Friday and fighting continued during the weekend, said UN spokesman Farhan Haq at a regular briefing, noting that the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) strongly condemned this new cycle of violence and violation of cease-fire agreement. (UN-S.Sudan-Violence)

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JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel would continue to build houses throughout Jerusalem, including east Jerusalem where the Palestinians aspire to build the capital for their future state.

Netanyahu was speaking during a special parliament session commemorating "Jerusalem Day," which was created to mark the "reunification" of the city after Israel annexed the eastern part in the 1967 Mideast war. (Israel-Jerusalem-Settlements )

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MOSCOW -- Moscow denied on Monday that the two fighters captured by Ukrainian troops over the weekend are serving in Russian special forces, and insisted that they voluntarily participated in the Donbass armed conflict.

"The Russian citizens, Alexander Alexandrov and Eugeny Yerofeev, captured in Lugansk region by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), have not been in active military service in Russian armed forces at that moment of detention," Interfax news agency quoted Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov as saying. (Russia-Ukraine-Denial)

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BRUSSELS -- The European Union (EU) defense and foreign affairs ministers agreed in a meeting on Monday to establish an EU military operation to stop people smugglers and traffickers in the Mediterranean.

The decision, called EU Navfor Med, was one element of the comprehensive EU response to the migration challenge, a statement published after the Council meeting said. (EU-Migration )

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ARUSHA, Tanzania -- Ministers of East African Community Affairs from member states on Monday agreed to use the EAC eminent persons and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Committee of Elders to resolve the ongoing crisis in Burundi.

They reached the agreement at their emergency meeting in Arusha, which was hosted by the chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers and Tanzania's minister of East African Cooperation Harrison Mwakyembe.

(Burundi-Crisis) Endi