Off the wire
• Aussie researchers ask amateur stargazers to help find "Planet 9" in our Solar System  • Roundup: Australian PM orders comprehensive review of nation's electricity prices  • Leading English Premier League scorers  • English Premier League results  • Latest results of Vasaloppet 2017  • English Premier League standings  • Study: climate variation influences natural selection at global scale  • Hillary Clinton caught reading Pence email controversy  • France's Fillon refuses to quit presidency race as party looks for replacement  • Irish, British PMs discuss reestablishment of Northern Ireland Executive  
You are here: 　 Home

Xinhua World News Summary at 0030 GMT, March 27

Xinhua, March 27, 2017 Adjust font size:

At least six people died and 12 others were injured when a church building under construction collapsed on Saturday at Muramba in Bubanza province, 35 km west of the Burundian capital Bujumbura, local administration authorities said.

"The church building under construction collapsed around noon when agents were at work. Six people died on the spot when one of the walls fell on them. Twelve others were injured, five of them seriously," Bubanza Governor Tharcisse Niyongabo said.(Burundi-Building Collapse)

- - - -

DAMASCUS -- The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fully captured the Tabqa airport west of the northern city of Raqqa on Sunday, following battles with the Islamic State (IS) group, the SDF spokesman told Xinhua.

Tabqa airport in a city bearing the same name in the western countryside of Raqqa, is the first airport to be controlled by the Kurdish-led groups, Talal Silo, the SDF military spokesman, told Xinhua. He added that the airport will be used to bring in humanitarian aid to the area, and also passengers.

He noted that the airfield had been used for military and civilian aviation.(Syria-Battle-Kurdish Force)

BERLIN -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party CDU was ahead with a clear lead over rival SPD in the Saarland state elections, exit polls showed on Sunday.

The vote was the first in a series leading up to German federal elections in September. Some 800,000 eligible voters cast their ballots. Exit polls showed that CDU was ahead with 41 percent with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) trailing behind on 29.5 percent.(Germany-State-Election)

- - - -

KIEV -- At least five people were killed after a military helicopter crashed on Sunday afternoon in eastern Ukraine, the country's Defense Ministry said.

Among those killed there were three crew members and two passengers. The MI-2 helicopter went down near the town of Kramatorsk in Donetsk region, said the ministry's spokesman Olexandr Motuzyanyk.(Ukraine-Helicopter Crash)

- - - -

ANKARA -- Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned Switzerland's ambassador to Ankara on Sunday over a Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rally targeting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Swiss capital Bern.

The move came a day after nearly 250 PKK members and supporters took part in a rally in front of the federal parliament building in Bern, where a banner reading "Kill Erdogan" pictured him with a gun pointed at his head, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.(Turkey-Switzerland-PKK) Endi