Europe

BERLIN, June 22 (Reuters) - Germany must discuss its concerns about China's record on human rights with Beijing but that does not mean it needs to reverse its policy towards China, the leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) said on Tuesday.

"I support the government's China strategy.. We must talk about our concerns (on human rights) but there is no need to turn our China policy on its head," Armin Laschet told a conference organised by the BDI industry association.

Starting a new Cold War with China was not the right approach, Laschet said.

GENEVA, June 22 (Reuters) - China and its allies called on Tuesday for an independent investigation into the discovery last month of the remains of more than 200 indigenous children at a Canadian boarding school.

The remains of 215 children, some as young as three years old, were found in British Colombia at the site of a former residential school for indigenous children, a discovery Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described as heartbreaking. 

MOSCOW, June 22 (Reuters) - Belarus views Western sanctions, imposed in response to Minsk’s forced landing of a Ryanair plane last month to arrest a journalist on board, as a declaration of economic war, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Western powers hit Belarus with a wave of new sanctions on Monday in a coordinated response against officials, lawmakers and ministers from the administration of President Alexander Lukashenko, whose air force intercepted the Ryanair plane flying between Athens and Vilnius on May 23 in what the West called state piracy.

GENEVA, June 22 (Xinhua) -- The remarks made by the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights on Hong Kong and Xinjiang related issues at the Human Rights Council on Monday were "erroneous" and "in disregard of facts," and interfered in China's internal affairs, said the spokesperson of the Chinese Mission to the UN at Geneva.

PARIS (AP) — The trial of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy concludes Tuesday in Paris, after a month during which the court sought to determine whether he broke laws on campaign financing in his unsuccessful 2012 re-election bid.

The verdict is expected to be rendered at a later date. Prosecutors have requested a six-month prison term, as well as a six-month suspended sentence and a fine of 3,750 euros ($4,468).

EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA (AP) — Britain’s newest aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is helping to take on the “lion’s share” of operations against the Islamic State group in Iraq, U.K. naval commanders said. It has also piqued the interest of Russian warplanes, who try to keep tabs on its cutting-edge F-35 jet in a “cat-and-mouse” game with British and U.S. pilots.

MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/: Russia plans to discuss the topic of pulling Ukraine into NATO during the upcoming contacts with Turkey, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday.

"We have made our position in regards to attempts to pull Ukraine into NATO very unambiguous. I have no doubts that serious, responsible states understand very clearly, what we mean. We plan another contact within our regular dialogue with the Turkish colleagues. I believe we will discuss this topic as well, of course," he said.

MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has written an article timed for the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in German, because this issue is very important for Germany, which was the first victim of Nazism, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday when asked why Putin had decided to write this article in German.

MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/: Russia hopes for a dialogue with the United States on the construction of Nord Stream 2, and will continue to work on the completion of the project with European partners, said Russian Presidential Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Monday.

MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/: The first batches of Sputnik Light vaccine will start entering civilian circulation after June 25, Russian Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko said on Monday.