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Russia, NATO Clash over Libya Campaign

Russia and NATO on Monday failed to narrow their differences over the Western air campaign in Libya, as alliance warplanes stepped up their bombing of regime targets.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused NATO of interpreting a U.N. resolution any way it wished, after talks with NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen that showed up differences rather than secure any agreement on a solution.

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Grenade, Bomb Blasts Target Court in N.Caucasus

Attackers fired at a court building in the Russian Caucasus with a grenade launcher and triggered an explosive device, causing considerable damage but no casualties, police said Saturday.

The attacks late Friday targeted a courtroom building in the town of Malgobek in the volatile Ingushetia region, the regional interior ministry said in a statement.

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Swiss Couple Kidnapped in Pakistan

A Swiss couple was kidnapped Friday while traveling in southwestern Pakistan, a senior government official said, triggering a police search.

The pair was seized in a district 170 kilometers east of Quetta, the capital of sparsely populated Baluchistan province, provincial home secretary Zafarullah Baloch told Agence France Presse.

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Putin's Blueberry Hill Remix Wows Russian Clubbers

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin caused jaws to drop last year when he gave an impromptu performance of the Fats Domino classic "Blueberry Hill" at a charity concert.

Now one of the country's best known DJs has remixed Putin's vocals into a six-minute dance track that he says is wowing clubbers around the country, even if he admits that Putin is "not a singer."

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Syrian Opposition Asks Russia to Put Pressure on Assad

A visiting Syrian opposition delegation urged Russia on Tuesday to use its diplomatic clout to convince President Bashar al-Assad to give up the use of force against civilians.

"Russia can use its leverage on the Syrian regime to send a clear message that this way of behavior is unacceptable," said rights advocate Radwan Ziadeh, who is head of Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies in Washington.

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Russia: Iran's Nuclear Plant Ready for August Launch

Iran's first nuclear power plant is set to start up in early August, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday.

"The project has been completed and everything has been ironed out," the state RIA Novosti news agency quoted Ryabkov as saying.

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Russia Convicts Top Spy of Exposing 'Sleeper' Cell in U.S.

A Moscow military court on Monday convicted in absentia former top Foreign Service agent Alexander Poteyev of betraying 10 "sleeper" spies expelled from the United States last year.

Poteyev was convicted of treason and desertion, Russian news agencies reported.

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Report: 3 Designers of Iran's Nuclear Plant Died in Russian Plane Crash

Russian nuclear scientists, who planned, designed, built and put into operation Iran's first nuclear reactor at Bushehr this year, were killed in the Russian plane that crashed earlier in the week, the Israeli website Debkafile reported.

Debkafile's sources revealed that the three scientists Sergey Ryzhov, Gennady Banuyk and Nikolay Trunov, were among the 44 passengers who were killed when the plane exploded into flames after crashing on a highway just short of its airport.

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Child Survivor in Russian Air Crash Dies

A young survivor of the air crash in northwestern Russia died of his multiple injuries, bringing the death toll in the tragedy to 45, a health ministry spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

Anton Terekhin and his teenage sister Anastasia were among eight people who survived the Tuesday air crash in the country's region of Karelia that instantly killed 44 including their mother.

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Paris Presses U.N. on Syria, Moscow Warns of 'Interference'

France stepped up pressure Monday on the United Nations to speak out against Syria's deadly crackdown on protests, but Russia again said it opposed "interference" in the country's internal affairs.

"The U.N. Security Council cannot remain silent for much longer," French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said during a joint press conference in Paris with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

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