SaidFrench Foreign MinisterAlain Juppesaid on Monday thatthe Russianpresidential electionswere notperfect, addinghis voice tointernational criticism, but saidthat France was readyto work withVladimirPutin.
Andhighlightedreportsof the Council ofEurope and theOrganisation for Securityand Cooperation inEuropehighlighted theproblemsin the electionsthat took placeon Sundayafterofficial results showedPutin's victoryby about64 percentof the vote.
Juppesaidduringa news conferencein the city ofBordeauxin southwesternFrance "elections were notperfect.This is lessto be said."
Juppesaid, "Putinwas re-electedby a large majorityanditwill continue toFranceand its European partnersto participatein a relationshipwith Russia."
Video footage showed secretly filmed and aired on British television on Monday what it said were Syrian patients subjected to torture by the medical staff at a government hospital in the Syrian city of Homs. The axis of Homs intensive military campaign to protest against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The United Nations says that more than 7,500 civilians have died in about a year of political violence in Syria. The British Channel Four television it had obtained a video footage of the horrific scenes in the military hospital in Homs. Photos and employee of this footage, secretly and smuggled out of the French news photographer known only as "Manny." He said the employee who filmed the video for Manny, "I saw detainees being tortured with electricity shocks and beatings with whips and batons and broken legs. And they play their feet to break their legs." He added: "They are conducting surgical operations without anesthesia ... I saw them beat the heads of detainees in the walls. Restrict patients in the family. And depriving them of water. Others have linked their genitals to prevent them from urinating." The video showed that the fourth television channel said it could not verify it independently wounded blindfolded chained in the family. There was a rubber whip and electric wire on a table in one of the wings of the hospital. Some patients presented signs of what it's like being beaten. The hospital employee said that the men were some of the soldiers who refused to carry out orders and other civilians. He noted that the youngest was 14 years old. The Syrian army out "clean up" on Monday in the city of Homs, where he was the Red Cross is trying to reach Pope Amr former stronghold of the opposition. He accused opposition activists of Syrian troops torture and killing of civilians and other crimes but their reports are difficult to verify because of government restrictions on independent media. Source: Reuters
The Italian coastguard has released black-and-white footage of survivors of the shipwrecked Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia getting into lifeboats after the vessel ran aground off the coast of Tuscany last week.
Rescue efforts continued on Tuesday as teams used controlled explosions to break into the stricken vessel in a bid to find survivors.
The three explosions carried out early on Tuesday morning should allow firefighters and scuba divers better access to the parts of the ship which were not searched earlier.
The authorities say estimates of the number missing on the huge vessel have increased to 29, while six bodies have been found, Reuters reports.
The captain of the Costa Concordia is accused of “human error” over the cruise liner crash. Some media suggest he was sailing far too close to land to salute to a friend on the island of Giglio.
Costa Chairman and CEO Pier Luigi Foschi told a press conference Monday that Costa Crocier, the owner of the stricken vessel, has blamed the tragedy on “human error” by the captain, saying he made “an unapproved, unauthorized maneuver” to change ship's course.
The captain Francesco Schettino's is under close investigation as he faces accusations he abandoned the vessel before ensuring all of the people aboard were safely evacuated.
The Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,000 passengers and crew, ran aground after hitting a reef off the Italian coast late on Friday night
Prosecutors for the United States government have filed the necessary paperwork to begin the possible extradition of Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom to America.
Dotcom, the 38-year-old founder of the file-sharing storage site, was only recently released on house arrest after serving five weeks behind bars in New Zealand where he had been residing. Dotcom was arrested on January 20 for his alleged involvement in an online conspiracy that authorities say stole hundreds of millions of dollars from the entertainment industry. Last month authorities in New Zealand awarded Dotcom bail, a decision which prompted US officials to file an appeal. The judge overseeing the case dismissed that request, however, and now Dotcom will await an extradition hearing, expected for this August.
A spokesperson for New Zealand’s Ministry of Justice said Monday that the court had received America’s extradition request on Friday at Auckland’s North Shore District Court, although the court says it will not be publishing the details of the papers at this time.
Crown Law, legal advisors to the New Zealand government since 1875, are handling the case on behalf of the American authorities. The group had but 45 days to file the extradition after the January 20 raid that resulted in the arrest of Dotcom. Friday’s filing fell just shy of that deadline.
American authorities attest that by operating Megaupload.com, Kim Dotcom and his associates managed to swindle $500 million from the music and movie industry by infringing on the copyrights of material illegally shared on the site. The US is expected to lob a series of charges against Dotcom, including racketeering, which would carry a 20-year prison term. Three other associates allegedly to be involved in the website have been tied to the case as well.
Speaking to New Zealand’s 3news last week, Dotcom said that the high-profile raid on his home and the subsequent arrest was politically motivated and charged that the US is wrongfully going after his while letting Google and YouTube get away with essentially the same practice.
“If you read the indictment and if you hear what the prosecution has said in court, at least $500 million of damage were just music files and just within a two-week time period. So they are explained Dotcom. “So it's really, in my opinion, the government of the United States protecting an outdated monopolistic business model that doesn't work anymore in the age of the Internet and that's what it all boils down to,” he added.
Dotcom had previously told reported that he would fight any extradition charges and was confident that he would come out on top.
In the aftermath of the shut-down of Megaupload, several similar sites have voluntarily thrown in the towel to avoid prosecution on par with what American authorities are attempting to do to Dotcom. Rick Falkvinge, of the Swedish Pirate Party, tells France’s Owni.edu that file-sharing will continue to thrive online, however, no matter what maneuvers authorities attempt.
“People like to share, they want to share, and they will always find new ways to do so,” says Falkvinge. “You can’t stop them.
Pornographer and publishing giant Larry Flynt has put a price tag on his passion for annihilating the careers of politicians. The Hustler magazine publisher will pay $1 million for dirt on corrupt congressmen.
The self-proclaimed “smut peddler who cares” took out a full-page ad in the Sunday edition of the Washington Post this weekend, asking readers to reveal stories of "infidelity, sexual impropriety or corruption” involving members of Congress. Should someone step forward and provide an account worthy of one of Flynt’s many publishing endeavors, he is offering $1 million for the details.
Flynt, who founded Hustler 40 years ago, has been a critic of the US government since entering publishing. In addition to launching a series of off-shoot publications, he has spent the last several decades dabbling in political advocacy, even briefly running for the governorship of California in 2003. He has also been the subject of several high-profile First Amendment cases.
Unlike his other print products, there are no powerful pictures or snazzy headlines on the full-page advert Flynt took out in the Post. Instead, the porn giant put down a pretty penny on a costly classified ad that relied on the bold bounty of $1 million for details on a current United States senator, congressperson or “prominent government official.”
“Can you provide documented evidence of your claims?” continues the ad. “Larry Flynt and Hustler Magazine will pay you up to $1 million if we chose to use your material and publish your verified story.” The publisher insists that all calls and correspondence will be kept strictly confidential and provides both a 1-800 number and email address for interested snitches.
Flynt has yet to publically discuss if his ad has brought in any of the breaking news that he is hoping for, but if history is any indication, a revelation might only be down the road.
In the midst of a Republican-waged war against Democrat President Bill Clinton at the height of the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, Flynt offered a similar bounty for dirt on a Republican Party politician. Back then he sought info on any GOP official having "an adulterous sexual encounter" like Clinton’s, and ending up receiving claims that portrayed a Republican congressman in a negative light.
In 1999, Louisiana Representative Bob Livingston was expected to take on the role of House speaker after Newt Gingrich resigned after the previous year’s election. Livingston ran as the only Republican candidate for speaker in a GOP-controlled House and was poised to take the title and carry through with the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton. Flynt, however, said his call for arms yielded dirt on Livingston, who in turn admitted to an extramarital affair and promptly resigned as Speaker-elect. Clinton, of course, was acquitted of impeachment shortly after.
Flynt has also claimed to have come into possession of proof of Gingrich’s own affairs before the former Speaker acknowledged them to the public, but chose not to discuss them as the speaker had already offered his resignation.
Last year, Flynt extended a job offer to former Congressman Anthony Weiner after a scandal involving the representative’s Twitter account forced him to resign. “I feel that your unfortunate resignation is a prime example of unfounded political pressure and the hypocrisy that has invaded democracy in Washington DC,” wrote Flynt.
The Washington Post claims that their Sunday edition reaches over 1.7 million readers — in the DC area alone.
They still can’t sleep at night since the Costa Concordia put them through the ordeal of their lives. A Russian couple that made it ashore safe and sound believe every passenger could still be alive had the rescue operation been better organized.
They are just two of the passengers from over 4,000 people onboard the massive cruise ship Costa Concordia. Denis Golovkin and Olga Gridneva still have trouble sleeping at night.
“I don't understand how they couldn’t have rescued everyone considering the liner sank no further than half a kilometer from land, in warm weather,” says Olga.
Sixteen bodies have so far been recovered and 16 people are still missing after the 290-meter long cruise liner struck a rock near the Tuscan island of Giglio.
Olga and Denis got onboard only two and a half hours prior to the disaster at the port of Civitavecchia. For them it was just the beginning of their cruise, as the liner was picking up passengers along the way.
The couple had just had dinner – incidentally, to the tune of the Titanic theme song – and were back in their cabin when the ship hit the reef.
“Our glasses, laptops and cellphones flew off the table,” Olga recalls. “The boat went too close to the shoreline where it wasn’t supposed to be. And we certainly felt it, like a really strong crash or shaking…”
They grabbed their life vests and Denis suggested taking warm clothes, considering the temperature outside was 12 degrees Celsius.
“I thought that we might actually have to jump overboard,” Olga says, “nobody was supervising us, we spent an hour and a half on the deck, and the speakers were saying, "Don't worry, everything is fine…” It was very scary. It was a large ship, the height of a multi-storey building. When a sensible individual starts thinking that they might have to jump overboard they assess their abilities and realize that they don’t feel like jumping from this height at all.”
There were hardly any crew members in sight helping people. This Thursday, Italy's top-ranking Coast Guard official, Marco Brusco, said that the Concordia’s Captain Francesco Schettino lost "a precious hour," which made evacuating the ship even more difficult. Had the order been given earlier, "the lifeboats could have been launched calmly, people could have been reassured," Brusco said in Senate testimony.
Instead, the evacuation was chaotic. No one knew where to run, what to do and no instructions were given out so a lot of people couldn’t leave the ship for quite a while. Denis and Olga were lucky to get off in one of the first lifeboats. Olga says that passengers were totally misinformed about what was going on and that no one had a clear picture of the real state of affairs: “Nobody told us to go out on deck. We did that on our own, following our instincts and based on what we could see and understand.”
Hours later, safe but still tense, people recounted their stories to each other. Many said there wasn’t enough room in the boats, with the situation only worsened by the fact that it was difficult to get the boats down to the water from the upper decks, especially on the portside where it proved simply impossible. Denis, an experienced seafarer, says the crew wasn’t up to the task: “I saw a crew member climb into the boat. He could hardly start the engine. On top of it all, before mooring at the pier, we had been circling and circling for a long time. In other words, the boat was driven not by a specialist.”
There were also reports that rich Russians were buying seats in the lifeboats – but Olga dismissed them with conviction in her voice: “One should bear in mind that this cruise was mostly for economy-class passengers. There were no particularly rich Russians on this ship.”
Twice the size of the Titanic and three times the length of a football pitch, the cruise ship Costa Concordia would have been much worse off had the tragedy happened further away from the shore and in colder waters. So far, the tragedy on the Concordia has claimed 16 lives. However as divers continue to comb the submerged parts of the ship, neither Denis nor Olga can comprehend how there could have been any casualties at all: “In the heart of Europe. There must have been enough lifeboats for everyone had the rescue operation been at least somewhat organized, or had there been some instructions. If so, I believe we wouldn’t have lost anyone.”
At least 50 people are reported dead and over 600 injured after a train crashed in a busy station in Buenos Aires. Dozens were trapped inside a damaged carriage but were eventually rescued.
According to reports the passenger train was going too fast and failed to slow down approaching the station. At the time it hit the platform its speed was 26 km/h. The train hit the stopping barrier of the platform, crushing the front carriage. The engine and first car were crushed together. One of the carriages was driven nearly six meters into the next.
Passengers said windows exploded as the tops of the train carriages became detached.
Between 1,000 and 2,000 people were traveling on the train. Police say 50 were killed, including one child. Around 30 passengers remained trapped for several hours in the train but all have now been taken to safety. Buenos Aires TV stations showed emergency workers cutting through the roofs of carriages in order to evacuate them.
Argentina’s transportation authority said 461 of some 600 injured were taken to hospital.
Officials in Buenos Aires say the train was in good order and the brakes worked well. It is not yet clear what exactly caused the accident.
“This train left the shop yesterday. From what we know, it braked without problems at previous stations,” Ruben Sobrero, union chief on the Sarmiento line, told Radio La Red.
Argentina has decreed two days of mourning following the accident and cancelled the official carnival celebrations that were due to take place on Friday, the Buenos Aires Herald reports. President Kristina Fernandez de Kirchner has expressed her condolences to the families of the victims.
In Hungary, IT workers retire at 32 and get pensions equal to 150 per cent of their salaries. That’s according to Anonymous’ version of the Hungarian Constitution, which they posted after hacking the website of the Constitutional Court.
“Ideals and rulers of tyranny, or dictators represent but short periods of history. The people have the right to eliminate tyranny or rebel against it,” said the “new constitution” written by the Anonymous hacker group.
The hackers have made their own adjustments to basic Hungarian law. Thus, according to the group’s version of the constitution, IT workers not only get to retire early on a luxurious pension, but are also exempted from paying tax.
The text of Anonymous’ “ideal” constitution was swiftly removed from the court’s website.
Anonymous has wide experience of launching such IT attacks. They have succeeded in taking down the websites of large security companies, law-enforcement organizations or government agencies, including the White House, the CIA, FBI, Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America.
A major fire has broken out at an ammunitions storage depot in Central Russia, triggering explosions. At least 61 were injured and two elderly people have died from heart attacks said to have been brought on by the incident.
Over 25 have been hospitalized.
The fire that caused ammunition explosions at the depot broke out on Thursday night in Russia’s republic of Udmurtia, 28 kilometers south of Izhevsk.
Military personnel at the site and local residents totaling around 30,000 people have been evacuated to safety. The shockwave from the blast burst windows in the city of Agryz in Tatarstan, as far as 10 kilometers away from the artillery depot.
By 3pm Moscow time the fire at the ammunition depots had been localized, a source in the information department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations told Itar-Tass on Friday.
A task force of over 1200 people and 191 pieces of machinery are currently involved in the clean-up of the incident.
Emergency ministry aviation has poured over 800 tons of water on the raging flames on Friday, Interfax news agency reports.
A ministry source told the agency that seven aircrafts are currently working at the site. This includes four Il-76 airplanes, two Mi-8 helicopters and one Mi-26 helicopter.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that despite the authorities claiming the fire had been contained, evacuees could not be returned to their homes until it was completely put out.
Addressing the Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, he added that those responsible for accident must be punished.
“Two military depot fires in the span of two weeks – a pattern is emerging. The Defense Minister must report who will answer for that and how,” he said. “Since certain people failed to draw conclusions, we will have to strip them of their shoulder-decorations.”
This depot houses some serious artillery including rocket shells intended for Russia’s “Grad” multiple rocket launching systems and overall 5,000 truckloads of ammunition, a source from the emergency response headquarters told Interfax.
"The total weight of the projectiles is approximately 150,000 tonnes,” he said.
Details are still unclear as to what has caused the blaze, but officials believe that it may have been a cigarette.
An investigation has been launched by military investigation department of the Russian Investigation Committee in the Izhevsk garrison, reports Itar-Tass. A team of detectives rushed to the incident site. A criminal case has been opened based on charges of contravening the rules on arms use.
Panic broke out Thursday night in the central Russian republic of Udmurtia when a fire took place at the artillery depot at around 11:10pm Moscow time, sparking several explosions. An entire house is thought to have burned down in a nearby housing estate.
The scale of the blaze has caused widespread destruction to the transport links within the region. Railways have been stopped and trains rerouted. According to the latest reports, five trains cannot proceed on their routes. Some passengers will be taken to their destinations by buses.
The police have been ordered to prevent any instances of looting in the area surrounding the depot, Udmurtia’s Interior Minister Aleksandr Pervukhin told journalists on Friday.
A criminal case has already been opened against a man from the village of Malaya Purga, who stole products from a local liquor store.
"All attempts [at looting] will be suppressed in the toughest manner," Pervukhin said. "Seven other people suspected of looting have been detained."
The incident comes just a week after another ammunition depot fire in the neighboring republic of Bashkiria, which injured 12 people and destroyed more than 40 houses. Over 2,000 people have been evacuated from the area with fragments of artillery believed to have landed as far away as 3 kilometers from the site of the blaze.
Two years ago, another fire broke out at an artillery depot at the city of Ulyanovsk in November of 2009. Two naval personnel and eight servicemen were killed in that incident.
At least 206 people have been killed in a fire and a subsequent series of blasts at an arms depot in the east of the Republic of Congo’s capital, Brazzaville. Up to 1,500 have been seriously injured.
The explosions, which were caused by the fire, took place in the Regiment Blinde base in the riverside Mpila neighborhood, state radio station reported, citing Defense Minister Charles Zacharie Bowao.
There have been no official statements about the cause of the fire.
“According to sources at the central hospital we’re talking of around 200 dead and many injured,” said Betu Bangana, an official from the president’s office. "Some people are still trapped in their houses… They're saying the entire neighborhood of Mpila has been destroyed," he added.
At least three Chinese workers were among those killed, Xinhua news agency reports. Dozens were injured, with some in a serious condition.
There were about 140 Chinese workers of the Beijing Construction Engineering Group at the construction site when the blasts occurred, according to the report.
Eyewitnesses at the scene reported that houses in the area had been flattened.
The Russian Embassy in Brazzaville, which is one kilometer from the depot, was partly damaged by the explosion. Windows were shattered and one of the walls was partially destroyed by the force of the blasts.
Two trains traveling towards each other on the same track collided head-on in southern Poland on Saturday night, killing 16 people and injuring 56 others. Polish Prime Minister has called it the most tragic train catastrophe in Poland in many years.
Scores of injured passengers have been ferried to hospital.
The trains, carrying about 350 people in total, collided in the small town of Szczekociny.
Officials say one train was traveling from the eastern city of Przemysl to Warsaw, while the other – on the wrong track – was heading south from Warsaw to Krakow.
They said they had not yet identified the cause of the malfunction.
An investigation into the accident was launched on Sunday.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk visited the site of the tragedy early on Sunday calling it Poland’s “most tragic train disaster in many, many years.”
Tusk said the trains were carrying passengers from Ukraine, Spain and France, but none of them appeared to be among the dead or badly injured.
