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Xinhua world news summary at 0030 GMT, Feb. 17

Xinhua, February 17, 2017 Adjust font size:

A South Korean court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for the heir apparent of Samsung Group, the country's largest family-controlled conglomerate, on bribery charges linked to the corruption scandal that led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.

A judge at the Seoul Central District Court said that there is enough justification to issue the warrant for Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong given the newly added criminal charges and newly collected evidences. (Samsung-Arrest)

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BUCHAREST -- Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday stressed the importance of protecting the rights of Romanians living in Britain, when meeting with visiting European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

Iohannis underscored that Romania's main priority is to ensure the rights and interests of the Romanian nationals living in Britain are protected. (Romania-Brexit-President)

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BONN, Germany -- China and Britain agreed to safeguard global free trade mechanism and promote free trade as foreign ministers of the two nations met on Thursday.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met his British counterpart Boris Johnson on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty (G20) foreign ministerial meeting held in Germany's western city of Bonn. (China-Britain-G20)

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NEW YORK -- The U.S. dollar ended lower against most major currencies on Thursday amid uncertainties over the timing of Federal Reserve's next rate-hike.

Investors have lowered bets on an interest-rate increase as soon as next month as Fed Chair Janet Yellen did not send a clear message of whether the central bank will raise interest rate at its March meeting. (U.S.-Dollar)

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HAVANA -- At the on-going 2017 Cuba International Book Fair (FIL), the Chinese pavilion has been attracting many locals and foreigners, and has become one of the most-visited areas.

Many visitors showed their interest in books of traditional Chinese medicine, martial arts, politics, history and culture. The Chinese pavilion is made up of six major publishing houses with books on various topics. (Cuba-China-Book Fair)

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NICOSIA -- The Cyprus peace negotiations have not been derailed but it will take a big effort to prevent a future accident after a crisis that led to the disruption of a negotiating session on Thursday, a United Nations official has said.

United Nations Secretary General's special adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide said after separate emergency meetings with the leaders of the Cypriot communities on Thursday night that a meeting scheduled for Feb. 23 has not been canceled. (Cyprus-Negotiation-UN) Endi