Leading oil exporter Kuwait has signed several agreements with Great Britain on nuclear and oil cooperation, the Xinhua news agency reports Tuesday. This comes during British PM David Cameron’s visit to the country. The two countries signed two memos of understanding on peaceful uses of nuclear power and a trade cooperation. The UK is Kuwait’s main partner in exporting oil. On his visit to the region Cameron also visited Egypt, becoming the first foreign leader to visit the country after Mubarak’s ouster.

Egypt’s military rulers have sworn in a new Cabinet on Tuesday that replaces several ministers from the ousted Hosni Mubarak regime. This comes after army officials assured the opposition it would lead the country to democratic reforms. The new Cabinet includes members of opposition parties for the first time in decades.

Twelve people have been killed and several others injured in an attack in Nigeria’s Plateau State Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reports, citing local sources. The attack was carried out in a village by unidentified assailants. Among the killed was a family with four children. The villagers failed to inform the police on time and the gunmen managed to flee. A military helicopter has been deployed to conduct an aerial search. The area is a belt where Muslim and Christian population meet, leading to ethnic tension and clashes. In 2010 around 100 people were killed in a major violent struggle.

­Muammar Gaddafi has addressed Libyans with a passionate speech, in which he stated he will fight on to the end against the current revolt in the cities, according to the BBC. Gaddafi, dressed in brown robes and turban, spoke from a podium set up in the entrance of a bombed-out building. The long-serving Libyan leader said he is ready to die as a martyr but will not surrender.

At an Anti-Terrorist Committee meeting on Tuesday, the head of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Aleksandr Bortnikov said that each and every person in the North Caucasus should be more involved in fighting and preventing of terrorism. “There are a number of drawbacks in the activities of our anti-terror commissions, mainly the formal approach to activities aimed at preventing terrorism,” Bortnikov said. “We need to make our efforts more personalized, reach out for everyone, win the ideological war against the extremists,” he added. According to Bortnikov, lowering radicalization among the population was the authorities’ top priority. President Medvedev on Tuesday called a meeting of the Anti-Terror Committee in Kabardino-Balkaria, where extremism has been on the rise.

­Around 150 Russian citizens are stuck in the Libyan Desert, some 750 kilometers from the capital Tripoli. All of them are the Russian Railways employees who were involved in the Russian railroad giant’s project of building super-speed railway system in Libya. They are waiting for evacuation. Some 600 other employees and laborers are with the Russians there. They managed to flee from other camps, forced by fear of marauders and the military. The people have no other way to leave the camp than by plane. As unrest continues in Libya, Russian authorities have decided to evacuate around 600 Russian citizens staying in the country. Three flights have already left Moscow for the mission.

Officials say four Americans have been shot dead by pirates Tuesday after their boat was seized off the coast of Oman last week. US forces had been negotiating with the hijackers until gunshots were heard early morning. Troops stormed the yacht, detaining 15 suspected pirates and killing another four. The Americans had been taking part in a rally when they were attacked. The owners of the yacht, a couple from California, had sailed with a bible ministry since 2004, distributing bibles to schools and churches of Central America, New Zealand, Fiji and other locations. The yacht was en route from Yemen and was taken to the Somali coast.

The Muslim republic of Chechnya is going to be Russia’s first region to allow drivers to wear traditional religious headwear on their driver license photos. The Chechen government’s press service announced on Tuesday that the new standard driving license would be introduced in March and would show respect towards drivers’ religious sentiments. “If the religious beliefs of the driver forbid him or her from appearing in public without headwear, he or she can be photographed for the license with their head covered, provided that the oval of the face is visible,” the official statement said. The president of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, is known for his strong attitude against provocative women’s clothing. The Chechen authorities recently recommended all state employees to follow a prudent dress-code at work, which includes head scarves for women.

Hassan Mushaimaa, the leader of opposition Haq movement, has returned to his homeland from exile in London Tuesday. Mass demonstrations have reportedly resumed with renewed strength as Mushaimaa is said to be heading the opposition. Hassan Mushaimaa is one of 25 people wanted since last year over an alleged coup plot and coming back to Bahrain, he is relying on King Hamad’s promise to release political prisoners and shelve their cases. It is not clear yet whether the king is ready for a dialogue, but the protesters, inspired by the success in Egypt and Tunisia, are demanding his abdication. In contrast to the demonstrations in those countries, Bahraini people intend to establish a full constitutional monarchy with a more powerful parliament. The current dynasty has ruled the country for 200 years.

Most of the utility customers in Southern Michigan, US, are suffering energy cuts, with more than 100,000 households being blackout Tuesday. These hard conditions are expected to remain for the next few days, officials say. Other States have been also affected. Authorities urge the residents to avoid driving and in some cities a state of emergency has been declared. Earlier in February around two-thirds of the US suffered heavy snow. Thousands of flights were cancelled. The National Guard were involved in the clean-up operation.

The war on terror in Russia will continue, President Dmitry Medvedev announced at meeting of the National Anti-Terrorist Committee in Kabardino-Balkaria, where a string of terrorist attacks was staged earlier this week. “If they resist, they should be ruthlessly destroyed," Medvedev said. "These bastards don't think twice about killing women and children and we shouldn't feel sorry for them," he added. According to Medvedev, a total of 332 outlaws, including over forty militant leaders, were killed, and over 600 militants were detained and tried last year. "We should finish the job, we can't stop," Medvedev said.

Some 150 Russians are stuck in the desert 750 km away from Tripoli, Libya, where they were constructing a railway. According to reports in the Russian media, a group of 750 Russians, Serbs and Turks, who managed to escape from marauders, are waiting to be evacuated in a small camp near the unfinished railroad. Food in the camp has run out, but there is still water. “We are sitting here waiting for planes to arrive, because we will never break through to Tripoli,” one of the Russians said. The Emergencies Ministry is working on a plan to evacuate the 563 Russians, as well as the 700 specialists from Turkey and Serbia who were working for the Russian Railways project in Libya, where mass protests against Muammar Qaddafi saw 600 people killed since last week.

Threatened by the unrest in the country, oil producers have suspended the pumping of oil from Libyan deposits Tuesday, Al Arabia newspaper reports. Crude oil is the main export item of Libya, comprising 95 per cent of the total and a halt in its production may lead to huge losses. Transport of the crude has been stopped as well. Protests that started a week ago have already affected the world’s oil markets, making the prices on Brent oil rocket to US$105 per barrel. Several foreign companies working in the oil production business in Libya have evacuated their staff. According to latest reports, the death toll from the clashes in the country has reached 600, while around 1,400 people are considered missing.

A Kyrgyz politician claims that last April’s uprising in Kyrgyzstan set the stage for the revolts in Arab and North African countries that have been unfurling over the past few weeks. According to opposition MP, Omurbek Tekebayev, Kyrgyzstan was the first to suffer the same failure of the old political order that is now sparking those mass anti-government protests in North Africa and the Middle East. Last April, violent protests in Kyrgyzstan ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who fled the country, and handed power over to an interim opposition government.

The strong earthquake with magnitude of 6.3 Tuesday has caused a massive slide of ice from the Tasman Glacier, NZ Herald reports. Passengers of two explorer boats were hit with waves of up to 3.5 meters and the ice crashed into Terminal Lake under the mountain. Icebergs were formed in the lake. The passengers were safe thanks to special procedures put in place as the instability was predicted. It has become the third largest ice fall in the lake in history.

Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s envoy to NATO and President Medvedev’s recently appointed special representative on European missile defense, is skeptical about the idea of creating two separate anti-missile defense systems - Russia’s and NATO’s - in the EU. Since the third and fourth stages of planned development of the European missile shield actually threaten Russia’s strategic nuclear potential, Rogozin said, Russia needs to be fully sure that it is regarded as a partner, and will not be targeted. Otherwise, he said, the missile shield would have to be seriously limited, geographically and technically. At a NATO summit in Lisbon last autumn, Moscow suggested building a common missile shield with the US as protection against Iran and North Korea. NATO instead proposed building two independent, though mutually cooperative, systems.

Ombudsmen's offices are soon going to be established all over Russia, according to the country’s human rights commissioner, Vladimir Lukin. At present, ombudsmen's offices are already operating in 60 Russian regions, he announced a press conference on Tuesday. Building a larger network of rights officers is well-timed, considering that in 2010 saw a 10 per cent increase in the number of citizens' complaints about various rights violations.

­Around 300 Muslim settlers have forced mostly Buddhist, Hindu and Christian indigenous villagers from their homes and torched their houses in rural Bangladesh, ucanews.com reports Tuesday. Dozens were injured and had to flee to mountain areas. The Muslim settlers reportedly intended to take possession of new lands for agriculture and were backed by police, who did not prevent the violence. For some time Muslims have been seeking to drive away local non-Muslim ethnic minorities and such cases have become common in Bangladesh. The locals have filed a letter of protest to the National Commission for Human Rights reporting the incident and blaming the police.

Around 3,000 medics from Ukraine who are currently working in Libya have been forced to serve the needs of the revolution at gunpoint, Ukrainian Komsomolskaya Pravda reports Tuesday. Hundreds of wounded and killed have been taken to hospitals and the morgues are full, doctors say. People in military uniform are reportedly keeping control in the city of Benghazi and forcing the local doctors keep working. Security guards are manning the entrance. Doctors’ families have to sit in basements and wait for help. As communications are not working, the Ukrainian embassy cannot control the situation in the cities. The physicians also report fuel and food shortages and say there is no way to leave the place.

Egypt has decided to deploy additional forces on its border with Libya Tuesday, according to Agence France-Presse. The Egyptian border was earlier opened for 24 hours for refugees from Libya who seek stability and order, fleeing from possible civil war in their homeland. Two military camps have been established by Egypt close to the border to help the refugees, as well as several hospitals. The border between the two countries is now actually controlled only by Egyptian troops, as almost all Libyan frontier personnel have left for the capital. In Tripoli, Libyan authorities are still striving to maintain control, using the military and heavy weapons.

Unrest sweeping across the Middle East is likely to reach Russia this summer, a Russian MP predicts. This spring, the protests that are currently raging throughout the impoverished states of North Africa and the Middle East are going to grip Central Asia, Sergey Abeltsev, a deputy for the Liberal-Democratic Party (LDPR) warned MPs at a Tuesday parliamentary session. Then, in summer, this “disease” will “obviously” spread to Russia, and only a strong army will be able to resist it, Abeltsev said. Public protests in Bahrain, Libya, Morocco, Iran, Algeria, Yemen, Iraq, Jordan and other states have been inspired by recent events in Egypt and Tunisia, where mass protests managed to oust long-standing presidents.

Several Libyan diplomats around the world have condemned the bloody massacres against peaceful protesters in Libya and called for the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, Al-Arabiya newspaper reports Tuesday. Libya’s ambassador to India has recently resigned in protest, followed by the cultural affairs advisor to Australia and ambassador to Malaysia. Libya’s representatives in the UN condemned Gaddafi for genocide and demanded his resignation. So did the permanent representative of Libya to the Arab League, where a special round table devoted to Libyan unrest is scheduled for Tuesday. Libyan UN reps have also called on the organization to impose a no-fly zone over Libyan cities to prevent air attacks on the protesters. The ambassadors appealed to The Hague International Criminal Court to start an immediate inquiry into war crimes against humanity they say Gaddafi has committed.

An unidentified man has gone on shooting spree in a shopping mall in the Siberian city of Irkutsk Tuesday, wounding a police officer. The man burst into the mall in the downtown area armed with two pistols. He began threatening shop assistants. When police arrived, the man opened fire randomly, wounding one of the officers. The injured officer has been hospitalized. The gunman was also wounded and subdued, reports say.

A Minsk court has begun trial proceedings against two Russian nationals detained during the anti-presidential protests of December 19. Artem Breus and Ivan Gaponov have spent two months in pre-trial detention, despite appeals from their lawyers and the Foreign Ministry of Russia. They have been charged with participating in unsanctioned mass protests against the outcome of the latest presidential election. Moreover, the prosecution claims to have evidence of their guilt on video. Representatives from the Russian embassy, as well as German and American diplomats, are attending the proceedings.

Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev has sent a telegram expressing his condolences to  Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand, where an earthquake claimed the lives of at least 65 people and left 200 trapped under the rubble. “Russia is willing to offer New Zealand help in overcoming the consequences of the tragedy. In this sad time, I wish all the people of New Zealand courage and endurance,” the message said.

A Georgian opposition leader has warned that the movement has scheduled a ‘day of rage’ for this spring, hoping that the Egyptian scenario could serve as a model to help oust President Mikhail Saakashvili. “One day this spring, we shall announce a day of defiance against the government, and if thousands of people take to the streets, Saakashvili will have to go,” Nino Burjanadze said in an interview. Opposition forces worldwide have been inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, where mass protests toppled unpopular country leaders. Georgia’s opposition has vowed to follow their lead in order to put the country on the path to democracy.

Sixty-five people are confirmed dead after a major earthquake shook the city of Christchurch in New Zealand Tuesday. Russians may be among the dead, the Russian consulate in Wellington reports. This is the second major quake to hit the city in five months. The quake has led to extensive damage in the city and to power cuts. City authorities are running out of ambulance support. Roads across Christchurch are buckled and ground water is flowing across streets. A state of emergency is announced in the city. Several hundreds of Russians live in the city and may have fallen victim to the quake. The Russian embassy in New Zealand is currently investigating whether or not Russian citizens were among the dead or casualties.

The leaders of Yukos oil and gas company were involved in a string of violent crimes in addition to white collar ones, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin reiterated in an interview to Wall Street Journal. The media seems to forget, Sechin said, that a number of Yukos employees responsible for the company’s economic security have been sentenced for grave crimes, such as murder, blackmail, and torture. “Many prefer to forget this… But do you really think it possible that Yukos management had no relation to what its security service had plotted?” Sechin said. He also denied any expropriation of the company’s assets. Yukos went from being an energy giant with global ambitions to bankruptcy after being hit with a multi-million dollar tax bill. The company’s CEO, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003 and convicted for fraud and tax evasion.

A breakdown occurred on an electric line in Russian far eastern city Vladivostok on Tuesday, leading to a power cut-off at a local pumping station and leaving 450,000 residents without cold water. Three major city districts remain without water supplies. Social institutions are suffering as well, including kindergartens, hospitals, schools and nurseries. The breakdown should be repaired by afternoon, local officials say. The water supply station will immediately resume work as soon the power is restored. Complete repair of the stations may take up to ten hours. The total population of Vladivostok is more than 600,000.

The UK has declared Tuesday it is suspending weapons supplies to Libya to prevent their use against demonstrators, the Guardian newspaper writes. Eight individual UK arms export licenses to Libya have now been halted by the UK government as a part of its review of licenses issued to the Middle East. The decision comes after the escalation of violence against protesters in Libya, where government forces have used ground forces and even air defense to disperse activists, killing hundreds as a result. The unrest in Libya has continued for weeks now, but the country’s government has made no moves towards acquiescing to any of the protesters’ demands, provoking new flashes of violence in the country. The UK government says a review of export contracts with Yemen and other Middle Eastern states is ongoing.

­Two Iranian naval vessels entered the Suez Canal Tuesday and are heading towards the Mediterranean Sea, Reuters reports, quoting a canal official. It has become the first pass by the Iranian navy through the Suez since the Islamic Revolution in the country in 1979. The vessels are reportedly bound for Syria. The permit to enter the Canal was received from the Military Council of Egypt, which substituted for President Mubarak as an interim government after the president’s recent dismissal. Israel called the attempt to enter the Suez by the Iranian navy a provocation by Tehran, fearing possible delivery of weapons through Syria to Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorists.

­The city of Christchurch in New Zealand was struck by a strong earthquake, local media reported on Tuesday. The quake, a magnitude 6.3, occurred 10 kilometers southwest of the country's second-biggest city. Local media reported that buildings were damaged, and a city bridge became impassable. People were evacuated from some offices in the central business district as there were reports of further debris falling from already damaged buildings.
The city was struck by a 7.1-force quake last September which caused widespread damage.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi appeared on state television for 40 seconds on Tuesday, saying that he is in Tripoli and he is still in charge. In his brief speech, Gaddafi denied that he had fled the country and called on people not to believe the mass media. Nothing else was said. After the report the channel continued to broadcast Libyan soldiers marching. The leader was holding an umbrella in his hands. The weather forecast in Libya matched the weather depicted in the video, indirectly proving that Gaddafi is currently in the country. Reports on Monday said Gaddafi had fled to Venezuela. People in Libya have been demanding Gaddafi’s resignation since Thursday. Over 230 protesters have reportedly been killed.

European countries have started evacuating thousands of their citizens from Libya, as violence continues to grip the oil-rich country. British energy giant BP and Italy's ENI and Finmeccanica has already sent planes to Tripoli to evacuate their employees. UK-based BP has also halted its work in the region. Portugal says it has sent a military plane to the capital to begin evacuating European Union citizens. Russian planes are also ready to take off to evacuate Russians from Libya. Italy and Bulgaria joined China in warning against all travel to the country. International organizations are putting the death toll in Libya at well over 230 since Thursday. Protesters are urging the country’s leader, Colonel Muammar Gadhafi, to step down.

­At least 36 people were killed and 70 injured in a stampede at the 25,000-seat Modibo Keita stadium in the capital of the West African republic of Mali. According to the Foreign Ministry, the majority of those killed were women, who stayed in the front of the crowd. The stampede in Bamako occurred at the end of a sermon by a renowned imam, when the crowd swarmed to get close to Imam Osman Madani Haidara. He delivered blessings on a Muslim holiday. The wounded were mostly taken to the Bamako's main hospital.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorsky made a statement to local television channel TVN24 in which he admitted the crew’s mistake in the crash of President Lech Kaczinsky’s plane near the Russian city of Smolensk. He does not think recognition of the Polish pilots’ guilt is “unpatriotic.” He also stressed that Russia and Poland should pursue mutual interests in the crash’s investigation, and strive for providing secure flights. And Russia, he said, should be thankful if Poland’s report shows that the work of traffic controllers requires adjustments. A Polish presidential TU-154 plane crashed near an airport outside Smolensk in western Russia in April 2010. All 96 people on board, including the Polish president and his wife, died. The Intestate Aviation Committee recognized the crew’s refusal to use an alternate air field for landing, despite warnings from air-traffic controllers, as the reason of the crash.