Europe

GENEVA (Reuters) - About 40 people are feared dead or missing after the latest wreck of a boat carrying migrants bound for Europe off the coast of Libya, while about 60 people may have been rescued, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday.

“Terrible news coming in of potentially large loss of life in a shipwreck off the coast of Libya,” UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley said in a tweet, adding that details were still sketchy.

“Around 60 people have been rescued and returned to shore. At least 40 people are estimated to be dead or missing.”

KIEV (Reuters) - U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton flew into Kiev on Tuesday for talks to gauge Ukraine’s new authorities and touted a possible meeting between comic-turned-president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Bolton’s visit was the first by a senior U.S. official since Zelenskiy swept to power in Ukraine. Washington is a key ally for Kiev, having imposed sanctions on Russia for annexing Crimea in 2014 and backing pro-Moscow separatists in Ukraine’s east.

ROME, Aug 27 (NNN-ANSA) — Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Tuesday barred the German-flagged migrant rescue ship Eleonore from entering Italian waters with over 100 migrants it picked up off Libya on Monday.

Anti-migrant Euroskeptic League party leader Salvini has closed Italy’s ports to NGO-run migrant rescue ships and there have been several standoffs which have ended with the European Union agreeing to take the migrants, reported Italian news agency ANSA.

MOSCOW, Russia, Aug 27 (NNN-TASS) – Moscow expects the Group of Seven (G7) member countries, to be reasonable in the matter of restoring relations with Russia, the Kremlin said.

“So far, it has not been possible to restore relations with some countries, but we hope that common sense will prevail sooner or later,” Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was quoted as saying.

ROME, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Italian President Sergio Mattarella will open a second round of consultations on Tuesday and Wednesday, in a new attempt to solve the ongoing government crisis, the president's office revealed on Monday.

The coalition government forged between far-right League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement in June 2018 ended on Aug. 20 with the resignation of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

Mattarella would begin on Tuesday afternoon by meeting the speakers of lower house and senate, the president's office said in a statement.

VALLETTA, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Armed Forces of Malta brought in 73 migrants who were rescued off a rubber dinghy in the Maltese search and rescue region on Monday afternoon.

The migrants were brought in on board the Armed Forces of Malta's patrol boat, P24, at around 4:00 p.m. to the army's naval base in Hay Wharf, Floriana.

This was the first group rescued after the Armed Forces coordinated and conducted two separate rescue operations in the country's search and rescue region. A second group is expected to arrive later on Monday.

BIARRITZ, France (AP) — The Latest on the summit of leaders from the Group of Seven democracies (all times local):

10 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron says the Amazon, while mostly Brazilian, is a world issue and that his message to Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro is “we cannot allow you to destroy everything.”

Amid tensions with Bolsonaro over his handling of fires in the Amazon and his pursuit of economic growth at the expense of the forest, Macron said: “We respect your sovereignty. It’s your country.”

BIARRITZ, France (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump at the Group of Seven summit in France (all times local):

8:30 p.m.

No, first lady Melania Trump hasn’t had any secret meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The White House is clarifying comments made by President Donald Trump during a news conference in France. He had said “the first lady has gotten to know” Kim and likely agrees he’s “a man with a country that has tremendous potential.”

BIARRITZ, France (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday there’s a “really good chance” he could meet with Iran’s leader on their nuclear impasse after a surprise intervention by the French president during the G-7 summit to try to bring Washington and Tehran together after decades of conflict.

BIARRITZ, France (AP) — Never mind his differences with world leaders on China, trade, Russia, Iran and more. President Donald Trump’s takeaway message from the Group of Seven summit in France was “unity.” In fact, “flawless” unity.

During this year’s gathering of leaders of the world’s wealthiest democracies, Trump went to great lengths to portray it as something of a lovefest, papering over significant disagreements on major issues.