Michael Mainville

Ukraine on Tuesday urged its Western allies to hit Russia with "tough sanctions" after President Vladimir Putin recognised two breakaway regions as independent and ordered in his troops.

President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into two Moscow-backed rebel regions of Ukraine Monday, prompting a furious response from the West with the United States denouncing the move at the UN Security Council as a "pretext for war".

Putin laid out a series of new measures in his speech to Russia's two houses of Parliament

France will investigate failures to detect faults with breast implants after a supplier admitted to selling risky silicone.

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has admitted to having an uninhibited sex life in a new book, while claiming to be the victim of a plot.

Hundreds of fighters for Libya's new rulers thrust into Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte from the east on Sunday, as Nato pounded the coastal city.

For African migrant workers in shelters on the outskirts of Tripoli, Libya's revolution has brought not hope and freedom but fear and hunger.

Bosnian Serb war-crimes suspect Ratko Mladic was to appeal against his transfer to a United Nations court on Monday.

Serbia vowed on Saturday to track down those who helped Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic evade justice for 16 years.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a peace deal with Georgia on Saturday but his troops pushed even deeper toward the capital, Tbilisi.

Georgia said on Tuesday that Russian attacks on the country continued as 100 000 people gathered at a rally in central Tbilisi.

Georgia's opposition called for its supporters to take to the streets on Sunday after a disputed exit poll showed incumbent Mikheil Saakashvili winning in the first round of a snap presidential vote. Saakashvili predicted victory, saying in a statement that independent exit polls "show that we are winning in the first round".