PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 16 (Reuters) - As Haiti's police struggle to contain powerful armed gangs, a disagreement between the Dominican Republic and Canada spilled out into the public on Friday, further complicating an international plan to boost Haiti's outgunned police force.

A day after Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly announced plans to set up a Canadian office to coordinate support for Haiti's national police this summer in the neighboring Dominican Republic, her Dominican counterpart denied any deal authorizing an office on Dominican territory.

ST. PETERSBURG, June 17. /TASS/: The scale of the ‘sanitary zone’ or ‘sanitary cordon’ in Ukraine will depend on the range of the Ukrainian arms, from which the Russian territory should be protected, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS when asked whether possible borders of such a zone have been outlined.

"No, this depends on what types of arms Ukraine has. The higher the combat characteristics of arms in Ukraine are the longer this distance should be," he said. "The main goal is clear: to make sure they do not reach the Russian citizens with those arms," Peskov added.

HELSINKI, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The new government of Finland unveiled its policy program and division of ministerial posts on Friday, highlighting a commitment to safeguarding the welfare society.

The new government will safeguard the welfare society, ensure adequate services for all, and promote the balanced development of the national economy, said the government's press release on Friday.

It will make adjustments to taxation, lowering personal income tax and increasing value-added tax on items such as pharmaceuticals, sports services, film screenings, etc, it said.

MANILA, Jun 17 (NNN-PNA) – A Philippine Senate committee, yesterday kicked off an investigation, into the U.S. request for the country to host Afghan nationals, applying for a special immigrant visa to head for America.

Senator Maria Imelda “Imee” Marcos, the chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, launched the investigation, to shed light on the U.S. proposal. During the hearing, Marcos questioned the reason why the U.S. wanted to involve the Philippines in processing the entry of Afghan nationals, who previously worked with the American agencies in Afghanistan.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday met with a group of leaders of African countries who traveled to Russia on a self-styled “peace mission” the day after they went to Ukraine.

Seven African leaders — the presidents of Comoros, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia, as well as Egypt’s prime minister and top envoys from the Republic of Congo and Uganda — visited Ukraine on Friday to try to help end the nearly 16-month-old war.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Fifteen people were injured Saturday when a mass transit bus crashed with two cars before hitting a building in Baltimore, police said.

Baltimore police said officers in the city’s central district responded to a Maryland Transit Administration bus crash at about 10:20 a.m.

A preliminary investigation showed that the bus crashed with a Lexus and a Nissan before coming to rest in a building.

Police said 15 people were injured. Two of the injuries are possibly life threatening, police said in a news release.

June 17(Reuters) - A U.S. judge has ordered Canadian energy company Enbridge (ENB.TO) to shutter portions of an oil pipeline that runs through tribal land in Wisconsin within three years and to pay the tribe nearly $5.2 million for trespassing plus a portion of its profits until the shutdown is completed.

MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/: Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has paid an inspection visit to the Omsk Region to see how the state defense order is being fulfilled at a regional plant on production of tanks and heavy flamethrower systems.

"Russian Defense Minister Army General Sergey Shoigu has inspected the implementation of the state defense order at a plant in the Omsk Region that specializes in the production of tanks and heavy flamethrower systems," the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

HERAT, Afghanistan, June 17 (Xinhua) -- A fire broke out at a big market, engulfing nearly 200 shops, in Afghanistan's western Herat province, Abdul Wadood Faizzada, the provincial head of craftsmen union said Saturday.

"The fire broke out at about 3 a.m. local time at Qasr-e-Herat market in 2nd Municipality District of the Herat city, engulfing 200 shops of different commodities, mostly clothes and cosmetics, costing 100 million Afghanis (about 1,163,000 U.S. dollars)," Faizzada told Xinhua.

LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - Teachers in England will strike on July 5 and July 7, the National Education Union (NEU) said on Saturday, staging further industrial action over a pay and funding dispute with the government.

The new dates announced by Britain's largest education union come on top of at least six days of walk-outs by teachers in England from February to May.

Teachers rejected a government pay offer for an average rise of 4.5% plus a 1,000 pound one-off payment in April. The union is now holding another ballot on more strikes for this Autumn.

BARCELONA, June 17 (Reuters) - Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was given a last-minute consolation on Saturday when Barcelona's city council appointed a new Socialist mayor after a deal involving two rival parties.

Despite pro-independence parties appearing certain to run Spain's second city, Jaume Collboni, the Socialist candidate, became mayor after the far-left Barcelona en Comu of the outgoing mayor Ada Colau gave him its support in a move supported by the conservative People's Party.

ISTANBUL, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police seized the head of a 2,000-year-old statue in the western city of Izmir as part of a crackdown on a ring of historical artifact smugglers, the state-run Anadolu agency reported Saturday.

The police raided the house of a suspect believed to be involved in the smuggling of ancient treasures in the Karabaglar district of Izmir and found the head of the statue in a dishwasher.

The head is believed to be part of a marble statue depicting a goddess or a noble dating back to the Hellenistic period.