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Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT Aug. 28

Xinhua, August 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Greece's snap general elections will take place on Sept. 20, according to a presidential decree issued on Friday.

The decree, which is traditionally posted on the doors of the parliament building's main entrance, formally dissolves the current assembly and sets the date for the first session of the new parliament for Oct. 1. (Greece-Early Election)

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EISENSTADT, Austria -- Austrian police on Friday confirmed there were 71 dead bodies, including of kids and women, in the abandoned truck that was found parked at the side of a highway Thursday.

The 71 dead bodies included 59 men, eight women, 3 boys aged 8-10, and one 1-2 year-old baby girl, police said Friday at a press conference here. (Austria-Immigrants-Death)

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MAIMANA, Afghanistan -- Taliban militants have killed 25 civilians in the northern Faryab province with Maimana as its capital 425 km northwest of Kabul over the past two days, a local official said Friday.

"Taliban militants stormed Astana village in Shirin Tagab district and have massacred 25 innocent civilians including women and children over the past two days," Mohammad Tahir Rahmani, deputy to provincial council, told Xinhua. (Afghanistan-Taliban-Civilian Killings)

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ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines -- At least three Abu Sayyaf Group militants were killed while 15 others, including 10 soldiers and five militants, were wounded in firefight that broke Friday morning in south Philippine province of Sulu, said security officials.

The military said the marines troops were on combat mission tracking kidnapped victims when they encountered about 300 Abu Sayyaf Group militants led by 5 commanders about 6:30 a.m. local time at the jungle of Patikul township. (The Philippines-Military Clash)

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TRIPOLI -- Nearly 200 illegal immigrants may have died off Libya's western Zuwara coast on Thursday after a boat carrying around 400 people sank, a security official told Xinhua on Friday.

"We have recovered 82 bodies washed ashore so far, while about 100 people are still missing," a coast guard official said. (Libya-Immigrants-Death)

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DAMASCUS -- Several jihadi groups unleashed a wide-scale offensive against a besieged Syrian airbase in the country's northwest, reaching the base's main gate and killing 16 soldiers, a monitor group reported Friday.

The jihadi militants, mainly from the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, mounted a broad offensive in droves overnight against the Abu al-Duhur airfield, which they have been besieging for over two years in the northwestern province of Idlib, much of which fell to the Nusra and its affiliates last April, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (Syria-Extremist Militants-Attack) Endi