Xinhua world news summary iat 1530 GMT, Jan. 4

JOHANNESBURG -- At least four people were killed and dozens injured in a train crash in South Africa's Free State on Thursday morning, according to local media and emergency services.

One Shosholoza Meyl train derailed between Hennenman and Kroonstad when hit by a truck, local media said. (South Africa-Train Crash)

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DUBLIN -- An Egyptian man was arrested after he was suspected to be involved in a stabbing incident that killed one Japanese and injured two others in the north of Ireland on Wednesday, said local police.

According to police, the incident first took place at about 9:00 a.m. local time when a 24-year-old Japanese man was stabbed to death on his way to work in Dundalk, an Irish small town. (Ireland-Stabbing)

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BERLIN -- German policymakers must adopt more effective preventive measures to reduce the number of asylum seekers who commit violent crimes, a criminological study published on Wednesday by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs finds.

Amongst others, the paper calls for better availability of language courses, sporting activities and internships, as well as enhanced care for young refugees. Such services were needed prevent migrants who had no realistic chance of securing asylum in Germany in particular from becoming violent as a consequence. (Germany-Refugee Crisis)

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SEOUL -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump have agreed not to conduct the joint war games between Seoul and Washington during the South Korea-hosted Winter Olympic Games slated to kick off in February, Moon's office said Thursday.

Moon and Trump had a telephone conversation for about 30 minutes earlier in the day, agreeing not to carry out the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises during the PyeongChang Olympic and Paralympic Games, according to the Blue House, the presidential palace. (U.S.-S. Korea-Drills)

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TEHRAN -- Iran's ambassador to the United Nations Gholamali Khoshroo slammed the U.S. government's recent attempts to intervene in the domestic affairs of the Islamic Republic, Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday.

"In the past several days, the U.S. administration, led by the U.S. president, has stepped up its acts of intervention in a grotesque way in Iran's internal affairs under the pretext of providing support for sporadic protests" in the country, Khoshroo said in a Wednesday letter to the UN Security Council and to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. (Iran-Protests) Enditem