Europe

LONDON, February 10./TASS/: UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss invited Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to visit the UK in the coming months, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said in a press release on Thursday.

"The Foreign Secretary noted that our differences were with the aggressive policy of the Russian government towards Ukraine, not with the Russian people. She highlighted the cultural and educational links between Russia and the UK and invited Foreign Minister Lavrov to visit the UK in the coming months," it said.

MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/: President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called the talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin interesting and intense.

MOSCOW, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Russia's foreign minister accused his British counterpart on Thursday of grandstanding and refusing to listen, at a rancorous encounter that highlighted the gulf between them over the Ukraine crisis.

"I'm honestly disappointed that what we have is a conversation between a dumb and a deaf person...Our most detailed explanations fell on unprepared soil," Sergei Lavrov told a joint news conference with Britain's Liz Truss.

SARAJEVO, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Lawmakers in Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic (RS) voted on Thursday to form their own body that will choose judges and prosecutors, effectively pulling the region out of the state's top judicial institution as part of their leaders' separatist agenda.

Western diplomats based with the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), the body overseeing the restoration of peace in Bosnia after its war in the 1990s, said the move violated the country's constitution and legal order.

LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Former British Prime Minister John Major accused hisfellow Conservative Boris Johnson on Thursday of breaking COVID-19 lockdown laws and said he should resign if he is found to have deliberately misled parliament with his "brazen excuses".

Johnson is facing his gravest crisis since becoming prime minister in 2019 over a steady drip of reports of boozy events in his Downing Street office and residence while Britain was under strict coronavirus restrictions.

BERLIN, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned Russia of economic and political consequences should it ramp up military aggression toward Ukraine, adding that Germany and its allies were ready for dialogue with Moscow and wanted peace.

"What is at stake at the moment is nothing less than preventing a war in Europe. We want peace," Scholz told reporters at a meeting with Baltic state leaders in Berlin on Thursday, calling for Russia to de-escalate.

PARIS, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The French coastguard has rescued 36 migrants in the English Channel who were trying to cross to Britain in an inflatable dinghy, the maritime authority for northern France said on Thursday.

French authorities were intercepting inflatable boats several times a month, returning people to French shores, a spokeswoman said.

In November, 27 migrants died when their dinghy deflated as they tried to cross the English Channel.

PARIS, Feb 10 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron refused a Kremlin request that he take a Russian COVID-19 test when he arrived to see President Vladimir Putin this week, and was therefore kept at a distance from the Russian leader, two sources in Macron's entourage told Reuters.

Observers were struck by images of Macron and Putin sitting at opposite ends of 4-metre-long (13 ft) table to discuss the Ukraine crisis on Monday, with some diplomats and others suggesting Putin might be wanting to send a diplomatic message.

BUDAPEST, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Russian and Chinese vaccines against COVID-19 are effective and safe, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday.

"It is crystal clear that the eastern vaccines used in Hungary are working well, they are safe and effective," Szijjarto said in a video posted on his Facebook page.

"Therefore, it is time for international organizations to make a professional and not a political decision on this issue," he said in the video, which was recorded at Budapest airport, before the minister left for Lyon, France.

BELFORT, France (AP) — President Emmanuel Macron is preparing to unveil France’s plans to build new nuclear reactors as part of the country’s strategy to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

Macron was expected to provide a roadmap for the building of third-generation EPR reactors during a visit Thursday to the eastern town of Belfort.

The move comes amid concerns about spikes in energy prices and France’s dependence on global gas and oil producers.