Europe

Former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic was invited to vote in this weekend's legislative elections, despite having died more than 10 months ago.

Members of the far left in Italy's governing coalition are threatening to vote against refinancing the country's mission to Afghanistan. The lawmakers are angry at the government's decision to allow the United States to expand a base in northern Italy.

Modern humans who first arose in Africa had moved into Europe as far back as about 45,000 years ago, according to a new study by an international research team led by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Police in Spain have discovered a container with 100 kilograms of explosives in the northern Basque region. The discovery came five days after a car bomb, blamed on Basque separatists, destroyed a parking garage at Madrid airport, killing at least one person and injuring about 20.

A British Muslim on trial for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred says he regrets urging bomb attacks on the United States and Denmark at a protest last year against cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Romania and Bulgaria welcomed the New Year as the newest members of the European Union, expanding the bloc to 27 members.

Citizens of Romania and Bulgaria have celebrated the start of their European Union membership with fireworks, music and dancing in the streets.

Mozart and the German Opera in Berlin remain in the glare of publicity over the modern staging of "Idomeneo," a 225-year-old opera.

Today is the 15th anniversary of the agreement between Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine that dissolved the Soviet Union.

A team of British investigators today is continuing work on the case of Aleksandr Litvinenko.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin says smoking will be banned in most public places in his country in February.

Norwegian police say they have recovered the Edvard Munch masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna" stolen in a bold daylight raid from Oslo's Munch Museum two years ago.

European Union regulators have fined Microsoft Corporation $357 million for failing to share programming code with its rivals, as demanded by a 2004 antitrust ruling.

Basayev had claimed responsibility for the 2004 attack on a school in the North Ossetian city of Beslan, a three-day siege in which 330 people, mostly schoolchildren, were killed.

Pope Benedict takes his efforts to combat growing secularization in Europe to Spain on Saturday. The pope also will defend traditional family values at a mass to close the Catholic Church's World Meeting of Families.