Europe

KYIV, Sept 26 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday no decision had been taken on whether to seal Russia's borders to stop an exodus of military-aged men fleeing the country, after days of chaotic scenes during its first military mobilisation since World War Two.

Asked about the prospect of the border being shut, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "I don't know anything about this. At the moment, no decisions have been taken on this."

Sept 26 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Monday granted Russian citizenship to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, nine years after he exposed the scale of secret surveillance operations by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Snowden, 39, fled the United States and was given asylum in Russia after leaking secret files in 2013 that revealed vast domestic and international surveillance operations carried out by the NSA, where he worked.

STOCKHOLM, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Andreas Norlen was reelected on Monday as the speaker of the Swedish parliament.

The speaker of the parliament is second only to the King in terms of formal rank. Norlen, who comes from the Moderate party, had been nominated by the opposition blue block that narrowly won the election on Sept. 11.

"I would like to thank the parties that acted differently than they usually do in speaker elections," local media quoted Norlen as saying, referring to both blocs' support for his nomination.

BUDAPEST, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Western countries' sanctions against Russia have turned the "local" conflict between Russia and Ukraine into a "global economic war," Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban said here on Monday.

An increasing number of countries across the world is becoming "victim" of the conflict in Ukraine, Orban said at the opening of Parliament's autumn session.

He said that the United States and the European Union (EU) were supplying Ukraine with weapons and money, but Russia's reserves of material and men were "endless."

PARIS (AP) — France forecasts growth to slow down substantially next year in the EU’s second-biggest economy, amid fears of a recession in neighboring Germany as the economic situation in Europe is slammed by the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

France’s budget, presented Monday in a Cabinet meeting, is based on an predicted growth of 1% next year — down from an estimated 2.7% this year.

As the country faces soaring energy and food prices, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said inflation in France is expected to reach 6% in the coming months and 4% later next year.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Italy’s European Union partners are signaling discomfort, even vigilance, after Italy, one of the bloc’s founding members, swung far to the political right. The result of Italy’s latest election raises troubling questions about whether Rome will maintain its commitments to EU principles, laws and ambitions.

LONDON (AP) — TikTok could face a 27 million-pound ($29 million) fine in the U.K. over a possible breach of U.K. data protection law by failing to protect children’s privacy when they are using the video-sharing platform.

The U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office said Monday that it has issued the social media company a legal document that precedes a potential fine. It said TikTok may have processed the data of children under 13 without appropriate parental consent, and processed “special category data” without legal grounds to do so.

MOSCOW (AP) — A gunman opened fire in a school in central Russia on Monday, killing 15 people and wounding 24 others before shooting himself dead, authorities said.

The shooting took place in School No. 88 in Izhevsk, a city 960 kilometers (600 miles) east of Moscow in the Udmurtia region.

Russia’s Investigative Committee identified the gunman as 34-year-old Artyom Kazantsev, a graduate of the same school, and said he was wearing a black t-shirt bearing “Nazi symbols.” No details about his motives have been released.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A young man shot a Russian military officer at close range at an enlistment office Monday, in an unusually bold attack reflecting resistance to the Russian leadership’s efforts to mobilize hundreds of thousands of men to wage war on Ukraine.

The shooting comes after scattered arson attacks on enlistment offices and protests in Russian cities against the call-up that have resulted in at least 2,000 arrests. Russia is seeking to bolster its military as its Ukraine offensive has bogged down and sapped its forces.

LONDON, Sep 25 (APP): Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday said that United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres had assured that they would be soon arranging a donors’ conference for the rehabilitation of the flood affected people of Pakistan. 

 The prime minister chaired a meeting via videolink to review relief and rehabilitation activities in the flood hit areas of the country.  

The meeting was attended by federal ministers and the relevant authorities, PM Office Media Wing said in a press release.