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Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, Sept. 30

Xinhua, September 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

A two-year-old boy and a 34-year-old woman lost their lives on Wednesday, the latest tragedy in the Aegean Sea, when a boat carrying undocumented migrants and refugees from Turkey to Greece capsized, the Greek Coast Guard have confirmed.

The nationalities of the victims have not yet been clarified, nor have the circumstances of the vessel's sinking off the coast of Lesvos island amid strong winds. (Greece-Refugees)

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PARIS -- A migrant was killed on Tuesday night after being hit by a train in the channel Tunnel in northern France, bringing the death toll of people who lost their lives while trying to cross to Britain to 13, local authorities said.

A security guard found dead a young man after being hit by freight shuttle, Calais prefecture said. (France-Migrant)

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FRANKFURT -- The German automaker Volkswagen on Tuesday announced that it would recall up to 5 million diesel vehicles that are involved in an emissions cheating scandal.

According to a statement issued by the company, customers of the affected vehicles will be informed in weeks and months and the emissions characteristics will be corrected. (Germany-Volkswagen-Scandal)

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KABUL -- Units of police backed by the army have killed 148 Taliban militants during series of operations across the conflict-hit Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, the Interior Ministry said in a statement released here on Wednesday.

In the operations which covered parts of Nangarhar, Laghman, Baghlan, Kandahar, Zabul, Oruzgan, Logar, Takhar, Paktiya and Farah provinces, 120 more insurgents have sustained injuries, the statement added. (Afghanistan-Taliban-Military Operation)

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KABUL -- A Taliban shadow governor for Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province has been killed along with 16 other militants following a U.S. airstrike, said the National Directorate for Security, the country's intelligence agency, on Wednesday.

"Taliban shadow governor Mawlawi Salam, along with his deputy and 15 other Taliban got killed in an airstike in Kunduz," the NDS said on its twitter account. (Afghanistan-Taliban-U.S. Airstrikes)

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DAMASCUS -- The Russian warplanes started Wednesday its airstrikes against the rebels positions in the countryside of the Syrian provinces of Hama and Homs in central Syria and Latakia on the coast, a security source told Xinhua.

"The Russian and Syrian war jets started Wednesday striking the terrorist positions in the countryside of Hama, Homs and Latakia," the source said on condition of anonymity. (Syria-Russia-Airstrikes) Endi