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Xinhua world news summary at 1600 GMT, Sept. 14

Xinhua, September 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Israel's former president Shimon Peres has slightly improved after he suffered a major stroke on Tuesday night, his doctors said on Wednesday afternoon.

"After 24 hours of intensive care, I can say that his condition is still severe but he is stable, and there is a certain improvement," Prof. Yitzhak Kreiss, director of the Chaim Sheba Medical Center, outside Tel Aviv, told reporters in the hospital. (Israel-Peres)

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BERLIN -- The German cabinet approved a mandate on Wednesday offering military assistance in the NATO-led maritime security operation Sea Guardian in the Mediterranean Sea.

The deployment of 650 German armed soldiers will last from October 2016 until end of 2017, so as to "develop a comprehensive overview of the situation for the Mediterranean," according to the German government.

(Germany-NATO-Mission)

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MOSCOW -- Russia will hold new strategic military drills in the western part of the country in 2017, said a Russian general here on Wednesday.

"We conduct strategic command and military exercises annually. The next one, codenamed Zapad 2017 (West-2017) will take place in the western part of the country," Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia, told local press. (Russia-Drills)

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UNITED NATIONS -- The UN General Assembly kicked off its 71st session here on Tuesday with a focus on joint global efforts to carry out the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a blueprint for ending poverty and hunger, advancing equality, and protecting the environment for the years leading up to 2030.

The new annual session was declared open by Peter Thomson, president of the 71st session of the General Assembly. Thomson, the UN ambassador of Fiji, was elected to the current post by the UN General Assembly in June.

(UN-SDG)

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MANILA -- The Philippines and Russia want to deepen their military-to-military cooperation, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Wednesday.

Already, the foreign department said in a statement that defense officials from the Philippines and Russia started discussions last week on possible defense cooperation especially in the areas of military education, counter-terrorism and humanitarian assistance and disaster response. (Philippines-Russia-Cooperation) Endi