Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, May 17

The formation of the new French government to be headed by conservative lawmaker Edouard Philippe, appointed Monday after Emmanuel Macron was sworn in as France's new president, was announced Wednesday by the president's office.

Socialist veteran Gerard Collomb, who is mayor of Lyon, was named as interior minister, while centrist politician Francois Bayrou was appointed to take the charge of the justice portfolio. The two men were supporters of Macron during his election campaign. (France-New Government)

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SKOPJE -- Zoran Zaev, the leader of SDSM party, has become the new Macedonian prime minister-designate after he received a mandate to form government on Wednesday.

President Gjorge Ivanov forwarded the mandate to Zaev more than five months after parliamentary elections in the country.

"The obstacles that we had to give the mandate are now removed," Ivanov said in a short statement. (Macedonia-PM)

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WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged on Tuesday to repair bilateral relationship fraught with difficulties in the past. However, division between the two sides still run deep.

Speaking at the White House with Erdogan, Trump hailed the Turkish people as "friends and allies for many, many decades" for the United States and pledged support for Turkish fight against the Islamic State (IS) and a Kurdish militant group known as the PKK. (U.S.-Turkey-Relations)

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ABUJA -- A total of 27 people were killed in a recent attack by gunmen in the central Nigeria's state of Niger, a local official said on Tuesday.

Ibrahim Inga, head of the State Emergency Management Agency, who confirmed the attack, said the victims were killed when marauders stormed Epogi community in the state's Mokwa district. (Nigeria-Attack-Casualty) Endi