Europe

MOSCOW, June 7. /TASS/: An air task force of Russian Tu-95MS strategic missile-carrying aircraft and Chinese H-6K strategic bombers conducted a joint aerial patrol over the waters of the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea and the western Pacific, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, June 7. /TASS/: Moscow is grateful to its African partners for refusing to join the anti-Russian campaign, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a reception at the Foreign Ministry on the occasion of Africa Day on Wednesday.

"I would like to express my gratitude to our African partners who have not let themselves be dragged into the anti-Russian campaign and who have taken a balanced position on the European security crisis," Lavrov said.

MOSCOW, June 7. /TASS/: The US authorities must give a concrete answer as to whether or not they know how American weapons are being used on the territory of Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing in comments on the attack on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant.

PRISTINA, Kosovo June 7 (Reuters) - Kosovo could trigger new elections in Serb-majority municipalities rocked by violent protests if 20% of voters sign a petition asking for them, the president told Reuters.

In an exclusive interview in her office, President Vjosa Osmani said she believed a petition was the most "democratic way" to proceed to new elections.

"In this way, I think we would ensure the participation of Serbs because the request would have come from them to begin with, from citizens," she said.

June 7 (Reuters) - Britain plans to launch a pilot programme exploring how new weekly weight-loss shots such as Novo Nordisk's (NOVOb.CO) Wegovy can be given to obese patients by general practitioners even as the drug's market launch remains unclear.

June 7 (Reuters) - A pipeline used to transport ammonia fertilizer from Russia via Ukraine that may be central to the future of the Black Sea grain deal has been damaged, according to both Kyiv and Moscow, potentially complicating talks around the accord.

Russia's defence ministry said a "Ukrainian sabotage group" had blown up a section of the pipeline on Monday night near the village of Masyutivka in Kharkiv region. The village is on the frontline between Russian and Ukrainian troops.

KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) — Authorities rushed drinking water to areas flooded by a collapsed dam in southern Ukraine on Wednesday as they managed a growing humanitarian and ecological disaster along a river that forms part of the front line in the 15-month war.

The collapse of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam and emptying of its reservoir on the Dnieper River added to the misery the region has suffered for more than a year from artillery and missile attacks.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — United Nations judges have declared an 88-year-old Rwandan genocide suspect unfit to continue standing trial because he has dementia and said they would establish a procedure to go on hearing evidence without the possibility of convicting him.

The majority decision published Wednesday by judges at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals means no guilty verdict can be reached in the trial of Félicien Kabuga, one of the last fugitives charged in connection with the 1994 genocide.

BERLIN (AP) — German and Indian companies signed an agreement Wednesday that envisions the possible building of six military submarines for India.

The memorandum of understanding was signed in the presence of German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who was in India on a visit.

The agreement calls for Germany’s Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems to engineer and design six non-nuclear submarines that would be built and delivered by India’s Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders with “significant local content.”

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis underwent surgery Wednesday to repair a hernia in his abdominal wall, the latest malady to befall the 86-year-old pontiff who had part of his colon removed two years ago.

The Vatican said there were no complications during the three-hour surgery, which required Francis to be under general anesthesia. The 86-year-old pontiff was expected to remain at Rome’s Gemelli hospital for several days. As a precaution, all papal audiences were canceled through June 18, the Vatican said.