Europe

BRUSSELS, June 15. /TASS/: Western states are far from implementation of plans to ship US-made F-16 planes to Ukraine, and a lot of work is yet to be done for that, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said Thursday.

He was asked to comment on the status of the program on shipment of warplanes to Ukraine during a press conference after a meeting of Western contact group that coordinates arms shipments to Ukraine in Brussels.

PARIS, June 15. /TASS/: Crimea is an inseparable part of Russia and has nothing to do with today’s conflict in Ukraine, Marine Le Pen, the leader of the parliamentary faction of the National Rally party, told France Info radio on Thursday.

ST. PETERSBURG, June 15. /TASS/: No country should benefit from the energy crisis or from its status of a transit country for energy resources, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

"We have to make sure that no country would take advantage or would take the benefit out of the challenging or crisis-like energy situation now and no country should take profit of the fact that it serves as a transit country for others," he said.

ST. PETERSBURG, June 15. /TASS/: Russia is negotiating a visa-free regime with six Latin American countries, Alexander Shchetinin, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Latin American department, told reporters on Thursday.

MOSCOW, June 15 (NNN-TASS) — Nearly 20 countries are seeking to get BRICS membership and their number continues to grow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS on Thursday.

“The list of candidates for joining the association continues to increase. The number of states seeking to join this association is nearing twenty. It reflects BRICS’ growing and already considerable role in the international arena as an association of countries with similar positions. I would like to stress it,” he said.

ROME, June 15 (Reuters) - Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met with Tesla (TSLA.O) CEO Elon Musk in Rome later on Thursday, a government source said, after holding brief talks with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in the morning.

Talks between Meloni and Musk focused on the low birth rate in Italy, the issue of deregulation in the European Union and the risks related to the use of artificial intelligence, the source said.

KALAMATA, Greece, June 15 (Reuters) - Rescuers scoured the seas off Greece on Thursday following a shipwreck that killed at least 78 migrants, as hopes of survivors dwindled and fears grew that hundreds more, including children, may have drowned inside the crowded vessel's hold.

Reports suggested between 400 and 750 people had packed the fishing boat that departed the Libyan port of Tobruk and capsized and sank early on Wednesday morning in deep waters about 50 miles (80 km) from the southern coastal town of Pylos. Greek authorities said 104 survivors had been brought ashore.

BERLIN, June 15 (Reuters) - One of two female tourists attacked by an American man near the world-famous Neuschwanstein Castle in southern Germany has died, German police said on Thursday.

A 21-year-old woman, who had to be taken to a hospital by helicopter, died overnight from serious injuries she sustained, while her 22-year-old companion was still in hospital, local police said in a statement.

A suspect has been arrested, police said.

SOUTHEASTERN UKRAINE, June 15 (Reuters) - Russia announced plans on Thursday to stage elections in occupied parts of Ukraine in just three months, Moscow's latest bid to signal it is in control even as a Ukrainian counteroffensive has pushed its forces back in some areas.

The Ukrainian assault is in its early stages, and military experts say the decisive battles still lie ahead. But corpses of Russian soldiers and burnt-out armoured vehicles lining the roadside in villages newly recaptured by Ukrainian troops attested to Kyiv's biggest advances since last year.

LONDON, June 15 (Reuters) - Boris Johnson deliberately misled the British parliament in an unprecedented way over rule-breaking parties at his office during COVID-19 lockdowns, a committee said on Thursday in a damning verdict that further tarnished the former prime minister

Almost a year ago, Johnson was talking about remaining prime minister into the 2030s. But the privileges committee - the main disciplinary body for lawmakers - said on Thursday he should now be stripped of having automatic access to parliament.