Poland on Friday said it had denied entry to a Russian biker gang backed by the Kremlin that plans to ride through Europe to celebrate the Soviet Union's role in the World War II victory over Nazi Germany. 

The planned two-week, 6,000-kilometer (3,728-mile) rally by Russian bikers including the Night Wolves -- a fiercely nationalistic motorcycle club backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin -- had sparked anger in Poland.

Russia on Friday charged Ukrainian airforce officer Nadia Savchenko over the deaths of two Russian journalists in a politically charged case that has become emblematic of tensions between Kiev and Moscow.

The 33-year-old helicopter navigator is charged with acting as an accessory in the murder of two Russian journalists "with motives of political hatred."

President Vladimir Putin on Friday called on French leader Francois Hollande to restore ties after a year of tensions over Ukraine as the two leaders met on the sidelines of genocide commemorations in Armenia.

"Unfortunately, our ties are not in the best shape, trade turnover is falling including with France which only causes regret," Putin told Hollande in the Armenian capital Yerevan.

Bulgaria's parliament recognized for the first time on Friday the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire a century ago, holding a minute's silence but avoiding the word genocide.

The special declaration approved by parliament in a 157-36 vote condemned the World War I killings as a "massacre" while highlighting the difference between the former Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey.

Ukraine accused Russia on Friday of resisting a peaceful end to fighting in eastern Ukraine and called for weapons from its allies, saying it is striving to settle the separatist conflict.

"The situation is difficult. Russia does not want peace," Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told parliament.

A Canadian mining executive in Mongolia trying to enforce a judgement of more than $100 million against the government for expropriation has been found dead in his hotel room, authorities said Friday.

Jim Doak was chairman of uranium miner Khan Resources, a TSX-listed firm whose licences in the Dornod region were cancelled by Ulan Bator in 2009. The deposit is now operated by Russia's state-owned ARMZ Uranium Holding Co.

The leaders of France and Russia on Friday joined ceremonies marking the centenary of the massacre of some 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces, a hugely emotional event that remains a diplomatic minefield.

During a commemoration at a hilltop memorial in the Armenian capital Yerevan, French President Francois Hollande urged modern day Turkey to end its refusal to recognize the massacre as genocide, saying he bowed in memory of the victims.

Nuclear powers join non-nuclear nations on Monday to launch a conference on non-proliferation, buoyed by the Iran deal but alarmed by slow-moving U.S.-Russian disarmament.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will address the conference that reviews the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and he may meet on the sidelines to discuss the hard-fought Iran deal with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Russian hackers were able to access an unclassified Pentagon computer network earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said Thursday.

"We quickly identified the compromise and had a team of incident responders hunting down the intruders within 24 hours," Carter said during a speech on technology and cybersecurity at Stanford University in California.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov on Thursday ordered his troops to "shoot to kill" if they encountered any unauthorized Russian forces on the territory of the small republic in the volatile North Caucasus region.

"I am officially stating that if (a soldier) appears on your territory without authorization, whether he comes from Moscow or Stavropol, shoot to kill," the Kremlin-loyal strongman said in a video broadcast by the local Grozny TV station. "They need to take us into account," he added.