Europe

MOSCOW, June 23 (Reuters) - Russia said on Tuesday it had fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of a British destroyer sailing in the Black Sea off the coast of the Crimea peninsula, which Russia seized and annexed from Ukraine.

Britain's Ministry of Defence said no Russian warning shots were fired at the Royal Navy's HMS Defender, which sailed into the Black Sea earlier this month, and it did not recognise assertions that bombs were put in its path.

23 June 2021; MEMO: Amnesty International slammed Greek authorities for the torture, ill-treatment and illegal pushback of migrants and refugees to Turkey.

In a report titled "Greece: Violence, lies, and pushbacks", Amnesty reported that pushbacks, on land and at sea, sometimes involved people apprehended as far as 700 kilometeres within Greek territory.

The rights group described 21 incidents that involved around 1,000 people.

London, Jun 23 (AP-PTI) Five years ago Wednesday, Britons voted in a referendum that was meant to bring certainty to the UK's unsettled relationship with its European neighbors.

Fat chance.

Voters' decision on June 23, 2016 was narrow but clear: By 52% to 48%, they chose to leave the European Union. It took over four years to actually make the break and the former partners are still bickering, like many divorced couples, over money and trust.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany and the United Nations are bringing together representatives of Libya with powers that have interests in the country at a conference Wednesday which aims for progress toward securing elections in the North African nation and the removal of foreign fighters.

GENEVA, Jun 22 (APP): Pakistan told the UN Human Rights Council Tuesday that the situation in Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IOJ&K) had further deteriorated as a result of India’s illegal actions of 5th August 2019, and urged the 47-member body to ensure the realization of Kashmiri people’s fundamental rights.

In remarks at the 47th session of the Geneva-based Council, which is being held virtually, Ambassador Khalil Hashmi also called for holding India accountable for its widely documented human rights crimes.

MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/: Russia and Uzbekistan have signed a number of agreements in the customs field and other documents. The signing ceremony was attended by prime ministers of the two countries, Mikhail Mishustin and Abdulla Aripov.

Prime ministers signed a joint communique following the results of the second meeting of the joint commission at the level of heads of governments of the Russian Federation and Uzbekistan. Moreover, a memorandum of understanding in the area of development of logistic corridors Russia-Uzbekistan was signed at the level of deputy prime ministers.

SEVASTOPOL, June 22. /TASS/: The Black Sea Fleet’s coastal defense missile systems practiced eliminating a notional enemy’s warships during drills in Crimea, the Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.

"The teams of Bal and Bastion mobile coastal defense anti-ship missile systems from the Black Sea Fleet’s missile and artillery formation held drills to eliminate a notional enemy’s surface ship in the Black Sea," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/: The state coup in Ukraine in 2014 that split the country and prompted Crimea’s withdrawal was organized by the United States and only tentatively supported by European states, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an article, Being Open, Despite the Past, published on the Kremlin’s website and in the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit on Tuesday.

The article is timed to mark the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Soviet Union’s 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany.

MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/: Moscow restaurants may lose 90% of their visitors due to the change over of establishments to a covid-free regime from June 28, Sergey Mironov, public commissioner in the restaurant business under the Moscow business ombudsman, told TASS on Tuesday. 

As the city mayor Sergey Sobyanin said earlier in his blog, that from June 28 only those who have recovered from COVID-19 no longer than six months ago, vaccinated against COVID-19 or have a negative coronavirus test that lasts for three days, will be allowed to visit public catering in Moscow.

MOSCOW, June 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, and Myanmar’s military leader committed to further strengthening security and other ties between the two countries at a Moscow meeting on Monday.

Myanmar’s military leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, flew to the Russian capital on Sunday to attend a security conference this week. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier on Monday said President Vladimir Putin would not be meeting Min Aung Hlaing, Interfax reported.