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Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, Oct. 8

Xinhua, October 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

Singapore government has received a formal note from Indonesia, stating that it welcomes the cooperation offered by Singapore to suppress large-scale forest fires which caused transboundary haze pollution, reported Channel NewsAsia on Thursday.

The formal note came a day after Singapore's Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said he had a good discussion with his Indonesian counterpart in his Facebook post on Wednesday. (Singapore-Indonesia-Air)

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BERLIN -- Investigators raided headquarters of German automaker Volkswagen in Wolfsburg and offices in other places on Thursday, said German public prosecution office in Braunschweig.

Investigators searched the offices for "documents and data carriers that can provide information on the exact procedure of those involved in the manipulation of the exhaust emissions of diesel vehicles," said the prosecution office in a statement. (Police-Raid-Volkswagen)

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STOCKHOLM -- The Nobel Prize in literature for 2015 was awarded to Belarusian author Svetlana Alexievich "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time," the Swedish Academy announced in Stockholm on Thursday.

Alexievich was born on May 31, 1948 in Ukraine to a Belarusian father and a Ukrainian mother. She is best known for her nonfictional book "Voices From Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster." (Noble-Prize-Literature)

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MANILA -- The gunman who hijacked a passenger bus on Thursday afternoon in the capital was shot dead by police, local media said.

The gunman, who remains to be unidentified, boarded the HM Transport Bus along Taft Avenue in Manila at round 2 p.m. local time, declaring to take the passengers as hostage, local radio station DZMM reported. (Philippines-Bus-Hijack)

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SANAA -- Warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition hit a wedding celebration in Yemen's southwestern province of Dhamar Wednesday night, killing 26 civilians and wounding dozens, medical sources told Xinhua.

The airstrike hit the house of a tribal leader who allegedly supports the Shiite Houthi group in Sanaban village in Dhamar province, about 100 km southeast of the capital Sanaa. (Yemen-Airstrike-Wedding) Endi