Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has written to Russian leader Vladimir Putin to apologise over the shooting down of a Russian air force jet by Turkey&#39;s military, the Kremlin said today. 
 
After the Russian jet was shot down in November last year near the Syrian-Turkish border, Russia imposed trade restrictions on Ankara. Putin had said they would not be lifted unless Erdogan apologised over the incident. 
 
There was no immediate comment from Ankara. 
 
In a statement, the Kremlin said Putin had received a letter from Erdogan &quot;in which the Turkish leader expressed his desire to resolve the situation connected to the downing of a Russian military aircraft.&quot; 
 
&quot;The letter states, in particular, that Russia is a friend to Turkey and a strategic partner, with which the Turkish authorities would not wish to spoil relations,&quot; the Kremlin statement said. 
 
It cited Erdogan as saying in the letter: &quot;I want to once again express my sympathy and deep condolences to the family of the Russian pilot who died and I say: &#39;I&#39;m sorry.&#39;&quot; 
 
The Turkish Lira firmed to 2.9330 against the US Dollar from 2.9430 beforehand after the Kremlin said Erdogan had expressed his regret. 
 
(Reuters)

Russia imposed trade restrictions on Ankara after the incident and had said they will not be lifted unless Erdogan apologised

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has written to Russian leader Vladimir Putin to apologise over the shooting down of a Russian air force jet by Turkey's military, the Kremlin said today. After the Russian jet was shot down in November last year near the Syrian-Turkish border, Russia imposed trade restrictions on Ankara. Putin had said they would not be lifted unless Erdogan apologised over the incident. There was no immediate comment from Ankara. In a statement, the Kremlin said Putin had received a letter from Erdogan "in which the Turkish leader expressed his desire to resolve the situation connected to the downing of a Russian military aircraft." "The letter states, in particular, that Russia is a friend to Turkey and a strategic partner, with which the Turkish authorities would not wish to spoil relations," the Kremlin statement said. It cited Erdogan as saying in the letter: "I want to once again express my sympathy and deep condolences to the family of the Russian pilot who died and I say: 'I'm sorry.'" The Turkish Lira firmed to 2.9330 against the US Dollar from 2.9430 beforehand after the Kremlin said Erdogan had expressed his regret. (Reuters)

Kremlin says Turkey apologised to Putin over plane incident

Russia and China signed over 30 cooperation deals on June 25 as Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met in Beijing. 
 
The deals covered areas such as economy and trade, foreign affairs, infrastructure, technology and innovation, agriculture, finance, energy, media, Internet, and sports, China&#39;s semi-official Xinhua news agency reported. 
 
After bilateral talks, Putin said both sides were moving towards working on 58 joint initiatives worth 50 billion dollars. 
 
Putin&#39;s aide told journalists earlier this week that energy, aerospace, North Korea, and Syria were some of the issues due to be discussed between the two leaders during the visit. 
 
Putin arrived in Beijing after a visit to Tashkent, where he attended the 16th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit. 
(Reuters)&nbsp;

After bilateral talks, Putin said both sides were moving towards working on 58 joint initiatives worth 50 billion dollars

Russia and China signed over 30 cooperation deals on June 25 as Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met in Beijing. The deals covered areas such as economy and trade, foreign affairs, infrastructure, technology and innovation, agriculture, finance, energy, media, Internet, and sports, China's semi-official Xinhua news agency reported. After bilateral talks, Putin said both sides were moving towards working on 58 joint initiatives worth 50 billion dollars. Putin's aide told journalists earlier this week that energy, aerospace, North Korea, and Syria were some of the issues due to be discussed between the two leaders during the visit. Putin arrived in Beijing after a visit to Tashkent, where he attended the 16th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit. (Reuters)

Russia, China eye closer friendship sign strategic agreements

The IMF has warned Brexit could deal the British economy a &quot;negative and substantial&quot; blow as Vladimir Putin suggested David Cameron was trying to &quot;blackmail&quot; Europe with the EU referendum. 
 
Meanwhile The Times newspaper came out&nbsp;Saturday&nbsp;in favour of Britain staying in the European Union, five days ahead of the vote on whether the UK should stay in the bloc or leave. 
 
The pound rallied as investors leaned towards a Remain outcome from&nbsp;Thursday&#39;s&nbsp;closely-contested referendum. 
 
IMF warns of contagion&nbsp; 
 
With less than a week until the referendum, the International Monetary Fund warned that a so-called Brexit would harm the British economy while &quot;contagion effects&quot; could hit markets worldwide. 
 
In the worst-case scenario, the UK economy would sink into recession next year and overall economic output would be 5.6 per cent lower than otherwise forecast by 2019, with unemployment rising back above six per cent, it said today. 
 
&quot;While there is much uncertainty about the precise economic effects of an exit from the EU, they are likely negative and substantial,&quot; the Washington-based global crisis lender revealed in its annual British economic check-up. 
 
&quot;An exit would precipitate a protracted period of heightened uncertainty that could weigh on confidence and investment and increase financial market volatility.&quot; 
 
In addition, &quot;contagion effects could result in spillovers to regional and global markets, although the primary impact would be felt domestically&quot;. 
 
While in a &quot;limited impact&quot; scenario the IMF said the economy would only lose 1.4 per cent from the current outlook by 2019, the report gave one of the starkest pictures yet of the impact of Brexit. 
 
Putin wades in&nbsp; 
 
Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested British Prime Minister David Cameron had called the referendum to &quot;blackmail&quot; and &quot;scare&quot; Europe. 
 
&quot;Why has he set up this referendum? To blackmail Europe? Or to scare it? What is the purpose if he himself is against Britain leaving the EU,&quot; Putin said today during a meeting with representatives of news agencies. 
 
&quot;Some experts say a Brexit will be to the detriment of Europe. But others say that the EU will be more stable,&quot; Putin said, pointing to the example of British fishermen. 
 
&quot;They explain how hard it is to live with the restrictions on fishing. But there are advantages in other sectors.&nbsp;If you consider all these things, it&#39;s very complicated to choose,&quot; he added. 
 
The What UK Thinks average of the last six opinion polls puts the Remain camp on 52 per cent to 48 per cent for the Leave campaign, excluding undecided voters. 
 
Times&#39; &#39;pragmatic&#39; Remain case 
&nbsp; 
The Times swung behind the Remain camp&nbsp;on Saturday, in opposition to its stablemate The Sun, Britain&#39;s biggest-selling newspaper, which is backing a Leave vote. 
 
&quot;The best outcome of next week&#39;s referendum would be a new alliance of sovereign EU nations dedicated to free trade and reform, led by Britain,&quot; it said in a 2,000-word editorial. 
 
The Times said voting to stay was a &quot;pragmatic rather than enthusiastic choice&quot;. 
 
&quot;Brexit is unquestionably economically riskier than a vote to remain,&quot; the daily said. 
 
&quot;On balance we believe Britain would be better off leading a renewed drive for reform within the EU rather than starting afresh outside it.&quot; 
 
The pound rallied&nbsp;Friday&nbsp;as investors swung their bets towards Britain voting to stay in the EU, in part due to the three-day suspension of campaigning over Cox&#39;s murder. 
 
&quot;The shocking news was seen, at least on the margin, as hurting public sentiment toward the Brexit move,&quot; said Omer Esiner of Commonwealth Foreign Exchange. 
 
Long-running fears of a pro-Brexit vote had been hammering the pound, and they were heightened in recent weeks as the &quot;Leave&quot; campaign pulled ahead in the polls. 
 
The pound surged about one per cent against the dollar to $1.4348. It was up 0.5 per cent against the euro at 78.62 pence. 
 
Meanwhile French National Front leader Marine Le Pen, enthused by the British referendum, addressed a 2,000-strong Vienna rally of far-right European &quot;patriots&quot;. 
 
The elites of Europe &quot;are scared that the United Kingdom is regaining its liberty, its freedom to trade with whom it pleases,&quot; she said. 
(AFP)

'While there is much uncertainty about the precise economic effects of an exit from the EU, they are likely negative and substantial'

The IMF has warned Brexit could deal the British economy a "negative and substantial" blow as Vladimir Putin suggested David Cameron was trying to "blackmail" Europe with the EU referendum. Meanwhile The Times newspaper came out Saturday in favour of Britain staying in the European Union, five days ahead of the vote on whether the UK should stay in the bloc or leave. The pound rallied as investors leaned towards a Remain outcome from Thursday's closely-contested referendum. IMF warns of contagion With less than a week until the referendum, the International Monetary Fund warned that a so-called Brexit would harm the British economy while "contagion effects" could hit markets worldwide. In the worst-case scenario, the UK economy would sink into recession next year and overall economic output would be 5.6 per cent lower than otherwise forecast by 2019, with unemployment rising back above six per cent, it said today. "While there is much uncertainty about the precise economic effects of an exit from the EU, they are likely negative and substantial," the Washington-based global crisis lender revealed in its annual British economic check-up. "An exit would precipitate a protracted period of heightened uncertainty that could weigh on confidence and investment and increase financial market volatility." In addition, "contagion effects could result in spillovers to regional and global markets, although the primary impact would be felt domestically". While in a "limited impact" scenario the IMF said the economy would only lose 1.4 per cent from the current outlook by 2019, the report gave one of the starkest pictures yet of the impact of Brexit. Putin wades in Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested British Prime Minister David Cameron had called the referendum to "blackmail" and "scare" Europe. "Why has he set up this referendum? To blackmail Europe? Or to scare it? What is the purpose if he himself is against Britain leaving the EU," Putin said today during a meeting with representatives of news agencies. "Some experts say a Brexit will be to the detriment of Europe. But others say that the EU will be more stable," Putin said, pointing to the example of British fishermen. "They explain how hard it is to live with the restrictions on fishing. But there are advantages in other sectors. If you consider all these things, it's very complicated to choose," he added. The What UK Thinks average of the last six opinion polls puts the Remain camp on 52 per cent to 48 per cent for the Leave campaign, excluding undecided voters. Times' 'pragmatic' Remain case The Times swung behind the Remain camp on Saturday, in opposition to its stablemate The Sun, Britain's biggest-selling newspaper, which is backing a Leave vote. "The best outcome of next week's referendum would be a new alliance of sovereign EU nations dedicated to free trade and reform, led by Britain," it said in a 2,000-word editorial. The Times said voting to stay was a "pragmatic rather than enthusiastic choice". "Brexit is unquestionably economically riskier than a vote to remain," the daily said. "On balance we believe Britain would be better off leading a renewed drive for reform within the EU rather than starting afresh outside it." The pound rallied Friday as investors swung their bets towards Britain voting to stay in the EU, in part due to the three-day suspension of campaigning over Cox's murder. "The shocking news was seen, at least on the margin, as hurting public sentiment toward the Brexit move," said Omer Esiner of Commonwealth Foreign Exchange. Long-running fears of a pro-Brexit vote had been hammering the pound, and they were heightened in recent weeks as the "Leave" campaign pulled ahead in the polls. The pound surged about one per cent against the dollar to $1.4348. It was up 0.5 per cent against the euro at 78.62 pence. Meanwhile French National Front leader Marine Le Pen, enthused by the British referendum, addressed a 2,000-strong Vienna rally of far-right European "patriots". The elites of Europe "are scared that the United Kingdom is regaining its liberty, its freedom to trade with whom it pleases," she said. (AFP)

Brexit could harm British economy and hit markets worldwide, IMF warns

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Kremlin says Turkey apologised to Putin over plane incident

Russia, China eye closer friendship sign strategic agreements

Brexit could harm British economy and hit markets worldwide, IMF warns