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Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, June 20

Xinhua, June 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

A total of 40 Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Saturday in U.S.-led coalition air strikes and clashes with Iraqi security forces and allied militias in Iraq's western province of Anbar and north of the capital Baghdad, Iraqi defense ministry said.

The troops, backed by international and Iraqi aircraft clashed with the IS militants near the IS-held town of Garma, some 50 km west of Baghdad, leaving 12 militants killed, the defense ministry said in a statement. (Iraq-IS-Crackdown)

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SANAA -- A mosque controlled by the Shiite Houthi group in Yemen's capital Sanaa was hit by a car bomb on Saturday, killing at least three people, a security official told Xinhua.

"At least three people were confirmed killed and seven others wounded in the car bombing attack that targeted al-Kubbah al-Khadra mosque," Colonel Naji al-Joufi told Xinhua. (Yemen-Car-Bomb)

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LONDON -- A new pilot scheme to streamline visa application processes for Chinese visitors to Britain, Belgium and the wider Schengen area was announced Friday by the British and Belgium governments.

Under the new UK-Belgian Visitor Service, Chinese customers will be able to submit visa applications for both countries during a single visit to a UK visa application center. (Britain-China-Visa)

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SANAA -- Saudi-led air strikes struck military and civilian airports in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Saturday, destroying the runways, after five-day peace talks in Geneva collapsed, officials and residents said.

An airport official told Xinhua that the air strikes destroyed the runways of the civilian Sanaa international airport and its adjacent al-Dailamy air force base in northern Sanaa at midnight. (Yemen-Saudi-Airstrike)

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ST. PETERSBURG -- Russia is not striving to become a superpower and only seeks to develop equal relations with other countries, President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

"Russia does not claim some sort of hegemony or ephemeral superpower status," Putin told the ongoing Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum here. (Russia-Putin-Diplomacy) Endi