Europe

GENEVA, June 1. /TASS/: Switzerland is considering the possibility of closing the airspace over Geneva during the Russian-US summit on June 16, but a final decision has not been made yet, the spokesperson for the Swiss Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport, Mireille Fleury, told TASS on Tuesday.

Asked if there were plans for closing the airspace to flights during the summit, she said: "Possibly the airspace will be closed and monitored. For now, a final decision on this score has not been made yet." Fleury added that "preparations are continuing."

MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/: The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, has adopted the bill regulating the activities of big foreign internet companies in Russia in the first reading.

The bill submitted to the State Duma states that from January 1, 2022, owners of large foreign Internet resources with a daily audience of over 500,000 Russian users should create branches in the Russian Federation, open representative offices or establish Russian legal entities that must fully represent the interests of parent companies.

MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/: Russia has prospects of military and technical cooperation with Iran, and the Islamic Republic is interested in getting various types of Russian weapons, Head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugayev said on the sidelines of a congress of the Union of Machine-Builders on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/: The Kremlin believes it is important to make sure that Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Joe Biden of the United States hold their much-awaited summit but there are no plans to soften the meeting’s agenda, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"Naturally, nobody wants to soften the agenda in the run-up to the summit. We think that it is still very important that this summit takes place," he pointed out.

SOCHI, June 1. /TASS/: Relations with former Soviet countries are among Moscow’s foreign policy priorities, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a video conference meeting with the permanent members of the country’s Security Council on Tuesday.

"Relations with our closest neighbors, the former Soviet countries, are among Russia’s most important foreign policy priorities," the president pointed out.

(Reuters) --- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told his Russian counterpart that the investigation into Sofia Sapega, the detained girlfriend of an arrested dissident blogger, would take place in Belarus, the state-run Belta news agency said on Tuesday.

Sapega, a Russian citizen, was detained alongside her boyfriend Roman Protasevich on May 23 after their plane was forced to land in Minsk.

(Reuters) --- The lawyer of Brahim Ghali, a leader of Western Sahara's Polisario Front who is in hospital in Spain, will ask the Spanish High Court to drop a war crimes case against him.

"The facts which form the basis of the accusation against him are absolutely and categorically untrue," lawyer Manuel Olle told reporters after a hearing on Tuesday.

Ghali, who appeared remotely in court, said the allegations were politically motivated and denied any wrongdoing, according to Olle.

(Reuters) --- Germany on Tuesday rejected calls for arms deliveries to Kyiv, after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked Berlin for assault rifles, radio equipment and armoured vehicles.

"I am convinced the conflict (in eastern Ukraine) can only be resolved by political means," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told journalists ahead of a video conference with his NATO counterparts.

"This will remain the guideline of our engagement with Ukraine, and there will be no change: Arms deliveries won't help," he added.

PARIS, May 31 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that all must be clarified concerning reports that the United States intelligence agency had used the Danish infrastructure to spy on senior European officials, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

This "is unacceptable between allies, even less between allies and European partners," Macron was quoted by French daily Le Monde following a French-German council of ministers. He urged "all the clarity."

ROME, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Italy and Libya will work together on illegal immigration and renewable energies, Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah told reporters at a joint press conference after meeting here on Monday.

"Italy stands with Libya and supports it during this complex transition: the concrete implementation of a ceasefire, the removal of mercenaries and foreign soldiers, and the creation of an institutional structure," Draghi said.