Europe

STOCKHOLM, June 28 (Reuters) - A man tore up and burned a Koran outside Stockholm's central mosque on Wednesday, an event that risks angering Turkey as Sweden bids to join NATO, after Swedish police granted permission for the protest to take place.

Police later charged the man with agitation against an ethnic or national group.

A series of demonstrations in Sweden against Islam and for Kurdish rights have offended Ankara, whose backing Sweden needs to gain entry to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norway announced Wednesday it approved 19 oil and gas projects on the Norwegian continental shelf, saying the total investments are worth over 200 billion kroner ($19 billion).

“The projects are also an important contribution to Europe’s energy security,” said Terje Aasland, Norway’s minister for petroleum and energy.

Norway was the only net exporter of oil and gas in Europe, he said, adding, “By carrying out these projects we ensure new production from the latter half of the 2020s, so that we can maintain high Norwegian deliveries.”

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government’s climate advisers on Wednesday slammed officials for their slow pace in meeting their “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions target and backtracking on fossil fuel commitments. They say Britain has “lost its clear global leadership position on climate action.”

HELSINKI (AP) — The deputy mayor of Finland’s capital is facing possible legal action, and calls for him to pay compensation for damages and to resign, after he was caught red-handed spray-painting graffiti in a railway tunnel last weekend.

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency told public broadcaster YLE on Wednesday that cleaning up graffiti illegally painted by Paavo Arhinmäki, one of the four deputy mayors of Helsinki, cost the city around 3,500 euros ($3,830).

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that he has called a meeting of senior officials from Turkey, Sweden and Finland on July 6 to try to overcome Turkish objections to Sweden joining the military organization.

The meeting is a last-ditch effort by Stoltenberg to have the Nordic country standing among NATO’s ranks as a member at a major summit next month. It would be a highly symbolic moment and another indication of how Russia’s war in Ukraine is driving countries to join the Western alliance.

BRUSSELS (AP) — As rescue efforts in the Mediterranean Sea flagged last week, and bodies were found more frequently than survivors from among the more than 500 people missing after an overcrowded fishing trawler sank, the European Commission’s president was asked for her thoughts.

“It is horrible, what happened, and the more urgent is that we act,” Ursula von der Leyen told reporters at the headquarters of the European Union’s executive branch in Brussels.

NANTERRE, France (AP) — France’s government on Wednesday announced heightened police presence around Paris and other big cities and called for calm after scattered violence erupted over the death of a 17-year-old delivery driver who was shot and killed during a police check.

The killing prompted nationwide concern and widespread messages of indignation and condolences, including from soccer star Kylian Mbappe. French President Emmanuel Macron called the young man’s death “inexplicable and inexcusable.”

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities arrested on Wednesday a man they accused of helping Russia direct a missile strike that killed at least 10 people, including three teenagers, at a popular pizza restaurant in east Ukraine.

The Tuesday evening attack on Kramatorsk wounded 61 other people, Ukraine’s National Police said, in the latest bombardment of a Ukrainian city, a tactic Russia has used heavily in the 16-month-old war.

MOSCOW, June 27. /TASS/: Russia’s military and law enforcement agencies took crucial streps to protect the people's safety at the time of an attempted armed insurgency and effectively saved the country from civil war, Russian President Vladimir Putin told soldiers and other law enforcement personnel who played a key role in recent events.

MOSCOW, June 27. /TASS/: Russian forces successfully repelled seven Ukrainian attacks in their active defense in the Donetsk area over the past day during the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Tuesday.