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Xinhua world news summary at 0100 GMT, July 20

Xinhua, July 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

Algerian army killed 16 armed militants affiliated to al-Qaida on Sunday, apparently in response to one of the deadliest militant attacks in months last week that claimed lives of at least nine Algerian soldiers, according to local media.

The army operation was launched to track down a terrorist group affiliated to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in the province of Ain Defla, about 145 km south east of the capital Algiers. (Algeria-Al-Qaida Operation)

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JERUSALEM -- The Israeli security service said Sunday that it had arrested a six-member Hamas cell that was responsible for the killing of an Israeli civilian in the West Bank in June.

A security spokesperson said the suspects were allegedly involved in the killing of Malachi Rosenfeld, a 25-year-old resident of the Jewish settlement of Kochav Ha'Shahr, in a shooting on June 29. Three other Israeli civilians, also in their 20s, were injured in the incident. (Israel-Hamas Arrest)

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DAMASCUS -- Syrian forces advanced Sunday towards the city of Zabadani near the Lebanese border, killing 20 rebels while they attempted to sneak out of Zabadani, according to the state news agency SANA.

Military units backed by the Lebanese Hezbollah group captured three new areas in Zabadani, in their effort to recapture the key city, northwest of capital Damascus and near the Lebanese border.

(Syria-Lebanon-Border)

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STRASBOURG -- The remains of Jewish victims of Nazi anatomist August Hirt have been discovered at the Forensic Institute of Strasbourg, the office of the French city's mayor said this weekend.

They are the remains of victims mostly brought from other concentration camps to be killed at the Natzweiler-Struthof camp, which is situated 60 km south west of Strasbourg. (France-Jews)

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ADDIS ABABA -- The African Union (AU) has reiterated its readiness to immediately deploy human rights observers and military experts to Burundi.

The pan-African bloc said in a statement on Sunday that the deployment is as part of the follow-up and implementation of the relevant decisions of the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC). (AU-Human rights)

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STRASBOURG -- Thirteen elected officials from the Alsace region this weekend co-signed a letter to French President Francois Hollande calling for Strasbourg to become the site of a "eurozone parliament."

President Hollande said he wished to see a parliament specifically for countries in the eurozone in his Bastille Day speech last week, a call which he repeated on Sunday. The Strasbourg politicians, from both right and left, want to defend the city's status as "European Capital." (France-Strasbourg-Eurozone parliament) Endi