Stockholm

Now is the time for NATO members to finalize Sweden's accession to the alliance, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a visit to Sweden and other Scandinavian countries yesterday, quoted by Reuters.

Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Ivan Kondov has urged India to use its influence on Russia on the need to end the war against Ukraine, the ministry said. Kondov had a conversation with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Stockholm, where the European Union - Indo-Pacific region ministerial forum was held yesterday.

The representative of Sweden - Loreen won the Eurovision Song Contest, which was held in the British city of Liverpool, the Eurovision website announced.

Sweden's parliament on Wednesday passed new legislation to ban activities linked to extremist groups, as it beefs up its terror laws, a key demand from Türkiye to approve Stockholm's NATO membership bid.

With 268 votes in favour, the law-- which criminalises "participation in a terrorist organisation" - was adopted by Sweden's 349-seat parliament and will enter into force on June 1.

France will go ahead with structural reforms to overhaul its economy after credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded the country's debt worthiness, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has told AFP.    

Fitch downgraded France's debt worthiness a notch to "AA-" from "AA" on April 28, claiming the country's "fiscal metrics are weaker than peers".    

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on April 28 urged European central banks to "kill the beast" of inflation by pursuing interest rate hikes.

"You need to go and kill that beast" the IMF's European department director Alfred Kammer told reporters in Stockholm.

Sweden should take more concrete steps in terms of fighting anti-Türkiye terror on its soil in order to be admitted to NATO, the Turkish foreign minister said, calling on Stockholm to focus on efforts to curb finance and propaganda means of the terror organizations.

Istanbul's Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall will host a concert by Israeli musician Yinon Muallem on April 8. The concert, titled "Istanbul - Tel Aviv," will feature compositions inspired by the musician's biographical book of the same name, inspired by his memories of two different countries and cities he lived in.

Finland officially became NATO's 31st member after the country's foreign minister signed the accession document and handed it over to United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The signature was the last step of the procedure and was signed in Brussels.

Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO on April 4, in a historic strategic shift provoked by Moscow's war on Ukraine, which doubles the US-led alliance's border with Russia.

Last year, the Kremlin's all-out invasion of Ukraine upended Europe's security landscape and prompted Finland - and its neighbour Sweden - to drop decades of non-alignment.