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Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, May 29

Xinhua, May 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

The U.S. economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.7 percent in the first quarter of 2015, marking the third quarterly contraction after the financial crisis ended in mid-2009, according to the second estimate from the U.S. Commerce Department released Friday.

The Commerce Department estimated last month that the economy expanded 0.2 percent in the first quarter. The bitterly cold winter weather is blamed to pummel personal consumption and private inventory investment, dragging down growth to the negative territory. (U.S.-GDP)

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MOSCOW -- Russia will have to respond to the unrestricted development of NATO anti-missile defense system capable of intercepting intercontinental ballistic missiles, Russia's defense ministry said Friday.

"Given the unrestricted development of missile defense system capable of intercepting Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), we will have to undertake countermeasures, as we have repeatedly underscored before," Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency, when commenting on the joint military exercises of NATO member states scheduled for October in the northern Atlantic. (Russia-NATO-Reaction)

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KIEV -- Visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged here on Friday all sides of the Ukrainian conflict to refrain from violence, calling a political settlement the only way out of the crisis.

"Further confrontation will not resolve this conflict. There is no military solution in this particular case," Steinmeier told the Kiev Security Forum held here. (Ukraine-German FM-Urge)

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SINGAPORE -- The 14th Shangri-La Dialogue, widely recognized as Asia-Pacific's foremost defense and security summit, kicked off here on Friday with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivering the keynote speech focusing on balance of power, regional cooperation and terrorism.

PM Lee Hsien Loong said China has become the second biggest economy in the world and the largest or second largest trading partner of nearly every country in the Asia-Pacific region. (Singapore-Shangri-La Dialogue)

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BERLIN -- German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Friday that finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the G7 countries welcomed the inclusion of the Chinese currency renminbi in International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights (SDR) currency basket.

"There was an agreement that we would welcome such an addition in principle as long as it is in line with the existing criteria. There are no divergent views on this," said Schaeuble at a press conference in Dresden after ministers and central bankers from the seven leading industrialized countries concluded their three-day meeting in the eastern German city. (Germany-Renminbi-IMF) Endi