Europe

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — As a potential power broker, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will use his first visit to Ukraine since the war started nearly six months ago to seek ways to expand the export of grain from Europe’s breadbasket to the world’s needy while U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres will focus on containing the volatile situation at a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant.

MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/: A total of 500 time slots a day for visa applications will be available at the Finnish visa centers in Russia from September 1, of which only 20% will be set aside for tourist purposes, the Finnish Embassy told TASS on Wednesday.

"From September 1, 500 time slots per day will be available. Twenty percent of them will be for tourist visas and 80% - for visas for other reasons," it said. If necessary, the quotas can be changed to ensure the functionality of the system and prevent misuse, the embassy pointed out.

BRUSSELS, August 17. /TASS/: Serbia doesn’t see the need to host foreign military bases and will stick to this policy, Serbian President Alexandar Vucic said a news conference on Wednesday following talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

"Serbia doesn’t need any foreign military bases. Serbia is a militarily neutral state that wishes to preserve peace, to ensure the security of its sky and its land, as well as of its people and population, on its own. That will be the case in the future," the president said.

ISS, August 17. /TASS/: Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, who is also a special correspondent for TASS, and Denis Matveyev have opened the exit hatch of the Poisk module of the International Space Station (ISS) and began extravehicular activity (EVA) under the Russian program. The process is being streamed on the corporation’s website.

The cosmonauts’ task is to mount the European Robotic Arm’s extra elbow cameras, relocate and connect the external EMMI control panel, and remove the launch restraint rings to make the ERA manipulator lighter.

MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/: The Russian government introduced subsidized loans up to 5% for agricultural producers for purposes of production and processing of agricultural raw materials and purchase of reefer containers, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Wednesday.

"Agricultural producers can receive subsidized investment loans at the rate up to 5% for the term from two to fifteen years, and borrow a loan for a short term at the same rate. The relevant decree was signed," the Prime Minister said.

BERLIN, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Around 20 ships are stuck in traffic along Germany's river Rhine, where low water levels have already impeded shipping this summer, after a vessel's engine failure closed part of the waterway, authorities said on Wednesday.

A vessel with a 1,660-ton load was forced to drop anchor due to an engine failure, closing traffic between St Goar and Oberwesel, river police said.

BERLIN/JERUSALEM, Aug 17 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz voiced disgust on Wednesday at remarks by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that the German leader said diminished the importance of the Holocaust, while Israel accused Abbas of telling a "monstrous lie".

During a visit to Berlin on Tuesday, Abbas accused Israel of committing "50 Holocausts" in response to a question about the upcoming 50th anniversary of the attack on the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics by Palestinian militants.

MOSCOW, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday signed contracts on the delivery of Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles and S-500 air defense systems for Russian troops.

The contract on the production and delivery of Sarmat missiles was signed by Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko and CEO of the Makeyev State Rocket Center Vladimir Degtyar at the Army 2022 international military-technical forum, the TASS news agency reported.

LONDON, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Britain's Consumer Prices Index (CPI) surged by 10.1 percent in the 12 months to July, the highest level in 40 years, official statistics showed on Wednesday.

The latest inflation rate was a further increase from 9.4 percent in June and beat economists' forecast of 9.8 percent.

On a monthly basis, CPI also rose by 0.6 percent in July, compared with no change in July 2021, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

MADRID (AP) — An approaching wildfire in eastern Spain caused a train driver to stop and prepare to change directions to avoid the flames, and several passengers were injured when they got off rather than wait, authorities said.

The train was traveling in the Valencia region on Tuesday night when the driver decided to reverse course because of the wildfire advancing from around the town of Bejís, further east.