Europe

MOSCOW, August 14. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in his phone conversation with Pakistani counterpart Mehmood Qureshi highlighted the importance of defusing tensions with India, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Wednesday.

"The sides discussed the situation in South Asia amid the deterioration between Pakistan and India after New Delhi’s decision on changing the legal status of the Jammu and Kashmir state," the ministry stated.

MOSCOW, August 14. /TASS/: The upgraded missile corvette Smerch has held a live-fire exercise against a naval and an air target in the Sea of Japan, the press office of Russia’s Pacific Fleet reported on Wednesday.

"Today, in accordance with the plan of shipbuilders’ trials, the modernized small missile ship Smerch has held a series of missile firings against a naval and an air target in the Sea of Japan," the press office said in a statement.

MADRID, August 14. /TASS/: NATO’s F-18 fighter jet, which was trying to approach a plane of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea on Tuesday, belongs to the Spanish Air Force, Spain’s Defense Ministry told TASS on Wednesday.

"The fighter jet, which was spotted on the video, is indeed Spanish, which is under control of NATO," a spokesman for the ministry said, giving no further details.

MOSCOW, August 14. /TASS/: Moscow and Beijing have set the target of boosting trade turnover to $200 bln by 2024, China’s new Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui told reporters on Wednesday.

"We have already set another target of reaching $200 bln worth of trade turnover by 2024. I believe that goal may be accomplished as from now on the (Russian-Chinese) trade and economic cooperation will be expanding even more rapidly," he said.

14 August 2019; AFP: Germany's economy contracted in the second quarter, figures showed Wednesday, highlighting its vulnerability to trade tensions and stoking debate on higher government spending.

As the US-China trade conflict intensifies, some economists have urged Berlin to fork out cash to avoid a recession.

However, Chancellor Angela Merkel and her ministers have said things were not yet bad enough to warrant loosening the purse strings.

14 August 2019; DW: Radiation has spiked at a nearby town following last week's explosion at a rocket testing site. First responders have been silenced and villagers told to leave, but the evacuation order has since been canceled.

Radiation levels in the Russian town of Severodvinsk were up to 16 times higher than normal after an explosion in the nearby Nyonoksa rocket test site, officials from Russia's Roshydromet weather service said on Tuesday.

14 August 2019; DW: Paris police have closed off streets near the Notre Dame cathedral as part of a lead decontamination effort. Several residents and activists had criticized authorities for underestimating the effects of lead pollution.

Paris authorities began decontamination work around Notre Dame on Tuesday, closing off streets surrounding the scorched cathedral.

14 August 2019; DW: Dozens of climate protesters tied themselves to a train track in front of a freight train to protest the German government's 'failed climate policy.'

A group of environmental activists stopped a train loaded with 200 brand new Volkswagen (VW) cars in the northern city of Wolfsburg for several hours on Tuesday, in protest of the automotive industry's contribution to climate change.

14 August 2019; DW: Italy's League party, led by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, had called on the Senate to discuss a no-confidence vote. Salvini is keen on forcing new elections, where his party could capitalize on soaring popularity.

The Italian Senate has decided Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte should address the upper house over the crisis next week, postponing a further debate on an ongoing government crisis.

ATLANTA (AP) — Stifling heat smothered states from Texas to South Carolina on Tuesday with temperatures that felt like 120 degrees (49 Celsius), making it difficult to be outside for long, much less work or play.

As the entire Southeast baked amid heat warnings and advisories that reached from central Texas to coastal Georgia, construction workers toiled under a blazing sun in Louisiana. Alabama’s largest city opened its auditorium as a refuge for anyone needing to cool down.