Europe

May 29 (Reuters) - China has declined a request from the United States for a meeting between their defense chiefs at an annual security forum in Singapore this weekend, media reported on Monday, a new sign of strain between the powers.

"Overnight, the PRC informed the U.S. that they have declined our early May invitation for Secretary (Lloyd) Austin to meet with PRC Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu in Singapore," the Pentagon said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal, referring to China by the initials of its official name, the People's Republic of China.

ZVECAN, Kosovo (AP) — The NATO-led peacekeeping force said on Monday that 25 of its troops were injured in clashes with ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo after they tried to take over the offices of one of the municipalities where ethnic Albanian mayors took up their posts last week.

MADRID (AP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s snap general election call breaks apart the coalition he built with the far-left United We Can party, marking a line in the sand with a movement born from grassroots activism whose electoral fortunes have nosedived.

On Monday, Sánchez brought forward a national election expected in December to July 23 after the conservative Popular Party, or PP, and far-right Vox movement dramatically increased their vote share in Sunday’s local and regional elections.

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — The NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR, on Tuesday raised the number of its troops injured in fierce clashes with ethnic Serbs to 30.

The Serbs had tried to take over the offices of one of the municipalities in northern Kosovo where ethnic Albanian mayors took up their posts last week.

29 May 2023; MEMO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday submitted a draft bill to the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, for the introduction of sanctions against Iran, Anadolu news agency reported citing local media.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian air defenses stopped eight drones converging on Moscow, officials said Tuesday, in an attack that authorities blamed on Ukraine, while Russia continued a a relentless wave of daylight and nighttime bombardment of Kyiv that began Monday.

The Russian defense ministry said five drones were shot down and the systems of three others were jammed, causing them to veer off course. It called the incident a “terrorist attack” by the “Kyiv regime.”

MINSK, May 29. /TASS/: President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko stated that Eurasian integration is a powerful factor of economic growth and stability in times of turbulence, the Belarusian leader's press service said on Monday.

MOSCOW, May 29. /TASS/: Russia’s ministry of justice has put Greenpeace International on its list of undesirable organizations.

"The Russian ministry of justice added Greenpeace International (Stichting Greenpeace Council, the Netherlands), an international non-government non-profit organization, to the list of foreign and international non-government organizations whose activity is recognized as undesirable in Russia," it said on Monday.

PRAGUE, May 29. /TASS/: War between NATO and Russia is the worst of all possible worlds, but it is not impossible, says General Karel Rehka, Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces.

"We view war between Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance as the worst-case scenario, but it is not impossible. [It is] possible," Rehka said at a conference in the Czech parliament Monday, according to the novinky.cz website.

BELGRADE, May 29. /TASS/: KFOR (a NATO-led international security force in Kosovo) officers attacked Serbs who were protesting in front of the administrative building in the Zvecan municipality in Kosovo and Metohija, the Vecernje Novosti newspaper reported on Monday.