IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Russia

US missile test 'escalation of tensions'

Moscow on Tuesday said the United States was ramping up military tensions by testing a medium-range cruise missile weeks after tearing up a pact with Russia. "This is all a cause of regret. The US has obviously taken a course toward escalation of military tensions. We won't react to provocations," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told state news agency Tass. The US announced on Monday that it had tested a type of ground-launched missile that was banned under the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty with the Soviet Union. The missile was launched from the US Navy-controlled San Nicolas Island off the coast of California. The launch was a sign of Washington beefing up its capabilities in the wake of the collapse of the treaty on Aug 2.

Korean Peninsula

ROK, US end joint military exercises

The combined forces of the Republic of Korea and the United States ended their weekslong joint annual military exercises on Tuesday as scheduled, according to local media reports. The command post computer-simulated joint military drills were launched early this month, without mobilizing military equipment and armed forces, to verify the ROK military's initial operational capability for the transfer of wartime operational control of ROK troops from Washington to Seoul. The ROK's wartime operational command was handed over to the US-led United Nations Command after the three-year Korean War broke out in 1950. Seoul regained its peacetime command in 1994. The ROK-US military drills were staged amid the harsh denunciation from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Syria

Airstrikes target Turkish convoy, killing 3

Airstrikes targeted a Turkish army convoy inside a rebel-held part of northwestern Syria on Monday, killing three civilians and wounding 12 others, the Turkish Defense Ministry said. Syria said the Turkish convoy was carrying ammunition to rebels who have lost ground this month amid a government offensive to retake their last stronghold in the country. The incident ratcheted up tensions in the region, currently ground zero in the long-running Syrian civil war that has put Turkish, Russian, US and Iranian interests at stake. The Turkish Defense Ministry said the convoy was attacked while heading to one of Turkey's observation posts in rebel-controlled Idlib Province, but did not say whether any Turkish people were killed.

Germany

Report: Nation teeters toward recession

Germany, Europe's industrial powerhouse and biggest economy, home of companies like Volkswagen, Siemens and BASF, may be entering a recession, according to a gloomy report from the country's central bank on Monday. Such a development could have repercussions for the rest of the eurozone and the United States. A technical recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth, and Germany saw a 0.1 percent drop in the April-to-June period. In its monthly report, the Bundesbank said that with falling industrial production and orders, it appears the slump is continuing during the July-to-September quarter. Deutsche Bank went further on Monday, saying, "We see Germany in a technical recession" and predicting a 0.25 percent drop in economic output this quarter.

Agencies - Xinhua

(China Daily 08/21/2019 page12)