Europe

KAZAN, May 19. /TASS/: Russia and Iran have concluded all necessary bilateral agreements for the mutual use of Mir payment cards, Iranian Deputy Tourism Minister Ali-Asghar Shalbafian told TASS on Friday.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the Russia-Islamic World: KazanForum event in Kazan, Tatarstan.

"All bilateral agreements between the countries have been reached. We are waiting for confirmation from the central banks of both countries as to when the system will go live. The launch date depends on the decision of the central banks of the two countries," he said.

MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/: The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has designated the activities of Greenpeace International within the country as undesirable, the law enforcement agency’s press service told reporters on Friday.

SYKTYVKAR, May 19. /TASS/: The destruction of depleted uranium munitions supplied by the West to Ukraine has caused a radioactive cloud that is drifting towards Europe, Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said at a conference in Syktyvkar on Friday.

He drew attention to the fact that US President Joe Biden arrived in Japan on Thursday to attend the G7 summit.

"Including to uphold, as the Americans believe, ‘common democratic values.’ The heads of Western countries under US pressure will also discuss aid to Ukraine," Patrushev pointed out.

STOCKHOLM, May 18 (NNN-XINHUA) – Tenants in Sweden face the highest rent increase in three decades, local media reported, yesterday.

The average increase will be 4.2 percent, following negotiations between the Swedish Union of Tenants and the landlords, Swedish TT news agency reported.

“It has been an incredibly tough and long round of negotiations,” Erik Elmgren, head of the Swedish Union of Tenants told TT about the increased rent for nearly 1.1 million apartments for the coming year.

LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) - Russian military forces have been enhancing defensive positions in and around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine in recent weeks, four witnesses said, ahead of an expected counteroffensive in the region.

New trenches have been dug around the city and more mines have been laid. Surveillance cameras at the plant are pointing north across a wide reservoir towards Ukrainian-controlled territory.

MILAN (AP) — Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi was discharged on Friday from a Milan hospital, nearly a month and a half after he was admitted with a lung infection.

Berlusconi waved at journalists from behind a closed window as his car drove away from the San Raffaele Hospital. He arrived shortly later at his villa in the suburb of Arcore.

The 86-yeaer-old three-time former premier and media mogul has been treated for chronic leukemia, in addition to the lung infection that landed him in the hospital on April 5.

MITROVICA, Kosovo (AP) — A new mayor has been sworn in in northern Kosovo after a vote in April that was boycotted by the ethnic Serb minority which dominates the area.

Erden Atic, who is from the Bosnian minority, took up his post in the northern, Serb-dominated part of the divided city of Mitrovica on Friday, calling on citizens to cooperate.

“We shall work for all citizens of Mitrovica’s northern commune, without any discrimination,” said Atic, who represents the Self-Determination Movement, or Vetevendosje! of Prime Minister Albin Kurti.

18 May 2023; AA: Russia Halal Expo 2023 on Thursday opened its doors to visitors on the sidelines of the 14th International Economic Summit: Russia-Islamic World: Kazan Forum 2023.

Expected to garner more than 7,000 visitors, the expo features halal products and services with an aim to promote the halal industry in Russia, improve commercial, economic, and social relations between Russia and participating Muslim countries and give trading partners a chance to showcase their goods.

19 May 2023; AA: Russia aims to increase the cargo turnover by 155% by 2030 along the North-South Transport Corridor, a 7,200-kilometer (4,473-mile) multimode transportation network, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said on Thursday.

18 May 2023; AA: NATO's expansion has brought the world very close to a global conflict, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said on Thursday.

Speaking at a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Minsk, Lukashenko criticized Finland's accession and Sweden's application to the military alliance.