BEIJING, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's new countermeasures to impose additional tariffs on about 60 billion U.S. dollars worth of products from the United States are "rational and restrained," a spokesperson with the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Friday.

The Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council on Friday unveiled lists of 5,207 items of U.S. products to be subject to additional tariffs of four different rates -- 25 percent, 20 percent, 10 percent, and 5 percent.

WASHINGTON, August 3. /TASS/. The United States expanded its sanctions list related to North Korea, adding the Russian Agrosoyuz bank, a Russian individual and a company from each of China and North Korea, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) reports on Friday.

Restrictions were introduced for alleged violations of the US sanctions regime and UN security resolutions by the said persons, an explanatory note to the document says.

Beijing, Aug 3 (AFP) Beijing warned today it was prepared to impose new tariffs on 60 billion worth of US goods if Washington ups the ante in the escalating US-China trade war.

The commerce ministry issued a statement saying the new duties would be applied if Washington pulled the trigger on President Donald Trump's threat to raise tariffs on 200 billion worth of Chinese goods.

The statement said China reserves the right to apply "other countermeasures".

BEIJING, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday announced its decision to impose additional tariffs of four different rates on 5,207 items of imported U.S. products worth 60 billion U.S. dollars.

The rates of additional tariffs on such products will be 25 percent, 20 percent, 10 percent, and 5 percent, according to the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council.

"China was forced to take the countermeasures" in response to a U.S. plan to raise tariffs to be imposed on 200 billion dollars of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent, the commission said in a statement.

New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI) Three high court judges were today appointed to the Supreme Court, taking the total number of judges in the apex court to 25.

Notifications announcing the appointments of Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph, Madras HC Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Orissa HC Chief Justice Vineet Saran to the Supreme Court were issued today.

Their warrants of appointment were signed by the President last night.

MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/. Around 890,000 Syrian citizens can return to their home country in the coming months, Head of Russia’s National Defense Control Center Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev said on Friday.

"According to data provided by the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, about 890,000 civilians are expected to return to Syria in the coming months," Mizintsev said at a meeting of the interdepartmental coordination headquarters supervising the return of refugees to Syria.

4 Aug 2018; AFP; US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Saturday called on his Myanmar counterpart to release two Reuters journalists accused of breaking a draconian secrecy law during their reporting of a Rohingya massacre.

Myanmar nationals Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, have been detained since December and face up to 14 years in prison for possessing classified documents linked to security operations in crisis-hit Rakhine state.

SINGAPORE, Aug 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Saturday he hoped Americans detained in Turkey would be released "in coming days", following a meeting with his Turkish counterpart in Singapore which both sides said was constructive.

Washington earlier this week imposed sanctions on two Turkish ministers over the case of Andrew Brunson, a U.S. pastor
on trial in Turkey for backing terrorism.

The United States has also been seeking the release of three locally employed embassy staff detained in Turkey.

JINAN, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- A new freight train linking east China's Shandong Province with Milan, Italy, started service Friday, making it the newest China-Europe freight train route.

A 41-container train carrying clothing, electronic products, and machinery departed from Yanzhou North railway station in Jining, on Friday morning. The train will run every Friday.

The 10,900-km journey, which makes a stop in Chengdu for customs clearance, will take 18 days, said Zhang Benhong, deputy head of the railway station.

4 Aug 2018; AFP; A 28-year-old woman wearing a niqab on Friday became the first person in Denmark to be fined for violating a new controversial law banning full-face Islamic veils in public places, media reported.

Police were called to a shopping centre in Horsholm, in the northeastern region of Nordsjaelland, where the woman had become involved in a scuffle with another woman who had tried to tear her niqab off, police duty officer David Borchersen told the Ritzau news agency.

2 Aug 2018; DW; An AfD state youth leader called the German officer who attempted to assassinate Hitler a "coward" and "traitor." The Facebook post has landed him in hot water within the right-wing populist party.

The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Thursday tried to distance itself from comments made by a regional party youth leader who labeled a German officer who tried to kill Adolf Hitler a "traitor."

4 Aug 2018; AFP; The leadership of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas is to convene late Friday for a rare meeting, officials said, amid speculation of a long-term truce between the Gaza Strip's rulers and Israel.

The meeting comes as a Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli forces in clashes along the border between Gaza and Israel.