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Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, Sept. 9

Xinhua, September 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Syrian government forces recaptured a key oilfield on Wednesday, a couple of days after the Islamic State (IS) militants stormed the facility, according to the state news agency SANA.

The Syrian forces retook the oil and gas fields of the al-Jazel in the eastern countryside of the central province of Homs, after defeating the IS militants in that area and inflicting hefty losses on them, said SANA. (Syria-IS)

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SEOUL -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Wednesday urged the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to abandon its "infeasible" policy line of simultaneous development of nuclear program and economy and push ahead with the policy of opening and reform.

"Now, North Korea (DPRK) should come to the path of a genuine development through opening and reform by staying away from the infeasible line of simultaneous nuclear and economic development," Park said during her keynote speech at the Seoul Defense Dialogue that opened here Wednesday. (S.Korea-DPRK)

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JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed on Wednesday for a two-day visit to London, where he is set to discuss the peace talks with the Palestinians and European initiatives to ban settlement products with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

The European Union is currently debating whether to mark products produced in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the lands that Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast War and are slated to be part of a future Palestinian state, according to the two-state solution. (Israel-Britain)

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BERLIN -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that Germany should lead the way on the refugee issue to help find common European solutions to the current refugee crisis.

Speaking to lawmakers during a parliament general debate, Merkel said the EU must unite to deal with the influx of refugees, stressing that it was not just a "challenge at national level, but for the EU as a whole." (Germany-Refugees)

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TEHRAN -- Iran will not discuss global and regional issues with the United States following the nuclear deal, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday.

"We agreed on discussions with the United States only concerning Iran's nuclear issue for specific reasons. We have not permitted Iranian officials to negotiate with the United States in other areas and we will not talk to them," Khamenei was quoted as saying by state IRIB TV. (Iran-US) Endi