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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 4 March 2020

Turkey downs Syrian fighter jet

in northwest Idlib

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) —
Turkey shot down a Syr-
ian fighter jet in Syria's Idlib
province Tuesday, marking
the third such incident in
as many days, as steady
clashes between the two
national armies continued
over a Russia-backed Syr-
ian government offensive
near the Turkish border. In this photo taken Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020 a man makes his
State-run Syrian media said way through a Johannesburg street with collected recycleable
materials to be sold as scrap.
troops shot down a Turkish
drone, keeping up a clash
in the skies over the north- Hit by power shortages,
western province that has
gone on for days and sig- Photo taken on Sunday, March 1, 2020. South Africa's economy
naled a new stage in the Associated Press
9-year-old war. in recession
Ahead of a much-antic- cow will change the situa- But the Russian-backed of-
ipated summit later this tion. fensive into the country's By ANDREW MELDRUM factories, mines and busi-
week between the presi- Keeping up the pressure last rebel-held area has JOHANNESBURG (AP) — nesses.
dents of Turkey and Rus- on the battlefield, Turkey's led to increasingly frequent Widespread power cuts Eskom's "inability to meet
sia, the two main power military downed a war- clashes between the Syr- are blamed for pushing demand on a sustained ba-
brokers in Syria, Russian For- plane belonging to Syrian ian and Turkish armies that South Africa's economy, sis is a key reason for South
eign Minister Sergey Lavrov government forces — the have killed dozens on both the continent's most indus- Africa's very slow growth
again laid the blame for third time they have done sides. It has also threatened trialized, into recession, ac- record of just 0.9% a year
the escalation squarely on so since Sunday. The Syrian a collapse in Turkish coop- cording to official statistics in 2015 19," said Pat Thaker,
Turkey. military said Turkish forces eration with Moscow, a key released Tuesday. the Economist Intelligence
Russian officials have said targeted a warplane with backer of Syrian President The South African econ- Unit's regional director for
they hold Turkey respon- a missile as it was carrying Bashar Assad. omy shrank by 1.4% in the the Middle East and Africa.
sible for the collapse of out operations against "ter- A Turkish soldier was killed fourth quarter of 2019 from "Eskom is, in effect, cap-
a cease-fire agreement rorist groups" in the rebel- and another wounded the previous three-month ping South Africa's growth
reached in Sochi, Russia in held Idlib region, causing Monday night, Turkey's De- period, after contracting potential and preventing a
2018, saying Ankara had it to crash northwest of the fense Ministry said, raising by 0.8% in the third quar- significant rebound."
not held up its end to rein in town of Maaret al-Numan. to 55 the number of Turkish ter, according to Stats SA. South Africa's economy
militants who continued at- The fate of the crew was losses this month in clashes A recession is commonly grew by just 0.2% in 2019
tacking Syrian and Russian not clear. with Russian-backed Syr- defined as two consecu- and 0.8% in 2018, accord-
targets. Turkey has sent thousands ian forces. The death toll tive quarters of economic ing to the official statistics.
"The solution to the prob- of troops into Idlib to sup- includes 33 Turkish soldiers decline. Seven out of 10 of the
lem lies in implementing port the opposition fighters killed Thursday in a single South Africa's nation- country's sectors contract-
the (Sochi) agreements. holed up there, but hasn't airstrike. The government's wide power blackouts are ed in the fourth quarter, in-
They are not being imple- been able to roll back the offensive has also sparked blamed for the larger than cluding agriculture, which
mented," Lavrov said af- government's advance. one of the Syrian war's expected decline in the dropped by 7.6%, manu-
ter meeting with his Finnish Turkish President Recep worst humanitarian crises. fourth quarter. The state- facturing, which dropped
colleague Pekka Haavisto Tayyip Erdogan has said he Almost a million Syrian civil- owned power utility, Eskom, 1.8%, and transport, which
in Helsinki on Tuesday. He hopes to broker a cease- ians have fled north toward has been unable to meet declined 7.2%.
expressed hope that the fire in Syria later this week the sealed Turkish border, demand and has had to South Africa's economic
scheduled Thursday meet- when he meets with Rus- overwhelming camps al- implement rotating cuts in growth forecast for 2020
ing between Russian and sian President Vladimir Pu- ready crowded above electricity to residences, has been cut to 0.9%.q
Turkish presidents in Mos- tin in Moscow. capacity.q