"
MOGADISHU Bryan Little Youth Jersey , Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- A taxi driver was killed and a passenger injured when a bomb suspected to have been planted in the car exploded near the airport in Mogadishu on Monday.
Police said the bomb went off as the car drove by Jazeera hotel which has in the past been bombed by the militant group Al-Shabaab killing the driver.
""An innocent taxi driver was killed and his passenger injured after an explosive device hidden in his car exploded. Security officials have cordoned off the area,"" a police officer Muse Mohamud told Xinhua.
Witnesses said a huge blast went off near the hotel suspecting it was under attack.
""We heard a heavy blast near Jazeera Hotel and we thought it had been bombed. Police have since closed the road heading to the airport,"" Said Hussein told Xinhua.
Witnesses said the vehicle was heading to the city center from a parking bay near the airport in Mogadishu when the improvised explosive device exploded near Jazeera hotel.
The attack happened barely a day after former Al-Shabaab deputy leader Mukhtar Robow was flown in to Mogadishu after surrendering to government forces in Bakool region in southwestern Somalia.
Robow's fighters had been fending off a deadly Al-Shabaab onslaught in the last few weeks which resulted in tens of deaths from both sides.
The motive of Monday's attack is however not clear but Al-Shabaab has deployed such low scale attacks in the past.
The group has not claimed responsibility for the attack which comes amid increased assaults on the government and African Union bases in Mogadishu and across the Horn of Africa nation.
Torrential rain causes floods, landslides in China's Guangxi
""Comfort women"" statues installed on buses in Seoul
Hundreds of Chicagoans rally for Charlottesville victims
Never stop trying, Usain Bolt tells younger generation
Weekly choices of Xinhua photo (Aug. 5 - Aug. 11)
Highlights of multinational drill in Georgia
People mark national Fitness Day around China
Aerial view of Gula Town in S China
" "
RAMALLAH, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinians are encouraged by the new peace initiative launched by China to push forward the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, a senior Palestinian official told Xinhua in a recent interview.
Nabil Shaath, foreign affairs adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, praised China for having been ""always an ally to the Palestinians by supporting their independence and self--determination.""
During his meeting with Abbas in July, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a new four-point proposal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which affirms China's support for a two-state solution to the Palestine issue, and for the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
""I think it is very encouraging for us that China will support a just peace process in the Middle East,"" Shaath said.
On the July visit to China by Abbas, Shaath said the result was ""very positive.""
Xi's proposal calls for restarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks stalled since 2014 as soon as possible and a halt to Israeli settlement expansion.
Notably, it advocates promoting peace between Israel and Palestinians through advancing economic development in the Palestinian territories.
Under the proposal, China offers to host a symposium on peace between Palestine and Israel later this year, and launch a tripartite China-Palestine-Israel dialogue mechanism on coordinating the implementation of major assistance programs in Palestine in line with China's Belt and Road Initiative.
China pledged to take concrete measures to support Palestine's economic development, such as encouraging Chinese companies to build industrial parks and solar power plants.
""China is really playing a new role, but that role is not really difficult to understand, as it represents the increased importance of China's role in the global affairs with the growth of the Chinese economy into one of the top two in the world,"" said Shaath, a former Palestinian chief negotiator and cabinet minister.
Shaath said that as the world is becoming multi-polar, the United States is no longer a monopoly in mediating the Israeli-Palestinian peace.
He also mentioned the initiative launched by France to break the stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which included the hosting of an international conference in Paris in January that China also took part.
""After Abbas came back from China, he was encouraged. His trip was really very successful and there was a discussion of China's entry into the political process leading us to peace through negotiations,"" said Shaath.
""The four--point proposal by China is totally acceptable to us,"" he said, calling it the ""Chinese Peace Initiative.""
""Abbas was very much encouraged by China's support to his determination to establish an independent state and to stop the colonial settlement by Israel in the West Bank and Jerusalem,"" said Shaath.
The senior Palestinian politician noted that the new Chinese initiative came at a time when there was renewed violence between Israel and the Palestinians in East Jerusalem in July due to the Israeli moves to impose stricter control over the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Many blamed the renewed violence on the continued deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who visited Israel and Palestine in May during his first foreign trip, has sent envoys, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, to the region recently in a bid to restart the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
But no breakthrough has been achieved so far, as Israel continues expansion of settlements. And the Trump administration, dist
SANTIAGO, Feb. 2 (. T. J. Watt Jersey Stefon Diggs Jersey Shaquem Griffin Jersey Saquon Barkley Jersey Authentic Royce Freeman Jersey Authentic Roquan Smith Jersey Authentic Richard Sherman Jersey Patrick Mahomes Womens Jersey Nick Foles Womens Jersey Leonard Fournette Jaguars Jersey