Some countries Monday blasted the ongoing West-led military operation against Libya government forces, saying the air raids went beyond the UN resolution and must be scrapped immediately. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin severely criticized the U.S. role in the “Odyssey Dawn” operation against Libya. “The use of force against other countries became a steady trend in the U.S.... 

Medvedev visits a base in the town of Shchelkovo outside Moscow. Less than one year ahead of presidential elections, the conflict in Libya has finally laid bare tensions between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his predecessor Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long claimed to have detected disputes on issues ranging from the construction of a road through a forest outside Moscow to... 

An RAF Typhoon jet fighter takes off from Gioia del Colle air base near Bari, southern Italy, for a mission over Libya. All things considered, it was rather thoughtful of the Libyan rebels in Benghazi to shoot down their only fighter aircraft on Saturday, killing the poor unfortunate pilot. Otherwise, the British and French aircraft enforcing the UN-endorsed no-fly zone might have been obliged to do... 

Radioactive Moss - Landmannalaugar, Iceland. Miniscule amounts of radioactive particles believed to have come from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant have been detected as far away as Iceland, diplomatic sources said on Tuesday. They stressed the tiny traces of iodine — measured by a network of international monitoring stations as they spread eastwards from Japan across the... 

Russia’s Prime Minister Putin listens to Governor of Sakhalin Region Alexander Khoroshavin during their meeting in the Far Eastern city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Monday likened the U.N. Security Council resolution supporting military action in Libya to medieval calls for crusades. Putin, in the first major remarks from a Russian leader since a coalition of Western... 

Chancellor Angela Merkel's helicopter came close to crashing. The German Chancellor had a narrow escape when her police chopper fell like a stone from the sky just hours after dropping her off. The pilots managed to restart the engines just moments before it hit the ground. The Super Puma 332 had left Mrs Merkel at an election campaign event in Waldshut-Tiengen on the Swiss border when disaster... 

Russia Sunday called on U.S. and European forces to stop the “indiscriminate” attack on Libya. “The reports say that during air raids on Libya strikes were also delivered on non-military facilities. … As a result, 48 civilians are reported dead and over 150 wounded,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the RIA Novosti news agency. “In this connection,... 

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich Russia says it regrets that the Western countries decided to take military action against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who has been cracking down on revolutionaries in the country. A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich on Saturday said, “Air force units from a host of countries began military actions... 

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the colorful and flamboyant leader of Russia's LDPR party. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the colorful and flamboyant leader of Russia’s LDPR party, on Saturday called on the Muslim world to unite and support Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi. “LDPR turns to all the people of the Muslim countries and urges them to unite and show solidarity with Muammar Gaddafi. The leadership... 

Marine Le Pen, far-right leader of France's National Front Party, waits with the party's Louis Aliot outside an immigrant detention center during her visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa on March 14. Refugees fleeing the upheaval in North Africa are running into a different sort of political conflict in Europe. Since mid-January, more than 10,000 refugees from countries such as Tunisia... 

Germany will shut down all seven of its nuclear power plants that began operating before 1980 at least till June, the government said on Tuesday, leaving open whether they will ever start up again after Japan’s crisis. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the closures, which will leave only 10 nuclear stations still generating, under a nuclear policy moratorium imposed as Japan faced a potential... 

Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Marine Le Pen might defeat President Nicolas Sarkozy if a French election were held now, a poll showed. Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund and a Socialist Party member, would win 33 percent in the first round, according to the Ipsos-LogicaBusiness Consulting poll for Le Monde and Europe 1 radio. Le Pen, leader of the National Front party,... 

Police officers have killed three militants in Makhachkala, Dagestan. Police in Russia’s restive southern province of Dagestan say that seven policemen have been wounded by militants. Local police spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov said that several gunmen drove to a police precinct in the town of Kizilyurt late Monday. They sprayed the building with automatic gunfire and then detonated a car bomb,... 

Vladimir Zhirinovsky Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the colorful and flamboyant leader of Russia’s LDPR party, has called on Japanese to leave “the dangerous islands” and move to the unpopulated Russian territories, the newsru.com website reported on Sunday. Zhirinovsky, 64, also deputy speaker of the lower house, offered Russian government to start talks with Japan over Japanese nationals’... 

The Prince of Wales addresses a tourism conference at Anglesey Abbey, in Lode, Cambridge. Prince Charles has warned that the British countryside risks being ruined by monoculturalism. If society continues to spurn village pubs and traditional crafts, it will end up ‘pulling threads’ from the ‘delicate tapestry’ of rural life, he said. The heir to the throne today used a verbose speech to tourism...