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Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, July 29

Xinhua, July 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

Russian Central Bank on Wednesday froze the purchases of foreign currency after ruble dropped to the lowest level in months.

Operations were suspended on Tuesday in order to replenish the international reserves considering the rising volatility on the domestic foreign exchange market, the regulator said in an online press release. (Russia-Ruble-Economy)

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LONDON -- A British Airways flight from Las Vegas to London Heathrow made an emergency landing in Canada's Montreal out of reports of a "suspect device" on board, the Sky news reported on Wednesday.

The flight that carried over 300 people was evacuated after landing safely. The plane was then searched by local police. (Britain-Plane-Accident)

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RAMALLAH -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday that the ongoing endless Israeli settlement will undermine the efforts for rescuing the stalled peace process in the Middle East.

Abbas remarks were made in a meeting he held in the West Bank city of Ramallah with a delegation represents the international parliament, according to the Palestinian official news agency. (Palestine-Israel-Conflicts)

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DAMASCUS -- As many as 90 government forces were either killed or wounded during intense battles with several jihadi groups in northwestern Syria, a monitor group reported Wednesday.

The rebels' Jiash al-Fateh, or Conquer Army, an alliance of several jihadi groups, unleashed a wide-scale offensive against the positions of the government forces in the western countryside of Idlib province, a monitor group and the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV reported. (Syria-Jihadists-Conflicts)

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MOGADISHU -- A German citizen of Somali origin was behind Sunday's bomb attack on Jazeera Hotel in Somalia's capital Mogadishu that killed 15 people, a senior Somali intelligence officer said Wednesday.

"Full investigations are still continuing and it is too early to give full update, but what I can confirm to you is that the male bomber was a German citizen of Somali origin who just came back (to Somalia) recently," the unnamed officer told Xinhua, noting that the suicide bomber had lived in the German city of Bonn before his return to Somalia. (Samali-Hotel-Bombing)

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MEXICO CITY -- Five men in northern Mexico each were sentenced to 697 years in prison for the gender-driven killing of 11 women.

An official at the attorney general's office in the state of Chihuahua said Tuesday that this sentence was the longest ever given for femicide, a term of sexual hate crime usually defined as the killing of women due to their gender. (Mexico-HateCrimes-Trial) Endi