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Xinhua world news summary at 0030 GMT, Jan. 18

Xinhua, January 18, 2017 Adjust font size:

At least nine Syrian military personnel, including an officer, were killed by a blast east of the capital Damascus on Tuesday, a monitor group reported.

The rebels' Fajer al-Ummah, Arabic for the Dawn of Nation, detonated a tunnel in the eastern suburb of Harasta, near a military base, killing the soldiers, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (Syria-Blast-Soldiers)

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BANJUL -- Gambian President Yaya Jammeh declared on Tuesday a state of public emergency in the country. The move came ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Adama Barrow, who is due to be sworn in January 19.

The West African country has been in a political crisis since December 9 when Jammeh, who lost the December 1 presidential elections and conceded defeat, changed his mind and refused to hand power over to Barrow. (Gambia-President-Emergency)

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STRASBOURG -- Antonio Tajani of the European People's Party Group has been elected President of the European Parliament on Tuesday.

Tajani led the first three rounds of voting, but was not able to secure the absolute majority necessary to win earlier in the day. (European Parliament-Tajani-Voting)

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LAGOS -- At least 52 people lost their lives and 120 others injured in a bombing by the Nigerian Air Force on a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the northeast city of Rann in Borno State.

In a statement made available to Xinhua, Medicine San Frontiers,(MSF), one of the humanitarian aid group said this large-scale attack on vulnerable people who have already fled extreme violence is shocking and unacceptable. (Nigeria-MSF-Attack)

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ROME -- Up to 180 people were feared dead in a latest shipwreck of a migrant boat off the Libyan coasts, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.

The United Nations (UN) migration agency released the figure after gathering testimonies from four survivors, three men and one woman, who were rescued and brought to the port town of Trapani in Sicily on Monday evening. (Libya-Migrant-UN) Endi