Xinhua world news summary at 0830 GMT, May 4

NEW DELHI -- At least 10 people have died due to heavy rains and hailstorm in southern Indian states Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, officials said Friday.

"Heavy rains and hailstorms lashed the two neighboring states Thursday. While six people died due to lightning strikes in Telangana, four lost their lives in Andhra Pradesh," a disaster management official said.

(India-Flood)

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RAMALLAH -- The Palestinian National Council (PNC), or the parliament of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), elected a new PLO executive committee with President Mahmoud Abbas as its chairman.

Azzam el-Ahmad, a PNC member and member of the central committee of Abbas' Fatah Party, made the announcement shortly after midnight on Friday.

"The National Council elected President Mahmoud Abbas as the chairman of the PLO executive committee," said el-Ahmad, who read the names of 15 newly elected members of the committee. (Palestine-PLO Election)

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WASHINGTON -- More than 1,100 economists on Thursday warned President Donald Trump and U.S. Congress not to repeat the mistakes made in the 1930s by adopting trade protectionism policies.

The economists, including 14 Nobel prize winners and other economic advisors to former U.S. presidents, sent a letter to Trump and the Congress to urge them to step back from tariff threats, arguing that similar action taken by the Congress in the 1930s sank the U.S. economy into the Great Depression. (US-China-Trade)

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LOS ANGELES -- China's leading electric vehicle maker BYD announced Wednesday to team with US Hybrid Corporation to develop a hydrogen fuel cells battery-electric bus.

According to a press release of BYD (Build Your Dreams), this bus, the first kind of electric bus using fuel cells technology, will serve Honolulu's Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Hawaii, one of the busiest airports in the United States with more than 21 million passengers per year. (US-China-Cooperation) Enditem