Europe

VATICAN CITY, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Two bishops from mainland China are due to attend a major Vatican meeting next month, officials said on Thursday, a positive sign after recent tensions between the Holy See and Beijing.

The two bishops were chosen by their brother bishops in China, meaning they likely had approval from the Communist government, which holds great sway over the Chinese Catholic Church.

The two are Anthony Yao Shun of Jining and Joseph Yang Yongqiang of Zhoucun, officials said at a press conference.

PRISTINA, Sept 21 (Reuters) - At a cafe in Kosovo's capital Pristina, staff have given up checking whether the 2-euro coins people use to pay are genuine, as such a high proportion are fake and as the high quality of some counterfeits makes it almost impossible to tell.

"At the beginning everyone was worried and was checking if the 2-euro coins were fake or not," said waiter Endrit.

He and his colleagues would hold coins up to the light to examine them or plunk them down on a table to see how they sounded.

BANOVCE NAD BEBRAVOU, Slovakia, Sept 21 (Reuters) - "We are a peaceful country. We will not send a single round to Ukraine."

That was Robert Fico's blunt message for some 300 supporters at a political rally last week in the western Slovakian town of Banovce nad Bebravou, ahead of a Sept. 30 election that the populist former prime minister is favourite to win.

GORIS, Armenia, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh need security guarantees before giving up their weapons, an adviser to their leader said on Thursday, a day after Azerbaijan declared it had brought the breakaway region back under its control.

Karabakh Armenian authorities accused Azerbaijan of violating a ceasefire agreed on Wednesday after a lightning Azerbaijani offensive forced the separatists to agree to disarm.

LONDON, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of England (BoE) has voted to maintain its benchmark interest rate at 5.25 percent, the central bank said in a statement on Thursday.

At its meeting ending on Wednesday, the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee voted by a majority of five to four in favor of the decision, the statement noted. Four members preferred to increase the interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 5.5 percent.

This is the first time the BoE has kept the interest rates unchanged after 14 consecutive rate hikes since December 2021.

STOCKHOLM, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Sweden's central bank on Thursday decided to increase the policy interest rate by 25 basis points to 4 percent, which will take effect from Sept. 27.

The Riksbank also indicated the likelihood of further hikes in the next 12 months to combat inflation.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles and artillery pounded cities across Ukraine early Thursday, sparking fires, killing at least five people and trapping others under the rubble of destroyed buildings, authorities said, shortly after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced Russia as a “terrorist state” at the United Nations.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s prime minister said his country is no longer sending arms to Ukraine, a comment that appeared aimed at pressuring Kyiv and put Poland’s status as a major source of military equipment in doubt as a trade dispute between the neighboring states escalates.

BAKU, September 20. /TASS/: Azerbaijan has drafted a plan for the integration of Karabakh's Armenian population, presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev told a news briefing in Baku.

"The government agencies concerned have developed a comprehensive plan for the socio-economic integration of Karabakh's Armenians," Hajiyev emphasized.

He added that this integration was Azerbaijan's internal affair, but Baku was ready to study the humanitarian needs of the Armenian population in the region. "We are open to negotiations," Hajiyev noted.

MOSCOW, September 20. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin never allows himself to stoop to insults, Kremlin Dmitry Peskov said when asked about the chances of a stern response to US President Joe Biden who had described Putin as a "dictator."

"You know that our president never stoops to this - to the level of personal insults against his colleagues. He certainly has his own opinion about this style of rhetoric. But the president, I repeat again, has never stooped to this and will not do so," Peskov said.