A tour of Moscow sites associated with Alexander Herzen.

Hidden inside a lonely courtyard off Prospekt Mira is the recently opened Haus Bar. It is certainly a brave location for this modest, medieval-themed restaurant, as there is no passing traffic except the odd local resident shopping at the grocery store next door.

A recipe from Narek Avagyan, head chef at the Cafe Ararat in the Ararat Park Hyatt Moscow hotel.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has pardoned the victim of a gang rape, whose sentencing to 200 lashes caused an international outcry, a Saudi newspaper said Monday.

Dozens of countries met on Monday to pledge billions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians in support of Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, but disputes with Israel on settlements and checkpoints darkened the mood.

Impromptu rallies among African National Congress delegates Monday offered another glimpse of the unusually public and bitter contest over who will take over leadership of South Africa's ruling party -- and possibly of the country.

South Korean voters are preparing to head to the polls, ready to end 10 years of rule by liberal presidents by selecting a former businessman who promises to run the world's 13th-largest economy like a CEO.

Newly crowned Miss Belgium speaks several languages, including French, English and Czech, but it seems that does not count for much when she does not speak Dutch.

Iraqi leaders complained Monday that Turkey had not coordinated with Baghdad before sending dozens of warplanes to bomb Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq the day before.

Ingush Held in Bus BlastNavy Test-Fires Missile

Russia has delivered the first shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran's Bushehr atomic power station, a step both Moscow and Washington said should convince Tehran to shut down its disputed uranium enrichment program.

Shouldering much of the blame for his party's poor performance in parliamentary elections, Union of Right Forces leader Nikita Belykh tendered his resignation Monday at a party congress.

An opposition activist who met with Alexander Litvinenko shortly before he was poisoned said Monday that he had applied for political asylum in Britain.

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's party won every available seat in the next parliament, preliminary results showed Monday, after weekend elections sharply criticized by Western monitors and the opposition.

The Moscow City Court on Monday halted the retrial of two suspects accused of the 2004 murder of U.S. journalist Paul Klebnikov because one of them was still at large, court officials and a defense lawyer said.

European cultural institutes have sent a letter to the Culture and Press Ministry expressing deep concern over the ordered closure of two offices of the British Council, the British government's cultural arm.

Patriarch Alexy II has blessed First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as the next president, giving a literal meaning to the idea that Medvedev is President Vladimir Putin's anointed successor.

After President Vladimir Putin said last month that Russia would not allow other countries ""to poke their snotty noses into our affairs,"" we should face the fact that security relations with the West are in a shambles. Putin, who is fond of tough-guy slang, used the colorful phrase when he accused the United States of pushing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to decide against sending observers to the State Duma elections on Dec. 2.

Whenever a Russian economist says he teaches ""the problems of economic security,"" other professional economists have treated this in a contemptuous manner.

The final composition of the State Duma has been established. Over 100 candidates who ran on the federal tickets of the four winning parties have rejected their posts and refused their mandates.