Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, Dec.28

JUBA -- Renewed clashes between government troops and opposition forces in the northern South Sudanese town of Koch have killed at least 32 people since the Dec. 24 cease-fire, a local government official said on Thursday.

Lam Tungwar, Information Minister for Northern Liech State, said that the deaths occurred during fresh fighting that broke out between government soldiers and rebels loyal to the country's former Deputy President Riek Machar since the declaration of the truce on Sunday. (South Sudan-Clash)

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KABUL -- Forty-one people were killed and 84 others were injured after a twin suicide attacks and another bomb blast rocked a cultural center in the western neighborhood of Afghan capital of Kabul Thursday, authorities said.

"Among those killed in Thursday's terrorist attacks were four women and two children and eight women were among the injured," Wahid Majroh, a spokesman of the Public Health Ministry, told reporters. (Afghanistan-Serial Bombings-Casualties)

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ANKARA -- Turkey on Thursday issued detention warrants for a total of 23 staff members from Ankara's Hacettepe University over their alleged links to Gulenists, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

According to the warrants issued by Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, among the suspects, four are currently working at the university while the others were dismissed after last year's coup attempt. (Turkey-Gulenists-Suspects)

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BERLIN -- Due to two suspicious postal items, the area around the State Chancellery of the German state Thueringen is widely closed off.

Fire fighters and police are in large presence, local media Focus online reported, citing the Twitter account of the "MDR Thuringia." (Germany-Suspicious Items) Enditem