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Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, May 21

Xinhua, May 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

Nigeria has rescued at least 275 women and children from the camp of Boko Haram in the northeastern Borno State, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said Thursday.

Soon after they were liberated by the country's military forces in Borno State, the abductees were taken to a temporary camp in Malkohi, a local community near Yola, capital of the neighboring Adamawa State, from where they were taken to a destination yet to be ascertained, a spokesman of NEMA told Xinhua. (Nigeria-Rescue)

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MOGADISHU -- Five suspected members of the Somali militant group Al-Shabaab were captured Wednesday in a joint security operation in Mogadishu, officials said.

The five, who are believed to have sneaked into the city with the intention of planning and causing terror attacks, were nabbed in hideouts in Hiliwa and Yaqshiid districts of the capital by Somalia National Army and the African Union backed force, AMISOM. (Somali-Al-Shabaab)

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ANTANANARIVO -- Nine were killed and three others are still missing in a shipwreck Wednesday off Nosy Be, a resort island off the northwest coast of Madagascar, a local port authority official said.

The tragedy happened some 300 kilometers off Nosy Be on Wednesday evening, when the speed boat Vas-Y was transporting 19 illegal immigrants to Mayotte, APMF General Director Jean Hubert Zipa said Thursday morning. (Madagascar-Shipwreck)

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DAMASCUS -- Islamic State (IS) militants have taken full control of the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria, a monitor group reported Thursday.

Both the residential parts and the historic parts, which host 2,000-year-old monuments and temples, of Palmyra have fallen to the IS group, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (Syria-IS)

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BEIJING -- The rescue operations in the central municipality of Salgar are being wrapped up Wednesday following a deadly landslide in northwest Colombia that has killed 83 people so far.

Carlos Ivan Marquez, chief of Colombia's disaster response service, said Wednesday the first phase of search and rescue operations in Salgar were "coming to an end due to the immediate response of all relief agencies." (Colombia-Landslide) Endi