Russia

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Woman Keeps Her Dead Husband for 3 Years

And tells the children to take care of it

(Newser) - Here's a macabre tale: A woman in central Russia kept her husband's dead body for three years and told her kids to talk to him and feed him, AFP reports. When her husband, a Pentecostal missionary, died in 2009, she simply left him on a bed in their...

Merkel Slams Putin—to His Face—Over Pussy Riot

They really deserved 2 years in a labor camp? she asks

(Newser) - Usually, joint public appearances involving heads of state are filled with small talk and diplomatic niceties. Not so today with Germany's Angela Merkel and Russia's Vladimir Putin as the two sparred over the jail sentence handed down to punk rockers Pussy Riot in Moscow, reports the Guardian .
  • Merkel:
...

Russia's Tough Treason Law Now in Effect

Putin promised to review bill 2 days ago, signed it instead

(Newser) - An ever-benevolent Vladimir Putin listened to fears surrounding a vaguely worded treason bill on Monday, ultimately promising to proceed with caution and "return to this again, to look more attentively." The next day, he just signed it, reports Reuters . The ruling expands the definition of treason to include...

Iraq Cancels $4.2B Arms Deal With Russia

It would have made Moscow the nation's No. 2 supplier

(Newser) - Nouri al-Maliki seems to have had a very expensive change of heart, at least for Russia. The Iraqi prime minister abruptly canceled a $4.2 billion arms deal agreed to last month that would have made Moscow the nation's No. 2 arms supplier behind the US, reports AFP . A...

Kremlin Insists: Putin Not Hurt During Bird Flight

But he did pull a muscle...

(Newser) - Breaking news out of Russia: Vladimir Putin pulled a muscle. But the Kremlin insists it didn't happen while flying with birds. Putin, as you'll remember, took to the skies last month, leading a flock of endangered Siberian cranes to their winter feeding grounds. Rumors about the president's...

Russian Ship With 700 Tons of Gold Ore Goes Missing

9-person crew sent distress call

(Newser) - A vessel with a nine-person crew and 700 tons of gold ore onboard has gone missing in stormy seas off Russia's Pacific Coast. The ship sent a distress call yesterday as it was sailing from the coastal town of Neran to Feklistov Island in the Sea of Okhotsk. The...

Pussy Riot Members Sent to Prison Colonies

Russia sends remaining 2 members hundreds of miles from capital

(Newser) - A lawyer for the two jailed Pussy Riot band members says they have been transferred to prison colonies hundreds of miles from Moscow to serve their sentences. Mark Feygin said today that Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were transferred over the weekend from the Moscow prison where they were kept...

Big Tobacco Fights Russian Crackdown

Kremlin pushes for strict anti-smoking laws

(Newser) - With cigarettes only costing a dollar a pack and next to no restrictions on smoking in place, Russia is a smoker's paradise compared to most Western nations—and that's just how tobacco giants want it to stay. The government of Russia, the world's second-largest tobacco market after...

Rebels, Jihadists Capture Syrian Air Base

Following the deadliest day regime forces have yet suffered

(Newser) - Syrian rebels, fighting alongside Islamist militants, captured a regime air defense base near Aleppo today after an overnight battle, Haaretz reports. The group, dubbed Jabhat al-Nusra, has ties to al-Qaeda, and has claimed responsibility for a number of bombings since the uprising began. Rebels were also fighting today to hold...

Russia: Al-Qaeda Behind Europe's Forest Fires

And they may soon try it in the US, too

(Newser) - The forest fires that have been raging through the EU lately aren't random catastrophes—they're terrorist attacks. That's what Russian security service chief Alexander Bortnikov told a meeting of security and law enforcement chiefs earlier this week, RIA Novosti reports. The fires, he said, are "one...

US Business Owner Actually Russian Agent: Authorities

Houston's Alexander Fishenko, 10 others charged

(Newser) - A Houston business owner is actually a Russian agent and was allegedly shuttling high-tech US electronics to Russian military and intelligence agencies for 10 years, authorities say. Alexander Fishenko and 10 others were charged in the alleged scheme today, the Houston Chronicle reports. Fishenko was born in Kazakhstan but came...

Russia Stalls on Pussy Riot Appeal

After band member fires lawyers

(Newser) - The hearing set for today in the Pussy Riot case has been postponed until Oct. 10, CNN reports. The Russian court moved the hearing following a band member's announcement in court today that a disagreement had prompted her to fire her lawyers. Yekaterina Samutsevich said she'd found a...

Russian Church: OK, Free Pussy Riot

If they repent for their 'punk prayer'

(Newser) - The Russian Orthodox Church is again getting in on the Pussy Riot controversy, today reversing course and urging clemency for the imprisoned punk rockers if they repent for their "punk prayer," reports the AP . The church issued a statement today—a day before the women are set to...

'Jesus' Musical Shelved for Offending Christians

Russians call 'Jesus Christ Superstar' a 'profanation'

(Newser) - Looks like some Russians don't consider Jesus Christ much of a "superstar." Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Jesus Christ Superstar had to shut down in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don after prosecutors began investigating the production, AFP reports. Several people had complained that the show offended Christians:...

Russia Bans Monsanto's GMO Corn

It cites new study raising fears of cancer

(Newser) - Russia won't be importing any genetically modified US corn from Monsanto for a while, after a new study suggested it raised the risk of cancer, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch . Monsanto is calling the French study bogus and said the safety of its NK603 corn is "well established....

How Putin Channels Stalin

 How Putin 
 Channels  
 Stalin 
OPINION
Sep 22, 2012 10:12 AM CDT

How Putin Channels Stalin

His intervention on behalf of writer plays to Russian tradition: Author

(Newser) - After a Russian editor refused to cover Vladimir Putin's latest goofy stunt and promptly got fired as a result, Putin himself called her to sympathize and pulled strings to get her job back. (She refused, as she recounted in the International Times Herald .) But hey, Putin's gesture...

'Trillions of Carats': Russia Sitting on Diamond Trove

Can supply world for 3K years

(Newser) - Russia is now a girl's best friend: A 62-mile-wide crater in Siberia sits on top of a diamond field that's home to "trillions of carats," scientists say. "By comparison, present-day known reserves" in Russia's Yakutia diamond operations are thought to be in the neighborhood...

Irate Gas Stations Protest Gouging —By Charging $10 a Gallon

Franchises angry at varying Lukoil prices

(Newser) - More than 50 Lukoil gas station owners in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are fuming over price discrepancies—so they've simply ratcheted their gas up to $9.99 a gallon. They're angry because the Russian firm sells gas to local franchises at very different prices, even if the stations...

Russia's Medvedev: Pussy Riot Should Go Free

Prime minister's stance may mean release is near

(Newser) - The members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot who were thrown in prison could be freed soon after Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called for their release today, reports AP . The three women were sentenced to two years in prison in August for entering Russia's main cathedral and...

'Free Pussy Riot Fest' Flouts Officials' Warnings

Band's lawyers set for interrogation over earlier protests

(Newser) - St. Petersburg officials warned against it, but supporters of Pussy Riot held a fundraising concert in the band's honor anyway. Some 1,000 people attended the "Free Pussy Riot Fest" in Vladimir Putin's native city, even after firefighters said they'd shut down the hall over safety...

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