Several schools in Russia have received an official recommendation to purchase copies of a book about the childhood and school years of Vladimir Putin, who is set to return to the presidency in March polls.

Several schools in the central Tver region to the northwest of Moscow have received a written recommendation to buy copies of the book entitled "Vladimir Putin. Parents. Friends. Teachers" published in 2004, a local official said.

A group of European vote monitors said Saturday they were denied a meeting with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin ahead of next month's presidential elections because of his busy schedule.

The Russian premier is the overwhelming favorite to beat four weak rivals in a March 4 ballot that should hand him a third term as Kremlin chief.

Saudi King Abdullah said on Friday that world confidence in the United Nations had been shaken after the world body failed to adopt a resolution against the Syrian regime's deadly crackdown on protests.

"We all used to take pride in the United Nations which used to bring us together and not divide us... but what took place does not augur well as world confidence in the United Nations has undoubtedly been shaken," King Abdullah said in a short televised speech.

Forty-two people were killed across Syria on Friday, including security force members, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as anti-regime protesters took to the streets under the banner of "Russia is killing our children."

At least 20 died in in the central protest hub of Homs, among them two children killed by shelling in the Baba Amr neighborhood, the Observatory said.

A Russian space center engineer received a 13-year jail sentence Friday on charges of passing secret strategic missile data to the U.S. Central Intelligence Service (CIA) in return for cash.

Russia's FSB security service said Plesetsk launch site engineer Vladimir Nesterets admitted receiving cash payments for information about "tests on Russia's latest strategic missile systems."

Russia on Friday accused the West of being an "accomplice" to the violence in Syria and said the country's opposition bore full responsibility for ending the ongoing violence.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Syrian President Bashar Assad's promise to stage a new constitutional referendum meant that it was now up to the armed resistance movement to take the next step.

The international community cannot afford to watch the "massacre" taking place in Syria without acting, Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday during a visit to Washington.

Davutoglu is urging an international conference to resolve violence that erupted when demonstrators began demanding last spring Syrian President Bashar Assad be removed from office.

Russia must confront "the reality" of the deadly crackdown in Syria, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said Thursday, after Moscow vetoed a U.N. resolution condemning the violence.

"My message to my Russian colleagues is they too need to recognize the reality of the situation on the ground" in Syria, said Ashton, who was making a two-day visit to Mexico.

Russian strongman Vladimir Putin may join a mass campaign rally that plans to draw 200,000 people on to the streets of Moscow 10 days before next month's presidential polls, his spokesman said Thursday.

Putin's campaign deputy chief Alexei Anisimov said authorities will bus up to 200,000 Putin supporters from the provinces to Moscow.

China said Thursday it held talks with a key Syrian opposition group this week, amid fierce criticism of its decision to block a U.N. resolution condemning a bloody crackdown in the Middle East country.

China and Russia drew international ire for blocking the U.N. Security Council resolution on Saturday, with Washington calling their rejection a "travesty" and another Syrian opposition group saying they had handed President Bashar Assad's regime a "license to kill.”