Europe

STOCKHOLM, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Sweden's central bank Riksbank announced its sharpest policy rate hike in nearly three decades on Tuesday, raising it by 100 basis points to 1.75 percent to curb soaring inflation.

This is the third hike in a row following Riksbank's declaration in February that its policy rate would remain at zero percent until 2024. In April, the policy rate was raised to 0.25 percent, and then in June, to 0.75 percent.

LONDON (AP) — The cannons have sounded, the bells have rung and the mourners have paid their respects.

Now King Charles III faces the task of preserving a 1,000-year-old monarchy that his mother nurtured for seven decades but that faces an uncertain future. The challenge is immense.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine announced plans Tuesday to start voting this week to become integral parts of Russia. The concerted and quickening Kremlin-backed efforts to swallow up four regions could set the stage for Moscow to escalate the war following Ukrainian successes on the battlefield.

London, Sep 20 (PTI) Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-reigning monarch, has been laid to rest alongside her late husband Prince Philip in a private burial at St George's Chapel after the pomp and pageantry of a majestic state funeral at Westminster Abbey.

The queen's flag-draped coffin was lowered into the royal vault underneath the chapel, joining her father George VI and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, on Monday evening. It was the final time her coffin was seen in public after 11 days of national mourning.

MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has promised what he described as "proper response" from Moscow in case of any claims to Russia’s territory, including Crimea.

"Crimea is an integral part of Russia, so any claims to Russian territory will entail a proper response," Peskov told the media on Monday.

MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: At a meeting of the signatories to Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons (BTWC) in Geneva the United States has confessed that samples of pathogenic strains and biomaterials of local people were evacuated from Ukraine, the head Russia’s radiation, chemical and biological protection force, Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov, told a news briefing on Monday.

DONETSK, September 19. /TASS/: The Civic Chamber of the Donetsk People’s Republic has asked the republic’s leader Denis Pushilin and the People’s Council (parliament) to urgently call a referendum on accession to Russia. The message the chamber’s leader Alexey Kofman read out on Monday says: "We want Russia’s border to lie between us and Ukraine. We want to become part of one big Motherland - Russia - once again. The people of Donbass deserve it.

MOSCOW, Sept 19 (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Monday rejected allegations that Russian forces had committed war crimes in Ukraine's Kharkiv province as a "lie".

Around 450 bodies - most of which Ukraine says are civilians - have been found in mass graves near Izium after Russian troops were this month forced out of the Kharkiv region, much of which they had controlled since the first weeks of their military campaign in Ukraine.

BERLIN, Sept 19 (Reuters) - E.ON (EONGn.DE) has informed the German government of a leak at the Isar 2 nuclear power plant which has not compromised security but could complicate the government's winter energy plan, the environment ministry said on Monday.

Isar 2, in the southern state of Bavaria, had been scheduled to go offline at the end of the year under Germany's plan to phase out nuclear power.

KYIV, Sept 19 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed there would be no let-up in Ukraine's fight to regain its territory as Kyiv said its troops had crossed a major river, paving the way for an assault on Russia's occupation forces in the eastern Donbas region.

Reflecting the dramatic change in momentum since Ukrainian forces routed Russian troops earlier this month in the northeast, U.S. President Joe Biden offered his strongest prediction so far that the Ukraine would win the war.

"They're defeating Russia," Biden said in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes".